infundibulum

Reprap

Oddhead Blog: Prediction Markets, Gambling, Electronic Commerce, Artificial Intelligence: David Pennock: Yahoo! Research

This is a really interesting blog if you have any interest in stuff like prediction markets. (Incidentally, I’m with Oddhead on the evaluation of prediction markets by Daily Kos — they’re missing the point.)

However, I will reveal a secret to you: I like to build universes which do fall apart. I like to see them come unglued, and I like to see how the characters in the novels cope with this problem. I have a secret love of chaos. There should be more of it. Do not believe—and I am dead serious when I say this—do not assume that order and stability are always good, in a society or in a universe. The old, the ossified, must always give way to new life and the birth of new things. Before the new things can be born the old must perish. This is a dangerous realization, because it tells us that we must eventually part with much of what is familiar to us. And that hurts. But that is part of the script of life. Unless we can psychologically accommodate change, we ourselves begin to die, inwardly. What I am saying is that objects, customs, habits, and ways of life must perish so that the authentic human being can live. And it is the authentic human being who matters most, the viable, elastic organism which can bounce back, absorb, and deal with the new.

How to Build a Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later Philip K. Dick

This is a neat site:

Inventions and Ideas from Science Fiction Books and Movies at Technovelgy.com

It looks for news items that were presaged by science fiction, e.g.g.:

• ‘Precrime’ Database For London Homicide Prevention Unit: Science Fiction in the News
• UK Officers Wear Brin’s Tru-Vu Lenses: Science Fiction in the News
• ‘New’ Israeli Bionic Hornet Concept Is 70 Years Old: Science Fiction in the News

Nihil novi, and all that.