http://machinemachine.net/stream/feed en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sweetcron text@machinemachine.net http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1477/the-web-means-the-end-of-forgetting When historians of the future look back on the perils of the early digital age, Stacy Snyder may well be an icon. The problem she faced is only one example of a challenge that, in big and small ways, is confronting millions of people around the globe: how best to live our lives in a world where the Internet records everything and forgets nothing — where every online photo, status update, Twitter post and blog entry by and about us can be stored forever. With Web sites like LOL Facebook Moments, which collects and shares embarrassing personal revelations from Facebook… ]]> Sun, 25 Jul 2010 07:15:00 -0700 http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1477/the-web-means-the-end-of-forgetting http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1476/technology-and-the-novel-from-blake-to-ballard Writers have long been fascinated by machinery – what it gives and what it takes away. Tom McCarthy, whose experimental work has been hailed as the future of fiction, charts literature's complicated relationship with technology, at once beautiful and menacing.

For centuries, literature has been haunted by technology. When Blake shudders in fearful awe before the tiger, don't be fooled into thinking that he's contemplating nature. What the animal, a product of "hammer", "chain", "furnace" and "anvil", really represents is the industrial revolution. Blake, like Quixote, grappled with dark satanic mills. His contemporary Mary Shelley also created… ]]> Sun, 25 Jul 2010 07:13:00 -0700 http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1476/technology-and-the-novel-from-blake-to-ballard http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1472/quotlostquot-languages-to-be-resurrected-by-computers A new computer program has quickly deciphered a written language last used in Biblical times—possibly opening the door to "resurrecting" ancient texts that are no longer understood, scientists announced last week.

Created by a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the program automatically translates written Ugaritic, which consists of dots and wedge-shaped stylus marks on clay tablets. The script was last used around 1200 B.C. in western Syria.

Written examples of this "lost language" were discovered by archaeologists excavating the port city of Ugarit in the late 1920s. It took until 1932 for… ]]> Tue, 20 Jul 2010 03:56:00 -0700 http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1472/quotlostquot-languages-to-be-resurrected-by-computers http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1471/platos-stave-academic-cracks-philosophers-musical-code It may sound like the plot of a Dan Brown novel, but an academic at the University of Manchester claims to have cracked a mathematical and musical code in the works of Plato.

Jay Kennedy, a historian and philosopher of science, described his findings as "like opening a tomb and discovering new works by Plato."

Plato is revealed to be a Pythagorean who understood the basic structure of the universe to be mathematical, anticipating the scientific revolution of Galileo and Newton by 2,000 years.

Kennedy's breakthrough, published in the journal Apeiron… ]]> Tue, 20 Jul 2010 02:45:00 -0700 http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1471/platos-stave-academic-cracks-philosophers-musical-code http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1457/essay-technology-changes-how-art-is-created-and-perceived It used to be so simple. A book had an author; a film, a screenwriter and director; a piece of music, a composer and performer; a painting or sculpture, an artist; a play, a playwright. You could assume that the work actually erupted more or less full-blown from these folks. In addition, the book, film, musical composition, painting or play was a discrete object or event that existed in time and space. You could hold it in your hands or watch or listen to it in a theater or your living room. It didn't really change over time unless the… ]]> Sun, 18 Jul 2010 05:20:00 -0700 http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1457/essay-technology-changes-how-art-is-created-and-perceived http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1444/last-supper-helpings-have-grown An unusual study looks at the food portions in artistic depictions of the Last Supper throughout history. The apostles have eaten better and better over the years, scholars say.

The Christian faith holds several acts of "super-sizing" to be miracles accomplished by Jesus Christ -- a handful of fish and loaves of bread expanded to feed thousands; a wedding feast running low on wine suddenly awash in the stuff. Now a new study of portion expansion puts Jesus once more at the center.

In a bid to uncover the roots of super-sized American… ]]> Sun, 11 Jul 2010 16:46:00 -0700 http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1444/last-supper-helpings-have-grown http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1440/reading-in-a-whole-new-way As digital screens proliferate and people move from print to pixel, how will the act of reading change?

America was founded on the written word. Its roots spring from documents—the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and, indirectly, the Bible. The country’s success depended on high levels of literacy, freedom of the press, allegiance to the rule of law (found in books) and a common language across a continent. American prosperity and liberty grew out of a culture of reading and writing.

But reading and writing, like all technologies, are dynamic. In ancient times, authors… ]]> Fri, 09 Jul 2010 03:24:00 -0700 http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1440/reading-in-a-whole-new-way http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1427/science-historian-cracks-the-plato-code A science historian at The University of Manchester has cracked "The Plato Code" - the long disputed secret messages hidden in the great philosopher's writings.

Plato was the Einstein of Greece's Golden Age and his work founded Western culture and science. Dr Jay Kennedy's findings are set to revolutionise the history of the origins of Western thought.

Dr Kennedy, whose findings are published in the leading US journal Apeiron, reveals that Plato used a regular pattern of symbols, inherited from the ancient followers of Pythagoras, to give his books a musical structure. A century… ]]> Thu, 01 Jul 2010 06:44:00 -0700 http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1427/science-historian-cracks-the-plato-code http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1426/borges-on-pleasure-island Little is quite as dull as literary worship; this essay on Borges is thus happily doomed. One finds oneself tempted toward learned-sounding inadequacies like: His work combines the elegance of mathematical proof with the emotionally profound wit of Dostoyevsky. Or: He courts paradox so primrosely, describing his Dupin-like detective character as having “reckless perspicacity” and the light in his infinite Library of Babel as being “insufficient, and unceasing.” But see, such worship is pale.

And problematic as well. More than any other 20th-century figure, Borges is the one designated — and often dismissed as — the Platonic… ]]> Thu, 01 Jul 2010 02:17:00 -0700 http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1426/borges-on-pleasure-island http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1417/ten-movies-that-never-should-have-been-madeand-thankfully-werent Late last year, a lavish and limited-edition volume was published to honor a masterpiece that never was and never will be: Stanley Kubrick's Napoleon. At 2,974 pages and 23.8 pounds, it is the closest fans will get to the biographical epic Kubrick longed to make after 2001: A Space Odyssey. In his years of research, Kubrick reportedly read almost 500 books about Napoleon, extensively scouted locations, and gathered 17,000 slides of Napoleonic imagery. Taschen's package of 10 books features ample evidence of Kubrick's dedication, including scouting photographs, costume studies, transcripts of interviews Kubrick conducted with experts, and even his final… ]]> Mon, 28 Jun 2010 02:05:00 -0700 http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1417/ten-movies-that-never-should-have-been-madeand-thankfully-werent http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1385/the-chess-master-and-the-computer In 1985, in Hamburg, I played against thirty-two different chess computers at the same time in what is known as a simultaneous exhibition. I walked from one machine to the next, making my moves over a period of more than five hours. The four leading chess computer manufacturers had sent their top models, including eight named after me from the electronics firm Saitek.

It illustrates the state of computer chess at the time that it didn’t come as much of a surprise when I achieved a perfect 32–0 score, winning every game, although there was an uncomfortable… ]]> Sun, 20 Jun 2010 15:11:00 -0700 http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1385/the-chess-master-and-the-computer http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1381/the-new-wave-of-retro-gaming Sometimes it's really hard to let go. Like that vinyl collection you've got stashed away in the attic or those VHS cassettes of movies that you've already replaced on DVD that you just can't force yourself to flog on eBay. There are just those times when nostalgia takes over, leaving a home strewn with junk and a partner pleading for you to move on.

If there is one area of life in which people do embrace change, however, it's gaming. Did you love Operation Wolf back in the 1980s? Pah, we're now shooting out way with friends… ]]> Fri, 18 Jun 2010 09:37:00 -0700 http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1381/the-new-wave-of-retro-gaming http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1365/the-linguistic-turn-and-other-misconceptions-about-analytic-philosophy Analytic philosophy has a complex history of more than one hundred years and this movement is so variegated that it can hardly be characterized by a single feature. Most of those who have tried to do so either were not aware of its diversity or considered only some part of its history. For example, it is sometimes believed that analytic philosophy is committed to a thoroughly anti-metaphysical stance. Such a belief may be rooted in some of the famous pronouncements of the logical empiricists, in the philosophical method put forward by Wittgenstein in his Tractatus Logico-philosophicus, or in the fact… ]]> Sun, 13 Jun 2010 23:56:00 -0700 http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1365/the-linguistic-turn-and-other-misconceptions-about-analytic-philosophy http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1360/the-three-christs-of-ypsilanti-what-happens-when-three-men-who-identify-as-jesus-are-forced-to-live-together In the late 1950s, psychologist Milton Rokeach was gripped by an eccentric plan. He gathered three psychiatric patients, each with the delusion that they were Jesus Christ, to live together for two years in Ypsilanti State Hospital to see if their beliefs would change. The early meetings were stormy. "You oughta worship me, I'll tell you that!" one of the Christs yelled. "I will not worship you! You're a creature! You better live your own life and wake up to the facts!" another snapped back. "No two men are Jesus Christs. … I am the Good Lord!" the third interjected,… ]]> Sat, 12 Jun 2010 09:18:00 -0700 http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1360/the-three-christs-of-ypsilanti-what-happens-when-three-men-who-identify-as-jesus-are-forced-to-live-together http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1357/15-great-movies-that-were-never-finished Thousands of movies are made every year, and have been almost all the way back to when we first figured out how to make them. We love the theater experience of plopping down before the big screen with soda and some snacks, and relish in rehashing our favorite cult classics over and over at home. But what about all the great movies that never saw the light of day? Many of them were pretty far into production when filming ceased, and still deserve a viewing in their incomplete form. Here are 15 great movies that were never finished. ]]> Thu, 10 Jun 2010 09:07:00 -0700 http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1357/15-great-movies-that-were-never-finished http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1314/evolution-and-creativity-why-humans-triumphed Human evolution presents a puzzle. Nothing seems to explain the sudden takeoff of the last 45,000 years—the conversion of just another rare predatory ape into a planet dominator with rapidly progressing technologies. Once "progress" started to produce new tools, different ways of life and burgeoning populations, it accelerated all over the world, culminating in agriculture, cities, literacy and all the rest. Yet all the ingredients of human success—tool making, big brains, culture, fire, even language—seem to have been in place half a million years before and nothing happened. Tools were made to the same monotonous design for hundreds of thousands… ]]> Tue, 01 Jun 2010 02:53:00 -0700 http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1314/evolution-and-creativity-why-humans-triumphed http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1313/michelangelos-secret-message-in-the-sistine-chapel At the age of 17 he began dissecting corpses from the church graveyard. Between the years 1508 and 1512 he painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Michelangelo Buonarroti—known by his first name the world over as the singular artistic genius, sculptor and architect—was also an anatomist, a secret he concealed by destroying almost all of his anatomical sketches and notes. Now, 500 years after he drew them, his hidden anatomical illustrations have been found—painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, cleverly concealed from the eyes of Pope Julius II and countless religious worshipers, historians, and art… ]]> Tue, 01 Jun 2010 02:44:00 -0700 http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1313/michelangelos-secret-message-in-the-sistine-chapel http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1310/writing-off-the-uks-last-palaeographer Dry, dusty and shortly to be dead. Palaeographers are used to making sense of fragments of ancient manuscripts, but King's College London couldn't have been plainer when it announced recently that it was to close the UK's only chair of palaeography. From ­September, the current holder of the chair, Professor David Ganz, will be out of a job, and the subject will no longer exist as a separate academic discipline in British universities. Its survival will now depend entirely on the whim of classicists and medievalists studying in other fields.

The decision took everyone by ­surprise. "It… ]]> Sat, 29 May 2010 10:04:00 -0700 http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1310/writing-off-the-uks-last-palaeographer http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1307/techno-archaeology-rescues-climate-data-from-early-satellites Scientists today who study polar sea ice conditions rely on satellite records reaching back to 1979. But soon, data scientists hope to extend the look back by another decade or more. Researchers at NSIDC and NASA have shown that the oldest Earth observing satellite data can be made to yield new information, adding significantly to the view of Earth's climate history.

When NASA launched the first Nimbus satellite in the 1960s, they also launched an era of Earth observations from space. While the early Nimbus satellites provided meteorological and other observations, methods did not yet exist to… ]]> Sat, 29 May 2010 09:51:00 -0700 http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1307/techno-archaeology-rescues-climate-data-from-early-satellites http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1305/radio-open-source-the-ecstasy-of-influence We can’t stop talking about Jonathan Lethem’s essay in this month’s Harper’s. If you haven’t read it, you really should. Nothing that follows in this post will be nearly as interesting. Go ahead. And this post will still be here when you return. You know you want to.
plagiarism

Caught [Digirebelle / Flickr]

Nearly every word of this essay about cultural borrowing and reworking was stolen — er, appropriated — from some other source and then cobbled together with a big dose of Lethem magic to form a cohesive whole. Even the “I”s… ]]> Sat, 29 May 2010 02:01:00 -0700 http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1305/radio-open-source-the-ecstasy-of-influence