http://machinemachine.net/stream/feed en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sweetcron text@machinemachine.net http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1486/the-dudleys THE DUDLEYS! takes the adolescent memories of a man and translates them into a malfunctioning 8-bit video game, the kind he used to play as a young adult. But instead of Megaman or Punch-Out, he plays The Dudleys, his own family of fifteen years ago, during the aftermath of his father’s death. Featuring a live band with original music composed on vintage video game equipment (Atari, Gameboy, Commodore 64) and 8-bit video footage, THE DUDLEYS! pits the two dimensional world of happy endings up against the confusion and aimlessness of real life. ]]> Wed, 28 Jul 2010 03:09:00 -0700 http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1486/the-dudleys http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1484/a-world-without-mosquitoes So what would happen if there were none? Would anyone or anything miss them? Nature put this question to scientists who explore aspects of mosquito biology and ecology, and unearthed some surprising answers.

There are 3,500 named species of mosquito, of which only a couple of hundred bite or bother humans. They live on almost every continent and habitat, and serve important functions in numerous ecosystems. "Mosquitoes have been on Earth for more than 100 million years," says Murphy, "and they have co-evolved with so many species along the way." Wiping out a species of mosquito could… ]]> Tue, 27 Jul 2010 08:17:00 -0700 http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1484/a-world-without-mosquitoes http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1478/the-struggle-for-the-possible-soul-of-david-eagleman There’s a struggle inside the brain of David Eagleman for the soul of David Eagleman.

That is, there might be such a struggle if Eagleman’s brain believed that Eagleman had a soul, which he is not sure about. In fact, Eagleman’s brain is not completely sure that there is an Eagleman-beyond-Eagleman’s-brain at all—with or without a soul, whatever that term might mean.

Welcome to the world of “possibilian” neuroscientist-writer David Eagleman, to life in the space between what-is and what-if, between the facts we think we know and the fictions that illuminate what we… ]]> Sun, 25 Jul 2010 07:36:00 -0700 http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1478/the-struggle-for-the-possible-soul-of-david-eagleman 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/1475/uk-government-acts-to-prevent-arrest-of-pope The UK government is said to have set in motion a law change that will prevent the Pope from being arrested when he visits the country in September.
Officials in Whitehall – the UK government’s administrative offices – are said to be worried over plans by the atheist authors Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens to have Pope Benedict arrested for crimes against humanity, because of his alleged cover-up of priestly assaults on children.
“Mr Dawkins, the atheist campaigner, and Mr Hitchens, an atheist author, asked human rights lawyers in April to put together a case for charging the… ]]> Sun, 25 Jul 2010 07:14:00 -0700 http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1475/uk-government-acts-to-prevent-arrest-of-pope 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/1474/the-creators-project-takeshi-murata The Creators Project: Much of your work centers on the appropriation and distorting of things to the point that they’re entirely something else. I was wondering how you feel about this on a larger scale with something like the internet, where everything is just floating out there in an open space without regulation. Do you feel that, overall, it’s beneficial to art or does it make it easier for people to claim other people’s ideas as their own? Takeshi Murata: It’s great. I see a lot of things online that inspire me greatly. One of the things I’ve learned as… ]]> Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:01:00 -0700 http://machinemachine.net/stream/items/view/1474/the-creators-project-takeshi-murata