Carnival of Tomorrow 1.0
Welcome to the first edition of the Carnival of Tomorrow! We assume you're familiar with how the whole "Carnival of..." thing works. The "Tomorrow" part ought to pretty well speak for itself. So let's not waste time with introductions; let's get started.
On to the future!
Sam Dinkin at Transterrestrial Musings argues that NASA should just explain their cost benefit analysis to the public and get the shuttle flying again.
So we have a new Pope, will life extension mean he'll be Pope forever? How will life extension affect other "for-life" appointments?
We know...Tech Central Station is not really a blog. But Rand's a blogger (also at Transterrestrial Musings) and this is an interesting subject...so enjoy.
Reason commented on Rand's article at Fight Aging!
I think that it's clear that change means change - as and when scientists attain funding enough to build the technologies of radical life extension we will start to see shifts in society to match. I imagine that lifetime positions will be one of the first to go.
Speaking of living longer, Jay at Longevity First has some thoughts about what Ray Kurzweil's Law of Accelerating Returns has to say about where life extension is going.
At her always stylish and dynamist...ic? blog, Dynamist Blog, Virginia Postrel argues that end-users are a growing source of innovation.
Innovation by users is not new, but it is growing. Thanks to low-cost computer-based design products, innovators do not have to work in a professional organization to have access to high-quality tools.
We couldn't agree more.
John Atkinson tours energy tech at Winds of Change. He looks at fossil fuels, hydrogen, nuclear, solar, water, wind, and much more.
There is a new study that indicates being overweight is not as unhealthy as we recently thought. But Reason at Fight Aging is encouraging us stay away from Krispy Kreme anyway.
Darn.
Rich at The Blinne Blog comments that fundamentalists on both sides of the stem cell debate have created a "huge false dichotomy."
Howard Lovy of Howard Lovy's Nanobot fame explains that there's a right way and a wrong way to explain complex concepts like, say, nanotechnology cancer treatments.
Distractions at work [er...like blogging? - ed.] lower effective I.Q. and Randall Parker at FuturePundit has alot to say about it:
A person who is trying to picture and move around between many parts of a large computer program or a silicon chip design suffers a greater loss in productivty from being interrupted than, for example, a person who handles 5 minute service calls where the answers are pretty rote...
Note the larger effective IQ drop in men than in women. This is consistent observations I've read elsewhere: Women are less irritated by interruptions and can function better through interruptions.
And, if you've still haven't had enough geeky goodness, check out recent Speculists posts on flying cars (here and here), and an interview with the scientist who wants to put a self-replicating factory in your home!
Our thanks to the blogosphere's most distinguished futurists, whose contributions made this inaugural Carnival possible.
Interested in contributing to version 2.0 of the Carnival? Write to us at
mrstg87 {@ symbol} yahoo {dot} com
See you in the future!