Reviews Online

Okay, the reviews I’m writing for RealTime are being put online over the next few days. Check them out at: RealTime-BEAP Writing Workshop. Not much time and a real slow dial-in connection so more news next week. Can say that I’m having a ball. Great experience.

Beeps at BEAP

I’ve been lucky to be selected by RealTime Magazine as a writer to co-cover the Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth (BEAP).

The Biennale of Electronic Arts, Perth (BEAP) is a new media arts festival held every 2 years for 3 months, spanning Perth Western Australia and is widely recognised as the premiere electronic arts event in the Asia Pacific region.

I have to write 10 articles over 10 days and they will be posted on the BEAP and RealTime websites. The Dec/Jan print issue will also have articles published.
So, I may not be posting here for a week or so…but then again I may just have so much exciting stuff to report…

Banking on the Future

We’ve all thought about the future and about how society and technology will progress in some way. Some of us even habour predictions or fears and work towards either facilitating their actuation or ensuring they don’t. A website, Long Bets, allows people to put their foresight and analysis to the test by placing a bet on an scientific occurance happening by a certain time. All betters must put their money where their mouth is by paying for the right to bet, along with adhering to rules like:

The subject of the Prediction or Bet must be societally or scientifically important.

Predictors and Bettors must provide an argument explaining why the subject of their prediction is important and why they think they will be proved right.

Some bets include:

Paul Hawken predicts: “The Bet: By 2050, we will receive intelligent signals from outside our solar system.”

Nova Spivack predicts: “By 2050 no synthetic computer nor machine intelligence will have become truly self-aware (ie. will become conscious).”

Bob Rosenberg predicts: “By the end of 2012, more than 50% of the root servers on the internet will be located outside the United States.”

I particularly enjoyed the response to Mitchell Kapor’s bet that by ‘2029 no computer – or “machine intelligence” – will have passed the Turing Test’. Ray Kurzweil is heading of the challenger community with 53% disagreeing with Kapor’s prediction. So there is alot of interesting debate on this site, as well as providing a unique insight into the current state of the scientific community and their views of the future.
What is your Long Bet?