http://blog.ferrouswheel.info Just another WordPress weblog Sun, 17 Aug 2008 02:08:59 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I'm not a particular regular updater with this particular blog (too many things have been demanding my attention lately), but I thought I'd drop a note to say I'll be off the radar for a week or so... I'll be attending Burning man. I'm immensely looking forward to this as this ... http://blog.ferrouswheel.info/2008/08/off-to-the-land-of-oz/ DNA, the code of life? Or only part? Hofstadter asks whether the meaning is in the code or the interpreter? Which came first? The chicken or the egg? DNA isn't exactly like that, because the existing form affects the expression of the code. Which in turn affects the expression and replication of said ... http://blog.ferrouswheel.info/2008/07/form-and-epigenesis/ Prompted by reading a chapter on Zen in "Gödel, Escher, Bach": Zen seems to be a sort of holism to the extreme... dissolving the self to become one with the universe and achieve enlightenment. In some ways I see the use for this viewpoint while meditating and as a relaxation technique. In ... http://blog.ferrouswheel.info/2008/07/is-zen-is-the-opposite-of-life/ Looks like I'm not the only one: "Is someone you work with taking Provigil to give them an extra competitive edge? I’ve spoken with one executive who says he uses it regularly to work twenty hour days, and the buzz lately is that it’s the “entrepreneur’s drug of choice” around Silicon ... http://blog.ferrouswheel.info/2008/07/modafinil-in-silicon-valley/ What ever Tyler Durden from Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club may say, I am a beautiful and unique snowflake. You see, your reality is your delusion. Whatever your outlook on life, yourself, or others, it'll always be subjective. You may align your outlook with thousands or millions of other human beings, but ... http://blog.ferrouswheel.info/2008/06/the-power-of-affirmations/ This is the first of a number of essays I've drafted out, but have left stagnating in my "to write" pile. They are distinctly without references, because I didn't have the time to trawl for them, but I welcome critique and/or addendum from my readers. Government's seem to have a fascination ... http://blog.ferrouswheel.info/2008/06/youfoodexercise-are-the-perfect-drug/ I just got myself this beautiful laptop. However, I got the Sound Blaster Audigy upgrade - without reading the fine print. It's only a software upgrade (what the hell??) which means it's really not worth the extra cash... especially since I'll be using Ubuntu most of the time. Damn it ... http://blog.ferrouswheel.info/2008/04/dell-m1530/ I've been reading a little about social dynamics and what makes people attractive. There is the obvious and oft mentioned confidence, but another one is a lack of response to criticism or insult. Or rather, not being dramatic about things. If you respond, you give those people acknoledgement to whatever ... http://blog.ferrouswheel.info/2008/04/social-dynamics-and-politics/ This is my hypothesis. The mind is not a object but a process, it takes information from the outside world and transforms it into pattern. That pattern is not the mind, it's just the way the mind sustains itself from moment to moment. That pattern still exists when you die, ... http://blog.ferrouswheel.info/2008/04/without-stimulus-the-mind-is-not-alive/ SIAI and OpenCog are recruiting people for Google Summer of Code. GSoC is a program that offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source projects. Want to work on AI/language-processing over the Northern Hemisphere summer? Here are some of the ideas for projects proposed. Applications to Google open ... http://blog.ferrouswheel.info/2008/03/opencog-in-2008-google-summer-of-code/