“Interactivity has the virtue of democracy, conferring upon everyone with access to a computer the right and opportunity to be heard, but it's also saddled with democracy's vice - a tendency to assume that everyone who has a right to be heard has something to say that's worth hearing.” OpportunityVirtueDemocracyHeardComputerAssumingVicesHearingAccessTendencies Book:Sleeping with Extra-terrestrials: The Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety Source: Sleeping with Extra-terrestrials: The Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety
“I've been asked to explain why I don't worry much about the topics of privacy threat...One reason is that these scenarios seem to assume that there will be large, monolithic bureaucracies...that are capable of harnessing computers for one-way surveillance of an unsuspecting populace. I've come to feel that computation just doesn't work that way. Being afraid of monolithic organizations especially when they have computers, is like being afraid of really big gorillas especially when they are on fire.” WayFeelsReasonBigsSeemsWorryFireInternetComputerCapableOrganizationAssumingThreatOne WayPrivacyFree SpeechTopicsBureaucracyScenariosSurveillanceBeing AfraidGorillasComputationUnsuspecting Author:Bruce Sterling
“My reason [for making my own paint] is to force a real-time experience of the work. Most work today is experienced by reproduction, and more specifically by computer screen, like jpegs, but an RGB simulation of fluorescent will never fully accurately depict some colors. For example, our eyes are a lot more sophisticated than you might assume. You can feel a lot more going on on the surface of a canvas than you can on the surface of a screen.” FeelsRealReasonMightEyeTodayForceMy OwnExampleColorComputerAssumingPaintSurfaceScreensSophisticatedCanvasReproductionSimulationComputer Screen Author:Ryan McGinness
“The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) own computer model easily shows that President Obama's proposed regulations would reduce global warming by around 0.02 of a degree Celsius by the year 2100. Actually, the true number is probably even smaller because that calculation assumes a future rate of warming - there hasn't been any for 17 years now - quite a bit higher than it is likely to be.” YearsShowsBitsPresidentNumbersHigherDegreesComputerModelsAssumingEnvironmentalRateProtectionAgencyGlobal WarmingPresident ObamaRegulationCalculationsEnvironmental ProtectionEpa Author:Patrick Michaels
“I'm a physicist, and we have something called Moore's Law, which says computer power doubles every 18 months. So every Christmas, we more or less assume that our toys and appliances are more or less twice as powerful as the previous Christmas.” LawPowerfulMonthsComputerAssumingChristmasToysPhysicistAppliancesMoore's Law Author:Michio Kaku
“When I studied computer science at Duke University in the first half of the 1980s, I had professors who treated women differently than men. I kind of got used to it. At Microsoft, I had to use my elbows and make sure I spoke up at the table, but it was an incredibly meritocratic place. Outside, in the industry, I would feel the sexism. I'd walk into a room and until I proved my worth, everyone would assume that the guy presenting with me had credibility and I didn't.” MenFeelsFirstsKindUseUsedGuyWalksRoomsHalfIndustryComputerTablesAssumingUniversityTreatedSpokesSexismProfessorsCredibilityMicrosoftPresentingComputer ScienceDukesElbowsDuke University Author:Melinda Gates