Biomimicry
is a new science that studies nature’s models and then imitates or takes inspiration from these designs and processes to solve human problems, e.g., a solar cell inspired by a leaf. [It] uses an ecological standard to judge the “rightness” of our innovations. After 3.8 billion years of evolution, nature has learned: What works. What is appropriate. What lasts. Biomimicry is a new way of viewing and valuing nature. It introduces an era based not on what we can extract from the natural world, but on what we can learn from it.

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I don’t think it is a new way of science, but one of the only ways to do science. Where else but in nature do people find their inspiration? Life has proven to be a great ‘problem solver’. Especially in my field, artificial intelligence’ a lot of applications are mimicked from nature, e.g. neural networks, genetic algorithms, …

SecurityFocus HOME News: New Caller I.D. spoofing site opens
Web-based caller I.D. spoofing is back, and this time it’s available to everyone.

A new website offer subscribers a simple Web interface to a caller I.D. spoofing system that lets them appear to be calling from any number they choose.

Voting vendors submit code to NIST
As Election Day nears and worries about voting machine problems intensify, four companies that develop electronic voting machines have submitted copies of their software to the National Software Reference Library.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Robots learn ‘robotiquette’ rules
Robots are learning lessons on “robotiquette” – how to behave socially – so they can mix better with humans.

The work is part of the European Cogniron robotics project, and was on show at London’s Science Museum.

Metro Pulse/Cover/The Technology Issue
What makes a blog different from all those personal homepages that clutter the Web? In a recent article on the burgeoning blogging phenomenon entitled, “Online Uprising,” American Journalism Review writer Catherine Seipp noted that, “in general, ‘blog’ used to mean a personal online diary, typically concerned with boyfriend problems or techie news. But after September 11, a slew of new or refocused media junkie/political sites reshaped the entire Internet media landscape. Blog now refers to a Web journal that comments on the news%u2014often by criticizing the media and usually in rudely clever tones%u2014with links to stories that back up the commentary with evidence.”

M.U.S.H.is an interactive audiovisual space in which two people in different locations (DEAF04 in Rotterdam and STEIM in Amsterdam) are connected to each other by means of telepresence equipment. The user enters a dark, silent room. S/he can use a navigation stick to activate sound and image. This brings the system into a “hyperkinetic” state: there is a chaotic play of sounds, ghostly images flash, shadows appear and disappear … If the user moves the navigation stick back and forth long enough, rapidly and slowly, the image of the person in the other Mush-Room will gradually appear on the large screen. The users’ movements create the opportunity for a virtual meeting between two strangers. M.U.S.H. is based on synchronicity and creates the conditions for the testing of telepathic possibilities.
The navigation stick is a wireless movement sensor that registers the changes in the speed at which the viewer moves it. On the basis of this signal the computer changes the “choreography” and the play of sound and image.
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r a d i o q u a l i a have just finished the first version of a streaming
manual for those wishing to learn how to stream under Linux. Its intended
as a manual to accompany a hands-on self-learning or workshop based
approach. No previous knowledge of Linux is assumed. Another manual on
‘advanced topics’ will be forthcoming.

Topics include: (more…)

�Want to understand how the search engine positioning results are determined? Then you need to know who-feeds-who.�

Search Engine Relationship Chart ™

With Jeb Bush as governor, and voting machine maker Diebold contributing to the Republican party, this might be what voting is like across Florida on Nov 2.

Boom Chicago : Videos : This is the video — Electronic voting machines in Florida

see also my previous post on Diebold and evoting machines.

The lectures will be given at the University of Amsterdam, roeterstraat 15.
Time: 19.30 hours
Date: 26/10 and 28/10 in Lecture Hall A, 27/10 in Lecture Hall C

J. Doyne Farmer
McKinsey Professor
Santa Fe Institute

In 1950 John von Neumann said “science and technology will shift from a past emphasis on motion, force, and energy to communication, organization, programming and control”. He was right: Information-based technology has changed the way we communicate, do business and entertain ourselves. Science has changed too, as we increasingly try to understand complex systems such as living organisms, brains or societies. On one hand, the mechanistic view of the world has triumphed: Most scientists believe that the remarkable properties of complex systems emerge from simple parts interacting via simple rules. On the other hand, the fundamental principles via which this is accomplished remain mysterious. Despite our mechanistic view, we do not even have a good definition of what it means to be a machine. To avoid postmodern confusion we need a better scientific understanding of words like functionality, quality, purpose, and progress. Without solving any of these problems, I will try to rephrase them, by presenting a few scientific parables from the study of complex systems, in the form of models and metaphors that might be interpreted as having some meaning for our lives. The central organizing theme is that the imperative to propagate –“life’s longing for itself” – gives rise to built-in side effects such as the ability of mechanical entities to observe the world, predict the future, and thereby engage in purposeful behavior.
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