from Peruvian writer and winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature Mario Vargas Llosa But thanks to literature, to the consciousness it shapes, the desires and longings it inspires, and our disenchantment with reality when we return from the journey to a beautiful fantasy, civilization is now less cruel than when storytellers began to humanize life with their fables. We would be worse than we are without the good books we have read, more conformist, not as restless, more submissive, and the critical spirit, the engine of progress, would not even exist. Like writing, reading is a protest against the insufficiencies of life. When we look in fiction for what is missing in life, we are saying, with no need to say it or even to know it, that life as it is does not satisfy our thirst for the absolute – the foundation of the human condition – and should be better. We invent fictions in order to live somehow the many lives we would like to lead when we barely have one at our disposal. |
I am looking for your opinions and hopefully your experiences with opening up education to the internet. I'm exploring the possibilities of publishing courses of lectures online. What obstacles do you expect? Technical, legal, social, ... ? Will professors embrace such an initiative? Will faculties & universities? What would be the best approach?More specifics: it's a international joint-doctorate project in marine sciences with a specific focus on marine ecosystem health. Each year around 10 PhD's will receive a 3-year grant, do research & attend courses in at least 2 different countries. Do you think it would be feasible, valuable to set up some sort of blog where the PhD students deliver the content?Do you have any other ideas/experiences in opening up education? (OpenCourseWare, Open Data, Open Access, Open Data sets, ...). Your thoughts, experiences, possible pitfalls and solutions are more than welcome.
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Looking for anything on marine ecosystem health & conservation, human impact, (future) research on this and possibly related doctoral programs. Your input is welcome.
A History of the Study of Marine Biology |
It wasn't until the writings of Aristotle  from 384-322 BC that specific references to marine life were recorded. |
| The modern day study of marine biology began with the exploration by Captain James Cook (1728-1779) in 18th century Britain. Captain Cook is most known for his extensive voyages of discovery for the British Navy, mapping much of the world's uncharted waters during that time. |
| Charles Darwin (1809-1882) who, although he is best known for the Theory of Evolution , contributed significantly to the early study of marine biology. His expeditions as the resident naturalist aboard the HMS Beagle from 1831 to 1836 were spent collecting and studying specimens |
| The voyages of the HMS Beagle were followed by a 3-year voyage by the British ship HMS Challenger led by Sir Charles Wyville Thomson (1830-1882) to all the oceans of the world during which thousands of marine specimens were collected and analyzed. This voyage is often referred to as the birth of oceanography. The data collected during this trip filled 50 volumes and served as the basis for the study of marine biology across many disciplines for many years. |
| The oldest marine station in the world, Station Biologique de Roscoff was established in Concarneau, France founded by the College of France in 1859. Concarneau is located on the northwest coast of France. |
| Technology brought the study of marine biology to new heights during the years following the HMS Challenger expedition. In 1934 William Beebe (1877-1962) and Otis Barton descended 923 m/3,028 ft below the surface off the coast of Bermuda in a bathysphere designed and funded by Barton. This depth record was not broken until 1948 when Barton made a bathysphere dive to 1,372 m/4,500 ft. |
| In 1960, a descent was made to 10,916 m/35,813 ft in the Challenger Deep of the Marianna trench—the deepest known point in the oceans, 10,924 m/35,838 ft deep at its maximum, near 11° 22'N 142° 36'E—about 200 miles southwest of Guam. |
| Her experience living in an underwater marine habitat earned her celebrity status in the scientific community. |
| Following her experience aboard the underwater habitat, Earle developed an interest in deep sea exploration, and in 1979 she broke the record for deep diving at 381 m/1,250 ft below the surface in a special suit called the Jim suit designed to withstand the pressure. Her record has not been broken. |
| In spite of ongoing technological advances, it is estimated that only 5% of the oceans have been explored. Surprisingly, we know more about the moon than we do the ocean. |
Fortunately, thanks to the work of past and present ocean explorers, the public is increasingly aware of these risks which encourage public agencies to take action and promote research. Already the US Commission on Ocean Policy favors multi-disciplinary research to shape ocean policy. The efforts of public agencies using a multi-disciplinary approach, together with the efforts provided by numerous private marine conservation organizations that work on issues such as advocacy, education, and research, will help drive the momentum needed to face the challenges of preserving the ocean. Read more at marinebio.org |
Just 2 prime examples. I believe most renaissance humanists can be easily seen as important influences to the present transhumanism ideology.
On a sidenote, I wonder where to place Rousseau in this discussion. How would he have worded his critiques against the present-day transhumanist views/goals? His romantic ideal of humanity would surely delineate transhumanism from 'ordinary' renaissance humanism.
And on a second sidenote: I would've loved to see how David Hume interpreted this discussion (mainly from his particular "is" and "ought" distinctions)
Revisiting the proto-transhumanists: Diderot and Condorcet
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| Many of the ideas characteristic of the movement have already been bantered about for literally hundreds of years—whether it be such things as radical life extension or the construction of machine minds. The Enlightenment period in particular was a fruitful time for these ideas to take flight, mostly on account of the new sciences, the rise of rationalism and secular humanism, and the waning influence of religion. Two thinkers that best exemplified Enlightenment-era proto-transhumanism were Denis Diderot and Marquis de Condorcet |
| he put forward the notion of "thinking matter." He was a materialist in the truest sense, and argued that cognition and consciousness arise from the material realm. |
| Diderot also believed that the human species was not immune to this kind of evolution and contended that humanity might end up a society of free individuals just as easily as it could regress to a "single animal." In this sense he was no blind advocate of progress |
| In Diderot’s dialogues, d’Alembert muses that human beings could devolve into “large, inert, and immobile sediment.” In other words we could, through accident or intention, lose faculties we value, such as our capacities for empathy, creativity, awe or reflection. Subsequently, argued Diderot, we need guidelines and policies to steer human evolution away from the dead ends of selfishness and addictive absorption, and towards greater sociability, self-awareness and reason. |
| In this book he argued that reason and science can and should be applied to better develop humanity's intellectual and moral faculties. He thought that all facets of nature should be re-evaluated and conformed to the needs of human intelligence. |
| The Enlightenment era was truly a remarkable time and we're still coming to grips with its legacy. Consequently, it's important for many transhumanists to note that we are in fact standing on the shoulders of giants.
Read more at www.sentientdevelopments.com |
I'm still not sure what my take on this is, but I do believe that equating "life in general" with not only human purpose and values, but also our moral obligation skips a few arguments & requires a big jump.
First link is the popular science version of Mautner's ideas & proposal. Second is a scholarly article by him. | Is It Arrogant to Seed Other Planets With Our Form of Life? |
| Life is unique in its drive for self-perpetuation, as if seeking this outcome on purpose. Where there is life, there is therefore purpose. |
| We belong to this unique family of life and share its purpose. This identity implies a human purpose to secure and expand life. This identity suggests basic ethical values: Acts that secure life are good; acts that destroy life are evil. |
| To secure and expand life, we may settle the solar system and seed with life new solar systems beyond. We can do this by sending directed panspermia missions |
| Is it morally right to send our kind of life to other worlds |
Seeding the Universe with Life:
Securing Our Cosmological Future |
| Directed panspermia can be driven by biotic ethics that value the basic patterns of gene/protein life, and by panbiotic ethics that seek to expand life in the universe.Read more at journalofcosmology.com |
Where urban planning, architecture & ubiquitous computing meet.
This pamphlet launches a few ideas: MicroPublic Parks, Schools, Healthcare Centers, Chapels, Art Museums, FreeZones, HotHouses, Public Observatories, WaterTowers, Squares, Libraries, Piazzas, WeatherStation, Powerstation, Shelters, Repairstores, Kiosks, Asylums, Recycling Centers, Air Centers, City Hall, City Farms, Environmental Production Clinic, ...
See the pdf for a more in-depth view on these issues
| MPPs combine insights from ambient intelligence, human computing, architecture, social engineering and urbanism to initiate ways to re- animate public life in contemporary societies. They offer access to things that are or should be available to all: air, water, medicine, books, etc. and combine machine learning procedures with subjective human intuition to make the public realm a contested space again. |
| How are our experience of the city and the choices we make in it affected by mobile communications, pervasive media, ambient informatics and other “situated” technologies? How will the ability to design increasingly responsive environments alter the way architects conceive of space? What do architects need to know about urban computing and what do technologists need to know about cities?Read more at www.experientia.com |
A report on beer etiquette in Europe: What's the tradition on buying each other rounds, who pays, who drinks the most, etc...
Click through to the pdf report, it contains pretty graphs & more detailed stats. (Read more at www.scribd.com) SABMiller’s ‘Beer Etiquette’ report which surveyed 7,500 men and women across 15 countries revealed many more surprising insights. These include: |
Britain and Sweden are Europe’s leading round-buying nations, with 82% of Britons preferring to buy a round for their friends rather than split the cost. |
| Britons compare favourably with Germany which came last, with only 37% of German respondents happy to treat their friends to a round. The vast majority of Germans (90%) prefer to split the bill and meticulously work out exactly who had what. |
Britons are unconditional round buyers as over three quarters (77%) would buy someone a drink regardless of whether they thought they would get one in return. |
Britons are happy to buy for up to six people per round (5.9). Additionally: |
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