This semester in the sophomore-level course I teach on “Communication and Society,” we spent several weeks examining the many ways that Americans are using the Internet to alter the nature […]
Search Results
You searched for: Computers
An Amazon product review with ellipsis … like this … and a lot of extra punctuation??!? That is, like, so likely to be sincere. I totally mean that, except that […]
Now that the dust has settled after the immediate reaction to WikiLeak’s release of secret Afghan war logs, clearer lines can be drawn concerning the event’s significance. The most fundamental […]
Would an xxx. domain for pornography make the industry easier to filter or would it simply increase the amount of explicit material available on the Web? And what does Steve Jobs want?
In the history of the Universe, life—and human life in particular—has not been around for very long. But University of Michigan theoretical astrophysicist Katie Freese believes it’s possible that life […]
Everyone is mesmerized by Apple’s ability to revolutionize the way we think about IT products. With the iPhone, for example, Apple has morphed a mere communication device into a platform […]
Right now our most advanced robots are not quite as smart as we would want them to be. One of the most popular—Honda’s humanoid robot, Asimo—is quite sophisticated but you won’t […]
Are some of our elegant symbols of modernity — smartphones and so on — fueling slaughter and rape in Congo? The New York Times on the campaign for “clean” minerals.
n Somewhat in the style of a treasure map, this ‘Map of Online Communities’ shows MySpace, Wikipedia, SecondLife and other user-generated phenomena now populating the internet. n The geography is […]
Is Science Getting More Glamorous & Creating a Multi-Billion Dollar Corporation Out of Your Basement
Many people ask me if science is getting more glamorous. Well, I hope so. The world of Hollywood and the media tell us that if you are beautiful and strong […]
As a follow up to his guest post yesterday on the prospects for independent book stores, I asked Paul D’Angelo, a communication professor at the College of New Jersey, his […]
Everyone has grown up hearing fantasy stories about the “fountain of youth.” We are still far from finding the fabled Fountain, but today the real question is quickly becoming “Would […]
Starting today, the non-profit digital library Internet Archive will give the public access to over a million public domain books and thousands of contemporary copyrighted e-books. Copyright questions abound.
The basic user interface of our personal computers has stayed the same for a generation. How can we move beyond the desktop?
▸
6 min
—
with
“Who would have thought that the sound of God would be so whiny?” quips The Independent. Physicists at the LHC say “the God particle” sounds like “a bunch of coins spinning in a wine glass.”
The series of tubes famously dubbed the ‘internets’ by president G.W. Bush* constitute a world wide web of interconnectedness. But, as this map demonstrates, there are some black holes in […]
The words “packet switching” don’t mean much to many people. But for Leonard Kleinrock, UCLA Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, packet switching is what ultimately gave him the title, “Father […]
NOVA’s new Mt. Saint Helens special has some great footage of the volcano, but plays a little loose with the science and doomsday tone.
As we discussed in the previous Going Mental posts, some of the most fundamental mechanisms of the human brain remain a mystery to scientists. Consciousness, intelligence, and sleep are so […]
“Are we more or less likely to lie to someone if we are communicating via email or text message than if we are speaking face-to-face?” asks Professor Jeff Hancock of Cornell University.
In November 2009, nine researchers from MIT’s prestigious Media Lab were among the eleven authors of a paper* that espoused the value of programming as an essential skill for all. […]
“American Psycho” novelist Bret Easton Ellis stopped by the Big Think offices today to chat about his new book, “Imperial Bedrooms,” and the future of fiction writing. Ellis talked about […]
When Jill Tarter was growing up, she remembers walking along the beach with her father, gazing up at the night sky. Well before she would become a leader in the […]
“Software should always be free because all users of software deserve freedom,” says Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation and the GNU Project, and a longtime activist. But […]
n . n “No, I already understand how to copy and paste,” says the bearded man on his mobile to some kind of computer helpline. “What I want to do […]
“I think the primary technological barrier that keeps us from being more emotionally engaged with video games is the barrier of speech,” says Jesse Schell, the video game designer and […]
As Parag and Ayesha wrote yesterday, if today you cannot program computers, it is as though you have the skill to read, but not to write. For this reason, kids […]
I’m nearly done filming a second season of “SCI-FI Science: Physics of the Impossible” on The Science Channel. In this exciting new series, I’ve identified 12 more familiar science-fiction movie, […]
This semester in the sophomore-level course I teach on “Communication and Society,” we spent several weeks examining the many ways that Americans are using the Internet to alter the nature […]
Though currently too expensive for mass production, new computing technology is replacing electrons and copper wiring with photons that can carry information at light speed.