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Discovery! Earth-Size Alien Planet at Alpha Centauri Is Closest Ever Seen
www.space.com
The newfound world is too hot to host life, but its existence hints that other planets may be found in the system as well.
Posted by DataPacRat on October 16, 2012 at 6:59 pm under Uncategorized.
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My daily browsing has come across an idea I haven’t seen before, though it has been mentioned on LW occasionally. Created by Giulio Tononi, the basic premise seems to be that consciousness can be quantified, by measuring how much information is contained within the overall patterns of a system in excess of the information contained within its subsystems – that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Some further browsing has let me find a somewhat uninformative Wikipedia article, a printed book using a fictional narrative, a scientific paper, and a ‘Provisional Manifesto‘.
The general idea doesn’t seem to fall prey to most of the more obvious flaws that theories about consciousness tend to end up suffering. But I’m far from an expert in the field, or potentially related fields such as considering Φ’s possible use as a basis for developing AGI/FAI. So: what does the wisdom of the crowd of LW have to say about this concept?
Posted by DataPacRat on October 7, 2012 at 2:59 am under Uncategorized.
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www.wired.com/rawfile/2012/10/murray-ballard-cyronics/
Cryonics Photos Delve Into the Frozen World of the Immortality Faithful | Raw File | Wired.com
www.wired.com
The Prospect of Immortality is a six-year study by UK photographer Murray Ballard, who has traveled the world pulling back the curtain on the amateurs, optimists, businesses and apparatuses of cryonics.
Posted by DataPacRat on October 4, 2012 at 7:12 am under Uncategorized.
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