The “noosphere” (sometimes referred to as the neurosphere) can be described as “the sphere of human thought”. First used by geochemist Vladimir Verdansky, he believed that there were three stages in the development of the earth: the geosphere (inanimate matter), which was then transformed by the biosphere, (animate matter), which in turn would be transformed by the noosphere that arose from human cognition.
The Noosphere ›
March 18th, 2007Nestle On Potential Customers ›
March 18th, 2007Today’s quote comes from Bernard Meunier, Nestle”s country manager, quoted in Business Week (2006) on why they’ve “pumped $500 million into Russia to date”:
“As soon as people step out of poverty, they become potential Nestle customers.”
Does the West still exist? ›
March 17th, 2007Great article on BBC’s “Our Correspondent” website covering a recent US conference trying to see whether there was still anything in common with Europe. Apparently not:
Word of the Day: Artilects ›
March 17th, 2007The term artilect is a combination of the words “artificial intellect”, and is used to describe highly intelligent machines that differ from today’s concepts of artificial intelligence by being far more intelligent than humans, almost god-like. In case you think this is taken from a book of science fiction, it’s not. The term was coined by Professor Dr. Hugo de Garis, who specialises in a field of artificial intelligence, and expanded upon in his book The Artilect War (a .pdf version can be found here).
Fritjof Capra On Living Robots ›
March 17th, 2007Today’s quote comes from physicist Fritjof Capra. I am just reading through his (so far) superb book, “The Hidden Connections“, which aims to describe “the unified systems that integrate the biological, cognitive and social dimensions of life”.
Human Rights and The War On Drugs ›
March 16th, 2007Ever wonder how all the money pumped into fighting the War on Drugs is used? Well, here’s one indication from the Associated Press:
The U.N. found that Colombia’s army – the largest recipient of $700 million in annual anti-narcotics and counterinsurgency aid from the United States – had participated in killing civilians in 21 of Colombia’s 32 states.