The game is free & works with wine. (F3 to switch from DirectX to OpenGL)
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Since I didn’t find any sound partitioning advice in one single place, I decided to bundle the different tips & tricks and wrote a little guide on partitioning your system. This guide is geared towards linux and a multiple drive and OS setup, but the general tips apply to most systems.
There are several things I want to emphasize. For performance reasons I put the swap partition(s) at the beginning of the harddisk(s). For security reasons – among other – I reserved a separate /home, /download & /media partition. Depending on your personal preferences, hardware setup & data you might want to personalize here. Besides performance and security gains, this well thought-out setup will allow for fluent management, automated backups & synchronizing.
The only sound advise is to try these tips out and test them for yourselves. Check if these translate into performance gains. The tips & tricks provided here are by no means definitive or the only ones available.
We’re going to separate the Operating System and applications from normal data. We’ll create different partitions for various operating systems (different linuxes & windows xp ) and for various data (music, video, backups, shared) or system services (swap, boot):
You can only create 4 primary partitions on each drive. But you could for example create an extended partition – next to three primary partitions – that contains several logical partition. Some OS’s (BSD, Solaris, …) have to be installed into a primary partition.
Other guides advise you to create separate /var, /tmp or /opt partitions. Generally this is a good idea, but as long as you’re not planning on running a server it’s not really necessary.
Another thing linux users might want to do is to modify the fstab file (/usr/fstab). This is the file linux uses to mount hard drives when booting. Here you can specify some parameters that’ll translate in performance gains.
The noatime options disables the harddrives function of writing access times to your files. You might want to enable this options, depending on your types of files: just add the ‘noatime’ option somewhere between the others. I recommend to disable this for your /media and /backup partitions. Let it enabled for your /home and /root partitions. Some criticial OS systems or other applications might depend on the access-time dates of files. Keep in mind that access-time dates are not the same as writing-time dates, so this won’t pose any problems later for synchronizing.
See the linkdump at the end of this post for further information on fstab. The How to fstab post at Ubuntu Forums provides a decent & thorough introduction. If you’re unfamiliar with it, you’ll need to read up on its uses & possiblities: noatime isn’t the only option that could translate into performance gains. There’s also nodiratime (for directories). And there are other parameters you can specify, for example which filesystems to be checked at boot.
If you’re unfamiliar with fstab, first read up on it (man page, above link). You can also use the application Pysdm, a GUI frontend to change your fstab file.
I applied this philosophy to my system, which has 3 SATA-II drives: a 300 GB, 320 GB and 500 GB drive. For backups I use an external 750 GB drive. While I might have almost 2 TB storage, that’s possibly not true for you, so you might want to think a bit more thorough on your partition structure.
Keep in mind that this advise is specified for HDDs (Hard Disk Drives). For SSD (Solid State Disk) drives most of these rules do not apply. But do remember to place your OS and possibly also your core applications like Open Office and Firefox on it. These drives are faster than HDDs.
So, the most important part of this post, the first step of any sound guide into partitioning your system is to back it all up. Applying changes in your partition structure may destroy all your files. The easiest & fastest way is to back everything up onto one single drive – preferably external – and format all your internal drives. With tools as GParted or QtParted you can easily move or resize existing partitions when needed, but with large quantities it takes a very long time. If possible, start anew: delete all partitions & begin from scratch.
If you’re on a Ubuntu system, copy the following into your .bash_aliases file in your /home directory. If the file doesn’t exist, just create it and copy these commands into it.
alias diskid='ls /dev/disk/by-id -lah' alias disklabel='ls /dev/disk/by-label -lah' alias diskuuid='ls /dev/disk/by-uuid -lah'
In your terminal, the command diskid will give you al list of your harddrive ID number; disklabel the label, and diskuuid the UUID of your harddrives. If not on a ubuntu system, just use type into your terminal whatever is between the quotes. Remember it’s that easy to make aliases.
The following command will give you an overview of your total and free hard drive capacity (watch out, this is a single-line command:
df | egrep -v "(Filesystem|\/dev$|shm$|dvd|cdrom)" | awk '{totalu += $2 ; totalf += $4} END {print "Total space in devices: " (totalu/1024/1024) " GB\nFree space total: " (totalf/1024/1024) " GB"}'
If you have different types of harddrives, you might want to check which one is the fastest (and install your OS & applications on that drive). The easiest way to find out is with the application hdparm. The command:
hdparm -Tt /dev/sda
will show you the read & write performance of your harddrives. You’ll want to use that command with no applications running, so don’t boot into GUI mode, or just run a live CD and run the command from there. If necessary replace the path (IDE disk use /dev/hda, if you have multiple disks, these will be named /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc, and so on).
You can use GParted to format, add, delete, move or resize partitions, be they windows (ntfs, fat32, …) or linux (ext3, …) or other file-systems.
The image on the left shows a tree I made (with kdissert), representing my different disks & partitions. Click the picture to view it full-size.
You’ll notice i took into account the above guidelines. However, I did not create a /boot partition, but instead 2 /rescue partitions. One will serve as a simple small linux install (maybe damn small linux, slitaz, slax, or Puppy Linux), and another one I reserve for a later project: a personalized boot loader (Grub, or SuperGrub disk) that can load any OS installed and also applications such as GParted or QtParted, SystemRescueCD, Partimage, DriveImage XML, Ultimate Boot CD, …
I also prematurely planned in a /shared partition on a non-existent NAS (mobile LANdisk), since I plan on rolling out a home network.
So now a few screenshots that clarify my specific setup:
In the above screenshots, the partitions that have a key-icon, are the ones that are automatically mounted at boot (/swap partitions, /ubuntu (root), /home, /download, /music & /media).
You can see that I have an ntfs-swap partition for windows xp. It’s important to know that – if you have only sata drives – windows will not install without an ntfs (or fat32/fat16) partition on your first harddisk. This is where windows will boot from. Your first disk is the /sda one, the one connected to your first SATA port on your motherboard. I installed windows xp on the /sdb disk (which needs to a primary partition), which follows the guideline to place your swap on another drive than your OS is installed.
If you want to access (read & write) ext2/ext3 partitions from within windows, you’ll need the application/driver Ext2 IFS. Contrary to what you might expect, this driver will enable read & write access not only to ext2 file-systems, but also ext3 file-systems.
I created 6 /testareaX partitions, where I’ll install different linux distributions (probably beta versions of Fedora, OpenSUSE, Debian & Ubuntu Server Edition among others). Such a setup is useful for geeky people like me who want to try out different distributions or plan on participating in the open source development.
I also created a /virtual partitions, where I’ll put the virtual OS’s installed with VirtualBox. The /image partition contains image files of my 2 freshly installed correctly configured OS’s: Ubuntu & Windows.
On the two /rescueX partitions I’ll install either damn small linux, slitaz, slax, or Puppy Linux. I’ll also experiment with GRUB & SuperGrub for bootloader/recovery tool. In the ideal case I’d like to be able to start applications such as GParted, CloneZilla, TestDisk, Ultimate Boot CD, etc. from a bootloader, without needing Live CD’s.
To summarize:
Many of these ‘tips & tricks’ might & will be misunderstood if interpreted in the simple way they’re described here. Expanding on them would’ve brought us too far from our goal, but if you do plan on following through on this, you should at least take a glance into the link dump first. Most of above advise is based on these articles:
You probably already know MIT OpenCourseWare.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology provides over 1800 online courses fully & freely online available. So here’s a personal selection of some courses I’d like to page through including the course descriptions. A personal ‘best of’ if you will.
I was able to limit myself to 33 courses from ‘Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences’; personal selections from other departments will follow later.
Technology & Culture (2006):
This course examines relationships among technology, culture, and politics in a variety of social and historical settings ranging from 19th century factories to 21st century techno dance floors, from colonial Melanesia to capitalist Massachusetts. We will be interested in whether technology has produced a better world, and for whom.
The Anthropology of Computing (2004):
This course examines computers anthropologically, as meaningful tools revealing the social and cultural orders that produce them. We read classic texts in computer science along with works analyzing links between machines and culture. We explore early computation theory and capitalist manufacturing; cybernetics and WWII operations research; artificial intelligence and gendered subjectivity; the creation and commodification of the personal computer; the hacking aesthetic; non-Western histories of computing; the growth of the Internet as a military, academic, and commercial project; the politics of identity in cyberspace; and the emergence of “evolutionary” computation.
Documenting Culture (2004):
How — and why — do people seek to capture everyday life on film? What can we learn from such films? This course challenges distinctions commonly made between documentary and ethnographic films to consider how human cultural life is portrayed in both. It considers the interests, which motivate such filmmakers ranging from curiosity about “exotic” people to a concern with capturing “real life” to a desire for advocacy. Students will view documentaries about people both in the U.S. and abroad and will consider such issues as the relationship between film images and “reality,” the tensions between art and observation, and the ethical relationship between filmmakers and those they film.
Video Game Theory & Analysis (2007):
This course will serve as an introduction to the interdisciplinary academic study of videogames, examining their cultural, educational, and social functions in contemporary settings. By playing, analyzing, and reading and writing about videogames, we will examine debates surrounding how they function within socially situated contexts in order to better understand games’ influence on and reflections of society. Readings will include contemporary videogame theory and the completion of a contemporary commercial videogame chosen in consultation with the instructor.
New Media Literacies (2007):
This course serves as an in-depth look at literacy theory in media contexts, from its origins in ancient Greece to its functions and changes in the current age of digital media, participatory cultures, and technologized learning environments. Students will move quickly through traditional historical accounts of print literacies; the majority of the semester will focus on treating literacy as more than a functional skill (i.e., one’s ability to read and write) and instead as a sophisticated set of meaning-making activities situated in specific social spaces. These new media literacies include the practices and concepts of: fan fiction writing, online social networking, videogaming, appropriation and remixing, transmedia navigation, multitasking, performance, distributed cognition, and collective intelligence.
From Print to Digital: Technologies of the Word, 1450-Present (2005):
There has been much discussion in recent years, on this campus and elsewhere, about the death of the book. Digitization and various forms of electronic media, some critics say, are rendering the printed text as obsolete as the writing quill. In this subject, we will examine the claims for and against the demise of the book, but we will also supplement these arguments with an historical perspective they lack: we will examine texts, printing technologies, and reading communities from roughly 1450 to the present. We will begin with the theoretical and historical overviews of Walter Ong and Elizabeth Eisenstein, after which we will study specific cases such as English chapbooks, Inkan knotted and dyed strings, late nineteenth-century recording devices, and newspapers online today. We will also visit a rare book library and make a poster on a hand-set printing press.
Technologies of Humanism (2003):
This course explores the properties of non-sequential, multi-linear, and interactive forms of narratives as they have evolved from print to digital media. Works covered in this course range from the Talmud, classics of non-linear novels, experimental literature, early sound and film experiments to recent multi-linear and interactive films and games. The study of the structural properties of narratives that experiment with digression, multiple points of view, disruptions of time, space, and of storyline is complemented by theoretical texts about authorship/readership, plot/story, properties of digital media and hypertext. Questions that will be addressed in this course include: How can we define ‘non-sequentiality/multi-linearity’, ‘interactivity’, ‘narrative’. To what extend are these aspects determined by the text, the reader, the digital format? What are the roles of the reader and the author? What kinds of narratives are especially suited for a non-linear/interactive format? Are there stories that can only be told in a digital format? What can we learn from early non-digital examples of non-linear and interactive story telling?
Media in Transition (2004):
This course centers on historical eras in which the form and function of media technologies were radically transformed. It includes consideration of the “Gutenberg Revolution,” the rise of modern mass media, and the “digital revolution,” among other case studies of media transformation and cultural change. Readings cover cultural and social history and historiographic methods.
History of Media and Technology (2005):
History of Media and Technology addresses the mutually influential histories of communications media and technological development, focusing on the shift from analog to digital cultures that began mid-century and continues to the present. The approach the series takes to the study of media and technology is a multifaceted one that includes theoretical and philosophical works, histories canonical and minority, literature and art, as well as hands-on production issues toward the advancement of student projects and research papers. The topic for this term is Eternal War.
How to Stage a Revolution (2007):
This course explores fundamental questions about the causes and nature of revolutions. How do people overthrow their rulers? How do they establish new governments? Do radical upheavals require bloodshed, violence, or even terror? How have revolutionaries attempted to establish their ideals and realize their goals? We will look at a set of major political transformations throughout the world and across centuries to understand the meaning of revolution and evaluate its impact. By the end of the course, students will be able to offer reasons why some revolutions succeed and others fail. Materials for the course include the writings of revolutionaries, declarations and constitutions, music, films, art, memoirs, and newspapers.
Minds & Machines (2007):
This course is an introduction to many of the central issues in a branch of philosophy called philosophy of mind. Some of the questions we will discuss include the following. Can computers think? Is the mind an immaterial thing? Or is the mind the brain? Or does the mind stand to the brain as a computer program stands to the hardware? How can creatures like ourselves think thoughts that are “about” things? (For example, we can all think that Aristotle is a philosopher, and in that sense think “about” Aristotle, but what is the explanation of this quite remarkable ability?) Can I know whether your experiences and my experiences when we look at raspberries, fire trucks and stop lights are the same? Can consciousness be given a scientific explanation?
Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics (2005):
Quantum mechanics–even in the ordinary, non-relativistic, “particle” formulation that will be the primary focus of this course–has been a staggeringly successful physical theory, surely one of the crowning achievements of 20th century science. It’s also rather bizarre–bizarre enough to lead very intelligent and otherwise sensible people to make such claims as that the universe is perpetually splitting into many copies of itself, that conscious minds have the power to make physical systems “jump” in unpredictable ways, that classical logic stands in need of fundamental revision, and much, much more. In this course, we intelligent and sensible people will attempt to take a sober look at these and other alleged implications of quantum mechanics, as well as certain stubborn problems that continue to trouble its foundations.
Along the way, we will take plenty of time out to discuss philosophical questions about science that quantum mechanics raises in new and interesting ways: e.g., what it means to attribute probabilities to physical events, what the aims of scientific inquiry are (does it aim at something true, or merely at something useful?), what the role of observation is in constructing a scientific theory, what it means to say that there is an “objective” physical world, whether something as basic as logic can be viewed as an empirical discipline, whether there can be meaningful scientific questions whose answers cannot possibly be settled by experiment, and more.
Paradox & Infinity (2006):
In this class we will study a cluster of puzzles, paradoxes and intellectual wonders – from Zeno’s Paradox to Godel’s Theorem – and discuss their philosophical implications.
Music since 1960 (2006):
This course begins with the premise that the 1960s mark a great dividing point in the history of 20th century Western musical culture, and explores the ways in which various social and artistic concerns of composers, performers, and listeners have evolved since that decade. It focuses on works by classical composers from around the world. Topics include the impact of rock, as it developed during the 1960s – 70s; the concurrent emergence of post serial, neotonal, minimalist, and new age styles; the globalization of Western musical traditions; the impact of new technologies; and the significance of music video, video games, and other versions of multimedia. The course interweaves discussion of these topics with close study of seminal musical works, evenly distributed across the four decades since 1960; works by MIT composers are included.
International Politics in the New Century – via Simulation, Interactive Gaming, and ‘Edutainment’ (2005):
This workshop is designed to introduce students to different perspectives on politics and the state of the world through new visualization techniques and approaches to interactive political gaming (and selective ‘edutainment’). Specifically, we shall explore applications of interactive tools (such as video and web-based games, blogs or simulations) to examine critical challenges in international politics of the 21C century focusing specifically on general insights and specific understandings generated by operational uses of core concepts in political science.
New Global Agenda: Exploring 21st Century Challenges through Innovations in Information Technologies (2006):
This workshop is designed to introduce students to different perspectives on international politics in the 21st century. Students will explore how advances in information technology are changing international relations and global governance through opening new channels of communication, creating new methods of education, and new potentials for democratization. We will consider the positive and negative externalities associated with applications of such technologies. Students will be encouraged to look at alternative futures, and/or to frame solutions to problems that they define. The class will include guest lectures, discussions, and a final project and presentation.
The History of Computing (2004):
This course focuses on one particular aspect of the history of computing: the use of the computer as a scientific instrument. The electronic digital computer was invented to do science, and its applications range from physics to mathematics to biology to the humanities. What has been the impact of computing on the practice of science? Is the computer different from other scientific instruments? Is computer simulation a valid form of scientific experiment? Can computer models be viewed as surrogate theories? How does the computer change the way scientists approach the notions of proof, expertise, and discovery? No comprehensive history of scientific computing has yet been written. This seminar examines scientific articles, participants’ memoirs, and works by historians, sociologists, and anthropologists of science to provide multiple perspectives on the use of computers in diverse fields of physical, biological, and social sciences and the humanities. We explore how the computer transformed scientific practice, and how the culture of computing was influenced, in turn, by scientific applications.
Scientific Visualization across Disciplines: A Critical Introduction (2005):
This subject exposes students to a variety of visualization techniques so that they learn to understand the work involved in producing them and to critically assess the power and limits of each. Students concentrate on areas where visualizations are crucial for meaning making and data production. Drawing on scholarship in science and technology studies on visualization, critical art theory, and core discussions in science and engineering, students work through a series of case studies in order to become better readers and producers of visualizations.
Technology in a Dangerous World (2002):
Aim is to analyze important current events for what they reveal about the nature and working of our technological world. Starting point is connection between technology and terrorism. Subject also explores how a human-built world can foster insecurity and danger, and how human beings respond. Many invited guests help develop a strong interdisciplinary approach (science, engineering, social science, humanities). Topics include technological risk and remediation, sociotechnical systems, imagination of disaster, technology and identity, technology and religion, technology and education, and technology and trust. Written and oral assignments and a final project required. Service-learning proposals and web-based presentations, in addition to written work, may be considered for the final project by the instructor.
Technology & Culture (2006):
This course examines relationships among technology, culture, and politics in a variety of social and historical settings ranging from 19th century factories to 21st century techno dance floors, from colonial Melanesia to capitalist Massachusetts. We will be interested in whether technology has produced a better world, and for whom.
Ethics and the Law on the Electronic Frontier (2005):
This course considers the interaction between law, policy, and technology as they relate to the evolving controversies over control of the Internet. In addition, there will be an in-depth treatment of privacy and the notion of “transparency” — regulations and technologies that govern the use of information, as well as access to information. Topics explored will include: Legal Background for Regulation of the Internet, Fourth Amendment Law and Electronic Surveillance, Profiling, Data Mining, and the U.S. PATRIOT Act, Technologies for Anonymity and Transparency, The Policy-Aware Web
The Structure of Engineering Revolutions (2001):
This Course provides an integrated approach to engineering practice in the real world. Students research the life cycle of a major engineering project, new technology, or startup company from multiple perspectives: technical, economic, political, and cultural. Research involves interviewing inventors, reading laboratory notebooks, evaluating patents, and looking over the shoulders of engineers as they developed today’s technologies. This subject is for students who recognize that technical proficiency alone is only part of the formula for success in technology.
Social Studies of Bioscience and Biotech (2005):
In this course, social, ethical and clinical issues associated with the development of new biotechnologies and their integration into clinical practice is discussed. Basic scientists, clinicians, bioethicists, and social scientists present on the following four general topics: changing political economy of biotech research; problems associated with the adaption of new biotechnologies and findings from molecular biology for clinical settings; the ethical issues that emerge from clinical research and clinical use of new technologies; and the broader social ethics of access and inequality.
Social and Political Implications of Technology (2006):
This course is a graduate reading seminar, in which historical and contemporary studies are used to explore the interaction of technology with social and political values. Emphasis is on how technological devices, structures, and systems influence the organization of society and the behavior of its members. Examples are drawn from the technologies of war, transportation, communication, production, and reproduction.
Writing on Contemporary Issues: Imagining the Future (2007):
Turn-of-the-century eras have historically been times when people are more than usually inclined to scrutinize the present and speculate about the future. Now, the turn not just of a century but of a millennium having recently passed, such scrutiny and speculations inevitably intensify. What will the future that awaits us in this twenty-first century and beyond be like? And how do visions of that future reflect and respond to the world we live in now? In this course we will read and write about how some writers and filmmakers have responded to the present as a way of imagining—and warning about—possible worlds to come. Guided by our reading and discussion, we will scrutinize our own present and construct our own visions of the future through close readings of the texts as well as of some aspects of contemporary culture—urban and environmental crises, economic imperialism, sexual and reproductive politics, the ethics of biotechnologies, issues of race and gender, the romance of technology, robotics and cyborg cultures, media saturation, language and representation—and the persistent questions they pose about what it means to be human at this start of a new millennium.
Writing and Experience: Exploring Self in Society (2004):
The reading and writing for this course will focus on what it means to construct a sense of self and a life narrative in relation to the larger social world of family and friends, education, media, work, and community. Readings will include nonfiction and fiction works by authors such as Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Andre Dubus, Anne Frank, Tim O’Brien, Flannery O’Connor, George Orwell, John Steinbeck, Amy Tan, Tobias Wolff, and Alice Walker. Students will explore the craft of storytelling and the multiple ways in which one can employ the tools of fiction in crafting creative nonfiction and fiction narratives.
Intro to Tech Communication (2002):
An information-based society necessitates good writing in all careers.
Many scientists and technical professionals must write progress reports, analyses, literature reviews, or other documents to communicate within their workplaces, and many must also address more general audiences in grant proposals, conference papers, articles, and so on. This course is designed to serve as a basic introduction to the practice of technical writing for those who work as scientists and technical researchers.
Because scientific and technical fields are becoming more interdisciplinary and more globally connected everyday, we will also consider intercultural communication issues at some length.
Introduction to Technical Communication: Ethics in Science and Technology (2006):
This section of Introduction to Technical Communication deals with ethical issues associated with the design, use, and propagation of technology. At virtually all stages of development and use, any technology can carry with it ethical dilemmas for both creators and users. Of particular interest is how such dilemmas are resolved (or complicated) according to how effectively they are communicated to stakeholders.
Introduction to Technical Communication: Explorations in Scientific and Technical Writing (2006):
This course is designed to help you develop skills that will enable you to produce clear and effective scientific and technical documents. We will focus on basic principles of good writing-which scientific and technical writing shares with other forms of writing-and on types of documents common in scientific and technical fields and organizations. While the emphasis will be on writing, oral communication of scientific and technical information will form an important component of the course, as well.
Rhetoric of Science (2006):
This course is an introduction to the history, theory, practice, and implications of rhetoric, the art and craft of persuasion. This course specifically focuses on the ways that scientists use various methods of persuasion in the construction of scientific knowledge.
The Science Essay (2004):
This class celebrates, analyzes and practices the art and craft of the Science Essay – that is, writing for a general audience on topics in science and technology. We read a variety of essays, but writing and revision are the main work of the class. This class is conducted as a combination workshop/seminar style class. (It is not a lecture class.)
Becoming Digital: Writing About Media Change (2005):
The computer and related technologies have invaded our daily lives, have changed the way we communicate, do business, gather information, entertain ourselves. Even technology once considered distinctly “modern” – photography, the telephone, movies, television – has been altered or replaced by faster and more dynamic media that allow more manipulation and control by the individual. Anyone can now create stunning photographic images without a processing lab; and film no longer earns its name, as the cinema often presents images that were never filmed to begin with, but created or doctored in the digital domain. What are the consequences of these changes for the media and arts they alter? How does digitizing affect the values, ethical and aesthetic, of images, texts, and sounds? How do these technologies change the way we spend our time and relate to other people? In the age of the digital, what becomes of property, of history, of identity? Through a series of careful comparisons of images, texts, movies, games, and music – pre-digital versus post-digital – this course will analyze the ways in which these media and our responses to them have changed in the digital era; and we will ask about the value of these changes.
Communicating in Cyberspace (2003):
This class covers the analysis, design, implementation and testing of various forms of digital communication based on group collaboration. Students are encouraged to think about the Web and other new digital interactive media not just in terms of technology but also broader issues such as language (verbal and visual), design, information architecture, communication and community. Students work in small groups on a semester-long project of their choice
I carefully selected a few of the utmost important texts on the history & future of technology, computers, internet etc… I consider all of them must-read material when it comes to the evolution of technology, computers, internet. Furthermore, they’re all texts that are fully & freely available online (really, just click the links).
I present them to you in a chronological order with either a short abstract or a relevant quote that will give you an idea on the content of each paper.
Of the Analytical Engine by Charles Babbage (1864)
“The analytical engine, an important step in the history of computers, was the design of a mechanical general-purpose computer by the British mathematician Charles Babbage. It was first described in 1837, but Babbage continued to work on the design until his death in 1871. Because of financial, political, and legal issues, the engine was never actually built. In its logical design the machine was essentially modern, anticipating the first completed general-purpose computers by about 100 years.” (from wikipedia)
The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster (1909)
“The story describes a world in which almost all humans have lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth, and most of the human population lives below ground. Each individual lives in isolation in a standard ‘cell’, with all bodily and spiritual needs met by the omnipotent, global Machine. Travel is permitted but unpopular and rarely necessary. The entire population communicates through a kind of instant messaging/video conferencing machine called the speaking apparatus, with which they conduct their only activity, the sharing of ideas and knowledge with each other.” (from wikipedia)
Daedalus, or Science and the Future by J.B.S. Haldane (1923)
“The book is an early vision of transhumanism and his vision of a future in which humans controlled their own evolution through directed mutation and use of in vitro fertilization (“ectogenesis”) was a major influence on Aldus Huxley’s Brave New World. The book ends with the image of a biologist, much like Haldane himself, in a laboratory: “just a poor little scrubby underpaid man groping blindly amid the mazes of the ultramicroscop…conscious of his ghastly mission and proud of it.”" (from wikipedia)
As We May Think by Vannevar Bush (1945)
“Bush argued that as humans turned from war, scientific efforts should shift from increasing physical abilities to making all previous collected human knowledge more accessible.
[...] The system, which he called memex, was described as based on what was thought, at the time, to be the wave of the future: Ultra high resolution microfilm reels, coupled to multiple screen viewers and cameras, by electromechanical controls.
[...] As We May Think predicted many kinds of technology invented after its publication, including hypertext, personal computers, the Internet, the World Wide Web, speech recognition, and online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia: “Wholly new forms of encyclopedias will appear, ready-made with a mesh of associative trails running through them, ready to be dropped into the memex and there amplified.”” (from wikipedia)
Computing Machinery and Intelligence by Alan Turing (1950)
“In “Computing machinery and intelligence” (Mind, October 1950), Turing addressed the problem of artificial intelligence, and proposed an experiment now known as the Turing test, an attempt to define a standard for a machine to be called “intelligent”. The idea was that a computer could be said to “think” if it could fool an interrogator into thinking that the conversation was with a human.” (from wikipedia)
Man-Computer Symbiosis by J. C. R. Licklider (1960)
“”Man-Computer Symbiosis” is a key speculative paper published in 1960 by psychologist/computer scientist J.C.R. Licklider, which envisions that mutually-interdependent, “living together”, tightly-coupled human brains and computing machines would prove to complement each other’s strengths to a high degree
[...] In Licklider’s vision, many of the pure artificial intelligence systems envisioned at the time by over-optimistic researchers would prove unnecessary. (This paper is also seen by some historians as marking the genesis of ideas about computer networks which later blossomed into the Internet).” (from wikipedia)
Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework by Douglas Engelbart (1962)
“This is an initial summary report of a project taking a new and systematic approach to improvin the intellectual effectiveness of the individual human being. A detailed conceptual framework explores the nature of the system composed of the individual and the tools, concepts, and methods that match his basic capabilities to his problems. One of the tools that shows the greatest immediate promise is the computer, when it can be harnessed for direct on-line assistance, integrated with new concepts and methods.” (the abstract)
The Gadget Lover: Narcissus as Narcosis by Marshall McLuhan (1964).
This is the 4th chapter of his book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man.
“The book is the source of the well-known phrase “The medium is the message”. It was a leading indicator of the upheaval of local cultures by increasingly globalized values. The book greatly influenced academics, writers, and social theorists.
McLuhan uses interchangeably the words medium and media. For McLuhan a medium is “any extension of ourselves”, or more broadly, “any new technology”. In addition to forms such as newspapers, television and radio, McLuhan includes the light bulb, cars, speech and language in his definition of “media”: all of these, as technologies, mediate our communication; their forms or structures affect how we perceive and understand the world around us.” (from wikipedia)
The Future of Humanity by Asimov (1973)
“Let me point out that our youth-centered culture is youth-centered particularly in one important way: education. For years, and centuries, and millennia, it has always been assumed that education is the prerogative of the very young. That there’s such a thing as finishing your education.
[...] We teach kids that to be grown up is to be able to be stupid for the rest of your life. [...] In the 21st century, we’re going to have to think of education not as a task to be completed, but as a process to be continued.
[...] I foresee a 21st century in which the educational process will be organized so that every human being has a right to institutional help for education in any field he wishes, in any direction he wishes, at any age he wishes. Education and learning will be the name of the game.” (from the lecture)
Tools for Thought: on the Rise of Personal Computing by Howard Rheingold (1986)
“Tools for Thought is an exercise in retrospective futurism; that is, I wrote it in the early 1980s, attempting to look at what the mid 1990s would be like. [...] The idea that people could use computers to amplify thought and communication, as tools for intellectual work and social activity, was not an invention of the mainstream computer industry nor orthodox computer science, nor even homebrew computerists.
[...] I went back to piece together how Boole and Babbage and Turing and von Neumann — especially von Neumann – created the foundations that the later toolbuilders stood upon to create the future we live in today. You can’t understand where mind-amplifying technology is going unless you understand where it came from.” (from the Introduction)
Engines of Abundance by Eric Drexler (1986).
This is the fourth chapter of his book Engines of Creation. In 2007, a 2nd edition appeared under the name Engines of Creation 2.0, also freely available.
“Originally published in 1986, K. Eric Drexler’s Engines of Creation laid the theoretical foundation for the modern field of nanotechnology and articulated the amazing possibilities and dangers associated with engineering at the molecular scale. Unique for both its style and substance, the book is today recognized as the seminal work in nanotechnology and has earned Drexler the title of “Father of Nanotechnology.”" (From the Introduction of the 2nd Edition)
A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace by John Perry Barlow (1996)
“Cyberspace consists of transactions, relationships, and thought itself, arrayed like a standing wave in the web of our communications. Ours is a world that is both everywhere and nowhere, but it is not where bodies live.
We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth.
We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity.
Your legal concepts of property, expression, identity, movement, and context do not apply to us. They are all based on matter, and there is no matter here.” (quote from the declaration itself)
The Law of Accelerating Returns by Ray Kurzweil (2001)
“An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common-sense “intuitive linear” view. So we won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century — it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today’s rate). The “returns,” such as chip speed and cost-effectiveness, also increase exponentially. There’s even exponential growth in the rate of exponential growth. Within a few decades, machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence, leading to The Singularity — technological change so rapid and profound it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history. The implications include the merger of biological and nonbiological intelligence, immortal software-based humans, and ultra-high levels of intelligence that expand outward in the universe at the speed of light.” (quote from the paper itself)
I carefully selected these 13 texts and abstracts/quotes, but there is more. 71 texts are available in total. You can browse all of them through a collection I made in Clipmarks called CyberReader. If you plan on reading any of those texts, and if you’re a Diigo user, then might I suggest sharing your highlights and annotations: make them public. This could prove quite interesting if other people would to the same.
My previous post explains what this blog will be about. Contrary to my statement that I’ll refrain from writing about myself, I think readers of a blog want to know who the author is. So here’s a little bit about myself:
I never blogged before, but I did use services such as Clipmarks and Diigo to share and archive things I found worth sharing. I started this blog so I can share similar things, but with a surplus value.
I’m particularly interested in science and technology, its implications for the future & society as a whole. I studied moral philosophy and cultivated a special interest in philosophy, ethics and psychology among other topics. I wrote my master thesis on Scientology. I can’t refrain from asking skeptical questions, be it about the past, present or future. My ultimate goal lies in provoking thoughts and spreading curiosity.
I also love to read science fiction. Feel free to browse my collection of books at Goodreads. I divided it up in different bookshelves:
I love & live by the following quotes:
“Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds.”
- Bob Marley (1979), taken from a speech by Marcus Garvey in 1937:
“We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery because whilst others might free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind. Mind is your only ruler, sovereign. The man who is not able to develop and use his mind is bound to be the slave of the other man who uses his mind.”
“Thinking must never submit itself,
neither to a dogma,
nor to a party,
nor to a passion,
nor to an interest,
nor to a preconceived idea,
nor to anything whatsoever,
except to the facts themselves,
because for it to submit to anything else would be the end of its existence.”
- Henri Poincaré (1854-1912)
