Category Archives: Evolution
The Human Ecosystem & What We Could Learn About Earth (VIDEO)

by PeD | 05-13-2009

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Did you know that there is more bacteria in your body than there is, well, anything else? Well it’s true: they’re in our digestive tract, all over our skin, in our teeth, on our tongue, and have even fathered 40 of our own human genes. Leading scientists are already on the case to learn more about the interdependencies between our body’s inhabitants, and our bodies. In 2008, several countries launched the International Human Microbiome Consortium (IHMC), “an effort that will enable researchers to characterize the relationship of the human microbiome in the maintenance of health and in disease. VIDEO | . . . . . .

Are Aliens Beginning to Lose Their Sci-Fi Status? (VIDEO)

by PeD | 05-12-2009

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Will the search for alien life be over by 2025?

For years, Star Trek and other sci-fi gadgets have lept out of the screen and into our lives. But while mobile phones, video-conferencing, real-time systems monitoring and online collaboration are now staples of modern life,  alien life has remained a fixture in the sci-fi closet. A growing community of scientists and explorers with ever more sophisticated technology are looking to change that in our lifetime. Since the 1990′s, they have already identified over 300 extrasolar planets — planets revolving around stars other than our own — and some of them are said to contain water. Even Jupiter is said to . . . . . .

The Singularity: Ray Kurzweil & His Convenient Truth (VIDEO)

by PeD | 05-11-2009

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Lists graphed from leading sources account for events only so far back as our civilization has the power to rationalize. In order to appreciate the grander scheme of things, reason must be flexed. If there is an asymptotic relationship between the end and the extreme beginning of the greater trend, this may infer two separate possibilities: our relative destruction of and departure from this planet, after which a seed sample of genetic material will prevail to begin a new era of biological evolution; or an ascension of another kind in which our solar system has its reset button pressed.

By the time Al Gore released his Oscar winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth“, few skeptics were left that the world’s climate was changing. Now, Ray Kurzweil — one of the most prolific inventors of the 20th century -  is releasing an eminent documentary of his own. Many futurists, including a growing band of leading scientists, predict that by 2045 we will have multiplied the intelligence of the human-machine civilization a billion-fold and reached the Singularity. Whereas personal computers, videogames and cellphones were the emerging technologies of the 1970′s and 1980′s, today’s include mind-reading headsets, organic computing and nanotechnology. When I . . . . . .

News Divorces Paper: Internet Journalism Moves In (VIDEO)

by PeD | 05-06-2009

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Newspapers of the Future

There was a time when newspapers were at the pinnacle of information technology. The influence of the newspaper on the evolution of human consciousness is not to be underestimated; for a start, its ability to be rewritten every day helped dilute the power and finality of the book to shape and transport human constructs of the world.  Despite intense lobbying from established news organizations, the information technology revolution will leave behind what is now an antiquated method for transporting the latest world happenings into the human mind. How can incumbent news organizations compete for attention when the very nature of . . . . . .

Questioning Evolution: The Distraction of The Politically Intransigent (VIDEO)

by PeD | 05-06-2009

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Evolution of Intransigence

Beware of those who answer a closed question with a monologue of platitudes in a vain effort to disagree with something they clearly believe. Enter Mike Pence (R, Ind.), another politician who prostitutes his leadership to his political contributors. Many religious organizations, and their political devotees, prefer to pontificate that ancient documents — themselves politically commissioned — supercede the knowledge attained by our ever broadening consciousness since they were written. Perhaps what these institutions lack is the very product they pretend to foster: Belief. Belief that their god, their beliefs, are not going to be compromised by a clearer understanding . . . . . .

EU to US: Hand Keys to the Internet Over to UN (VIDEO)

by PeD | 05-06-2009

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Originally built by the US military, the internet is now an essential element of the developed world

The EU Commissioner Viviane Reding, the EU’s Internet chief, called for the severing of links between ICANN and the U.S. government. Currently ICANN operates under an agreement with the Commerce Department, and the United States is the only government with oversight of ICANN, which assigns Internet addresses used by more than 1.5 billion Internet users around the world. “I believe that the U.S., so far, has done this in a reasonable manner. However, I also believe that the Clinton administration’s decision to progressively privatize the Internet’s domain name and addressing system is the right one. In the long run, it . . . . . .