My own musical tribute to two great men of science. Carl Sagan and his cosmologist companion Stephen Hawking present: A Glorious Dawn - Cosmos remixed. Almost all samples and footage taken from Carl Sagan’s Cosmos and Stephen Hawking’s Universe series.
Brought to my attention by Morgan O’Hara (PNCA Collaborative Design student)
How do we define ‘knowledge’ in a postindustrial society equipped with new media, instantaneous communication technologies and universal access to information? Who controls its transmission? How can scientific knowledge be legitimated?
This is a book review/summary of Jean-François Lyotard’s 1979 book The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge
Brought to my attention by Sharon Dvora (PNCA Collaborative Design student)
Emergence
In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence is the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions. Emergence is central to the theories of integrative levels and of complex systems.
‘Plant’ Fake Trees that Absorb Carbon:The fourth idea from MMN:
Imagine artificial trees — made of proprietary absorbent materials that act like real trees in that they remove carbon dioxide from the air — lining congested highways and sucking up the exhaust of passing vehicles. Even better, imagine that the trapped carbon dioxide is sold to soda makers for carbonation. Believe it or not, this is a real proposal envisioned by Global Research Technologies.
Emergent complexity can arise from simple interactions between agents following rules. The complexity that arises is suprising and challenges our assumptions about whether order comes from the top or the bottom. Life and consciousness are examples of emergent phenomena.
C1ty By NuMb3r5 - Has a former physicist found a formula for growing better cities? By Michael Anft
Imagine if someone concocted a method for turning cities inside out, so we could view their inner workings—their strengths and shortcomings, how they grow and thrive and die—at an almost cellular level. By analyzing a vast sweep of data, everything from how much money the city’s residents make to the numbers of miles in its sewer lines, this system could tell us just how successful a city has been, where it falls flat, and how it stacks up to other cities of its size. Would we, armed with this killer urban-wonk app, be able to pull off a feat that has eluded generations of urban planners, politicians, and sundry city boosters: turn a troubled municipality back from the brink?
Source: urbanitebaltimore.com
Think In Systems
“Put simply: cities are like ant colonies are like software is like slime molds are like evolution is like disease is like sewage systems are like poetry is like the neural pathways in our brain. Everything is connected.” - Patrick Pittman
The World Is Obsessed With Facebook
Created at The Columbus College of Art & Design - by Alex Trimpe
Music by RJD2
Info provided by onlineschools.org
Science & Art
The Beginning of Infinity “A random scrap of information can trigger just the right conceptual collision. It’s hard to know which scrap might do the trick, but that’s the beauty of things like social networks, interconnectivity, and these kinds of media mashups — they constantly produce potential sparks, for free.” - Seth Godin
Resiliency or Adaptation
Nature’s resiliency would be something said here, but it reminds me of a Thoreau quote. Is it resiliency or is it adaptation? “Things do not change; we change.” – Henry David Thoreau
What happens to nature after a nuclear accident? And how does wildlife deal with the world it inherits after human inhabitants have fled? The historic nuclear accident at Chernobyl is now 25 years old. Filmmakers and scientists set out to document the lives of the packs of wolves and other wildlife thriving in the “dead zone” that still surrounds the remains of the reactor. This film premiered on October 19, 2011. (Video limited to U.S. & Territories.) Radioactive Wolves~full episode
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