+ all of the above

Emily Howell is a program written by David Cope to create original, modern music. Hit play below to listen to a couple of examples, or click here to read the article.

via the Strange Attractor

via Today and Tomorrow

NSFW

Go to CS5.org to read more.

via The Frame

Despite a debilitating disease, for the first time in over 5 years, TEMPTONE tags a building.

The Eyewriter project is made up of the Graffiti Research Lab, openFrameworks and The Ebeling Group. Read more about this project at Free Art and Technology. Here GRL is again confirming my belief that they will one day save us all when the dystopian future finally arrives.

I’m loving the art direction on this. I haven’t played video games in years, but this makes me want to pick them up again. Also check out the Scribblenauts trailer for more ground-breaking interaction design.

In my head this is one short step away from this via cliche

via Fimoculous

via Geekologie

Click to make big. Brilliant.

I have often had this thought…

Discover Magazine has a fantastic article arguing the seemingly unpopular point that the internet is making us smarter.

Results like these, Clark argues, reveal a mind that is constantly seeking to extend itself, to grab on to new tools it has never experienced before and merge with them. Some people may be horrified by how passionately people are taking to their laptops and GPS trackers. But to Clark it would be surprising if we didn’t. We are, in Clark’s words, “natural-born cyborgs.”

You need to go play Auditorium. Via Kottke

via /Film

I’ve often thought that Scott Adams was America’s answer to Douglas Adams (same last name, coincidence?) and I think that this proves it. Click to read the full blog post.

Suppose we transfer a dying guy’s brain into a computer, and that computer passes the Turing Test, thus demonstrating genuine intelligence. For all practical purposes it might have the same personality as the human brain that went into it. If you had a conversation with it, I can imagine it expressing a desire to live and even procreate.

via mapclub

This is interesting:

Researchers from Japan’s ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories have developed new brain analysis technology that can reconstruct the images inside a person’s mind and display them on a computer monitor, it was announced on December 11. According to the researchers, further development of the technology may soon make it possible to view other people’s dreams while they sleep.

“These results are a breakthrough in terms of understanding brain activity,” says Dr. Cheng. “In as little as 10 years, advances in this field of research may make it possible to read a person’s thoughts with some degree of accuracy.”

Pink Tentacle has more, or you can go directly to the results of the experiment published in the December issue of the science journal Neuron. Unfortunately to read the article online costs $35, so maybe try your local University.

via the New Shelton Wet/Dry