Ray Kurzweil is fond of comparing DNA to human source code. A group of researchers at Stanford’s Department of Bioengineering have devised a way to use that source code to store write and erase new data into DNA based on some of the simplest principles of binary coding. The process uses an enzyme ad
video We’ve reached the moment in history where robots are learning how to organize and place objects autonomously. From the opinion section on The Week, Cornell roboticists have built and successfully tested a canny new housecleaning bot. Of course, building a machine that “knows” where to put you
Today’s forecast calls for torrential downpours of videgame news. -38 Studios and Big Huge Games rumored to have laid off entire staff. –J.S. Joust “clone” removed from App Store. -Blizzard delays real money auction house for Diablo III another week. -UK Prime Minister David Cameron spends “a crazy,
Who should set the price of a game? It seems intuitive that the group creating a work should have the right to sell it for whatever price they feel is fair. Yet in many cases the price of a game depends on the platform its sold through more than the desires of its creators. A group of developers ha
video In preparation for E3, Ubisoft released a video showing how much work has gone into the demo of Assassin’s Creed 3 that will debut at the show. “We’re right at the apex of excitement and terror,” Creative Director Alex Hutchinson said. Philippe Bergeron, AC3‘s Mission Director, added, “We’re s
Among the many wonders of the internet, one of the most characteristic is the contrast between story and reader. With anonymous comments seemingly straight-forward and inoffensive stories can turn into lightning rods for misogyny, antagonism, and ad hominem slurs. The internet has provided a tool fo
VIdeo Bennett Foddy, the creator of hyper-difficult “sports” games QWOP and GIRP, also has a second life. He’s a philosopher at Oxford. (Perhaps it’s the other way around and philosophy is hobby?). Anyway, the Atlantic has a lengthy interview with Foddy about the ethics of radical aging treatments t
Before you can do something great, you must first do something. Dr. Phillip Zimbardo seems to have reverse this aphorism, having done something great very early in 1971 when he led the Stanford prison experiment, a monumental example of how powerfully affected by environmental context human morality