I have a new heroine. Not just Ada Lovelace but Sydney Padua who has created the most fantastic strip about Lovelace and Babbage over at 2D Goggles.
I love also that I can quote women about the world's most interesting stuff right now. See Cynthia Breazeal, Sherry Turkle, Donna Haraway, Katherine Hayles, Patti Maes, Elizabeth Grosz, Catherine Harding and of course, Sydney Padua, who just gets why you've got to love women with crowbars and computers.
Network theory is the ideal portable laboratory, to use Latour’s concept from “Give me a Laboratory and I will raise the world”, within which to destabilize scale and remove the inside/outside dichotomy, turning the dichotomies of gender and science into dialectic. 
I have a new heroine. Not just Ada Lovelace but Sydney Padua who has created the most fantastic strip about Lovelace and Babbage over at 2D Goggles.
I love also that I can quote women about the world's most interesting stuff right now. See Cynthia Breazeal, Sherry Turkle, Donna Haraway, Katherine Hayles, Patti Maes, Elizabeth Grosz, Catherine Harding and of course, Sydney Padua, who just gets why you've got to love women with crowbars and computers.
Sherry Turkle is Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at MIT and the founder (2001) and current director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, a center of research and reflection on the evolving connections between people and artifacts. Professor Turkle received a joint doctorate in sociology and personality psychology from Harvard University and is a licensed clinical psychologist.
Professor Turkle is the author of Psychoanalytic Politics: Jacques Lacan and Freud's French Revolution (Basic Books, 1978; MIT Press paper, 1981; second revised edition, Guilford Press, 1992); The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit (Simon and Schuster, 1984; Touchstone paper, 1985; second revised edition, MIT Press, 2005); and Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet (Simon and Schuster, November 1995; Touchstone paper, 1997).
Seminars and workshops at the Initiative on Technology and Self led to four edited collections, all published by the MIT Press, on the relationships between things and thinking. The first volume, Evocative Objects: Things We Think With, was published in Fall 2007. The second volume, Falling For Science: Objects in Mind, appeared in Spring 2008. The third volume, The Inner History of Devices, was published in Fall 2008. The final volume, Simulation and Its Discontents, followed in Spring 2009. Professor Turkle is currently completing a book on robots and the human spirit based on the Initiative's 10-year research program on relational artifacts.
Professor Turkle has written numerous articles on psychoanalysis and culture and on the "subjective side" of people's relationships with technology, especially computers. She is engaged in active study of robots, digital pets, and simulated creatures, particularly those designed for children and the elderly as well as in a study of mobile cellular technologies. Profiles of Professor Turkle have appeared in such publications as The New York Times, Scientific American, and Wired Magazine. She is a featured media commentator on the effects of technology for CNN, NBC, ABC, and NPR, including appearances on such programs as Nightline and 20/20.
I (andra) recommend reading some of Turkle's papers on nascent robotics and relational artifacts. Although I'm not certain how to relate that to my art. lol.
The 2009 TED Talk by Henry Markram describes how we now have the maths to model the neurocortical columns of the brain. He (and IBM) have built Bluebrain, a computer capable of modelling the brain. What's most interesting to me are the philosophical questions raised; what is a person? where and how do we begin and end? and with whom can we communicate? even, why are we here? And especially, what can a robot think? And is our brain evolving outside of our body in augmented reality?
These are all touched on in this fabulous TED Talk . It's one of the best 15 minutes I've spent all year! I've added the official TED bio below to do better justice to the rich subject than I can.
"In the microscopic, yet-uncharted circuitry of the cortex, Henry Markram is perhaps the most ambitious -- and our most promising -- frontiersman. Backed by the extraordinary power of the IBM Blue Gene supercomputing architecture, which can perform hundreds of trillions of calculations per second, he's using complex models to precisely simulate the neocortical column (and its tens of millions of neural connections) in 3D.
Though the aim of Blue Brain research is mainly biomedical, it has been edging up on some deep, contentious philosophical questions about the mind -- "Can a robot think?" and "Can consciousness be reduced to mechanical components?" -- the consequence of which Markram is well aware: Asked by Seed Magazine what a simulation of a full brain might do, he answered, "Everything. I mean everything" -- with a grin.
Now, with a successful proof-of-concept for simulation in hand (the project's first phase was completed in 2007), Markram is looking toward a future where brains might be modeled even down to the molecular and genetic level. Computing power marching rightward and up along the graph of Moore's Law, Markram is sure to be at the forefront as answers to the mysteries of cognition emerge.
"Markram refers to the robot as "science on an industrial scale," and is convinced that it’s the future of lab work. "So much of what we do in science isn’t actually science," he says, "I say let robots do the mindless work so that we can spend more time thinking about our questions.""
Jonah Lehrer, Seed Magazine"
The 2009 TED Talk by Henry Markram describes how we now have the maths to model the neurocortical columns of the brain. He (and IBM) have built Bluebrain, a computer capable of modelling the brain. What's most interesting to me are the philosophical questions raised; what is a person? where and how do we begin and end? and with whom can we communicate? even, why are we here? And especially, what can a robot think? And is our brain evolving outside of our body in augmented reality?
These are all touched on in this fabulous TED Talk . It's one of the best 15 minutes I've spent all year! I've added the official TED bio below to do better justice to the rich subject than I can.
"In the microscopic, yet-uncharted circuitry of the cortex, Henry Markram is perhaps the most ambitious -- and our most promising -- frontiersman. Backed by the extraordinary power of the IBM Blue Gene supercomputing architecture, which can perform hundreds of trillions of calculations per second, he's using complex models to precisely simulate the neocortical column (and its tens of millions of neural connections) in 3D.
Though the aim of Blue Brain research is mainly biomedical, it has been edging up on some deep, contentious philosophical questions about the mind -- "Can a robot think?" and "Can consciousness be reduced to mechanical components?" -- the consequence of which Markram is well aware: Asked by Seed Magazine what a simulation of a full brain might do, he answered, "Everything. I mean everything" -- with a grin.
Now, with a successful proof-of-concept for simulation in hand (the project's first phase was completed in 2007), Markram is looking toward a future where brains might be modeled even down to the molecular and genetic level. Computing power marching rightward and up along the graph of Moore's Law, Markram is sure to be at the forefront as answers to the mysteries of cognition emerge.
"Markram refers to the robot as "science on an industrial scale," and is convinced that it’s the future of lab work. "So much of what we do in science isn’t actually science," he says, "I say let robots do the mindless work so that we can spend more time thinking about our questions.""
Jonah Lehrer, Seed Magazine"
Artists get Involved - Scoop Brancisco supports World Toilet Day
Why World Toilet Day?
Because 2.5 billion people worldwide are without access to proper sanitation, which risks their health, strips their dignity, and kills 1.8 million people, mostly children, a year.
Because even the world's wealthiest people still have toilet problems - from unhygienic public toilets to sewage disposal that destroys our waterways.
I happen to know someone who devotes her life to improving that situation, in Australia and now in India. We can't all do that but we can do this, it's just one day, once a year!
Warship at the Alter of Convergence Culture was the seminar (sic) in my Computers as Culture class last night. I think that's pretty clever given the readings ranged from Henry Jenkins to Lawrence Lessig (a serendipitously translated title!). With such a richness on offer it's a shame that the entire class discussion dissolved into either a discussion of the latest technology/phone/program (technological determinism?) or the latest meme/show/clip/viral (participatory culture!).
Kathy Cleland tried valliantly to point out that we were discussing access to culture rather than participation, and we were enmasse rather lacking in our contributions to culture! The majority of a class of digital cultures masters students thought that voting buttons and editing wikipedia counted as participatory culture. That American Idol and Big Brother were examples of how big media was influenced by little people.
The Back Dorm Boys were the pinup poster of the seminar, with one glancing notice of the iTunes advertising running underneath the clip and much pride in the place the boys achieved getting contracts, manager and fans. The number of fans you have is the new gauge of power in China. Arguably everywhere else in the world too unless you have a lot of guns.
The control society described by Deleuze sees artists and consumers both feted and fettered. It's "the progressive and dispersed installation of a new system of domination... Can we already grasp the rough outlines of the coming forms, capable of threatening the joys of marketing? Many young people strangely boast of being "motivated"; they re-request apprenticeships and permanent training. It's up to them to discover what they're being made to serve, just as their elders discovered, not without difficulty, the telos of the disciplines. The coils of a serpent are even more complex that the burrows of a molehill."
Deleuze's "Postscript on the Societies of Control"(L'Autre Journal,1990) follows on from Foucault's description of the discipline society of the 18/19th century and the industrial revolution. Groups, closed, contained, hierarchies, one is always a beginner, learner, prisoner.
The control society is networked, dispersed, cybernetic. Feedback loops allow access to all areas randomly 'policed' and controlled. Deleuze described using a swipe card to enter and leave all buildings of the future including home and car. The doors and locks are not the barriers. The invisible program/software/code is.
Our culture of participation is a gigantic control mechanism that we are always opting into. We don't want to miss out on the rewards reaped by a feted few.
Geoffrey Hansen makes his living escaping from the most extreme bondage. He is not chained by links. He is an exception.
Outspoken Australian scientist dropped by Bush wins Nobel
ANDREW DARBY
October 6, 2009
Independent...Dr Blackburn.
AUSTRALIAN Elizabeth Blackburn has won the Nobel Prize for medicine, setting a landmark for the nation's scientists.
The Tasmanian-born molecular biologist's Nobel is the first for an Australian woman.
Professor Blackburn, 60, who now works in San Francisco, pioneered the study of telomeres, caps that protect chromosomes in cells, and is a discoverer of telomerase, an enzyme that does the protecting.
Her work has opened a new field of science, raising the prospects of such medical breakthroughs as interfering with cancerous cells.
Professor Blackburn won with her long-time US collaborators Jack Szostak, who worked on the telemores unique DNA sequence, and Carol Greider, who co-identified the telomerase.
Australia's 11th Nobel laureate, Professor Blackburn is a vocal advocate of independent scientific thought who fell out with the Bush administration over cloning and stem cells.
She was dropped from George Bush's Council on Bioethics in 2004 after questioning its bias.
A colleague and friend, Melbourne University's dean of science, Rob Saint, said Professor Blackburn, who graduated in 1971, chose her career when women were starting to become more involved in the sciences.
"I think she would be representative of a change in that gender balance," Professor Saint said. "It's wonderful that here we're seeing the fruits of opening up the system.
"She is a very down-to-earth person, intelligent and wise. She stood up for not letting politics intrude into discussions about science."
Dr Blackburn's career path wasn't easy. Early in her tertiary education, she returned to her birthplace, Hobart, where according to her biography a family friend said: "What's a nice girl like you doing studying science?"
Her interest had been sparked by a likeable chemistry teacher at Launceston's Broadland school. There, biographer Catherine Brady said, she used the new chemistry lab to try to make touch powder fireworks.
She completed her schooling at Melbourne University High School, topping the state in three matriculation subjects, before completing a biochemistry masters, and moving on to Cambridge and Yale.
At the University of California for the past 30 years, Professor Blackburn had already won numerous prizes including the Lasker award, often regarded as the American Nobel, and the Australia Prize in 1998.
She said recently her work on telomeres aimed to overcome the burden of damage caused by ageing cells. "Can you push things in a better direction?" she said in a speech at the Google San Francisco campus. "That's what I've come to be interested in thinking about."
Professor Blackburn
has spoken out against closing career avenues to women because of the responsibilities of mothering young children. She said culture needed to change so a woman who had a family would not feel damned as a serious scientist.
The acting Science Minister, Craig Emerson, said her achievement was "an inspiration for all Australian scientists and those considering a career in science – especially for young women."
Professor Roger Reddel, from the Children's Medical Research Institute, Sydney, said Professor Blackburn's discovery of the telomerase enzyme - which 85 per cent of all cancers depend on for their continuing growth - may make it possible to treat most cancers by developing drugs that block the activity of telomerase.
Bloody Brilliant!
Although I've read the surveys on women in sciences in USA/Canada of last 20 years and we are not going forwards in most areas, so the success of a few should not be seen as representative of the status of the many.
But not only do we have a wonderful scientist but someone who speaks out about the need for independence in science and the need for women's role as mothers to be included in their work practices and recognised in a positive way.
