IMAX – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

The desire to increase the visual impact of film has a long history. In 1929, Fox introduced Fox Grandeur, the first 70 mm film format, but it quickly fell from use.[3] In the 1950s CinemaScope (1953) and VistaVision (1954) widened the image from 35 mm film, following multi-projector systems such as Cinerama (1952). While impressive, Cinerama was difficult to install, and the seams between adjacent projected images were difficult to hide.

The IMAX system was developed by Graeme Ferguson, Roman Kroitor, Robert Kerr, and William C. Shaw.[4]

via IMAX – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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Cybernetics – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems.

Cybernetics is closely related to information theory, control theory and systems theory, at least in its first-order form. (Second-order cybernetics has crucial methodological and epistemological implications that are fundamental to the field as a whole.)

Both in its origins and in its evolution in the second half of the 20th century, cybernetics is equally applicable to physical and social (that is, language-based) systems.

via Cybernetics – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Warren Sturgis McCulloch – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Warren Sturgis McCulloch – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Warren Sturgis McCulloch (November 16, 1898 – September 24, 1969) was an American neurophysiologist and cybernetician, known for his work on the foundation for certain brain theories and his contribution to the cybernetics movement.

Neural network modelling

In the 1943 paper they attempted to demonstrate that a Turing machine program could be implemented in a finite network of formal neurons, (in the event, the Turing Machine contains their model of the brain, but the converse is not true[3]) that the neuron was the base logic unit of the brain. In the 1947 paper they offered approaches to designing “nervous nets” to recognize visual inputs despite changes in orientation or size.

From 1952 he worked at the Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT, working primarily on neural network modelling. His team examined the visual system of the frog in consideration of McCulloch’s 1947 paper, discovering that the eye provides the brain with information that is already, to a degree, organized and interpreted, instead of simply transmitting an image.

Reticular formation

McCulloch also posited the concept of “poker chip” reticular formations as to how the brain deals with contradictory information in a democratic, somatotopical neural network. His principle of “Redundancy of Potential Command”[4] was developed by von Forster and Pask in their study of Self-organization.

Force (Star Wars) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

One of the audio sources Lipsett sampled for 21-87 was a conversation between artificial intelligence pioneer Warren S. McCulloch and Roman Kroitor, a cinematographer who went on to develop IMAX.

In the face of McCulloch’s arguments that living beings are nothing but highly complex machines, Kroitor insists that there is something more: “Many people feel that in the contemplation of nature and in communication with other living things, they become aware of some kind of force, or something, behind this apparent mask which we see in front of us.

via Force (Star Wars) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

General semantics – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

General semantics is a program begun in the 1920’s that seeks to regulate the evaluative operations performed in the human brain.

General semantics is a program begun in the 1920’s that seeks to regulate the evaluative operations performed in the human brain.

General semantics – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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Philosophy of Ghost in the Shell – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Ghost in the Shell series of anime and manga titles is a Japanese cyberpunk story that offers many observations on present day philosophy and speculations on future philosophy.

The Ghost in the Shell series of anime and manga titles is a Japanese cyberpunk story that offers many observations on present day philosophy and speculations on future philosophy.

Ghost in the Shell takes place in the year 2029, when the world has become interconnected by a vast electronic network that permeates every aspect of life.

People also tend to rely more and more on cybernetic implants, and the first strong AIs make their appearance. The main entity presented in the various media is the Public Security Section 9 police force, which is charged to investigate cases like the Puppet Master and the Laughing Man.

Yet, as those criminals are revealed to have more depth than was at first apparent, the various protagonists are left with disturbing questions: “What exactly is the definition of ‘human’ in a society where a mind can be copied and the body replaced with a synthetic form?”, “What exactly is the ‘ghost’ —the essence— in the cybernetic ‘shell’?”, “Where is the boundary between human and machine when the differences between the two become more philosophical than physical?”, etc. Continue reading “Philosophy of Ghost in the Shell – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia”

Noam Chomsky at Occupy Boston | Open Culture

Noam Chomsky at Occupy Boston | Open Culture.

 

Noam Chomsky joined the faculty of MIT in 1955, and, soon enough established himself as “the father of modern linguistics.” (Watch him debate Michel Foucault in 1971.) During the 60s, he also firmly positioned himself as a leading public intellectual taking aim at American foreign policy and global capitalism, and we regularly saw him engaging with figures like William F. Buckley.

All of these years later, it’s quite fitting that Chomsky, now 82 years old, would pay a visit to Occupy Boston and deliver a talk in the Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture Series. Why has our political system become more responsive to corporations than citizens? How has wealth become increasingly concentrated in the hands of an ever smaller elite — a plutocracy, to put it simply? And why do billionaire hedge fund managers enjoy a lower tax rate than maligned school teachers and pretty much everyone else? Chomsky explains how we got to this point, and what’s to be done about it. Find his talk in three parts: Part 1 (above), Part 2 and Part 3.  via Dangerous Minds.