slides from BI-lecture

The slides from the BI-lecture held March 17th are available on this page. The slides are in Norwegian.

resources

blogs I read

There are literally millions of blogs in existence today. Some of them excellent, and others ... well, not too brilliant.

The ones mentioned in this section I'm sure you would appreciate keeping an eye on:

BETTERHUMANS
A site for those of you interested in the continuing development of the human species; from Homo Sapiens to Homo ..?

BEYOND BULLETS
Enabling you to construct a clearer message and better present what you have to say to other people.

BODYHACK
Wired's blog dealing with biotechnology; especially as related to humans.

BOINGBOING
Like they say; a directory of wonderful things. A nice place to get wild ideas.

THE DILBERT BLOG
Few cartoons, but a lot of interesting musings from DIlbert's creator; Scott Adams.

GEAR FACTOR
An important application of technology is The Gadget. This Wired-blog keeps an eye on them.

GUY KAWASAKI
The personal blog written by one of the best business communicators in the world; Guy Kawasaki.

LIFEHACKER
Blogging tools that actually makes you more productive in your computer usage.

A LIST APART
For people who make websites.

PHARYNGULA
One of the best scientific blogs in existance. A part of the ScienceBlogs network.

PRESENTATION ZEN
The best resource for professional presenters that I have found. A goldmine!

books I recommend

In addition to the books I have suggested here and here I highly recommend that you take a look at the following (in no particular order):

THE AGE OF SPIRITUAL MACHINES: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence by Ray Kurzweil
To my mind better than his more recent The Singularity Is Near : When Humans Transcend Biology. Kurzweil might be “out there” for most of us, but his credentials make him hard to dismiss.

ON INTELLIGENCE by Jeff Hawkins ans Sandra Blakeslee
An enthusiastic overview of history, problems and possible solutions in creating artificial intelligences.

Any book by Richard Dawkins.

SEX, DRUGS, EINSTEIN, AND ELVES : Sushi, Psychedelics, Parallel Universes, and the Quest for Transcendence by Clifford A. Pickover
One of those books (and there are more by Pickover) that attacks stagnated thought patterns in your brain. Highly recommended; not to mention needed. His website is just as ... undefinable.

MORE THAN HUMAN: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement by Ramez Naam
One of many works (if you want links to others, email me) dealing with the next steps of human evolution. Promising, scary,interesting and important.

And if you feel like laughing; any book by P.J. O'Rourke and Dave Barry.

online books

In addition to these, there are a couple of books freely available online that you might like to check out:

BLOGGING FOR BEGINNERS
Blogging is not exactly new, but still a phenomenon these days. This is a very good online book (or rather set of texts) describing how you should do it.

ENGINES OF CREATION
The standard work in early nanotechnological history. Available in three version; web site, word document, and palm documents. While it is not up to date on technological issues, it still gives valuable insight into the mind of nano-pioneer K. Eric Drexler.

KINEMATIC SELF-REPLICATING MACHINES
This offers a general review of the voluminous theoretical and experimental literature pertaining to physical self-replicating machine systems and self-replication. Written by Robert A. Freitas Jr. and Ralph C. Merkle.

NANOMEDICINE vol 1: BASIC CAPABILITIES & vol 2a: BIOCOMPATIBILITY
The first two out of four academic books on a new field of medicine; one of the most exciting areas of study in the years to come. These are a books written for scientists, so don't expect short sentences and pretty pictures. Do expect—however—to be informed and mindboggled about the consequences this field encompasses. Written by Robert A. Freitas Jr.

UNBOUNDING THE FUTURE; THE NANOTECHNOLOGY REVOLUTION
The follow-up to Engines of Creation. Written by Drexler, his wife Chris Peterson and Gayle Pergamit in 1991. Available as web pages.

got suggestions?

If you've come over resources that you think I should look into, please send me an email and tell me what they are.

I'll make sure it's worth your while if you do.