Introduction

Early hominids, distant ancestors of Homo Sapiens, developed bipedal locomotion and lived in large, complex social groups that demanded increased brainpower to be fully exploited. Eventually, evolutionary pressures gave these bigger brains. Still later, when symbols and language were added to the mix, humans brought about a cultural explosion, beginning approximately 40.000 years ago. Now, the next intelligence revolution seems imminent: The dawn of Homo Sapiens Cyborgensis [1] and Robo Sapiens [2]. Certainly, the 21st century is going to be an exciting time.

Marvin Minsky's
The Emotion Machine

According to the ancient greeks you should ''Know Thyself''. Because, to be truly enlightened, you need to understand who you are, what you really believe in and why, where you came from and where you want to go. Indeed, ''mind knowledge'' is still the most important kind of knowledge. We are our minds. Everything we know, and will ever know, is created by our minds.
For more ''mind'' wisdom, we can use sophisticated tools to carefully observe our minds. And we can test our theories by making models. Eventually, artificial minds. Indeed: Pioneers, like Marvin Minsky [3], envisions a future, where we can build intelligent machines that can actually think and be as conscious as we are. And Minskys book, the ''Emotion Machine'', is certainly an ambitious endeavor to understand mind (thinking, intellect) in terms of its design (how it is built, how it works). With a solid basis in computer science, psychology, cognitive psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, engineering etc. the book is a wonderful read, and it certainly provides a good overview of the emergent field of Mind Design [4].
Certainly, with the next intelligence revolution imminent, nothing could be more relevant than such an excellent mind book.

Read more Wiki July 17, 2010

NeuroSky

In the Force Trainer game your aim is to focus. Achieve the right brain rhythm and a fan switches on, lifting the ball inside the tube. No hands, no legs, just a headset that detect brainsignals allows your mind to lift a ball.
Amazing stuff, that makes you wonder. Perhaps we might actually one day transcend our biology, understand how the mind works, build new brains, and be able to augment human cognition with brain prostheses (using tech like the Utah Electrode Array?) and much more ..
I called Jan over for some experiments and videotaped our Force Trainer day...

Read more Experiments April 28, 2010