Archive for November, 2014
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Ancient book publishing tech: notary seals & stamps are 5 millennia old!
Ancient book publishing tech: notary seals and stamps are 5 millennia old! Most people think Gutenberg invented book publishing. In reality, he made mass production of books very economical, but he didn’t inventing book printing. It is a much older technology. This is a replica of the Nabonidus Cylinder in the British Museum Collection in London, UK. It is an ancient Babylonian historic text from around 540BC that references Belshezzar, a historical figure is also mentioned in the Book of Daniel of the Bible. There are older examples of cylindrical seals going back to 3500BC. Cylinder stamps were invented in Middle East more than 5,000 years ago. The stamps provided a way of reproducing cuneiform text by rolling the cylinders over wet clay. So where are we going with all of this? We promised to connect Carl Sagan with conquistadors, and we left off with astrolabes and voting machines. Now we have cuneiform cylinders, Biblical figures, and ancient multi-copy texts.… Read the restConsciousness: vampire mirror reflections?
Halloween photo: Is this classic silent film vampire conscious or not? Can he pass the mirror test of animal intelligence? Or does he fail the test because he cannot see himself in a mirror and therefore lacks consciousness? 🙂 We originally did this as a series of Halloween (and mirror) themed photos on our IG feed. However, thanks to True Blue, Vampire Diaries, Interview with a Vampire, and Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight, vamps are so chic these days this is practically evergreen content. This is actor Max Schreck from the 1922 silent horror movie Nosferatu, said to be a then-popular German knock-off of the US Dracula silent film. (The plot was in fact based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula book, with a different name for the vampire.) Since Nosferatu is a fictional vamp, he lacks a soul, and cannot recognize or see himself in a mirror. So, continuing on our theme these last few photos, perhaps this means Nosferatu is not self-aware or conscious?… Read the restAnimal intelligence & consciousness: the mirror test
Analytics and mirrors: While the ability to recognize ones reflection in a mirror appears to be an excellent test of animal intelligence (and perhaps a hint about machine intelligence), with very few animals passing the test, humans have appreciated mirrors for millennia. Sacred objects in some cultures (e.g., ancient Japan), mirrors have been cherished for at least 6000 years, since at least the beginning of the Bronze Age. Shown here is an ancient Etruscan Bronze mirror #handle from the 4th–3rd century BC on display in the Lourve museum collection near Paris in France. The piece is titled, appropriately enough, “The Judgement of Paris.” It’s easy enough to see where humans got the idea for mirrors, as we’ll show in our next photo. This is also a great segue into our Halloween posts. (This was originally posted on our IG feed as part of a series of Halloween posts.) Other than smoke and mirrors, or a room full of mirrors, what do mirrors have to do with Halloween?… Read the restIndia, astrolabes, government & democracy
India, astrolabes, government and democracy (and data)? These things pretty much have nothing to do with each other, right? Right. Astrolabes have nothing to do with democracy (or the conquistadors). This is a electronic voting machine used in India. You’re probably thinking: we just put this photo in here because we thought it would look cool. But is there a relationship. What is it? And how does it relate to Catalan hero Ramon Llull? Let’s see … India and astrolabes. Is that the relationship? Some possibilities (and controversy) there; we’ll leave for another day. Electronic voting machines another big source of controversy; we could post endlessly here. 🙂 And democracy: we’ve talked about that before in our social progress posts (the dutch schoolhouse photo post on IG and others). India is the world’s largest democracy (although we hope that’s just a prototype; if that thing’s used in real elections in India we’re nervous.… Read the restRecent Posts
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