Posted in computing, entertainment, virtual reality
Special thanks to archive.org for hosting these episodes. Downloads of all these episodes and more can be found at: http://archive.org/details/computerchronicles
A team of programmers has built a self-generating cosmos, and even they don’t know what’s hiding in its vast reaches.
Every particle in the universe is accounted for. The precise shape and position of every blade of grass on every planet has been calculated. Every snowflake and every raindrop has been numbered. On the screen before us, mountains rise sharply and erode into gently rolling hills, before finally subsiding into desert. Millions of years pass in an instant.
Here, in a dim room half an hour south of London, a tribe of programmers sit bowed at their computers, creating a vast digital cosmos. Or rather, through the science of procedural generation, they are making a program that allows a universe to create itself.
It can be easy to take things like modern email for granted, and nothing highlights that more than this clip from the “Database,” an old tech show that aired in the 80s.
In the segment above, you can see what sending and receiving an email was like in 1984, back when you were greeted with prompts like “phone computer” and literally had to dial in using a rotary phone. These were the days when webpages were numbered and email was such a luxury that people would excitedly sign off on messages with phrases like “electronically yours.”
The network shown here is Micronet, an internet portal that Gizmodo points out was a lot like an early version of AOL. Micronet featured online games, a magazine, rudimentary message boards, news, downloadable software, and yes, even email.
SENS has kindly commented about MMTP and the impact our research should have on aging. We launch a fundraiser in April to test senolytics (ApoptoSENS) with a planned follow up to combine this with stem cell therapy (RepleniSENS). It is time to put the engineering approach to aging to the test!
Some drugs tested have been found to increase mouse lifespan such as Metformin and Rapamycin for example and are considered for human testing. Many more substances have never been tested and we do not know if they might extend healthy lifespan.
Posted in virtual reality
