Dec 06

Sharing to read later.

Sharing to read later.

Originally shared by Larry Panozzo

UBI – Universal Basic Income. Think it’s too socialistic? What if you add a free market on top of it? Thoughts?

Pro – article: http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/universal-basic-income/

Against – article: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/436621/universal-basic-income-ubi-terrible-idea?client=safari

Historical – article: http://freakonomics.com/podcast/mincome/

https://futurism.com/true-freedom-comes-with-basic-income/?utm_content=bufferfa57b&utm_medium=social&utm_source=plus.google.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Dec 05

While the article itself undermines its unmodified claim that “Wheatley was the first person of African descent to…

While the article itself undermines its unmodified claim that “Wheatley was the first person of African descent to publish a book,” this is interesting.

Originally shared by The Public Domain Review

Phillis Wheatley, the first ever African-American woman to be published, died today in 1784. Vincent Carretta looks at her remarkable life: http://buff.ly/2gTJLSE

Dec 04

I think my favourite thing about this is that the solutions the algorithms come up with don’t look much like the…

I think my favourite thing about this is that the solutions the algorithms come up with don’t look much like the ones that humans create – they look much more like natural objects.

Combine this with the extremely detailed modelling of reality that quantum computing is poised to make possible, and the world in a few years will look very different from the design future we’ve been imagining.

Originally shared by Singularity Hub

“The evolutionary approach is particularly useful in areas where there are a large number of potential solutions — for example, designing new materials.”

http://suhub.co/2h2TvJJ

Dec 03

Making microorganisms produce the chemicals you want takes a lot of trials.

Making microorganisms produce the chemicals you want takes a lot of trials. So this lab has automated the testing process.

Story prompt: a lab like this produces something unexpectedly wonderful or terrible, and it causes chaos among the scientists.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/devices/the-robot-revolution-comes-to-synthetic-biology

Dec 03

Via Sarah Rios.

Via Sarah Rios. This is what noblebright fantasy is all about, and why we called our boxed set Light in the Darkness. Darkness in the darkness isn’t any more interesting than light in the light.

Originally shared by Kay Solo

This is a good post. I’ve seen this said about tragedy, and I’ve seen this said about conflict. They’re idealized as crucial building blocks in the storytelling formula, and while they have their place, it’s very easy to fall into the trap of adding tragedy for the sake of having tragedy, thinking that these are guaranteed forces to drive your story forward in a compelling way.

This often leads to your “grimdark” stories that many people escape by reading/writing purposefully over-the-top happy things because there’s an overwhelming amount of tragedy and hurt and depressing fluff. These are not the only ways you can keep a reader interested. Moderation in all things, and that applies especially here. It’s possible to be bland, but equally possible to go too far in the opposite direction.