Hyperlinks in books

After our discussion this past weekend concerning the digitization of literature, I found this link from boingboing particular on point.

Technological Singularity

The idea of computing power becoming so powerful that it will create a Utopian society complete with sentient robots and humans merging with computers to essentially become immortal is an idea that I have heard in the past. But I really have never looked into it beyond the thought that it seemed rather grandiose, and if it ever occurred I would not be around for even the beginnings of it.

However, there are people who are predicting that this technological singularity is going to occur sometime in the 2030s. Sam Ogden of Skepchick has a nice writeup on those who hold these opinions.

This seems all too fantastic for me. Just the hurdles of creating computer AI and interfacing humans with computers on a larger scale seem to be formidable tasks that will not be easily overcome. Couple this with predictions for the future being notoriously difficult and you'll have a tough time guessing what life will be like in 5 years let along 10 years.

101 Patterns for Influencing Behaviour Through Design

Here's a nifty link showing examples of design elements which lead users to take certain actions. I found it interesting to see how people are influencing us.

ScienceBlogs Imploding?

Mega-blogging network, ScienceBlogs, is falling apart over a fiasco where they were giving a blog to PepsiCo who was paying for exposure next to some of the best science based bloggers that the internet has to offer.

The 4 year old network seems to have many problems behind the scenes and the link above is a great read on how to destroy what was a successful network in almost no time flat.

Paleo Future

Here's a neat blog about what people used to think the future would look like. Obviously we see some hits and misses. I heard about this blog on the way home from work today on All things Considered.

Amazon Kindle

Here's a follow up to our discussion at Saturday's meeting on the Amazon Kindle.

Cory Doctorow, of Boing Boing fame, points out that according to Amazon's End User License Agreement (EULA) when a person purchase a Kindle book, they are not actually purchasing a book, they are purchasing a license to read that book. Of course when it comes to marketing they change their tune a bit making it sound as if they are selling books, not just permission to read those books. Follow the link for the full write up.