Although Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins was written over 100 years ago, it is still brilliantly readable and packed with astute instructions on what makes marketing work - and how to measure it properly to make sure it does. As the old adage goes, "what gets measured gets managed" (The quote is attributed to management … Continue reading Scientific Advertising
Shame. It looks like Sophia the Robot's five minutes of fame as the world's favourite fembot drawing to a close, as a younger, sexier, humanoid fembot, who goes by the name of Ms. Erica Aoi, takes center stage. Erica, who is fully humanoid, just landed a plum job as a news anchor at Nippon Television Network … Continue reading Sophia the Robot’s getting upstaged by a younger hotter fembot (just like a real woman)
Transhumanism is the quest for longevity (or more accurately, amortality), perfect health, and ultimate happiness - a total end to suffering. What could go wrong? Well, quite simply, what could go wrong is that we achieve transhumanism for a select few, through genetic engineering (i.e. in-vitro intelligent design), body hacking (i.e. cyborg enhancements and bio-organic replacement body … Continue reading Live Long and Prosper
In a world where this is possible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmUC4m6w1wo Seeing is not believing. We can no longer trust our own eyes. Photographic evidence, of course, has been questionable since the distant days of the Cottingley Fairies scam which fooled countless Victorians over 100 years ago. Now, not even authentic video "evidence" can be trusted (as is so … Continue reading More Lies (A Field Guide to Lies and Statistics)
"The goal of our Manual for Civilization project: to identify books that will resonate with those living in the distant future. What information won’t expire in a century? What literature will still speak to our descendants across a millennium? What ideas can carry forward and be useful tools as Plato, Lao Tzu, Homer, continue … Continue reading The Library to Rebuild Civilisation
This book by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz covers the lies we tell ourselves, our employers, our families and our countries; and about how the data crumb-trail we leave behind us all over the Internet through our search history and our social media likes and posts reveal who we really are. The case studies in this book cover … Continue reading Everybody Lies
Mind your fingers. While Google and Facebook pander to the crowd, serving us ever more polarising content, for ever more clicks, the Overton Window is snapping shut. The already narrow band of socially acceptable ideas is growing narrower, still. It is getting increasingly difficult to find any common ground at all between left and right, … Continue reading The Overton Window is Snapping Shut
This strange little book is a story of magic and mystery. The author, Jim Steinmeyer is a designer of magic, who has designed illusions for the likes of David Copperfield. In Art & Artifice, Jim Steinmeyer goes back in time to pull back the curtain on some of the most perplexing magic tricks of the … Continue reading Art & Artifice
If you are a human alive today, you should be at least pondering these sorts of questions: Do you want to live forever (if you could)? Should euthanasia be legalised? Should you microchip your children (so they can always be found)? Should we give non-humans (aka robots and algorithms) human rights (or human responsibilities)? Is … Continue reading Questions you should be asking (and answering) about the future
I'll be honest. I bought this book because of the title. I was bored, stuck in an airport with a delayed flight, killing time in a bookshop and the title called to me from across the store - after all who doesn't like a good conspiracy? Despite its random impulse purchase status, I loved this book. … Continue reading Conspiracy (with a very interesting cast)
