The Age of Spiritual Machines:
When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence
by Ray Kurzweil - Narrator Alan Sklar
Amid the recent spate of books anticipating our possible technological futures, Ray Kurzweil’s The Age of Spiritual Machines stands out both for its enthusiasm and for its odd and unsettling vision of the future. If Kurzweil is right, when we finally take to the stars, we will more closely resemble the Borg Collective than the United Federation of Planets ? and we will have embraced this fate of “assimilation” simply in the course of trying to keep up with our own technology.
Where Michio Kaku’s Visions predicts fairly extensive human augmentation through medical technologies, biotechnologies, and the still nascent nanotechnologies, Kurzweil foresees a total, final merging of human and machine. This merger, according to Kurzweil, will take place at the intersection of two inexorable evolutionary trends: increased human augmentation and increasingly intelligent computers. Eventually, there will be no discernible difference between our own downloaded, digital selves and our intelligent, emotional, artistic, and even spiritual computers.
Agatha Christie: A Caribbean Mystery As Miss Marple sat basking in the Caribbean sunshine she felt mildly discontented with life. True, the warmth eased her rheumatism, but here in paradise nothing ever happened. Eventually, her interest was aroused by an old soldier's yarn about strange coincidence. Infuriatingly, just as he was about to show her an astonishing photograph, the Major's attention wandered. He never did finish the story... posted: 28 September2006, by Yorik 12 January 2007 : audio reuploaded
Общее время звучания: 1ч.20мин. Формат: mp3 128 Kbps Размещение: Rapidshare Размер: 121 MB (5 файлов по 24-25 MB)
(8 lectures, 45 minutes/lecture) Course No. 828 Taught by Joseph S. Nye, Jr. Harvard University Ph.D, Harvard University Что принесло окончание Холодной войны? Мир или хаос? Будет ли Америка играть доминирующую роль в мировой политике или наступает ее закат? Действительно ли военое могущество является ключевым компонентом в мировом доминировании или экономика становится важнее? Нужно ли США играть роль "мирового полицейского" или им следует снизить свое влияние в военных аспектах по всему миру? Этот курс рассматривает истоки мировых конфликтов XX века и ставит вопрос предназначено ли Истории повторить это снова.
На пробу – в двух вариантах.
1 сказка – два рассказчика.
These charming Japanese Fairy Tales were translated by Yei Theodora Ozaki in 1908. Although taken from actual Japanese folk stories, these were not literal translations, but somewhat Westernized for American readers. These stories combine fictitious creatures and magical animals with the lives of normal humans and provide an insight into a piece of ancient Japan.
2 Short Stories
My Lord Bag of Rice
The Tongue-Cut Sparrow
One story – two narrators.
Mp3 + texts
The Age of Spiritual Machines:
12 January 2007 : audio reuploaded
(8 lectures, 45 minutes/lecture)
JAPANESE FAIRY TALES
