Grey goo, coming soon to a planet near you!

Grey goo is what happens when little machines convert everything-there-is into manifold copies of themselves.

Now the nice scientists in England — All-the-England-there-is — are hastening the day!

Well, good show old chap, I must say! Just make sure that they’re British self-replicators and once again the sun shall never set (on the British Empire, &c &c, ).

On teh internets

I guess they really do know if you’re a dog.

Bringing to mind (per usual) the quavering voice of David Crosby’s over-the-top histrionic paranoid manifesto Almost Cut My Hair: “It serves to increase my paranoia, like looking in the rearview mirror and seeing a PO-LEASE car!”

However, it would have made me feel worse had this been discovered when I thought of myself as human. Now that I know I’m a robot, somehow it’s easier to take.

My wife wants to run away with John Gilmore!

Well, actually maybe that’s a bit of an exageration. But she does admire his stand for privacy and the principle that people should actually be allowed to read laws that they are required to follow. If you’re not familiar with John Gilmore, there’s a good account here of his suit against Mr. Ashcroft.

My wife also notes that Gilmore has $30 million, which is about $31 million more than I have. (She’s never met him, by the way; nor had she heard of him before reading the article.)

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Benevolent Older Sibling helps us remember who we are

Here’s a story about government efforts already underway to develop national ID cards (that contain biometric info, natch).

Somehow this tidbit got past Winston Smith at Minitrue, in case yzall are innarested:

On Jan. 19, the agency will hold a public meeting at the Potomac Center Plaza in downtown Washington to discuss policy, privacy and security concerns associated with the development of the new ID card standard. Anyone who wants to attend must preregister by Jan. 11 by e-mailing Sara Caswell, a NIST official, at sara@nist.gov, according to a notice in yesterday’s Federal Register. Questions regarding registration can be directed to Caswell at (301) 975-4634.