Day: January 22, 2016

Engineering, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Book Review: Fardwor, Russia! A Fantastical Tale of Life under Putin – Oleg Kashin

E&T magazine

By Jade Fell “I predict we will abolish suffering throughout the living world. Our descendants will be animated by gradients of genetically pre-programmed well-being that are orders of magnitude richer than today’s peak experiences.” ― David Pearce Oleg Kashin is a rather notorious Russian journalist whose open criticism of the Putin government may or may not have motivated unknown assailants to beat him to within an inch of his life back 2010. You’d think such an event would put the dampeners on a guy, but apparently Kashin was undeterred and returned full force to publish his first work of fiction, … Continue reading Book Review: Fardwor, Russia! A Fantastical Tale of Life under Putin – Oleg Kashin

Engineering, TechnologyLeave a comment

E&T news weekly #78 – we choose our favourite engineering and technology news stories from the week

E&T magazine

Friday January 22 2016  Jack Loughran, news reporter Robots to trigger widespread redundancies by end of decade Robots are increasingly being presented in the same negative tabloid light that is sometimes shined on immigrants. Comin’ over ‘ere, stealing our jobs etc etc. Personally I see the move towards robotics taking the place of humans in mundane repetitive roles as solely a good thing; society just needs to accommodate the change rather than be fearful of it. We’re heading closer to the utopian (depending on who’s talking) ideal of complete automation for all tasks not strictly requiring a human brain to … Continue reading E&T news weekly #78 – we choose our favourite engineering and technology news stories from the week