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Humans have no free will because of physics

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I think free will is an illusion we are forced to believe for it’s the quintessential justification of consciousness. In this context, I see consciousness as a consequence of the accumulation of neural pathways that allow for the processing of possibilities as the environment provides more and more external stimuli through diversity. We’re the sum of all that’s happened to the Universe since the Big Bang, since the very first elementary particle had to react to… well, something. And thus, we are bound by the limits of said universe. Free will would be absolute power over matter, time and space; we can only make choices dictated by the laws of physics.

Since we still have to make decisions, we have to weigh “alternatives,” which Bok defines as “an action that is physically possible.” She said a person is free, according to most philosophers, if “she can make a reasoned choice among various alternatives and act on her decision; in short, only if she has the capacity for self-government.”

You have the choice to read the rest of this great article here: Humans have no free will because of physics – The North Wind.

Why History Needs Software Piracy

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Cory Doctorow has a good introduction to a very good article that describes the importance of software piracy for data preservation purposes.

A PC World editorial by Benj Edwards recounts the history of “copy protection*” for software, and discusses how the cracks-scene, which busted open these software locks, is the only reason the legacy of old software is available today. There’s a trite story about the persistence of paper and the ephemerality of bits, which goes something like this: “We can still read ancient manuscripts, but we can’t read Letraset Ready, Set, Go! files from the 1980s.”

Software piracy is vital to preservation – Boing Boing.

Software pirates promote data survival through ubiquity and media independence. Like an ant that works as part of a larger system it doesn’t understand, the selfish action of each digital pirate, when taken in aggregate, has created a vast web of redundant data that ensures many digital works will live on.

Or skip to the article directly PCWorld – Why History Needs Software Piracy

Humanity’s greatest invention

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The greatest invention of all must surely be writing. It is not just one of the foundations of civilisation: it underpins the steady accumulation of intellectual achievement. By capturing ideas in physical form, it allows them to travel across space and time without distortion, and thus slip the bonds of human memory and oral transmission, not to mention the whims of tyrants and the vicissitudes of history.

Tom Standage argues that writing is the greatest invention of all time. I have to agree. Who needs wheels when you have books that can teach you about, well, wheels!

via The Economist – WRITING IS THE GREATEST INVENTION.

1971 Charles Bukowski letter outlining his terms of employment

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Charles Bukowski was a no-bullshit man and made it clear from the get go. This wonderful letter of employment makes us a witness of what it was like dealing with him. Good times.

I have fond memories of reading all I could find from Charles Bukowski at the local public library in some suburb of Helsinki one particularly vicious winter many, many moons ago. It was that or drinking. Oh, the irony!

via This isnt happiness

Link: How the iPhone changed my photography

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Article: How the iPhone changed my photography: Digital Photography Review.

Dpreview’s Barnaby Britton takes look back at how the iPhone has transformed his photography. And, with the iPhone now the most popular camera on photo-sharing site Flickr, and a multitude of photography apps available, how the device has transformed cellphone photography as a whole.

Interesting read, especially since I find myself shooting mostly with my iPhone and processing on the fly for immediate publishing online. You can’t beat the convenience of having your camera with you at all times.

I mostly use Camera+ and Fotoforge2 as my processing apps on my trusty old iPhone 3GS. I wish it had a better camera (à la iPhone 4/4S) but it’s still pretty decent despite its limitations.