Association Of Catholic Bloggers

IBM's neurosynaptic cores may not show up in home computers for years. Their circuits emulate a brain's neural circuits: and require an entirely new sort of software. Retinal implants are another matter. Thanks to new tech, several folks who would have been blind can see: a little.... ..."Metropolis," Tsukumogami, and the Roomba Revolution that Wasn't The inventor Rotwang in Fritz Lang's " Metropolis " is more 'evil wizard' than 'mad scientist:' my opinion. It's still a good movie: but not, I think, a particularly realistic look at what we'll see in 2026. Rotwang's maschinenmensch looked more like the human she was built to impersonate after a high-tech makeover, but even without upholstery she was remarkably — human.... But so far, artificial intelligence has been quite obviously "artificial:" and emphatically not up to the task of leading a Roomba revolution. More at A Catholic Citizen in America

After an utterly unscientific survey, I found that lists of dangerous animals include critters like sidewinders, piranha, and tarangual hawks . The latter are smaller than hawks but big for insects: and that's another topic. A few list-makers are savvy enough to include mosquitoes. These blood-sucking pests aren't dangerous by themselves: it's the lethal diseases they carry. The good news is that scientists are learning how to kill mosquitoes without poisoning people.... ...Health and Using the Brains God Gave Us... ..."Is being healthy okay?" Maybe that sounds like a daft question, or maybe not. Reading some of the more maudlin 19th-century 'lives of the saints,' a person could get the impression that sainthood required either a messy martyrdom, or dying of some horrible disease: smiling all the way. There's more to sainthood than that, and that's yet another topic. ( February 14, 2010 ) I occasionally run into news about someone who

A 520,000,000 year old fossilized heart caught my eye this week: so did genetically engineered bacteria, and the continuing search for life in the universe.... ...I don't need an iPad to be Catholic: which is just as well, since I don't own one. My son has smartphone, and that's another topic. Catholics coped quite well without WiFi gadgets in their pockets: and without pockets, for that matter. But our faith doesn't depend on avoiding new ideas and technology. We've even been at the cutting edge of new tech a few times: like Gothic cathedrals , stone buildings with walls made mostly of stained glass. The pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and flying buttresses of Gothic architecture are traditional now, but 12th century traditionalists were horrified at the 'barbarous' style. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .