tangentbot

This one’s kinda weird…

aerosol parasol by tangentbot

 BIRUSHANAH.  I found out about these guys from the Tokyo Damage Report site. Osaka natives Birushanah feature traditional Japanese folk music, plus metal, plus some really raw old school industrial, tribal-esque beats. Well, *I* like them. Also, like so many bands I like, they came through Seattle and I missed them. Next time, Gadget. Next time.

Seriously, how can you not like a band that A) has a taiko drum, B) has 2 drummers, and C) one of the drum sets is built out of beer kegs, pots and pans and 50-gallon drums?

I wrote a new song called ‘the machines got it wrong‘.  Check it out!

I haven’t been able to complete a song for quite some time now, and so tonight I forced myself to at least put something together. I have been writing a lot of music, just nothing finished. This one is made up of three simple tracks, and it is basically an acedemic excersise for me to write something in Ableton.

If you know me, you probably know how much I love Twitter. Also, a lot of you read Slashdot, so you probably saw this story about how human-like bots have become. Background for context.

I really like the ideas of artificial intelligence, what exactly constitutes sentience and sapience, and what makes us human. I just finished watching Ghost in the Shell:Stand Alone Complex (for the third time) and it digs into those concepts quite a bit with the Tachikomas. Since then, I’ve been seeing stories crop up about mind-reading via MRI scans,  neural interfaces for computers, and tons of other cyberpunkish bits here and there.

This is my favorite one, though. A Japanese blogger’s two closest friends on Twitter turn out to be bots.

Did you read it? Well go read it! It’s so awesome! Although, I must admit, I feel kind of sorry for coconutsfine. I’m hoping he continues to talk to the bots. I’m hoping somebody I follow is really a bot.  Skynet, srsly.

Here’s a cool chatterbot directory, chatbots.org. There’s also tons of info about bots and AI over at Wikipedia.

This is typically my breakfast, but I was hungry for breakfast when I got home from work today. 

Salt-broiled salmon with pickled ginger, steamed broccoli stalks tossed with goma dare and toasted sesame seeds, shiro miso with tofu and scallion and brown rice – simple and delicious!