Friday!

[shadesong]

Administration
Happy birthday to niftybabe313!

Happy early birthday to ka_crow, stealthcello, and wolflady26, who advance a year over the weekend!

Hello to new readers jenk and katogden!

Medical
Still hangin' in, which is good, because - weekend of activity!

Friending Frenzy
Is in full swing over here. Tell me all about you!

Link Soup: Daily Science Edition
* NanoArt
* What happens when robots kill for us? (I expect comment from feste_sylvain on this one!)
* Tunguska-sized space rock buzzes Earth .

Daily BPAL

LOVERS IN A RICEFIELD: Plum blossom, vanilla sandalwood, nutmeg, and wild rice.
In bottle: Ooooh light plum sweetness.
On me: Still. The vanilla's sweetening that lovely plum.

VOYEURS AMONG THE CHERRY BLOSSOMS: Soft moss, vanilla musk, and cherry blossom.
In bottle: Something slightly off-putting. Too floral?
On me: Yeah, it's not bad, it's just not for me. I get a little musk, but mostly flowers.

DARK CHOCOLATE AND PEPPER-SMOKED CARAMEL:
In bottle: *whimper* *weak in knees*
On me: Oh god I'm delicious. Bottle wishlist!

Friday Memage!
Wearing: Tigger pajamas
Reading: City Without End by Kay Kenyon and River of Gods by Ian McDonald.
Writing: I'm futzing about in two worlds - Shayara and the world of "Cicatrix".
Planning: Today? Cleaning! Preparing house for influx of people; we're getting four or five this afternoon, yay. :) Tonight, seeing Watchmen - working out the logistics on that 7:30 at Woburn.
Tomorrow, birthday party! Starts at 2. RSVP, or you shall have no pie. Tomorrow night, SJ-and-Cat show at Pandemonium!
Sunday, more party, but lower-key, I'm sure. :)

You?

Comments

[feste-sylvain.livejournal.com]

"Wired for War" is a bit on the sensationalist side, but it brings up most of the right questions. I also have a copy of the CalPoly study on "Autonomous Military Robotics: Risk, Ethics, and Design", but it's marked "Draft Only -- Not For Distribution", so I won't link to it here. (And the draft is 122 pages.)

But to keep this response from blossoming into another 122-page report, I can say that the whole question boils down to considering these two alternatives:

1) Alfred Nobel invented dynamite in order to create a weapon so fearsome, nobody would ever dare use it. Dynamite did not prove to be the threshold; nor did mustard gas, explosive rounds, nor fission bombs. So far, fusion bombs have stayed above the threshold, but that may just be a matter of time.

2) On the flip side, protecting soldiers manages to enable Commanders-in-Chief to wage war more fearlessly. This has been true of long-bows, plate armor, tanks, and now bomb-disposal robots. "Killer Robots" fall into this category.

Of the two strategies to end war, or at least its horrors, neither works. Even the mighty H-bomb hasn't prevented war; it has only (so far) drawn a line that those who currently have the ability haven't desired to cross. War has been clicking along under the H-bomb.

The only thing which is going to stop war is human social evolution past the desire to wage it. I can foresee such a thing, but not in my lifetime. So I work on "enabler" robots which save the lives of both soldiers and innocent bystanders.

[niftybabe313.livejournal.com]

*bounce* Yay, happy birthday to me!

Oh man, Dark Chocolate and Pepper-Smoked Caramel is one of the ones that I didn't get an imp of and now I'm kicking myself for that :(

Wearing: "I got USED at Gray's College Bookstore" tee, Animal undies
Reading: The Chronicles of Narnia
Planning: field trip to IKEA today! And dinner at Red Robin for my birthday

[jennifer.livejournal.com]

Hm. Will probably miss house part of party, sadly. But I will see you at the SJ-and-Cat show at Pandemonium! :) (Love that I live so close to them.)