112878330
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glowend writes:
FTA: "According to the newspaper, the Spanish-born biologist Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte, who operates a lab at the Salk Institute in California, has been working working with monkey researchers in China to perform the disturbing research. Their objective is to create “human-animal chimeras,” in this case monkey embryos to which human cells are added. The idea behind the research is to fashion animals that possess organs, like a kidney or liver, made up entirely of human cells. Such animals could be used as sources of organs for transplantation."
68892971
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glowend writes:
While this article is ostensibly about sub-orbital flight, I'm more interested in the general proposition. FTA: "One of the failure modes of extrapolative SF is to assume that just because something is technologically feasible, it will happen."
51167767
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glowend writes:
From the article: "Twenty years ago, people talked about Myst the same way they talked about The Sopranos during its first season: as one of those rare works that irrevocably changed its medium. It certainly felt like nothing in gaming would or could be the same after it. Yes, Myst went on to sell more than 6 million copies and was declared a game-changer (so to speak), widely credited with launching the era of CD-ROM gaming. It launched an equally critically adored and commercially successful sequel, and eventually four more installments. Fans and critics alike held their breath in anticipation of the tidal wave of exploratory, open-ended gaming that was supposed to follow, waiting to be drowned in a sea of new worlds. And then, nothing."
Why didn't Myst have a larger impact?
43994045
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glowend writes:
James Temple writes in the San Francisco Chronicle ”In the fall of 2011, Max Levchin took the stage at a TechCrunch conference to lament the sad state of U.S. innovation. "Technology innovation in this country is somewhere between dire straits and dead," said the PayPal co-founder, later adding: "The solution is actually very simple: You have to aim almost ridiculously high." But for all the funding announcements, product launches, media attention and wealth creation, most of Silicon Valley doesn't concern itself with aiming "almost ridiculously high." It concerns itself primarily with getting people to click on ads or buy slightly better gadgets than the ones they got last year.” I feel like this may be true as more money and MBA types invade the Silicon Valley. There’s a lot of “me-too” startups with some of the best and brightest figuring out ways to sell me stuff rather the working on flying cars. What do Slashdotters think?
43738543
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glowend writes:
I just listened to a fascinating podcast with Valve's economist-in-residence Yanis Varoufakis about the unusual structure of the workplace at Valve where there is no hierarchy or bosses. Teams of software designers join spontaneously to create and ship video games without any top-down supervision.Varoufakis discussed the economics of this Hayekian workplace and how it actually functions alongside Steam--an open gaming platform created by Valve. I kept wondering, assuming that his description of Valve is accurate, can this model work for other tech companies?
38091839
submission
glowend writes:
Cliff Oxford writes in the New York Times "I define Brilliant Jerks as specialized, high-producing performers. They are not, however, brilliant business people, and that is what companies need during periods of rapid growth. There are a lot of hurdles to cross when companies move from start-up to growth, including dealing with chaos and changes in culture. But the biggest hurdle is dealing with the human factor — how you move, shift and replace people as the company grows into the next level of success." so how do you make the best use of the Brilliant Jerk as your company grows?
