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Ancestral Memory of Shapes: Orion constellation project

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The Orion constellation is perhaps the easiest to recognise star configuration in the sky; it is visible from both the south and north hemispheres as it lies near the celestial equator (it can be seen at latitudes between +85° and -75°), meaning that migrating human populations would have been able to continuously observe it for hundreds thousands, perhaps millions of years. Also, the magnitude of the stars make it very visible (Rigel is the sixth brightest star in the sky). It is visible even for the modern city dweller. Since the shape of a constellation change extremely slowly (in particular stellar drift is minimal for far away stars, which is the case for the main stars of Orion constellation), it is conceivable this shape / pattern is imprinted in the genetic memory of our species (as well as others species of course). Since today's human populations living in cities generally ignore the sky (least use it for navigation!), it would be possible to run an interesting exp

Can we undo expectations?

“Undo" exist only in the virtual world (well not only).  But what a big difference... We write, think, knowing we can correct . This is new.  I just wrote a long email, and by mistake I pressed cancel instead of sending or saving, and it was deleted. I felt betrayed, fundamentally betrayed by the world, when in fact I should known better: throwing things at a fire always burn them in the real world and this is no betray: it is the way it works.  The digital world has created new expectations in an old reality - not a new reality. We feel cheated and find abnormal things that are just natural facts. 

A chance to change vs. life autocorrect

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I was talking more about the a esthetics and culture, how it is "calcified" as Kevin Slavin says, into algorithms. In fact this is not new: since we invented means of "externalizing minds" (print, etc), we suffered unintentionally form that process of "calcification".  At first the intention is good: to crystallize, computerize and automate what you like - so as to discover or enhance automatically the things you like most about the world you live in. But then.. there is no space for change, control or exploration (here I totally agree with Kevin). Kevin talks a lot about the financial world, and I think this is a good (important) example with profound consequences. I was thinking more about very subtle "differences" that at the end make huge cultural shifts (perhaps even more important consequences after all). For instance, take language and speech. Think what the word-processor has done to writing. From the XVI century onwards, b

Unmanned

Las llanuras de Marte apenas se dejaban ver por las ventanas sucias del diminuto vehiculo.    - “Lo que me extrana es porque no recuerdo el haber sido psico-clonado” – dice Allen.        - “Es normal. Retiramos juntos ese recuedo por precaucion” - replica Carl. “Disminuye el riesgo de una psicosis psolipsita  que terminaria convenciendote de que todo es un sueno tuyo. Pero no es asi; esta simulacion que compartimos, este sueno si prefieres llamarlo asi, esta interactuando con la realidad alli afuera . Eso lo sabe tu verdadero yo alli en la Tierra. Lo sabiamos todos. No lo recuerdas, pero decidimos que yo no lo olvidaria por si algo como lo que esta sucediendo ahora tuviese lugar. Fue al fin y al cabo una decision acertada; como lo demostraron los examenes previos a mi psico-clonado, mi psiquis puede aceptar lo que sucedera cuando volvamos – es decir, algo similar a una muerte, puesto que nos dormiran para siemplre al apagar esta simulacion. Pero intentaran integrar el maximo