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Emergent properties are almost magical properties that manifest out of a bunch of simpler units working together. When functioning as a whole, these units create a complexity that’s much more than what you’d expect from the sum of the parts. Life, for example, is an emergent property of a bunch of organic chemicals, proteins, enzymes and DNA molecules working together. Human intelligence is an emergent property of individual nerve cells working together. A network is basically a mathematical construct that tries to provide a basis for understanding how such properties can arise out of collections of simpler objects working together.

Could genetically altered trees and plants help to counteract global warming? Christer Jansson and a research team at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory just published a proposal for genetic engineering phytosequestration as the lead paper of a special section in the October 2010 issue of the journal BioScience.

GM crops are commonplace in the developed world. Across the USA, they account for more than 80% of all maize, 86% of cotton, and 92% of the soya bean crop grown (according to the US Department of Agriculture, 2008). In the EU, a handful of species have been approved for sale, although, in practice, almost no permission has been granted yet. 

GM crops are likely to become commonplace in the EU within the next few decades. There is debate about what specifically will trigger GM to pass the political threshold that currently motivates opposition to this biotechnology. I think acceptance will probably happen when food prices rise beyond what the general public will accept. This may be a result of climate change or increased population and demand. 

From implants and brain-computer communication to genetic therapies to brain enhancement, Ramez Naam’s 2005 book, More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement was one of the most lucid and accessible tours of the then-latest developments in transhumanist related sciences and technologies.  I interviewed him after the publication of that book for the (deceased) NeoFiles website and much of what he said to me has remained with me since. It seemed like it was time to catch up. What’s his perspective on more than humanism seven years hence?

Ecology should be an honorable profession, but its leadership is flawed when they distort data, denigrate human existence, foment hysteria to sell apocalyptic screeds, and reject technological solutions.  Civilization is presently over-ripe with idiotic environmental activists.  Here’s my list of the worst, with quotes from their misanthropic ideology.

Why is it that some birds sing such elaborate songs and others not so much? A new study published online on May 21st in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, says that climate patterns might be part of the answer.

Scientists struggling to understand how Earth’s climate will change in the next few decades have neglected a potential treasure trove of information—sediments deposited in the ocean by major Arctic rivers such as the Colville and Mackenzie rivers—according to geoscientists at The University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University.

Water. The old buzz: "Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink." The new buzz: "Water is the next carbon." Meaning that as business and society are beginning to get into serious gear about carbon emissions and climate change (or at least beginning to make serious noise about doing so), there’s a growing realization that there may be a cascade of crises patiently waiting to mash themselves into our consciousness the moment we come up for air from the carbon crisis.

Ben Goertzel converses with Hugo de Garis on his transhumanist argument for the reality of a Creator.