For the many posters dismissing this out of hand, there exists a good body of work already in this area, and work is being done esp. at places like MIT. For a good overview, see Hans Moravec's 'Robot'. Or start by checking out the wikipedia entry on 'strong AI'. Ray Kurzweil also has written several books on the subject. The AI proponents say that consciousness is an emergent phenomena once mental processes are sufficiently complex, which will one day include artificial intelligences. For doubters, see Penrose's The Emperor's New Mind.
I too cannot tell if this link is serious. If you want to read a good explanation of the current understanding of time, check out Brian Greene's article "The Time We Thought We Knew" from the 1/1/2004 edition of the New York Times. (note: if you don't want to pay for it from the Times, you can get to it through your local library's website under their public databases, if you have a library card/account.) Greene says, "catapulting yourself forward in time is beyond what we can now achieve, but scientists routinely use high-energy accelerators to propel particles, like electrons and protons, to nearly the speed of light, slowing their internal clocks and thereby sending them to the future. Though unfamiliar, forward time-travel is an unavoidable feature of relativistic reality." He goes on to explain what time is and ends by saying, "And in moments of loss I've taken comfort from the knowledge that all events exist eternally in the expanse of space and time, with the partition into past, present and future being a useful but subjective organization."
Slashdot Mirror
Protopage is another web 2.0 app that does the same thing as netvibes.
For the many posters dismissing this out of hand, there exists a good body of work already in this area, and work is being done esp. at places like MIT. For a good overview, see Hans Moravec's 'Robot'. Or start by checking out the wikipedia entry on 'strong AI'. Ray Kurzweil also has written several books on the subject. The AI proponents say that consciousness is an emergent phenomena once mental processes are sufficiently complex, which will one day include artificial intelligences. For doubters, see Penrose's The Emperor's New Mind.
I too cannot tell if this link is serious. If you want to read a good explanation of the current understanding of time, check out Brian Greene's article "The Time We Thought We Knew" from the 1/1/2004 edition of the New York Times. (note: if you don't want to pay for it from the Times, you can get to it through your local library's website under their public databases, if you have a library card/account.) Greene says, "catapulting yourself forward in time is beyond what we can now achieve, but scientists routinely use high-energy accelerators to propel particles, like electrons and protons, to nearly the speed of light, slowing their internal clocks and thereby sending them to the future. Though unfamiliar, forward time-travel is an unavoidable feature of relativistic reality." He goes on to explain what time is and ends by saying, "And in moments of loss I've taken comfort from the knowledge that all events exist eternally in the expanse of space and time, with the partition into past, present and future being a useful but subjective organization."