View from Toompea overlooking Old Town Talinn

I’ve posted some pictures from the trip at my Picasa page. I took extensive notes throughout the trip pertaining to the things I did and places I visited, and at some point I may digitize them in their entirety. For now I may just list a few trip highlights worth mentioning - and recommendations for potential Scandinavian travelers!

Strøget in downtown København

• Liquid yogurt sold in 1L cartons: why don’t we have this in North America?
• Egyptian exhibit at Altes Musuem in Berlin (actually there are enough museums on Berlin’s Museum Island to occupy oneself for weeks);
• Great mix of old and new in Berlin - Riechstag w/ glass dome, Sony Centre adjacent to Tiergarten, etc.;
• Supermarkets throughout Europe are far superior to their North American counterparts - as one with a culinary passion, the deli departments are to die for;
• Saw Icelandic band Sigur Rós perform at the Tempodrom in Berlin- fantastic show and amazing venue!
• Everyone bikes in København - so they can justify eating weinerbrød and (the best) croissants;
• Things are fairly pricey for Canadian students in København, namely beer - buying Tuborg tallboys at streetside kiosks for 40kr is the way to go (drinking in public is permitted there);
• Viking exhibit at the Danish National Museum is definitely worth checking out;
• Amazing Metro systems in København and Stockholm - also worth getting the City Tourist card - allowing unlimited travel and museum/attraction access for 24/48/72 hrs.
• Skansen open-air folk museum in Stockholm - folk art! glass-blowing! Nordic animals!
• Vasa museum in Stockholm - for fans of Goonies and other enormous 17th century warships.
• Old Town Tallinn is a tourist attraction in itself: amazingly well-preserved medieval architecture, great food (wild boar / elk + bear sausages anyone?); 
• Archery ranges in Old Town Talinn!
• Helsinki seems like such a lively city - on a sunny day everyone seems to be out and about, lounging and picnicking in parks - namely teenagers and twenty-somethings. The metal scene also makes itself known, with large numbers of metal scenesters flocking to the parks. (Also the metal look seems to be mainstream fashion for kids, at least from what I gathered from department store displays).
• Paris: great sites / unpleasant people - so many people looking to rip you off. And NO ONE is really willing to speak English, unlike all the other countries I visited. Museums are hardly bilingual too. At least I can say I’ve been there / done that.

Recap:

• Favourite city: København;
• Least Favourite City: Paris;
• Cities need to revisit while still young: Berlin, Helsinki;
• Best food: København, Talinn;
• Best beer, pastry: København;
• Best museums: Berlin, Stockholm;
• Best street music: København (see Yul Anderson!);
• Most lively city: Helsinki;
• Easiest to traverse by foot: Berlin, Helsinki;
• Best transit system: København;

Take a look at all the pictures here. Enjoy!

I’ve been meaning to post, however there haas been an internet shortage at the new digs (confusion on the telco’s part). Also there has been no phone line connected, and the XBox 360’s are out of commission, as they have both red-ringed. The new place right now seems so technologically barren - internet flowing through a house really makes the house come alive (what is the tech equivalent of a tumbleweed?). Makes one wonder about how dependent our generation is on being connected. Also reminds me of that recent South Park episode in which the world’s internet supply dries up.

In the meantime, I’ve been heading to a campus lab to use their internets. Thank goodness for free connectivity within a 5 minute walk of my house.

But first - I’m embarking on a whirlwind tour of Germany and Scandinavia, with a couple days in Paris to top it all off. I’ll be heading out tomorrow, returning before the start of the fall semester, with stops in Berlin, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Talinn, Helsinki, and Paris. I’ll try to post on occasion, as I will be traveling lo-fi. I’ll definitely follow up with pictures, so stay tuned.

I still plan to write about my other interests, including music, technology, and the development of the internet - as these topics and the aforementioned academic pursuits will undoubtedly share some common ground.

Thanks for reading. Cheers.

A few years from now, it becomes increasingly apparent that those born after, say 1980, have ceased to exhibit any signs of biological aging. With that, anyone who falls under this demographic are no longer susceptible to any form of age-related illness or condition, both physically and mentally. Everyone’s biological age caps off at around 35; their chronological age increases, but their bodies stay relatively in the same condition, and their minds stay similarly as sharp. 

This is starting to sound like the opposite scenario as to the situation posed in the novel (and recent film) Children of Men by P.D James. In the film, which is also set in the near future, all the women of child-bearing-ages inexplicably lose their fertility, resulting in mass hysteria, radical social and govermental upheavals, and an aging populace with no younger generations to replace them: in other words, humanity collectively dying of old age, and losing its mind along the way.

Let me expand upon my scenario a bit more. (I think we’ll begin to see more and more similarities to Children of Men as we develop this idea, at least in terms of how society and humanity react to this phenomenon). So everyone on the planet born after 1980 seems to cease aging at ~35 biological years. No scientific endeavor can explain it. Children are born, they grow, reach adulthood, and stay put in their mid-thirties; no grey hairs, no senility, no loss of sensual acuity. In addition, let’s assume that the entire world is affected, not just those in countries blessed with good nutrition and comfortable climates. Sure, people will still die of malnutrition, plague, armed conflicts, and environmental catastrophes - but no one is dying of old age. Theories aimed at explaining this global condition revolve around dietary or environmental changes occurring around the year 1980, which had gone unnoticed at the time, and thus affecting only newborns born from that year onwards. However, just like in the case where the whole world suddenly becomes infertile, no one can convincingly explain why anyone under 35 is poised to live indefinitely. 

Today many futurists envision a near future in which radical life extension is possible, and eventually readily available. Inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil, for one, has gone to great lengths to ensure his own longevity: with meticulous medical and dietary regiments, he has apparently stalled his biological again process for the last several years. He promises to do this until new innovations in biological, nanotech, and robotic research can provide even longer life extensions. Similarly, in the field of biomedical gerontology, researchers such as Aubrey de Grey is exploring the idea of regenerative tissue, to eliminate all forms of age-related tissue-damage, thus providing indefinite lifespans. 

Such therapies will undoubtedly be costly at first, and available only to the privileged classes, however it would only be a matter of time before the entire planet could enjoy such longevity. What I’m curious about is this: what then? What happens when the entire world has the ability to live as long as they want - to stay effectively the same biological age. I suppose this is more a general case of my thought experiment - that in which everyone (inexplicably) loses any signs of tissue decay. 

In my thought experiment, the older generations eventually die off, leaving a world of thirty-somethings (and younger) behind. Males stay reproductively viable, while obviously females still have a set number of ova (however menopause would  have no age-related effects - simply a halt in the menstrual cycle). Despite this - would humans still seek out sex? One could argue that all sexual intercourse, even sex sought out solely for pleasure, and not reproduction, is driven by an underlying instinct to ensure our genetic survival. In the case of ensured genetic survival through indefinite lifespans, would we lose this instinct altogether and stop having sex? In this sense, immortality may be its own form of population control: there’s no need to worry about the world getting too crowded: while nobody is dying, nobody new is showing up either. 

If I’m wrong - then we may start seeing another form of catastrophe. Remember those social and governmental upheavals? The mass hysteria? Someone’s going to need to control a population that won’t die off, with new generations adding to the pile. One would hope that with age comes wisdom, and that an aged society may formulate a wizened and ethical form of population control. Otherwise, the world could spiral into a system of harsh anti-reproduction policies, such as those used today in China. 

I’m suggesting here that the purpose of life is to create new life. If there is no need (or ability) to create new life, life loses its purpose. Hence, an existential catastrophe among the immortals.

Footnote: I imagine that I am neglecting a whole spectrum of social, cultural, and religious reactions to the thought experiment - so I ask you, dear reader, to fill in the blanks.

toothpastefordinner.com

Link to Steampunk Magazine.

Link to Steampunk Anthology collection.

So why do I hate on cell phones? I’m not a recluse nor a non-person for having this position, which is often the response I get from people when I inform them that I don’t have a cell (and that they would feel naked should they not have their phone on their person at all hours). And no, I’m not worried about poisoning myself with radiation or giving myself a brain tumor either. 

While perusing University of Ottawa Law professor Michael Geist’s blog today, I came across some interesting factoids that make my position somewhat more justifiable. In his recent article entitled “iPhone Arrival Places Spotlight on Canada’s Wireless Crisis“, Geist points out just how comparatively weak Canada’s mobile infrastructure is. It is an illuminating piece, so I thought I’d share some take-away points:

• Mobile data pricing in Canada is among the highest in the world, creating a significant barrier to the introduction of new mobile services and causing many consumers to carefully ration their mobile use for fear of being hit with a hefty bill at the end of the month;
• Canada ranked 75th [worldwide] in the number of mobile subscribers, trailing countries such as El Salvador, Kazahkstan, and Libya.  It also lagged behind countries such as the United Kingdom, Singapore, Italy, Sweden, and Norway on mobile pricing.
• Canadian data prices are far above the U.S. offer of unlimited data for US$20 per month;
• Last month, the World Economic Forum pointed to problems in the wireless market as a key reason for Canada’s slipping global ranking for “network readiness”;
• The year-long delay of the iPhone - Apple first launched the device last June in the United States followed by France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, and Austria - provided tangible evidence that the Canadian market desperately needs an injection of competition (as the sole GSM provider, Rogers was the only carrier capable of supporting the iPhone)

Despite these grim stats, it seems that there may be some good news on the way: An upcoming spectrum auction in Canada may allow for more healthy competition in the Canadian market. Geist has some additional comments and recommendations in this regard for Industry Canada that are well worth reading.

So what am I waiting for? More choice among providers and cheaper data plans would certainly be a start. Until then I will happily rely on email, IM, and land-line phones as primary means of communication. It sure beats missing all that fine print and ending up with a surprise $1000 bill at the end of the month for not clearly understanding your data plan, especially when the cost of sending a simple SMS is about 4.4 times as expensive as sending the equivalent amount of data from the Hubble space telescope.

Yesterday Pat sent me some interesting links pertaining to the (emerging?) art form known as Controllerism, blending electronic music, custom software, and custom hardware, resulting in face-melting performance art. In a scene dominated by laptop performers, this idea really appeals to those who enjoy watching musicians perform, and not merely listening to them as they toy with a laptop.

From the wikipedia entry on turntablism techniques with midi:

there is a small but exciting movement within the emerging digital dj world that is being called controllerism. It is the use of Midi controllers and customized dj software to create compelling performances that are similar but more complicated than their turntablism fore bearers. There are 2 notable leaders in this field that should be mentioned and also deserve wikipedia references in their own right. dj Moldover, (creator of the octave masher and popular performer) and Ean Golden (dj columnist for Remix magazine and well known digital dj) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Goldensol (talk • contribs) 18:05, August 20, 2007 (UTC).