2011

cw&t’s Kickstarter project Pen Type-A was fully funded, raising $281,989 from 4,048 backers. via Kickstarter.

Lukeprog from LessWrong proposes a strategy for tackling hard problems like Friendly AI: "Hack away at the edges", making incremental progress by exploring related subproblems and drawing connections between different fields. via LessWrong.

The Skatecycle, a hubless urban riding machine, won a Notable award in the Transportation category at the 2011 Core77 Design Awards.

Particles break lightspeed limit in an experiment, prompting discussion and speculation. via LessWrong

Pegasus Global Holdings is building a 20 square mile city in New Mexico as a testing ground for infrastructure concepts like smart grids.

via The source of this content is Core77.

A LessWrong discussion about a parable of AI learning to distinguish sunny from cloudy days instead of camouflaged tanks from trees, prompting a conversation about real-world examples of similar AI failures and dataset bias. via LessWrong

TechCrunch offered detailed steps for enabling Facebook Timeline early, though the method was intended for developers and may have had bugs.

Robin Hanson, in his scenario, explores a future where immortality is achievable but costly, potentially leading to a significant wealth gap based on merit. via Overcoming Bias.

A new study finds that even being assigned to a made-up group with negative stereotypes can hurt test performance if people identify strongly with that group. via The Wall Street Journal (WSJ)

A LessWrong user believes that a 2011 review article exploring the connection between neuroscience and behavioral game theory might help understand human values. via LessWrong

Freakonomics Radio finds NFL expert predictions to be barely more accurate than random chance, favoring past performance over statistical likelihood. via @freakonomics

Nick Sullivan has put together his ideal fall shopping list for men, complete with specific pieces and brands.