La gente de Activision sabe del impacto que va a causar Modern Warfare 2 cuando finalmente llegue este Noviembre y tan seguros están de que va a aplastar cualquier tipo de competencia que le pidieron a su equipo desarrollador,Raven Software,del juego de ciencia ficción Singularity, que retrasen la salida de su juego para tratar de evitar que MW2 lo haga pasar inadvertido.

Naturalmente al equipo no le quedo más que aceptar el hecho de que MW2 va a comerse todas las ventas navideñas y el día de hoy anuncian que Singularity será lanzado en Marzo del 2010.

La reacción de la industria por MW2 despues de que lo mostramos en el E3 superó todas nuestras expectativas y por eso hemos decidido retrasar el juego de ciencia ficción de Raven Software hasta Marzo del 2010; creemos que despues del mes de Marzo el equipo tiene una mejor oportunidad de establecer una nueva IP como un título que todos quieran tener y a la vez  deja el camino libre para que MW2 domine las ventas navideñas.

Señores, Raven Software está tomando una por el equipo, ahora solo falta que la gente de Assassin’s Creed y Splinter Cell y BioShock se den cuenta de lo mismo.

The Daily Galaxy:

Although It has taken homo sapiens several million years to evolve from the apes, the useful information in our DNA, has probably changed by only a few million bits. So the rate of biological evolution in humans, Stephen Hawking points out in his Life in the Universe lecture,  is about a bit a year.

“By contrast,” Hawking says, “there are about 50,000 new books published in the English language each year, containing of the order of a hundred billion bits of information. Of course, the great majority of this information is garbage, and no use to any form of life. But, even so, the rate at which useful information can be added is millions, if not billions, higher than with DNA.”

This means Hawking says that we have entered a new phase of evolution. “At first, evolution proceeded by natural selection, from random mutations. This Darwinian phase, lasted about three and a half billion years, and produced us, beings who developed language, to exchange information.”

But what distinguishes us from our cave man ancestors is the knowledge that we have accumulated over the last ten thousand years, and particularly, Hawking points out, over the last three hundred.

“I think it is legitimate to take a broader view, and include externally transmitted information, as well as DNA, in the evolution of the human race,” Hawking said.

In the last ten thousand years the human species has  been in what Hawking calls, “an external transmission phase,” where the internal record of information, handed down to succeeding generations in DNA, has not changed significantly. “But the external record, in books, and other long lasting forms of storage,” Hawking says, “has grown enormously. Some people would use the term, evolution, only for the internally transmitted genetic material, and would object to it being applied to information handed down externally. But I think that is too narrow a view. We are more than just our genes.”

The time scale for evolution, in the external transmission period, has collapsed to about 50 years, or less.

Meanwhile, Hawking observes, our human brains “with which we process this information have evolved only on the Darwinian time scale, of hundreds of thousands of years. This is beginning to cause problems. In the 18th century, there was said to be a man who had read every book written. But nowadays, if you read one book a day, it would take you about 15,000 years to read through the books in a national Library. By which time, many more books would have been written.”

But we are now entering a new phase, of what Hawking calls “self designed evolution,” in which we will be able to change and improve our DNA. “At first,” he continues “these changes will be confined to the repair of genetic defects, like cystic fibrosis, and muscular dystrophy. These are controlled by single genes, and so are fairly easy to identify, and correct. Other qualities, such as intelligence, are probably controlled by a large number of genes. It will be much more difficult to find them, and work out the relations between them. Nevertheless, I am sure that during the next century, people will discover how to modify both intelligence, and instincts like aggression.”

If the human race manages to redesign itself, to reduce or eliminate the risk of self-destruction, we will probably reach out to the stars and colonize other planets. But this will be done, Hawking believes, with intelligent machines based on mechanical and electronic components, rather than macromolecules, which could eventually replace DNA based life, just as DNA may have replaced an earlier form of life.

…

Hawking must be reading some Kurzweil in his old age with his talk of DNA being replaced by mechanical parts.

But I suppose a real Singularitarian would claim that DNA is going to be replaced by quantum parts, not mere mechanisms.

Casey Kazan: Stephen Hawking: “Humans Have Entered a New Stage of Evolution”

…

A Activision anunciou que seu shooter de ficção científica Singularity teve seu lançamento adiado para março de 2010. A Activision diz que não quer concorrentes para o game Modern Warfare 2, que sai em novembro.

Singularity coloca você no papel de um piloto de caça militar, que sofre um acidente eletromagnético e acaba caindo em uma pequena ilha ocupada pelos russos durante a Guerra Fria. O evento dá a possibilidade de manipulação do tempo pelo jogador, que será capaz de controlar a ferramenta a seu favor. O jogo sai pra PC, Playstation 3 e Xbox360 em março de 2010. Fique ligado aqui para mais novidades.

Até mais!

So this is important right?  Activision announced today that the moderately anticipated release of Singularity won’t be coming this fall as was previously planned.  Instead, they chose to set a target date of Quarter 1 of 2010.  Now, you may be asking why did they decide to do this?  I have that answer for you.

See, when a big game comes out that is expected to bring the dollar’s value back up, beat out the second coming of Christ, or possibly be bigger than any of Michael Bay’s movies, you acquire a dilemma of sorts.  Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is going to be just that.  With an expected target of 11 Million by year’s end your pretty much saying, “This is the biggest game of all time, and everyone else that is releasing anything around this target date that has anything to do with guns, walking, snow, or people might as well take their ball and go home.”  I somewhat agree with them on this front. 

I mean, here’s the deal.  So Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is going to be huge, and everyone is going to get it.  And yes, there are a few big contenders that trail in the shadows such as Assassin’s Creed 2, BioShock 2, and Halo: ODST, but its the little guy that loses in this kind of a battle.

Hey kid (Singularity), seriously… your going to have to sit at the kids table (Qtr 1 2010), and there’s only enough meat (Cash Money) to go around for us adults, so just deal with the mashed potatoes (Christmas Gift from Grandma cause she was fooled into thinking this was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2) cause that’s all that’s left over.

This is the case for singularity, its a small fish in a big ocean, and Activision feels that it should let this game have its time in the sun and sit at the grownups table when your rich uncle (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2) isn’t invited.

Singularity is a different type of shooter which is why I think it grabbed attention in the first place.  You have the ability to control time with your hand, but not like Prince of Persia Time control.  Ok, here’s a scenario…

You have a group of 4 enemies under cover ahead of you.  Your running low on ammo and can’t fight your way through.  To your right, you see a corroded oil drum that is no longer filled with the stuff that makes it go boom when combined with a spark from your pistol round.  So you target the barrel and reverse time until it becomes fully intact and is filled with all the black gold it can contain.  You then take this barrel and throw it at your enemies, all the while, you shoot it in mid-air and blow up the four attackers in front you.

See?  It’s pretty unique.  You might even want to take a enemy and use your unstoppable time powers on just him.  Turning him into a pile of old bones right before your eyes, and if we’re lucky… maybe turn him into a baby and let the baby punting begin.    Okay, that’s a bit cruel but you see where I’m going here.

In closing, the move seems to be a good one. I for one am okay with saving a bit o’ money for the releases that are coming out this year.  It’s gonna be rough on the wallet and God knows the “Streets are tough”  So Let this be the Holiday of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and I’ll start saving my monies for Singularity when it drops sometime between January and March.

A Activision anunciou o adiamento de Singularity, antes previsto para Setembro, para o primeiro trimestre de 2010. Segundo a empresa, o motivo do adiamento é para que o jogo não seja precocemente esquecido por causa de Modern Warfare 2.

“O nível da repercussão de Modern Warfare 2 superou nossas expectativas e, por isso, decidimos mover Singularity para 2010,” disse um representante da Activision.

“Acreditamos que o trimestre que acaba em Março vai nos permitir estabelecer uma nova propriedade intelectual de ponta e liberar o caminho para Modern Warfare 2 dominar o final desse ano.”

Caso você seja um dos criadores da petição para Left 4 Dead 2 e não gostou dessa notícia, sugerimos que cria uma reclamando da Activision e pedindo um boicote. Rápido.

UPDATE: Ya viste los videos y te diste una idea de lo que viene, pues llora, porque Activision planea sacar este juego hasta el primer trimestre de 2010 . . . y porque . . . pues porque no quiere que su juego sea opacado por MODERN WARFARE 2. Es muy inteligente este movimiento, ya que en diversas revistas se pronostica que este nuevo episodio de la serie CALL OF DUTY opacara a cualquier juego en Noviembre de 2009.

floating dome home:

“It’s not your typical barge. The Waterpod, a floating art project currently plying the waters surrounding the island of Manhattan, is outfitted as be-domed “sustainable, navigable living space.” Launched last week from the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where initial construction took place, the barge/pod is currently docked at South Street Seaport. The pod’s inhabitants, a group of New York artists, plan to spend the summer living aboard as it moves from dock to dock along Hudson and East River shores.

They’ll be growing food using a hydroponic system housed in a geodesic dome greenhouse, performing music and showing art in a larger dome where power comes from batteries charged by a solar array and bicycle power, and showing off alternative technology in general.”

full article is worth reading

Science fiction writer Charlie Stross is inteviewed by H+ magazine, and brings his hard core realistic views of near and far futures.

Singularity, 2012: God springs out of a computer to rapture the human race. An enchanted locket transforms a struggling business journalist into a medieval princess. The math-magicians of British Intelligence calculate demons back into the dark. And solar-scale computation just uploads us all into the happy ever after.

Stripped to the high concept, these visions from Charlie Stross are prime geek comfort food. But don’t be fooled. Stross’ stories turn on you, changing up into a vicious scrutiny of raw power and the information economy.

…

It’s no surprise that Stross is a highly controversial figure within Transhumanist circles – loved by some for his dense-with-high-concepts takes on themes dear to the movement, loathed by others for what they see as a facile treatment of both ideas and characters. But one thing is certain –- Mr. Stross is one SF writer who pays close attention to the entire plethora of post-humanizing changes that are coming on fast. As a satirist, he might be characterized as our Vonnegut, lampooning memetic subcultures that most people don’t even know exist.

…

Mind uploading would be a fine thing, but I’m not convinced what you’d get at the end of it would be even remotely human. (Me, I’d rather deal with the defects of the meat machine by fixing them — I’d be very happy with cures for senescence, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and the other nasty failure modes to which we are prone, with limb regeneration and tissue engineering and unlimited life prolongation.) But then, I’m growing old and cynical. Back in the eighties I wanted to be the first guy on my block to get a direct-interface jack in his skull. These days, I’d rather have a firewall.

read on the interesting interview…

via The Reluctant Transhumanist | h+ Magazine.

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