Blast from the past

There's something strangely appealing to using quarter-century old second-hand technology to create futuristic computer-controlled sounds. I finally discovered how to use my Roland MPU-101 to control the old Korg MS-20 analog synth that I've had for years. All it took was a 2N3904 transistor, a diode and a resistor and some soldering (and some thoughtful person to post the instructions -- thank you!!). My inner electronics geek is deeply satisfied :) It's allowed me to try out an idea pioneered by Pink Floyd: using an arpegiator (a Cakewalk Sonar midi effect spewing forth all sorts of manic 1/32 note high speed scales) to drive the pitch and modulation of the analog synth while madly turning filter and vco knobs with both hands. TONS of fun! Perhaps for the next song I'll try and learn what scales John Coltrane riffed on and see where that leads to. Anyways, here's the latest version of Future Shock (3:53, 5.3MB)

Some Self-assembly Required

I've been reading Accelerando by Charles Stross, a downloadable version of which he has generously published online for free personal use (er, um, a downloadable version of the book, I mean :P -- check out http://www.accelerando.org ). The ratio of interesting ideas per chapter is sky high. Awesomely great read. Highly recommended. Anyways, one of the pillars that his version of the singularity is built on is nanotech self-assembly - you know, Eric Drexler's engines of creation. There was recently an interesting dialog between Drexler and Richard Smalley, the Nobel Prize winning discoverer of Buckminster Fullerene, the atomic geodesic sphere that led to the creation of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), the same stuff that is poised to revolutionize everything from batteries to solar cells to display technology to nanoelectronics. It turns out that Smalley has some issues with the hand-waving around the concept of molecular nano-assembly. DNA uses water as a key medium to do it's version of self-assembly, a universal solvent which has some amazing properties that are fundamental to being able to build organic molecular structures, and also presents big problems when trying to build things that include metal in them. Check out the debate: Nanotechnology: the case for and against 'molecular assemblers' and Raymond Kurzweil's commentary which provides some great background info.