The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has announced plans to merge two high-profile labs into what will be one of the largest research labs in the world. The Laboratory for Computer Science and the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory will be combined to form the New Laboratory for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence (NLCSAI), which will comprise 750 faculty, staff, and students. According to a statement from MIT, the NLCSAI "will aspire to germinate and cultivate the most far-reaching new ideas and carry out the world's best research in information and intelligence technology and science." Rodney Brooks, who will be co-director of the NLCSAI, offered this comment on the kinds of research the new lab might do: "[I]magine instead of growing a tree, cutting it down and building a table, you just grow a table, digitally instruct the organism how to grow."
Wired News, 11 June 2003
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,59137,00.html


...god damn i wish i had set my goals higher. MIT students are doing that and i'll end up making websites for life insurance companies. if i could just find the Reset button...

Current Mood: calm

awesome day. hung out with my favorite people on the trip. went and did kyoto adventure with stephen, then starbucks with jenn, shannon, alia. hung out there for a few hours just talking about stuff, then shannon and alia went home and jenn and i went to the arcade at teramachi . came across one of those games where you put in the money then try and get a prize with the claw, only instead of the usual small stuff, it had huge foot-long plushes of the Initial-D AE86. it cost 100 yen a game (about 90 cents). i knew it was impossible to get one (as big and heavy as they were, the claw would never pick one up), but i HAD to try at least once. so i did, and got it on my first try. woot! best thing ever. so now i have three initial d ae86 toys - two mini RC cars and a plush. score :) pic of loot: PIC

at 11 we left the arcade and then it was a fun time trying to find ways for both of us to get home. public trans starts shuttong down around that time. jenn made a good point (actually her teacher did), that public transportation closes hours before people are done doing the things they want to do (like say going to bars) and thus they cant rely on it to get them home if drunk or whatever, so the temptation to drive drunk is a great one. if public transportation ran until like 3am there would probly be much fewer instances of drunk driving. also we could actually stay out after 11pm without worrying about having to take a taxi.

tomorrow (saturday), i'm gonna try to go to super autobacs in fushimi. dont really feel like it since jenn, shannon, and alia are gonna get together to do stuff, but i dont have many weekends here left, so ive gotta go ahead and do it. its interesting how whenever i spend some time away from my car(s) i sort of lose interest in the whole modding thing. i really miss driving a 5spd, but the whole urge to mod cars etc doesn't excite me much without having it right in front of me, and so autobacs is almost like a chore. weird. perhaps i should sell my cars. save money and go back to when i didnt feel so stereotypically male.

sunday my host mom is giving a tea ceremony for me and three friends (jenn, alia, dia). she originally said four, and so i invited stephen, but he said he wasn't sure, and when i told my host mom that it sounded like she took it to mean he wasn't coming, so she is preparing for three. tonight i wanted to invite shannon to come in place of stephen, but i dont think i can since i already effectively told my host mom he wouldn't be coming. i guess ill ask tomorrow morning and see if its ok or not.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Puya - Solo