Singularity & Futurism

Can we push past the mouse and keyboard interface?

bmahfood@gmail.com (Barry Mahfood) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:47:00 +0000

Editor's Note: Human beings are generally averse to change. We've become quite used to the keyboard and mouse, window and icon and toolbar interface with our computing machines, and it will take a fantastic new set of methods to make us choose something different. The touchscreen is only useful with handheld devices when you get right down to it. Voice recognition and motion sensing may be useful. But the real enchilada, if you ask me, is thought. Anyway, this article describes a company that wants to set up an OpenInterface project to get things moving.

ScienceDaily - July 17, 2009

Human-computer interaction is undergoing a revolution, entering a multimodal era that goes beyond, way beyond, the WIMP (Windows-Icons-Menus-Pointers) paradigm. Now European researchers have developed a platform to speed up that revolution.

We have the technology. So why is our primary human-computer interface (HCI) based on the 35-year-old Windows-Icons-Menus-Pointers paradigm? Voice, gestures, touch, haptics, force feedback and many other sensors or effectors exist that promise to simplify and simultaneously enhance human interaction with computers, but we are still stuck with some 100 or so keys, a mouse and sore wrists.

In part, the slow pace of interface development is just history repeating itself. The story of mechanical systems that worked faster than handwriting is a 150-year saga that, eventually, led to the QWERTY keyboard in the early 1870s.

In part, the problem is one of complexity. Interface systems have to adapt to human morphology and neurology and they have to do their job better than before. It can take a lot of time to figure how to improve these interfaces.

Read entire story>>

Follow me on Twitter. Technological Singularity and Futurism is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.

Brain Hacking - Security issue of the future

bmahfood@gmail.com (Barry Mahfood) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:24:00 +0000

Editor's Note: Just about everyone who's not a Ted Kaczynski disciple knows that computer networks are constantly facing an onslaught of attacks from hackers. The only computers that are relatively safe are those that are not attached to any network. It used to be that human brains were in that category, safely ensconced withing the confines of our skulls. That safely may be ending soon. As implants are incorporated and connected wirelessly to the outside world, what makes us think that hackers won't try to gain control? Talk about zombies.

Wired Science - July 9, 2009, by Hadley Leggett

Hackers who commandeer your computer are bad enough. Now scientists worry that someday, they’ll try to take over your brain.

In the past year, researchers have developed technology that makes it possible to use thoughts to operate a computer, maneuver a wheelchair or even use Twitter — all without lifting a finger. But as neural devices become more complicated — and go wireless — some scientists say the risks of “brain hacking” should be taken seriously.

“Neural devices are innovating at an extremely rapid rate and hold tremendous promise for the future,” said computer security expert Tadayoshi Kohno of the University of Washington. “But if we don’t start paying attention to security, we’re worried that we might find ourselves in five or 10 years saying we’ve made a big mistake.”

Hackers tap into personal computers all the time — but what would happen if they focused their nefarious energy on neural devices, such as the deep-brain stimulators currently used to treat Parkinson’s and depression, or electrode systems for controlling prosthetic limbs? According to Kohno and his colleagues, who published their concerns July 1 in Neurosurgical Focus, most current devices carry few security risks. But as neural engineering becomes more complex and more widespread, the potential for security breaches will mushroom.

Read entire story>>

Follow me on Twitter. Technological Singularity and Futurism is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.

Military robots will live off the dead?

bmahfood@gmail.com (Barry Mahfood) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:27:00 +0000

Editor's Note: If robots eat the dead for fuel, will they make people dead when hungry?

Live Science - July 15, 2009, by Robert Roy Britt

A steam-powered robot is being designed to fuel itself by consuming organic material, from grass to furniture or even dead bodies, Fox News reports.

But c'mon, could the U.S. military really deploy something to do that without a global outcry? The 'bot, from Robotic Technology Inc., is called the Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR). It can "find, ingest, and extract energy from biomass."

According to the company's web site, the purpose of EATR:

"To develop and demonstrate an autonomous robotic platform able to perform long-range, long-endurance missions without the need for manual or conventional re-fueling, which would otherwise preclude the ability of the robot to perform such missions. The system obtains its energy by foraging – engaging in biologically-inspired, organism-like, energy-harvesting behavior which is the equivalent of eating. It can find, ingest, and extract energy from biomass in the environment (and other organically-based energy sources), as well as use conventional and alternative fuels (such as gasoline, heavy fuel, kerosene, diesel, propane, coal, cooking oil, and solar) when suitable."

Read entire story>>

Follow me on Twitter. Technological Singularity and Futurism is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.

Reverse engineering insect brains

bmahfood@gmail.com (Barry Mahfood) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:18:00 +0000

Editor's Note: What's different about this project is that it's not just about building insect-sized robots, but rather reverse engineering the brains of the living animals and building artificial ones programmed to carry out the manufacturers' wishes.

PhysOrg.com - July 14, 2009, by Miwa Suzuki

Police release a swarm of robot-moths to sniff out a distant drug stash. Rescue robot-bees dodge through earthquake rubble to find survivors.

These may sound like science-fiction scenarios, but they are the visions of Japanese scientists who hope to understand and then rebuild the brains of insects and programme them for specific tasks.

Ryohei Kanzaki, a professor at Tokyo University's Research Centre for Advanced Science and Technology, has studied insect brains for three decades and become a pioneer in the field of insect-machine hybrids.

His original and ultimate goal is to understand human brains and restore connections damaged by diseases and accidents -- but to get there he has taken a very close look at insects' "micro-brains".

Read entire story>>

Follow me on Twitter. Technological Singularity and Futurism is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.

When you're (robot is) smiling

bmahfood@gmail.com (Barry Mahfood) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:40:00 +0000

Editor's Note: When people smile at me, I tend to feel more safe with them, more friendly towards them. That's why we smile at people, especially strangers. If robots, or artificial persons, are going to move about and interact with the rest of us effectively, it stands to reason that they'll need to know when to smile, frown, bare their teeth, etc. Which is what this fellow is learning.

Technology Review - July 10, 2009, by Kristina Grifantini

The UCSD robot watches itself to learn how to pull new facial expressions. (Photo Courtesy of UCSD)

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), who demoed a realistic-looking robot Einstein at the TED Conference last February, have now gone a step farther, infusing the robot with the ability to improve its own expressions through learning.

Previously, the head of the robot--designed by Hanson Robotics--could only respond to the people around it using a variety of preprogrammed expressions. With 31 motors and a realistic skinlike material called Frubber, the head delighted and surprised TED conference goers last winter.

Read entire story>>

Follow me on Twitter. Technological Singularity and Futurism is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.

The science of happiness

bmahfood@gmail.com (Barry Mahfood) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 13:40:00 +0000

Editor's Note: People generally know what happiness feels like, although it's devilishly difficult to describe. And we generally want to feel happy most, if not all, the time. Hence the proliferation of things that purport to be happy-making, some benign, some beneficial, some destructive and addictive. We have no instruction booklet to show us how to attain happiness-maximum, although various groups and organizations claim to have one. Here's an interesting article on the beneficial aspects of "seeding" our lives with positive emotions."

ScienceDaily - July 12, 2009

Positive Emotions Increase Life Satisfaction By Building Resilience

People who seed their life with frequent moments of positive emotions increase their resilience against challenges, according to a new study by a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill psychologist and colleagues.

“This study shows that if happiness is something you want out of life, then focusing daily on the small moments and cultivating positive emotions is the way to go,” said Barbara Fredrickson, Ph.D., Kenan Distinguished Professor of Psychology in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences and the principal investigator of the Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology Laboratory. “Those small moments let positive emotions blossom, and that helps us become more open. That openness then helps us build resources that can help us rebound better from adversity and stress, ward off depression and continue to grow.”

“The levels of positive emotions that produced good benefits weren’t extreme. Participants with average and stable levels of positive emotions still showed growth in resilience even when their days included negative emotions.”

In the month long study, 86 participants were asked to submit daily “emotion reports,” rather than answering general questions like, “Over the last few months, how much joy did you feel?”

Read entire story>>

Follow me on Twitter. Technological Singularity and Futurism is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.

With new technology must come new diseases

bmahfood@gmail.com (Barry Mahfood) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:32:00 +0000

Editor's Note: This won't be a new disease, but rather a new expression of an old one. People with addictive personalities will find things to be addicted to, and if drugs, drink, porn and slot machines aren't enough, bring on the smartphones.

WSJ - July 7, 2009, by E. Kinney Zalesne

Smartphoniacs: Addicts of the Information Age

Among everybody from our leaders to our teenagers, no habit is spreading faster than being connected 24/7 via a smart phone.

Its penetration in the U.S. is estimated at 18%, and it seems that everywhere you turn, people are using their smart phones in new ways and in new places. Samsung recently estimated that it expects 500 million global smart-phone users by 2012. Actual phone calls are becoming extinct compared with handheld texts and email messages -- whoever thought people would prefer typing to talking? But the evidence appears to say they do.

Here are five tell-tale traits of Smartphoniacs:

Do they take their smart phones with them when they get up from the table to go to the restroom -- and do they take an awful lot of trips there?

This has also given rise to a group of people -- the top 10% of smart-phone users -- who just can't stop. They are the smartphoniacs, the true addicts of the information age.

Read entire story>>

Follow me on Twitter. Technological Singularity and Futurism is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.

Of Mice and Men - Life Extension

bmahfood@gmail.com (Barry Mahfood) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:45:00 +0000

Editor's Note: We're always reading about wonder drugs that work on mice. I'm waiting for the article that says: Works on humans too! Pick it up at your local Walgreen's!

Technology Review - July 8, 2009, by Jocelyn Rice

First Drug Shown to Extend Life Span in Mammals - Rapamycin, an immunosuppressant, enables elderly mice to live longer.

A drug derived from bacteria in the soil on Easter Island can substantially extend the life span of mice, according to a study published online today in Nature. The drug, called rapamycin, is the first pharmacological agent shown to enhance longevity in a mammal, and it works when administered beginning late in life. Prior to this research, the only ways to increase rodents' life span were via genetic engineering or caloric restriction--a nutritionally complete but very low-calorie diet.

Rapamycin is an antifungal compound already approved by the FDA as an immunosuppressive therapy to help prevent organ rejection in transplant patients. It is currently being tested in clinical trials for potential anticancer effects.

The drug had previously been shown to extend life span in invertebrates. "[This study is] exciting because it shows that it's feasible to do this in a mammal," says David Sinclair, codirector of the Paul F. Glenn Laboratories for the Biological Mechanisms of Aging at Harvard Medical School, who was not involved in the study. "Maybe 20 years from now we'll look back at this study as a landmark that pointed the way to medicines of the future."

Read entire story>>

Follow me on Twitter. Technological Singularity and Futurism is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.

Memristors - The pathway to artificial intelligence?

bmahfood@gmail.com (Barry Mahfood) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:11:00 +0000

Editor's Note: This is a story about two remarkable phenomena that cause quantum leaps is science and technology. First is the discovery, by pure mathematics, of a physical entity that should exist, but has never been seen. Einstein discovered black holes in this manner. The second phenomenon in the intuitive connection that is made from one set knowledge to another, sometimes across centuries, as when one scientist discovers an obscure set of equations in an old book and finds within it an answer to a modern-day problem. In this article is described a researcher's discovery, by pure mathematics, of a basic circuit element that should exist, but did not. He called it a memristor. Another scientist discovered that a slime mold was in fact an analogue of the memristor in nature. The connection? Biological memristors in the brain allowing for the existence of intelligence, hence the possibility of electronic memristors providing the breakthrough needed for artificial intelligence. Read on!

NewScientist - July 8, 2009, by Justin Mullins

Slime mould feeding on the surface of an almond. These cunning organisms could be the missing link in memory circuits (Image: Eye of Science/Science Photo Library

EVER had the feeling something is missing? If so, you're in good company. Dmitri Mendeleev did in 1869 when he noticed four gaps in his periodic table. They turned out to be the undiscovered elements scandium, gallium, technetium and germanium. Paul Dirac did in 1929 when he looked deep into the quantum-mechanical equation he had formulated to describe the electron. Besides the electron, he saw something else that looked rather like it, but different. It was only in 1932, when the electron's antimatter sibling, the positron, was sighted in cosmic rays that such a thing was found to exist.

In 1971, Leon Chua had that feeling. A young electronics engineer with a penchant for mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, he was fascinated by the fact that electronics had no rigorous mathematical foundation. So like any diligent scientist, he set about trying to derive one.

Were this an article about a conventional breakthrough in electronics, that would be the end of the story. Better memory materials alone do not set the pulse racing. We have come to regard ever zippier consumer electronics as a basic right, and are notoriously insouciant about the improvements in basic physics that make them possible. What's different about memristors?

And he found something missing: a fourth basic circuit element besides the standard trio of resistor, capacitor and inductor. Chua dubbed it the "memristor". The only problem was that as far as Chua or anyone else could see, memristors did not actually exist.

Read entire story>>

Follow me on Twitter. Technological Singularity and Futurism is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.

Ray Kurzweil on How to Combat Aging

bmahfood@gmail.com (Barry Mahfood) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:21:00 +0000

Editor's Note: Ray is one of my heroes. Although oft taken out of context and otherwise misinterpreted, he offers a glimpse into the future based on extrapolating from the past.

Technology Review - July 6, 2009, by Ray Kurzweil

Entropy is not the most fruitful perspective from which to view aging. There are varying error rates in biological information processes depending on the cell type and this is part of biology's paradigm. We have means already of determining error-free DNA sequences even though specific cells will contain DNA errors, and we will be in a position to correct those errors that matter.

The most important perspective in my view is that health, medicine, and biology is now an information technology whereas it used to be hit or miss. We not only have the (outdated) software that biology runs on (our genome) but we have the means of changing that software (our genes) in a mature individual with such technologies as RNA interference and new forms of gene therapy that do not trigger the immune system (I am a collaborator with a company that performs gene therapy outside the body, replicates the modified cell a million fold and reintroduces the cells to the body, a process that has cured a fatal disease--Pulmonary Hypertension--and is undergoing human trials).

We can design interventions on computers and test them out on increasingly sophisticated biological simulators. One of my primary themes is that information technology grows exponentially, in sharp contrast to the linear growth of hit or miss approaches that have characterized medicine up until recently. As such, these technologies will be a million times more powerful in 20 years (by doubling in power and price-performance each year). The genome project, incidentally, followed exactly this trajectory.

Read entire story>>

Follow me on Twitter. Technological Singularity and Futurism is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.

Let's move things along, shall we? - Hawking: "Humans Have Entered a New Stage of Evolution"

bmahfood@gmail.com (Barry Mahfood) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:36:00 +0000

Editor's note: Hawking essentially proposes that transmitted information be included in the calculation of the speed of human evolution. His argument makes a great deal of sense, considering that evolution does not have to be biological to result in the transformation of a species.

Daily Galaxy - July 3, 2009, by Casey Kazan

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."

Read entire article>>

(Source: http://www.rationalvedanta.net/node/131)

Follow me on Twitter. Technological Singularity and Futurism is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.

Puffing our way to space - Inflatable tower may offer easier access to space

bmahfood@gmail.com (Barry Mahfood) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 13:41:00 +0000

Editor's note: First, I don't like it that the word "space" has such faraway connotations. Space is not that far away. One only has to get out of the thin film of our atmosphere to be in "space." That's only a little over 19 miles. Second, that being said, getting there, and getting into a stable orbit, is quite difficult yet useful to humanity. Useful earth orbits are low (100 - 1,240 miles), medium (1,240 - just under 22,240 miles) geosynchronous (22,236 miles), and high (beyond geosynchronous). Modern communications are dependent on orbiting satellites. No-gravity science can only be done in orbit. And of course there's observation of the earth from on high. So getting to "space" is important, and getting there cheaply even more so.

MSNBC - July 2, 2009, by Eric Bland

At 9-miles tall, it could also enable creation of new wireless data network

A nine-mile-high inflatable tower (a smaller-scale model is shown here), tethered to a mountain top could also cut the cost to launch spacecraft, according to a new paper.

An inflatable tower nine miles tall and tethered to a mountain top could cut the cost to launch spacecraft, reduce the need for geostationary communications satellites and improve cell phone signals.

"This structure could be made of commercially available materials," said Brendan Quine, who, along with Raj Seth and George Zhu at York University in Toronto wrote an article detailing their tower in the journal Acta Astronautica.

The tower itself would be 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) tall, 230 meters (754 feet) across, and weigh approximately 800,000 tons, or about twice the weight of the world's largest supertanker when fully inflated with a variety of gases, including helium.

Read entire story>>

Follow me on Twitter. Technological Singularity and Futurism is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.

Simulated Beginnings - Toy Universe

bmahfood@gmail.com (Barry Mahfood) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:30:00 +0000

Editor's note: The idea that we are living within a computer simulation, although not new, is intriguing. Could this be how such a thing begins?

Space.com - July 2, 2009, by Leslie Mullen

The power of computer processing could one day solve the riddle of life's origin.

Scientists think life appeared about 4 billion years ago, and ancient rocks on Earth can give us some idea of what the environment was like. Life may have originated in an ocean rich in chemicals. This primordial soup may have been simmering, or it may have been zapped by lightning. Certainly energy of some sort must have helped drive a simple chemical system into a more complex state. But the clues are few, and the picture remains hazy.

Enter the Evogrid, a computer creation concept that would be a digital version of the primordial soup. The EvoGrid was dreamed up by a group of international advisors and Bruce Damer, the founder of a research company that creates 3-D spacecraft and mission simulations for NASA and the space community. Damer and his chief architect, Peter Newman, are developing the EvoGrid concept by adapting GROMACS, a powerful open source molecular dynamics simulator originally developed at The University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

Each virtual particle within the Evogrid's simulated liquid soup will have particular physical properties, and will behave accordingly.

Read entire story>>

Follow me on Twitter. Technological Singularity and Futurism is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.

Robot Rat to the Rescue! (Video)

bmahfood@gmail.com (Barry Mahfood) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:57:00 +0000

ditor's note: Do you get how many varieties and uses there are? They aren't everywhere yet, but it may not be 20 years before the street begins to look like the set of iRobot.

NewScientist - July 2, 2009, by Sandrine Ceurstemont

A new robot with artificial whiskers could one day be used to locate survivors of natural disasters, or people trapped in burning buildings.

Developed by a team led by Tony Prescott from the University of Sheffield and Anthony Pipe from the University of Bristol, both in the UK, SCRATCHbot mimics the way a rat senses its environment.

Long plastic whiskers at the side of the robot's head move back and forth up to 5 times per second to detect nearby objects. If a whisker touches something, control software determines the location of the obstacle and orients the robot's head and body so that shorter bristles on its nose can make contact with it.

Read entire story>>

Follow me on Twitter. Technological Singularity and Futurism is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.

The 3 Laws Won't Cut it - Living Safely with Robots, Beyond Asimov's Laws

bmahfood@gmail.com (Barry Mahfood) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:10:00 +0000

Editor's note: The law is always playing catchup when it comes to advances in technology, but these guys are making some great suggestions in advance of the robot ubiquity future. Many experts put that future within the next 20 - 30 years, and when you couple robotics with artificial general intelligence, thinking through the legal implications is very wise.

PhysOrg.com - June 22, 2009, by Lisa Zyga

TOPIO 2.0 - TOSY Ping Pong Playing Robot version 2 at Nuremberg International Toy Fair 2009. Image: Wikimedia Commons

"In 1981, a 37-year-old factory worker named Kenji Urada entered a restricted safety zone at a Kawasaki manufacturing plant to perform some maintenance on a robot. In his haste, he failed to completely turn it off. The robot’s powerful hydraulic arm pushed the engineer into some adjacent machinery, thus making Urada the first recorded victim to die at the hands of a robot."

In situations like this one, as described in a recent study published in the International Journal of Social Robotics, most people would not consider the accident to be the fault of the robot. But as robots are beginning to spread from industrial environments to the real world, human safety in the presence of robots has become an important social and technological issue. Currently, countries like Japan and South Korea are preparing for the “human-robot coexistence society,” which is predicted to emerge before 2030; South Korea predicts that every home in its country will include a robot by 2020. Unlike industrial robots that toil in structured settings performing repetitive tasks, these “Next Generation Robots” will have relative autonomy, working in ambiguous human-centered environments, such as nursing homes and offices. Before hordes of these robots hit the ground running, regulators are trying to figure out how to address the safety and legal issues that are expected to occur when an entity that is definitely not human but more than machine begins to infiltrate our everyday lives.

As Chen added, Asimov’s Three Laws were originally made for literary purposes, but the ambiguity in the laws makes the responsibilities of robots’ developers, robots’ owners, and governments unclear.

In their study, authors Yueh-Hsuan Weng, a former staff of Taiwan’s Conscription Agency, Ministry of the Interior, and currently visiting at Yoshida, Kyoto, Japan, along with Chien-Hsun Chen and Chuen-Tsai Sun, both of the National Chiao Tung University in Hsinchu, Taiwan, have proposed a framework for a legal system focused on Next Generation Robot safety issues. Their goal is to help ensure safer robot design through “safety intelligence” and provide a method for dealing with accidents when they do inevitably occur. The authors have also analyzed Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, but (like most robotics specialists today) they doubt that the laws could provide an adequate foundation for ensuring that robots perform their work safely.

Read entire story>>

Follow me on Twitter. Technological Singularity and Futurism is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.

Walk like a man - A Robot that Navigates Like a Person

bmahfood@gmail.com (Barry Mahfood) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:39:00 +0000

Editor's note: What's new about this robot? In what way does it move about in its environment like a human? Other robots take pictures of their surroundings repeatedly to plan their way through, but this robot uses sophisticated algorithms that mimic the human visual system. A lot will be learned from this one and advances in autonomous robotics will come fast. You heard it here first!

Technology Review - June 30, 2009, by Anne-Marie Corley

A new robot navigates using humanlike visual processing and object detection.

Future vision: This robot navigates using input from two cameras that serve as "eyes" in a movable "head." Credit: Antonio Frisoli

European researchers have developed a robot capable of moving autonomously using humanlike visual processing. The robot is helping the researchers explore how the brain responds to its environment while the body is in motion. What they discover could lead to machines that are better able to navigate through cluttered environments.

Once the robot had been given the software, the researchers found that it did indeed move like a human. When moving slowly, it passed close to an obstacle, because it knew that it could recalculate its path without changing course too much. When moving more quickly toward the target, the robot gave obstacles a wider berth since it had less time to calculate a new trajectory.

The robot consists of a wheeled platform with a robotic "head" that uses two cameras to capture stereoscopic vision. The robot can turn its head and shift its gaze up and down or sideways to gauge its surroundings, and can quickly measure its own speed relative to its environment.

Read entire story>>

Follow me on Twitter. Technological Singularity and Futurism is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.

The first ever solid-state quantum processor created

bmahfood@gmail.com (Barry Mahfood) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:01:00 +0000

Editor's note: Quantum mechanics involves the way matter and energy behave at minuscule sizes and distances. Counter-intuitive doesn't begin to describe the weirdness of this field of physics. And yet, we are able to make darned good use of it. A dream of computer scientists has been to build quantum computers that can perform far faster than conventional ones, and store far far more information. This article describes the creation of the world's first quantum processor. It's a really big deal.

PhysOrg.com - June 28, 2009

The two-qubit processor is the first solid-state quantum processor that resembles a conventional computer chip and is able to run simple algorithms. Credit: Blake Johnson/Yale University

A team led by Yale University researchers has created the first rudimentary solid-state quantum processor, taking another step toward the ultimate dream of building a quantum computer.

They also used the two-qubit superconducting chip to successfully run elementary algorithms, such as a simple search, demonstrating quantum information processing with a solid-state device for the first time. Their findings will appear in Nature's advanced online publication June 28.

For example, imagine having four phone numbers, including one for a friend, but not knowing which number belonged to that friend. You would typically have to try two to three numbers before you dialed the right one. A quantum processor, on the other hand, can find the right number in only one try.

"Instead of having to place a phone call to one number, then another number, you use quantum mechanics to speed up the process," Schoelkopf said. "It's like being able to place one phone call that simultaneously tests all four numbers, but only goes through to the right one."

"Our processor can perform only a few very simple quantum tasks, which have been demonstrated before with single nuclei, atoms and photons," said Robert Schoelkopf, the William A. Norton Professor of Applied Physics & Physics at Yale. "But this is the first time they've been possible in an all-electronic device that looks and feels much more like a regular microprocessor."

Read entire story>>

Follow me on Twitter. Technological Singularity and Futurism is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.

Making minds that won't destroy us

bmahfood@gmail.com (Barry Mahfood) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 14:13:00 +0000

Editor's note: Michael Vassar gives a credible argument in this essay that artificial minds are possible, are coming, and should be designed to care about human wellbeing from the start, because we will have only one chance to get it right.

Forbes - The AI Report - Machine Minds: Let's get artificial intelligence right the first time.

June 22, 2009, by Michael Vassar

Are you in a city? If so, may I ask you to look around? Almost everything you see was created deliberately. Human minds built theories and implemented plans. Due to these plans, rocks were gathered, shaped and rearranged. You call some of these rocks your house. The main things that weren't created deliberately are the minds themselves.

Animals to which humans are indifferent often lose their habitats and go extinct. If an indifferent superintelligence is created, especially if it is created as software and can therefore reproduce very rapidly, humans will be similarly endangered.

Humans are primarily natural, not designed. Human culture shapes personal development, but on an absolute scale culture permits only a very narrow range of possibilities. A human can be raised to be an Inca, a teacher or a psychoanalyst. More careful upbringing and good luck can produce a Mozart, an Einstein or a Julius Caesar, but never a dolphin, a raven or an elephant. Michael Phelps is astounding for a human, but a dolphin can cross an Olympic pool in seconds.

Read entire story>>

Follow me on Twitter. Technological Singularity and Futurism is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.

Seeing a memory form

bmahfood@gmail.com (Barry Mahfood) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 22:35:00 +0000

Editor's note: As neuroscience and imaging techniques continue to improve, the mind/brain connection becomes more and more clear. There are still many people who will stubbornly believe that mind can exist outside the brain, in spite of the fact that there has never been a scrap of evidence to positively support the idea, and despite the continuous stream of discovery demonstrating that every operation of the mind can be shown to originate from and be completely explained by operation of the brain. Which brings us to this article...

msnbc - June 26, 2009, by Clara Moskowitz

The increase in green fluorescence, right, shows the imaging of protein synthesis at synapses when memories are made. MARTIN ET. AL

For the first time, an image of a memory being made at the cellular level has been captured by scientists.

The image shows that proteins are created at connections between brain cells when a long-term memory is formed. Neuroscientists had suspected as much, but hadn't been able to see it happening until now.

The experiment also revealed some surprising aspects of memory formation, which remains a somewhat mysterious process.

Read entire article>>

Follow me on Twitter. Technological Singularity and Futurism is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.

How to hide buildings from earthquakes

bmahfood@gmail.com (Barry Mahfood) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 15:28:00 +0000

Editor's note: Science fiction has long been fascinated with the idea of the cloaking device. But that's only because human beings have long had the occasional need to hide. The most oft-dreamed-of capability is that of making oneself invisible to others while moving about freely among them. So scientists have been working on ways to accomplish just that, focusing on fashioning materials that allow light waves to pass over and around them without being deflected or reflected. Now, scientists are concentrating on other types of waves: The storm waves of tsunamis and the seismic waves of earthquakes.

NewScientist - June 26, 2009, by Colin Barras

Invisibility cloak could hide buildings from quakes

After effects of a major earthquake in Sichuan province, Central China. Could future buildings be protected using the physics of invisibility cloaks? (Image: Sipa Press / Rex Features)

Borrowing from the physics of invisibility cloaks could make it possible to hide buildings from the devastating effects of earthquakes, say physicists in France and the UK.

The "earthquake cloak" idea comes from the team led by Stefan Enoch at the Fresnel Institute in Marseille, France. They were the first to show that the physics of invisibility cloaks could have other applications – designing a cloak that could render objects "invisible" to destructive storm waves or tsunamis.

"The outer rings remain nearly still, but the pair of rings tuned to the frequency of the wave move like crazy, bending up and down and twisting," says Guenneau. "For each small frequency range, there's one pair of rings that does most of the work." The team has simulated cloaks containing as many as 100 rings, says Guenneau, although fewer would be needed to protect against the most common kinds of earthquake surface waves.

The seismic waves of an earthquake fall into two main groups: body waves that propagate through the Earth, and surface waves that travel only across the surface.

Read entire story>>

Follow me on Twitter. Technological Singularity and Futurism is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.

The Meat-Eaters - Domestic robots with a taste for flesh

bmahfood@gmail.com (Barry Mahfood) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:15:00 +0000

Editor's note: Yes, they're real. These robots run on flies, mice, and other disgusting things. Right now they only supplement their power supply with vermin and pests, but they could eventually be self-sustaining. Just like your cat.

NewScientist - June 25, 2009, by Jessica Griggs

This robot catches flies to generate its own energy, click the link in the main text, left to see more of this robot and others with a taste for flesh (Image: Auger-Loizeau)

Futuristic-looking robots like Honda's sleek humanoid Asimo don't cut it for designer James Auger, at the Royal College of Art, London. Believing that they need to fit unobtrusively into the home, he has built robotic furniture. And, believing they need to be useful and entertaining, he has given the furniture an appetite for vermin, like mice and flies.

But the robots also have a taste for flesh. They can gain energy by chomping on flies and mice, an idea inspired by researchers at Bristol Robotics Lab, UK, who built a fly-powered robot and have also suggested that marine robots could feed on plankton.

Auger worked with long time collaborator and fellow designer Jimmy Loizeau to build the five domestic robots. Each can sense its environment, has mechanical moving parts, and can perform basic services for its human hosts, such as telling the time or lighting a room.

Read entire story>>

Follow me on Twitter. Technological Singularity and Futurism is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.

The Future of Mobile Intelligence - Video

bmahfood@gmail.com (Barry Mahfood) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:12:00 +0000

Editor's note: In this presentation by Jamais Cascio he discusses "Mobile Intelligence," and the ways you and I will participate in augmented reality...

Follow me on Twitter. Technological Singularity and Futurism is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.

Brain incorporates tools into body map - Cyborg adaptations no problem?

bmahfood@gmail.com (Barry Mahfood) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:58:00 +0000

Editor's note: Your brain knows where all the parts of your body are at any given moment. This is why you can catch a ball without looking at your hand. There are nerve sensors at your joints that measure angles so that your brain is aware of your body's configuration, moment to moment. This study demonstrates that your brain will incorporate the tools you use into your mental body map, which has implications for the cyborging of your body.

Brain could adapt well to cyborg enhancements: NewScientist - June 23, 2009, by Linda Geddes

The human brain may be able to include cyborg implants in its representation of the body (Image: Jeff J Mitchell / Getty)

When you brush your teeth, the toothbrush may actually become part of your arm – at least as far as your brain is concerned. That's the conclusion of a study showing perceptions of arm length change after people handle a mechanical tool.

The brain might also readily incorporate cyborg additions – a cyborg arm or other body part – into its body schema, says Farné, "and possibly new body parts differing in shape and/or number, for example four arms."

The brain maintains a physical map of the body, with different areas in charge of different body parts. Researchers have suggested that when we use tools, our brains incorporate them into this map.

To test the idea, Alessandro Farné of the University of Claude Bernard in Lyon, France, and colleagues attached a mechanical grabber to the arms of 14 volunteers. The modified subjects then used the grabber to pick up out-of-reach objects.

Read entire story>>

Follow me on Twitter. Technological Singularity and Futurism is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.

Quando, quando quando? - When Will Computers Be Smarter Than Us?

bmahfood@gmail.com (Barry Mahfood) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:57:00 +0000

Editor's note: I am always fascinated by what people like Nick have to say. First, because it's always damned interesting. Second, because I think it behooves me to have an idea where the world is headed. Some may find it more comforting to play the head-burial game. If that floats you, fine, but I see the ability and willingness to adapt to a changing environment as the best way to proceed.

In this article Nick gives a plausible argument for cognitive enhancement, i.e. radically improving human intelligence through merging our brains with technology, as well as exploring the varied means by which intelligence can, and probably will, dramatically multiply on the earth and beyond.

Forbes.com - June 22, 2009, by Nick Bostrom

Intelligence is a big deal. Humanity owes its dominant position on Earth not to any special strength of our muscles, nor any unusual sharpness of our teeth, but to the unique ingenuity of our brains. It is our brains that are responsible for the complex social organization and the accumulation of technical, economic and scientific advances that, for better and worse, undergird modern civilization.

Perhaps the smartest and wisest thing the human species could do would be to work on making itself smarter and wiser. In the longer run, however, biological human brains might cease to be the predominant nexus of earthly intelligence.

All our technological inventions, philosophical ideas and scientific theories have gone through the birth canal of the human intellect. Arguably, human brain power is the chief limiting factor in the development of human civilization.

Read entire story>>

Follow me on Twitter. Technological Singularity and Futurism is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.

Helping the Internet think faster - New technology enables high-speed data transfer

bmahfood@gmail.com (Barry Mahfood) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:44:00 +0000

Editor's note: Signal speed is a significant factor in a brain's intelligence. Consciousness is a function of the rapidity of communication between networks of neurons. This being said, cannot increases in date transfer speeds between computer networks be seen as a harbinger, or prerequisite, of consciousness and intelligence springing forth from the ether?

PhysOrg.com - June 18, 2009

GridFTP, a protocol developed by researchers at Argonne National Laboratory, has been used to transfer unprecedented amounts of data over the Department of Energy's (DOE) Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), which provides a reliable, high-performance communications infrastructure to facilitate large-scale, collaborative science endeavors.

The Argonne-developed system proved key to enabling research groups at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center in California to move large data sets between the facilities at a rate of 200 megabytes per second.

"The data tsunami problem has been a major bottleneck to scientific advancement," said Raj Kettimuthu, technical lead and technology coordinator of the GridFTP project at Argonne. "With GridFTP computational scientists can analyze their simulated and derived data in real time."

The deployment of GridFTP at the two computing facilities is part of a major project to optimize wide-area network data transfers between sites hosting DOE leadership-class computers.

Read entire story>>

Follow me on Twitter. Technological Singularity and Futurism is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.