Clipmarks | wildcat's futurism collection

We'll all be citizens of virtual worlds

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 11:13:41 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: What is the point of all this? It is quite likely that it will be a natural thing for future generations to meet their friends in worlds such as these, where they can watch the same music or videos while chatting to each other. And if that is where youngsters will be hanging out, then brands and media, including newspapers, will have to be there. Other life-mimicking worlds about to be released include shopping malls such as themall.tv, which aims to emulate an entire shopping mall with scores of high street shops. It claims to have signed up 500 brands.

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Most people still look askance if you admit to using virtual worlds where you move around with an avatar or 3D version of yourself. It recalls the technophobic reactions in the early days of the internet. But attitudes may now change for two reasons. First, children are piling into their own virtual worlds, so their parents can get a glimpse of what it is all about. And second, a huger user base is being created, one that is accustomed to virtual worlds and is ready to trade up to more sophisticated ones as they grow older.

Some of the kids' sites have more registered (but not necessarily active) members than countries have citizens. These include Habbo Hotel (more than 100 million registered users), Neopets (45 million) and Disney's Club Penguin (20 million). Up the scale there are spaces such as Second Life and hipihi.com from China. Kzero reckons that there are about 100 million active users of virtual world.

Second, virtual worlds are changing fast

Tags: virtual worlds

The Landscape of Possible Intelligences

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:50:30 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: If we imagine the levels of intelligence as a ladder with unevenly spaced rungs, there may be jumps that some intelligences are not able to complete, or their derivatives are not able to jump. So a type 3 mind may be able to jump up four levels of bootstrapping intelligence, but not five. Since I don't believe intelligence is linear (that is I believe intelligence grows in many dimensions), a better illustration may be to view the problem of bootstrapping super intelligence as navigating across a rugged evolutionary landscape.

Clip Source: www.kk.org

We can distinguish several categories of elementary minds in relation to bootstrapping:

1) A mind capable of imagining, or identifying a greater mind.
2) A mind capable of imaging but incapable of designing a greater mind.
3) A mind capable of designing a greater mind.

We fit the first criteria, but it is unclear whether we are of the second or third type of mind. There is also a fourth type, which follows the third:

4) A mind capable of generating a greater mind which in turn itself creates a greater mind, and so on.

This is an cascading, bootstrapping mind. Once a mind reaches this level, the recursive mind-enlargement can either keep going ad infinitum, or it might reach some limit. On the other hand, there may be more than one threshold in intelligence. Think of it as quantum levels. A mind may be able to make a mind smarter than itself, but the offspring mind may not be smart enough to make the next leap, and so gets stuck.

Tags: intelligence, limits, smarts, minds

The second enlightenment project

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:29:00 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: just discovered and exploring

Clip Source: www.2enlightenment.com

The following table suggests an evolution of key principles of how society has been organized in the Industrial Age and how we expect these principles to morph as society becomes more complex, integrated and constantly changing. These undergird the basis for the idea of a need for a Second Enlightenment.

Independent

(Either/Or)

Interdependent

(And/Both) Systemic

Self-interest

Help
Each Other Succeed

Concomitant

Good Linear
Thinking Connective
Thinking Synthesis
& Generation Static
Structures Modules,
Webs and Networks Dynamic
Adaptability Reductionism
Holism Connective
Analysis Standard
Education and Accountability Unlearning,
Uplearning and Non-Linear Transformative
Learning

Meaning
from Materialism
Meaning from Creativity/Spiritualism Balance
of Values Competition
Collaboration Generative
Development Prediction
and Certainty Anticipation
and Ambiguity Parallel

Strategic and

Ecological

Planning

Tags: second enlightenment

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:08:58 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: Video games are reshaping how we perform and promote science. A review by Seed Mag

Clip Source: www.seedmagazine.com

The digital revolution now engulfing our world emerged from the events during and immediately after the Second World War, when intellectual titans such as Alan Turing, John von Neumann, Norbert Wiener, and Claude Shannon roamed the Earth. Many of the predictions they made for the future in those early days are now reality, or something close to it. Turing foresaw computers as artificial intelligences. Neumann imagined machines that could reproduce themselves. Wiener guessed at a merging of biology and technology, and Shannon predicted the primacy of pure information over physical matter. But were these "founding fathers" to somehow see the state of modern computer science, they might be surprised that some of their wildest dreams are being fulfilled not under the explicit auspice of research, but of recreation

Emergence & Complexity
Spore

www.spore.com

Brain-Computer Interaction
Emotiv Systems' EPOC headset

Crowdsourcing
Foldit

Science Education
Immune Attack

3D Virtual Creature Evolution

Tags: video games, digital revolution

The Coming Convergence

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 11:13:34 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: The message is clear: the choices we make now will converge to create a near and distant future that will be almost unbelievably wonderful or unimaginably catastrophic, or both. This knowledgeable, fascinating glimpse into the future is a must read for everyone interested in technology, upcoming innovations in business, science fiction, and the future.

Clip Source: www.sfwa.org

The Coming Convergence
The Surprising Ways Diverse Technologies Interact to Shape Our World and Change the Future

Imagine direct communication links between the human brain and machines, or tailored materials capable of adapting by themselves to changing environmental conditions, or computer chips and environmental sensors embedded into everyday clothing, or medical technologies that eliminate currently untreatable conditions such as blindness and paralysis. Now imagine all of these developments occurring at the same time. The stuff of science fiction?

Not So. These are actually the reasonable predictions of scientists attempting to forecast a few decades into the future based on the rapid pace of innovation.

Longer, healthier lives

Cheap, generally available food, energy, and technology

Reduced pollution and environmental stress

Economic disruption during transitional periods

Excessive power in too few hands

Increased vulnerability from overdependence on technology.

Tags: convergence, technologies, future, singularity

Brave New World of Digital Intimacy

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 12:15:43 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: It is easy to become unsettled by privacy-eroding aspects of awareness tools. But there is another — quite different — result of all this incessant updating: a culture of people who know much more about themselves. Many of the avid Twitterers, Flickrers and Facebook users I interviewed described an unexpected side-effect of constant self-disclosure. The act of stopping several times a day to observe what you’re feeling or thinking can become, after weeks and weeks, a sort of philosophical act. It’s like the Greek dictum to “know thyself,” or the therapeutic concept of mindfulness. (Indeed, the question that floats eternally at the top of Twitter’s Web site — “What are you doing?” — can come to seem existentially freighted. What are you doing?) Having an audience can make the self-reflection even more acute, since, as my interviewees noted, they’re trying to describe their activities in a way that is not only accurate but also interesting to others: the status update as a literary form.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

On Sept. 5, 2006, Mark Zuckerberg changed the way that Facebook worked, and in the process he inspired a revolt.

Pundits predicted that News Feed would kill Facebook, but the opposite happened. It catalyzed a massive boom in the site’s growth. A few weeks after the News Feed imbroglio, Zuckerberg opened the site to the general public (previously, only students could join), and it grew quickly; today, it has 100 million users

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

In essence, Facebook users didn’t think they wanted constant, up-to-the-minute updates on what other people are doing. Yet when they experienced this sort of omnipresent knowledge, they found it intriguing and addictive. Why?

Social scientists have a name for this sort of incessant online contact. They call it “ambient awareness.” It is, they say, very much like being physically near someone and picking up on his mood through the little things he does — body language, sighs, stray comments — out of the corner of your eye.

Tags: brave new world, digital intimacy

Futurese- English in 3000 AD

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:13:57 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: So how far will another thousand years take it?

Clip Source: www.xibalba.demon.co.uk

Predicting the future of the English language is rather easy, in the short term. The odds are, over the next few decades its New World dialects are going to gain increasing global dominance, accelerating the demise of thousands of less fortunate languages but at long last allowing a single advertisement to reach everybody in the world. Then after a century or two of US dominance some other geopolitical grouping will gain the ascendancy, everyone will learn Chechen or Patagonian or whatever it is, and history will continue as usual. Ho hum. But apart from that... what might the language actually look like in a thousand years time? For comparison, the English spoken at the turn of the last millennium looked like this:

Wé cildra biddaþ þé, éalá láréow, þæt þú taéce ús sprecan rihte, forþám ungelaérede wé sindon, and gewæmmodlíce we sprecaþ...

We children beg you, teacher, that you should teach us to speak correctly, because we are ignorant and we speak corruptly...

Tags: language, future

Say wow! the flying jellyfish

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 11:49:00 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: airshipworld.blogspot.com

Last year Festo surprised everyone with their amazing prototype of the Air_ray a manta ray that swims through the air and the b-IONIC Airfish. We reported on it in a great post which was titled "Airships are just like fish in the sky" Festo is currently at the Hannover Messe 2008 and they brought an just as stunning new project with them. We present the Air Jelly, a jellyfish that swims through the air. Currently the information about the AirJelly is only available in German at the Festo Website but the pictures speak for them self, of course we also provide you with a direct link to the autotranslated Page in English about the AirJelly
The Video on the Website of Festo did not work for me so I uploaded it to YouTube just in case you can not see the "Flim" on the Festo website:

Tags: robotics, jellyfish

One hundred tesla without self-destructing

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 10:40:36 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: Why would anyone need a magnet that strong? Greg Boebinger, director of the Magnet Lab, says that this magnetic field strength is the only way to test the properties of newly discovered high-temperature superconductors like iron oxyarsenide, which may improve the performance of MRI machines and high-voltage power lines while lowering their cost. A 100‑T magnet would also let you conduct certain zero-gravity experiments without traveling into space and let you develop magnetic propulsion systems that could eventually replace those that burn rocket fuel.

Clip Source: spectrum.ieee.org

World's Most Powerful Magnet Under Construction By Willie D. Jones

First Published September 2008

Magnetic Moment: Engineers are readying a supercooled, record-setting 100-tesla magnet at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The magnet will have to withstand forces equivalent to 200 sticks of dynamite.

Multiply the magnetic field strength of a refrigerator magnet by 2 million and you'll be in the ballpark of the strength of the magnet that researchers at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, based near Florida State University in Tallahassee, are trying to create. When completed later this year, the pulsed electromagnet, located at the lab's facility at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, in New Mexico, will reach 100 tesla, the holy grail of magnetic field strength. And in another first, if all goes according to plan it will reach that level—about 67 times as high as a typical MRI—without blowing itself to smithereens.

Tags: tesla, magnet, physics

Telepresence Robot TiLR at the X PRIZE Foundation

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 13:21:36 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: revolutionary technology

Clip Source: www.prweb.com

RoboDynamics is an innovative robotics company that develops enterprise Robotic Telepresence platforms such as TiLR. By using TiLR the X Prize Foundation is shifting the paradigm of face to face communications whereby a person can now transport himself instantly to their offices without actually being at their office. This new mode of collaboration will dramatically reduce downtime, increase productivity, and eliminate travel. The robot is installed at the Google Lunar X Prize offices within the X Prize Foundation.

Robotic Telepresence provides the ability to instantly transport a person to a remote location without the person actually going there. Robotic Telepresence is similar to video conferencing in that there is a real time audio/video link, but also provides the means for the user to commandeer the robot and move about the remote location as though the user was actually there.

For more information please visit www.robodynamics.com

Tags: telepresence, robot, tilr, x prize foundation

Michael Phelps: ‘Naturally’ transhuman

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:37:25 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: * He has proportionately short legs relative to his long, powerful trunk; this large upper body is the engine that powers his long arms. Moreover, his unique physique reduces drag through the water and allows for maximum propulsion.
* Phelps has a greater-than-average lung capacity allowing him to execute his underwater dolphin kicks longer than the competition.
* He has a genetic advantage that cause his muscles to produce 50% less lactic acid than other athletes. This means he can work at higher work loads for longer periods.
* With a low body fat of 4%, he is better able to convert his effort into speed.

Looking at this list it’s as if Phelps was designed to swim.

Which leads to an interesting question: Given the potential for genetic modification and gene doping, should it be acceptable for other athletes to acquire the same physiological endowments through artificial means?

If not, what makes it so acceptable to come by these traits ‘naturally?’ And how

Clip Source: ieet.org

Watching Michael Phelps swim you quickly realize that he’s not like the others. He’s clearly in a league of his own.

Or more accurately, he’s swimming in a genetic pool of his own. Phelps has a number of fortuitous physical endowments that have enabled him to dominate like no other. Simply put, he is the perfect swimmer.

Here’s what Phelps has going for him:

Most people have a wingspan that matches their height. Not Phelps. He may be 6’4” tall, but his arms extend outward to a total of 6’7”.

The average shoe size for a person the size of Phelps is 12; he wears a size 14 which gives him a 10% advantage over the competition.

He also has a larger than average hand size which allows him to move more water.

Phelps is double-jointed in the chest area; this enables him to extend his arms higher above his head and pull down at an angle that increases his efficiency through the water by as much as 20%; this also allows him to have quicker starts and turns.

Tags: natural, transhuman

Brainloop

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:24:03 GMT

clipped by: cyberwiz

Clip Source: www.aksioma.org

Brainloop is an interactive performance platform that utilizes a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) system which allows a subject to operate devices merely by imagining specific motor commands. These mentally visualized commands may be seen as the rehearsal of a motor act without the overt motor output; a neural synapse occurs but the actual movement is blocked at the corticospinal level. Motor imagery such as "move left hand", "move right hand" or "move feet" become non-muscular communication and control signals that convey messages and commands to the external world. In Brainloop the performer is able - without physically moving - to investigate urban areas and rural landscapes as he globe-trots around virtual Google Earth. Through motor imagery, he selects locations, camera angles and positions and records these image sequences in a virtual world.

Surge in Food Nanotechnology Worries Consumers

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:09:20 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: Davies quoted David Rejeski of the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, who advocates a U.S. investment of $150 million a year in such research by 2010, to benefit from an industry that will involve “15 percent of globally manufactured goods, worth $2.6 trillion, by 2014.”

Clip Source: www.findingdulcinea.com

As more foods produced by nanotechnology are making their way to the public, some consumers worry about the health implications of the largely unregulated industry.

Companies say that so-called nanofoods could be more flavorful and healthier than regular food. There’s even indication that a juicy hamburger could taste the same minus the fat and cholesterol, and peanuts could one day provide an innocuous snack for those with peanut allergies, for example.

Nanotechnology alters the characteristics of materials by manipulating their atoms and molecules, which generally measure only about 1–100 nanometers. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter, and a single human hair measures 100,000 nanometers wide.

Nanotechnology has already brought advances in medicine, weaponry, construction, and consumer products, including lightweight tennis rackets, bicycles, certain sunscreens, washing machines and containers for food

Tags: nanotech, food, future

Gordon Moore's Next Act

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 10:27:21 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: The man behind Moore's Law is tackling biodiversity, the future of engineering education, and the secrets of the galaxies

Clip Source: spectrum.ieee.org

“ANYTHING BUT MOORE’S LAW”: Semiconductor pioneer Gordon E. Moore hopes his philanthropic work will have an enduring impact.

Gordon E. Moore, cofounder and chairman emeritus of Intel Corp., the world’s 288th richest man, and the eponymous soothsayer of one of technology’s most famous “laws,” sits across from me, eating a turkey sandwich.

Moore was a 36-year-old research physicist at Fairchild Semiconductor Corp. when he wrote his famous forecast, in the 35th anniversary issue of Electronics magazine. He predicted that the number of transistors manufacturers would be able to put on a chip would double every year. At the time, a state-of-the-art chip had about 50 transistors. In 1975, Moore revised the doubling period to two years, thinking that the pattern would last at most a decade longer. To his surprise, it still holds true today, as a new Intel chip, code-named Tukwila, hits the market with 2 billion transistors.

Tags: gordon moore

Where Is Human Evolution Heading?

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 11:21:07 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: The race's DNA is changing faster than ever; what it means for our descendants

Clip Source: www.usnews.com

If you judge the progress of humanity by Homer Simpson, Paris Hilton, and Girls Gone Wild videos, you might conclude that our evolution has stalled—or even shifted into reverse. Not so, scientists say. Humans are evolving faster than ever before, picking up new genetic traits and talents that may help us survive a turbulent future.

Much remodeling has gone on since the dawn of agriculture about 10 millenniums ago. "People who lived 10,000 years ago were much more like Neanderthals than we are like those people," says John Hawks, a professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin. "We've changed."

Hawks is among a growing number of scientists who are using whole-genome sequencing and other modern technologies to zero in on just how we've changed. Their research is helping illuminate not only how humans became what we are but also where we might be headed

Humans will continue to change to cope with new diseases, if history is any guide

Tags: dna, mutations, evolution