Clipmarks | wildcat's singularity collection

Building 'The Matrix'

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:57:09 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: Feynman envisioned, a general purpose, programmable quantum computer could itself carry out quantum simulations. But such machines are still decades away, most researchers say, while machines designed only for quantum simulations may become available sooner.

Clip Source: www.sciencenews.org

Simulating the complexity of quantum physics would quickly overwhelm even the most advanced of today’s computers.

If The Matrix really existed, it would probably have to be a quantum simulator. The fictional computer in that story can create virtual worlds indistinguishable from the real one and project them into people’s minds. But the real world includes quantum phenomena, something ordinary computers can’t fully simulate.

Now physicists have created a rudimentary prototype of a machine that simulates quantum phenomena using quantum physics, rather than using data kept in a classical computer. While the new device can't make people fly like the Matrix does, it demonstrates a technique that could enable physicists to create, in the virtual world, materials that don't yet exist in nature and perhaps figure out how to build, in the real world, superconductors that work at room temperature, for example.

Tags: complexity, quantum mechanics, matrix

Toward a Type 1 civilization

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:59:25 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: Along with energy policy, political and economic systems must also evolve.
Michael Shermer, one of the most trusted voices in todays world.

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

By Michael Shermer
July 22, 2008

Our civilization is fast approaching a tipping point. Humans will need to make the transition from nonrenewable fossil fuels as the primary source of our energy to renewable energy sources that will allow us to flourish into the future. Failure to make that transformation will doom us to the endless political machinations and economic conflicts that have plagued civilization for the last half-millennium.

We need new technologies to be sure, but without evolved political and economic systems, we cannot become what we must. And what is that? A Type 1 civilization. Let me explain.

Type 1 can harness all of the energy of its home planet; Type 2 can harvest all of the power of its sun; and Type 3 can master the energy from its entire galaxy.

Based on our energy efficiency at the time, in 1973 the astronomer Carl Sagan estimated that Earth represented a Type 0.7 civilization on a Type 0 to Type 1 scale. (More current assessments put us at 0.72.)

Tags: michael shermer, civilization, transformation

HYPERPOLITICS (AMERICAN STYLE) A Talk By Mark Pesce

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:21:06 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: The power redistributions of the 21st century have dealt representative democracies out. Representative democracies are a poor fit to the challenges ahead, and 'rebooting' them is not enough. The future looks nothing like democracy, because democracy, which sought to empower the individual, is being obsolesced by a social order which hyperempowers him.

Clip Source: www.edge.org

Introduction

In his well-received talk at this year's Personal Democracy Forum (organized by Andrew Rasiej and Micah Sifry), "digital ethnologist" Mark Pesce makes the point that "we have a drive to connect and socialize: this drive has now been accelerated and amplified as comprehensively as the steam engine amplified human strength two hundred and fifty years ago. Just as the steam engine initiated the transformation of the natural landscape into man-made artifice, the 'hyperconnectivity' engendered by these new toys is transforming the human landscape of social relations. This time around, fifty thousand years of cultural development will collapse into about twenty.

"we may have had great hardware, but it took a long, long time for humans to develop software which made full use of it"

"where sharing had been a local and generational project for fifty thousand years, it suddenly became a geographical project across nearly half the diameter of the planet".

Tags: hyperpolitics, talk, digital ethnology

The Coming Death Shortage

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:33:49 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: "Why the longevity boom will make us sorry to be alive" a must read.
Though I fail to agree with many of the premises of this article, the critical views it presents are important and the issues need be taken into consideration seriously

Clip Source: www.theatlantic.com

Stem-cell banks, telomerase amplifiers, somatic gene therapy—the list of potential longevity treatments incubating in laboratories is startling. Three years ago a multi-institutional scientific team led by Aubrey de Grey, a theoretical geneticist at Cambridge University, argued in a widely noted paper that the first steps toward "engineered negligible senescence"—a rough-and-ready version of immortality—would have "a good chance of success in mice within ten years." The same techniques, De Grey says, should be ready for human beings a decade or so later. "In ten years we'll have a pill that will give you twenty years," says Leonard Guarente, a professor of biology at MIT. "And then there'll be another pill after that. The first hundred-and-fifty-year-old may have already been born."

The critical issue, in Goldman's view, will be not the costs per se but determining who will pay them. "We're going to have a very public debate about whether this will be covered by insurance," he says

Tags: longevity, death, economy, future, public debate

New Memory Technologies

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:41:54 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: Considering the recent advances in Brain-Machine interface, and the development of new neural implants, it is quite clear that Memory management is only the tip of the iceberg, I definitely agree with D.Peletier that the main effect of these new technologies will be to vastly improve our wellbeing

Clip Source: www.positivefuturist.com

By Dick Pelletier

If there was a pill that could immediately improve your memory, enabling you to recall any selected event in your past with sharp detail, would you take it? How about a pill that would erase an unwanted memory, like a traumatic childhood event that still bothers you in adult life?

And even more radical, would you like to download knowledge directly into your brain enabling you to immediately speak and understand a new language, or instantly learn any new subject matter, without suffering through the lengthy process of learning from scratch?

Memory-managing drugs hold promise to change the boundaries of freedom of thought similar to how the Internet is changing freedom of speech

As we enter into what positive futurists refer to as a “magical future” time, we realize that science and technologies can do more than just repair sick people; they can raise our standard of living, add to our happiness, and greatly improve how we interact with the world around us

Tags: memory, technologies, mind upgrade

The Death of HAL –the Evolving Digital Ecosystem

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:07:58 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

One of the greatest fears of many is the underlying knowledge that, all the wonderful advances of technology, the internet and robotics is simply bringing us closer to being subservient to our robotic overlords. It is essentially a historical imperative, and we can see it coming a mile away.

However British Computer Society President and ECS Professor of Artificial Intelligence Nigel Shadbolt, believes differently.

Instead of intelligence that is a “brain in a box”, we are seeing intelligence that is assistive, adaptive and flexible. They are helping us “drive our cars, diagnose disease and provide opponents in computer games.”
In other words, instead of an intelligence that is “…agonizing about their existence or whether we are about to switch them off” we are seeing the growth of intelligence that, in years to come, will immerse us and center around humans, rather than feel the need to enslave humans.

“What is emerging now is a digital ecosystem,’

Tags: ai, evolution, digital ecosystem, the net, the grid

The Future

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:50:40 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: This is a special report that appeared on Forbes on 10.15.07 and has an impressive list of visionaries talking about the future. highly recommended reading. click the names to read the visions

Clip Source: www.forbes.com

hat happened to the future? Weren't things supposed to be cooler by now, smarter, safer? Raised on a steady diet of science fiction, overzealous politicians and corporate hype, Americans expected to be living in The Jetsons -- but instead find themselves stuck in a scarier version of The Waltons.

The truth is that people simply aren't very good at predicting the future. It was only two centuries ago that we began to think we could do it at all, and we're still learning. Hindsight may be 20/20, but foresight remains largely blind.

Visionaries

What were you sure would happen, but didn't? What totally surprised you?

Joel A. Barker
Wendell Bell
Stuart Brand
David Brin
Pat Cadigan
James Canton
Ed Cornish
Esther Dyson
Scott W. Erickson
Frank Feather
Jacque Fresco
Harry Harrison
Hazel Henderson

Sohail Inayatullah
William Knoke
Richard Lamb
John Mahaffie
Syd Mead
John Naisbitt
Nicholas Negroponte
Bob Rogers
Rudy Rucker
Paul Saffo
Robert Sawyer
Stephen Wolfram

Tags: visionaries, future

Artificial Intelligence under the spotlight at BA Festival

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:34:25 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: ‘Computers are now one million times more powerful than when I started my research career – no field has come close to this rate of development,’ he says. ‘If transport had progressed at the same rate we would be flying from London to New York in less than a tenth of second.’

Clip Source: www.ecs.soton.ac.uk

Although Hollywood often likes to present us with a world full of self-aware and destructive robots in the style of I Robot, this is not the way the science of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is headed, says British Computer Society President and ECS Professor of Artificial Intelligence Nigel Shadbolt.

Speaking at the BA Festival of Science in York tomorrow (Tuesday 11 September), Professor Shadbolt will outline how developments in the speed and power of computers, the emergence of the World Wide Web, and our deeper understanding of human and animal intelligence is producing a different but no less exciting future.

‘AI has had a huge influence on the past and present of computer science – it will be a large part of the future but not in the way you might think,’ says Professor Shadbolt, an AI expert in the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton.

Tags: ai, the net, robotics

Nothing to lose but their chains

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:36:49 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.economist.com

Robots are getting cleverer and more dexterous. Their time has almost come

Today, thanks to the relentless increase in the power of computing, the latest robots are being fitted with sophisticated systems that enable them to see, feel, move and work together. Robot engineers call this “mechatronics”: the union of mechanics, optics, electronics, computers and software. Some factory robots are now smart enough to be released from their safety cages to work among humans. And as they become cleverer and more dexterous, they are starting to move from factories to offices and homes.

A robot is defined not by its appearance, but by how it is controlled. The more automated it is and the more it can determine its behaviour, the more likely it is to count as a robot. Many single-function service robots are already familiar

Vision and touch are improving fast enough for the cage soon to be removed.

As with industrial robots, the first service robots to enter production will be shaped by their job

Tags: robotics, dexterity, economy, industrialization, technology

Thought control: it's the computer world's latest game plan

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 11:44:22 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: “This is the tip of the iceberg for what is possible,” said Tan Le, another of Emotiv's co-founders, during a recent press demonstration. “There will be a convergence of gesture-based technology and the brain as a new interface - the Holy Grail is the mind.”

Clip Source: technology.timesonline.co.uk

First came the joystick. Then came the motion-sensing Wii remote. Now get ready for another radical and rather unsettling leap in video games technology: thought control.

Satoru Iwata, the president and chief executive of Nintendo - which is expected to sell about 25million units of its successful Wii video games console this financial year - has no doubts about the next gaming boom. “As soon as we think something in our brain, it will appear within a video game,” he told The Times in an exclusive interview.

“You'll probably need to wear some kind of hat or helmet or something.”

As far-fetched as it sounds, Mr Iwata's claim - which brings to mind the plot of Craig Thomas's bestselling 1977 novel Firefox, about a mind-reading Soviet fighter aircraft - is already coming true: the world's first thought-controlled game is expected to be launched by the Sydney company Emotiv by the end of this year.

Tags: gaming, neuroscience, mind, emotiv

“Metabolically Dominant Soldier.”

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:57:37 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: nextbigfuture.com

$3 billion super soldier program: 10 times muscle endurance, 7 foot vertical leap, wall crawling, personal flight and more

DARPA today has a long-term, $3 billion program to help make such a “Metabolically Dominant Soldier.” In other words, the military is studying how to use technology and biology to meld man and machine and transcend the limits of the human body. Described the project director, “My measure of success is that the International Olympic Committee bans everything we do" The $3 billion program is definitely trying to achieve transhuman performance goals.

The wearable gear would enable running at 100 meter olympic sprinter speed for hours and the 7 foot vertical leap, the wall crawling, personal flight, invisibility, greatly enhanced strength, better body armor and carrying bigger and more powerful weapons.

The drugs and genetic enhancements and some technology which gets applied would allow for regeneration, faster healing

endurance of an Alaskan sled dog

cognitive enhancement

Tags: super soldier, human body, enhancement

We've seen the future ... and we may not be doomed

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:22:44 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

UN report finds life is getting better for people worldwide – but that governments are failing to grasp the opportunities offered at 'a unique time'. Geoffrey Lean and Jonathan Owen report

Humanity stands on the threshold of a peaceful and prosperous future, with an unprecedented ability to extend lifespans and increase the power of ordinary people – but is likely to blow it through inequality, violence and environmental degradation. And governments are not equipped to ensure that the opportunities are seized and disasters averted.

Ours is the first generation with the means for many to know the world as a whole, identify global improvement systems

and

improve

Tags: another, optimistic, clip

Humans and machines will merge in future

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:37:27 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: "We want to preserve the best of what it is to be human and maybe even amplify that," Bostrom told CNN

Clip Source: edition.cnn.com

LONDON, England (CNN) -- A group of experts from around the world will Thursday hold a first of its kind conference on global catastrophic risks.

They will discuss what should be done to prevent these risks from becoming realities that could lead to the end of human life on earth as we know it.

Speakers at the four-day event at Oxford University in Britain will talk about topics including nuclear terrorism and what to do if a large asteroid were to be on a collision course with our planet.

On the final day of the Global Catastrophic Risk Conference experts will focus on what could be the unintended consequences of new technologies, such as superintelligent machines that, if ill-conceived, might cause the demise of Homo sapiens.

"Any entity which is radically smarter than human beings would also be very powerful,"

said Dr. Nick Bostrom

"If we get something wrong, you could imagine the consequences would involve the extinction of the human species."

Tags: humans, machines, merge, future, biotech

Self-Assembling Tissues

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:16:19 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.technologyreview.com

Living Legos can be directed to form tissue-like structures.

Tissue engineers are ambitious. If they had their way, a dialysis patient could receive a new kidney made in the lab from his own cells, instead of waiting for a donor organ that his immune system might reject. Likewise, a diabetic could, with grafts of lab-made pancreatic tissue, be given the ability to make insulin again. But tissue engineering has stalled in part because bioengineers haven't been able to replicate the structural complexity of human tissues. Now researchers have taken an important first step toward building complex tissues from the bottom up by creating what they call living Legos. These building blocks, biofriendly gels of various shapes studded with cells, can self-assemble into complex structures resembling those found in tissues.

"Living tissues have repeating functional units," says Ali Khademhosseini, a bioengineer at Harvard Medical School.

Tags: self-assembling, tissues, bioengineering, biotech

The Future Isn't What it Used to Be! (It's Going to be Better)

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:09:11 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

The future continues to get better for most of the world, but a series of tipping points could drastically alter global prospects."

2008 UN State of the Future Report

We've seen the future ... and we may not be doomed. So says the UN 2008 State of the Future Report that finds life is getting better for people worldwide, but that governments are failing to respond to critical time-sensitive opportunities.

"This is a unique time in history. Mobile phones, the internet, international trade, language translation and jet planes are giving birth to an interdependent humanity that can create and implement global strategies to improve its prospects," reports 2008 State of the Future. "It is increasingly clear that the world has the resources to address our common challenges. Ours is the first generation with the means for many to know the world as a whole, identify global improvement systems, and seek to improve them."

Humanity stands on the threshold of a peaceful and prosperous future

Tags: future, we are not doomed, humanity