I try my best to use words to convey the thoughts and feelings that swirl around inside of me but it’s difficult.
Like everyone, I analyze, observe, and ponder, but the resulting synthesis is often a bit fuzzy. I don’t think in the concrete and so my opinions are often not concrete and solid but rather open to interpretation. I don’t write in the abstract like poetry, although I could, I suppose.
What you are about to read are my actual thoughts and I hope you find my observations interesting. These thoughts are just interpretations and do not represent what I think is absolutely factual or anything like that. Think of me an artist who interprets what I see as I wish and not as a reporter reporting the facts as they are. Although my words may sound concrete they are as formless as the imagination itself.
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The video below shows how corporate and government entities hold the individual human in contempt. Before you think me an anarchist or communist, read on:
In a symbiotic relationship, the beliefs, labor, and wealth of individuals combine as the material of which corporations and governments are created. Money, a fictional unit of measure representing the wealth created by our labor, is their sustenance.
They exist partially in the natural world and partially only within the confines of our imaginations. Part human, part logic machine, governments and corporations are the bridge between us and future entities consisting purely of imagination. These future entities will exist completely within software.
Governments and Corporations are ‘embodied of bodies’. Although powerful they are still part human and (so far) cannot overtly control individual humans as, say, animals, but they do their best to subversively effect the feelings and actions of individuals. Let us hope this doesn’t happen in the future!
No commercial or advertisement is going to tell you to be content or happy. Being happy really doesn’t make you happy. We were born of competition and will evolve of competition.
Individuals in advanced societies, having completely internalized this utter contempt for themselves and others, worship the fictional entities that provide for their existence as though they are gods. Immortal and exponentially more powerful than any individual human, they very well might be just that. Or, at least, post- and/or super-human
This internalized contempt for being human is fueling the decline of our civilization and will power our ascent into the unknown.
As much wealth we are able to create you would think we could be completely content. Why are we not sitting around eating grapes in paradise? Participation in evolution seems to be an imperative function of happiness, not wealth and contentment.
Michael Kozicki, director of Arizona State’s Center for Applied Nanoionics, has developed a new type of computer memory that he claims is cheaper and more energy-efficient than current technology.
Photo: Michael Kozicki
By Alexis Madrigal
10.26.07 | 4:00 PM
Researchers have developed a low-cost, low-power computer memory that could put terabyte-sized thumb drives in consumers’ pockets within a few years.
Thanks to a new technique for manipulating charged copper particles at the molecular scale, researchers at Arizona State University say their memory is, bit-for-bit, one-tenth the cost of — and 1,000 times as energy-efficient as — flash memory, the predominant memory technology in iPhones and other mobile devices.
“A thumb drive using our memory could store a terabyte of information,” says Michael Kozicki, director of ASU’s Center for Applied Nanoionics, which developed the technology. “All the current limitations in portable electronic storage could go away. You could record video of every event in your life and store it.”
The new memory technology — programmable metallization cell (PMC) — comes as current storage technologies are starting to reach their physical limits. At the tiny scale envisioned for new devices, flash memory becomes unstable. The physical limits of flash are already being approached, and could be reached in the near future, which could slow product development for portable device makers like Apple and Sandisk.
PMC memory stores information in a fundamentally different way from flash. Instead of storing bits as an electronic charge, the technology creates nanowires from copper atoms the size of a virus to record binary ones and zeros. more>>>
From the Melbourne Daily Herald:
Local whiz speeds up broadband by 200 times
By Annalise Walliker
October 24, 2007 02:00am
A MELBOURNE PhD student has developed technology to make broadband internet up to 200 times faster without having to install expensive fibre optic cables.
Harnessing the potential power of telephone lines and DSL broadband, the technology will deliver internet speeds up to 250 megabits per second, compared with current typical speeds of between one and 20 megabits per second.
Dr John Papandriopoulos, who has patent applications for the technology being processed in the US and Australia, won one of Melbourne University’s top academic prizes yesterday, a Chancellor’s Prize for Excellence in the PhD.
Telephone wiring was poor quality and was not designed for high-speed internet when it was created, Dr Papandriopoulos said.
“Back in the old days, if you picked up the phone you could hear your neighbour’s conversation from cross-talking interference,” he said.
“While that doesn’t happen any more with voice calls, it does with the broadband internet – your telephone line interferes with your neighbours and everyone in your street’s internet.”
Dr Papandriopoulos’ research, which took a year to complete, uses mathematic modelling to reduce the interference that slows down downloading.
EVERY time a world-class chess player loses to a computer, humans die a little. In this book Ian Ayres, a professor of law and management at Yale University, explains how in many less high-profile endeavours, human intuition and flair are more easily beaten. The sheer quantity of data and the computer power now available make it possible for automated processes to surpass human experts in fields as diverse as rating wines, writing film dialogue and choosing titles for books.
The author originally intended to call his book “The end of intuition”. He changed his mind after a Google AdWords campaign which randomly chose which of two advertisements for the book to display: “Super Crunchers” garnered 63% more clicks than his original choice. He tells of credit card companies that are using similar randomised trials to see which combination of offers and advertising make for the most successful mailshots.
Even the occasional government is accepting that properly analysed data trump ideological conviction. Mr Ayres sings the praises of Mexico’s Progresa/Oportunidades programme, which gave assistance to poor people only if their children attended health clinics and schools. It was tried out on 506 randomly selected villages. The results were so convincing that the programme was expanded 100-fold despite a change of government. more>>>
Japan’s NEC Corp has announced the launch of what it called the world’s most powerful supercomputer on the market, meant for advanced use in the sciences.
Since the 1970s, major computer makers such as NEC, Fujitsu and Hitachi in Japan and IBM, Intel and Cray in the United States have been vying to build the most powerful computer, measured in terms of gigaflops and teraflops.
NEC said its latest supercomputer, called SX-9, was capable of calculating 839 teraflops. Each teraflop is a trillion calculations per second. more>>>
This is the kind of research article that makes us Singulatarians cringe…it focuses on what Kurzweil calles the ‘linear intuitive view’ of future events where everything evolves at an orderly pace.
“While science and technology have the potential to create an ideal habitat for humanity over the next millennium, there is the possibility of a monumental genetic hangover over the subsequent millennia due to an over-reliance on technology reducing our natural capacity to resist disease, or our evolved ability to get along with each other.
“After that, things could get ugly, with the possible emergence of genetic ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’.”
Not if we have complete control over our own evolution!!!!!!
By NIALL FIRTH
Last updated at 16:18pm on 26th October 2007
The human race will one day split into two separate species, an attractive, intelligent ruling elite and an underclass of dim-witted, ugly goblin-like creatures, according to a top scientist.
100,000 years into the future, sexual selection could mean that two distinct breeds of human will have developed.
The alarming prediction comes from evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry from the London School of Economics, who says that the human race will have reached its physical peak by the year 3000. more>>>
Synthetic biologists say their technology could tackle climate change and feed the hungry, but its dangers are terrifying
Madeleine Bunting
Monday October 22, 2007
The Guardian
If you’ve never heard of synbio, you will hear plenty in the next decade. Synthetic biology now occupies roughly the same space on the public’s radar that computing might have done in the 1960s or genetic modification in the 1970s – it’s largely unheard of by anyone except the scientific community and its geeky observers. But as the pace of breakthrough in this area quickens, the sense of being on the edge of an extraordinary technological revolution is giving even the scientists involved vertigo.
Part of the reason why synbio has had so little attention in the British media is that most of the running is being made in America. There, a few key players are jockeying for position in a race that promises to make them wealthy in the way that computers did Bill Gates. With the arrival in the UK this week of one of those players, Craig Venter, for a string of public talks, the huge implications of synbio might finally begin to impinge on public consciousness here.more>>>
Is this the absolute truth or a scientific magazine softening the affect of an event which may contribute to the opinion that robotic research should not charge ahead so quickly. On the other hand, ‘Robotic Rampage’ was obviously used as a sensational headline by the original newspaper that broke the story.
This is why I do not trust Big Media. They will choose to report or not to report on something to sell advertising and set their agenda. They will publish wildly sensational headlines just to grab your eyes and place them in front of advertisers. That is the only reason they have for covering news and it affects how they cover it. Most people in our societies still haven’t figured out that their news sources are tainted by power and greed. Long live the Internet! If you’re interested in reading more about this particular subject go HERE to read Noam Chomskys “What Makes Mainstream Media Mainstream”.
From New Scientist:
* 17:26 19 October 2007
* NewScientist.com news service
* Tom Simonite
Nine South African soldiers died and eleven were injured last Friday during a live-fire exercise when an anti-aircraft gun went out of control. But, contrary to some reports, the tragic accident was not the result of an automated or robotic weapon going out of control, a defence expert says.
Initial reports from a South African newspaper say the Oerlikon 35mm Mk5 anti-aircraft twin-barrelled gun jammed while firing. A female soldier tried to free the shell, but another shell was accidentally fired, causing some rounds in the gun’s two near-full ammunition magazines to explode. The gun began firing again and swung in a circle, leaving nine soldiers dead and eleven wounded.
Blogs and other online news sources have suggested the incident may be due to software problems, highlighting the danger of automated weapon systems. But Jim O’Halloran of defence publication Jane’s Land-Based Air Defence says the incident is more likely the result of a simple mechanical failure.
Inside the Robo-Cannon Rampage (Updated)
A South African robotic cannon went out of control, killing nine, “immediately after technicians had finished repairing the weapon,” the Mail & Guardian reports.
A burst of explosive shells, lasting one-eighth of a second, from the barrel of the anti-aircraft gun killed nine soldiers and injured 15 others…
Explaining the circumstances around the incident, which happened last Friday, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota told South Africa’s National Assembly that he training exercise had involved eight guns positioned 20m apart in a line facing north. more>>>
[ Johannesburg, 16 October 2007 ] – The National Defence Force is probing whether a software glitch led to an antiaircraft cannon malfunction that killed nine soldiers and seriously injured 14 others during a shooting exercise on Friday.
SA National Defence Force spokesman brigadier general Kwena Mangope says the cause of the malfunction is not yet known and will be determined by a Board of Inquiry. The police are conducting a separate investigation into the incident. more>>>
The tragedy in South Africa that killed nine soldiers isn’t the first time a robotic weapon has spun out of control. Here’s a video I obtained a few years back, showing a XM-151 Remote Weapons Station emptying its magazine of .50-caliber bullets — and then turning towards the camera, looking for new targets to nail. I’m told — but cannot confirm — that this footage was shot during a demonstration for VIPs, and that several members of Congress would’ve been in serious jeopardy, had the weapon not run out of ammo. more>>>
She was worried about the lump and worried about the children who were worrying about her. She was, however, most worried about the anesthesia. “What if I don’t wake up?” just wasn’t a question I could answer sufficiently for her. Some people take no solace in statistics (that, for example, there are two or three deaths per 1 million patients anesthetized) — these patients are the medical cousins of the folks still crossing the country by train or bus rather than “risking the airplane.” So I warned her that there might be a little pain and agreed to do her biopsy under a local anesthetic — but only if she would allow an anesthesiologist in the room, just in case.
The lump was growing near — maybe on — the inner end of Ellen’s collarbone, meaning that during the biopsy I might have to use a tool that goes “crunch.” It’s pretty hard to numb up bone with a local anesthetic so I was glad to have Frank, the anesthesiologist, there at the head of the table with some IV sedatives, in case Ellen got panicky or was in too much pain. She was adamant about not going under, but agreed to “some sedation” if we thought it was necessary. more>>>
Scientists have developed solar cells 200 hundred times thinner than a human hair that could power the nanoscale gadgetry of tomorrow.
From consumer devices to bioterrorism monitors to in-body diagnostics, this ultra-microscopic technology is poised to take centre stage in less than a decade from now. But finding the sources to power these devices was an issues.
However, Charles Leiber and colleagues at Harvard University, have devised a ‘silicon nanowire’ that can convert light into electrical energy.
Virtually invisible to the naked eye, a single strand can crank out up to 200 picowatts.
Two hundred billionths of a watt may not seem much, but at nanoscale it is enough to provide a steady output of electricity to run ultralow power electronics, including some that could be worn on — or even inside — the body.
It is also clean, highly efficient and renewable.
“An individual nanoelectonic device will indeed consume very little power, but to do something interesting will require many interconnected devices and thus the power requirement — even for nanosystems — can be a challenge,” Lieber said in an e-mail interview. more>>>
A new machine that makes nanostructured fibers could turn soldiers’ uniforms into power supplies.
Wearable power: Researchers have developed technology that combines multiple materials into intricately structured fibers, such as those shown here (right). The researchers hope to make fibers that can store energy or convert sunlight into power, for use in soldiers’ uniforms.
Credit: (left) U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center, (right) Hills, Inc.
By Kevin Bullis
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
A novel machine that makes nanostructured fibers could be the key to a new generation of military uniforms that take on active functions such as generating and storing energy.
The fibers can be made of up to three different materials, arranged in regular, nanoscale patterns visible in cross section. (See slide show.) The machine, manufactured by Hills, of West Melbourne, FL, is one of only two in the world capable of producing such fibers, says Stephen Fossey, a researcher at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center, in Natick, MA. The machine is scheduled to be delivered early next year to the Natick facility, where it will serve as the centerpiece of a program geared to making multifunctional uniforms.
Among the machine’s many potential uses is assembling fibers that act as rechargeable batteries. Angela Belcher, a professor of biological engineering and materials science and engineering at MIT, says that some of the sample structures the device has made could be useful for combining positive and negative battery electrodes and electrolytes into individual threads. Such threads could be woven into uniforms and paired with threads that act as fuel cells or photovoltaics. more>>>
Source: University of Manchester
Date: October 18, 2007
University of Manchester researchers have transformed fat tissue stem cells into nerve cells – and now plan to develop an artificial nerve that will bring damaged limbs and organs back to life.
In a study published in October’s Experimental Neurology, Dr Paul Kingham and his team at the UK Centre for Tissue Regeneration (UKCTR) isolated the stem cells from the fat tissue of adult animals and differentiated them into nerve cells to be used for repair and regeneration of injured nerves. They are now about to start a trial extracting stem cells from fat tissue of volunteer adult patients, in order to compare in the laboratory human and animal stem cells.
Following that, they will develop an artificial nerve constructed from a biodegradable polymer to transplant the differentiated stem cells. The biomaterial will be rolled up into a tube-like structure and inserted between the two ends of the cut nerve so that the regrowing nerve fibre can go through it from one end to the other.
This ‘bionic’ nerve could also be used in people who have suffered trauma injuries to their limbs or organs, cancer patients whose tumour surgery has affected a nearby nerve trunk and people who have had organ transplants.
With a clinical trial on the biomaterial about to be completed, the researchers hope the treatment could be ready for use in four or five years.
Dr Kingham said: “The differentiated stem cells have great potential for future clinical use, initially for treatment of patients with traumatic injuries of nerves in the arms and legs. more>>>
Assembling nanomaterials with the help of innocuous viruses could lead to threadlike ¬batteries and photovoltaics that can be woven into clothing.
By Kevin Bullis
Tiny building blocks: A small vial contains a billion viruses, each with a slightly different genetic modification. These can be screened to determine which of them will bind to specific inorganic materials, such as those used in rechargeable batteries.
Credit: Porter Gifford
Angela Belcher leans in to watch as a machine presses down slowly on the plunger of a syringe, injecting a billion harmless viruses into a clear liquid. Instead of diffusing into the solution as they escape the needle, the viruses cling together, forming a wispy white fiber that’s several centimeters long and about as strong as a strand of nylon. A graduate student, Chung-Yi Chiang, fishes it out with a pair of tweezers. Then he holds it up to an ultraviolet light, and the fiber begins to glow bright red.
In producing this novel fiber, the researchers have demonstrated a completely new way of making nanomaterials, one that uses viruses as microscopic building blocks. Belcher, a professor of materials science and biological engineering at MIT, says the approach has two main advantages.
First, in high concentrations the viruses tend to organize themselves, lining up side by side to form an orderly pattern. Second, the viruses can be genetically engineered to bind to and organize inorganic materials such as those used in battery electrodes, transistors, and solar cells. The programmed viruses coat themselves with the materials and then, by aligning with other viruses, assemble into crystalline structures useful for making high-performance devices. more>>>
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Blogging the Singularity Bloggers:
Chris Williamson: Filmmaker, science enthusiast, and futurist concerned with the accelerating nature of technological growth and where it's headed. He is currently studying for his MFA in Film Production.
Frank Whittemore: As an IT professional since 1961, the accelerating change of technology is not news to him but the wonder will never cease! Be sure check out Frank's blog about Life Extension!
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