Archive for February, 2009

Vernor Vinge, Computer Scientist and Sci-Fi Author, Says on IdeasProject.com that Technology Will Transform Human Beings into ‘Superhumanly Intelligent Critters’…

Click here for information found on PRWeb Press Release Newswire.

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Google co-founder Larry Page and NASA are looking forward to a day in the near future when the problem-solving abilities of computers outstrips the meager mental resources of humans in dealing with the big problems facing humanity: hunger, poverty, climate change, energy, etc.

Click here for an article titled “The beginning is near” found in The Idaho Mountain Express and Guide.

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h+ covers technological, scientific, and cultural trends that are changing — and will change — human beings in fundamental ways.

More than that, h+ aims to reflect this newest edge culture by featuring creative expressions of humanity on a razor’s edge where daily life and science fiction seem to be merging.

Click here to view the Spring 2009 Issue.

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Transcendent Man introduces the life and ideas of Ray Kurzweil, the renowned futurist who journeys the world offering his vision of a future in which we will merge with our machines, can live forever, and are billions of times more intelligent…all within the next thirty years.

Click above to play the trailer. Click here for the movie website.

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The video below is an introduction to the James Martin 21st Century School at the University of Oxford, by Director Dr. Ian Goldin. The goal of the School is to formulate new concepts, policies and technologies that will make the future a better place to be -

For more information about the school -
Click here to view their website.

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“Society is changing at a pace that can seem like it’s whirling out of control. And you haven’t seen anything yet.”

Click here for the entire article titled “Change: Approaching Singularity” found in the Star Tribune.

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CLICK IN THE PLAYING VIDEO AND DRAG THE MOUSE AROUND TO SEE THIS TECHNOLOGY AT WORK! REALLY NEAT

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This the third essay in a series exploring if, when, and how the Singularity will happen, why (or why not) we should care, and what, if anything, we should do about it.

Click here to read the essay.

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In a profile in the current issue of Rolling Stone (not available online), Kurzweil describes how, in the wake of the Singularity, it will become possible not only to preserve living people for eternity (by uploading their minds into computers) but to resurrect the dead…

Click here for Nicholas Carr’s blog entry.

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This the second essay in a series exploring if, when, and how the Singularity will happen, why (or why not) we should care, and what, if anything, we should do about it.

Click here to read the essay.

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A film by the Immortality Institute that explores various aspects of extreme life extension including cryonics (cryogenics), caloric restriction, transhumanism, and other scientific pursuits of extreme life extension. Related topics include: Anti-aging, nanotechnology, technology, nanobots, immortality, Methuselah Mouse Prize, scientific conquest of death, longevity, fitness, health, population control, birth rate, death rate, rejuvination therapies, aging reversal, Aubrey de Grey, live forever, cancer research, technology, nanobots, research, gene therapies, disease, transplants, physics, chemistry, computers, computing, bioscience, nutrition, exercise, philosophy, sociology, politics, history, elixir, drugs, singularity, Ray Kurzweil, matrix, supplements, suspended animation, cryo sleep, scientific debate, MIT, Technology Review, Cambridge conference sponsored by Larry Ellison, overpopulation, 1000 year lifespan, thousand year lifespan, infant mortality, science breakthroughs, futurist, future, war on aging, medical, youthful, retirement, computer engineer, genetics, research, SENS.

Trailer – 6 minutes

Click above for the trailer. Click below for the film.

the Film – 1 hour 45 minutes — Click here.

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Click here for an article found in the New Zealand Herald.

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Futurist Jack Uldrich uses the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin to highlight what he believes will be the next great political debate in America – designer children.

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Laboratory Techniques That Screen for Diseases in Embryos Are Now Being Offered to Create Designer Children.

Click here for an in depth article on this subject appearing in the Wall Street Journal.

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And this ain’t counting small and medium sized businesses.


Here is a list of some of the announced layoffs since
January. In some cases, totals include previously announced layoffs.

Date

Company

Layoffs

%. of workforce

Feb.
3

PNC
Financial Services Group

5,900

10%

Feb.
2

Macy’s

7,000

 4%

Jan.
30

Caterpillar

2,110

2%

Jan.
29

Cessna

2,000

 13%

Ford
Motor Credit

1,200

20%

Kodak

3,500-4,500

 14%-18%

Jan.
28

Boeing

5,500

 3%

Starbucks

6,700

 

>

Jan.
27

Ashland

1,300

9%

Corning

3,500

13%

>

Jan.
26

Caterpillar

20,000

18%

Pfizer

19,500

15%

Sprint
Nextel

8,000

14%

Home
Depot

7,000

2%

Texas
Instruments

1,800

12%

Jan.
23

Harley-Davidson

1,100

11%

Jan.
22

Microsoft

5,000

5%

Jan.
21

Sun
Microsystems

1,300

15%-18%

Eaton

5,200

10%

Ericsson

5,000

6%

Jan.
20

Bose

1,000

10%

Clear
Channel

1,850

9%

>

ConocoPhillips

1,300

4%

Jan.
16

Circuit
City

30,000

100%

Hertz
Global

4,000

13%

MeadWestvaco

2,000

10%

Motorola

4,000

6%

>

Saks

1,100

9%

Jan.
14

Seagate

2,950

6%

Jan.
12

Cessna

2,000

15%

Jan.
9

Boeing

4,500

3%

Freightliner

2,137

10%

Jan.
8

AK
Steel

1,500

21%

EMC

2,400

6%

Lenovo

2,500

10%

ON
Semiconductor

1,500

10%

Walgreen

1,000

9%*

Jan.
7

Alcoa

13,500

12%

Jan.
5

Cigna

1,100

4%

Unisys

1,300

4%

*
— corporate and support staff

Sources:
Vault.com, USA TODAY research, Associated Press

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