IN THIS age of super-rapid technological advance, we do well to obey the Boy Scout injunction: “Be prepared”. That requires nimbleness of mind, given that the ever accelerating power of computers is being applied across such a wide range of applications, making it hard to keep track of everything that is happening. The danger is that we only wake up to the need for forethought when in the midst of a storm created by innovations that have already overtaken us.
We are on the brink, and perhaps to some degree already over the edge, in one hugely important area: robotics. Robot sentries patrol the borders of South Korea and Israel. Remote-controlled aircraft mount missile attacks on enemy positions. Other military robots are already in service, and not just for defusing bombs or detecting landmines: a coming generation of autonomous combat robots capable of deep penetration into enemy territory raises questions about whether they will be able to discriminate between soldiers and innocent civilians.
Police forces are looking to acquire miniature Taser-firing robot helicopters. In South Korea and Japan the development of robots for feeding and bathing the elderly and children is already advanced. Even in a robot-backward country like the UK, some vacuum cleaners sense their autonomous way around furniture. A driverless car has already negotiated its way through Los Angeles traffic. more>>>
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. scientists said they have taken an important step toward making an artificial life form by making a ribosome — the cell’s factory.
The ribosome makes the proteins that carry out key business for all forms of life. Messenger RNA carries DNA’s genetic instructions to a cell’s ribosome, which then cooks up the desired protein. Every living organism from bacteria to humans uses a ribosome, and they are all strikingly similar. more>>>
I’ve put hundreds of hours into editing Racing Heart recently and the rough cut was completed a week ago. We screened the film on March 5th at Westport Theater in Kansas City, MO. After the film we participated in a Q&A session with the audience afterward. Everyone had \great questions and feedback for us. Many in the crowd were family, friends, and colleagues.
Wait till they see where I’m turning my camera next.
Eight years ago, when Erik Ramsey was 16, a car accident triggered a brain stem stroke that left him paralyzed. Though fully conscious, Ramsey was completely paralyzed, essentially “locked in,” unable to move or talk. He could communicate only by moving his eyes up or down, thereby answering questions with a yes or a no.
Ramsey’s doctors recommended sending him to a nursing facility. Instead his parents brought him home. In 2004 they met neurologist Philip R. Kennedy, chief scientist at Neural Signals in Duluth, Ga. He offered Ramsey the chance to take part in an unusual experiment. Surgeons would implant a high-tech device called a neural prosthesis into Ramsey’s brain, enabling him to communicate his thoughts to a computer that would translate them into spoken words. more>>>
Technology now exists that uses brain signals to control a cursor or prosthetic arm. How much further development of brain-machine interfaces might progress is still an imponderable.
The cyberpunk science fiction that emerged in the 1980s routinely paraded “neural implants” for hooking a computing device directly to the brain: “I had hundreds of megabytes stashed in my head,” proclaimed the protagonist of “Johnny Mnemonic,” a William Gibson story that later became a wholly forgettable movie starring Keanu Reeves.
The genius of the then emergent genre (back in the days when a megabyte could still wow) was its juxtaposition of low-life retro culture with technology that seemed only barely beyond the capabilities of the deftest biomedical engineer. Although the implants could not have been replicated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or the California Institute of Technology, the best cyberpunk authors gave the impression that these inventions might yet materialize one day, perhaps even in the reader’s own lifetime. more>>>
Barack Obama appointed the District of Columbia’s Chief Technology Officer, Vivek Kundra, as the federal government’s first Chief Information Officer.
Obama still plans to name a Chief Technology Officer.
Per Wikipedia, the focus of a CTO may be contrasted with that of a CIO in that, whereas a CIO is predisposed to solve problems by acquiring and adapting ready-made technologies, a CTO is predisposed to solve problems by developing new technologies. In practice, each will typically blend both approaches.
Click here for ComputerWorld’s blog on this subject.
Plain Dealer science writer John Mangels talks to researchers who are part of a massive international project to build an experimental fusion reactor. Fusion is the energy source for stars, and could provide virtually unlimited energy on Earth.
Someday you may be reading your newspaper on an e-paper device – a thin piece of plastic the size of a legal pad that can be taken to the beach or on the train. That day may be a lot closer than you think.
Click here for Fortune magazine’s information on the subject.
Next check out Amazon’s New Wireless Reading Device – The Kindle 2
Below are links to Kindle 2 articles and information —
From Slate – “Fear the Kindle – Amazon’s amazing e-book reader is bad news for the publishing industry” – Click here for the entire article.
From PC World – “Can Hearst Save Newspapers With an E-Reader?” – Click here for the entire article.
From The Los Angeles Times – “Amazon lets publishers and writers disable Kindle 2′s read-aloud feature” – Clink here for the entire article.
The latest forecasts from the TechCast Project are presented here to show that modern societies can realistically envision renewable energy replacing oil, medical control over the genetic process of life, computer power becoming cheap and infinite, mobile communications at lightning speeds, robots serving as helpers and caregivers, and much more to come.
The TechCast Project at George Washington University has developed a sophisticated Web site (www.TechCast.org) that surveys 100 high-tech executives, scientists and engineers, academics, consultants, futurists, and other experts around the world to forecast breakthroughs in all fields of science and technology.
Click here for a comprehensive report including forecasts of the future located at SmallTimes.com.
History Repeats Itself: The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 was signed into law by my grandfathers generation to keep another Great Depression from happening again.
In 1999, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act was signed into law, thereby dismantling the Glass-Steagall act for good.
The Glass-Steagall Act formed a firewall between investment banks and commercial banks.
Yes…a FIREWALL. Remove the firewall and expose people to danger.
And that’s exactly what happened. Does this generation HAVE to repeat the mistakes of those before us *cough*vietnam/iraq*cough*depression/credit crisis*cough*?
Yet another explanation that leaves out the Glass-Steagall Act:
Enjoy BTS?
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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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