Singularity Hub was at the Tribeca Film Festival debut of Transcendent Man, and the revealing panel discussion that followed. Whether you are new to the concept of ‘the singularity’, or whether you are a well-known authority on the subject, you will want to see this film.

Click here for the entire write-up found on the Singularity Hub.

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IBM unveiled details of an advanced computing system that will be able to compete with humans on Jeopardy!, Americas favorite quiz show. Additionally, officials from Jeopardy! announced plans to produce a human vs. machine competition on the renowned show.

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Pretty soon, “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek may face his toughest contestant yet: an IBM supercomputer.

Computers have played, and sometimes beaten, humans at chess, but “Jeopardy!” requires a whole new skill level — the ability to think like a human…

A “Jeopardy!” producer said the computer’s human opponents were still be worked out, but that all-time champ Ken Jennings was definitely in the running.
Click here for the article found on Fox News.

The US computer giant on Monday announced it was developing a computer to compete with humans on the popular US television quiz show Jeopardy!

IBM said its scientists have been working for nearly two years on an advanced computing system codenamed “Watson” — after IBM founder Thomas Watson… Click here for the anouncement article titled “IBM computer to take on humans on TV quiz show”.

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Click here for the complete article found in the Spring issue of H+ Magazine. The article “Singularity 101 with Vernor Vinge” was written by Doug Wolens and published on April 22, 2009.

This article is a “must read” for anyone interested in a better understanding of the Singularity.

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It’s clear that the iPhone and its many applications are a key part of our culture and the way people communicate with each other these days.

Click here for the CNN report.

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Welcome to the era of Twitter, an era of mass communication where a single individual or institution can mobilize massive numbers of people as never before.

A simple message, less than 140 characters, is sent out to followers around the world and within hours, perhaps minutes, more than 100 million people have been mobilized to act. The message might instruct those who read it to look at a certain website, protest at a designated time and place, or perform any number of other acts, promoting an agenda or cause whose intentions may be either benign or downright evil.

Click here for an article fulling describing Tweetbomb power!

Hmmm - It was only a couple of days ago that I posted an article telling how our very own State Department was over in Iraq planting the seeds of Tweetbombing. I wonder how long before the folks in Afghanistan and Pakistan will use this technology?

Oh! I almost forgot. They’re already using it on a smaller scale.

Click here for my earlier post.

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You already know this because you joined the We Are The Singularity film project, right?

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From Yahoo News:
WASHINGTON — Robots are gaining on us humans. Thanks to exponential increases in computer power — which is roughly doubling every two years — robots are getting smarter, more capable, more like flesh-and-blood people.

Matching human skills and intelligence, however, is an enormously difficult — perhaps impossible — challenge.

Nevertheless, robots guided by their own computer “brains” now can pick up and peel bananas, land jumbo jets, steer cars through city traffic, search human DNA for cancer genes, play soccer or the violin, find earthquake victims or explore craters on Mars.

At a “Robobusiness” conference in Boston last week, companies demonstrated a robot firefighter, gardener, receptionist, tour guide and security guard.

You name it, a high-tech wizard somewhere is trying to make a robot do it.

A Japanese housekeeping robot can move chairs, sweep the floor, load a tray of dirty dishes in a dishwasher and put dirty clothes in a washing machine.

Intel , the worldwide computer-chip maker, headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif. , has developed a self-controlled mobile robot called Herb, the Home Exploring Robotic Butler. Herb can recognize faces and carry out generalized commands such as “please clean this mess,” according to Justin Rattner , Intel’s chief technology officer.

In a talk last year titled “Crossing the Chasm Between Humans and Machines: the Next 40 Years,” the widely respected Rattner lent some credibility to the often-ridiculed effort to make machines as smart as people.

“The industry has taken much greater strides than anyone ever imagined 40 years ago,” Rattner said. It’s conceivable, he added, that “machines could even overtake humans in their ability to reason in the not-so-distant future.” more>>>

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Astronomers have detected two of the most complex carbon-rich molecules ever found in interstellar space.

Their models suggest even more complex await to be discovered, including amino acids - which are essential for life.

The results were presented at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science meeting being held in the UK. more>>>

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Credit: Kevin Twomey

An implantable mini-telescope could help restore visual acuity to people with macular degeneration, a progressive disease that affects the center of the retina. The device, which is smaller than a pencil eraser and can be implanted during an outpatient procedure, works a bit like a telephoto lens in a camera: it enlarges the image that falls onto the retina so that it extends beyond the damaged area. In human studies, 60 percent of patients could read at least three lines further on an eye chart after the telescope was implanted. The device is approved for use in Europe, and an advisory panel for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has unanimously recommended approval.

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from BBC:

Genetic “brakes” which could slow down or stop diseases like MS and cancer have been found by scientists.

University of Edinburgh researchers said their findings could lead to new treatments for such illnesses.

It was previously thought that a select group of “master” genes was responsible for controlling the growth of cells which can cause the conditions.

But the team found hundreds of genes interacting and they will now try to find weak spots to halt tumour growth. more>>>

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Recognized for: Her work on self-assembling viruses for electronic nanotechnology applications. Angela Belcher, a professor of materials science and engineering and of biological engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was inspired by how abalone control calcium carbonate to make their hard shells. She began by coaxing a tiny virus (the M13 bacteriophage) to evolve to assemble and coat itself with bits of semiconductor. The result was a nanowire-filled electrode, which was on its way to becoming a bio-battery. more>>>

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New nucleotide discovered in mouse brain

Turns out life has more essential building blocks to play with than previously thought: researchers at Rockefeller University have discovered a new nucleotide in the mammalian DNA code. Remember good ol’ adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine? Well, the alphabet of our DNA sequence is about to receive a new letter. Meet 5-hydroxymethylcytosine; we aren’t sure what it does or where it’s located, but we know it’s important — really important. more>>>

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The delegation is meeting with officials from public and private sectors in Iraq to “build upon anti-corruption efforts, promote critical thinking in the classroom, and scale-up civil society” among other goals, the State Department said.

Click here for the full report found on CNN.

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Robots are gaining on us!

Click here for a current article on this subject.

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Using gadgets while you’re driving can be a very bad thing, but an expert on automotive distractions says using a gadget that watches you while you’re driving can be a very good thing.

More than 40,000 people die every year in motor vehicle crashes.

How much do you want your car to know about you? How much do you want your car to tell about you?

Click here to read an interesting article found on MSNBC.

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