An in depth look at the growing use of robotics and technology in war. You will be surprised. Shocked may be more like it. Also, a look at the use of these technologies spreading into law enforcement and elsewhere.

Click here to access this fascinating, amazing and thought provoking video. You really need to watch it to understand what’s going on in the world today.

Click on the book title Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century by P.W. Singer for more information.

In a report being issued Thursday, the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues says that at present the technology — which involves creating novel organisms through the synthesis and manipulation of DNA — poses few risks because it is still in its infancy…

Click here to read this New York Times article.

Click here to learn more about synthetic biology.

Transhumanists advocate the improvement of human capacities through advanced technology…

Click here to read the special report by Michael Anissimov found on the Lifeboat Foundation website.

Click here for more on transhumanism.

Experts dissecting the computer worm suspected of being aimed at Iran’s nuclear program have determined that it was precisely calibrated in a way that could send nuclear centrifuges wildly out of control…

Click here to read the complete New York Times article.

Click here for information on cyber warfare.

Loose lips can do more then sink ships…

Click here to read the Information Week article.

Click here for more information about espionage.

A report submitted to Congress on Wednesday by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission expressed concerns over…

Click here to access the complete report.

Click here for more information about China.

Engineers at the MIT Humans and Automation Lab are developing unmanned drones similar to the ones used by the CIA–only a lot smaller. WSJ’s Siobhan Gorman reports…

Click here to read the complete Wall Street Journal report.

Click here for more information on drones.

The American Geophysical Union plans to announce that 700 researchers have agreed to speak out on the issue. Other scientists plan a pushback against congressional conservatives who have vowed to kill regulations on greenhouse gas emissions…

Click here to read the entire article.

Click here for more information on global warming.

******************* Update *********************

This update was posted as a comment on my Facebook Wall -

J Storrs Hall – Inaccurate news reports misrepresent a climate-science initiative of the American Geophysical Union

AGU Release No. 10–37
8 November 2010
For Immediate Release
…
WASHINGTON—An article appearing in the Los Angeles Times, and then picked up by media outlets far and wide, misrepresents the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and a climate science project the AGU is about to relaunch. The project, called Climate Q&A Service, aims simply to provide accurate scientific answers to questions from journalists about climate science.

“In contrast to what has been reported in the LA Times and elsewhere, there is no campaign by AGU against climate skeptics or congressional conservatives,” says Christine McEntee, Executive Director and CEO of the American Geophysical Union. …

Click here to read the entire AGU Release No. 10–37.

According to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s unofficial mission is to make “the world more open and connected.” But there are limits to how open you should be on Facebook and while you might enjoy sharing photos and status updates, there are some pieces of information you would do well never to share…

Click here for all the details.

Click here for more information about Facebook.

As leading-edge neuroimaging labs use scanners to reveal more and more details about how the brain works, their findings are increasingly affecting other fields as well. The legal system, in particular, is now being forced to assess the potential implications of new information about how issues relating to crime and punishment are processed in the brain…

Click here to read the entire report.

Click here for more information on neuroscience.

Dirk Schulze-Makuch, a Washington State University associate professor, who, with colleague Paul Davies, a physicist and cosmologist from Arizona State University, argues for precisely such a one-way manned mission to Mars…

Click here to read the entire article.

Click here for more information about the planet Mars.

Any volunteers?

A healthy baby born in Norfolk, Va., in May from an embryo cryopreserved for 19 years is raising questions about leftover life forms, bioethicists say.

The embryo, donated by an anonymous patient at the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine after she gave birth to a son via in vitro fertilization, was implanted into a 42-year-old recipient 19 years later who gave birth to that May baby boy, The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot reported Sunday.

via Baby born from embryo frozen 19 years.

HUNTSVILLE, AL — Have you ever wished to once again be able to talk with a loved one who has died?

Maybe say something you had wished you had told them?

Or even hear that something special from them?

A local company won’t be able to make that happen but it can realize that opportunity for future generations.

The company, Intellitar, will be releasing Virtual Eternity on Wednesday.

"The whole concept is legacy creation and preservations," said Don Davidson, the founder and CEO of Intellitar."The idea is I can use a number of technologies available and create a living legacy."

Think of it as "a digital clone, if you will," he said.

via Huntsville-based Intellitar helps create ‘living’ legacies with ‘digital clones’ | al.com.

ISAAC ASIMOV would probably have been horrified at the experiments under way in a robotics lab in Slovenia. There, a powerful robot has been hitting people over and over again in a bid to induce anything from mild to unbearable pain – in apparent defiance of the late sci-fi sage’s famed first law of robotics, which states that "a robot may not injure a human being".

But the robo-battering is all in a good cause, insists Borut Povše, who has ethical approval for the work from the University of Ljubljana, where he conducted the research. He has persuaded six male colleagues to let a powerful industrial robot repeatedly strike them on the arm, to assess human-robot pain thresholds.

via Robot arm punches human to obey Asimov’s rules – tech – 13 October 2010 – New Scientist.

Thanks to AudioScope. Developed by two physicists from the University of Norway, the new super microphone can pick out single voices in a mob of people…

Click here for the full report including a video demonstration. You may have to scroll down a bit to see it. Be sure to listen for the click of the bubble gum!

Click here for more information on the use of spying technologies.