Thinkbase: Mapping the World's Brain If Freebase is an "open shared database of the world's knowledge," then Thinkbase (found via information aesthetics) is a mind map of the world's knowledge. The interesting and incredibly addictive Freebase visualization and search tool is the brainchild of master's degree student Christian Hirsch at the University of Auckland. Thinkbase is one of the cool proof of concept applications built on top of Freebase that we mentioned last week. As we've mentioned here on RWW, Freebase is best suited for complex inferencing queries -- the type that expose relationships between various entities to figure out an answer. Things like, "What's the name of the actor who was in both "The Lord of the Rings" and "From Hell?" Thinkbase doesn't necessarily answer those questions -- at least not directly, but it does allow people to visually explore the relationships that Freebase can expose.
Neural Correlates of Lyrical Improvisation: An fMRI Study of Freestyle Rap : Scientific Reports In this study, we used fMRI to investigate the neural correlates of spontaneous lyrical improvisation by comparing spontaneous freestyle rap to conventional rehearsed performance. Our results reveal characteristic patterns of activity associated with this novel form of lyrical improvisation, and may also provide more general insights into the creative process itself. It has been suggested that the creative behaviors could occur in two stages: an improvisatory phase characterized by generation of novel material and a phase in which this material is re-evaluated and revised1. A second salient feature of improvisation revealed by the GLM contrasts was a marked lateralization of task-related changes in the BOLD signal. Activation of left hemisphere language areas (in inferior frontal and posterior middle and superior temporal gyri) was predicted and is perhaps unsurprising given the nature of the genre.
Wireless Electricity is Real and Can Change the World A revolution in the method of transmitting and receiving power is taking place, and the results as it pertains to the everyday consumer may not be far behind. In fact, some forms of the technology will be made available this year. Picture yourself never having to worry about recharging your phone, IPod or laptop as long as you were inside a wireless energy zone. That zone can be located in your house, on the train, in the airport, or at your workplace. “Laptop batteries are always burning out and always need a charge. With major competition along many different technological avenues of bringing wireless power to the market, it’s almost assured that some form or another will be used in the mainstream before too long. Companies such as Sunnyvale, Calif., based PowerBeam, showcased their wireless lamps and picture frames which were powered by technology that can beam optical energy into photovoltaic cells using laser diodes, at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society - All Issues - Wiley Online Library Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Impact Factor: 4.9 ISI Journal Citation Reports © Ranking: 2011: 9/56 (Astronomy & Astrophysics) Birth of the global mind The best symbiosis of man and computer is where a program learns from humans but notices things they would not Global consciousness. We’ve heard that before. In the 1960s we were all going to be mystically connected; or it would come as a super-intelligent machine – Terminator’s Skynet – that is inimical to humanity. And yet, what if the reality is more mundane? Computer scientist Danny Hillis once remarked, “Global consciousness is that thing responsible for deciding that pots containing decaffeinated coffee should be orange.” What is different today, though, is the speed with which knowledge propagates. One might say that this is the same underlying mechanism of human knowledge capture and retransmission that has always driven the advance of civilisation. The web is a perfect example of what engineer and early computer scientist Vannevar Bush called “intelligence augmentation” by computers, in his 1945 article “As We May Think” in The Atlantic. Technology special Billion dollar brains
Le cerveau préfère le sport au tabac ! Actualités Par Yan Di Meglio rédigé le 28 novembre 2012, mis à jour le 28 novembre 2012 Le cerveau préfère le sport au tabac ! Le cerveau préfère le sport au tabac ! Pour protéger le cerveau d'un vieillissement prématuré, les exercices de stimulation et les tests de mémoire sont régulièrement conseillés. Selon une étude écossaise publiée dans la revue Neurology, il semblerait cependant qu'il y ait plus efficace encore : le sport ! Ces scientifiques ont observé les pratiques sportives régulières de 700 personnes de plus de 70 ans. Les escaliers plutôt que l'escalator C'est le système cardiovasculaire, en meilleur état chez les sportifs, qui explique la résistance du cerveau au vieillissement, car il est mieux oxygéné. Des tests pratiqués sur près de 9 000 personnes de plus de 50 ans ont révélé des carences dans les facultés cognitives de certains d'entre eux. Et en finir avec le tabac Nous savions déjà que le tabac altérait l'oxygénation du cerveau. En savoir plus Mots clés Réagir à cet article
The brick-road-laying Tiger Stone - Image 1 of 6 Laying down paving bricks is back-breaking, time-consuming work... or at least, it is if you do it the usual way. Henk van Kuijk, director of Dutch industrial company Vanku, evidently decided that squatting/kneeling and shoving the bricks into place on the ground was just a little too slow, so he invented the Tiger Stone paving machine. The road-wide device is fed loose bricks, and lays them out onto the road as it slowly moves along. A quick going-over with a tamper, and you’ve got an instant brick road. View all One to three human operators stand on the platform of the Tiger Stone, and move loose bricks by hand from its hopper to its sloping “pusher” slot – the bricks do have to be fed into the pusher in the desired finished pattern. The tread-tracked machine is electrically-powered, and has few moving parts, so noise and maintenance are kept to a minimum. Via Gizmodo. About the Author Post a CommentRelated Articles Just enter your friends and your email address into the form below
uk.arXiv.org e-Print archive mirror Superintelligence A superintelligence, hyperintelligence, or superhuman intelligence is a hypothetical agent that possesses intelligence far surpassing that of the brightest and most gifted human minds. ‘’Superintelligence’’ may also refer to the form or degree of intelligence possessed by such an agent. Technological forecasters and researchers disagree about when human intelligence is likely to be surpassed. Some argue that advances in artificial intelligence (AI) will probably result in general reasoning systems that lack human cognitive limitations. Experts in AI and biotechnology do not expect any of these technologies to produce a superintelligence in the very near future. Definition[edit] Summarizing the views of intelligence researchers, Linda Gottfredson writes: Intelligence is a very general mental capability that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly, and learn from experience. Feasibility[edit]
L'hyperstimulation du deuxième cerveau «La physiopathologie du syndrome de l'intestin irritable est encore méconnue mais, en l'abordant par ses symptômes, de nombreux phénomènes se produisant notamment au niveau de l'intestin ont pu être identifiés», souligne Michel Neunlist, directeur de l'unité Inserm de neuro-gastro-entérologie de l'Institut des maladies de l'appareil digestif (Imad) à Nantes. En étudiant la douleur, les chercheurs ont pu constater que les patients SII présentent souvent une sensibilité accrue au stimulus douloureux, traduit au niveau du système nerveux central (le cerveau). Les troubles digestifs pourraient eux être liés à un trouble de la motricité de l'intestin liée au système nerveux entérique (SNE), parfois considéré comme un deuxième cerveau. L'intestin est en effet l'une des zones les plus innervées de l'organisme et ce réseau nerveux est responsable, de façon autonome, de certaines fonctions digestives comme le mouvement péristaltique qui fait progresser les aliments dans l'intestin.
Phoenix Fly INAF: Una stella di neutroni poco magnetica - Le Scienze Comunicato stampa - Un team di ricercatori guidato da Rosario Iaria del Dipartimento di Fisica e Chimica dell'Università di Palermo (e associato INAF), a cui ha partecipato Melania Del Santo dell’INAF, ha misurato il più basso campo magnetico per una stella di neutroni finora ottenuto con tecniche dirette Palermo, 18 marzo 2015 - Sono piccole: il loro raggio tipico è dell’ordine dei 10 chilometri. Ma anche super dense: al loro interno c’è stipata tanta massa quanto una volta e mezza quella del nostro Sole. Ma la loro vera ‘specialità’ è il magnetismo: il campo che esse possiedono, in virtù anche delle proprietà estreme in cui si trova la materia che le compone, è elevatissimo: anche mille miliardi di volte superiore a quello della Terra. Di stelle di neutroni ne conosciamo ormai a migliaia e, grazie a strumenti sempre più sofisticati, come gli osservatori spaziali dedicati all’astrofisica delle alte energie, ne stiamo indagando sempre meglio le caratteristiche.
Noogenesis Noogenesis (Ancient Greek: νοῦς=mind + γένεσις=becoming) is the emergence of intelligent forms of life. The term was first used by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in regard to the evolution of humans. It also used in astrobiology in regard to the emergence of forms of life capable of technology and so interstellar communication and travel. Teilhard[edit] Noogenesis began with reflective thought; or with the first human beings. Teilhard imagines that noogenesis will eventually reach a critical point of consciousness, brought about by a maximum tension of human socialization. Astrobiology[edit] In astrobiology noogenesis concerns the origin of intelligent life and more specifically technological civilizations capable of communicating with humans and or traveling to Earth.[1] The lack of evidence for the existence of such extraterrestrial life creates the Fermi paradox. References[edit]
COMA: Face au traumatisme, le cerveau se réorganise COMA: Face au traumatisme, le cerveau se réorganise Actualité publiée le 29-11-2012 Inserm et PNAS Une réorganisation des réseaux cérébraux, tel un mécanisme de résistance du cerveau au traumatisme, c’est ce que constatent ces chercheurs de l'Inserm qui ont analysé les réseaux cérébraux de patients dans le coma, un état où la personne est considérée comme "inconsciente". L’Inserm rappelle que le coma est un état où l'on observe une abolition de la conscience de soi et du monde extérieur et qu’il existe deux phases de coma, la phase dite "aigüe" puis la phase dite "chronique". Leurs résultats montrent que, · la connectivité cérébrale globale est conservée chez les patients dans le coma en comparaison avec les volontaires sains. · Mais la connectivité au niveau local, est réorganisée : La connectivité dans certaines régions cérébrales fortement connectées chez les patients sains est plus faible chez les patients dans le coma. Un nouveau mode d’évaluation personnalisé ? Neuro