Why Government Researchers Think We May Be Living in a 2D Hologram Operating with cutting-edge technology out of a trailer in rural Illinois, government researchers started today on a set of experiments that they say will help them determine whether or not you and me and everything that exists are living in a two-dimensional holographic universe. It sounds completely off-the-walls insane, but the incongruities between Albert Einstein's theory of relativity and some of Max Planck's discoveries about the nature of matter can only be explained if we're living in a Matrix-style holographic illusion, according to Craig Hogan, director of the Department of Energy's Fermilab Center for Particle Astrophysics. "For thousands of years, we have assumed that space is made of points and lines," he told me. "Maybe that is not right—it might be made of waves, the way that matter and energy are." reality has a limited amount of information, like a Netflix movie when Comcast is not giving you enough bandwidth. One of the Holometer's components. It's heady stuff.
‘Robo Brain’ will teach robots everything from the Internet Robo Brain logo (credit: Saxena Lab) Robo Brain is currently downloading and processing about 1 billion images, 120,000 YouTube videos, and 100 million how-to documents and appliance manuals, all being translated and stored in a robot-friendly format. The reason: to serve as helpers in our homes, offices and factories, robots will need to understand how the world works and how the humans around them behave. Robotics researchers like Ashutosh Saxena, assistant professor of computer science at his Cornell University and his associates at Cornell’s Personal Robotics Lab have been teaching them these things one at a time (which KurzweilAI has covered over the last two years in four articles). Robotic arm placing an object in a specific location (credit: Saxena Lab) For example, how to find your keys, pour a drink, put away dishes, and when not to interrupt two people having a conversation. Now it’s all being automated, cloudified, and crowdsourced. Structured deep learning References:
Cyborgs and sport: Between Disability and Enhancement. | Jose Luis Pérez Triviño 2013•VOLUME LVII13of the accessories used by athletes, they already constitute a problem for purists .Where technology directlyaffects the human body, the doubts about its legitimacy have already become significant. This has been thechallenge to sport ethics in the case of Oscar Pistorius (Zettler, 2009; Marcellini, 2012). But it is probablethat in thenear future we will see sportspersons wanting to change their organic parts of the body for mechanical prosthesis .As Adelson says: “Next-gen research will shift from replacing the human leg toimproving it, just as pharmaceuticals have shifted from restoring to enhancing. They could overcome the able-bodied and become super-abled. Cyborgs and sport There have been other difficult cases: Liz Hartel (postpolio), who won a silver medal in equestrian dressage at the1952 Olympics. “It is plausible to think that in 50 years, or maybe less, the ‘natural’, able-bodied athletes will just appear anachronistic” (Camporesi, 2008, p. 639).
Vaccines for preventing influenza in healthy adults - The Cochrane Library - Jefferson Background Different types of influenza vaccines are currently produced worldwide. Healthy adults are presently targeted mainly in North America. Objectives Identify, retrieve and assess all studies evaluating the effects of vaccines against influenza in healthy adults. Search methods We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (The Cochrane Library, 2010, issue 2), MEDLINE (January 1966 to June 2010) and EMBASE (1990 to June 2010). Selection criteria Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) or quasi-RCTs comparing influenza vaccines with placebo or no intervention in naturally-occurring influenza in healthy individuals aged 16 to 65 years. Data collection and analysis Two review authors independently assessed trial quality and extracted data. Main results We included 50 reports. Authors' conclusions Influenza vaccines have a modest effect in reducing influenza symptoms and working days lost. Vaccines to prevent influenza in healthy adults Contexte Objectifs 健康成人預防流感的疫苗 背景 目標 譯註
Helion Energy Helion Energy, Inc.[edit] Helion Energy, Inc. is an American company in Redmond, WA developing a fusion power technology called The Fusion Engine.[1] This company has a public website and several articles but does not appear to regularly release information on their technology or business development. They are working on the development of a 50 MW scale fusion power system which they hope to have working by 2019.[2][3] Company Organization[edit] Helion Energy is a spin off of a Redmond company, MSNW LLC,[4] which develops space propulsion and fusion energy related technologies. Technology[edit] According to published documents, the Fusion Engine technology is based on the Inductive Plasmiod Accelerator (IPA) experiments[5][6] performed at MSNW LLC from 2005 through 2012. Fuel[edit] Helion uses a Deuterium fuel. The existing IPA experiments used Deuterium-Deuterium fusion which produces a 2.4 MeV neutron per reaction. Injection[edit] Compression[edit] Energy Generation[edit] Funding[edit]
ELIZA Example of ELIZA in Emacs. ELIZA is a computer program and an early example of primitive natural language processing. ELIZA operated by processing users' responses to scripts, the most famous of which was DOCTOR, a simulation of a Rogerian psychotherapist. Using almost no information about human thought or emotion, DOCTOR sometimes provided a startlingly human-like interaction. When the "patient" exceeded the very small knowledge base, DOCTOR might provide a generic response, for example, responding to "My head hurts" with "Why do you say your head hurts?" Overview[edit] In 1966, interactive computing (via a teletype) was new. Given these common responses to ELIZA and similar programs, it's interesting to contrast the relative simplicity of ELIZA's programming logic in relation to the requirements for Turing's Test for Artificial Intelligence. Significant implementations[edit] Influence on games[edit] Response and legacy[edit] Partial list of implementations[edit] See also[edit] Notes[edit]
Nanotech could make humans immortal by 2040, futurist says News October 1, 2009 06:01 AM ET Computerworld - In 30 or 40 years, we'll have microscopic machines traveling through our bodies, repairing damaged cells and organs, effectively wiping out diseases. The nanotechnology will also be used to back up our memories and personalities. In an interview with Computerworld, author and futurist Ray Kurzweil said that anyone alive come 2040 or 2050 could be close to immortal. That may sound like something out of a sci-fi movie, but Kurzweil, a member of the Inventor's Hall of Fame and a recipient of the National Medal of Technology, says that research well underway today is leading to a time when a combination of nanotechnology and biotechnology will wipe out cancer, Alzheimer's disease, obesity and diabetes. It'll also be a time when humans will augment their natural cognitive powers and add years to their lives, Kurzweil said. "It's radical life extension," Kurzweil said. But that doesn't mean there aren't parts of this future that don't worry him.
2028: The End of the World As We Know It? “There is nothing radical in what we’re discussing,” journalist and climate change activist Bill McKibben said before a crowd of nearly 1,000 at the University of California Los Angeles last night. “The radicals work for the oil companies.” Taken on its own, a statement like that would likely sound hyperbolic to most Americans—fodder for a sound bite on Fox News. Anyone who saw McKibben’s lecture in full, however, would know he was not exaggerating. McKibben was in Los Angeles as part of his nationwide “Do the Math” tour. MORE: It's Been Global Warming, Stupid The math, McKibben explained, works like this. To prevent the end of the world as we know it, it will require no less than the death of the most profitable industry in the history of humankind. “As of tonight,” McKibben said, “we’re going after the fossil fuel industry.” Obviously no easy task. However, there are some numbers on McKibben’s side. Enter “Do the Math.” “I don’t know if we’re going to win.
Siri’s Inventors Are Building a Radical New AI That Does Anything You Ask | Enterprise Viv was named after the Latin root meaning live. Its San Jose, California, offices are decorated with tchotchkes bearing the numbers six and five (VI and V in roman numerals). Ariel Zambelich When Apple announced the iPhone 4S on October 4, 2011, the headlines were not about its speedy A5 chip or improved camera. Instead they focused on an unusual new feature: an intelligent assistant, dubbed Siri. Over the next few months, however, Siri’s limitations became apparent. Now a small team of engineers at a stealth startup called Viv Labs claims to be on the verge of realizing an advanced form of AI that removes those limitations. “Siri is chapter one of a much longer, bigger story,” says Dag Kittlaus, one of Viv’s cofounders. For the past two years, the team has been working on Viv Labs’ product—also named Viv, after the Latin root meaning live. Viv is not the only company competing for a share of those billions. He acknowledges that an abundance of voice-navigated systems already exists.
Artificial Wombs and the “Individualistic Society” - will women still want pregnancy? - BrighterBrains.org Home > Articles > Artificial Wombs and the “Individualistic Society” - will women still want pregnancy? Posted: Mon, August 11, 2014 | By: Transhuman by Extropia DaSilva It is an abiding characteristic of transhumanists to be simultaneously in admiration for the human body, impressed with what evolution achieved, while also considering the body as very much work in progress that needs fixing. One aspect of life that science and technology have made impressive strides in is pregnancy and birth. There is still plenty more we could do to improve our chances of delivering healthy, happy babies. Obviously that is not good enough, and we should strive to improve neonatal care technologies in order to lessen these risks. Moreover, pregnancy is pretty cumbersome. But, I think we should exercise caution and look closely at why we want to adopt such a thing. One way to expose flaws in a culture is to examine another where things are done differently. Of course they howl.
Water Droplet Computing Needs No Electricity | Future Computing Technologies Today's computers can short out if liquid enters their innards, but water droplets could form the basis for tomorrow's electricity-free computing devices. The idea of turning water droplets into digital bits — the basic unit of data transfer — came from experiments at Aalto University in Finland. When researchers observed water droplets bouncing off one another like billiard balls on a water-repellent surface, they realized they could guide the water droplets along water-repellent tracks. "I was surprised that such rebounding collisions between two droplets were never reported before, as it indeed is an easily accessible phenomenon: I conducted some of the early experiments on water-repellent plant leaves from my mother's garden," said Henrikki Mertaniemi, an applied physics researcher at Aalto University, in a statement. The experiments showed how the water droplets could act as digital bits in memory devices or logic operations at the most basic level of computing.
Australian scientists are taking their printable solar cells to the market Australian scientists are taking their printable solar cells to the market ScienceAlert Staff Wednesday, 10 September 2014 Australian scientists are close to putting their cheap, printable solar cells on the market, to be used on everything from iPad covers, laptop bags and smartphone skins, to rooftops and windows. A group of Australian solar power experts known as the Victorian Organic Solar Cell Consortium, which includes scientists from the CSIRO, the University of Melbourne and Monash University, have been working on printable solar cells over the past seven years. According to CSIRO's senior research scientist Fiona Scholes, they can now print their solar cells directly onto plastic, which means the cases you keep your laptop, phone and tablet in could soon both protect your devices and collect renewable energy to power them up. The team started off with solar cells the size of a coin, and have successfully scaled them up to a more practical A3 size.