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Category: information science – Page 333

Deep Learning Algorithm Automatically Colorizes Photos

This is one of those sites you’re going to want to try yourself. Take any black and white image, feed it to the algorithm, and watch as it spits out its best guess at a color version, which is often quite convincing.

Using a deep learning algorithm developed by Richard Zhang, Phillip Isola, and Alexei Efros of UC Berkeley, the process was trained on one million images. Though it currently fools humans only 20% of the time, that’s still a significantly higher rate than previous iterations and represents an exciting step forward, and further training should only increase that rate. Imagine a time when Photoshop can colorize a photo in one step, leaving the end-user to just tweak a few hues here and there. Such a capability would be huge for restoring old family photos and the like.

I played with it a bit today, and the results were rather interesting. It struggles a bit with skin tones, which may be due to dataset bias (meaning the team may have trained it more with landscape-style images), but often the results are fairly good and definitely close enough that they could be tweaked to believability without a lot of effort.

Transhumanist Terminology

Transhuman Terminology.

ADHOCRACY
AEONOMICS
A-LIFE
AGORIC SYSTEM

AI-COMPLETE ALEPH ALGERNON AMORTALIST ARACHNIOGRAPHY ARCH-ANARCHY ARCOLOGY ARROW IMPOSSIBILITY THEOREM ARTILECT ASEX ASIMORT ASIMOV ASSEMBLER ATHANASIA ATHANOPHY ATHEOSIS AUGMENT AUTOEVOLUTIONIST AUTOMATED ENGINEERING AUTOMORPHISM AUTOPOTENT AUTOSCIENT BABY UNIVERSE BASEMENT UNIVERSE BEAN DIP CATASTROPHE BEANSTALK BEKENSTEIN BOUND BERSERKER BETELGEUSE-BRAIN BIG CRUNCH BINERATOR BIOCHAUVINISM BIOLOGICAL FUNDAMENTALISM BIONICS BIONOMICS BIOPHILIAC BIOSTASIS B-LIFE BLIGHT BLIND UPLOADING BLUE GOO BOGOSITY FILTER BORGANISM BREAKEVEN POINT BROADCATCHING BRUTE FORCE UPLOADING BUSH ROBOT CALCUTTA SYNDROME CALM TECHNOLOGY CALORIE RESTRICTION CASIMIR EFFECT CEREBROSTHESIS CHINESE ROOM CHRONONAUTS CHURCH-TURING THESIS COBOTS COMPUFORM COMPUTRONIUM CONCENTRATED INTELLIGENCE CONSILIENCE CONNECTIONISM CONTELLIGENCE CONTINUITY IDENTITY THEORY COSMYTHOLOGY CRYOBIOLOGY CRYOCRASTINATE CRYOGENICS CRYONICS CRYONIC SUSPENSION CRYPTO ANARCHY CRYPTOCOSMOLOGY CYBERCIDE CYBERFICTION CYBERGNOSTICISM CYBERIAN CYBERNATE/CYBERNIZE CYBERSPACE/CYBERMATRIX CYBRARIAN CYPHERPUNK DEANIMALIZE DEATH FORWARD DEATHISM DEEP ANARCHY DEFLESH DIGITAL PSEUDONYM DIAMONDOID DISASSEMBLER DISASTERBATION DISTRIBUTED INTELLIGENCE DIVERGENT TRACK HYPOTHESIS DIVERSITY IQ DIVIDUALS DOOMSDAY ARGUMENT DOWNLOAD DRYWARE DUBIFIER DYSON SPHERE ECOCALYPSE ECTOGENESIS

EMBRYOMEME
EMULATION
ENHANCED REALITY
ENVIROCAPITALISM
EPHEMERALISTS
E-PRIME
ESCALATORLOGY
THE ETERNAL LIFE POSTULATE
EUPSYCHIA
EUTHENICS
EVOLUTIONARILY STABLE STRATEGY (ESS)
EVOLUTURE
EXCONOMICS
EXES
EXFORMATION
EXISTENTIAL TECHNOLOGY
EXOPHOBIA
EXOSELF
EXTROPIAN
EXTROPIATE
EXTROPIC
EXTROPOLIS
EXTROPY
FACULTATIVE ANAGOROBE
FAR EDGE PARTY
THE FERMI PARADOX
FEMTOTECHNOLOGY
FLATLANDER
FLUIDENTITY
FOGLET
FORK
FREDKIN’S PARADOX
FUNCTIONAL SOUP
FUTIQUE
FUTURE SHOCK
GALAXY BRAIN
GAUSSIAN
GENEGENEERING
GENETIC ALGORITHM
GENIE
GREEN GOO
GÖDEL’S THEOREM
GOLDEN GOO
GREAT FILTER, THE
GREY GOO
GUY FAWKES SCENARIO
HALLUCINOMEMIC
HIVE COMPUTING
HOMORPH
HPLD
HYPERTEXT
HYPONEIRIA
HYPOTECH

IDEAL IDENTITY
IMMORTALIST
IMMORTECHNICS
IMP
INACTIVATE
INFOGLUT
INFOMORPH
INFORMATION-THEORETICAL DEATH
INLINE UNIVERSITIES
INTERFACER
INTERNALNET
JUPITER-BRAIN
KHAKI GOO
KARDASCHEV TYPES
KNOWBOTS
KOLMOGOROV COMPELXITY
LEONARDO DA VINCI SYNDROME
LINDE SCENARIO
LIQUIDENTITY
LOFSTROM LOOP
LONGEVIST
MASPAR
MATAGLAP
MEGATECHNOLOGY (or MEGASCALE ENGINEERING)
MEMETICS
MEMIE
MEMIUS
MEMOTYPE
MEMOID (or MEMEOID)
MEHUM
MERCHANCY
MESOSCALE
MINDKIND
MOLMAC
MORPHOLOGICAL FREEDOM
MUTUAL REALITY
NANARCHIST
NANARCHY
NANITE
NANOCHONDRIA
NANOFACTURE
NANOMEDICINE
NANOSOME
NANOTECH
(MOLECULAR) NANOTECHNOLOGY
NEG
NEOMORPH
NEOLOGOMANIA
NEOPHILE
NEOPHILIA
NEOPHOBE
NEUROCOMPUTATION
NEURONAUT
NEURON STAR
NEUROPROSTHESIS
NEUROSUSPENSION
NOOTROPIC
NOW SHOCK
NUTRACEUTICAL
OFFLOADING
OMEGA POINT
OMEGON
OMNESCIENCE
O’NEILL COLONY
O’NEILL CYLINDERS
ONTOLOGICAL CONSERVATIVES
OPTIMAL PERSONA
PANCRITICAL RATIONALISM
ORBITAL TOWER
PARTIALATE
PATTERN IDENTITY THEORY
PERICOMPUTER
PERIMELASMA
PERSOGATE
PERVERSION ATTACK
PHARMING
PHYLE
PHYSICAL ESCHATOLOGY
PICO TECHNOLOGY
PIDGIN BRAIN
PINK GOO
PLEXURE
POME
POSTHUMAN
POSTJUDICE
POWERSHIFT
PRISONERS’ DILEMMA
PRIVACY MANAGEMENT
PROLONGEVITY
QUANTUM COMPUTING
QUANTUM CRYPTOGRAPHY
QUASISPECIES
RAPTURE OF THE FUTURE
RED GOO
RED QUEEN PRINCIPLE
RED QUEENED
REMEMBRANCE AGENT
REVERSIBLE
RIF
SANS CEILING HYPOTHESIS
SANTA MACHINE
SAPPER MEME
SCHEME
SENTIENCE QUOTIENT
SHIH
SINGULARITY
SINGULARITARIAN
SKY HOOK
SMART-FACED
SOCIOTYPE
SOLID STATE CIVILIZATION
SPIKE, THE
SPOCK MEME
SPONTANEOUS VOLUNTARISM
SPACE FOUNTAIN
STAR LIFTING
STELLAR HUSBANDRY
STEWARD
STRONG AI POSTULATE
STRONG CONVERGENCE HYPOTHESIS
SUSPENDED ANIMATION
SYNTHESPIAN
TAZ/Temporary Autonomous Zone.
TECHNOCYTE
TECHNOSPHERE
TECHNOCALYPS
TELEOLOGICAL THREAD
THEORETICAL APPLIED SCIENCE
TITHONUS SYNDROME
TIPLER CYLINDER
TIPLERITE
TRANSBIOMORPHOSIS (TRANSBIOLOGICAL METAMORPHOSIS)
TRANSCEND
TRANSCENSION
TRANSCIENT
TRANSCLUSION
TRANSHUMANISM
TRANSHUMANITIES
TRAPDOOR FUNCTION
TURING MACHINE
TURING TEST
ÜBERGOO
UBIQUITOUS COMPUTING
UPLIFT
UPLOADER
UNIVERSAL CONSTRUCTOR
UNIVERSAL IMMORTALISM
UNIVERSAL TURING MACHINE
UTILITY FOG
VACCIME
VASTEN
VENTURISM
VIEWQUAKE
VIRIAN
VIRION
VIRTUAL COMMUNITY
VIRTUAL RIGHTS
VITOLOGY
VIVISYSTEM
VON NEUMANN MACHINE
VON NEUMANN PROBE
WEBORIZE
WETWARE
WORMHOLE
XENOBIOLOGY
XENOEVOLUTURE
XEROPHILIA
XOXER
ZERO KNOWLEDGE PROOF

This may not be the best possible neologism for this sort of entity, but I think it’s a good idea on principle to generate neologisms. They are good for us and solidify our thinking. Bruce Sterling, Speech at Lifelike Computer Characters ‘95.

Synopsis: Making Hard Problems for Quantum Computers

Researchers have developed a computer algorithm that doesn’t solve problems but instead creates them for the purpose of evaluating quantum computers.

The desire for quantum computers stems from their potential to solve certain hard problems faster than classical computers. But those bragging rights haven’t actually been earned yet, as no experiment has shown this presumed speedup. Researchers from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain, have devised an algorithm that generates extra hard problems that could offer quantum computers the chance to prove their worth.

The problems that the team focused on belong to the general class of optimization problems. The main example is the Ising model, which describes the interaction of a large number of spins within a lattice. The goal is to find the ground state, which is the orientation of spins that minimizes the interaction energy. The problem is computationally hard because there are many local minima (pseudo-ground-states) that can fool a search algorithm.

The Noise at the Bottom of the Universe

Is search of the sound of silence.

To a physicist, perfect quiet is the ultimate noise. Silence your cellphone, still your thoughts, and muffle every kind of vibration, and you would still be left with quantum noise. It represents an indeterminacy deep within nature, bursts of static and inexplicable motions that cannot be gotten rid of, or made sense of. It seems devoid of meaning.

Considering how pervasive this noise is, you might presume that physicists would have a good explanation for it. But it remains one of the great unsolved problems in science. Quantum theory is silent not just on where the noise comes from, but on how exactly it enters the world. The theory’s defining equation, the Schrödinger equation, is completely deterministic. There is no noise in it at all. To explain why we observe quantum particles to be noisy, we need some additional principle.

For physicists in the Niels Bohr tradition, the act of observation itself is decisive. The Schrödinger equation defines a menu of possibilities for what a particle could do, but only when measured does the particle actually do anything, choosing at random from the menu. Identical particles will make different choices, causing the outcomes of fundamental processes to vary in an uncontrollable way. On Bohr’s view, quantum noise cannot be explained further. It is what physicist John Wheeler called “an elementary act of creation,” with no antecedents. Genesis was not a singular event in the distant past, but an ongoing process that we bring about. We create the world by observing it.

Stanford University Researchers Help DARPA Create Mathematical Framework for Network Pattern Discovery

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has demonstrated a new mathematical framework that works to help researchers discover patterns in complex scientific and engineering systems. DARPA said Thursday researchers at Stanford University created algorithms designed to explore patterns in data in order to gain insights into network structure and function under the Simplifying Complexity in Scientific Discovery [ ].

Mathematical framework that prioritizes key patterns in networks aims to accelerate scientific discovery

Nice.

Networks are mathematical representations to explore and understand diverse, complex systems—everything from military logistics and global finance to air traffic, social media, and the biological processes within our bodies. In each of those systems, a hierarchy of recurring, meaningful internal patterns—such as molecules and proteins interacting inside cells, and capacitors and resistors operating within integrated circuits—determines the functions or behaviors of those systems. The larger and more intricate a system is, however, the harder it is for current network modeling techniques to uncover these patterns and represent them in organized, easy-to-understand ways.

Researchers at Stanford University, funded by DARPA’s Simplifying Complexity in Scientific Discovery (SIMPLEX) program, have made progress in overcoming these challenges through a framework they have developed for identifying and clustering what mathematicians call “motifs”: essential but often obscure patterns within systems that are the building blocks of mathematical modeling and that facilitate the computational representation of complex systems.

A research paper describing the team’s achievement was published in Science (“Higher-order organization of complex networks”). At the heart of the team’s success was the creation of algorithms that can automatically explore and prioritize the hidden patterns in data that are fundamental to explaining network structure and function.

a mathematical framework that automatically identifies and prioritizes the patterns that are fundamental to explaining network structure and function

Doctors find link between statins and cancer survival rate

Being treated for high cholesterol with statins is being linked with a reduced risk of death and better survival from four common cancers, a medical conference has heard.

Among the patients in the study, almost 8,000 had lung cancer, 5,500 had breast cancer, 4,600 had prostate cancer and 4,500 had colon cancer, the researchers found. So the researchers think the statin treatment might explain the protective effect, rather than high cholesterol itself.

Data for patients admitted to United Kingdom hospitals between January 1, 2000-March 31, 2013 with the listed cancers were obtained from the Algorithm for Comorbidities, Associations, Length of stay and Mortality (ACALM) clinical database, which also provided data on comorbidities such as high cholesterol; mortality data was obtained from the Office of National Statistics.

Versatile microwave-driven trapped ion spin system for quantum information processing

More steps forward for QC through the discovery of a versatile effective spin system suitable for quantum simulations and universal quantum computation.

Using trapped atomic ions, we demonstrate a tailored and versatile effective spin system suitable for quantum simulations and universal quantum computation. By simply applying microwave pulses, selected spins can be decoupled from the remaining system and, thus, can serve as a quantum memory, while simultaneously, other coupled spins perform conditional quantum dynamics. Also, microwave pulses can change the sign of spin-spin couplings, as well as their effective strength, even during the course of a quantum algorithm. Taking advantage of the simultaneous long-range coupling between three spins, a coherent quantum Fourier transform—an essential building block for many quantum algorithms—is efficiently realized. This approach, which is based on microwave-driven trapped ions and is complementary to laser-based methods, opens a new route to overcoming technical and physical challenges in the quest for a quantum simulator and a quantum computer.

Air Force Seeks Ideas for How Quantum Computing Can Help Warfighters

Listen up all my QC buddies; the air force wants to hear from you. You have QC ideas for fighter jets they want you.

Guess I need to submit them some of mine.

The Air Force wants white papers that describe new ways quantum computing could help achieve its mission, according to an amended Broad Agency Announcement posted Friday. Eventually, the government could provide a test-bed where a contractor might install, develop and test a quantum computing system, according to the announcement.

Last year, the Air Force announced it had about $40 million available to fund research into, and the eventual maintenance and installation of a quantum system — a branch of emerging computing technology that relies on the mechanics of atomic particles to process complex equations.

The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Information Directorate, which focuses on processes such as signal processing, networking technology, cyber research and supercomputing, is collecting those white papers.