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In 15 years we’ll be able to upload education to our brains. So can I stop saving for my kids’ college?

I’m super excited to share this new Quartz article of mine, part of an ongoing personal debate about #transhumanism, #kids, and #education in my family:


But the age of downloading experience and expertise directly into our brain mainframe is coming. So is downloading professional training, including everything from becoming a police officer to practicing medicine or investigative journalism.

For many in the audience, I think that was the first time considering this could become a reality in our lifetime.

But in plenty of instances, brainwave tech is already here. People fly drones using mind-reading headsets. Parkinson’s disease patients can use brain chips to calm shaking attacks. Machine interfaces let people silently communicate mind-to-mind with one another, or with devices.

Brainwave technology works by recording the brain’s thought patterns—configurations of neurons that fire in distinct ways for different thoughts—and replicating those patterns back into the brain via electrical stimulation from a nonbiological device.

Malware Defense: Protecting Against Polymorphic Malware

So everything we just said about metamorphic and polymorphic malware also applies to metamorphic and polymorphic ransomware.

Metamorphic and Polymorphic Malware Families

With consistent functionalities regardless of code, malware is often grouped into families so security teams can look for similar functions and code segments in efforts to protect their organizations. Some of the most well-known malware families include:

Terahertz radiation to enable portable particle accelerators

Researchers at MIT in the US and DESY (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron) in Germany have developed a technology that could shrink particle accelerators by a factor of 100 or more. The basic building block of the accelerator uses high-frequency electromagnetic waves and is just 1.5 cm (0.6 in) long and 1 mm (0.04 in) thick, with this drastic size reduction potentially benefitting the fields of medicine, materials science and particle physics, among others.

The Making of Watchmen’s Dr. Manhattan

Hollywood once said that a film based on the graphic novel Watchmen could never be made—in large part because the technology to create Dr. Manhattan, the blue, glowing, matter-manipulating superhero, simply didn’t exist. The hotly anticipated film, directed by Zach Snyder, hit theaters yesterday, glowing blue man and all. Here’s how filmmakers used Frankenstein and DIY sensibilities to create a photo-real, all CG superhero.