String theory arrived in the public field in 1988 when a BBC radio series Desperately Seeking Superstrings was aired. Thanks to good marketing and its naturally curious name and characteristics, it is now part of popular discourse, mentioned in TV’s Big Bang Theory, Woody Allen stories, and countless science documentaries.
The odds that artificial intelligence will enslave or eliminate humankind within the next decade or so are thankfully slim. So concludes a major report from Stanford University on the social and economic implications of artificial intelligence.
At the same time, however, the report concludes that AI looks certain to upend huge aspects of everyday life, from employment and education to transportation and entertainment. More than 20 leaders in the fields of AI, computer science, and robotics coauthored the report. The analysis is significant because the public alarm over the impact of AI threatens to shape public policy and corporate decisions.
It predicts that automated trucks, flying vehicles, and personal robots will be commonplace by 2030, but cautions that remaining technical obstacles will limit such technologies to certain niches. It also warns that the social and ethical implications of advances in AI, such as the potential for unemployment in certain areas and likely erosions of privacy driven by new forms of surveillance and data mining, will need to be open to discussion and debate.
Posted in Elon Musk, humor, space travel
Sony is hiding their home helper robot, which is concerning. I have seen pictures of Elon Musk’s home helper bot and it looked really bad. At least there seems to be a race to get these things to market now.
Sony’s much anticipated new robot is under development and customers should hang on a little longer to see it, CEO Kaz Hirai said on Thursday.
Sony began working on a home robot in April this year and first disclosed existence of the project in June this year. Since then, it’s been quiet on what exactly is under development.
Hirai first hinted the company might be about to unveil the robot, while speaking during a news conference at the IFA trade show in Berlin.
Predicting an economic “singularity” approaching, Kevin Carson from the Center for a Stateless Society writes in The Homebrew Industrial Revolution (2010) we can look forward to a vibrant “alternative economy” driven less and less by corporate and state leviathans.
According to Carson, “the more technical advances lower the capital outlays and overhead for production in the informal economy, the more the economic calculus is shifted” (p. 357). While this sums up the message of the book and its relevance to advocates of open existing and emerging technologies, the analysis Carson offers to reach his conclusions is extensive and sophisticated.
With the technology of individual creativity expanding constantly, the analysis goes, “increasing competition, easy diffusion of new technology and technique, and increasing transparency of cost structure will – between them – arbitrage the rate of profit to virtually zero and squeeze artificial scarcity rents” (p. 346).
An unrivalled champion of arguments against “intellectual property”, the author believes IP to be nothing more than a last-ditch attempt by talentless corporations to continue making profit at the expensive of true creators and scientists (p. 114–129). The view has significant merit.
Professor YongKeun Park of the Physics Department at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and his research team have developed a powerful method for 3D imaging of live cells without staining.
The new microscopic tool is called the holotomography (HT)-1. It was announced to the global marketplace through a Korean start-up that Professor Park co-founded called TomoCube.
From the measurement of multiple 2D holograms of a cell, coupled with various angles of laser illuminations, the 3D refractive index (RI) distribution of the cell can be reconstructed. This 3D map provides structural and chemical information, such as dry mass and protein concentration.
Posted in futurism
The newest Uber driver in Pittsburgh isn’t a person — but a Volvo Cars XC90. http://cnnmon.ie/2cbIx3f
