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Jul 20, 2015

Nanoscale light-emitting device has big profile

Posted by in categories: energy, nanotechnology

University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers have created a nanoscale device that can emit light as powerfully as an object 10,000 times its size. It’s an advance that could have huge implications for everything from photography to solar power.

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Jul 20, 2015

Stephen Hawking announces $100 million hunt for alien life — Rachel Feltman The Washington Post

Posted by in category: alien life

On Monday, famed physicist Stephen Hawking and Russian tycoon Yuri Milner held a news conference in London to announce their new project: injecting $100 million and a whole lot of brain power into the search for intelligent extraterrestrial life, an endeavor they’re calling Breakthrough Listen.

“We believe that life arose spontaneously on Earth,” Hawking said at Monday’s news conference, “So in an infinite universe, there must be other occurrences of life.” Read more

Jul 20, 2015

A View of Moon From The Other Side

Posted by in category: space

We know how moon looks form Earth but what does it look like form the other side? Here is a view of our Moon from The Other Side.

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Jul 20, 2015

Scientists Can Now Control Mice Brains Wirelessly

Posted by in categories: neuroscience, robotics/AI

Small but powerful tool provides manipulation of mice’s neural networks.

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Jul 20, 2015

Transhumanism Is Booming and Big Business Is Noticing

Posted by in category: transhumanism

My latest article for the Huff Post. I’ve been speaking a lot on transhumanism and business recently, so here’s a story on those two fields growing together:.

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Jul 20, 2015

Toss your manual overboard—augmented reality aims at big industry — Lee Hutchinson | Ars Technica

Posted by in category: augmented reality

“Nunes demonstrated this with a tablet in the augmented reality lab and a small 3D-printed duplicate of a piece of well hardware. The maintenance manual app used the tablet’s camera to figure out what kind of hardware it was looking at, and then was able to track the component as the tablet moved around it. The operator could look up installation procedures and see steps demonstrated in 3D on the parts each step involves, rather than having to refer to static printed diagrams.” Read more

Jul 20, 2015

An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential

Posted by in categories: computing, electronics, neuroscience, Ray Kurzweil, singularity

“An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common-sense “intuitive linear” view. So we won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century — it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today’s rate). The “returns,” such as chip speed and cost-effectiveness, also increase exponentially. There’s even exponential growth in the rate of exponential growth. Within a few decades, machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence, leading to The Singularity — technological change so rapid and profound it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history. The implications include the merger of biological and nonbiological intelligence, immortal software-based humans, and ultra-high levels of intelligence that expand outward in the universe at the speed of light.” — Ray Kurzweil.

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Jul 20, 2015

We May Look Crazy to Them, But They Look Like Zombies to Us: Transhumanism as a Political Challenge

Posted by in categories: defense, futurism, geopolitics, governance, government, life extension, philosophy, sustainability, theory, transhumanism

One of the biggest existential challenges that transhumanists face is that most people don’t believe a word we’re saying, however entertaining they may find us. They think we’re fantasists when in fact we’re talking about a future just over the horizon. Suppose they’re wrong and we are right. What follows? Admittedly, we won’t know this until we inhabit that space ‘just over the horizon’. Nevertheless, it’s not too early to discuss how these naysayers will be regarded, perhaps as a guide to how they should be dealt with now.

So let’s be clear about who these naysayers are. They hold the following views:

1) They believe that they will live no more than 100 years and quite possibly much less.
2) They believe that this limited longevity is not only natural but also desirable, both for themselves and everyone else.
3) They believe that the bigger the change, the more likely the resulting harms will outweigh the benefits.

Now suppose they’re wrong on all three counts. How are we to think about such beings who think this way? Aren’t they the living dead? Indeed. These are people who live in the space of their largely self-imposed limitations, which function as a self-fulfilling prophecy. They are programmed for destruction – not genetically but intellectually. Someone of a more dramatic turn of mind would say that they are suicide bombers trying to manufacture a climate of terror in humanity’s existential horizons. They roam the Earth as death-waiting-to-happen. This much is clear: If you’re a transhumanist, ordinary people are zombies.

Continue reading “We May Look Crazy to Them, But They Look Like Zombies to Us: Transhumanism as a Political Challenge” »

Jul 20, 2015

Virtual Reality: The next frontier — By Mark Piesing | Financial Times

Posted by in category: virtual reality

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Immersive virtual reality is the vision of a computer-generated reality that looks, sounds, smells and feels so authentic that it psychologically tricks our brain into accepting that it is real.

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Jul 20, 2015

The Humans Who Dream Of Companies That Won’t Need Us

Posted by in category: futurism

How would Ethereum’s network autonomously run transportation apps, delivery services, and other companies? And would we even want that?

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