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Jun 7, 2015

CRISPR, the disruptor — Heidi Ledford | Nature

Posted by in categories: biological, DNA, environmental

“Researchers are considering how CRISPR could or should be deployed on organisms in the wild. Much of the attention has focused on a method called gene drive, which can quickly sweep an edited gene through a population. The work is at an early stage, but such a technique could be used to wipe out disease-carrying mosquitoes or ticks, eliminate invasive plants or eradicate herbicide resistance in pigweed, which plagues some US farmers.” Read more

Jun 7, 2015

Transhumanist Hacking

Posted by in category: transhumanism

An interesting story on transhumanism, virtual rape, and the thorny field of developing laws to protect people in virtual reality. This story first appeared in Australian print magazine Vertigo:

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Jun 7, 2015

“Brainprints” Could Be Future Security ID — By Christopher Intagliata Scientific American

Posted by in categories: encryption, neuroscience, security

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Biometric technology was once the stuff of sci-fi—how many movies show someone having their hand or eye scanned to get entry into a secured facility? But today biometric tech can be found in millions of people’s pockets—as the fingerprint scanner on an iPhone.

Of course, fingerprint scanning isn’t foolproof. Hackers have stolen fingerprints from photos, and used fake prints to fool Apple’s touch ID. Plus, there’s always the brute force method, like the time a gang in Malaysia cut off a guy’s fingertip—with a machete—to interface with the fingerprint-recognition system on the victim’s Mercedes. Read more

Jun 6, 2015

Meet the New Generation of Robots for Manufacturing — James Hagerty | Wall Street Journal

Posted by in categories: business, economics, robotics/AI

ABB and others have introduced robots designed to assemble small parts and detect whether products are being put together properly.

“Another big trend at work: The Renault robots are ‘collaborative,’ designed to work in proximity to people. Older types of factory robots swing their steel arms with such force that they can bludgeon anyone who strays too close. Using sonar, cameras or other technologies, collaborative robots can sense where people are and slow down or stop to avoid hurting them.” Read more

Jun 6, 2015

Exponential Finance: Financial Advice In the Age of AI and Long Life — By Jason Dorrier SingularityHub

Posted by in categories: economics, finance

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Ric Edelman is one the top financial advisors in the US. His firm, Edelman Financial Services, has 41 offices across the country. And he thinks, all things constant, most financial advisors as we’ve known them won’t be around much longer.

At Exponential Finance, Edelman said, “I firmly believe that in the next ten years, half of all the financial advisors in this country will be gone.” Read more

Jun 5, 2015

Ex-Googlers Get Millions to Help You Build the Next Google — Klint Finley Wired

Posted by in categories: information science, internet, software, supercomputing

gooooogle

After Spencer Kimball left Google, he found himself missing some of the custom-built software the company uses internally. So he and a bunch of fellow ex-Googlers started building their own. And now they want to make it available to everyone to power the next Google or Facebook.

Specifically, Kimball wanted something like Google’s database system Spanner. Spanner is designed to juggle data between potentially millions of database servers, a tool that keeps Google’s services online even if several servers, or an entire datacenter, go offline. While few companies need to operate at quite the scale Google does, the ability to stay online even if many systems fail, and to automatically balance resources between servers, would be useful to many other companies. Read more

Jun 5, 2015

Pakistani Comicbook Fights Violent Extremism, One Panel at a Time — Tasbeeh Herwees @ Good

Posted by in categories: counterterrorism, education, entertainment, futurism, media & arts

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When you consider that one of the most vulnerable targets of violent extremism are kids who don’t have access to education, we really had to try and make the art captivating and yet simple enough to explain the story to someone even if they can’t read the words,” Aftab told Hyperallergic.

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Jun 5, 2015

Bitcoin will employ the creators of the future — Jared Janes Ideapod

Posted by in category: bitcoin

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Jun 4, 2015

An eagle without a beak got a new one that was printed just for her.

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, futurism

Let’s hear it for the power of technology!

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Jun 4, 2015

Our Universe is Fine Tuned for Life—Why?

Posted by in categories: astronomy, chemistry, cosmology, gravity, physics, space

Consider how many natural laws and constants—both physical and chemical—have been discovered since the time of the early Greeks. Hundreds of thousands of natural laws have been unveiled in man’s never ending quest to understand Earth and the universe.

I couldn’t name 1% of the laws of nature and physics. Here are just a few that come to mind from my high school science classes. I shall not offer a bulleted list, because that would suggest that these random references to laws and constants are organized or complete. It doesn’t even scratch the surface…

Newton’s Law of force (F=MA), Newton’s law of gravity, The electromagnetic force, strong force, weak force, Avogadro’s Constant, Boyle’s Law, the Lorentz Transformation, Maxwell’s equations, laws of thermodynamics, E=MC2, particles behave as waves, superpositioning of waves, universe inflation rate, for every action… etc, etc.

For some time, physicists, astronomers, chemists, and even theologians have pondered an interesting puzzle: Why is our universe so carefully tuned for our existence? And not just our existence—After all, it makes sense that our stature, our senses and things like muscle mass and speed have evolved to match our environment. But here’s the odd thing—If even one of a great many laws, properties or constants were off by even a smidgen, the whole universe could not exist—at least not in a form that could support life as we imagine it! Even the laws and numbers listed above. All of creation would not be here, if any of these were just a bit off…

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