Menu

Blog

Page 11843

Sep 22, 2015

Your Brain Isn’t a Computer. It’s a Quantum Field.

Posted by in categories: computing, neuroscience, quantum physics

For centuries, religious texts have explored the idea that reality breaks down once we get past our surface perceptions of it; and yet, it is through these ambiguities that we understand more about ourselves and our world. In the Old Testament, the embattled Job pleads with God for an explanation as to why he has endured so much suffering. God then quizzically replies, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” (Job 38:4). The question seems nonsensical — why would God ask a person in his creation where he was when God himself created the world? But this paradox is little different from the one in Einstein’s famous challenge to Heisenberg’s “Uncertainty Principle”: “God does not play dice with the universe.” As Stephen Hawking counters, “Even God is bound by the uncertainty principle” because if all outcomes were deterministic then God would not be God. His being the universe’s “inveterate gambler” is the unpredictable certainty that creates him.

The mind then, according to quantum cognition, “gambles” with our “uncertain” reason, feelings, and biases to produce competing thoughts, ideas, and opinions. Then we synthesize those competing options to relate to our relatively “certain” realities. By examining our minds at a quantum level, we change them, and by changing them, we change the reality that shapes them.

Read more

Sep 22, 2015

First driverless pods to travel public roads arrive in the Netherlands

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, transportation

The WEpod will be the first self-driving electric shuttle to run in regular traffic, and take bookings via a dedicated app.

Read more

Sep 21, 2015

This new battery charges to 70% in two minutes, and lasts for 20 years

Posted by in categories: energy, mobile phones

Sick of waiting an hour for your phone to charge before you leave the house? Researchers at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have come up with the best solution yet — a lithium ion battery that charges to 70 percent in just two minutes.

Even better, it also lasts for 20 years, and will reportedly be available to the public within two years.

Rechargeable lithium ion batteries are already common in our mobile phones, tablets and laptops — but most only last around 500 recharge cycles, which is around two to three years of typical use. And at the moment batteries take around two hours to fully charge.

Read more

Sep 21, 2015

Lunch with the FT: Ban Ki-moon — By Gillian Tett | Financial Times

Posted by in category: governance

57f200f4-5d9a-11e5-a28b-50226830d644.img

Ban Ki-moon, 71, has just been on the phone to British prime minister David Cameron, pleading with him, “as an important leader of Europe”, to take more refugees from Syria.”

Read more

Sep 21, 2015

The one (gesture control) ring to rule them all

Posted by in categories: electronics, energy

While many companies are tinkering with lasers, ultrasound and even arm muscles for touchless gesture control on portable devices and desktop PCs, Japan’s 16Lab just wants to put a pretty ring on you. The yet-to-be-named titanium wearable is designed by the award-winning Manabu Tago, and it features ALPS Electric’s tiny module (5.05 × 5.65 × 2.5 mm) that somehow manages to pack Bluetooth Smart radio, movement sensor, environment sensor plus antennas — there’s a video demo after the break. Despite its custom-made 10mAh lithium polymer cell, 16Lab is aiming for at least 20 hours of battery life. This is possible mainly because you have to place your thumb on the top pad (with the ring’s wedge pointing away from the user) to enable the sensors — upon which point the ring vibrates to confirm that it’s active. It’s then just a matter of waving and tilting your hand until you’re done.

Gallery | 13 Photos.

Read more

Sep 21, 2015

TIME’s new cover: Never Offline

Posted by in category: futurism

The Apple Watch is just the start. How wearable tech will change your life—like it or not. http://ti.me/1qiDf9Q

Read more

Sep 21, 2015

Unhackable kernel could keep all computers safe from cyberattack

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, cybercrime/malcode

From helicopters to medical devices and power stations, mathematical proof that software at the heart of an operating system is secure could keep hackers out.

Read more

Sep 21, 2015

TF-X Flying Car IDEA GI Page

Posted by in category: transportation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSvGSnOQms8

I’ll take one.


TF-X Flying Car IDEA
GI Page: https://www.facebook.com/gigigadgets

Read more

Sep 21, 2015

The studio behind Monument Valley is set to launch its first VR game

Posted by in categories: entertainment, virtual reality

https://youtube.com/watch?v=XwJ9fiH2Ksw

One of the most remarkable things about Monument Valley, the mobile puzzler from Ustwo, was how it managed to lure in people who don’t play games. Its intuitive controls and beautiful, MC Escher-inspired worlds made it the rare blockbuster that almost anyone could play. And now the studio is looking to do the same thing in virtual reality. On October 30th, Ustwo will release Land’s End on Samsung’s Gear VR, an exploration game that maintains many of the same principles of Monument Valley — stunning art, accessible controls — and transports them to a 3D space.

“The thing we wanted to do, is to bring our way of thinking to VR,” explains Peter Pashley, technical director at Ustwo Games. “We find that a lot of people who are making VR experiences are kind of making quite traditional games. I wanted to make sure that our branding was represented in the early days of VR.”

Continue reading “The studio behind Monument Valley is set to launch its first VR game” »

Sep 21, 2015

The best way to colonize Mars is crazier than Elon Musk’s idea of dropping nukes on the planet

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, space

Right now, Mars is a frozen, lifeless, and entirely inhospitable place.

Yet the Red Planet holds great promise, and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk recently discussed its future with comedian and television host Stephen Colbert.

Continue reading “The best way to colonize Mars is crazier than Elon Musk’s idea of dropping nukes on the planet” »