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Jul 21, 2015

Wall Street analysts say virtual reality can’t go mainstream until these issues are fixed — Corey Stern | Business Insider

Posted by in category: virtual reality

“‘We are unsure if gamers and general consumers alike are willing to spend long periods of time alone, in a confined space, with a headset, and completely shut off from surrounding environment,’ [Oppenheimer analysts] wrote of the limiting characteristics. This brings us to the social issue: virtual reality has so far only been a single person experience.” Read more

Jul 21, 2015

Robot Soldiers — By Geoff Dyer | Financial Times

Posted by in categories: military, robotics/AI

There was no one standing beside Chimp with a joystick, manipulating the robot’s every movement. Instead, Chimp’s head and body are packed with cameras, sensors and processors that allow it to generate a 3D model of its environment, which it sends back to a control team. “If it is a task that is familiar, we can say ‘grab that drill or turn that valve’,” says Tony Stentz, a Carnegie Mellon university professor who runs Chimp. Or to put it more bluntly, the robot was making many of the decisions itself.

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Jul 21, 2015

Colonizing The Moon May Be 90 Percent Cheaper Than We Thought

Posted by in categories: space, space travel

And that in turn could help us get to Mars, says NASA-commissioned study.

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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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