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Mar 7, 2015

FedEx And UPS Refuse to Ship a Digital Mill That Can Make Untraceable Guns

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, business

By — Wired
The Ghost Gunner, which measures about a foot in each dimension.
The new generation of “maker” tools like 3-D printers and milling machines promises to let anyone make virtually anything—from prosthetic limbs to firearms—in the privacy and convenience of his or her own home. But first, those tools have to get to customers’ homes. That’s going to be difficult for at least one new machine with the potential to make homemade firearms, because FedEx is refusing to deliver it.

Last week FedEx told firearm-access nonprofit Defense Distributed that the company refuses to ship the group’s new tool, a computer controlled (CNC) mill known as the Ghost Gunner. Defense Distributed has marketed its one-foot-cubed $1,500 machine, which allows anyone to automatically carve aluminum objects from digital designs, as an affordable, private way to make an AR-15 rifle body without a serial number. Add in off-the-shelf parts that can be ordered online, and the Ghost Gunner would allow anyone to create one of the DIY, untraceable, semi-automatic firearms sometimes known as “ghost guns.”
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Mar 7, 2015

Scientist claims that human head transplants could be a reality by 2017

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

By — Gizmag
A woman's severed head awaits a new body, in the 1962 film The Brain That Wouldn't Die
Transplanting a human head onto a donor body may sound like the stuff of science fiction comics, but not to Italian doctor Sergio Canavero. He has not only published a paper describing the operation in detail, but also believes that the surgery could be a reality as early as 2017.

Canavero, Director of the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group, initially highlighted the idea in 2013, stating his belief that the technology to successfully join two severed spinal cords existed. Since then he’s worked out the details, describing the operation in his recent paper, as the Gemini spinal cord fusion protocol (GEMINI GCF).
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Mar 6, 2015

Singularity? Reality? Humanity? Are there sophisticated Barbarians in Silicon Valley? Linking the Human Brain to the Computer — Exciting, or Frightening?

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, complex systems, cyborgs, evolution, futurism, human trajectories, posthumanism, singularity, transhumanism, virtual reality

Quoted: “Once you really solve a problem like direct brain-computer interface … when brains and computers can interact directly, to take just one example, that’s it, that’s the end of history, that’s the end of biology as we know it. Nobody has a clue what will happen once you solve this. If life can basically break out of the organic realm into the vastness of the inorganic realm, you cannot even begin to imagine what the consequences will be, because your imagination at present is organic. So if there is a point of Singularity, as it’s often referred to, by definition, we have no way of even starting to imagine what’s happening beyond that.”

Read the article here > http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/silicon-valley-mordor/

Mar 6, 2015

Illegal, Immoral, and Here to Stay: Counterfeiting and the 3D Printing Revolution

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, ethics

By Josh Greenbaum — Wired
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If you’re looking for a way to gauge how the 3D printing market will evolve, look no further than the dawn of two other revolutionizing technologies – the desktop printing market and the VHS standard. And be prepared for a decidedly off-color story.

While many of us have fond memories of watching a favorite movie when it first came out on VHS, or admiring the first three-color party invitation we printed on a laser printer, the fact remains that innocent pursuits were not the sole reason either of these technologies took off. And we shouldn’t expect 3D printing to be any different.
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Mar 6, 2015

The Future of Consumer Tech Is About Making You Forget It’s There

Posted by in category: innovation

By — Fast Company

When Apple introduced the iPad 2 in 2011, it laid out a noble goal for the future of technology.

“Technology alone is not enough,” an Apple ad proclaimed. “Faster, thinner, lighter, those are all good things, but when technology gets out of the way, everything becomes more delightful, even magical. That’s when you leap forward.“
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Mar 5, 2015

Bitcoin Takes the Stage at SXSW 2015 Interactive

Posted by in category: bitcoin

— Bitcoin Magazine
sxswbitcoin
Speakers from the top companies in the Bitcoin industry will present a full-day mini-conference of Bitcoin-related content during the SXSW 2015 Interactive Festival. The event will take place Monday, March 16, at SXSW’s Startup Village in the Austin Grand Ballroom of the Hilton Downtown in Austin, Texas.

The event will feature five sessions focusing on topics about the Bitcoin industry, with information from basic to advanced. Good and bad myths will be addressed, and speakers will share their vision for a future with Bitcoin.

The hour-long sessions for the day are titled “What is Bitcoin?,” “Bitcoin 2.0,” “A Future with Bitcoin,” “Impact on Developing World,” and “Real World Applications.” Read more

Mar 5, 2015

Protect Yourself from Cyber Crime

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

By — SingularityHubhttp://cdn.singularityhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/15462325023_6bea87f2da_h-1000x400.jpg

This blog is about the downside of exponential technology: digital crime.

Normally, I choose to focus on the immensely positive impact technology has on humanity – the Abundance mindset.

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Mar 4, 2015

Why Silicon Valley Is Eager to Take on Detroit

Posted by in category: business

By — Singularityhub
http://cdn.singularityhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/silicon-valley-eager-to-replace-detroit-21-1000x400.jpg

We tend to think of cars as a mature technology. They’re good enough to be boring. But something weird is happening. Silicon Valley is eyeing the car business. First it was Tesla, Google—even Uber. Now, it’s Apple.

According to Bloomberg, Apple has a team of 200 secretly working on a car. They’ve evidently been luring talent away from Tesla with lucrative bonuses and comp. And battery-maker A123 Systems filed a lawsuit against Apple for poaching its employees. The rumor? Apple’s aiming to develop an electric car by 2020.

It sounds bizarre—but it might not be that crazy.
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Mar 4, 2015

One Machine to Rule Them All: 3D Printing With German Precision

Posted by in category: 3D printing

By — SingularityHub

Why does 3D printing get all the love? Probably because it evokes visions of Star Trek’s famous replicator. Back here in the humble 21st century, however, it’s just one of the computerized Computerized milling machines smooth and perfect industrial parts.manufacturing methods set to upend industry. Another method, subtractive manufacturing, is the yin to 3D printing’s yang.

While additive manufacturing (or 3D printing) builds parts layer by layer from the ground up, subtractive machines (like 5-axis mills) whittle precision parts out of solid chunks of metal.

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Mar 3, 2015

The elastic brain

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Rebecca Boyle — aeon

Five years ago, in a new city and in search of a new hobby, I decided to try playing a musical instrument for the first time. I had never learned to read music; in my grade school, the optional orchestra class was offered at the same time as the optional robotics class, and I chose the latter. Understanding nothing about chords or music theory, I settled on the relatively simple mountain dulcimer, a three-stringed lap instrument from Appalachia.

I was proud of how quickly I picked it up. I could replicate many of the old-time fiddle tunes, Civil War ballads and Ozark folk songs my instructor played during demonstrations, and I learned to discern notes by ear. I was hardly a virtuoso, however, and after a few months I hit a plateau. I could hear how they were supposed to sound, but challenging, faster-tempo songs remained out of my grasp. Frustrated, I distinctly remember thinking: ‘If only I’d learned music as a kid, I might have been great at this.’
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