31 January 2008

Another round of exciting breakthroughs coming your way:

• Researchers Demonstrate Quantum Teleportation and Memory in Tandem - I want to explore the possibilities this may bring: Using quantum teleportation could it be possible to create a telecommunications device that instantly transmits and receives data irrespective of distance wih no media between transmitter and receiver? If so, quantum networking could enable us to build a data network throughout the universe with no propagation delay or interstellar media to etenuate a signal. This would allow colonies on the other side of the galaxy to instantly communicate with us in real time! Bandwidth would be astronomical! Whoa! Coupled with the incredible speed of quantum computing, this is truly transformative technology. What a way to start the links!
• Engineers demonstrate nanotube wires operating at speed of commercial chips - I am glad to see the next developing paradigm in computing substrates is well underway. All hail the Law of Accelerating Returns!
• Lab On A Chip Developed For Cheap, Portable Medical Tests -Further evidence that biology and medicine follow the same exponential growth trends that IT is enjoying.

Well, I had a busy day today. I didn't have much time to get many links in. I hope to get some later tonight, or more tomorrow, definately.

The Future, Today

Hi again,

• Tapping into the Cancer-Fighter Collective for Treatment - Uhhhh, you mean to tell me that they don't have this yet!??! WTF? I thought that they would have something like this for all medical issues TEN YEARS AGO! I am truly surprised! How hard is it to craft an SQL database and throw a web based interface on it? Amazon.com has been doing it since...ohh...the MID 90's?! SHEESH!


• What Are We Thinking When We (Try to) Solve Problems? - I wonder how an Aspy would do on these EEG tests? I tend to concentrate very long and hard, without breaks. But I don't consider that a 'wall' per say, just they way I think. I have hit walls, and it feels very much like I am hitting something physical with my mind, very strange to describe it that way though. When I do I have to reverse my thought direction and attempt to approach the problem from a different angle. Again, using spacial references to describe mental process seems to be the best way for me to describe my visual thinking style. Do other people think visually as well? If you do, pipe up and leave a comment :-)


• Morphine Dependency Blocked By Single Genetic Change - What we can do for Morphine addiction, we can do for Nicotine, Cocaine, Heroine, and a myriad of other addictions! WOW, great news and hope for millions of drug addicts. The dream of using drugs without becoming addicted to them are coming to to a pharmacist near you! WOOT! Come and get your Addiction Vaccine!


• Thinking About Tomorrow - Its interesting to see the lay person's view of the next ten years of possible technological progress, but they fail to consider the exponential growth rate that information technologies follow. in ten years computing devices will be over 1000 times more powerful and 1000 times smaller for the same $1000 that will buy today. This means cell phones in 10 years will have more computing power than a $10,000 computer, with all the bells and whistles, purchased today. What will that mean? I don't know, but 3-D projectors are conservative, IMHO. In my version of the next 10, I expect to see digital eye contact displays that are wirelessly connected to virtually project inherently 3-D images onto reality. This is called augmented reality and can be very powerful. Imagine no screen at all but a 6' x 8' "screen" projected into space wherever you look, even when your eyes are closed! Imagine having everyone's name (or nickname, tagline, whatever) floating above their heads. I would never forget someones name again. One could enter a virtual reality session and feel as if they are really there! It would track the position of your eyes and the display would change accordingly. With superior voice recognition we could turn it off with a word, and the mouse/keyboard combo would fade away. The cell phone would power the main computation component, the contacts be wireless and use solar power for energy, and small ear patches that attach behind the ears would provide sound. If you want to have a shared experience, just enable the link and your friends can experience it with you, even on another continent, at the same moment. When our clothes have circuitry embedded in them, they can track our motion and use that as an input device. On another topic, cars will be autonomous and drive by themselves. This will be MUCH safe for everyone and more convenient! Just tell the drive system to "Go to the restaurant." It will know which one from the reservations you have made on your Personal Computer and plot it accordingly. Whew! I get excited when I think of these things! I better stop here before my fingers get sore.


• Tool Use Is Just a Trick of the Mind - I recall a conversation with a friend of mine regarding what we are, and I mentioned that what makes us "us" is our pattern, not the material we are made of, although that has a significant impact, but the pattern of that material and energy. As we collect more information about our pattern we get closer to the truth of what makes us "us".


• New Method Exploits Ancient Mechanism To Switch Genes On And Off At Will - More fuel for the "Hackable DNA" fire!


• Shape-shifting magnetic bots take a page out of the Dharma playbook - Erik Drexler mentioned in one of his books that we may someday have "nanoswarms" that will self assemble to form anything we want, from houses, cars, to even bodies for our virtual minds to inhabit. May this be the first step in that direction? Nice short video here.


• Estimating the Exaflood, The Impact of Video and Rich Media on the Internet – A ‘zettabyte’ by 2015? - Fantastic article! Do I smell an excellent investment opportunity? Also, the below graph from the article appears suspiciously like an exponential growth plot...Hmmmm exponential growth? In IT? It couldn't be....

That concludes today...I will be back tomorrow :-)

Hello there! Another round of links I have found interesting:

• Couch potato lifestyle may speed up ageing - Damn! I am so doomed! GAHHHH! DOH!
• Tiny Living Machines - Novel approach to the 'scaffolding' idea.
• Invention: Nanotube X-ray enhancer - I wonder what the side effects of having millions of spear like nanotubes pierce and embed the cells lining arteries? Gathering that nanotubes are quite harmful to cells if not properly treated, probably would be quite disastrous. Also in this article is a patent for a Startling Tinnitus Test. If a person has previously damaged ears, why would it be a good idea to blast other noises at other frequencies to determine if a person has a lowered frequency response at the tinnitus freq range? My father has tinnitus from his time spent in Vietnam next to artillery emplacements, and he has to wear ear plugs because even moderately loud noises are painful to him. I can imagine him trying to sit through one of these Startling Tinnitus Tests for about 3 seconds before punching the clinician administering the test! LOL! "Just sit still sir, we need to see if you can bear more startling noises. Sir, we are just trying to see if you can hear this noise! Sir, please do not pummel the technician!"
• Looking into the Brain with Light - Does anyone else notice that non-invasive real-time medical scanning techniques are doubling in capability every year?
• Study Gives Key Role to Sleep in Helping Brain Learn Anew - Interesting findings. When we re-engineer the brain will we need to simulate these biological processes, or can we devise similar, but more efficient methods of learning process functions? Must we recreate what nature has devised? or can we create our own version that fulfills the requirement?
• New Alzheimer's Treatment Completes First Phase Of Testing - Is it me, or are they just treating the protein marker, not the actual cause of the disease? Does treating this marker reduce the effects of the disease?
• Biologists use computers to study bacterial cell division - Any simulation sufficiently accurate might as well be the real thing. This is a good step in that direction.

Ok kids, I'll see you tomorrow! Peace and Goodwill!

I'm back...

I am back after being sick most of the weekend. And instead of doing homework, like I was supposed to, I found a new diversion: Eve Online - I downloaded the Free Trial and I am fascinated by it's complexity, which is probably why most people don't like it. I think I am hooked. I hope my grades don't suffer... NAWH!

Anyway, here are some more of the new developments I love:

• Cesar: Geek out your powerwheels - Autonomous kid cars, this is very cool.
• Longest Piece of Synthetic DNA Yet - DNA synthesis is really taking off!
• Nano-Prospecting - Advanced Energy Consortium (AEC), which includes Halliburton Energy Services, BP America, and ConocoPhilips, will continue to put millions into a sinking ship, and disregard the impact to the environment. Sadly shortsighted.
• Richard Branson’s Remarks at the SpaceShipTwo Unveiling - Richard Branson is indeed a visionary, and one who's wealth can make a significant difference in the world for the better.
• The Coming Wave of Gadgets That Listen and Obey - It is interesting that DNA is proving easier to engineer than voice recognition...Hmmmmmm.
• Universal Influenza Vaccine Tested Successfully In Humans - This is great news! I hope that illness and aging will soon, like 15-20 years, be a thing of the past.
• Scientists hit back at Catholic church over 'cybrids' - Why is the Catholic Church always in other peoples business? It's as if they think, "If it's not good for us, It's not good for anyone, and should be banned!" They refuse to be educated on the issue, and tend to twist what little they actually understand all around for their own skewed, anti-science purposes. If they truly believe in respecting our common humanity, they would allow scientific progress that alleviates suffering and death, as human cloning shows just this sort of promise. I say get over it and help these people, instead of getting in the way for all the wrong reasons!
• Microchips Everywhere: a Future Vision - The concept of privacy is just a short term experiment. It came with the invention of Industrialization and developed as cities grew and as individuals left the small village, where everyone knew your business, to the city where you were just a faceless citizen in the collective crowd. I believe monitoring is all right, even desirable, as long as it works both ways. The monitoring agencies need to be monitored as completely and deeply as we are monitored by them. If you want to know what I do in the "privacy" of my own home, go ahead, but don't hold it against me, don't be offended, don't force me to change, because I am doing the same to you! The surveillance must be equal or the balance of power is lopsided and broken. Secrecy is the true problem, not privacy. Transparency can be very distopian or utopian, its our choice.

Hope you all have a great day!

The Day After The Day After MLK Day...

Hello all,



I am playing catch-up here in Miami after a long weekend. I finally have some time to post. First we start with news and then see where we end up:

• Invention: 3D tissue printer + Implantable camera + Cheap desalination - Iamba made an earlier comment about fixing her "bad" eye... This may hold some promise, but might be expensive at first as most bleeding-edge technologies are.
• Rogue stem cells hold clue to melanoma growth - I am seeing more and more evidence linking stem cells and cancer. United Therapeutics to develop cancer therapies based on research in novel stem-cell-like cells, via exclusive license from MIT, Creating unlimited quantities of adult stem cells, New study supports a stem cell origin of cancer, New tests identify cancer "ringleaders" just to scratch the surface. I also like this TED video. I wonder how long before we discover the link turning stem cells into cancer and then how to prevent it.
• LET A THOUSAND GENOMES BLOOM - This is a great example of Accelerating Returns.
• Treating Muscular Dystrophy with Stem Cells
• DNA-Based Artificial Nose
• Rain Power: Harvesting Energy from the Sky - Very innovative! Might not be very efficient but nice application of alternative thinking.
• Targeted Gene Therapy Provides Relief For Chronic Pain, Study Shows - How long before I can have my genes create THC for me? ;-) (Just kidding...sorta)
• Misreading the mind - This author has it all wrong. Just like a single transistor cannot compute all alone, our neurons cannot either. But that doesn't mean we should ignore the transister as irrelevant, which is the feeling I got from the author of this article. Reductionism is an important factor in understanding the brain/mind connection. Not all of it, but important, nonetheless.
• Google to Host Terabytes of Open-Source Science Data - Google, the best company EVER?!? I think so!
• Moon Stuck: Space leaders work to replace lunar base with manned asteroid missions - Great article! I have long considered the Bush plan to return to the moon as short sighted and not far reaching enough. Let private enterprise go to the moon, NASA should be in the business of science and exploration. Will Bush Dubyah listen to this expert advise? Not likely, "I got a lot of Ph.D.-types and smart people around me who come into the Oval Office and say, 'Mr. President, here's what's on my mind.' And I listen carefully to their advice. But having gathered the device, I decide, you know, I say, 'This is what we're going to do.' "— Lancaster, Pa., Oct. 3, 2007. Gotta love the great "Decider"
• CIA Says Hackers Have Cut Power Grid - Interesting and related to my own field of current study.
• On Singularity: A user-driven news and discussion portal - From the Singularity Institute blogs. I have added it to my Google Reader.

Well, thats all the time I have for today. I have class tonight so won't post anything else I'm afraid.

Friday! Finally!

Lets start the day off right...

• Nasa investigates virtual space - Interesting that the BBC reports on an American space program. - As virtual presence technologies increase, we may not even have to send humans into space at all. As robotics, prosthetics, remote control, virtual senses, mind/machine interfaces, and other technologies mature, we can send robots that will act as our bodies much cheaper than sending ourselves. A robot won't need life support, food, shielding, or any of the other bulky and heavy things we need to survive a trip through space. Just send a lab-in-a-robot to the site and virtually control it in an MMO, and experience the site virtually as suggested in the article. Everyone can be an astronaut!
• Bionic eyes: Contact lenses with circuits, lights a possible platform for superhuman vision - This is absolutely AWSOME!
• Computer decodes dog communication - Wasn't I talking about this sort of thing last week? Heh.
• Cloning Said to Yield Human Embryos - I wonder what it would be like to be my own father and my own son? Thats like that dumb song, "I'm My Own Grandpa"

Well, thats it for now. I'm off to school. Gotta love the night classes.

Tech News Thursday

Lets get started!

Maybe I should have called this post 'Nano' Tech News Thursday...

• Evolution of human genome's 'guardian' gives people unique protections from DNA damage
• Scientists discover new method of observing interactions in nanoscale systems
• Nanoparticles Generate Supersonic Shock Waves to Target Cancer
• Nanotechnology Innovation May Revolutionize Gene Detection In A Single Cell
• Star Trek-like 'Phraselateor' device helps police communicate - There are other Star Trek inspired inventions here.
• DNA 'fabricator' constructs walking DNA
• Killing Skin-Cancer Stem Cells
• A fully implantable hearing aid is showing promise

I didn't have time today to write any comments. I might later tonight.

Its Wednesday!

So I had a very interesting night last night. After work my good friend Iamba* came by and we had a great discussion regarding a story she wants to write with my help. She asked me for some ideas and the one I went with right off the bat is:

• In the near future we will have the understanding of what makes the human mind work, muscularly, biologically and functionally. We will be able to fix or repair brain damage, restoring functionality to those that have lost ability due to injury or illness. We will also be able to repair genetic damage that was caused at birth by applying these same techniques to eradicate retardation, Down's Syndrome and other mental deficiencies. Many feel it is ethically responsible for us to bring all of humanity up to a even playing field to allow all of us equal opportunity.
• But what if we understand what intelligence is and we can re-engineer all biological life such that we can grant human level intelligence to animals? Should we? Should humanity be the sole owners of intelligence? Should we uplift just chimpanzees? Should we uplift dogs, cats, pigs, cows, flies, anything?
• If we could talk with them, what would they say? How would they feel about not having an opposeable thumb and the inability to manipulate objects as finely as us? Would they want us to re-engineer them to be more like us so as to effect the world like we do? Or would they want something different?
• Would they want to be treated as equals and demand equal rights? Does that apply to just the uplifted animals and not the ones left behind? Should all animals be uplifted?
• What about the different factions of humans? One group feels that animals should be left alone; another says uplift them but engineer them to be willing slaves; another says they should have free will and manifest destiny; others say just add some intelligence, but not all the way, for WE should maintain our dominance.
• Would natural traits such as alpha instinct, pack mentality and predator/prey behavior be engineered out of them? Could they be? Would we be able to take this part of intelligence but not that part? If unable to weed out these behavioral instincts, how will they function in our civilized society? Would uplifted wolves still chase uplifted rabbits that run from everything? Or would the uplifted rabbits fight back with cunning and trickery?
• I feel the most interesting points will be to discover what these animals have to say. What does a whale sing about? Why does the Preying Mantis eat her mate after sex? Would the black widow spider share her knowledge of webspinning? Does my dog REALLY like me, or am I just a convenient food source, thus I shouldn't be pissed off. WHAT ARE THEY THINKING?

I hope to continue this project and get some feedback from Iamba as to what direction this will go.

We also waxed philosophical about talking politics with strangers. I really shouldn't! LOL. Without going into too much detail, I was sucked in to a morning commute conversation (I ride the Tri-Rail from Hollywood to Miami) with an acquaintance and she mentioned that I really don't talk much about politics. I mistakenly took that as a cue that she would be willing to have a nice discussion on various political views. I like differing views and like to discuss their pros and cons. Well, in short, she said something I understood to be, "The reason that Miami city government is so corrupt is," then in a very hushed tone and a furtive glance, "all the Cubans are used to getting around the system back on their island so they do it here." ...

I was shocked! I then asked if what I heard was correct. "Did I just hear you say that Cubans are to blame for the state of governmental corruption here?" She said, "Yes."

I then said, "I am not so sure I agree with the validity of that stereotypical statement. Do you happen to have evidence of the Cuban - corruption connection?" She began to get visibly upset. She said, "I didn't say that. I am not a stereotyper. I don't do that. That's not what I said!"

I then asked, "I'm sorry, but if that isn't what you said, what did you say? I just want to clarify that what I heard was correct."

She became more upset by the minute. Our stop came up and she bolted like I had just shot her. I followed, not understanding why she was practically running away. I caught up to her and said, "Have I upset you?" She repeated, "I am not a stereotyper or a racist!" and turned and walked away!" I attempted to apologize, but it fell on deaf ears.

On the bus ride to class later that night, I was replaying the event in my mind to see where I went wrong and have some questions:

1. If someone says something in a hushed tone and furtive glances to see if anyone is listening, does that not mean they are aware that what they are about to say is possibly perceived to be controversial or not popular? Am I misinterpreting the body language here?
2. Was my acquaintance angry at me for misunderstanding her statement, for calling her on it, or is she mad at herself for making the statement in the first place?
3. Why do people want to discuss interesting controversial issues, but when they do, get upset and angry? I didn't feel angry at the woman for her view, I was just surprised she said it out loud. Why did she get angry? Why not discuss it rationally and evaluate the topic critically?
4. I was dismayed to discover that our budding friendship was so fragile as to not handle even the slightest disagreement. I guess that it is better to have discovered this now before anything deeper had been created. I am just constantly amazed at the utter complexity of interpersonal relationships.

Iamba talked a little about this when I related the event to her. She said she tries to refrain from talking politics as most people are over emotional and not logical in their views. (I wonder why that is. Government should be dispassionate and reasonable.) She said that she will only discuss political theory, not working politics. I guess I will have to adopt that view to keep others from getting upset unnecessarily.

I thought I had said I wasn't going to go into detail...sigh...

*changed the names to protect the not so innocent...

Anyway, On to more positive topics like:

• Semantic Web takes big step forward - This is going to be as big a jump in use fullness as the web itself was.
• Self-Paced Brain-Computer Interface Gets Closer to Reality - I am waiting, impatiently, for my PC to just 'know' what I am thinking, just like my leg or arm does now. Keyboard? Mouse? Useless.
• Penn Engineers Create Carbon Nanopipettes That Are Smaller Than Cells and Measure Electric Current - This leads us to tiny repair tools that will slip into cells and repair DNA an organelles from the inside out, repairing age related damage and genetic abnormalities. Maybe even DNA restructuring. Also the possibility of inserting a nanopipette into neurons to monitor individual firing and create recordings of the resultant patterns in realtime. Fun stuff.
• Graphene quantum dot may solve some quantum computing problems - Could this be the next paradigm in computation, after the IC chip?
• Pushing The Limits Of Computer Chip Miniaturization - Another related article to computational paradigms. With further refinement and improvement, Moore's Law could go to 2020, but we should be well into the next substrate of computing before then. I do like how this article shows the Accelerating Returns that IC chips have followed. The next 20 years will have 1 million times more change than the last 20. WOOT!
• Food from cloned animals deemed safe in US - Why did it take over a year to determine if cloned animals are safe to eat? Muscle is muscle, regardless of how it is born...I'm confused here. And why are two thirds of consumers wary of cloned products? Same reason as for the reluctance to accept Genetically Modified foods? (They don't realize that most domesticated animals have been genetically modified for centuries. Its called selective breeding.) I guess they really don't know what it is, and thus are afraid of what they don't understand. Unfortunately change is accelerating and consumers will understand less and less, does that mean they will consume less and less? When everything is like magic, will they stop consuming altogether?
• Has AT&T Lost Its Mind?A baffling proposal to filter the Internet. - Nice way to destroy a company.
• MacBook ErrWhy I'm disappointed in Apple's ultraslim new laptop. - Smaller sizes. Greater capabilities. I am loving this day and age. Can't wait for the "PC in a pill"

Tech news daily

Here is another post set of the tech news I love and look for everyday. ENJOY!

• Monkey’s Thoughts Propel Robot, a Step That May Help Humans - I so look forward to seeing quadriplegics walking and moving like natural beings, independent and having a high quality of life. I also see visions of remotely controlling a robot "body" in harsh environments like underwater, volcanoes, the arctic, and space by using our thoughts. Remote sensing tech is also maturing at the exponential rate that most IT technologies are, so we will be able to "see, hear, and touch" the remote environment. In situ by proxy? I also like the idea of an exoskeleton that can augment the users strength, carrying capacity, endurance, and also protect the wearer. Powered Armor anyone? Another thought occurs to me, our interfacing with computers and machines are very crude and require training and practice, but a monkey, in just an hour could mentally manipulate complex robotic legs just by intuitively thinking about it, just like it were her own legs! We need to connect with our machines mentally and just use the equipment, not train, not practice, just think about it like moving an arm or leg. Easy, Breezy! How to use Windows XX would be a thing of the past, we would just know how to do it intuitively as the OS of the future would be connected directly into the brain. Exciting!
• Tinkering extends life of organism by 10-fold - By extrapolation, the average lifespan for humans worldwide is 67 (Wikipedia) so that could possibly mean 670 years, average? WOOT! 2641AD Here I come! I just need the pill for caloric restriction, the gene therapy, and I am set! BOOYAH!
• And then I read this: Robotic exoskeleton to help farmers with heavy lifting - Sometimes, even I am surprised with how fast tech is coming...Funny, I was just thinking about this, LOL.
• Cheap Ethanol from Tires and Trash - I am all about recycling, but what are the environmental effects of continued carbon release through hydrocarbon burning? We need to sequester the carbon we release, which is why I like [Making Gasoline from Carbon Dioxide] and [Biofuels on a Big Scale] which have a much lower carbon footprint. Yes, biofuel releases us from foreign oil dependence, which is a good move politically and economically, but at what cost ecologically? Anyway, I might want to invest when they go public. - Thought: Since nanotechnology requires carbon to create diamondoid structures, could we use solar cells to scrub and collect carbon as stock material for molecular manufacturing microfacilities? Thus a free source of nanomaterial to make virtually any object that is environmentally friendly. Hmmm.
• Researchers find new way to block destructive rush of immune cells - I love PhysOrg.com!
• T-cell 'nanotubes' may explain how HIV virus conquers human immune system - So, does HIV and AIDS have 5-10 years left before cured?

That's it for today. See you soon.

I am the very model of a modern singulatarian.

Found this very interesting video on YouTube: I am the very model of a modern singulatarian. Well done IMHO.

Tech news that strikes my fancy

Here are some news articles that piqued my interest this morning:

• IBM, Mayo Clinic team up to improve medical imaging (Playstation Tech saves the day! Who says that playing video games couldn't save someones life?)
• Team Creates Rat Heart Using Cells of Baby Rats (This strikes me as a bit Frankensteinian, and I have noticed that typically any work done on rats/mice are then followed on humans about 10 years later)
• Brighter LED Lights Could Replace Household Light Bulbs Within Three Years (I have already replaced most of my apartment's incandescents with fluorescent bulbs, but these sound better and cheaper to operate)
• Silicon Nanowires Turn Heat to Electricity (This should lead to more efficient, cooler, and longer lasting devices. Applications could include laptop and cell phone batteries that don't catch on fire, and last 20-30 hours on a charge. I like the possibility of waste reclamation on vehicles and manufacturing systems.)
• Crash Warning System Monitors Nearby Traffic And Warns Of Possible Collisions (Another advance towards autos that are truly "auto"matic. GM predicts that cars will drive themselves by 2015. This should be endorsed, even funded by the insurance agencies as their payout to crashes and accidents would drop by around 90%. Most accidents are human related. They would make a killing with cars that don't crash. The insurance companies could give a cost break to drivers that adopt the autonomous technology, and really jack up the price on drivers that Opt-Out. They could be the beneficiaries of this technology, thus they should push its adoption by drivers.)

That about does it today. I will post more tomorrow. If you have anything to add, go ahead and comment away.

First Post!

This is the first post of my new blog, The Aspergian Singularity. I made this so I can have a place to write my thoughts, discuss new technologies and their impact, and maybe showcase some of the hobbies that I love so much. I welcome everyone to read and enjoy! More to come very soon.