Baidu phone (credit: Baidu)Baidu, the Chinese answer to Google, has announced details of its soon-to-launch new smartphone and the cloud-centric operating system (OS) that will power it.The Foxconn-built Changhong H5018 will be the first device powered by Baidu’s “Cloud Smart Terminal” platform, marking ”the arrival of a new era” of sub $150 (1,000 RMB) devices in China.Every H5018 phone owner will be given a generous 100 GB of storage on Baidu’s Netdrive, a beta service known locally as Wangpan. The Google Drive-like service will store multimedia content in the cloud…
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China launches alternatives to Android, Google Drive, iOS, iTunes
KurzweilAI » News15 May 2012 | 6:16 am -
Zettaflops Will Happen Says HPC Analyst
Next Big Future15 May 2012 | 1:17 pmWhile Thomas Sterling’s interview about the impossibility of reaching zettaflops made a lot of sense, the history of making negative predictions about technology is often an embarrassing one. Note - Thomas Sterling left himself an out that entirely new architectures could achieve zettaflops. So John Barr and Thomas Sterling are in general agreement. HPCWire - John Barr of Research Director High Performance Computing at 451 Research believes that Zettaflop supercomputers will be achieved. If we wind back the clock to the days of megaflops, there were no commodity microprocessors (i.e,. the… -
New evidence of water erosion on Mars
Ultrafuture World10 May 2012 | 1:29 amThe Mars Express of ESA shows a region of the Red Planet appears to have been carved by flowing water. These images are added to the long list of evidence for the existence of large bodies of water on the surface of Mars at some point in their past. On 21 June last year, Mars Express said its high-resolution stereo camera (HRSC) to the western part of Acidalia Planitia, a huge basin in the northern lowlands of Mars, near where it meets Tempe Terra, a higher ground and oldest. Acidalia Planitia is a region so extensive that it can be seen from Earth with an amateur telescope. The famous… -
Rachel Sussman Searches for Ernest Shackleton, Antarctic Wonder
Blog of the Long Now15 May 2012 | 12:04 pmIn 1854, Sir Francis Galton published his first edition of The Art of Travel, a practical handbook for the serious globetrotter. The work offered useful tips and advice to help expeditions deal with unforeseen issues along the way, from building a makeshift shelter and navigating without a compass, to dealing with hostile “natives.” The guide quickly became a bestseller, and multiple new editions were printed in the years to follow. This was, after all, the heyday of global exploration. Fifteen years earlier, Charles Darwin had discovered new species on the Galapagos Islands; fifteen… -
Leading Scientists to Debate Views on Rejuvenation Biotechnologies
Accelerating Future23 Apr 2012 | 3:37 pmHere's a press release I was forwarded from the SENS Foundation. This is an unprecedented event because it shows that the Oxford University Scientific Society is taking the possibility of defeating aging seriously by holding a debate on it. The views of this society have strong influence on the world of science in general. Leading Scientists to Debate Views on Rejuvenation Biotechnologies MOUNTAIN VIEW, California (April 17, 2012) - The Oxford University Scientific Society is hosting a debate on Wednesday, 25th April, 2012. The debate will begin at 7pm local time (11am Pacific, 2pm Eastern)…
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Blog of the Long Now
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Rachel Sussman Searches for Ernest Shackleton, Antarctic Wonder
15 May 2012 | 12:04 pmIn 1854, Sir Francis Galton published his first edition of The Art of Travel, a practical handbook for the serious globetrotter. The work offered useful tips and advice to help expeditions deal with unforeseen issues along the way, from building a makeshift shelter and navigating without a compass, to dealing with hostile “natives.” The guide quickly became a bestseller, and multiple new editions were printed in the years to follow. This was, after all, the heyday of global exploration. Fifteen years earlier, Charles Darwin had discovered new species on the Galapagos Islands; fifteen… -
Smithsonian Magazine: Thinking About Futurism
14 May 2012 | 12:46 pmSolar-powered houses, computerized education, flying cars, and strawberries the size of your head: that’s how artist Arthur Radebaugh once imagined the future. In the 1950s and ‘60s, he published a series of newspaper cartoons entitled “Closer than We Think,” in which he illustrated a shiny, grand, and technologically revolutionized world of tomorrow. Radebaugh is but one of many thinkers who have creatively theorized about what the future might look like. The Smithsonian Magazine is exploring their ideas in a series on “Thinking about Futurism;” a collection of articles that… -
Conservation in the Age of Man
11 May 2012 | 1:11 pmNature is often resilient, not fragile. There is no wilderness unspoiled by man. Thoreau was a townie. Conservation, by many measures, is failing. If it is to survive, it has to change. Environment & Energy Publishing recently featured an article on former SALT speaker Peter Kareiva, the chief scientist for the Nature Conservancy who argues that conservation work is in need of a new direction and philosophy. The “horror stories” ecologists love to tell about how humanity is singlehandedly (or better said, too-many-handedly) destroying nature are, he claims, not corroborated by… -
Benjamin Barber Seminar Tickets
10 May 2012 | 12:11 pmThe Long Now Foundation’s monthly Seminars About Long-term Thinking Benjamin Barber on “If Mayors Ruled the World” TICKETS Tuesday June 5, 02012 at 7:30pm Cowell Theater at Fort Mason Long Now Members can reserve 2 seats, join today! • General Tickets $10 About this Seminar: Democracy began in cities and works best in cities. Mayors are the most pragmatic and effective of all political leaders because they have to get things done. “The paramount aims of city-dwellers,” says Barber, “concern collecting garbage and collecting art rather than collecting votes or… -
Freinkel Seminar Primer
9 May 2012 | 3:31 pm“Eternal Plastic: A Toxic Love Story” Tuesday May 22, 02012 at the Cowell Theater, San Francisco Susan Freinkel has used both chestnuts and toothbrushes as stand-ins for American culture’s relationship with the environment and technology. Her two well-received books of science journalism serve, in some ways, as foils to one another. The first, American Chestnut: The Life, Death and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree, is a study of how we lost something great, while the more recent Plastic: A Toxic Love Story explores how we’ve found ourselves overly-dependent on something that isn’t…
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Accelerating Future
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Leading Scientists to Debate Views on Rejuvenation Biotechnologies
23 Apr 2012 | 3:37 pmHere's a press release I was forwarded from the SENS Foundation. This is an unprecedented event because it shows that the Oxford University Scientific Society is taking the possibility of defeating aging seriously by holding a debate on it. The views of this society have strong influence on the world of science in general. Leading Scientists to Debate Views on Rejuvenation Biotechnologies MOUNTAIN VIEW, California (April 17, 2012) - The Oxford University Scientific Society is hosting a debate on Wednesday, 25th April, 2012. The debate will begin at 7pm local time (11am Pacific, 2pm Eastern)… -
Intelligence Explosion: Evidence and Import
23 Apr 2012 | 2:58 amThis is a preprint of a paper by Luke Muehlhauser and Anna Salamon that will appear in the forthcoming Singularity Hypothesis volume. Abstract: In this chapter we review the evidence for and against three claims: that (1) there is a substantial chance we will create human-level AI before 2100, that (2) if human-level AI is created, there is a good chance vastly superhuman AI will follow via an “intelligence explosion,” and that (3) an uncontrolled intelligence explosion could destroy everything we value, but a controlled intelligence explosion would benefit humanity enormously if we can… -
Interviewed by The Rational Future
16 Apr 2012 | 7:51 pmHere's a writeup. Embedded below is an interview conducted by Adam A. Ford at The Rational Future. Topics covered included: -What is the Singularity? -Is there a substantial chance we will significantly enhance human intelligence by 2050? -Is there a substantial chance we will create human-level AI before 2050? -If human-level AI is created, is there a good chance vastly superhuman AI will follow via an "intelligence explosion"? -Is acceleration of technological trends required for a Singularity? - Moore's Law (hardware trajectories), AI research progressing faster? -What convergent outcomes… -
Are we Creating the Future by Predicting It?
7 Apr 2012 | 12:07 pmInteresting article by Rachel Marone at H+ magazine which was picked up by the New York Times Bits & Bytes blog: Are negative predictions dangerous because they stand the risk of becoming influential? Hugo de Garis talks about an upcoming artilect war between machines, cyborgs, and non-enhanced humans. Is Hugo de Garis increasing the probability of an artilect war by putting these ideas in the open? Is Ray Kurzweil increasing the probability of the Singularity? As visionaries, we cannot help but recognize patterns and share predictions whether they lead us to a happy or depressing… -
Superintelligent Will
7 Apr 2012 | 12:02 pmNew paper on superintelligence by Nick Bostrom: This paper discusses the relation between intelligence and motivation in artificial agents, developing and briefly arguing for two theses. The first, the orthogonality thesis, holds (with some caveats) that intelligence and final goals (purposes) are orthogonal axes along which possible artificial intellects can freely vary—more or less any level of intelligence could be combined with more or less any final goal. The second, the instrumental convergence thesis, holds that as long as they possess a sufficient level of intelligence, agents…
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KurzweilAI » News
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Using light to switch gene expression on and off for testing therapies
15 May 2012 | 6:43 amCredit: A. Deiters/ACS Chemical Biology)North Carolina State University researchers are using light-activated molecules to turn gene expression on and off. Their method enables greater precision when studying gene function, and could lead to targeted therapies for diseases like cancer.NC State chemist Dr. Alex Deiters decided to use Triplex-forming oligonucleotides (TFOs), which are molecules that can prevent gene transcription by binding to double-stranded DNA. To more precisely control TFOs, he attached a light-activated “cage” to a TFO. After exposing TFO to ultraviolet (UV) light… -
Benefits and risks of direct-to-consumer genetics tests
15 May 2012 | 6:35 am23andme finished sample bag (credit: David Orban/Flickr)Patients see potential benefits from direct-to-consumer genetic testing, but are also concerned about how the test results will be used, and are generally unwilling to pay more than $10 or $20 for them, according to focus groups conducted by researchers at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.More than a dozen companies, including 23andMe, deCODE Genetics and Navigenics, now test consumers’ genomes for single-gene disorders such as cystic fibrosis; for risks of developing complex disorders involving multiple genes, such… -
China launches alternatives to Android, Google Drive, iOS, iTunes
15 May 2012 | 6:16 amBaidu phone (credit: Baidu)Baidu, the Chinese answer to Google, has announced details of its soon-to-launch new smartphone and the cloud-centric operating system (OS) that will power it.The Foxconn-built Changhong H5018 will be the first device powered by Baidu’s “Cloud Smart Terminal” platform, marking ”the arrival of a new era” of sub $150 (1,000 RMB) devices in China.Every H5018 phone owner will be given a generous 100 GB of storage on Baidu’s Netdrive, a beta service known locally as Wangpan. The Google Drive-like service will store multimedia content in the cloud… -
Italian quadruped robot goes for a walk
15 May 2012 | 5:56 amHyQ robot outdoor test (credit: Italian Institute of Technology)Researchers from the Italian Institute of Technology took their quadruped robot HyQ for a test run outside the lab for the first time to test new tricks HyQ has learned, including the ability to trot over obstacles without falling, IEET Spectrum Automaton reportsThe robot is still a strange headless creature, and though a sensor head is in the works, this quadruped might get even weirder with a new hardware addition: arms.The goal: an autonomous, versatile machine capable of running, jumping, and negotiating rough terrain… -
Android payback: Apple to cut Google out of stunning new 3D maps app in iOS6
15 May 2012 | 5:48 amNew Apple maps image based on C3 3D technology (credit: Apple)It was widely reported yesterday that Apple will likely announce at its WWDC in June that the new version of the built-in maps app in iOS6 will not be fed by Google maps. Instead, Apple has developed its own, in-house 3-D mapping database, based on the acquisition of three mapping software companies between 2009 and 2011, Placebase, C3 Technologies, and Poly9.The stunning 3D image above is from C3, which, according to the company, uses “previously classified image processing technology… automated software and advanced…
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The Singularity Institute Blog
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Jobs, Opportunities, and Prizes!
9 May 2012 | 12:59 amRecently, the Singularity Institute has offered a variety of jobs, opportunities, and prizes! We are hiring: Remote researchers (writing skill not required) Rationality curriculum designers Rationality teachers Workshop consultants Remote editors Remote HTML/WordPress workers Executive assistants We would also like: Volunteer advisors General volunteers We are also giving out $500 prizes for suggested rationality exercises: details here. Finally, a few other updates: We are running 3 more rationality minicamps! The dates are May 11-13, June 22-24, and July 21-28. Details here. Did you know… -
Singularity Institute Progress Report, April 2012
8 May 2012 | 4:55 pmPast progress reports: March 2012, February 2012, January 2012, December 2011. Here’s what the Singularity Institute did in April 2012: SPARC: Several SI staff members are working in collaboration with SI research associate Paul Christiano and a few others to develop a rationality camp for high school students with exceptional mathematical ability: the Summer Program on Applied Rationality and Cognition (SPARC). This is related to our efforts to spin off a new rationality-focused organization, and it is also a major step forward in our efforts to locate elite young math talent that… -
New Publication: “AI Risk Bibliography 2012″
25 Apr 2012 | 11:43 pmThe Singularity Institute has released a new article: Luke Muehlhauser, “AI Risk Bibliography 2012.” -
Singularity Institute Progress Report, March 2012
6 Apr 2012 | 3:38 amPast progress reports: February 2012, January 2012, December 2011. Fun fact of the day: The Singularity Institute’s research fellows and research associates have more peer-reviewed publications forthcoming in 2012 than they had published in all past years combined. Here’s what the Singularity Institute did in March 2012: Research articles: Luke and Anna released an updated draft of Intelligence Explosion: Evidence and Import, and Luke and Louie released an updated draft of The Singularity and Machine Ethics. Luke submitted an article (co-authored with Nick Bostrom) to… -
Schmidhuber discusses the Singularity at TEDxLausanne
16 Mar 2012 | 3:55 pmJürgen Schmidhuber, whose work is cited as some of the most cutting-edge in all of AI in “Intelligence Explosion: Evidence and Import,” recently discussed the Singularity at TEDxLausanne:
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Open the Future
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The Pink Collar Future
1 May 2012 | 1:22 pmThe claim that robots are taking our jobs has become so commonplace of late that it's a bit of a cliché. Nonetheless, it has a strong element of truth to it. Not only are machines taking "blue collar" factory jobs -- a process that's been underway for years, and no longer much of a surprise except when a company like Foxconn announces it's going to bring in a million robots (which are less likely to commit suicide, apparently) -- but now mechanized/digital systems are quickly working their way up the employment value chain. "Grey collar" service workers have been under pressure for… -
New Pollution
1 May 2012 | 10:39 amI spoke last month at the Swissnex office in San Francisco (Swissnex is kind of the Swiss embassy for technology issues), at an event entitled "Data is (sic) the New Oil." The focus of the event was the tension between privacy and "publicy" (Stowe Boyd's term for the intentional revelation of aspects of one's life, the opposite of privacy). A video of the entire event is now online, and below you'll find the 15 minutes or so of my talk. Jamais Cascio on Polluting the Data Stream from Jamais Cascio on Vimeo. This talk covers what I wrote about in "Opaque Projections," but this is a moving… -
Opaque Projections
11 Apr 2012 | 1:35 pmLast night (April 10, 2012), I spoke at the San Francisco Swissnex office on a panel entitled "Data is* the New Oil." When I was told the title of the panel, it struck me as an odd metaphor. Oh, I understand the intent: oil was the fuel for the 20th century industrial economy, and information is the fuel for the 21st. But oil has a key characteristic that simply isn't true for data. Oil is limited -- we have a declining stock. Whether you think peak oil happened a few years ago, will happen soon, or is still a ways off, the truth is the same: there is a finite supply of oil, and unless we… -
Okay, so what does that mean?
10 Apr 2012 | 3:49 pmI realize I just sort of left that post hanging, with the only conclusion being something on the order of "You maniacs! You blew it up!" There are three general scenarios that come out of that last post. The first, and most likely, is that we (as a planet) keep doing what we've been doing until things get even worse and we get much closer to irreversibility. The second, and the one I hope happens, is that this scares enough people that there's a "cigarette phase shift" -- a rapid change in public discourse such that something that once just scientists and hippies cared about becomes a… -
Not-So-Distant Early Warnings
10 Apr 2012 | 3:23 pmIn the middle of prepping for IFTF's 2012 Ten-Year Forecast event at the end of April, then traveling to Kazakhstan in late May. In the meantime... US Experienced warmest March ever. Average temperature in the lower 48 states was 8.6 degrees above normal (although apparently not in California). Or, in video form: Unsurprisingly, permafrost in Siberia and northern Canada appears to be melting. This is all something we've understood for quite awhile. A paper in Science in 1981 offered up a projection of temperatures, and the last 30 years has tracked closely (and slightly exceeded) the…
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Next Big Future
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North Dakota can reach and sustain for several years 2 million barrels of oil per day
15 May 2012 | 6:25 pmOil Production Potential of the North Dakota Bakken (James Mason, Feb 2012, 12 pages). Article accepted for publication in the Oil and Gas Journal North Dakota can sustain 1.5 million to 2.0 million barrels of oil per day for many years depending upon how the Bakken oil reserve is chosen to be managed. Also, improvements in oil drilling and recovery technology could increase the amount of oil that is recovered and increase the peak level of oil production. Areal extent and geologic stratification of the Bakken formation. Shaded areas are the Bakken formation. USGS map The Bakken Formation… -
North Dakota produces 575,490 bpd of oil in March, second highest oil producing state after Texas
15 May 2012 | 6:20 pmNorth Dakota produced 575,490 barrels of oil per day in March, 2012. This is second most for a state, behind Texas This was a 17,245 bpd increase over the prior month. UDPATE- An analysis of the rate of drilling that is needed for North Dakota to get to 1.5 to 2.0 million barrels of oil per day. North Dakota produced an average of 575,490 barrels of crude oil every day in March, another record, according to Lynn Helms, director of the state’s Department of Mineral Resources. The crude is coming from a record 6,636 wells. In February, the state produced 558,255 barrels and had 6,450 wells. -
China targets increasing Managers, Professionals and skilled workers from 120 million to 180 million
15 May 2012 | 4:11 pmChina Daily - China had 120 million managerial, professional and skilled workers at the end of 2010, up by 7.8 million from 2008. They accounted for 11.1 percent of the country's labor force, according to statistics released on Monday. Among the talent pool are nearly 30 million business management personnel, 55.5 million technical professionals, 28.6 million highly skilled personnel and around 10.5 million rural staff with practical skills. The investment in human capital was equivalent to 12 percent of GDP in 2010. Such investment includes spending in education, health, and research and… -
Telomerase Gene Therapy increase mice lifespan by 24% without increasing cancer
15 May 2012 | 1:58 pmCNIO (Spain) Scientist successfully test the first gene therapy against aging associated decline • The first anti-aging therapy potentially applicable in humans that acts directly on the genes • The research provides a “proof-‐of-‐principle” that this “feasible and safe” approach can effectively “improve healthspan” Mouse lifespan extended up to 24% with a single treatment. EMBO Molecular Medicine - Telomerase gene therapy in adult and old mice delays aging and increases longevity without increasing cancer A major goal in aging research is to improve health during… -
Zettaflops Will Happen Says HPC Analyst
15 May 2012 | 1:17 pmWhile Thomas Sterling’s interview about the impossibility of reaching zettaflops made a lot of sense, the history of making negative predictions about technology is often an embarrassing one. Note - Thomas Sterling left himself an out that entirely new architectures could achieve zettaflops. So John Barr and Thomas Sterling are in general agreement. HPCWire - John Barr of Research Director High Performance Computing at 451 Research believes that Zettaflop supercomputers will be achieved. If we wind back the clock to the days of megaflops, there were no commodity microprocessors (i.e,. the…
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the Foresight Institute
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Novel silicon nanostructure extends battery life
15 May 2012 | 11:57 amThe new double-walled silicon nanotube anode is made by a clever four-step process: Polymer nanofibers (green) are made, then heated (with, and then without, air) until they are reduced to carbon (black). Silicon (light blue) is coated over the outside of the carbon fibers. Finally, heating in air drives off the carbon and creates the tube as well as the clamping oxide layer (red). (Image courtesy Hui Wu, Stanford, and Yi Cui) A clever new method for making hollow silicon nanostructures produces a battery anode that is not quickly destroyed by the stress of repeated charging and discharging. -
Drug-resistant cancer cells cannot resist plasmonic nanobubbles
13 May 2012 | 2:01 pmDmitri Lapotko. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University) In yet another wrinkle in the rapidly developing area of using nanotechnology to enhance cancer chemotherapy, targeted nanoparticles were used to produce “nanobubbles” inside cancer cells instead of to deliver a chemotherapy drug to the cancer cells. In laboratory tests, the nanobubbles proved to be much more efficient in specifically killing cancer cells while sparing neighboring healthy cells. A hat tip to ScienceDaily for reprinting this Rice University news release with its embedded video “‘Nanobubbles’… -
Foresight Institute on Singularity Hub (video)
12 May 2012 | 3:13 pmforesight’s Director of Development and Outreach Desiree D. Dudley was featured recently on Singularity Hub talking about Foresight and nanotechnology. Topics addressed include Foresight’s series of dinner lectures, its upcoming technical conference, a new youth outreach program, Foresight’s relationship with the general futurist community, and the balance of emphasis on near-term nanotechnology and advanced molecular manufacturing. The interview led to a discussion of the role of synthetic biology in the development of nanotechnology, and the interfaces between the… -
Nanosponges to recover spilled oil (includes video)
7 May 2012 | 1:19 pmRice University graduate student Daniel Hashim burns oil out of a sponge-like material made of carbon nanotubes and a dash of boron. The sponge can soak up oil, which can then be burned off and the sponge reused. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University) A new technique that dopes carbon nanotubes with boron atoms provides new evidence of the enormous practical utility of improving methods to control the structure of matter at the nanometer scale, even if the control is not yet atomically precise. A hat tip to ScienceDaily for reprinting this Rice University news release written by Mike Williams… -
Will piezoelectric graphene provide options for nanoscale manipulation?
25 Apr 2012 | 6:36 pmThis illustration shows lithium atoms (red) adhered to a graphene lattice that will produce electricity when bent, squeezed or twisted. Conversely, the graphene will deform when an electric field is applied, opening new possibilities in nanotechnology. Illustration: Mitchell Ong, Stanford School of Engineering Bulk piezoelectric materials are already used for atomically precise nanopositioning to position the tips of scanning probe microscopes. Would there be any advantages to engineered control of piezoelectrical properties in a two-dimensional material? Currently piezoelectric properties of…
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Ultrafuture World
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New evidence of water erosion on Mars
10 May 2012 | 1:29 amThe Mars Express of ESA shows a region of the Red Planet appears to have been carved by flowing water. These images are added to the long list of evidence for the existence of large bodies of water on the surface of Mars at some point in their past. On 21 June last year, Mars Express said its high-resolution stereo camera (HRSC) to the western part of Acidalia Planitia, a huge basin in the northern lowlands of Mars, near where it meets Tempe Terra, a higher ground and oldest. Acidalia Planitia is a region so extensive that it can be seen from Earth with an amateur telescope. The famous… -
Global warming threatens the business of cassava in Southeast Asia
8 May 2012 | 10:51 amThose who see the harmful effects of global warming as something far in the future, or think they only make us use more electricity for air conditioning during the summer, maybe open their eyes this specific case: the cassava sector in Southeast Asia, it moves year billions of dollars, and is threatened by global warming, or even directly. It is actually the first case of economic problems caused by global climate change. Nor will it be the last; we will see more news like this in the coming years, and many points around the globe. Cassava is a plant with many uses. From it we get the… -
Degraded wetlands take 30 years to be restored
4 May 2012 | 8:35 pmWetlands are among the most productive ecosystems on the planet; however, human action destroyed about half of its global expansion throughout the twentieth century. An investigation by the National Research Council (CSIC) in Spain reveals that these degraded formations take an average of 30 years to recover its structure and operation. The newly created wetlands require approximately the same period of time to become self-sufficient. “Every indicator of recovery evolves differently. Recover before water flows of biological community, and this before the biogeochemical cycles, but the… -
Trace the water runs into the Earth’s mantle
2 May 2012 | 3:14 amThe Marianas Trench, the deepest place on Earth, in the western Pacific Ocean near Guam, is the site chosen by a group of scientists to carry out an ambitious tracking project: to track as accurately as possible the water seeping from the seabed to the Earth’s mantle. The mantle is a layer of rock that extends from the outer planet’s core, about 2,900 kilometers deep, and about 50 kilometers below the surface, just below the crust. The Marianas Trench is a subduction zone where the Pacific plate, old, cold and dense, it slides under the plate of the Marianas, younger and lighter… -
The dark cloud which is to be born a star
30 Apr 2012 | 8:17 amThrough radio observations in the infrared has been achieved behind the scenes glimpse of a cloud of gas and dust at a crucial stage prior to the birth of the first of a dozen stars. The scientists studied a giant cloud about 770 light years from Earth in the constellation Perseus. They used the Herschel Space Observatory, European Space Agency and the GBT radio telescope of the National Science Foundation United States. This allowed them to make detailed observations of a kind of lump or lump that contains about 100 times the mass of the Sun within the cloud. It is believed that the typical…
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Ethical Technology
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Free Will?
16 May 2012 | 4:14 amThere’s no such thing as free will in the sense of a ghost in the machine; our behavior is the product of physical processes in the brain rather than some mysterious soul, says Pinker. -
piero scaruffi The Nonlinear Origins of Free Will
16 May 2012 | 4:01 ampaolo scaruffi is the author of The Nature of Consciousness: The Structure of Life and the Meaning of Matter, and A Brief History of Knowledge. -
Hank Pellissier “The Self” in the Future: Will it be Extinguished, by Neuroscience?
16 May 2012 | 3:49 amWill “the self” survive because it can provide people with a greater sense of happiness? Or is it - perhaps along with the constructs “Free Will” and “Determinism” - doomed to the dustbin of history? Should cyborgs, avatars, and a rewired human brain be developed with a stronger or weaker sense of self? An interview with Dr. Garret Merriam, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at University of Southern Indiana. -
“Flesh” is the Resurrection Choice of IEET Readers
15 May 2012 | 11:27 am34.8% of IEET poll responders selected “Cryonics and Resurrection” in a recent survey that inquired about life-after-death preferences. 27.7% selected, instead, the category, “Uploaded in a Non-Biological Medium,” and 24.1% chose “Either is Fine.” -
George Dvorsky Why Humanists Need to Make the Shift to Post-Atheism
15 May 2012 | 7:04 amI’m getting increasingly annoyed by all the anti-religious propaganda that litters my Facebook newsfeed. Look, as a fellow humanist and atheist, I get it. Organized religion is a problem on so many levels that I don’t even know where to begin. I’d be the first person to say that something needs to be done about it and I’m delighted to see atheism become normalized in our society and culture. But seriously, folks, what are you hoping to achieve by posting such facile and inflammatory material?
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Sentient Developments
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Is death bad for you?
15 May 2012 | 8:44 amYale philosopher Shelly Kagan asks a question that should be of interest to both radical life extension advocates and utilitarians who argue that we should bring as much life into the universe as possible: Is death bad for you? Much of Kagan's argument is derived from an interesting question posed by the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus who wrote, "So death, the most terrifying of ills, is nothing to us, since so long as we exist, death is not with us; but when death comes, then we do not exist. It does not then concern either the living or the dead, since for the former it is not, and the… -
Amputees increasingly choosing more extensive amputations to take advantage of hi-tech prosthetics
14 May 2012 | 7:30 pmAs prosthetic limbs become more sophisticated and realistic, amputees are increasingly wanting to take full advantage of what cutting-edge technology has to offer. But in order to do so, some are having to make a very difficult decision. From Alexis Okewo of the New York Times:Approximately two million people in the United States are living with amputations, according to the Amputee Coalition, a national advocacy group. But as artificial limbs are infused with increasingly sophisticated technology, many amputees are making a once-unthinkable choice. Instead of doing everything possible to… -
Tali Sharot on the optimism bias and what we can do about it
14 May 2012 | 12:07 pmNeuroscience is increasingly showing that we are predisposed for optimism instead of realism. In this TED Talk, Tali Sharot shares new research that suggests our brains are wired to look on the bright side — and how that can be both dangerous and beneficial. Toward the end of her talk, she goes on to show that there are things we can do about it from a neurological perspective. She argues that we can and should reduce the optimism bias while at the same time maintain a person's sense of hope. -
Sentient Developments Podcast 2012.05.14
14 May 2012 | 11:15 amSentient Developments Podcast for the week of May 14, 2012. Topics discussed in this week's episode: Are humans becoming more or less psychopathic? Why Star Trek's vision of the future is out out date Asteroid Mining could be against the law Will Sweden abolish the concept of gender? New study could put anti-aging pill back on the shelf Why humanists need to make the shift to post-atheism Tracks used in this episode: Lower Dens: "Nova Anthem", "Propagation", "Alphabet Song", and "Lamb". Podcast Feed | Subscribe via iTunes -
NYT: Can You Call a 9-Year-Old a Psychopath?
13 May 2012 | 5:53 pmThere's a must-read article in the New York Times titled "Can You Call a 9-Year-Old a Psychopath?" It's a long read, but very worth it. Among the many take-aways from the piece is the realization that virtually all psychopaths exhibit anti-social traits as children, but that half of them "grow out of it". This gives therapists hope that the condition could somehow be treated environmentally. There's also a reluctance to brand children as psychopaths (which is fair given the stigma and the fact that many children act-out in age-appropriate ways). Consequently, therapists and researchers are…
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Broader Perspective
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Key challenge of our era: health and preventive medicine
13 May 2012 | 2:08 pmDelivering health care and keeping populations healthy is a key problem of the current era. Health expenditures currently comprise 17% of U.S. GDP and are growing; simultaneously health in the U.S. is in decline, with a new CDC report estimating that by 2030, 42% of American adults will be obese, compared to 34% today and 11% will be severely obese, compared to 6% today.The Realization of Preventive MedicineA key part of addressing health challenges is the realization of preventive medicine. Preventive medicine and health maintenance consist of identifying and managing conditions in the 80%… -
Obtaining models for singularity futures thinking
6 May 2012 | 8:11 pmThe challenge called out by science fiction writer Verner Vinge as the technological singularity, namely that any one future technology change could be so fundamental across all aspects of life that it is hard to write plausible science fiction, is impacting how we think about our modern world as well. Any next node that has sufficient transformative power (e.g.; like the internet) could change things so fundamentally, globally, multi-dimensionally, and quickly that its impact would be essentially beyond cognition. Moreover, while there are some potential candidates visible for the ‘next… -
Is responsibility-taking freeing or not?
30 Apr 2012 | 2:41 amIn Greek philosophy, there is the notion of taking the responsibility for shaping and defining yourself as an individual. This concerned all aspects of life, both external (e.g.; social, political, economic), and internal, (e.g.; personal life, health). One philosophical view bemoans that this notion disappeared after the Greeks, with external forces shaping nearly every detail of the individual, first in the classical era by the church, and now in the modern era, by science and other experts, and culture.Responsibility abdication is paradoxically freeingHowever, cultural hypnosis is not… -
Personal manufacturing and consumer 3D printing: moving novelty to utility
22 Apr 2012 | 12:03 pmThe MIT/Stanford Venture Lab’s April event featured a panel discussion of Consumer 3D Printing. Consumer 3D printers have decreased substantially in price in the last several years (from $10,000 to $1,200) and could reach $200-$300 in the next several years.Novelty to UtilityThe main current perception of consumer 3D printers is that they are an interesting novelty where “killer app’ use cases remain to be seen. Printers need to be capable of printing a wide range of useful objects as opposed to plastic novelty items. In addition to a lower price point, some other changes needed to… -
Open science Wikis
15 Apr 2012 | 6:08 pmWikis are a great tool for facilitating open science through ease-of-use and transparency in the conduct of research studies. Wikis allow real-time updating, archived recording of changes over time, and the general ease of information flow in the digital era. In the health arena, wikis are being used to empower health-self management. One example is the DIYgenomics wiki which is used to operate crowdsourced health research studies. Two key activities are open deliberation regarding study protocols and data results.1) Open Study Protocols – wikis can be used to post and continuously update…
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Andart
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Cute sums
14 May 2012 | 11:28 amHere are two cute sums: (e+1)/2(e-1) = Σn=-∞∞ 1/(1 + 4 π2 n2) π/(1-exp(-π)) - π/2 = Σn=-∞∞ 1/(1+4 n2) The way to prove it is to use the Poisson summation formula, which states that for appropriate functions: Σn=-∞∞ f(n)... -
The King's Trough and the sunken mosque
2 May 2012 | 10:36 amI recently came across King's Trough, a deep valley or trough on the eastern side of the mid-atlantic ridge. Since there was nothing on it I made a Wikipedia entry for it. In looking for information I came across this... -
Blasts from the past
1 May 2012 | 2:00 pmThis weeks seem to be a re-run week on the Internet. First I noticed Io9: Could a single pill save your marriage? - it is my old love enhancement paper reappearing. Of course, the title falls afoul of the rule... -
What kind of humanity should we want to make?
23 Apr 2012 | 3:12 pmHere is my TEDx Vasastan talk, on the big picture questions for the future: Next TEDx with me will be in Tallinn.... -
The limits of observational science
23 Apr 2012 | 9:53 am[1204.0492] Non-detection of the Tooth Fairy at Optical Wavelengths. They used a 1.3 m telescope aimed at a wisdom tooth under a pillow, but it disappeared during the night without any photometric evidence. "We report a non-detection, to a limiting...
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Overcoming Bias
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Eventual Futures
15 May 2012 | 10:20 pmI’ve noticed that recommendations for action based on a vision of the future are based on an idea that something must “eventually” occur. For example, eventually: We will run out of coal, so we’d better find replacements soon. Earth will run out of stored energy of fossil fuels and radioactivity, so we’d better get ready to run only on sunlight. Earth will run out of place for trash, so we must stop making trash. The sun will die out, so we’d better get ready to move to another sun. There will be a race to colonize other planets and stars, so our group… -
Why Is Death Bad?
14 May 2012 | 3:50 pmShelly Kagan considers: why is death bad?: Maybe … death is bad for me in the comparative sense, because when I’m dead I lack life—more particularly, the good things in life. … Yet if death is bad for me, when is it bad for me? Not now. I’m not dead now. What about when I’m dead? But then, I won’t exist. … Isn’t it true that something can be bad for you only if you exist? Call this idea the existence requirement. … Rejecting the existence requirement has some implications that are hard to swallow. For if nonexistence can be bad for somebody even though… -
Why National Med?
14 May 2012 | 9:10 amPeople offer many noble rationales for public education, but the data suggest they were adopted to create patriotic citizens for war. I suspect a similar data analysis could show why so many nations have recently adopted national medical systems: Even as Americans debate … Obama’s healthcare law and its promise of guaranteed health coverage, … many far less affluent nations are moving in the opposite direction – to provide medical insurance to all nations. China … is on track to .. cover more than 90 percent of the nation’s residents. … Two decades ago, many former… -
Schools Are For War
13 May 2012 | 10:00 amThe main reason we had rules to force kids to attend primary school was to make obedient soldier citizens to support their nation in time of war. This effect was even stronger for democracies: Using data from the last 150 years in a small set of countries, and from the postwar period in a large set of countries, we show that large investments in state primary education systems tend to occur when countries face military rivals or threats from their neighbors. By contrast, we find that democratic transitions are negatively associated with education investments, while the presence of democratic… -
Innovation Is Random
12 May 2012 | 7:30 amA dramatic, and sad, example of how random innovation can be: A blowtorch flame is barrelling onto its surface to no effect. The egg should have cracked apart within seconds under the blistering heat. Yet after a few minutes, McCann picks it up and holds it in his hand. “It only just feels warm,” he says. He cracks it open and out dribbles a runny yolk. “It hasn’t even begun to start cooking.” That was March 1990, and this remarkable demonstration on the British TV show Tomorrow’s World was about to transform [Maurice] Ward’s fortunes. The egg itself…
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The Speculist
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Enterprise in 30 Years?
13 May 2012 | 12:45 amVery ambitious! An engineer says we could have a working starship Enterprise within the next 30 years. One teeny-tiny drawback: this would not actually be a starship: This “Gen1” Enterprise could get to Mars in ninety days, to the Moon in three, and “could hop from planet to planet dropping off robotic probes of all sorts en masse – rovers, special-built planes, and satellites. For a ship longer than the Burj Khalifa is tall, those speeds sound a little on the pokey side, don’t they? On the one hand I think it would very cool indeed if we had such large manned interplanetary… -
The Quest for Immortality — FastForward Radio
9 May 2012 | 4:10 pmPhil and Stephen discuss the quest for immortality, which has been with humanity for a long time — perhaps since the very beginning, and which has done much to shape the world in which we live. New organizations are emerging with a whole new take on the proposition that life can be extended indefinitely. How do we get from here to there? The phases might look something like this: Life Extension Durable Digital Replacements Substrate Mobility Immortality So, will some of us live forever? And what does that even mean? Join us! Listen to internet radio with The Speculist on Blog Talk… -
The Singularity University… Worldwide — FastForward Radio
2 May 2012 | 8:32 amQuestion:“What do you make of the Singularity University?” Buzz Aldrin: “I’m a pretty high achiever. But I come here and think ‘Gosh. I’ve just got to do better.’” Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon discuss what makes Singularity University special and indispensible. Then they’ll talk about how to adopt some of the Singularity U awesomeness in your own life: In case you can’t attend, OR in preparation for when you do. Listen to internet radio with The Speculist on Blog Talk Radio -
A New Gold Rush…In Space! — FastForward Radio
25 Apr 2012 | 4:44 pmPlanetary Resources has announced their plans to begin mining near-earth asteroids for the valuable resources that can be found there. Launches may begin in a couple of years. Is a new Gold Rush on its way, one that will open up space in the same way that previous rushes opened the western frontier? Hosts Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon discuss Listen to internet radio with The Speculist on Blog Talk Radio -
Drivers of Change — FastForward Radio
18 Apr 2012 | 5:13 pmOur good friend futurist John Smart joins us for an overview and quick tour of 10 distinct areas of accelerating technological change, along with a discussion of the opportunities, disruptions, and threats they represent. We’ll look at: Nanoscience and Technologies Resource Technologies Engineering Technologies Information Technologies Social Technologies Economic Technologies Political Technologies Security Technologies Health Technologies Cognitive Technologies Listen to internet radio with The Speculist on Blog Talk Radio John will be delivering a talk on “Forecasting the…
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Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories
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ViviSat space vehicles will keep satellites on track
16 May 2012 | 6:00 am(Phys.org) -- A company that aims to sell satellite protective services is eagerly stating its business case to geosynchronous satellite operators that can benefit from its approach toward orbit mission extension. ViviSat intends to help these operators to add years to the revenue-producing life of a satellite. Having to mind one’s orbit assets is a concern that the company believes will draw new customers. The company’s CEO, Major General, U.S.A.F. [Ret.] Craig Weston, said that ViviSat was in negotiations with potential customers and that market conditions for such services were… -
Football: Goal-line technology trial in Danish league - FIFA
16 May 2012 | 5:16 amOne of two goal-line technology systems being tested for FIFA's rules body is to be used at two Danish league matches in the coming week, the world governing body said on Wednesday. -
NEC unveils gesture controlling device
16 May 2012 | 5:15 amJapanese technology titan NEC has unveiled a gadget that allows users to control their TV, mobile phone or tablet computer using a virtual input device. -
Facebook co-founder Saverin to stay in Singapore
16 May 2012 | 5:00 amFacebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin intends to stay in Singapore but has no plans to take up citizenship after giving up his US passport, a move that could save him millions in taxes, his spokesman said. -
Asia helps drive Facebook's 1-billion goal
16 May 2012 | 5:00 amAs Facebook nears saturation levels in some Western countries, Asian users are helping drive the social-networking leader's march on the 1-billion-user milestone and beyond.
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Institute For The Future
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Book Launch: Leaders Make the Future, Second Edition
6 May 2012 | 11:35 pmteaser: IFTF is pleased to announce the release of the second edition of Leaders Make the Future. In this book about leadership and decision-making, Bob Johansen shares nearly 40 years of expertise as a ten-year forecaster at IFTF. This book is for any leader who wants to successfully navigate the challenges of the present and find opportunities to thrive in the future. May 7 marks the publication of the second edition of Leaders Make the Future: 10 New Leadership Skills for an Uncertain World by IFTF Distinguished Fellow Bob Johansen. image: cover.jpg IFTF Staff Posts read more -
A Century of Transformation, A Decade of Turbulence: 2012 Ten-Year Forecast
4 May 2012 | 12:44 pmattachment: Event Graphic Recording - Sample (image) teaser: From April 24-26, Ten-Year Forecast members gathered together at Cavallo Point in Sausalito, CA for the program's 2012 Annual Retreat, which explored the six fundamental shifts that will shape the century to come. We find ourselves facing a gap between the familiar past and an alien future: our incumbent path is predicated on trends that may well have reached their peaks, yet the emergent path has not yet taken shape. From April 24-26, Ten-Year Forecast members gathered together at Cavallo Point in Sausalito, CA… -
Brinda Dalal Joins Health Horizons as Research Director
1 May 2012 | 4:57 pmteaser: Health Horizons is pleased to announce that Brinda Dalal has joined our team as a research director. Brinda's career has spanned two decades and three continents. Her research has taken her to India, where she co-developed micro-credit and housing programs with local women, and to Japan, where she explored high-tech innovation. Health Horizons is pleased to announce that Brinda Dalal has joined our team as a research director. Brinda's career has spanned two decades and three continents. Her research has taken her to India, where she co-developed micro-credit and housing… -
Driving a Cleaner and More Resilient Future
23 Apr 2012 | 6:12 pmCalifornia’s innovation engine has the potential to shift the economy to a cleaner and more resilient future. Next 10, a nonpartisan nonprofit just released the 2012 California Green Innovation Index. In its fourth edition, this important document illustrates along multiple measures that you can indeed choose both, environmental improvement and economic growth. IFTF Staff Posts read more -
It’s Official: More than 18,000 Paths out of Poverty!
18 Apr 2012 | 11:30 amteaser: On April 3-5, IFTF and the Rockefeller Foundation invited people all over the world to join the Catalysts for Change game and imagine thousands of paths out of poverty. More than 1,600 people from 79 countries responded to the call to action. And after 48 hours of gameplay, they had built long chain reactions of ideas that added up to 18,160 ideas for ways to catalyze change in poor, vulnerable, or marginalized communities. On April 3-5, IFTF and the Rockefeller Foundation invited people all over the world to join the Catalysts for Change game and imagine thousands of paths out…
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MediaFuturist
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The bottom line for the content industries: selling AROUND the content
14 May 2012 | 8:55 amAdded values. New generatives. Freemiums. New embodiments. Timeliness. See the fabulous chart by @rossdawson below (more on that soon) Get my free iPhone & Android apps http://mobileroadie.com/apps/Futurist -
A Perspective on the Networked Energy Consumer - Accenture (Interview with Gerd Leonhard)
14 May 2012 | 1:59 amAn interview with Gerd Leonhard, Futurist and CEO of The Futures Agency, and Greg Guthridge, Global Managing Director of the Accenture Retail Business Services for Utilities, discussing the latest consumer energy trends, including the concept of the “networked consumer” and a move towards an “ecosystem of value” for energy provision. via www.accenture.com Check it out; we had a good chat about where the future of energy is going:) -
Watch this: Tim O'Reilly interviewed by Forbes Editor Jon Bruner
13 May 2012 | 7:50 amTim O'Reilly and Jon Bruner talk about big data and location at Where 2012 -
Must watch: Futurist colleague Ross Dawson at TNW2012: the power of the crowds
13 May 2012 | 7:50 amKeynote Ross Dawson at TNW2012 -
Great video on the importance of Unplugging: Sundance Film Festival 2011 "Yelp"
11 May 2012 | 5:20 amSophocles once said, 'nothing vast enters the life of mortals without a curse,' and this couldn't be more true of technology. Programmer's Note: We're pleased to welcome Tiffany Shlain back to the Sundance Film Festival with her new short "Yelp (With Apologies to Allen Ginsberg's 'Howl')." Shlain's previous short films—"Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness" and "The Tribe" screened at the 2003 and 2006 Sundance Film Festivals. Riffing on Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl," "Yelp" is the result of…
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The Fourth Revolution Blog
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School does not interest people in entrepreneurship… except in China!
15 May 2012 | 6:30 amThe graph below is an extract from the report “Entrepreneurship in the EU and beyond” by the European commission. It shows that overall, school does not make people interested in entrepreneurship. did your school education make you interested in becoming an entrepreneur? Did you remark the funniest thing in this graph? School makes people much more interested in entrepreneurship in China (CN, at the bottom) than in most European countries, and even than in the US! Isn’t there something wrong here? -
What would you do if you were not afraid?
12 May 2012 | 6:30 amThis is an interesting sentence posted on Facebook corporate office walls. It’s quite a deep question in fact. Reflect on it for a minute. Embracing fear Right now as I happen to be pushing myself more often out of my comfort zone, I often face fear. It grasps me in the guts and I have really wrenching days where I feel stressed and miserable. Fear is there to prevent us from doing really dangerous things. Recently it has mainly come up when I was trying new things. Honestly, seen from the rational perspective, the possible consequences could not have been so bad. I know I would do… -
The SPIDER – the first role of Project Soft Power
10 May 2012 | 6:30 amThe SPIDER is about weaving a network of stakeholders that is effective to allow the project delivery. Project Soft Power: the Spider role Like the spider, the successful Project Leader patiently weaves its network, the cobweb. Like the spider, the general idea is to capture efficiently anything that comes close to the project and could influence its outcome – stakeholders in particular -, and manage them appropriately. Having an effective, functional network is a primordial tool for the Project Leader. We are not speaking here of the social professional network that is recommended for… -
How Crowdfunding redefines the future of Creation for million of artists
8 May 2012 | 6:30 amThe International Herald Tribune published an amazing infographics about Kickstarter. According to these stats, this leading crowdfunding site gathered in 3 years more than 200 million dollars of funding! Amanda Palmer and the future of creation Most of the funding happens to be for the creative arts. Yes, because crowdfunding redefines the future of all creative arts. Before, government subsidies were the only way to get funded when the big companies that controlled the market did not want to hear about you. Today, ordinary citizens vote with their feet. Check out the example of the video of… -
Building stone by stone an enduring monument
5 May 2012 | 6:30 amFollowing a previous blog post about the patience conundrum here are some nice quotes about patience I want to share with you – and how I modified one to create a personal motto. “Have patience with all things. But, first of all with yourself” – Saint Francis de Sales “If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all” – Michelangelo “Seek patience and passion in equal amounts. Patience alone will not build the temple. Passion alone will destroy its walls“- Maya Angelou “The man who removes a…
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Futurist.com: Futurist Speaker Glen Hiemstra
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The mission: reconnect wages and productivity growth
15 May 2012 | 9:12 amRecently when addressing a Chamber of Commerce event I risked raising the issue of what I call “income gap economics” in the U.S. This is a risk because in my experience the business community can tend to assume that you are about to attack success and wealth. But I received a very positive response, as I do among all audiences, when I explained this situation more clearly. There is no historical or mathematical question that from about the end of World War II until about 1979 all segments of the U.S. economic population saw their incomes grow at about the same rate, more than… -
Fly me to an Asteroid
13 May 2012 | 9:32 pmYou will recall the recent announcement of an asteroid mining venture. Now you can come along with me and visit the asteroid Vesta, courtesy of a flyby generated by JPL. Their Dawn spacecraft is currently exploring the very large asteroid Vesta, before heading off to examine a second, Ceres. Ceres and Vesta reside in the extensive zone between Mars and Jupiter together with many other smaller bodies, called the asteroid belt. Vesta is a very large asteroid resembling a small plant or moon more than we might imagine when we think “asteroid.” Dawn arrived at Vesta back in July 2011,… -
Our Past, Our Future: Welcome to the Anthropocene
11 May 2012 | 6:15 pmA colleague at the Association of Professional Futurists just shared his discovery of a most impressive and interesting website, in beta right now, Welcome to the Anthropocene. The site is “designed to improve our understanding of the earth system. The home page features a really excellent short film, “Welcome to the Anthropocene.” It is a 3-minute journey through the last 250 years of our history, from the start of the Industrial Revolution to the Rio+20 Summit. The film charts the growth of humanity into a global force on an equivalent scale to major geological processes. -
Trouble with Feedburner – a test
11 May 2012 | 9:42 amDear blog readers (those who subscribe for email of the blog). We are having issues with the service that generates the emails (Feedburner) and this short blog entry is a test of what is going on. What is happening is that the feed is only generating the title of the new blog, and refusing to publish an excerpt or the whole blog, either one. Some kind of conflict with the new site theme, and so far no reason or solution has been found. We are working on it. I apologize for the inconvenience of this landing in your inbox. (You can unsubscribe at the bottom the the blog emails, any time.) Glen… -
Cities hold key to economic future
7 May 2012 | 9:13 amAmong the greatest global population trends is the continued migration of people to cities and their associated metro areas. One estimate has it that by 2050 some 90 percent of global population will live in cities or within an hour of them. Another estimate suggests that today 80 percent of U.S. residents live in cities (bear in mind these numbers often call a town of 20,000 a city) while globally some 51 percent now live in urban areas. The World Health Organization estimates that by 2050 70 percent of the world population or 6.5 billion people will live in urban areas. Of course, this…
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Futurist Foresight
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Much better than a vending machine serving weak coffee or stale...
15 May 2012 | 10:25 amMuch better than a vending machine serving weak coffee or stale sandwiches. shapeways: Virginia Tech: 3D Printing Vending Machine ---------------------------------------- -
40 years later and only now does the 6 million dollar man come...
15 May 2012 | 9:48 am40 years later and only now does the 6 million dollar man come closer to realization. joshbyard: Canadian Researchers Testing Electronic Implants on Cadavers: Human Implants Coming... ---------------------------------------- -
3D printing or additive manufacturing will change the future. (...
15 May 2012 | 8:12 am3D printing or additive manufacturing will change the future. ( MBA27X9KH67B ) wildcat2030: We have heard about 3D printing for a long time, and there are new concepts which are presented often.... ---------------------------------------- -
This is an interesting look at the price astronauts / cosmonauts...
15 May 2012 | 6:13 amThis is an interesting look at the price astronauts / cosmonauts / taikonauts and soon commercionauts (Commercial astronauts) pay for zero G. letsdolaunch: Effect of Zero Gravity on Cosmonaut’s... ---------------------------------------- -
Biohacking at work. joshbyard: Hacking Spider Silk to Create...
15 May 2012 | 5:15 amBiohacking at work. joshbyard: Hacking Spider Silk to Create Nano-Electronic Components: As a protein-based polymer, spider silk is naturally insulating, so the researchers are exploring what... ----------------------------------------
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XYZ University
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Recognition 3.0: New rules for making Millennials feel like they matter
14 May 2012 | 8:34 pmThe Millennials (a.k.a. Generation Y, Digital Natives and Echo Boomers) have arrived with a very different work agenda than preceding generations. Prepared to stay with their employer for 2-5 years, their average tenure is only 1.5 years according to the Department of Labor. With 75 million Millenials entering the workforce, employers must understand this disconnect and close the gap if they want to attract, retain and encourage better performance from Gen Y employees. A few key facts about Gen Y and their expectations: They are the most educated generation in American History They are social… -
The new workforce: Young, rich and female
10 May 2012 | 7:46 amPicture a picnic blanket, laid out beautifully on the green grass set with a wooden picnic basket and plates, napkins, and delicious food on display. Now picture someone coming up to your glorious picnic and yanking the blanket out from underneath it all. You stand there, watching everything come crashing down in complete disarray. Well folks, that’s exactly what’s happening to the workforce. First it was a demographic shift. About 10 years ago, younger generations with very different values and approaches to work started to influence –and change– the way we work and do business. -
Gen Y and associations: The perfect Twitter match
8 May 2012 | 7:41 amYou’ve heard of Twitter. You may even use Twitter. But do you know how effective Twitter can be in engaging with a specific audience? I’m not writing this post to give you stats and industry trends. I’m writing this post to give you actionable steps to engage Gen Y using Twitter. Interested? Read on! You are not a celebrity! One of the unique aspects of Twitter vs. other social networks is you can follow whomever you want without their permission. And that’s the fundamental key to building an audience on Twitter – you must follow other people first. Oh sure, you may think that the… -
Is your association’s culture helping or hurting member recruitment and retention?
2 May 2012 | 8:00 amAs an association executive, you may have the power to change your association’s mission with the stroke of a pen. And you may have the ability to hire, fire, promote and demote people with relatively little effort. But changing an entrenched culture is the toughest task you will face. To do so, you must win the hearts and minds of your staff and membership, and that requires a great deal of effort and persuasion. Culture is not something you can actually see, yet it permeates the environment and experiences your association creates for its members. It’s the values, beliefs,… -
Creating positive culture for your association
30 Apr 2012 | 10:19 amCulture is not some inanimate object to scoff at or neglect. Fueled by economic decline, rapidly changing technology, and demographic shifts, culture is more powerful than ever. Here are a few tips for creating a positive culture for your association: Gain support. Start with people who have considerable influence in the organization. (Note: The board and senior staff aren’t always the most influential.) If you get the influencers committed to change, cultural challenges will be easier to resolve. Provide proof. In the 1990s a New York Police Commissioner made his top brass—including…
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Ethical Technology
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Free Will?
16 May 2012 | 4:14 amThere’s no such thing as free will in the sense of a ghost in the machine; our behavior is the product of physical processes in the brain rather than some mysterious soul, says Pinker. -
piero scaruffi The Nonlinear Origins of Free Will
16 May 2012 | 4:01 ampaolo scaruffi is the author of The Nature of Consciousness: The Structure of Life and the Meaning of Matter, and A Brief History of Knowledge. -
Hank Pellissier “The Self” in the Future: Will it be Extinguished, by Neuroscience?
16 May 2012 | 3:49 amWill “the self” survive because it can provide people with a greater sense of happiness? Or is it - perhaps along with the constructs “Free Will” and “Determinism” - doomed to the dustbin of history? Should cyborgs, avatars, and a rewired human brain be developed with a stronger or weaker sense of self? An interview with Dr. Garret Merriam, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at University of Southern Indiana. -
“Flesh” is the Resurrection Choice of IEET Readers
15 May 2012 | 11:27 am34.8% of IEET poll responders selected “Cryonics and Resurrection” in a recent survey that inquired about life-after-death preferences. 27.7% selected, instead, the category, “Uploaded in a Non-Biological Medium,” and 24.1% chose “Either is Fine.” -
George Dvorsky Why Humanists Need to Make the Shift to Post-Atheism
15 May 2012 | 7:04 amI’m getting increasingly annoyed by all the anti-religious propaganda that litters my Facebook newsfeed. Look, as a fellow humanist and atheist, I get it. Organized religion is a problem on so many levels that I don’t even know where to begin. I’d be the first person to say that something needs to be done about it and I’m delighted to see atheism become normalized in our society and culture. But seriously, folks, what are you hoping to achieve by posting such facile and inflammatory material?
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Singularitarian
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Harvard And MIT Join Forces To Become Juggernaut Of Free Online Education
15 May 2012 | 5:31 pmHarvard And MIT Join Forces To Become Juggernaut Of Free Online Education: Online education is witnessing its own Avengers-like uniting of superhero forces as Harvard University and MIT recently announced “edX”, a combined $60 million joint initiative to offer their college-level courses online for free. Launching in the fall of 2012, edX is a not-for-profit organization formed by the two universities to bring each institution’s free online course offerings to a broader global audience. -
Humans Stripping Earth of Its Resources
15 May 2012 | 4:38 pmHumans Stripping Earth of Its Resources: The world’s biodiversity is down 30 percent since the 1970s, according to a new report, with tropical species taking the biggest hit. And if humanity continues as it has been, the picture could get bleaker. -
Generating electricity from viruses as you walk
15 May 2012 | 3:46 pmGenerating electricity from viruses as you walk : Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a way to generate power using harmless viruses that convert mechanical energy into electricity. The generator produces enough current to operate a small liquid-crystal display. It works by tapping a finger on a postage stamp-sized electrode coated with specially engineered viruses. The viruses convert the force of the tap into an electric charge. -
HyQ - IIT’s Hydraulic Quadruped Robot - Balancing and...
15 May 2012 | 2:53 pmHyQ - IIT’s Hydraulic Quadruped Robot - Balancing and First Outdoor Tests -
China's Baidu Announces Upcoming Smartphone, OS and App Store
15 May 2012 | 1:57 pmChina's Baidu Announces Upcoming Smartphone, OS and App Store: Baidu has announced details of its soon-to-launch new smartphone and the cloud-centric operating system (OS) that will power it. The Chinese search giant says that the move, which will put Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS platforms under pressure in China, will bring about a revolution of affordable smartphones.
