Robotics Update

Japan's Robot-One competition introduced dancing and fighting robots. One is essentially a car-humanoid robot transformer!

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/robot-videos-roboone/

Robotics Update

Developments in wing technology for small flying robots take a cue from flying insects:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327275.600-locust-flight-simulator-helps-robot-insects-evolve.html

Medicine Update

If part of the battle for gaining the benefits of mature nanotechnology is to live long enough to see its development, then life extension technology is worth persuing:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/science/29aging.html

Robotics Update

A new robotic hand uses a softer, more natural grip with fewer sensors and a single motor to pick up objects with the flexibility of a human hand:

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/23534/?a=f

Artificial Intelligence Update

A new mathematical model may help us reverse engineer the human brain:

http://newswire.rockefeller.edu/?page=engine&id=974

Singularity Update

An interview with Ray Kurzweil, describing why he thinks we'll be able to upload our brains to computers by the end of the 2030s:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/by-2040-you-will-be-able-to-upload-your-brain-1792555.html

Nanotechnology Update

Here's an article on that manufacturing process that allows one to beam instructions for a part to a receiving station, which can build the part on demand layer by layer. This article describes it in reference to Star Trek's transporter system:

http://www.universetoday.com/2009/09/29/nasas-version-of-star-trek-replicator-ready-for-on-orbit-test/

It's the first stages toward my idea for creating "real" teleportation: if we do achieve mature molecular nanotechnology (over the next two decades or so), then there's the possibility we'll be able to disassemble an entire human being and store all the data that make up that person. Send that data to a ship or even another planet via radio or laser or whatever, and have assemblers on the ship/planet reassemble the person from common raw materials. It wouldn't be teleportation in seconds, but it would be effectively teleportation in hours, and a hell of a lot cheaper than sending that person to the destination by conventional means.

(Of course, this assumes all aspects of the brain can be captured and replicated, but it's not that big a stretch.)

Robotics Update

Examples of the rapidly expanding area of controling robots remotely (telepresence):

http://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics/humanoids/the-reality-of-robot-surrogates/0

Cybernetics Update

Contact lenses with HUD will soon be available to provide a variety of data superimposed on our vision:

http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/bionics/augmented-reality-in-a-contact-lens/

Virtual Reality Update

(Also a Robotics Update)

Scientists are studying the "uncanny valley" of almost human-looking animated characters and robots to try and eliminate the creepiness factor:

http://www.physorg.com/news172854181.html

Artificial Intelligence Update

Automated video surveillance system uses human brain techniques to spot abnormal behavior:

http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=8144

Another small step on the path to true machine intelligence.

Alternative Energies Update

Google isn't happy with the slow pace of development and high cost of production in solar power, so it's jumping into the field:

http://ecogeek.org/solar-power/2949

With its deep pockets and keen interest in alternative energies, maybe they can speed up the process.

Alternative Energies Update

Carbon nanotube springs may be used to create batteries that mechanically store as much energy pound-for-pound as the best of today's lithium-ion batteries:

http://www.physorg.com/news172758740.html

Alternative Energies Update

Nanosolar's advanced solar panels are coming to market:

http://www.technologyreview.com/business/23482/?a=f

Robotics Update

The iCub robot is designed to learn like a human toddler:

http://www.physorg.com/news171703166.html

Artificial Intelligence Update

A neuroscientist expects to have a functioning model of the human brain within ten years (which matches the conclusions from other prognosticators):

http://www.physorg.com/news171565512.html

"When we first switched it on it already started to display some interesting emergent properties. But this is just the beginning because we know now that it is possible to build it."

Alternative Energies Update

A major "recycling" advance in the use of hydrogen for use in vehicles:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090901143317.htm

Singularity Update

To develop an AI that will want to improve itself and pass that desire on to its succeeding generations, it will need more than just intelligence. It will also have to include motivation and focus:

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/23354/

Nanotechnology Update

Yet another material made from nanoscale carbon molecules. After buckminsterfullerine, nanotubes and graphene, we now have magnetic graphone, which should facilitate the creation of the next generation of computer miniaturization:

http://www.physorg.com/news171126902.html

Robotics Update

Micro-robots are being developed with insect swarm behavior and "programmed for a variety of applications, such as surveillance, micromanufacturing, medicine, cleaning, and more":

http://www.physorg.com/news170678733.html

Cybernetics Update

Researchers are developing a plasmodium (slime mold)-based robot:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090827073256.htm

"This new plasmodium robot, called plasmobot, will sense objects, span them in the shortest and best way possible, and transport tiny objects along pre-programmed directions. The robots will have parallel inputs and outputs, a network of sensors and the number crunching power of super computers. The plasmobot will be controlled by spatial gradients of light, electro-magnetic fields and the characteristics of the substrate on which it is placed. It will be a fully controllable and programmable amorphous intelligent robot with an embedded massively parallel computer."

Artificial Intelligence Update

As a departure from my usual posts, here's an interview with Noel Sharkey, who holds the opposite position from me, claiming artificial intelligence will not be developed:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327231.100-why-ai-is-a-dangerous-dream.html?full=true

However, his claim that sentience "could be a physical system that cannot be recreated by a computer" would require some evidence to support it. So far it seems we've managed to successfully reproduce various portions of the human brain, and there is no evidence that we won't eventually reproduce the rest.

His thinking is also mired in the very short term, using existing examples of AI (such as Deep Blue) as the basis for all AI. But if we do managed to reproduce every functional aspect of the brain on a computer platform (as we are on track to complete within the next few decades at most), we will have AI based on a proven existing model, only capable of taking advantage of the advantages brought by computers.

He also claims, "Like all humans, the elderly need love and human contact, and this often only comes from visiting carers. A robot companion would not fulfil that need for me." Again, this is short-term thinking. Considering that people are even now bonding with the very basic AI we have now, even a non-sentient machine will likely become convincing enough to allow humans to develop sincere friendships and romances with machines.

Concerning military robots, he says, "There is no way for any AI system to discriminate between a combatant and an innocent." Again, not YET. But what evidence is there to think AI will be unable to do as good or a better job than humans over the next decade or two? Humans in combat often behave irrationally; a machine wouldn't have that problem, and thus would be less likely to make such mistakes. Computers are becoming more and more accurate in their ability to discern patterns, and it's reasonable to believe they will eventually be able to distinguish between friend and foe more easily and more quickly than humans.

Artificial Intelligence