Cooperative Flying Robots Build a Tower

Very cool development of things to come:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnkMyfQ5YfY&feature=player_embedded

Solar Power is a Lot Less Expensive than People Realize

http://www.kurzweilai.net/solar-power-much-cheaper-to-produce-than-most-analysts-realize-study-finds?utm_source=KurzweilAI+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=138037f6cb-UA-946742-1&utm_medium=email

Title Fixes

I've decided using "Nanotechnology Update" and "Robotics Update" and so on are not all that helpful. So I'm switching to titling the links based on the article, as I do with my Political Venom blog. Just makes more sense....

Derek

Singularity Update

A Q&A session with Ray Kurzweil:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/singularity-q-a?utm_source=KurzweilAI+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=10251e2fe2-UA-946742-1&utm_medium=email

Nanotechnology Update

3D printing saves on materials and cost, and allow the creation of complex, convoluted shapes impossible by traditional manufacturing techniques:

http://www.technologyreview.com/article/39316/

Alternative Energies Update

Investment in power production from renewable energy bypasses coal for the first time:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-renewables-20111125,0,2421278.story

Alternative Energies Update

New lithium ion battery with 10x the charge and 10x the charging speed:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/batteries-with-10x-more-capacity-and-that-charge-10x-faster

Computing Update

Intel creates the first teraflop chip:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/intels-1-teraflop-chip-exascale-computing-needs-better-story/63597?tag=nl.e539

(Major accomplishment, lousy article.)

Genetic Engineering Update

Modification of one gene doubles muscle strength:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/epfd-tag110711.php

Robotics Update

New and improved ASIMO robot is faster, stronger, smoother and overall more capable:

http://www.hondanews.com/channels/corporate-headlines/releases/honda-unveils-all-new-asimo-with-significant-advancements

Robotics Update

More information on the powerful new "Alphadog" robot:

http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/military-robots/boston-dynamics-alphadog-prototype-on-video


"A couple notes on the video: those weights that AlphaDog is carrying in a few of the clips weigh a total of 400 pounds (180 kilograms), and the robot will be able to carry that load up to 20 miles (30 kilometers) over the course of 24 hours without having to refuel."

And it's a LOT quieter than Bigdog was.

Nanotechnology Update

The first artificial self-replication has been achieved!

http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=4822

Medicine Update

Removing senescent cells can eliminate aging related diseases and increase lifespans:

http://www.livescience.com/16845-longevity-aging-cellular-cleaning.html?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=LS_11032011

Robotics Update

PETMAN robot is close to being a "real" humanoid robot:

http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/humanoids/stunning-video-of-boston-dynamics-petman-humanoid

Robotics Update

A smaller version of the Big Dog robot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wPxXwYGZmd8

Robotics Update

A robot can now solve a Rubik's Cube in five seconds, beating the human world record:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_d0LfkIut2M

Robotics Update

A passive walking robot can walk using only its own weight (and a slight downward slope), no power source:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rhu2xNIpgDE

Singularity Update

Ray Kurzweil responds to Paul Allen's criticism of the Law of Accelerating Returns and the singularity:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/kurzweil-responds-dont-underestimate-the-singularity?utm_source=KurzweilAI+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c82ecb7c28-UA-946742-1&utm_medium=email

Cybernetics Update

Bio fuel cell successfully created to run off the body's own stores of glucose and oxygen to provide power to powered implants:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15305579

Robotics Update

Robot biologist solves complex problem from scratch:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/robot-biologist-solves-complex-problem-from-scratch?utm_source=KurzweilAI+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=bf586560f8-UA-946742-1&utm_medium=email

Nanotechnology Update

Proof of concept of a nano-scale electrical motor:

http://futureoftech.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/09/02/7576086-a-nano-sized-electric-motor

Cybernetics Update

A damaged part of a rat's brain was successfully replaced by a machine component that communicates bi-directionally with the rat's brain!

http://gizmodo.com/5844245/scientists-restore-lost-brain-functions-with-electronic-implant

This is an important proof of concept for replacing our biological brains with machines.

Robotics Update

Big Dog has graduated to the new Alpha Dog prototype:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SSbZrQp-HOk

Alternative Energies Update

Producing hydrogen efficiently from waste water and a little salt to create an unlimited supply of essentially free, carbon-neutral energy:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/inexhaustible-source-of-hydrogen-may-be-unlocked-by-salt-water?utm_source=KurzweilAI+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=4694bd72c7-UA-946742-1&utm_medium=email

So...what's the catch?

Artificial Intelligence Update

How long till we achieve true artificial general intelligence?

http://hplusmagazine.com/2011/09/16/how-long-till-agi-views-of-agi-11-conference-participants/

Computing Update

A computer game taps the gaming community in order to solve some of the most difficult puzzles in protein folding:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/09/18/computer-gamers-solve-problem-in-aids-research-that-puzzled-scientists-for-years/

Computing Update

Computers are now able to mimic the writing of journalists:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/business/computer-generated-articles-are-gaining-traction.html?_r=1

Alternative Energies Update

How thorium could make nuclear power cheaper and safer:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/williampentland/2011/09/11/is-thorium-the-biggest-energy-breakthrough-since-fire-possibly/

Robotics Update

A quick, graphic overview of the state of robotics today and in the near future:

http://singularityhub.com/2011/09/12/robotic-labor-taking-over-the-world-you-bet-here-are-the-details/

Computing Update

Computers are now able to mimic the writing of journalists:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/business/computer-generated-articles-are-gaining-traction.html?_r=1

"Mr. Hammond cited a media maven’s prediction that a computer program might win aPulitzer Prize in journalism in 20 years — and he begged to differ.

“In five years,” he says, “a computer program will win a Pulitzer Prize — and I’ll be damned if it’s not our technology.”"

Nanotechnology Update

The current state of 3D printing is not nanotech yet, but what we have now is pretty impressive, and it gives you an idea of the true potential of nanofactories:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZboxMsSz5Aw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Impressive!

Robotics Update

Flying robots can now mimic birds almost perfectly:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnR8fDW3Ilo&feature=player_embedded#at=45

BLOG UPDATE

I've been neglecting this blog because of too many other pending projects: novels, screenplays, artwork, videos, etc...not to mention other activities I still want to try. I have months of backed up material to go through, and there are now numerous other sources where one can find such compilations of articles. So I'm going to trim future entries of this blog down to just THE most interesting technological advances. I hope I can keep up with that, at least!

Derek

Robotics Update

Geminoid DK robot is almost human-like in appearance and mannerisms...almost:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZlLNVmaPbM&feature=player_embedded

Robotics Update

First fully-functioning, life-sized, hummingbird-like robot created:

http://www.avinc.com/resources/press_release/aerovironment_develops_worlds_first_fully_operational_life-size_hummingbird

Alternative Energies Update

Wind power is now competitive with coal in some regions:

http://www.grist.org/article/2011-02-07-report-wind-power-now-competitive-with-coal-in-some-regions

Artificial Intelligence Update

What Watson's win on Jeopardy means, from the perspective of an A.I. guru:

http://hplusmagazine.com/2011/02/17/watson-supercharged-search-engine-or-prototype-robot-overlord/

Singularity Update

A humorous song about the Singularity:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hKG5l_TDU8

Artificial Intelligence Update

Reflections on passing the Turing Test by a participant in an official test:

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2011/03/mind-vs-machine/8386_

Artificial Intelligence Update

How the brain compresses visual images:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-02/jhu-jft021011.php

Computing Update

Researchers produce world's first programmable nanoprocessor:

This is a false-color scanning electron microscopy image of a programmable nanowire nanoprocessor super-imposed on a schematic nanoprocessor circuit architecture. Credit: Photo courtesy of Charles M. Lieber, Harvard University

Engineers and scientists collaborating at Harvard University and the MITRE Corporation have developed and demonstrated the world's first programmable nanoprocessor.

The groundbreaking prototype computer system, described in a paper appearing today in the journal Nature, represents a significant step forward in the complexity of computer circuits that can be assembled from synthesized nanometer-scale components.

It also represents an advance because these ultra-tiny nanocircuits can be programmed electronically to perform a number of basic arithmetic and logical functions.

"This work represents a quantum jump forward in the complexity and function of circuits built from the bottom up, and thus demonstrates that this bottom-up paradigm, which is distinct from the way commercial circuits are built today, can yield nanoprocessors and other integrated systems of the future," says principal investigator Charles M. Lieber, who holds a joint appointment at Harvard's Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

The work was enabled by advances in the design and synthesis of nanowire building blocks. These nanowire components now demonstrate the reproducibility needed to build functional electronic circuits, and also do so at a size and material complexity difficult to achieve by traditional top-down approaches.

Moreover, the tiled architecture is fully scalable, allowing the assembly of much larger and ever more functional nanoprocessors.

"For the past 10 to 15 years, researchers working with nanowires, carbon nanotubes, and other nanostructures have struggled to build all but the most basic circuits, in large part due to variations in properties of individual nanostructures," says Lieber, the Mark Hyman Professor of Chemistry. "We have shown that this limitation can now be overcome and are excited about prospects of exploiting the bottom-up paradigm of biology in building future electronics."

An additional feature of the advance is that the circuits in the nanoprocessor operate using very little power, even allowing for their miniscule size, because their component nanowires contain transistor switches that are "nonvolatile."

This means that unlike transistors in conventional microcomputer circuits, once the nanowire transistors are programmed, they do not require any additional expenditure of electrical power for maintaining memory.

"Because of their very small size and very low power requirements, these new nanoprocessor circuits are building blocks that can control and enable an entirely new class of much smaller, lighter weight electronic sensors and consumer electronics," says co-author Shamik Das, the lead engineer in MITRE's Nanosystems Group.

"This new nanoprocessor represents a major milestone toward realizing the vision of a nanocomputer that was first articulated more than 50 years ago by physicist Richard Feynman," says James Ellenbogen, a chief scientist at MITRE.

Technology Update

The future of e-reader devices, from one to twenty years out:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-02/uoc-ifj020811.php

Robotics Update

Robot faces are getting more and more human-realistic in appearance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZM_0OtzO7o

Technology Update

Invisibility cloaking has now moved from metamaterials to actual visible materials:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/physicists-use-natural-crystals-to-develop-invisibility-cloak

Nanotechnology Update

New technique for making graphene is more consistent and cost-effective:

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-physicists-scalable-method-graphene.html

Artificial Intelligence Update

As we all know now, the IBM computer Watson beat the world's best human Jeopardy players handily, winning three times as much money as they did. Its success is due to an amazing amalgam of different tools all working cohesively (not unlike the human brain):

http://www.pcworld.com/article/220056/watson_beats_jeopardys_best_whats_next.html

Add a few "humanizing" algorithms into the mix, add voice recognition, face recognition and emotion recognition (all of which already exist), and you'll have a computer not much different than the artificially intelligent computers found in a lot of science fiction. Wait a few years for the hardware to shrink to desktop size and for robotics technology to improve a bit more, and the robots of science fiction will be a reality.

Computing Update

Global computing has increased 58% per year over the past two decades:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12419672

Computing Update

Molybdenite uses 100,000 less times energy on standby than silicon, and offering greater control than graphene for use in computers:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-01/nu-map012511.php

Nanotechnology Update

New technique developed for printing at the nanoscale:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-01/nu-map012511.php

Robotics Update

A robot has enough speed and agility that it can easily balance a pencil on its tip:

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2011/01/pencil-balancer.html

(See video)

Singularity Update

The concept of the Singularity has gone mainstream with this article in Time:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2048138,00.html

And I think it's a pretty balanced article, although I would have liked to see more of the products and services nanotech will likely bring about.

Artificial Intelligence Update

The world's best Jeopardy players will compete today...with a machine:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2374331,00.asp

I watched the NOVA documentary on this project, and it's truly fascinating how they built the rules and database for Watson. It's true it's not A.I., but it will surely be part of the components that will lead to true general A.I.

Icon after icon of what we perceive as the true measure of intelligence is being knocked down, and intelligence keeps getting redefined as something other than what we thought it was. Sooner or later such redefinitions will cease to be useful, and we won't be able to tell the difference between human and machine intelligence. I'm pretty certain the Turing Test will be passed within five years, ten at the very most.

Robotics Update

Robots learn to move quickly and efficiently by actually learning, rather than being programmed:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-01/uov-frr012011.php

Computing Update

Researchers entangle billions of subatomic particles in silicon, a major step in the development of super-powerful quantum computers:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/25/science/25spin.html

Alternative Energies Update

Study claims we will be able to achieve 100% renewable energy usage by 2030...with enough political will:

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-01-percent-renewable-energy.html

Alternative Energies Update

Graphene may pave the way for low-cost organic solar cells:

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-01-graphene-electrodes-solar-cells.html

Robotics Update

Robots for the white-collar office space:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_04/b4212069774202.htm

Genetic Engineering Update

Researchers may clone a woolly mammoth in four years:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8257223/Mammoth-could-be-reborn-in-four-years.html

Nanotechnology Update

Four prominent nanotech researchers share their thoughts about the near future of nanotech:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/scaling-up-the-future-of-nanoscience

Nanotechnology Update

Graphene could soon replace silicon in electronics:

http://www.gatech.edu/newsroom/release.html?nid=63409

Computing Update

Scientists manage to squeeze 1,000 cores on a single chip:

http://www.gla.ac.uk/news/headline_183814_en.html

"The researchers then used the chip to process an algorithm which is central to the MPEG movie format – used in YouTube videos – at a speed of five gigabytes per second: around 20 times faster than current top-end desktop computers."

Computing Update

Computers are getting more and more powerful at recognizing faces and emotions. Their vision is even good enough to view your heart rate from a distance:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/02/science/02see.html?_r=2&ref=technology&pagewanted=all