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."