Your brain is not a computer

Our model of the brain as a computer may be fundamentally flawed:

https://aeon.co/essays/your-brain-does-not-process-information-and-it-is-not-a-computer

However, weather patterns follow dynamic rules that aren't like how computers think, yet we can model them quite well. So why wouldn't it be possible to model how brains work on computers, even if brains don't work like computers?

Robots learn to cut through clutter

http://www.kurzweilai.net/robots-learn-to-cut-through-clutter

"The robot’s wrist has a 270-degree range, which led to behaviors we didn’t expect. Sometimes, we’re blinded by our own anthropomorphism."

Language in Ohio bill would ‘basically shut down’ solar

http://midwestenergynews.com/2016/05/23/advocates-language-in-ohio-bill-would-basically-shut-down-solar/

May 23, 2016 Discovery of new catalyst materials for lithium-air batteries could enable batteries with five times the energy density of lithium ion batteries

http://nextbigfuture.com/2016/05/discovery-of-new-catalyst-materials-for.html

"But he said it could take five to 10 years before the research translates into new batteries that can be used in consumer devices and electric vehicles." Bugger!

Self-driving cars? Nobody wants one

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-google-cadillac-self-driving-cars-160441498.html?soc_src=mail&soc_trk=ma

I'm willing to bet that'll change as people experience the advantages.

Nanomaterials could double efficiency of solar cells by converting waste heat into usable energy

This could reduce (or even eliminate?) the need for batteries to store excess solar production:

http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/24/nanomaterials-could-double-efficiency-of-solar-cells-by-converting-waste-heat-into-usable-energy/?ncid=rss

Inside the Artificial Intelligence Revolution: A Special Report

Long but definitely interesting:

Part 1: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/inside-the-artificial-intelligence-revolution-a-special-report-pt-1-20160229?page=11

Part 2: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/inside-the-artificial-intelligence-revolution-a-special-report-pt-2-20160309

A Huge Solar Plant Caught on Fire, and That’s the Least of Its Problems

http://www.wired.com/2016/05/huge-solar-plant-caught-fire-thats-least-problems/

100% Clean Energy Economy Is Much Closer Than You Think

http://ecowatch.com/2016/05/21/clean-energy-economy/

Faced by Falling Oil Prices and Plunging Profits, Big Oil Invests in Renewables

http://ecowatch.com/2016/05/22/big-oil-invest-renewables/

I like that they're essentially being forced to do this in order to survive.

Walt Disney Co Sets Its Sights on Lightning-Fast 3D Printing

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/24/walt-disney-co-sets-its-sights-on-lightning-fast-3.aspx

10 million self-driving cars will be on the road by 2020

http://www.businessinsider.com/report-10-million-self-driving-cars-will-be-on-the-road-by-2020-2015-5-6

Portugal Sets Record, Runs on Renewables for 107-Hours Straight

http://ecowatch.com/2016/05/18/portugal-runs-on-renewables/

Thanks to push away from coal, power plant emissions fall to lowest level since 1993

http://mashable.com/2016/05/18/power-plant-emissions-drop/#D2eCQNhCdmqx

Rooftop Solar Transformation Could Hurt SolarCity and Sunrun

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/19/rooftop-solar-transformation-could-hurt-solarcity.aspx

HIV Genes Have Been Cut Out of Live Animals Using CRISPR

http://time.com/4340722/hiv-removed-using-crispr/

Massive potential here....

Albuquerque weighs getting more solar power

http://www.sltrib.com/home/3898355-155/albuquerque-weighs-getting-more-solar-power

Using animal training techniques to teach robots household chores

I think this would drastically open the field for robotic deep learning:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/using-animal-training-techniques-to-teach-robots-household-chores

5 ways the Hyperloop will change how you live

http://www.businessinsider.com/5-ways-the-hyperloop-will-change-how-you-live-2016-5

Newly Developed ‘Rochester Cloak’ Enhances Cloaking Abilities

Still not "there," but interesting anyway:

http://scitechdaily.com/newly-developed-rochester-cloak-enhances-cloaking-abilities/

Wild-Looking Glow-In-The-Dark Sidewalks Could Spell The End Of Streetlights

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/glow-in-the-dark-cement_us_573b2761e4b060aa781b42f6

A new type of cement may not sound exciting, but if widely implemented it could drastically change the appearance of cities at night.

$30K Retrofit Turns Dumb Semis Into Self-Driving Robots

https://www.wired.com/2016/05/otto-retrofit-autonomous-self-driving-trucks/

AI learns and recreates Nobel-winning physics experiment

http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/16/ai-learns-and-recreates-nobel-winning-physics-experiment/

Retired farmland across the Central Valley making way for renewable energy

https://www.yahoo.com/news/retired-farmland-across-central-valley-232756128.html?soc_src=mail&soc_trk=ma

This machine 3D prints metal structures in midair by lasering nanoparticles

http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/16/this-machine-3d-prints-metal-structures-in-midair-by-lasering-nanoparticles/

Renewables Are Leaving Natural Gas In The Dust This Year

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/05/16/3778542/grid-70-times-renewables-natural-gas/

"On the other hand, FERC doesn’t track rooftop solar, so its estimate of solar capacity added is certainly low. Indeed, FERC’s data sources only “include plants with nameplate capacity of 1 MW or greater,” so it’s hard to know how much small-scale renewable power generation they may have missed."

We're about to see a mind-blowing demographic shift unprecedented in human history

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/were-see-mind-blowing-demographic-123900694.html?soc_src=mail&soc_trk=ma

"Life expectancies of 300-400Y or even an infinite extension of life expectancy may be within reach in our lifetimes."

How expiring patents are ushering in the next generation of 3D printing

http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/15/how-expiring-patents-are-ushering-in-the-next-generation-of-3d-printing/

It’s Really Happening: The Collapse of U.S. Coal

Yay!

http://www.triplepundit.com/2016/05/really-happening-u-s-coal-collapsing/#

‘Primitive’ quantum computer outperforms classical computers

http://www.kurzweilai.net/primitive-quantum-computer-outperforms-classical-computers

Artificially Intelligent Lawyer “Ross” Has Been Hired By Its First Official Law Firm

http://futurism.com/artificially-intelligent-lawyer-ross-hired-first-official-law-firm/

Yay! Can we drown all the lawyers now? ;-)

We Can Stop Searching For The Clean Energy Miracle. It’s Already Here.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/05/12/3776728/climate-change-solutions/

One snag I see for using electric car batteries to store excess home solar power is that one typically needs to use stored power in the evening when the sun is down, and one typically needs to commute to work first thing in the morning...which means you would be driving on a depleted charge (by how much, I don't know). Worse, your car would be away from home all day, meaning it couldn't capture the unused solar power your home generates all day. A solar charger at work would help...but it still wouldn't help you store the solar power your home generates. That'll need addressing....

A robot with human-like grace and precision

http://www.kurzweilai.net/a-robot-with-human-like-grace-and-precision

I'm thinking the first android home robots will not be as clunky as people imagine.

This five-fingered robot hand is close to human in functionality

http://www.kurzweilai.net/this-five-fingered-robot-hand-is-close-to-human-in-functionality

Here Comes Hyperloop One: Startup Raises $80 Million

http://www.fastcompany.com/3059752/here-comes-the-hyperloop-startup-raises-80-million

Kepler Space Telescope Reveals 1,284 New Planets

http://scitechdaily.com/kepler-space-telescope-reveals-1284-new-planets/

Almost doubling the total (depending on how you calculate it)!

Solar Power Is Ready to Dominate Energy Thanks to New Tech

http://singularityhub.com/2016/05/09/solar-power-is-ready-to-dominate-energy-thanks-to-new-tech

Up to a 66% efficiency is incredible. Unfortunately, the rise in solar efficiency and the plummeting drop in costs makes it tough to justify going solar just yet. It always seems waiting another year makes sense...but that doesn't help incentivise the solar industry.

Alevo, The Other Energy Storage Gigafactory, Begins To Stir

http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterdetwiler/2016/05/10/alevo-the-other-energy-storage-giga-factory-begins-to-stir/#7878d26c60e4

College students didn't realize their professor's assistant was actually an AI bot

Yup, this looks like a successful narrow-range Turing test:

http://www.dailydot.com/technology/watson-teaching-assistant-robot/?fb=dd

This vitamin stops the aging process in organs, say Swiss researchers

http://www.kurzweilai.net/this-vitamin-stops-the-aging-process-in-organs-say-swiss-researchers

Ten Things I Discovered When I Got an Electric Car

Plus a fun video of passenger reactions to a Tesla accelerating:

http://www.pluginamerica.org/drivers-seat/10-things-i-discovered-when-i-got-electric-car-0

SpaceX reportedly sets its sights on Mars "as soon as 2018"

http://www.astronomy.com/news/2016/04/spacex-sets-its-sites-on-mars

How Infecting Mosquitoes with a Bacterium Could Stop the Zika Virus

And maybe all other mosquito-borne diseases:

http://time.com/4319619/zika-virus-mosquitoes-wolbachia-technology/?xid=newsletter-brief

A robot for ‘soft tissue’ surgery outperforms surgeons

http://www.kurzweilai.net/a-robot-for-soft-tissue-surgery-outperforms-surgeons

A supercomputer on a USB stick

http://www.businessinsider.com/movidius-creates-usb-with-ai-onboard

http://www.cnet.com/news/movidius-fathom-is-this-the-usb-stick-that-the-hunterkiller-drones-have-been-waiting-for/

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfCdArXDDKM&feature=youtu.be

The world’s tiniest, most powerful nanoengine

http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-worlds-tiniest-most-powerful-nanoengine

IBM makes quantum computing available free on IBM Cloud

http://www.kurzweilai.net/ibm-makes-quantum-computing-available-free-on-ibm-cloud

Solar power is contagious. These maps show how it spreads.

When conformity is a good thing...

http://www.vox.com/2016/5/4/11590396/solar-power-contagious-maps

Scientists turn skin cells into heart and brain cells using only drugs — no stem cells required

http://www.kurzweilai.net/scientists-turn-skin-cells-into-heart-and-brain-cells-using-only-drugs-no-stem-cells-required

Deep neural networks that identify shapes nearly as well as humans

http://www.kurzweilai.net/deep-neural-networks-that-identify-shapes-nearly-as-well-as-humans

Doctor ready to perform first human head transplant

If this works, it'll be amazing. I imagine Stephen Hawking might be very interested indeed:

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/could-2017-first-head-transplant-010722047.html

California Has Too Much Solar Power -- And That's a Good Thing

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/01/california-has-too-much-solar-power-and-thats-a-go.aspx

It Doesn’t Matter How Much You Exercise If You Sit A Lot

More reasons to move your ass:

http://time.com/3672428/exercise-sitting/

93 percent of advanced leukemia patients in remission after immunotherapy

Rather stunning news:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160427221202.htm#.VyJdyWH89DY.hotmail

http://www.livescience.com/54579-earth-is-greening-as-globe-warms.html?cmpid=NL_LS_weekly_2016-4-29-test

Scientists discover potentially habitable planets

http://news.mit.edu/2016/scientists-discover-potentially-habitable-planets-0502

They're likely tidelocked, which may well mean all water eventually ends up on the dark side and leaves the planets poorly suited to life...but who knows?