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Archive for the ‘cyborgs’ category: Page 129

May 10, 2014

What to make of the film ‘Transcendence’? Show it in classrooms.

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, augmented reality, bionic, computing, cyborgs, disruptive technology, existential risks, fun, futurism, homo sapiens, human trajectories, innovation, nanotechnology, philosophy, posthumanism, privacy, robotics/AI, science, singularity, transhumanism

transcendence
I recently saw the film Transcendence with a close friend. If you can get beyond Johnny Depp’s siliconised mugging of Marlon Brando and Rebecca Hall’s waddling through corridors of quantum computers, Transcendence provides much to think about. Even though Christopher Nolan of Inception fame was involved in the film’s production, the pyrotechnics are relatively subdued – at least by today’s standards. While this fact alone seems to have disappointed some viewers, it nevertheless enables you to focus on the dialogue and plot. The film is never boring, even though nothing about it is particularly brilliant. However, the film stays with you, and that’s a good sign. Mark Kermode at the Guardian was one of the few reviewers who did the film justice.

The main character, played by Depp, is ‘Will Caster’ (aka Ray Kurzweil, but perhaps also an allusion to Hans Castorp in Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain). Caster is an artificial intelligence researcher based at Berkeley who, with his wife Evelyn Caster (played by Hall), are trying to devise an algorithm capable of integrating all of earth’s knowledge to solve all of its its problems. (Caster calls this ‘transcendence’ but admits in the film that he means ‘singularity’.) They are part of a network of researchers doing similar things. Although British actors like Hall and the key colleague Paul Bettany (sporting a strange Euro-English accent) are main players in this film, the film itself appears to transpire entirely within the borders of the United States. This is a bit curious, since a running assumption of the film is that if you suspect a malevolent consciousness uploaded to the internet, then you should shut the whole thing down. But in this film at least, ‘the whole thing’ is limited to American cyberspace.

Before turning to two more general issues concerning the film, which I believe may have led both critics and viewers to leave unsatisfied, let me draw attention to a couple of nice touches. First, the leader of the ‘Revolutionary Independence from Technology’ (RIFT), whose actions propel the film’s plot, explains that she used to be an advanced AI researcher who defected upon witnessing the endless screams of a Rhesus monkey while its entire brain was being digitally uploaded. Once I suspended my disbelief in the occurrence of such an event, I appreciate it as a clever plot device for showing how one might quickly convert from being radically pro- to anti-AI, perhaps presaging future real-world targets for animal rights activists. Second, I liked the way in which quantum computing was highlighted and represented in the film. Again, what we see is entirely speculative, yet it highlights the promise that one day it may be possible to read nature as pure information that can be assembled according to need to produce what one wants, thereby rendering our nanotechnology capacities virtually limitless. 3D printing may be seen as a toy version of this dream.

Now on to the two more general issues, which viewers might find as faults, but I think are better treated as what the Greeks called aporias (i.e. open questions):

Continue reading “What to make of the film 'Transcendence'? Show it in classrooms.” »

May 9, 2014

White Swan Update by Andres Agostini at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/04/white-swan

Posted by in categories: business, complex systems, computing, cyborgs, defense, disruptive technology, economics, education, energy, engineering, existential risks, futurism

White Swan Update by Andres Agostini at https://russian.lifeboat.com/blog/2014/04/white-swan

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This House’s “Bioconcrete” Turns Every Drop Of Rain Into Drinking Water http://www.fastcoexist.com/3030070/this-house-uses-bioconcre…king-water

Google Skunk Works May Tackle Energy and Agriculture http://www.21stcentech.com/google-skunk-works-tackle-agriculture/

Continue reading “White Swan Update by Andres Agostini at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/04/white-swan” »

Apr 29, 2014

Bionic Athletes With Exoskeletons, Robotic Limbs, and Brain-Control Devices to Compete in 2016 Cybathlon

Posted by in categories: bionic, cyborgs, engineering, exoskeleton, transhumanism

Jason Dorrier — Singularity Hub

While traditional sports only grudgingly accept technological augmentation, the 2016 Cybathlon, a kind of hybrid between the XPRIZE and Olympics, embraces it with both robotic arms. Disabled competitors (or pilots) will compete using assistance devices like powered exoskeletons, robotic prostheses, and brain-control interfaces.

We’ve chronicled the continuous evolution of such technologies over the years, but they’re still largely out of reach for most folks.

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Apr 1, 2014

The White Swan’s Beyond Eureka and Sputnik Moments! [TREATISE EXCERPT] By Mr. Andres Agostini at www.AMAZON.com/author/agostini

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, alien life, astronomy, automation, big data, biological, bionic, bioprinting, biotech/medical, business, chemistry, climatology, complex systems, computing, cosmology, counterterrorism, cybercrime/malcode, cyborgs, defense, disruptive technology, driverless cars, drones, economics, education, energy, engineering, environmental, ethics, evolution, existential risks, exoskeleton, finance, food, futurism, genetics, geopolitics, government, habitats, hardware, health, homo sapiens, human trajectories, information science, innovation, internet, law, law enforcement, life extension, lifeboat, military, mobile phones, nanotechnology, neuroscience, open access, open source, philosophy, physics, policy, posthumanism, privacy, robotics/AI, science, scientific freedom, security, singularity, space, supercomputing, surveillance, sustainability, transhumanism, transparency, transportation

The White Swan’s Beyond Eureka and Sputnik Moments: How To Fundamentally Cope With Corporate Litmus Tests and With The Permanent Impact of the Dramatic Highly Improbable And Succeed and Prevail Through Transformative and Integrative Risk Management! [TREATISE EXCERPT]. By © Copyright 2013, 2014 Mr. Andres Agostini — All Rights Reserved Worldwide — « www.linkedin.com/in/andresagostini AND www.AMAZON.com/author/agostini » — The Lifeboat Foundation Global Chief Consulting Officer and Partner, Lifeboat Foundation Worldwide Ambassador —

(An Independent, Solemn, Most-Thorough and Copyrighted Answer. Independence, solemnity, thoroughness, completeness, detail, granularity of details, accuracy and rigor, hereunder, will be then redefined by several orders of nonlinear magnitude and without a fail).

[TREATISE EXCERPT].

To Nora, my mother, who rendered me with the definitiveness to seek the thoughts and seek the forethoughts to outsmart any impending demand and other developments. To Francisco, my father: No one who has taught me better. There is no one I regard most highly. It is my greatest fortune to be his son. He endowed me with the Agostini family’s charter, “…Study and, when grown up, you will neither be the tyrants’ toy, nor the passions’ servile slave…” I never enjoyed a “…Mom…”, but considerably enjoyed a gargantuan courageous Mother, Father, Grandparents and Forbears.

Continue reading “The White Swan's Beyond Eureka and Sputnik Moments! [TREATISE EXCERPT] By Mr. Andres Agostini at www.AMAZON.com/author/agostini” »

Mar 24, 2014

The Future of Scientific Management, Today!

Posted by in categories: big data, biotech/medical, business, cyborgs, economics, engineering, futurism, science, scientific freedom

LIST OF UPDATES (MARCH 24 THROUGH MARCH 30/2014). By Mr. Andres Agostini at The Future of Scientific Management, Today! At http://lnkd.in/bYP2nDC

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Smartphone app reads blood oxygen levels, forewarns of life-threatening pre-eclampsia
http://www.kurzweilai.net/smartphone-app-reads-blood-oxygen-…-eclampsia

Stanford lab launches new privacy-based social network
http://www.kurzweilai.net/stanford-lab-launches-new-privacy-based-social-network

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Mar 5, 2014

Click Your Tongue Or Wink To Control This Tiny Computer Earclip

Posted by in categories: computing, cyborgs, hardware, innovation, mobile phones

Carey Dunne — FAST COMPANY


This tiny computer clips onto your ear and lets you scroll through a menu by winking or pause a song by scrunching your nose. The Samantha Stevens-ification of human interaction has begun.

It looks like we’re one step closer to becoming cyborgs with little chips implanted in our skulls. Researchers in Japan are currently developing the “Earclip wearable PC,” a tiny computer that clips onto your ear. It weighs all of 17-grams (0.59 ounces), but manages to house a GPS, compass, gyro-sensor, battery, barometer, speaker and microphone, and its functions are controlled by your facial expressions: the blink of an eye, a raise of an eyebrow, a click of the tongue. As inconspicuous as a hearing aid, it’s less dorky-looking than Google Glass.

“We have made this with the basic idea that people will wear it in the same way they wear earrings,” creator Kazuhiro Taniguchi, an engineer at Hiroshima City University, told AFP in a recent interview.

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Feb 20, 2014

The Future of Scientific Management, Today!

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, business, complex systems, computing, cyborgs, economics, education, energy, engineering, existential risks, futurism, genetics, information science, science, singularity

LIST OF UPDATES (FEBRUARY 22 THROUGH 23/2014). By Mr. Andres Agostini at The Future of Scientific Management, Today! At http://lnkd.in/bYP2nDC

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A light switch for pain
http://www.kurzweilai.net/a-light-switch-for-pain

World’s most powerful terahertz laser chip
http://www.kurzweilai.net/worlds-most-powerful-terahertz-laser-chip

Continue reading “The Future of Scientific Management, Today!” »

Feb 17, 2014

The Future of Scientific Management, Today!

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, automation, big data, bioprinting, business, chemistry, complex systems, computing, cyborgs, economics, education, engineering, existential risks, finance, futurism, genetics, information science, innovation, law, law enforcement, life extension, physics, posthumanism, robotics/AI, science

LIST OF UPDATES (FEBRUARY 17 THROUGH 21/2014). By Mr. Andres Agostini at The Future of Scientific Management, Today! At http://lnkd.in/bYP2nDC 777 Wearable glasses help surgeons view cancer​​​​​​​​ cells in real time http://www.kurzweilai.net/wearable-glasses-help-surgeons-vie…-real-time

Miniaturized hearing aids that will fit into the ear canal http://www.kurzweilai.net/miniaturized-hearing-aids-that-wil…-ear-canal

DHS, Purdue Develop Social Media Analysis Tool to Monitor Crime http://www.executivegov.com/2014/02/dhs-purdue-develop-socia…1msiI.dpuf

The Global Search for Education: What Israel Did http://www.huffingtonpost.com/c-m-rubin/the-global-search-for-edu_b_4797810.html

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Feb 15, 2014

The Omniscient Truth About Outer-Space Intelligece And What The Official Establishment Has To Declare About It!

Posted by in categories: big data, biological, biotech/medical, complex systems, computing, cosmology, cybercrime/malcode, cyborgs, economics, education, engineering, exoskeleton, futurism, genetics, human trajectories, information science, life extension, lifeboat, particle physics, physics, posthumanism, robotics/AI, science, singularity, space, space travel, supercomputing, transhumanism

THE OMNISCIENT TRUTH ABOUT OUTER-SPACE INTELLIGENCE AND WHAT THE OFFICIAL ESTABLISHMENT HAS TO DECLARE ABOUT IT! BY MR. ANDRES AGOSTINI.

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I have the glory to have read every book by Dr. Raymond Kurzweil with the sole exception of “Transcend.”

Dr. Kurzweil is an engineer graduate from grandiose M.I.T. (the technological avant-garde within the Ivy League universities).

Continue reading “The Omniscient Truth About Outer-Space Intelligece And What The Official Establishment Has To Declare About It!” »

Feb 13, 2014

The Future of Scientific Management, Today!

Posted by in categories: business, computing, cyborgs, economics, education, energy, engineering, environmental, ethics, existential risks, futurism, geopolitics, information science, innovation, nanotechnology, neuroscience, robotics/AI, science, security, singularity, supercomputing, sustainability, transhumanism

FEBRUARY 15 AND 16/2014 LIST OF UPDATES. By Mr. Andres Agostini at The Future of Scientific Management, Today! At http://lnkd.in/bYP2nDC
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New live-cell printing technology improves on inkjet printing
http://www.kurzweilai.net/new-live-cell-printing-technology-…t-printing

Capturing ultrasharp images of multiple cell components simultaneously
http://www.kurzweilai.net/capturing-ultrasharp-images-of-mul…ltaneously

Red-light-sensitive protein discovery enables more complex studies of neuron interactions
http://www.kurzweilai.net/red-light-sensitive-protein-discov…teractions

New self-healing polymers require no chemicals or catalysts
http://www.kurzweilai.net/new-self-healing-polymers-require-…-catalysts

Continue reading “The Future of Scientific Management, Today!” »