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Mar 25, 2014

Bitcoin goes national with Scotcoin and Auroracoin

Posted by in category: bitcoin

The Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights in Iceland.

The promise of bitcoin is a universal currency free from the control of any nation or government. But a new generation of cryptocurrencies are focusing on the opposite goal: building money to solve problems specific to one country.

On midnight Monday, Auroracoin, a bitcoin clone which is the fourth most valuable cryptocurrency being traded today, entered the second phase of its life, with a “helicopter drop” of 30 auroracoins to every citizen of Iceland.

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Mar 25, 2014

Why We Need to Name Our Planet

Posted by in categories: asteroid/comet impacts, existential risks, geopolitics

NASA, name planet earth, blue marble

Planet Earth, Zemlia, di qiu, Avani, la monde, la tierra, der erde — each of these names, in their respective language, puts significance on the physical stuff held together by gravity beneath our feet, the foundation upon which we’ve built our ever expanding civilization.

We did not fully understand that stuff to be a planet until a few hundred years ago.

How quaint. How archaic.

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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

lba

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 23, 2014

Marc Andreessen Is Going To Invest ‘Hundreds Of Millions’ More Dollars In Bitcoin

Posted by in category: bitcoin

— Business Insider

andreessen
The Wall Street Journal’s Gregory Zuckerman reports Andreessen Horowitz plans to invest “hundreds of millions” more dollars in Bitcoin-related businesses, on top of the $50 million they have already dropped, mostly on Coinbase.

Bitcoin prices have lost nearly 50% of their value over the past four months or so, and now trade at around $570. Analysts from Goldman Sachs recently cast doubt on the viability of the digital currency itself, though added its underlying technology may yet prove useful.

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Mar 21, 2014

Zuckerberg, Musk Invest in Artificial-Intelligence Company

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

http://www.goodventures.org/images/news/vicarious-announces-(1).gif
Elon Musk made the electric car cool. Mark Zuckerberg created FacebookFB +0.40%. Ashton Kutcher portrayed AppleAAPL +0.79% founder Steve Jobs in a movie. Now, the three are joining in a $40 million investment in Vicarious FPC, a secretive artificial-intelligence company.

The funding round, the second major infusion of capital for the company in two years, is the latest sign of life in artificial intelligence. Last month, GoogleGOOG -1.18% acquired another AI company called Deep Mind for $400 million.

Vicarious has an ambitious goal: Replicating the neocortex, the part of the brain that sees, controls the body, understands language and does math. Translate the neocortex into computer code and “you have a computer that thinks like a person,” says Vicarious co-founder Scott Phoenix. “Except it doesn’t have to eat or sleep.”

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Mar 21, 2014

Futureketing: How to Systematically Understand and Succeed in a World of Frantically Accelerating Pace of Change! ─ An Omnimode Exploration.

Posted by in categories: business, economics, education, engineering, finance, futurism, innovation, philosophy, science, scientific freedom, singularity, supercomputing, transhumanism

Futureketing: How to Systematically Understand and Succeed in a World of Frantically Accelerating Pace of Change! ─ An Omnimode Exploration. By © Copyright 2014 Mr. Andres Agostini ─ All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

(This Proprietary Book excerpt may be reproduced for noncommercial purposes if it is copied in its entirety, including this notice.

Please recall that “…if it is copied in its entirety, including this notice.…”)

FUTUREKETING

Continue reading “Futureketing: How to Systematically Understand and Succeed in a World of Frantically Accelerating Pace of Change! ─ An Omnimode Exploration.” »

Mar 20, 2014

Graphene smart contact lenses could give you thermal infrared and UV vision

Posted by in categories: augmented reality, nanotechnology

By - ExtremeTech
Google's smart contact lens, for detecting glucose levels (diabetes)
A breakthrough in graphene imaging technology means you might soon have a smart contact lens, or other ultra-thin device, with a built-in camera that also gives you infrared “heat vision.” By sandwiching two layers of graphene together, engineers at the University of Michigan have created an ultra-broadband graphene imaging sensor that is ultra-broadband (it can capture everything from visible light all the way up to mid-infrared) — but more importantly, unlike other devices that can see far into the infrared spectrum, it operates well at room temperature.

As you probably know by now, graphene has some rather miraculous properties — including, as luck would have it, a very strong effect when it’s struck by photons (light energy). Basically, when graphene is struck by a photon, an electron absorbs that energy and becomes a hot carrier – an effect that can be measured, processed, and turned into an image. The problem, however, is that graphene is incredibly thin (just one atom thick) and transparent — and so it only absorbs around 2.3% of the light that hits it. With so little light striking it, there just aren’t enough hot carrier electrons to be reliably detected. (Yes, this is one of those rare cases where being transparent and super-thin is actually a bad thing.)

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Mar 20, 2014

The Future of Space-Age Risk Management: Transformative and Integrative Risk Management! By Mr. Andres Agostini [BOOK]

Posted by in categories: automation, big data, business, complex systems, computing, counterterrorism, cybercrime/malcode, disruptive technology, economics, education, engineering, ethics, existential risks, finance, futurism, innovation, lifeboat, physics, science, scientific freedom, security, singularity

The Future of Space-Age Risk Management: Transformative and Integrative Risk Management! [BOOK] By © Copyright 2014 Mr. Andres Agostini (AA) ─ All Rights Reserved Worldwide ─ « www.linkedin.com/in/andresagostini »

(An Independent, Solemn, Most Thorough and Copyrighted Answer. Thoroughness, hereunder, will be then redefined by several orders of magnitude and without a fail).

NasaAndy

What is a White Swan?

Continue reading “The Future of Space-Age Risk Management: Transformative and Integrative Risk Management! By Mr. Andres Agostini [BOOK]” »

Mar 20, 2014

A Robot Worthy of a Standing Ovation? There’s an X Prize for That

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

By James Eng — NBC News

Many a human genius has taken the stage at TED, the annual big-idea-sharing conference for techies and innovators, and wowed audiences with thought-provoking talks. Now what if a robot were able to do the same, and earn a standing ovation for its effort?

Farfetched, you say? Not for the folks at X Prize, which on Thursday announced it was partnering with TED to create a competition “for the development of artificial intelligence (AI) so advanced that it could deliver a compelling TED Talk with no human involvement.”

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Mar 20, 2014

The Future May Be Getting Close to Reality in Vancouver, With D-Wave and General Fusion

Posted by in categories: computing, engineering, supercomputing

By Liz Gannes — Re/Code

Vancouver is a land of scenic harbors, tall mountains and startups trying to harness the limits of physics.

In town for the TED conference, I had the occasion to visit two such companies yesterday: D-Wave and General Fusion. D-Wave, a quantum computing company, is all about the very cold and the rather tiny. It has built enormous refrigerators that each house a single chip, laced with “qubits” that can be in the superposition of both 1 and 0 at the same time and can carry an electric current with no resistance at low temperatures.

Meanwhile, General Fusion is all about huge and hot. The company is putting together the pieces for an alpha version of a nuclear reactor plant that would use magnetized target fusion. That is, it slams together hydrogen atoms by shooting donut-shaped electrified plasma into a chamber where it’s squished by synchronized pistons from all angles. This happens at a temperature of 150 million degrees. The point: To create clean and cheap energy.

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