Sunday, September 5, 2004 4:31 PM
Blessed voices. Interview with a recipient of hearing implants that connect directly to the brainstem. This is a radical step beyond the current practice of cochlear implants
lightning chaser:archive
topic: archive
Blessed voices
Sunday, September 5, 2004 4:31 PM
Sunday, September 5, 2004 4:31 PM
Engines of Creation
Sunday, September 5, 2004 4:25 PM
Sunday, September 5, 2004 4:25 PM
Engines of Creation. K. Eric Drexler's original work describing nanotechnology.
The future of nanotechnology
Sunday, September 5, 2004 4:21 PM
Sunday, September 5, 2004 4:21 PM
The future of nanotechnology. Excellent overview article discussing different types of nanotechnology, problems with Drexler's original vision of "radical" nanotechnology, and an examination of some potential paths forward for the science. Risks are also examined - "grey goo" being dismissed as an unlikely occurrence, while issues of toxicity are cited as critical.
Cold Fusion Back from the Dead
Sunday, September 5, 2004 4:11 PM
Sunday, September 5, 2004 4:11 PM
Cold fusion back from the dead. Sufficient evidence that much maligned cold fusion may indeed be practical prompts continued DOE interest.
What if an emerging super-intelligence doesn't need humans?
Sunday, September 5, 2004 3:45 PM
Sunday, September 5, 2004 3:45 PM
What if an emerging super-intelligence doesn't need humans? Tongue-in-cheek observation about one of the prime risks of creating a machine super-intelligence.
NEC positions carbon nanotubes for prime time
Sunday, September 5, 2004 3:42 PM
Sunday, September 5, 2004 3:42 PM
NEC positions carbon nanotubes for prime time. NEC breakthrough allows for controlling both position and diameter of carbon nanotubes used to create circuits.
Electrons can flow through carbon nanotubes 10 times faster than they can in circuits made using silicon, and carbon nanotubes can carry 100 times the current and dissipate 20 times the heat of circuits made with silicon. Carbon nanotubes in transistors can also amplify about 20 times more current than conventional silicon-based transistors, Ochiai said.
Artificial Intelligence Resources
Sunday, September 5, 2004 3:40 PM
Sunday, September 5, 2004 3:40 PM
Artificial Intelligence Resources. A collection of links to AI resources on the web.
Gmail Invites
Sunday, September 5, 2004 10:24 AM
Sunday, September 5, 2004 10:24 AM
I have six Gmail invites available. If you're interested, send mail to demiller (at) gmail dot com. First come, first served.
Update: I'm down to two invites, so if you need one, now's the time for asking!
Further update: Make that one invite left.
Intel in new chip breakthrough
Wednesday, September 1, 2004 9:53 PM
Wednesday, September 1, 2004 9:53 PM
Intel in new chip breakthrough. Intel reduces transistor size by 30%. Moore's Law marches on.
Virtual Humans Proposed As Space Travelers
Wednesday, September 1, 2004 9:48 PM
Wednesday, September 1, 2004 9:48 PM
Virtual Humans Proposed As Space Travelers. "Virtual Humans" appear to be either a form of limited AI, very sophisticated software agents, or a quasi-independent form of intelligence augmentation. In any case, the intent seems to be to develop virtual personas that can be used to monitor and perform tasks "real" humans aren't that good at.
Not-So-Spotty Material Breakthrough
Wednesday, September 1, 2004 9:40 PM
Wednesday, September 1, 2004 9:40 PM
Not-So-Spotty Material Breakthrough.
Using pulsed lasers, researchers have coaxed the metal nickel to self-assemble into arrays of nanodots — each spot a mere seven nanometers (seven billionths of a meter) across -- one-tenth the diameter of nickel nanodots and on par with the world's smallest.Because the method works with a variety of materials and may drastically reduce imperfections, the new procedure may also bolster research into extremely hard materials and efforts to develop ultra-dense computer memory.
Self-assembly generates more versatile scaffolds for crystal growth
Wednesday, September 1, 2004 9:33 PM
Wednesday, September 1, 2004 9:33 PM
Self-assembly generates more versatile scaffolds for crystal growth. Application of gene therapy technologies to develop self-assembling scaffolds for the production of inorganic materials.
"By investigating the fundamental design rules for the control of self-assembled supramolecular structures, we can now organize large functional molecules into nanoscopic arrays," said Gerard Wong, a professor of materials science and engineering and of physics at the University of Illinois. Wong and his colleagues report their latest experimental results in the September issue of the journal Nature Materials."We showed that the self-assembly of charged membranes and oppositely charged polymers into structures can be understood in terms of some simple rules," said Wong, senior author of the paper. "We then applied those rules and demonstrated that we could organize molecules into regular arrays with pore sizes ten times larger than in previous DNA-membrane complexes."
Vingean Singularity
Wednesday, September 1, 2004 9:13 PM
Wednesday, September 1, 2004 9:13 PM
Vernor Vinge's seminal paper "The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era."
Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended.Is such progress avoidable? If not to be avoided, can events be guided so that we may survive? These questions are investigated. Some possible answers (and some further dangers) are presented.
Despite the commonly held belief that the Singularity rests on the creation of an Artificial Intelligence, Vinge's vision of the event rests on the premise of the development of something broader, i.e. the creation of entities with greater than human intelligence. While these may be AI's, Vinge identifies several other possible triggers:
Large computer networks (and their associated users) may "wake up" as a superhumanly intelligent entity.
- Computer/human interfaces may become so intimate that users may reasonably be considered superhumanly intelligent.
- Biological science may provide means to improve natural human intellect.
The Evolution Will Be Mechanized
Wednesday, September 1, 2004 9:01 PM
Wednesday, September 1, 2004 9:01 PM
The Evolution Will Be Mechanized. Bruce Sterling rant in Wired about/against the Singularity.
The singularity's biggest flaw isn't that it's hard to imagine, but that it flatters its human inventors. We may be on the verge of an astounding breakthrough! Or, with equal likelihood, we may be at the edge of a new dark age of plagues, mass hunger, and climate destabilization. More likely yet, we live in a dull, self-satisfied, squalid eddy in history, blundering around with no concept of progress and no sense of direction. We have no idea what we really want from our own lives or from society. And no Moore's law rising majestically on any 2-D graph is ever going make us magnificent or spiritual when we lack the will, vision, and appetite for spiritual magnificence.
While I can understand Sterling's cynicism about humanity, I believe the mistake he makes is in defining the Singularity as something transcendent, something "magnificent or spiritual." While any number of over-zealous proponents of transhuman technologies certainly envision the Singularity this way, this definition is rather far-afield of the original vision of the Singularity Vinge paints in his paper "The Coming Technological Singularity."
I prefer to define the Singularity in far more basic terms: a technology-mediated intelligence "runaway," after which the human life will be drastically changed. This could easily (perhaps more easily) mean human extinction as it does something "magnificent or spiritual."
Don't regulate RFID--yet
Monday, August 30, 2004 10:27 PM
Monday, August 30, 2004 10:27 PM
Don't regulate RFID--yet. A counterpoint to yesterday's post on RFID. Declan McCullagh argues that industry should have the opportunity to implement RFID responsibly before protesters urge the Feds to pile on with legislation designed to regulate their use.
Even if the behavior of industry is somewhat suspect after the debacles of the late '90's, this makes some sense. If nothing else, regulating too early may not only retard any positive outcomes from the implementation of RFID technology, it may completely miss some egregious means of violating citizen's privacy that wasn't anticipated when the technology was in its infancy.
It strikes me that seeking to heavily regulated RFID technology at this stage is largely analogous to legislation aimed at regulating P2P nets - just because a technology has the potential for abuse doesn't mean that all uses are bad.
Open-Destination Quantum Teleportation
Monday, August 30, 2004 10:22 PM
Monday, August 30, 2004 10:22 PM
Open-Destination Quantum Teleportation. A Slashdot thread reporting on a quantum computing breakthrough. Researchers have managed for the first time to entangle five photons. Further, scientists were able to teleport quantum information between a single photon and a group of three photons, and then read the information back. These are key basic advances in the development of quantum computing, demonstrating the basic techniques for error check and moving information between quantum computer.
Seriously spooky stuff.
Tools design DNA-nanotube logic
Monday, August 30, 2004 9:28 PM
Monday, August 30, 2004 9:28 PM
Tools design DNA-nanotube logic. Duke University researchers combine newly developed special CAD software with a recently created DNA scaffold technique to lay the ground work for building DNA-nanotube transistors.
The tools are designed to build computer circuits at a density of 2,500 transistors per square micron, which is about 30 times more closely packed than devices made using current chipmaking technologies, according to Chris Dwyer, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke University. A micron is one thousandth of a millimeter.Transistors are arranged into logic gates, which in turn are combined by the millions into the complicated circuits that process and store data. Being able to assemble individual nanotube transistors is the prerequisite for developing a nanotube-based chipmaking technology. The key is finding ways to combine them into logic circuits.
One of the issues that could possibly derail future computing advances (as well as any potential Technological Singularity) is the so-called expiration of Moore's Law, where it becomes impossible to build faster, larger computers. This rapidly approaching problem arises from the physical limits imposed on current chip making technologies, where it becomes impossible to place circuits any closer together. DNA-nanotube technology offers one possible successor technology to current chip making methods that has the potential to circumvent this problem.
Computers Can Argue, Researcher Claims
Monday, August 30, 2004 9:28 PM
Monday, August 30, 2004 9:28 PM
Computers Can Argue, Researcher Claims. Using AI to develop computing agents that can resolve conflicts via negotiation.
10Gbit to the Home by 2010
Monday, August 30, 2004 8:32 AM
Monday, August 30, 2004 8:32 AM
10Gbit to the Home by 2010. Slashdot post concerning Japanese plans to dramatically increase bandwidth to residential computer users by the end of the decade.
no fucking gay keanu reeves is going to save you
Monday, August 30, 2004 8:27 AM
Monday, August 30, 2004 8:27 AM
no fucking gay keanu reeves is going to save you. Concerning Hugo de Garis, an Australian AI researcher working on evolvable hardware.
Burning Books
Sunday, August 29, 2004 9:37 PM
Sunday, August 29, 2004 9:37 PM
Burning Books. Fictional scenario describing life after receiving a "Google implant."
I did the usual, hiring a scrawny geezer to scan the isbns off my 1500 or so novels, text books, manuals, etc. and to package up the oddballs to FedEx for image/text scanning. Kanji Pict-O-Graphix. I can't complain about the upload times; Amazon did a great job, they were available the next day. Bullfinch's Mythology. Now I just "blink and think" and there it is.
Back to "The Matrix"
Sunday, August 29, 2004 9:33 PM
Sunday, August 29, 2004 9:33 PM
Back to "The Matrix". Richard Posner posting on Lawrence Lessig's blog discusses emergent social implications of virtual worlds.
Nanotech will tap nature's potential, investor says
Sunday, August 29, 2004 9:28 PM
Sunday, August 29, 2004 9:28 PM
Nanotech will tap nature's potential, investor says. Venture capitalism interest in nanotechnology appears to still be strong despite recent setbacks.
Speaking at the Hot Chips conference at Stanford University, Jurvetson asserted that nanotechnology--the ability to make products on the molecular level--will usher in the next great wave of innovation despite the recent cancellation of Nanosys' high-profile initial public offering. That revolution will occur, in part, because scientists will be able to harness or imitate the power of nature.
Thoughts on the so called "singularity" and nationalistic arrogance.
Sunday, August 29, 2004 9:14 PM
Sunday, August 29, 2004 9:14 PM
Thoughts on the so called "singularity" and nationalistic arrogance. Probably the most amazingly ill-informed rant against technological progress I've ever read. In short, according to this person, a Singularity is not only "perposterous" but politically incorrect, because it will only benefit "wealthy white American suburbanites." Someone needs to do some more reading...
Pope Condemns Unethical Science, Cloning (AP)
Sunday, August 29, 2004 9:10 PM
Sunday, August 29, 2004 9:10 PM
Pope Condemns Unethical Science, Cloning (AP). The Church cautions against too rapid progress in science and technology.
Human chips more than skin-deep
Sunday, August 29, 2004 9:04 PM
Sunday, August 29, 2004 9:04 PM
Human chips more than skin-deep. C|Net article discussing competing views of the insertion of RFID chips into humans for identification purposes. Advocates cite increases in personal safety and utility, opponents argue that the practices raises unacceptable privacy concerns.
George W. Bush Is Getting Brain-jacked
Sunday, August 29, 2004 8:49 PM
Sunday, August 29, 2004 8:49 PM
George W. Bush Is Getting Brain-jacked. An extended discussion of the science policy of the Bush administration, the legacy of Vannevar Bush, and the internal cat-fight between politically appointed neo-luddites and scientists within the government.
In the past three years, the NBIC program has convened hundreds of researchers, entrepreneurs and policy wonks from academia, business, federal agencies and the military to brainstorm what will happen when petaflop chips running expert systems, back-engineered from the hippocampus, can be stuck into the brain as an internal modem using nanowires that are spit out by gene-tweaked extremophile bacteria. The NBIC's initial report stunned even the most optimistic techno-utopians with its predictions of rapid human enhancement, life extension and nano-neural interfaces in the coming decades. Turns out that when people on the cutting edge of the molecular, information and cognitive sciences begin to talk about merging their fields and applying them to extending the human body and brain, things get very transhumanist very fast—nanobots or no nanobots.
Transhumanism Evolves in Silence
Sunday, August 29, 2004 8:44 PM
Sunday, August 29, 2004 8:44 PM
Transhumanism Evolves in Silence. Wrap-up report from TransVision 2004, a Transhumanist conference.
But looking at an audience of about only 150, I became deeply discouraged. I had been hoping for so many more. Here was an international conference in the heart of Toronto with some of the most important transhumanist thinkers on the planet talking about the future of our species—including Stelarc, cyborg Steve Mann, biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey, Extropian Max More, philosopher Nick Bostrom, computational neuroscientist Anders Sandberg, democratic transhumanism promoter and Betterhumans columnist James Hughes and many, many more—yet the event was unable to attract more than a handful of enthusiasts.
Solving the Software Problem
Sunday, August 29, 2004 8:26 PM
Sunday, August 29, 2004 8:26 PM
Solving the Software Problem. Chris Hanson's reply to questions from Brad Delong about the nature of the Singularity and issues regarding developing AI software. References Cyc and a decade old report on a visit to Cyc-West.
Next News: Building nanostructures
Sunday, August 29, 2004 8:24 PM
Sunday, August 29, 2004 8:24 PM
Next News: Building nanostructures.
Researchers at the University of Michigan have discovered a way to "self-assemble" tiny nanoparticles into wires, sheets, and shells by using "sticky patches" that make the particles attract to each other in programmed ways. The results of computer simulations showed that "if surfaces of particles could be patterned with patches of molecules, they could make the particles assemble into different shapes." The patches, made of other molecules, attract and repel specific parts of other particles, much like proteins do in the body.
Mexican cops get themselves chipped
Sunday, August 29, 2004 8:12 PM
Sunday, August 29, 2004 8:12 PM
Mexican cops get themselves chipped. First (publicly acknowledged) widespread deployment of RFID for personal identification.
Internet Heading to Light Speed
Sunday, August 29, 2004 8:06 PM
Sunday, August 29, 2004 8:06 PM
Internet Heading to Light Speed. A new nanotechnology that eliminates network bottlenecks could help create a web surfers' paradise that is 100 times faster than today's internet.
TechnologicalSingularity
Sunday, August 29, 2004 7:39 PM
Sunday, August 29, 2004 7:39 PM
From the Wikipedia article on Technological Singularity:
Technological singularity is a term with multiple related, but conceptually distinct, definitions. One definition has the Singularity as a time at which technological progress accelerates beyond the ability of current-day human beings to understand it. Another defines the Singularity as the culmination of some telescoping process of accelerating computation taking place in this universe since the beginning of human civilization or even life on Earth. Yet another defines the Singularity as the emergence of smarter-than-human intelligence, and subsequent cascading consequences that are not possible to predict or, perhaps, guide or even influence.
LightningChaser
Sunday, August 29, 2004 7:21 PM
Sunday, August 29, 2004 7:21 PM
In Ken MacLeod's novel Newton's Wake, a "lightning chaser" is someone with (an almost pathological) fascination with TransHuman technology. In MacLeod's universe such individuals are viewed with distrust, due to the particularly cataclysmic nature of the Singularity in humanity's past.
Lightning Chasers may not be interested in provoking a Singularity themselves, though they can't seem to resist exploring and tinkering with TransHuman technology whenever they find it. This often leads to disasterous results, ranging from the lightning chaser becoming "infected" by the technology being studied up to provoking a new, local Singularity.
about lightning chaser
Sunday, August 29, 2004 6:47 PM
Sunday, August 29, 2004 6:47 PM
LightningChaser is a link blog concerning what may be the most significant event in human history since the rise of sentience: a TechnologicalSingularity. Since first reading about the Singularity at least a decade ago, it's been an obsession of mine. I regularly seek out more information about the potential for such an event; this blog is the web-based reflection of the notes I keep connected with this study.
Unlike many other blogs, LightningChaser is not intended to editorialize (much) or to be a journal. Rather, it is primarily a record of my research into a topic - a list of links to articles I've read, and want to be able to easily reference again at need. In this way, LightningChaser is reminescent of the original concept of the weblog, i.e. an annotated list of interesting web sites.
In other ways LightningChaser is very unlike a weblog, and more like a wiki. Posts are extensively categorized and crosslinked. Again, the intent is to facilitate easy recall of a particular topic and explore related articles.
colophon
LightningChaser is edited on an Apple Macintosh 15-inch PowerBook G4. Most writing is done in Eastgate Systems Tinderbox, hands down the best note keeping software in the world. Occasionally, notes are first written on a Palm Tungsten T3, and transferred later into Tinderbox.
Candidate articles are often identified via RSS feeds using Net News Wire and via several mailing lists.
RSS feeds for all new posts and for specific topics are available. Additionally, a full archive of past posts is available, or can be viewed per topic.
LighningChaser is (hopefully) valid XHTML. The stylesheet is deliberately simple so the site is easily readable on mobile devices like PDA's and mobile phones.
A link blog exploring progress toward the Singularity.
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