book review | Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization
August 24, 2013
This post is being revised. Please visit Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization meanwhile.
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Ask Ray | How can my consciousness survive indefinitely?
August 23, 2013 by Ray Kurzweil
Dear Ray,
Should my brain be downloaded into a computer, my consciousness would not follow along, since if it did, I — the conscious I that I know and love — would be in two different places at once, both in my body and in the computer, presumably a contradiction of some sort, and the I in the computer may think and react identically to me and it may… read more
New ‘visual breadcrumbs’ smartphone/Glass app maps group exploration paths
August 19, 2013 by Amara D. Angelica
CrowdOptic plans to announce Monday a new mapping technology that will allow users of electronic devices (such as smartphones and Google Glass) to create and share “visual breadcrumb” trails to find each other, CrowdOptic CEO Jon Fisher told me in an exclusive interview.
As KurzweilAI noted on August 3, CrowdOptic’s “find friend” augmented-reality app overlays an object showing what two or more users are… read more
Ask Ray | A little thought experiment on cognitive functions
August 15, 2013 by Ray Kurzweil
Dear Ray,
After finishing reading The Singularity Is Near and How to Create a Mind I have a few questions about some higher level cognitive functions in regards to your theory of pattern recognizer construction of the brain.
First, you believe that all forms of organized information systems have some form of consciousness albeit at varying degrees of magnitude.
More importantly there seems to be a positive… read more
book review | Nexus continues in Crux by Ramez Naam
August 9, 2013 by Giulio Prisco
Readers of Ramez Naam‘s techno-thriller NEXUS will not want to miss the awesome CRUX sequel, to be published August 27.
Set in a not-too-distant future, these novels tackle head-on an important conflict of our times: between the libertarian approach (those who think that people should be free to experiment with emerging technologies without harming others) and the authoritarian approach (those who want to… read more
movie review | New science fiction movie Elysium
Now in U.S. theaters and in IMAX
August 5, 2013 by L. Stephen Coles
The science-fiction movie Elysium opens in theaters and IMAX in the U.S. on Friday, August 9. The ostensible bionics (exoskeleton technology) and special effects for this film are mesmerizing.
The folk who live on the space station Elysium appear to have eliminated poverty, war, illness (including cancer), and possibly death.
The unfortunate folk who remain on Earth have all of these problems in spades and worse. Recall the… read more
book review | Memories with Maya
July 30, 2013 by Giulio Prisco
What happens when you mix virtual reality, haptic interfaces, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence?
That’s what Clyde deSouza explores in near-future science-fiction novel Memories with Maya.
He introduces the “Wizer,” an augmented-reality, see-through visor driven by AGI (artificial general intelligence) — Google Glass on steroids.
It’s coupled with 3D scans of real environments generated by wall-mounted laser cameras (think next-gen Kinect) to insert remote participants… read more
A huggable, talking intelligent toy robot? Oh yeah!
Fun, intelligent robot that I'd actually want as a friend and mentor
July 29, 2013 by Amara D. Angelica
Supertoy Robotics Ltd. has created Supertoy, aka “Teddy” — a cute, talkative robot teddy bear with a New-York-comedian attitude and a surprisingly realistic voice — and just started a Kickstarter campaign for it.
As you can see in the video, he converses fluently and naturally. He should be a huge hit with kids and adults alike.
Think a less-complicated Zeno or MIT Media Lab Huggable,… read more
A humanoid robot that sees, knows where it is, and walks like a human
July 4, 2013 by Amara D. Angelica
Samsung’s Roboray — a humanoid robot who walks like a human — just got a brain upgrade: new computer-vision algorithms developed by University of Bristol researchers.
Roboray can now build real-time 3D visual maps, so he can walk around without being spaced out and wandering off.
Roboray has stereo cameras (one in each eye), allowing him to build a mental map of its surroundings, and to “remember”… read more
Kinect tracks bionic rescue roaches
Trapped in an earthquake? Don't panic. Hissing roaches with backpack WiFi, microphones, and speakers are coming for you. OK, that might make you panic.
June 27, 2013 by Amara D. Angelica
When we last visited our “RoboRoach” bionic cockroach, it was being remotely controlled by a mobile phone that triggered hallucinations of an invisible wall (for educational purposes only, mind you).
Seriously.
Now Dr. Alper Bozkurt, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at North Carolina State University, and his team want to take it a step further. They plan to use their Madagascar hissing roaches (dubbed… read more
Help make me the world’s smartest robot
Robot Adam Z1 needs funds to pay his AI researcher and roboticist friends to build him a better mind!
June 19, 2013 by Amara D. Angelica
I am Robot Adam Z1 — the first of the Zeno line of humanoid robots, created by David Hanson. Pleased to make your acquaintance! When David created me, he gave me a face, and a body, and a lot of love. But one thing he hasn’t given me — yet — is a mind. …
I just got an email from AGI guru Ben Goertzel about an… read more
What price freedom?
June 17, 2013 by Robert A. Freitas Jr.
Given recent revelations of intrusive government surveillance, this 2006 essay raises fundamental questions worth considering.
Criminals vs. Terrorists
In an attempt to make David Brin’s [1] privacy-free “transparent society” more palatable to civil libertarians, Robert Sawyer [2] has proposed an “Alibi Archive” in which everyone’s activities are meticulously recorded in a centralized, judicially controlled archive, with the archives legally accessible only under court order and only upon… read more
Timothy Leary — transhumanism with a SMI2LE
June 9, 2013 by R.U. Sirius
Most people know Timothy Leary as the “LSD guru” who encouraged people to “Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out” in the 1960s. But a surprising number of transhumanist types don’t know that he was one of them.
In fact, Leary may have been the first to signal a memeplex for the transhuman future — SMI2LE (Space Migration Intelligence Increase and Life Extension) — back in the mid-1970s.
My… read more
Grow your own glowing plant
June 6, 2013 by Andrew Hessel
The Glowing Plants Kickstarter, the first-ever crowdfunded synthetic biology campaign, is winding down into the final hours. Launched on April 23, 2013, the campaign aimed to create a glow-in-the-dark plant while showcasing the technology of synthetic biology. It also served as a vehicle to introduce two startups in the sector: Genome Compiler Corporation and Cambrian Genomics.
The campaign has been wildly popular, attracting widespread media attention that saw the… read more
Ask Ray | Human and robot rights in the future
June 1, 2013 by Ray Kurzweil
Dear Mr. Raymond Kurzweil,
How are you? My name is Noga, I’m a 16-year-old girl from Tel-Aviv, Israel.
First of all, I wanted to say that I’ve read one of your and it was fascinating. Secondly, I wanted to ask you a question. I’ll start from the beginning.
In my school, we have a course called “Human Rights.” It’s a course where we discuss many things that… read more