Interview with Michael Behar for a story in WIRED on Tactical Mobile Robots
February 26, 2002 by Michael Behar
Ray Kurzweil discusses how robots will think on their feet with the help of virtual reality and other technological advances.… read more
essays collection
Robots in the bloodstream: the promise of nanomedicine
February 26, 2002 by Robert A. Freitas Jr.
In just a few decades physicians could be sending tiny machines into our bodies to diagnose and cure disease. These nanodevices will be able to repair tissues, clean blood vessels and airways, transform our physiological capabilities, and even potentially counteract the aging process.… read more
Max More and Ray Kurzweil on the Singularity
February 26, 2002 by Max More, Ray Kurzweil
As technology accelerates over the next few decades and machines achieve superintelligence, we will encounter a dramatic phase transition: the “Singularity.” Will it be a “wall” (a barrier as conceptually impenetrable as the event horizon of a black hole in space), an “AI-Singularity” ruled by super-intelligent AIs, or a gentler “surge” into a posthuman era of agelessness and super-intelligence? Will this meme be hijacked by religious “passive singularitarians” obsessed with a future rapture? Ray Kurzweil and Extropy Institute president Max More debate.… read more
Radical body design “Primo Posthuman”
February 25, 2002 by Natasha Vita-More
Primo 3M+ is a prototype future body, a conceptual design with superlongevity in mind. Primo by design is multi-functional. It is reliable, changeable, upgradeable, and complete with enhanced senses. Primo is the new designer body.… read more
Beating Moore’s 2nd Law: Advances in Nanoengineering and New Approaches to Computing at the 2002 Annual Meeting of the AAAS
February 21, 2002 by Lucas Hendrich, KurzweilAI.net
At the 2002 AAAS Nanotechnology Seminar, leading nanotechnologists presented the building blocks that may overturn current manufacturing processes on a collision course with Moore’s Law.… read more
Rethinking Science and Culture: P.R. Sarkar’s Reconstruction of Science and Society
February 19, 2002 by Sohail Inayatullah
The ninth chapter of Situating Sarkar: Tantra, Macrohistory and Alternative Futures by Sohail Inayatullah proposes alternatives to the Western conceptions of science, data, and consciousness, as well as the roles science plays within society.… read more
Connectivity: What it is and why it is so important
February 11, 2002 by Bob Frankston
The difference between the network and the application is crucial to the future of the Internet. Bob Frankston points out that connectivity is the basic resource, telephony and television are simply applications built on connectivity, and that we should replace complex regulation with the power of the marketplace.… read more
Rethinking Operating Systems
February 11, 2002 by Bob Frankston
We know hardware has become exponentially faster, cheaper and smaller since the advent of the operating system, yet the interface hasn’t changed much. In this draft of an essay, Bob Frankston proposes a rethink of the assumptions that went into user interface design thirty years ago.… read more
How Can We Possibly Tell If It’s Conscious?
February 7, 2002 by Ray Kurzweil
Abstract of talk to be delivered at the “Toward a Science of Consciousness” Conference, April 10, 2002. Sponsored by the Center for Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona.… read more
Bob Moog, Interviewed by Electronicmusic.com
January 29, 2002 by Paul Clark, Robert Moog
Electronicmusic.com talks with synthesizer pioneer Robert Moog about how he radically changed the way music is made, and the tools he used to do it.… read more
Interview: Robert Moog
January 29, 2002 by Billy Bob Hargus
Robert Moog, inventor and electronic music pioneer, introduced the synthesizer to the world in the 1960s, as well as a spooky sounding device called the theremin. Here he discusses what led to these innovations in sound.… read more
Review of Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us by Rodney Brooks
January 28, 2002 by Ray Kurzweil
Ray Kurzweil reviews Rodney Brooks’ latest book on robotics for Wired Magazine. Brooks challenges Jaron Lanier’s claim that AI is “based on an intellectual mistake” and Kurzweil’s statements on reverse-engineering the brain and the date of the “Singularity.” Kurzweil responds.… read more
Review of Lawrence Lessig’s The Future of Ideas
January 24, 2002 by Lucas Hendrich, KurzweilAI.net
The fertile ground of the Internet has led to countless innovations, eliminating physical barriers and allowing a borderless, transparent source of information to flourish. How will the story of the Internet be played out in the 21st Century?… read more