beme machine

Pink Noise Signals You And Your Computer Are One

2010-03-10T07:57:00.000-08:00

Interesting article about new study that seemingly proves Martin Heidegger theory that everyday tools become part of ourselves.

Artificial artificial intelligence: Mechanical turks get creative

2010-01-28T11:24:00.000-08:00

Until real artificial intelligence hits the scene, there is always artificial artificial intelligence. In 2005, amazon launched mechanical turk, a website (with a pretty cool name) that allows workers and employers to create a global marketplace for those simple online tasks that stump even the smartest web crawlers. Amazon calls these tasks "HITs" (human intelligence tasks) and links those that are willing to complete them with those who are willing to pay.

Even if amazon's HIT market hasn't been a runaway success (and has been criticized as a virtual sweatshop) it makes for some pretty interesting possibilities. Quarter stories, created by new media guru Phil Lamplugh, is a series of stories written by mechanical turks who are paid 25 cents to find inspiration in a photo from Lamplugh's life.

A Better Life With Bionics

2010-01-12T12:52:00.000-08:00

Check out the latest National Geographic feature on Bionics – complete with a feature article, an interactive section on the bionic body and a photo gallery capturing how bionics are changing lives for the better.

World's First Sex Robot Can Talk About Football

2010-01-12T09:41:00.000-08:00

Full Story at the Telegraph.

The Data Rich World of Augmented Reality

2009-08-26T07:15:00.000-07:00

Wired on augmented reality.

Artwatch: Memory Helmet by Seungjoo Lee

2009-07-10T14:10:00.000-07:00

Protection is the fundamental purpose of the helmet. This helmet, a conceptual design project by Seungjoo Lee, enables the storage and protection of memories.
From www.seungjoolee.com.

State Department Tells Twitter To Delay Scheduled Maintenance

2009-06-17T06:35:00.000-07:00

Twitter delayed its scheduled maintenance yesterday after a meeting with the US State Department. The State Department highlighted that Twitter was a very important form of communication in Iran. Like in Moldova, Twitter has help facilitate the organization of protests in the country. Full story.

Topsy Searches Tweets, Bing Rivals Google

2009-06-04T06:41:00.000-07:00

I think many who heard about Microsoft's new search engine expected a flop. But 'Bing' rivals google in search results and may even make some improvements in personality features and search result organization. Slate discusses the new engine on the block here, and mentions the short-lived interest in Topsy, a search engine powered by tweets.

Raja Parasuraman Discusses Neuroergonomics

2009-06-02T08:03:00.000-07:00

Raja Parasuraman calls neuroergonomics "the merger of neuroscience, the study of the brain, with ergonomics, the study of how to design systems and technologies to be more compatible with what we know about human capabilities and limitations." Full story here.

Google Your Way To Better Brain Health

2009-06-02T06:12:00.000-07:00

UCLA find that in older adults, googling and surfing the internet stimulates and may actually improve brain health. "The researchers noted that compared with reading, the Internet’s wealth of choices requires that people make decisions about what to click on, an activity that engages important cognitive circuits in the brain." Full story here.

Steven Colbert Calls Robot Teachers #1 Threat To America

2009-05-27T19:31:00.001-07:00

New Internet Metaphors: From Static Pages To Streams

2009-05-20T06:29:00.000-07:00

In a recent TechCrunch article, Eric Schonfeld discusses a metaphoric shift. For the internet, the dominant metaphor is that of a book, with pages. Now, more and more we are seeing something that looks more like a stream (First with RSS and now with twitter and friendwall). These sites are driving a trend toward fluid, INSTANT information. Traditional websites can't afford not to take note. Schonfeld says "The stream is winding its way throughout the Web and organizing it by nowness."

It does seem interesting that a decade or so after the 'surf' metaphor we get another water-based metaphor in 'stream.' Are we kayakers now? Or still surfing the rapids of the stream. I need someone to organize all the water for me? Maybe a water management technician? A beaver?

(Ward, thoughts on this?)

Newly Unveiled Search Engine Wolfram Alpha Challenges Google

2009-05-19T11:54:00.000-07:00

Try the new search engine at wolframalpha.com.

Read the review about how it stacks up versus google here.

Malevolent Computer Program Botnet, Captured And Studied

2009-05-15T09:49:00.000-07:00

Full story.

More On Stephen Wolfram's Radical New Search Engine

2009-05-11T15:25:00.001-07:00

Wired article here.

New Search Engine, Wolfram Alpha, Takes Us Closer To Intelligent Search Engine

2009-05-10T12:29:00.000-07:00

On May 18th Stephen Wolfram will release the search engine Wolfram Alpha. The program, which is already getting use in the scientific community, employs sophisticated algorithms to answer questions like how high is Mt Everest, what is the fish production in Italy, and what was the weather in London on the day John F Kennedy was killed.

Although not ready to replace traditional search engines like google, Wolfram Alpha shows the potential power 'understanding' searchers questions by utilizing artificial intelligence techniques. (full story here).

2009-05-05T06:56:00.000-07:00

Trailer

Ray Kurzweil: Futurist, Inventor, Extremely Interesting Guy

2009-05-04T08:56:00.000-07:00

In the new interview in the Guardian, Ray Kurzweil doesn't disappoint, treating interviewer Ed Pilkington to a "high-velocity monologue." He reveals that since the age of eight his fantasy has been to become a female rock singer called Ramona (a fantasy that he sees becoming a reality with the advent of the singularity circa 2035).

He also discusses his philanthropic ideas including his desire to "design software that could be downloaded on to all African cellphones that would easily diagnose and provide remedial directions for leading local diseases."

Finally the article concludes with a list of Kurzweil 'Eureka Moments' including:

1984 Perfected the electronic keyboard. Used sampling of the sounds of instruments to produce rich authentic reproductions of the entire orchestra. His Kurzweil K250 is used by Keith Emerson, Herbie Hancock, Eric Clapton and others

IBM Challenges Jeopardy Contestants

2009-04-27T06:24:00.000-07:00

First it was Gary Kasparov, now Alex Trebek. IBM's newest game-playing super computer (named Watson) is set to compete against human contestants in the game show Jeopardy. These occasional publicity stunts are a great way to bring awareness to the huge strides in the field of artificial intelligence.

Compared to chess (in which IBM's Deep Blue defeated Kasparov), Jeopardy is a much different challenge and will tax Watson's grasp on the nuances of the English language. Thus far Watson's performance has been mixed:

For example, given the statement, “Bordered by Syria and Israel, this small country is only 135 miles long and 35 miles wide,” Watson beat its human competitors by quickly answering, “What is Lebanon?”

Moments later, however, the program stumbled when it decided it had high confidence that a “sheet” was a fruit.

Researchers Seek To Map The Connectome

2009-04-20T06:43:00.000-07:00

The Economist explores the concept of the connectome and the push to map it:

For, just as every organism has a genome (the complete set of its genes, as encoded in its DNA), every organism with a nervous system has a connectome (the complete set of its nerve cells and the connections between them). In practice, of course, a connectome will change over the course of time as new connections form and old ones die. But that does not stop people like Dr Lichtman dreaming of a Human Connectome Project inspired by the success of the Human Genome Project.

Lifenaut Brings Historical Figures Back To Life

2009-04-14T06:42:00.000-07:00

Lifenaut's Historic Lives project aims to bring historical figures back to life as conversational avatars. Although their speech abilities are still developing, the avatars have the potential to become excellent educational tools. With time, a student may be able to use a historical avatar like a sophisticated, entertaining search engine, calling up detailed information (from the mundane to the epic) about how these historic figures lived. The applications extend beyond the classroom however. Businesses equiped with conversational avatars of past CEOs could quickly reference parts of the companies history, not through the objective lens of a search engine but through the subjective and insightful lens of the CEO's memory.
In a variety of forums the organization of historic information in these conversational avatars has the potential to change the way we think about information organization and acquisition.
Are you a historic expert or buff? You can help Lifenaut assemble their avatars.

What Is Mindware?

2009-04-14T06:31:00.000-07:00

Martine Rothblatt answers 100 questions about the coming age of our own cyberconsciousness and techno-immortality. Use the new blog link on the right to follow along.

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless (Rat) Mind

2009-04-08T07:05:00.000-07:00

The New York Times reports that researchers in Brooklyn are opening the door to editing brain memory. The process, performed successfully on rates, has potential for both erasing and strengthening memories.

Robot With Brain Of A Two Year Old Looks Unspeakably Evil

2009-04-08T06:54:00.000-07:00

Image and story from Dvice.

This little fella reminds us of the importance of design and aesthetics when attempting to create robots meant to interact with humans. The topic was briefly considered in the post, I Respect You, I Love You, I Am Absolutely Terrified Of You.

Honda's Asimo Controlled By Thought Alone (Crocs Not Necessary)

2009-04-06T06:24:00.000-07:00

Researchers fitted with a brain machine interface have successfully controlled the movements of the superstar robot Asimo through thought alone. The process isn't ready for public display however. Honda says that getting the human participants to avoid distractions is still and challenge and that each person's brainwaves are so different the calibration process takes several hours. Once these obstacles are overcome, the Asimo technology could become very useful for the elderly or disabled.

Martine Rothblatt Discusses Mindfiles

2009-04-02T06:44:00.000-07:00

Interesting article on the blog Mindfiles, Mindware and Mindclones. In it, Martine Rothblatt says "your mindfile is accumulating regardless of your awareness of it." She goes on to lay out the reasons why individuals would want to systematically back up their entire mind through the organizations specifically devoted to the task.

Google's New Caddie Technology

2009-04-01T06:51:00.000-07:00

New Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity (CADIE) from google automates email responses. Check out "intriguing webpage."

The Next Frontier For Pain Relief

2009-04-01T06:37:00.000-07:00

Microtransponder aims to develop a wireless neurostimulation system for the treatment of chronic pain and several other neurological indications. The minimally invasive device will provide relief from chronic pain without requiring an implanted battery or wires. They have received the Texas Emerging Technology Fund and three separate NIH SBIR grants.

Researchers Uncover Vast Cyber Spy System

2009-03-30T06:33:00.000-07:00

The group of Toronto researchers (pictured above) uncovered a spy system that has infected "1,295 computers in 103 countries, including many belonging to embassies, foreign ministries and other government offices, as well as the Dalai Lama’s Tibetan exile centers in India, Brussels, London and New York."
The operation, which largely originates from China, is advanced enough to turn on an infected computer's camera and microphone and then send data back to the host (full story at nytimes).

12 Million Node Botnet Triggers 'Disaster' Speculation

2009-03-26T08:17:00.000-07:00

NYtimes on the Conficker Botnet:

Given the sophisticated nature of the worm, the question remains: What is the purpose of Conficker, which could possibly become the world’s most powerful parallel computer on April 1? That is when the worm will generate 50,000 domain names and systematically try to communicate with each one. The authors then only need to register one of the domain names in order to take control of the millions of zombie computers that have been created.

And Wired...

Federal Agency Fights Sophisticated Computer Worm

2009-03-24T15:56:00.000-07:00

Apparently, there is a behind-the-scenes struggle raging between the government experts at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (which definately sounds like a crazy sci-fi organization) and the alliance known as the Conficker Cabal (ditto). The Cabal, according to this article, has created a program that has infected millions of computers with software code that is intended to lash together the infected machines it controls into a powerful computer known as a botnet.

Brain-Training Video Games Under Fire

2009-03-23T06:40:00.000-07:00

From the Guardian's Science section: People who spend money on "brain trainers" to keep their minds agile may get the same results by simply doing a crossword or surfing the internet, according to research published today.

Happy 20th Internet!

2009-03-20T07:46:00.000-07:00

As seed magazine reports, 20 years ago this month, "Tim Berners-Lee submitted a curious paper to his boss: a proposal to use hypertext to connect text files on individual computers. The goal was to form an information network with links by which people could easily navigate between multiple digital documents. 'Vague but exciting,' the manager, Mike Sendall, wrote on the margins of the paper upon first reading it, but granted Berners-Lee his support to continue exploring."

The Rescue Dragon

2009-03-18T11:32:00.000-07:00

Japan’s huge robot Tmsuk T-52 Enryu weighs nearly six tons and is powerful enough to lift...

Fashion Robot Not Quite Ready For Runway

2009-03-18T11:16:00.000-07:00

Japanese developers unveil the HRP-4C, a robot designed to model on the catwalk. Full story at the Guardian.

Jaguar Fast On Roadrunner's Tail, Both Smash Petaflop Barrier

2009-03-17T06:12:00.000-07:00

I love that IBM named its newest supercomputer "Roadrunner" (mentioned in a July post). I also like how the good people at Cray have airbrushed a sweet design down the side of their massive Jaguar computing system. In November both the Roadrunner and Jaguar smashed the petaflop barrier (1,000,000,000,000,000 calculations every second) with Roadrunner clocking in just faster than Jaguar (1.105 vs. 1.059 quadrillion calculations per second). Researchers are excited about the accomplishment, saying that these supercomputers are literally creating an opportunity for simulation as a third branch of science. The power of these computers to simulate nature simply can't be ignored they say, and the scientific method must be revised to grant simulation a more important role.
On another note, according to the Wired article, Raymond Kurzweil believes the human brain has a power of 10 petaflops. By Kurzweil's reckoning, we should equal the human brain's calculating power in less than 7 years.

When Will We Meet C-3P0 And Will He Be Linked To His Buddies?

2009-03-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

In the same way some people ask, "where are the flying cars we all expected to have by now," dvice.com asks, "where the hell are the walking, talking, thinking robots that we imagined filling our future?"

Dvice goes on to interview James Kuffner, a specialist in the field of motion planning and professor at Carnegie Mellon' robotics institute. He says that for him and his team, "The goal is for a robot to be able to search back through its memory and know what it's learned and what the robots before have learned and continue to pass on that searchable database onto the next robot, so that it keeps learning."

A robot that can learn from the mistakes of its peers!? It's an interesting idea–a robot intranet that links similar, learning bots in a sort of collective consciousness. It's not unlike the idea of putting the internet into the hands (or eyes via contact lenses...or brains even) of every human. With the advent of the smartphone we catch glimpses of the sort of connectivity and the potential to learn from the vast store of history's lessons, the challenge is figuring out how to efficiently search the MASSIVE amount of information.

Teen Males And Fish: A Winning Combination

2009-03-10T07:25:00.000-07:00

A new study coming out of Sweden titled, "Fish intake of Swedish male adolescents is a predictor of cognitive performance," tracks participants from age 15 to 18 and finds that the more fish eaten, the higher the scores on verbal, visuospatial, and overall intelligence tests. You may be wondering, "Will fish sticks do the trick, or do you have to eat high quality salmon?" The researchers plan to follow up by with studies to answer this very question.

Robot Roundup

2009-03-05T06:24:00.001-08:00

Check out the Boston Globe's 'Big Picture Blog' for great images and descriptions of 32 cutting edge robots from around the world.

Neuroengineering Holds Potential For New Age Of Enlightenment

2009-03-04T13:05:00.000-08:00

"Metaphorically, the neuroengineering approach brings the study of the brain into the Age of Enlightenment. By isolating, then testing and altering individual parts of the neural system, we can, for the first time, truly understand what those components do. Ultimately, we can enhance an individual function while leaving the rest of the system untouched. It's the same transition that let us move from alchemy to atomic physics."

Read the 2 part (1, 2) report at wired.

Vampires And Immortality

2009-03-02T18:59:00.000-08:00

Vampires are back: From the hit novel Twilight, to the award winning HBO series True Blood, to the accidental Swedish hit, Let The Right One In.

These mythical creatures help us contemplate immortality. Wikipedia briefly discussing vampire immortality, saying of vampire tales: “Much is made of the price of eternal life, namely the incessant need for blood of former equals.” But there is another price to eternal life. Vampires must continually watch the ones they love die (see Let The Right One In). The lifespan discrepancy between immortals and mortals is problematic for romance (this problem is especially pronounced in recent vampire tales, where the vampires, rather than appearing as strange, pale, vaguely bat-like creatures, look identical to–although usually more attractive than–the average human). For any sort of companionship it seems we must live forever together or die together. This is a problem explored (not with vampires but with AI cyborgs) in TransBeMan. It's something we can't help contemplate as finite creatures endowed with the ability to comprehend the infinite.

From Science Fiction To Science Reality

2009-02-25T07:50:00.000-08:00

Did you know:

1. We can erase people's memories.

2. We can regulate people's moods with microchips.

3. We can use brain implants to steer animals left and right.

4. Infrared brain scans can predict what people want.

5. Human-computer interfaces link human brains directly to computers (we'll we knew about this one already).

Great, bizarre article explaining these accomplishments.

Techno-Thriller TransBeMan Premiers At Galapagos

2009-02-23T06:34:00.000-08:00

Last weekend marked the premier of the much anticipated techno-thriller, TransBeMan.

From the Brooklyn Heights Blog:

The movie started at 7:30 p.m. TransBeMan is produced by Transformer Films, and directed by my friend, Richard Kroehling. Completely shot in New York, its a techno thriller set in the near future about the creation of the world’s first post-human. To find out exactly what that means, the film is set for a summer/fall 09 release. If you like your sci fi served up with intelligence and out of this world art direction, check it out. It stars James Remar who played Samantha’s architect boyfriend in Sex and the City.

Self-Healing Robots

2009-02-23T06:30:00.000-08:00

Major Advancements In Brain-Artifical Limb Interfaces

2009-02-13T09:39:00.000-08:00

Amanda Kitts lost her left arm in a car accident three years ago, but these days she plays American football with her 12-year-old son, and changes diapers and bear-hugs children at the three Kiddie Cottage day care centers she owns in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Kitts, 40, does this all with a new kind of artificial arm that moves more easily than other devices and that she can control by using only her thoughts.

"I'm able to move my hand, wrist and elbow all at the same time," she said. "You think, and then your muscles move."

Full story

Ray Kurzweit, Rockstar

2009-02-12T06:54:00.000-08:00

Ray Kurzweil is the poster child of the singularity. His recent interview in Rolling Stone tells a story of the brilliant, quirky (he has collected over 300 cat statues) man behind the prediction that in 2045 nanobots will be crawling over everything and man and machine will become one.

Building The Brain Computer

2009-02-09T15:53:00.000-08:00

Researchers at Stanford, Cornell and Columbia, and IBM, are engaged in the ambitious project of reverse engineering the human mind using nanoscale transistors. Full story at Wired.

The Universe In 2009

2009-02-06T07:11:00.000-08:00

The best ideas that give us reason for optimism in 09.

Singularity University Will Open Backed By Google, Nasa

2009-02-04T06:02:00.000-08:00

Ray Kurzweil, the iconoclastic author of The Singularity is Near, will head a new school of future studies located in NASA buildings in California. A nine week course will cost $25,000 and cover courses on nanotechnology, artificial technology, and biotechnology. Full article here.

The Future Of The Internet

2009-02-02T08:21:00.000-08:00

"First it will become wireless and ubiquitous, crawling into the woodwork and perhaps even under our skin. Eventually, it will disappear," explains the recently dugg Time article. By 2020 they say, they'll be more things (appliances, vehicles, and buildings) online then people.

Nanodreadlocks More Photogenic Than Regular Dreadlocks

2009-01-30T14:06:00.000-08:00

From nytimes.

Robots Invade Warehouse, Diligently Ship Your Online Orders

2009-01-28T17:19:00.000-08:00

Wired reports that autonomous robots design by Kiva Systems now scurry the warehouse floors of Gap, Zappos, and Staples. The machines make the warehouses 2-4 times more efficient by cutting out substantial worker walking time. Apparently "the employees get a lot of joy, a lot of happiness out of anthropomorphizing the robots and turning them into pets." This seems to be a pretty common way of making sense of a human-robotic relationship. It helps quiet any fears (however fantastical or unconscious) of the robots. Another way is joking about possibility of a robot-human confrontation. As in the first line of the wired article:

Next time you order a new pair of skinny jeans from Gap.com, you should know that you are helping welcome in the hive-mind robot overlords of retail.

Ideas Worth Spreading

2009-01-26T06:12:00.000-08:00

TED's (which stands for “Technology, Entertainment, Design”) 25th anniversary conference takes place this week. Read confessions of a TED addict here. Or check out the weekly updated TED lectures and the 2009 TED prize winners.

Visuality Creeps Into Email Conversion

2009-01-22T12:29:00.000-08:00

A few months ago we outlined the concept of visuality as explained by New York Times contributing writer Kevin Kelly.

Kevin Kelly discusses the modern-day Gutenberg revolution, or "how the moving image is upending the printed word." Kelly sees the proliferation of video technology (and amateur video artists) fueling our collective visual appetite. We are pervasively and resoundingly moving away from the word. We are becoming a people of the moving image, where literacy gives way to "visuality."

In my personal experience this article has provoked a critical reaction marked by disbelief. The sentiment is:

"How are we moving away from the word? That's just not possible. How could I possibly send someone a message of all photo and video and get a my message across with higher fidelity and greater succinctness than the written word? We cannot escape the word."

The article was meant to provoke a reaction, certainly. And when speculating about the coming visuality era, we are talking about an unknown point in the future so of course, it all sounds a bit like hyperbole. But already there are signs that hints of visuality are creeping into digital communication. Consider this simple email line from a friend:

It was the 17th hole of the Buick Open, where everyone parties anyway, and Kid Rock was there with overalls on and a tallboy on the ready for Daly to tee up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWsg4p-BNdI

Pretty straightforward. But the idea is that this ability opens the door for a second, visual conversation. By bringing the visual into the textual a meta-conversation develops. The process is irresistible. It's easier and easier to search for the photo or video we want. Consider this email from another friend:

Rumor is Parker could take us for a walk in the college forest!

The sentence as is and the sentence as is with visual are saying very different things. Things get a little more interesting...

"We Will Restore Science To Its Rightful Place..."

2009-01-21T06:57:00.000-08:00

From President Obama's Inauguration Address:

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act — not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. All this we will do.

Knol: An Authoritative Alternative To Wikipedia

2009-01-20T06:34:00.000-08:00

There are still those who remain wary of the hive mind of wikipedia:

"The user who visits Wikipedia to learn about some subject, to confirm some matter of fact, is rather in the position of a visitor to a public restroom. It may be obviously dirty, so that he knows to exercise great care, or it may seem fairly clean, so that he may be lulled into a false sense of security. What he certainly does not know is who has used the facilities before him."

- Robert McHenry, former editor-in-chief of Encyclopædia Britannica

If you are the type of person that would prefer a expertly maintained bathroom (or encyclopedia), Google has just announced that the 100,000th knol (they define a knol as "a unit of knowledge"...it's sort of like an elite meme) has just been published to the wikipedia alternative (or complement), knol. Unlike wikipedia, knol emphasizes personal expertise by highlighting the authorship of each article.

Read the wikipedia entry on knol here.

Music That Boosts Your Brain Power

2009-01-15T15:49:00.000-08:00

Check out imusic for a sample (and an interesting explanation) of the doctor-approved music they say can work wonders for the brain.

New Mind Control Games Teach You To Use "The Force"

2009-01-14T06:02:00.000-08:00

The good people at Neurosky have collaborated with Uncle Milton games to create a revolutionary new game called Force Trainer, out this fall (USA Today article here). The game comes with a simple headset that monitors brainwave activity. As you learn to concentrate and control your brain wave activity you gain greater control over a small ball that moves through a Star Wars themed gaming device.
The game, which will no doubt be a blast just from its novelty alone, will be one of the first mass-market games to utilize EEG technology. There's no telling where this paradigm will take us or if it will have long term effects on a child's ability to concentrate. Could the Force Trainer or something like it (a similar game by Mattel is due out) actually help distracted individuals learn to become more focused thinkers?

Mobile Devices Will Be Primary Online Connection Tool By 2020

2009-01-12T06:10:00.000-08:00

For their internet evolution report issued in December of 2008, the Pew Internet and American Life Project asked a panel of internet analysts, media professors, and technology experts to make a series of predictions about the internet and its affect on American Life in 2020.

The findings, available here, suggest that the mobile device will quickly become the dominant form of online connection, that voice recognition and touch interfaces will become increasingly widespread, and that because of this connectivity capability, the division between personal time and work time, physical reality and virtual reality will fade away.

The panel of experts were mixed in their opinions of how the tech/internet changes will affect American Life. Will transparency and tolerance increase? Not necessarily.

It does seem that in a global 'idea economy' the 9-5 work day will transform into a much more fluid 24/7 type of work atmosphere. Having highly creative employees continually connected to work through mobile devices and virtual reality forums might allow for those important insights to come more readily (like when you in the bathtub or taking a walk). Will this come sort of work day become acceptable? How will it affect the family?

"Thought Identification" Featured On 60 Minutes

2009-01-09T06:21:00.000-08:00

We previewed this exciting new technology in December in a post called: "Scientists Extract Images Directly From The Brain." Now the concept is receiving major network attention in a 60 minutes story.

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop

2009-01-09T06:18:00.000-08:00

From The Onion.

Where Are The Robots?

2009-01-08T06:28:00.000-08:00

A robot density map from the foreign policy blog. Not surprisingly Japan leads the field.
The blog references an interesting, physical interpretation of the singularity...perhaps unfortunately named given the actions of the original HAL.

Most Interesting New Concept, The Development Most Likely To Start A Robot War, And More Of The Best Things Of 2008!

2009-01-06T06:48:00.000-08:00

Mind Hacks rough guide to the neuro highlights of 2008. (Above: "Best Cognitive Science Art Project.")

The Brainy Blogosphere

2009-01-05T11:25:00.001-08:00

It seems like every new year brings an ever-greater enthusiasm for the inevitable 'best-of-the-year' lists. What better way to kick off the new year that by exploring the 2008 highlights from the brain science podcast. Or rediscover some of the best podcasts of the year at the always entertaining Radiolab.

CNET's 5 Technology Predictions For 2009

2008-12-31T11:00:00.000-08:00

CNET's top 5 predictions for the new year include:

5 The decline of portable GPS

4 Mind control video games go commercial!!

3 Devices with Google's Android operating system will outsell the iphone

2 Bandwidth riots

1 Biggest security breach ever

Check out the video explanations here.

Typealyzer Analyzes Blog Personality

2008-12-26T10:43:00.001-08:00

The Typealyzer applies the Meyers-Briggs personality test to blogs. Try it here.

The Big Business Of Memory and Cognitive Enhancement

2008-12-18T08:10:00.000-08:00

An aging population, an economy built on ideas, increasing competition at top high schools and universities…there’s no shortage of explanations for why cognitive and memory enhancement is poised to grow into a massive industry. Who wouldn’t want to feel smarter, sharper, and more on the ball? As an already medicated society, we’re collectively making as shift from “making the sick healthy” to “protecting and enhancing the already healthy.”
Today you can look treat yourself to various natural enhancement options. Start with a nice cup of tea, as the University of Newcastle Plant Research Center has found that both black and green tea can improve memory and prevent Alzheimer’s. Still thirsty? Try a Brainiac, the hip, functional beverage enhanced with “soy phosphatidylserine (PS), ginkgo biloba, and other powerful antioxidants at the forefront of brain science.”
Once you’re thoroughly hydrated the Brain Fitness Program DVD by PBS offers a “scientifically-based set of brain exercises” to improve memory and a range of cognitive functions.
If all else fails, just go for a run or play a game of football. Among neuroscientists, physical exercise is viewed as the ultimate cognitive enhancer (certainly the most effective): “fitness training slows the age-related shrinkage of the frontal cortex, which is important for executive function. In rodents, exercise increases the number of capillaries in the brain, which should improve blood flow, and therefore the availability of energy, to neurons. Exercise may also help the brain by improving cardiovascular health, preventing heart attacks and strokes that can cause brain damage. Finally, exercise causes the release of growth factors, proteins that increase the number of connections between neurons, and the birth of neurons in the hippocampus, a brain region important for memory" (from the NYtimes).

Love, Sex, And Robots

2008-12-17T06:26:00.000-08:00

Ever since David Levy's book hit the shelves last year, robot love (perhaps more specifically robot sex) has been a hot topic (call it the "sexy singularity"). Levy's prediction that by mid century these robot-human relationships will become commonplace, has been met with skeptical excitement and artistic reaction. Consider the current "Sex Lives of Robots" at the Museum of Sex in NYC.

From all the hoopla an obvious question has arisen: "Is it cheating to have sex with a robot?" And what if that robot is equipped with AI emotion technology (apparently some sex dolls already come with a heartbeat that accelerates throughout the sex act)? One wonders if it will be this question of sexual fidelity, ahead of all others, that will force humanity to legally consider the rights of robotic entities.

Scientists Extract Images Directly From Brain

2008-12-15T08:08:00.000-08:00

Researchers from Japan’s ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories have developed a breakthrough process of analyzing changes in a participants cerebral blood flow to reconstruct and display viewed images. This breakthrough process of extracting images directly from the brain has so far been used only with black letters on a white background. However, researchers say that as the technology improves and the computer program learns to associate nuanced cerebral states with complex mental images, we could, within, the decade learn to extract these complex images directly from patients' brains. Full story at the pink tentacle.

Free Associating With The Superbrain And The Problem Of Context Switching

2008-12-11T06:48:00.000-08:00

Often, the most fascinating online discoveries come from meandering through the internet’s “series of tubes” without a set agenda or ultimate goal. This is web-surfing at it’s best. It’s like linking up with a massive mind and free associating until you discover something that’s worth a closer look. It was on one of these excursions that I stumbled upon the Monkey No-Climb and thought, I wish that a web browser would, like wikipedia, include a series of related links at the bottom of the page; as in: “users who viewed this page also viewed this one.” This would enable a new level of free association, leading to a higher frequency of wild, unexpected discoveries.

It’s worth noting however, that these content excursions, while stimulating, lack the feeling of enrichment that comes from thoroughly absorbing information. Something is lost in the cavalcade of media.

Edward R. Tufte, the Yale design and statistics legend and author of several superb books on information design, discusses this issue in his book, Envisioning Information. He says:

“In user interfaces for computers, a problem undermining information exchange between human and software is ‘constant context switches. By this we mean that the user is not presented with one basic display format and one uniform style of interaction, but instead, with frequent changes: a scatterplot is present; it goes away, and is replaced by a menu; the menu goes away, ,and is replaced by the scatterplot; and so on…users constantly have to adjust to a changing visual environment rather than focusing on the data. The user is also forced to remember things seen in one view so that he or she can use the other view effectively. This means that the users short-term memory is occupied with the incidentals rather than the significant issues of analysis.’

Although this explanation might not resonant as well with the younger, hyper media literate generations, it's conclusions, to the extend that they comment of human facilities of sight, hearing, and information processing, seem universal and timeless. It explains why consistent web design interfaces, like the pages of wikipedia, are so valuable.

Ante Up, Human

2008-12-10T06:59:00.001-08:00

Adventures of a poker playing robot.

The Mouse Celebrates 40-yr Anniversary

2008-12-09T07:15:00.000-08:00

On this day in 1968, visionary computer scientist Douglas Engelbart used a mouse to demonstrate the potential of computer programs. Forty years later the mouse looks sleeker but exists in essentially the same form. Read about the demonstration (and how the mouse helped launch the computer revolution) here.

H.M., Famous Amnesia Patient, Dies At 82

2008-12-08T13:32:00.000-08:00

The story of H.M. has been indispensable for psychology and neuroscience researchers, and undeniably fascinating to the public at large and the many students who read about him in textbooks.

Lacking the ability to make new memories after a operation to ameliorate epileptic seizures, H.M. (or Henry Gustav Molaison) left a massive legacy in brain science not only because of his physical condition, but also because of the kindness and incredible cooperation he showed to the researchers whom became his friend. Although he could only retain new memories for 20 seconds, his willingness to share all we could remember helped scientists uncover the integral role of the hippocampos and the important disctinction between implicit and explicit memory.

Full story here.

"Eyeborg Man" Plans To Replace Eye With Video Camera

2008-12-05T08:41:00.001-08:00

Wired reports today that Rob Spence, a 36 year old Canadian filmmaker who lost his eye in a childhood shooting accident, plans to replace his current prosthetic eye with an ocular video camera. The original cyborg man, Steve Mann, help Spence on his quest to become the Eyeborg man. Spence will literally have the potential to film everything he sees (except for his dreams), making him a superb candidate for personality capture. The trick, once again, is going to be organizing the bountiful video footage. A feat that becomes possible with the arrival of the semantic web in all its multimedia-savvy, search engine glory.

What Good Is Memorization In The Age Of Google?

2008-12-04T09:43:00.000-08:00

The younger sister of a good friend of mine recently enrolled at Princeton. She has said that "in the future knowledge won't be valued as much as the ability to access information." So what role does memorization play today? Should students still have to memorize dates and poetic passages? Not according to writer and businessman Don Tapscott. In the Telegraph, Tapscott opines that in the age of wikipedia and google, schoolteachers must adjust their to curricula to teach concepts and methods of thinking. Sounds good, but what exactly is lost when we outsource memorization? Are we loosing a necessary developmental brain process? Could the ability to retain information, somehow improve our ability to have creative thought or fruitful analysis? Does the brain exercise of memorization improve other aspects of cognition? Or, does outsourcing laborious memorization free up our cognitive load and allow us to dedicate more brain power to the really exciting stuff...like conceptual, technological, and creative breakthroughs?

Robot Invented To Explore Other Planets Ends Up On Kanye West's Blog

2008-12-02T18:15:00.000-08:00

The GroundBot! A Swedish designed spherical robot designed to roll 6 mph over any terrain. So stylish, so design-conscious that it ended up of Kanye West's popular blog of MP3's, swimsuit models, concept cellphones, and of course, uncomfortable, avant-guard chairs. Check out the link for video footage of the GroundBot in action.

The State Of The Household Robot

2008-12-01T06:23:00.000-08:00

Natalie Angier, in her recent NYtimes Science article discusses the dream that is (and has been) the household robot. It seems, that like flying cars, the prerequisite technological breakthroughs have not yet occurred to make the dream a reality.
In the short but interesting article Angier discusses: the etymology of the word robot (the Czech word "robota" meaning slave), the striking specificity that restricts many of our robots in the field (a welding robot transfered from an assembly line to an auto shop would likely kill someone within seconds), and the how the boundaries between ourselves and our "robotas" blurs, as we walk around linked to and loving our iphones, bluetooth headsets, and blackberrys.

From Literacy To Visuality: As Technology Shifts, Culture Bends

2008-11-24T06:41:00.000-08:00

In the Screen Issue of the New York Times Magazine, Kevin Kelly discusses the modern-day Gutenberg revolution, or "how the moving image is upending the printed word." Kelly sees the proliferation of video technology (and amateur video artists) fueling our collective visual appetite. We are pervasively and resoundingly moving away from the word. We are becoming a people of the moving image, where literacy gives way to "visuality."

But Kelly reminds us that just as "Gutenberg's press did not fully unleash text," youtube, and the hand held video camera cannot fully unleash visuality. We need tech innovations that evolve visual consumption in addition to visual production. Just as the world needed literacy innovations (like punctuation, quotation marks, table of contents, and footnotes) to efficiently wield literacy, we need visuality innovations for visuality to blossom into prominance.

For full blown visuality, Kelly says, we should be able to index film, peruse table of contents, search for elements of mis-en-scene. We need to be able to, as google has noted on their blog, use a search engine to find a particular shot in a movie and conveniently and persuasively compare it to a particular shot in another movie. For this, search engines must understand video, not just text. This is the hope of the semantic web, and something Viewdle is fast pursuing.

Hollywood Looks To Nasa Roboticists For Realism

2008-11-21T07:34:00.000-08:00

As Wired magazine reports today, Wall-E director, Andrew Stanton, used hard science to create the cute little robot. During development he visited Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to gather insight into how robots move, think, and learn.
Now Nasa is looking for creative input from students all around the county. They recently announced a contest to name the next Mars rover, scheduled to take off in 2009. Students age 5-18 are eligible.

Gmail Spices Up Your Inbox With Weird New Skins

2008-11-20T06:41:00.000-08:00

Google takes a page out of myspace's playbook.

The Long Now Foundation Proposes A Clock For The Ages

2008-11-18T11:53:00.000-08:00

From The Long Now Foundation website, a fascinating introduction to the clock that ticks just once a year:

Civilization is revving itself into a pathologically short attention span. The trend might be coming from the acceleration of technology, the short-horizon perspective of market-driven economics, the next-election perspective of democracies, or the distractions of personal multi-tasking. All are on the increase. Some sort of balancing corrective to the short-sightedness is needed-some mechanism or myth which encourages the long view and the taking of long-term responsibility, where 'long-term' is measured at least in centuries. Long Now proposes both a mechanism and a myth. It began with an observation and idea by computer scientist Daniel Hillis:

"When I was a child, people used to talk about what would happen by the year 2000. For the next thirty years they kept talking about what would happen by the year 2000, and now no one mentions a future date at all. The future has been shrinking by one year per year for my entire life. I think it is time for us to start a long-term project that gets people thinking past the mental barrier of an ever-shortening future. I would like to propose a large (think Stonehenge) mechanical clock, powered by seasonal temperature changes. It ticks once a year, bongs once a century, and the cuckoo comes out every millennium."

Such a clock, if sufficiently impressive and well engineered, would embody deep time for people. It should be charismatic to visit, interesting to think about, and famous enough to become iconic in the public discourse. Ideally, it would do for thinking about time what the photographs of Earth from space have done for thinking about the environment. Such icons reframe the way people think.

10 Year Old USB Gets A Makeover

2008-11-17T06:24:00.000-08:00

Wired reports on the USB 3.0. The devices will likely first start showing up on HD video cameras but the 10-fold speed increase will start greatly reduce transfer time of all kinds of uploads: images, sounds, videos, memories...

The Incomplete Blueprint Of Life

2008-11-14T07:06:00.000-08:00

From The New York Times:
Scientists have learned that the canonical “genes” account for an embarrassingly tiny part of the human genome: maybe 1 percent of the three billion paired subunits of DNA that are stuffed into nearly every cell of the body qualify as indisputable protein codes. Scientists are also learning that many of the gene-free regions of our DNA are far more loquacious than previously believed, far more willing to express themselves in ways that have nothing to do with protein manufacture (full article).

Chess, Mold, Consciousness: The Mysterious Phenomenon Of Emergence

2008-11-13T06:34:00.001-08:00

Nova's Science Now explores one of the most far reaching and fascinating topics in the sciences: emergence. Click here for a video exploring emergence, an interview with John Holland of the Santa Fe Institute (colleague of Cormac McCarthy) and a special bonus video of a brief history of emergence set to music.

Google Searches Help Track Disease Outbreaks

2008-11-12T05:57:00.000-08:00

The New York Times reports that new tracking tools from "Google.org, the company’s philanthropic unit, suggest that it may be able to detect regional outbreaks of the flu a week to 10 days before they are reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."
Try out web search tracking for yourself at google.com/trends.

Touch Bionics Releases Commercially Available Bionic Hand After 40 Years Of Research

2008-11-11T06:41:00.000-08:00

The new iLimb from Touch Bionics possesses tiny motors in each digit that respond to electrical impulses in the arms muscle (called myoelectric control). The hand enables unprecedented bionic dexterity (picture gallery here).

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg Says Each Year We Share Double

2008-11-09T17:41:00.000-08:00

At the Web 2.0 conference last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, pronounced “I would expect that next year, people will share twice as much information as they share this year, and next year, they will be sharing twice as much as they did the year before.” His proclamation, now called “Zuckerberg’s Law,” seems linked to Moore’s Law (it’s unclear if that was intentional), which states that every 18-24 months the number of transistors capable of fitting on an integrated circuit doubles. It’s a thought-provoking statement.
So why do we share online? The innate desire to connect, to feel part of something larger, the promise of being discovered, the possibility of immortality in the digital realm as a hedge against our own mortality? Everyone has different reasons. Certainly for the younger internet users, the question isn’t why, it’s why not. This is the post-reactionary generation; the internet users that don’t dwell on the division between online and offline worlds. They see the internet as part of one fluid online-offline existence. Who hasn’t heard of a shocked parent chastising a teenager for posting intimate online information? Younger internet users simply have a higher threshold for acceptable exposure. Plus, when it comes to freedom, logging on to the internet has become the modern day equivalent of getting the keys the the car. As teenagers, don’t we all want to see how fast the car can go?
If we can possibly fulfill Zuckerberg’s prophecy, it will be the younger users that drive the trend, and the savvy entrepreneurs that make it happen. This entails not only enabling the sharing of new types of information seemlessly (real-time video, heart-rate, genome, gps location, etc..), but finding new ways to make it captivating and navigable once it’s uploaded (this is where avatars with AI technology can really start to make things interesting).

Congratulations President-Elect Barack Obama

2008-11-05T12:46:00.000-08:00

A historic accomplishment.

Google Floats Plans For Wave Powered Data Center

2008-11-04T06:19:00.000-08:00

Google's continued dominance of online search and advertising depends largely on it's ability to store and utilize MASSIVE amounts of data. The servers that house this data are notorious energy guzzlers (1.5% of all US energy goes to data centers by some estimates). It's not suprising then, that google has gotten into alternative energy.
Recently, the internet titan has unveiled plans to house their data centers miles offshore, on floating barges. The benefits includes virtually free real estate, natural wave and wind energy, and ocean waters to cool the servers.
In reading about this ambitious plan I can't shake the image of the google barge tossed around in a 100-year Pacific storm, getting pounded by a rogue wave and sinking like a rock. It makes you reevaluate the percieved permanence of the digital world. The "internet cloud" often seems intangible, floating, and divorced from the material world. But in reality our virtual lives are very dependent on the real-life, physical servers that make them possible. I have heard rumors of patents for indestructible, self-repairing (waterproof?) server systems...which is encouraging, especially if they're bobbing around in the Pacific.

Contact Lens Could Bring Internet Closer

2008-11-03T05:54:00.000-08:00

The contact lenses, implanted with circuits, and developed at the University of Washington, allow the user to view displays while maintaining their focus on the real world. The researchers hope to add wireless communication to the lens and in the future, they say, an individual could surf the Internet on a midair virtual display screen that only they would be able to see. If the lens is the iphone format in ten years, it would for the most part eliminate the value of memorized knowledge – who needs it when the internet is in your eyeball – and put much more emphasis on the creative utilization and synthesis of that knowledge (this is already happening of course). And, our conversational edicate would require some redefinition (this is already happening to I suppose..."stop texting while I am talking to you!")

Halloween Video Clip Special

2008-10-31T05:02:00.000-07:00

The world of robotics offers myriad costume options this halloween...

The World Series Of Computer Programming

2008-10-30T06:14:00.000-07:00

Elbot (left) captured first prize at this year's Turing test (video). Ryan Howard (right) helped the Phillies win this year's World Series.

Today, Google Smarter; Tomorrow, Upload The Entire Internet To Your Brain

2008-10-29T06:26:00.000-07:00

Some helpful tips for smarter searching, courtesy of Wired (more on uploading the internet to your brain soon).

Get good sources. Add "site:edu" or "site:gov" to limit your search to school or government domains. To target specific sites, type, say, "neutrino site:Harvard.edu."

Convert currency and units. Easy: "12 parsecs in light years" or "12 dollars in euros," for example.

Check your stocks. Take a deep breath, then enter a ticker symbol to see a real-time quote.

Narrow by file type. To find PowerPoints, Excel spreadsheets, or books scanned into PDFs, add "filetype:ppt" (or any other extension) to your query.

Search ranges. Use two periods between two numbers, like "Wii $200..$300."

Expect flight delays. Type in the airline, then your flight number.

Define yourself. To get the definition for a word, just type the word define: followed by the word. Include the colon and space.

Woman Sent to Jail After Virtual Killing

2008-10-28T03:43:00.000-07:00

Virtual crime, very real consequences. Full BBC story here.

Rappers Use Robot Voices To Talk About Feelings

2008-10-23T06:10:00.000-07:00

When Bob Dylan "went electric" at the 1959 Newport Folk Festival, fans were (allegedly) in tears. The controversy was this: how could a pillar of folksy authenticity take up a less-human, futuristic, piece of technology known as the electric guitar. Robots and trees just don't mix, so to speak.

Hip-hop, by in large, does not have this kind of moral dilemma. Hip-hop was born in the age of the synthetic beat and the sample, and as a result, the usual schism between technology and authenticity seems much less relevant.

Of late, there has been a veritable explosion of hip-hop artists using phase vocoder technology to modulate the voice, making it sound like, what can only be described as "slightly robotic" (example here). Interestingly, many of the songs that employ the phase vocoder are about feelings. These songs are no doubt on the emotional (or emo) end of the hip-hop song spectrum.

Why is this? In some ways it is easier to get emotional through a text message than over the phone or in person. The"less-human" the form of communication, the more emotional we can get without feeling vulnerable. Maybe for these hip-hop icons, it's easier to get emotional when you sound like a robot.

The Superorganism Meme Returns (Although It Never Really Left)

2008-10-22T08:08:00.000-07:00

E.O. Wilson's new book reignites the superorganism debate. The issue of the superorganism is particularly relevant to cybernetics (and any discussion of emergence) because superorganisms seem to: "exhibit a form of distributed intelligence–a system in which many individual agents with limited intelligence and information are able to pool resources to accomplish a goal beyond the capabilities of the individuals."

Here, Wired recounts the history of the superorganism meme:

It became a powerful meme among computer geeks, as any Google search reveals. Programmers got to work building "ant-based" search and scheduling-optimization algorithms modeled on the foraging patterns of real-world ants. Cybervisionaries saw in the superorganism an ideal way of describing the networked global brain that they were just beginning to imagine. The idea meant the singularity might be nearer than anyone thought. Wired's Kevin Kelly drew on Wilson's theories for the conceptual framework of the Hive Mind, humanity's emerging cognitive interconnectedness. Even today, Kelly is writing about the One Machine and the Technium, a neologism he defines as "a superorganism of technology."

The Oracle Chatbot

2008-10-21T06:51:00.000-07:00

An interesting take on chatbots yields entertaining conversations: chatbot game.

Fat Brain = Healthy Body

2008-10-20T07:47:00.000-07:00

New research coming out of UCLA has shown a very strong correlation between the decay of myelin (the fatty electrical insulation surrounding the neurons that gives the brain its grayish color) and the decline of physical quickness as you age. Read the Science Daily article here.

Machines Fool 25% Of Human Investigators!

2008-10-17T06:56:00.000-07:00

(A.C.E conversing with human interrogator)

In 1950, the brilliant mathematician Alan Turing, devised the Turing test. He postulated that, "If, during text-based conversation, a machine is indistinguishable from a human, then it could be said to be 'thinking' and, therefore, could be attributed with intelligence" (note the phraseology: 'attributed with intelligence').
Since 1991 teams of researchers have been annually competing for a $100,000 Loebner prize, awarded to the first team to pass the Turing test.
This week in Reading, England, two teams of researchers presented A.C.Es (artificial conversational entities) that fooled the human investigators 25% of the time. That means that if the ACE conversed with 4 people, one of those people, based on the nature of the conversation, thought that they were conversing with a human – a huge acheivment considering the complexity and unpredictability of human conversation.
As teams of researchers edge closer to capturing that Loebner prize and passing the Turing test, web-based avatars like those created on lifenaut.com, will become more and more advanced conversationally – there will come a point where your friends won't be able to tell whether or not they are chatting with you or your avatar. But the passing the Turing test won't just be a nifty accomplishment that makes your lifenaut avatar more life-like, it will represent a huge step toward creating machines that possess intelligence. Indeed, that's why Alan Turing proposed the test in the first place.

Bionic Woman, Part II

2008-10-16T06:23:00.000-07:00

Yoky Matsuoka, a one time tennis prodigy and self-described "airhead," is now a MacArthur fellow and professor of neurobotics (a fusion of neuroscience and robotics) at the University of Washington. Matsuoka leads the charge to create advanced prosthetic limbs controlled by human thought. Learn about her story in this short Nova video and watch a short video on the 400 year old history of the quest to build robotic limbs.