Singularity Sunrise

Calling All Mad Scientists

Here is a report about a conference last summer in which the U.S. military invited, recruited and encouraged scientists to build a bigger, badder future:

Last August, the U.S. Army held a three-day conference in Portsmouth, Virginia, to look at new developments in military science and hardware. The confab was called the "2008 Mad Scientist Future Technology Seminar." Really. It was. "The objective of the seminar was to investigate proliferating technologies with the potential to empower individuals and groups in the next 10-25 years," according to an unclassified summary of the Mad Scientist gathering, obtained by Danger Room. As you'd expect from such a colorfully-titled gathering, the collected brains predicted a world in which individuals would have easy access to everything from ray guns to nano-bots to bioengineered weapons to arms for creating international chaos online.

I'm still waiting for my nanobots but I certainly appreciate that they are making an effort.

Sciencing Up Hollywood

USA Today's Science Fair blog announces a partnership between Hollywood and the scientific community to inject a new level of scientific realism into popular entertainment:

At a briefing in Los Angeles Wednesday, NAS chief Ralph "Silver Screen" Cicerone (actually that's not his nickname, he is a highly-respected climate expert) announced "The Science and Entertainment Exchange," to connect entertainment folks with scientists and engineers to help "television shows, films, video games, and other productions incorporate science into their work," according to a statement.

The group's advisory board includes Nobel Prize winners Leon Lederman, Steve Chu and Dudley Herschbach, alongside actors Dustin Hoffman and Rob Reiner, among many others. Participants met at the Creative Artists Agency Building in Los Angeles for an opening symposium to discuss climate, neuroscience, astronomy and other cutting-edge science topics.

This is a welcome development and I can't wait to see the first fruits of their effort.

The Web of Science

One of the founders of the web says the net needs to do a better job of reporting science (BBC News - Warning sounded on web's future):

The internet needs a way to help people separate rumour from real science, says the creator of the World Wide Web. Talking to BBC News Sir Tim Berners-Lee said he was increasingly worried about the way the web has been used to spread disinformation. Sir Tim spoke prior to the unveiling of a Foundation he has co-created that aims to make the web truly worldwide. [...] The use of the web to spread fears that flicking the switch on the LHC could create a Black Hole that could swallow up the Earth particularly concerned him, he said. In a similar vein was the spread of rumours that the MMR vaccine given to children in Britain was harmful.

What really struck me last week about all the LHC reporting was the notion, reported as fact, that the experiment had begun when the actual smashing of subatomic particles wouldn't happen until sometime next month. Very few news reports on the web actually mentioned that as they breathlessly hyped the killer black hole angle. Even supposedly mainstream and respectable websites fell into the temptation of sensationalizing the event.

Remembering 9-11

I wasn't going to make a post today, but then I thought, what better day to celebrate technology than 9-11? Our advanced technological civilization gave us the satellites, smart bombs, and unmanned drones we are using to fight back. Our enemies are steeped in a fanatical movement that looks to the past instead of the future, they are fearful and challenged by modernity. Our intellectual openness expands the frontiers of knowledge and our engineering genius gives us the tools to exploit that knowledge, and it's by using these strengths that we will ultimately prevail in the fight against the cave-dwellers of al-Qaeda.

Sci-Am on Kurzweil

Scientific American profiles Ray Kurzweil in the August issue. Amazingly, they don't mention anything about the singularity. WUWT?

2007 Year in Review

Accelerating Technology as a really nice 2007 Year in Review. Happy New Year everyone!

Debating Science and Technology

Leading scientists, science writers, and science bloggers have called for a presidential debate on science and technology:

Given the many urgent scientific and technological challenges facing America and the rest of the world, the increasing need for accurate scientific information in political decision making, and the vital role scientific innovation plays in spurring economic growth and competitiveness, we call for a public debate in which the U.S. presidential candidates share their views on the issues of The Environment, Health and Medicine, and Science and Technology Policy.

Well, that's something I can wholeheartedly support, and if you do as well, please visit the Science Debate 2008 website and support the effort.

A-Life

Scientists are busy working on artificial intelligence, you know this already, but did you know that they are also working on creating artificial life? According to this report (San Jose Mercury News - Artificial life likely in 3 to 10 years):

Around the world, a handful of scientists are trying to create life from scratch and they're getting closer.  [...] And several scientists believe man-made life forms will one day offer the potential for solving a variety of problems, from fighting diseases to locking up greenhouse gases to eating toxic waste.

Ok, that sounds good, but is there a downside?

Bedau said there are legitimate worries about creating life that could "run amok," but there are ways of addressing it, and it will be a very long time before that is a problem. "When these things are created, they're going to be so weak, it'll be a huge achievement if you can keep them alive for an hour in the lab," he said. "But them getting out and taking over, never in our imagination could this happen."

Ok, that sounds reassuring, no danger then of combining artificial life with artificial intelligence and creating an entirely new form of biological self-aware life form. Still, we could always have AI software managing the systems creating the A-Life, for the betterment of humanity, of course.

Enhancements

Alun Anderson ponders how drugs can be used to boost concentration, memory, and longevity (The Economist - Towards immortality):

More and more drugs developed to treat disease are turning out also to offer the potential to “enhance” the cognitive powers of healthy people, and to push human life expectancy much further, perhaps to 115 years and beyond. The potential to alter our nature and lifespans elicits strong reactions. The transhumanists—a loose coalition of scientists, technologists and thinkers who seek opportunities to enhance the human condition—see change as desirable.

Bionic Woman

Reality catches up with sci-fi as doctors celebrate the success of the "first woman to be fitted with a new prosthetic arm controlled by her own nerves." Well, ok, actually, she is celebrating as well (Times Online - The first bionic woman celebrates with a steak).