Singularity Sunrise

Candidates Positions on Science

Science Debate 2008 sent a series of questions to the candidates to find out where they stand on issues of science and technology. McCain's answers can be found here, and Obama's answers can be found here. HT: A Vote for Science

Tech Law

There are farsighted people who are thinking about how changing technology will lead to changing laws and, yes, even lawsuits (io9 - Future Lawsuits) centered on such esoteric and yet inevitable topics as Artificial Intelligence and Transhuman Law, Mental Privacy, Extraterrestrial Property, Cryonic Trusts and Estates, and Interspecies Family Law. Just wait until they decide that your clone can inherit your property, suddenly every billionaire on the planet will have a clone to perpetuate the personal/corporate brand. Not only can every generation have their own Bill Gates, they can have the Bill Gates. Ok, that's getting ahead of ourselves, but I'm glad people are starting to think about these things.

Business Technology

This UPI report (Supercomputers Key To Staying Ahead in World EcoTechno Race) affirms the economic importance of investing in high tech.

The technology used in aerospace engineering and weather forecasting is being used these days to produce better laundry-detergent bottles and animated movies too, thanks to high-performance computing. So perhaps it's no surprise that the use of supercomputers to conduct research and product testing is being heralded by those who use it as essential to the functioning of their business.

There's nothing like a supercomputer arms race to spur competition.

The Future

David Brin ponders the future in this essay (Singularities and Nightmares: The Range of Our Futures) one of a series WiseNano essays about our technological future.

Singularity Summit

I'm not going to the Singularity Summit at Stanford on Saturday, May 13, 2006, but if I lived in California I'm sure I would. The speakers include: Steve Jurvetson, Ray Kurzweil, Nick Bostrom, Douglas R. Hofstadter, K. Eric Drexler, Max More, Christine L. Peterson, John Smart, Cory Doctorow, Eliezer S. Yudkowsky and Tyler Emerson. The conference is being organized by the Symbolic Systems Program at Stanford University, and co-sponsored by the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence and KurzweilAI.net.

Market Machinations

Someone has finally connected the dots between downsizing, outsourcing and the evil machine intelligence behind the world economy. Muahahaha. Ok, not really. But this is an interesting opinion piece (Daytona Beach News-Journal - Creating the Sci-Fi Economy) which considers the relationship between tech trends, the economy and sustaining the American dream (for humans, that is).

Bothome Sweet Home

Engineers are working on automated homes, but as this Sci-Tech Today (Living Inside Your Computer) report notes, we are a long way from Jack McDevitt's household AIs. Still, automated access control, temperature control and energy consumption controls are a great start.

Commercial Supercomputers

The Washington Post (Microsoft Creating Supercomputer Software) reports we are at the dawn of a new era in supercomputers, the rise of commercial and perhaps even consumer friendly supercomputers. According to the report:

Microsoft Corp. is developing software for high performance computers often used in engineering and science research, in a move that puts the company in another head-to-head battle with open-source developers...With its new software, the Redmond company is aiming for small-to mid-sized versions of the powerful computers, mainly the type that are used by academic researchers and businesses. Mundie said the company also is hoping that its software will make it easier for less technically savvy people to set up such systems.

Microsoft and supercomputers make for interesting possibilities, imagine HAL as a hyper version of that annoying MS Word paperclip.

Quantum Encryption

PhsOrg reports that, "A new era of totally secure communication and information sharing is within reach, with physicists at ANU achieving possibly the world's fastest transmission of 'unhackable' data using bright lasers to generate an absolutely secret 'key'." I think the online commerce world and e-banking people needed this yesterday.

Future Home

How will we live in the future? Our ideas of the future are often reflected in model homes designed to showcase emerging technology. As this CNN report (Home of future happening now) demonstrates, we are now living in a time that past generations looked forward to. The future is now.