Singularity Sunrise

Brin on the Singularity

Sci-fi author David Brin has some commentary on the singularity over at the Sentient Developments blog. He appeals for moderation from all sides of the debate and calls the singularity one of the greatest issues of our time.

Blogroll: On Singularity

On Singularity is a Digg-like service that allows members to submit and rate links related to the technological singularity. From the About page:

On Singularity is a community for news and discussions around the Technological Singularity, futurism, transhumanism, and emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Biotechnology, and nanotechnology.

This is a social news Web site. It's "social" because the community decides what news is worth reading. While browsing the Web, if you come across an interesting article that you like to share, you can use one of our tools to quickly and easily send the link here in a few seconds. The story will be listed on the home page and others will vote on it to push the best to the top.

I just joined the community and look forward to participating.

Blogroll: Lifeboat News

New to the blogroll, the Lifeboat News blog, the official blog of The Lifeboat Foundation, a nonprofit nongovernmental organization dedicated to encouraging scientific advancements while helping humanity survive existential risks and possible misuse of increasingly powerful technologies, including genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and robotics/AI, as we move towards a technological singularity.

Blogroll: Soft Machines

New to the blogroll, Soft Machines, a blog about thoughts on the future of nanotechnology from Richard Jones. Soft Machines is also a book about nanotechnology for the general reader, published by Oxford University Press. More details about the book can be found here.

Top Science Blogs

This is a quick follow-up to my last post in which I was noting an effort to tally the top tech blogs. Living the Scientific Life blog is asking the question: how many science blogs are there? I found the comments to be as interesting as the article. The answer is clearly not as forthcoming as we would hope.

Top Tech Blogs

Here is a list of the top tech blog compiled by real human editors rather than an aggregator (Datamation - Top 200 Tech Blogs: the Datamation List):

Based on unscientific count, there are even more tech blogs than blogs dedicated to really cute kittens. And there’s a nearly infinite number of blogs about cuddly little kitties. (But the reader comments on kitty blogs are much, much nicer than comments on tech blogs.)

So the question becomes more difficult every year: Which of the gazillion tech blogs are worth your time?

To help answer that, the following list surveys the very best. These Weblogs are written by informed insiders, longtime observers, pros working in the field, passionate aficionados. In some cases they put larger new organizations to shame – breaking stories earlier, providing more trenchant comment – even as leading tech publications now use blogs to churn out news and opinion faster.

What strikes me about this list is how far I am from being a tech blog as defined by Datamation. I think of Singularity Sunrise as a sci-tech blog, but not a blog so much about gadgets as about how technology is changing our society. Not that I don't love gadgets, I do, but I'm also interested in the impact of technology and larger trends shaping society and culture.

Terminating A Terminator

And for what it's worth, Danger Room has some advice on How To Terminate a Terminator.

Robot Soldiers

Science Fair asks: Did they learn nothing from The Terminator? The report they link (New Scientist - 'Robot arms race' underway, expert warns) is alarming but does offer a dash of hope that warbots may be a more humane than humans:

Governments around the world are rushing to develop military robots capable of killing autonomously without considering the legal and moral implications, warns a leading roboticist. But another robotics expert argues that robotic soldiers could perhaps be made more ethical than human ones.

Nanowerk

Are you looking for a nanotech information portal? Look no further than Nanowerk:

Since its launch in December 2005, nanowerk.com has developed into a leading nanotechnology information portal. The site is a comprehensive nanotechnology information source complete with link directories, daily news coverage, reports, events calendar, and a nanomaterial database.

The above is from a Nanotechnology Now press release highlighting Nanowerk's "Spotlight" section, a daily blog focusing on nanotech research, development and risks. The latest edition of the Spotlight examines recent efforts to assess the growth of the nanotech market.

Blogging The Singularity

I've been very busy lately and I apologize for the lack of recent posts. I've been trying to catch up by doing some singularity surfing (using "singularity" as a search term in news and blog indexes), and I found an interesting blog to add to the blogroll. Blogging The Singularity is a blog about futurism, artificial intelligence, transhumanism, augmentation, technology, cybernetics,acceleration, and endless possibilities. They will be hosting a singularity podcast, looking forward to that.