 The next big bang: Man meets machine
2006 05 31
In science-fiction fantasies, the melding of organic matter and digital technology usually takes human form, from Steve Austin's six-million-dollar bionics to the replicants running amok in "Blade Runner" to the Terminator. Yet research on multiple fronts in digital technology, biotechnology and nanotechnology may, over the next half century, alter the way we think about computers and information, and our relationship to them. |
Emotion robots learn from people
2007 02 24
Making robots that interact with people emotionally is the goal of a European project led by British scientists.
Feelix Growing is a research project involving six countries, and 25 roboticists, developmental psychologists and neuroscientists.
Co-ordinator Dr Lola Canamero said the aim was to build robots that "learn from humans and respond in a socially and emotionally appropriate manner".
The 2.3m ... |
 Warbots to Replace Human Soldiers?
2006 04 04
Any good student of military history can tell you that technological change can make a huge difference on the battlefield. History is replete with examples: the English longbow at Crecy overmatched the Genovese crossbowmen. During WWI when Allied tanks helped break the stalemate on the Western Front and, the ultimate technological victory, the atom bomb that forced the Japanese into submission in WWII.
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 US robot builds copies of itself
2005 05 13
US researchers have devised a simple robot that can make copies of itself from spare parts. Writing in Nature, the robot's creators say their experiment shows the ability to reproduce is not unique to biology. Their long-term plan is to design robots made from hundreds or thousands of identical basic modules. These could repair themselves if parts fail, reconfigure themselves to better perform the task they have been set, or even to make extra helpers.
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 Pentagon Prepares To Build $130bn Robot Army
2005 02 17
The Pentagon is spending £70 billion [$130 billion] on a programme to build heavily-armed robots for the battlefield in the hope that future wars will be fought without the loss of its soldiers' lives. The scheme, known as Future Combat Systems, is the largest military contract in American history and will help to drive the defence budget up by almost 20 per cent to just over £265 billion [$500 billion] in five years' time.
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 Robot Demonstrates Self Awareness
2005 12 22
A new robot can recognize the difference between a mirror image of itself and another robot that looks just like it. This so-called mirror image cognition is based on artificial nerve cell groups built into the robot's computer brain that give it the ability to recognize itself and acknowledge others. The ground-breaking technology could eventually lead to robots able to express emotions.
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 The Creation of Smarter Than Human Intelligence
2006 02 26
The Singularity is the technological creation of smarter-than-human intelligence. There are several technologies that are often mentioned as heading in this direction. The most commonly mentioned is probably Artificial Intelligence, but there are others: direct brain-computer interfaces, biological augmentation of the brain, genetic engineering, ultra-high-resolution scans of the brain followed by computer emulation.
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 Mind at Light Speed - A New Kind of Intelligence
2006 02 01
Advanced optics such as lasers, crystals and holograms may work in concert with quantum theory to revolutionize computers in this century, promising tremendous speed and abilities that exceed the human brain, according to a new book. Computers created within the next two decades could revolve around a technology in which laser beams converge inside crystals the size of sugar cubes, forming holographic images for processing huge amounts of information, says the author, Purdue University physics Professor David D. Nolte.
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Next-generation toys read brain waves
2007 05 04
A NeuroSky worker wears a Darth Vader outfit as he controls a light saber using his brain waves. NeuroSky's headset measures brain-wave activity, including signals that relate to concentration, relaxation and anxiety.
A convincing twin of Darth Vader stalks the beige cubicles of a Silicon Valley office, complete with ominous black mask, cape and light saber.
But this is no chintzy Halloween ... |
In A First, Scientists Develop Tiny Implantable Biocomputers
2007 05 30
This work is a crucial step towards building biological computers, tiny implantable devices that can monitor the activities and characteristics of human cells. (Credit: Kobi Benenson)Researchers at Harvard University and Princeton University have made a crucial step toward building biological computers, tiny implantable devices that can monitor the activities and characteristics of human cells. The information provided by these "molecular ... |
 Internet Alien Presence
2006 09 14
About ten years ago, Time Magazine interviewed ten major computer experts about the direction and goals that industry was moving. One thing stood out above all other visions and opinions. All ten indicated that there was a “presence” on the Internet, and no one had a clue as to what it all meant. How this was first observed was that search engines used at that time should have given consistent responses to the same question asked at the same time.
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 Cyborg Superman, Transhumanism and the Nephilim
2006 02 23
Is there a connection between project Superman and the "new man" of the technotronic era? Is it really possible to "create" new personalities (different individuals) with the help of trauma based mind control? Can one with help of occult rituals, incantations or the very same trauma based mind control have spirits incarnate into the body of a person? Can one really become possessed? How does this all connect with cyborgs?
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 New Super-Gun from Metal Storm Inc.
2006 01 26
Next month a new high-explosive munition will be fired in Singapore and then tested again by the U.S. Army, heralding what may be a sea change in weaponry: a gun that can fire 240,000 rounds per minute. That's compared to 60 rounds per minute in a standard military machine gun. Metal Storm Inc., a munitions company headquartered in Virginia but with its roots in Australia, has been developing a gun that can shoot at blistering speeds, albeit in short bursts as each barrel is reloaded.
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 Pentagon plans cyber-insect army
2006 03 20
The Pentagon's defence scientists want to create an army of cyber-insects that can be remotely controlled to check out explosives and send transmissions. The idea is to insert micro-systems at the pupa stage, when the insects can integrate them into their body, so they can be remotely controlled later. Experts told the BBC some ideas were feasible but others seemed "ludicrous". A similar scheme aimed at manipulating wasps failed when they flew off to feed and mate.
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 The Ubermensch, the Superman and the Posthuman - Technofascism?
2006 02 23
In the most vicious yet thorough attack against transhumanism to date, Dr. Klaus-Gerd Giesen, a professor of political sciences at the University of Leipzig in Germany, wrote, among other things, in Transhumanism and Human Genetics (a widely-cited polemical article written in French for the Genetics Observatory, a project of the Centre for Bioethics of the Clinical Research Institute of Montreal): Encasing the figure of the nietzchean superman...
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