In the News:

A new nano-material detects explosives - nanotech is finally finding it's way into usable applications.

UK cancer charity tidies up Wikipedia - A great example of how crowdsourcing can work.

Fusion propelled starship - I love it when the stuff of sci-fi becomes reality.

Robots at the Smithsonian - a new robotics exhibition... full of cool stuff.

Machines to pass turning test by 2029 - I want my robot butler!

In The News:

Geminoid-DK: possibly the creepiest android yet built - another master piece by Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro. This thing is so far down the uncanny valley that it's scary.

Printing a human kidney - a TED talk demonstration of this amazing technology... we're fast approaching the immortal tipping point.

Masdar city runs into problems - the ambitious project to build 'the city of the future' in the middle of the desert has run into funding problems during the recession.

50 000 Japanese download the Android flashlight app after disaster - mobile computing is saving lives... go google!

Death and the Powers: A robot Opera - an opera combining human and robotic performers... and it's getting good reviews.

WebComics: MacHall and ThreePanelSoul

It's been a heavy news week, with offensive songs, the murder of a beloved Spielberg character and a tragic motor accident. All of which is depressing, so I'm not going to talk about it. Instead I'll introduce you to two of the internet's most talented residents: Ian McConville and Matt Boyd.

Ian and Matt are two of the biggest and most loved players on the WebComic scene, starting out with MacHall when they were both in college in 2000. MacHall chronicles the lives of a bunch of college students living in res at Bowling Green State University. The geek factor in the humor is high, and even though the comic stopped posting in September 2006, the archives are well worth the read. Seeing the evolution of Ian's artwork and Matt's scripting is truly something special. 

One of MacHall's later strips

Both Ian and Matt have long since graduated and moved on to be successful members in their respective fields, obviously this puts a large amount of strain on one's free time and they've switched their WebComic energies to ThreePanelSoul. TPS is a very different format, having only three panels in each strip, which provides a very different flavor to their earlier offerings. The strip's humor is matured, clever and completely unique (and yes, i know 'completely unique' is redundant... give me a break, will ya?). 

Awesome example of Matt's brilliant sense of humor

So have a click through to MacHall and ThreePanelSoul the next time you're looking for something to do online, it's more fun than harvesting crops, I promise you.

In the news:

Supersonic Freefall - this dude is going to attempt to break the sound barrier in free-fall i.e. without a plane.... I think this is possibly the craziest (read stupidest) thing I can think of.

Researchers develop a robot that folds towels - it might not sound like much, but this is a huge breakthrough in robotics, read the article to find out why.

After 27 years, a New High Score For Asteroids - I can't believe people are still playing this... competitively yet.

Solar cells: UQAM researcher solves two 20-year-old problems - heralding a new age for cheap, renewable energy.  I definitely think it's time for sunny South Africa to take advantage.

Synapse on a Chip - a new kind of computer memory that mimics brain neurons (yes i know there isn't another kind). Soon to bring big advancements to a peripheral near you.

Transhumanism and Superheroes - possibly the simplest, most concise explanation of post- and trans-humanism I've read. Great stuff, give it a read.

And there you have it... another post. It's April, but I'm still looking for my hill.

-Odd

"Everything is funnier at 2am."

Facing Eternity

It might not be immediately noticeable, but modern medicine has greatly increased the human life span. Sure the most drastic extension is available only to the privileged minority, but even the lower classes have benefited greatly advancements in treatment and medication.

Doctors and researchers aren't the type to just sit back, so medical science is always pushing the envelope further, developing or adapting all the cutting edge technologies from robotics to material science. What does this mean for us? Well, because the rate of technological advancement is exponential, there will come a time when treatments can stave off death long enough for the next technology to be developed, which will keep people alive until the next one, and the next, and the next. The end result? Immortality.

I'm not talking about cutting peoples heads off and getting struck by lightning, being bullet proof or completely immune to disease, but the fact is that death from aging will become (for some) a thing of the past. How we adopt these technologies is, however, a completely different question.

Any new technology always starts it's commercial life as an exclusive product. Only the richest people can afford the huge price tag associated with the cutting edge, but because capitalism runs best on the volume game, new technology quickly becomes old technology and gets cheaper and cheaper. So, we start off with a elitist class of immortals... but pretty soon everyone can afford it... then what?

Do we allow anyone and everyone to walk through the eons? It's been shown that the lower we go on the social scale, the more children we have. What happens when we've got 300, 400 years worth of fertility? The earth is already overpopulated with people that barely scrape a century of life... I doubt it can cope with an immortal population that breeds and acts as we do.

What I find exciting, worrying and scary is that the Longevity Turning Point is not as far away as you'd think... I've read articles that posit it in the next 50-100 years... thats us or our children as humanity's first immortal generation... and I, for one, don't think we're ready for it.

Don't believe me? Go ahead, Google it...

In The News:

Caltech Makes Flexible, 86% Efficient Solar Arrays - Finally! we can kick escom out the house.

Chilean Earthquake Shortened Earth's Day - not by much... but I hadn't thought it could have such a global effect.

Long-distance quantum communication - getting that much closer to reality. This is a very important technology for our plans for space travel... communication that doesn't take days, months or years to reach other planets? Brilliant.

Skinput turns your arm into a touchscreen - this is COOL! watch the video.

One in four Germans wants microchip under skin - very interesting poll done in Germany... raises all sorts of ethical/anthropological questions.

Your Personal Memory Device - brain scans, networking and data-centers could turn us all into perfect recall, telepathic cyborgs... I'd sign up.

The World's First Commercially Available Jet-pack - watch out for those Nazi's (5 points to anyone who gets this reference)

Google's Computing Power Refines Translation - getting closer to a perfect universal translator... awesome.

New Phone Allows Bosses To Snoop On Staff - whoa... I REALLY don't like this... too Orwellian for me.

Work's been heavy this week... hence the late week post... but there it is, hope you enjoyed it.

-Odd

"Who wants, To live, Forever...."

 

Science Fiction and Science Fantasy, The difference.

Right, so this might be a boring topic for some, but I think it's an interesting distinction, so I'm going to talk about it anyway. People who don't read sci-fi lump whole sections of literature under that one title (often including heroic fantasy, if you can believe that), like some sort of horrible mutant chimera. In reality there are some very clear distinctions in the genre.

Science Fiction as a genre includes such gems as the works of Issac Asimov, or the new Joss Whedon show Doll House. So what categorizes these as science fiction? It's actually fairly simple: The major element in any Science Fiction story is the science. What a science fiction writer does when developing a story is to choose a particular type of technology and then extrapolate it into the future to see how people will react to it. Because the science is the major protagonist in the story, it has to be very well thought out and communicated, there is always an in depth explanation on how and why this technology works.

Science Fantasy (also sometimes called a 'space opera') on the other hand doesn't rely on science for the story's direction. This sub-genre includes epic pieces of story telling like Star Wars (personally I'm referring to IV, V and VI when I say this) and Joss Whedon's amasing FireFly. While these stories might be set in the far future, and so require space-ships and lasers and the like, these things are more incidental to the story that the writer is trying to tell and so we don't get a lot (or any) explanation of how the science works.

To simplify the difference: Science Fiction is a story about people's reactions to piece or type of technology while Science Fantasy is a story that just happens to be set in a place or time with futuristic gadgets. Both genre's are very cool and lots of fun to read (or watch), but for completely different reasons.

In the News:

Robots To Clear the Baltic Seafloor of WW-II Mines - Our metal friends helping out again

Can He Make The Dancing Hexapod Robot Happy - Another cool article on the development of AI

Is Hyperlongevity Immoral? - an interesting exploration of the ethical ramifications of our drive to immortality

Blind people use both visual and auditory cortices to hear - interesting goings on in our brains.

Scientists solve ageing puzzle - "who wants, to live, forever?"

US military to make jet fuel from algae - the jarheads are going green, it seems.

New results confirm standard neutrino theory - some results to back up quantum theory.

Google demonstrates phone that translates text - a step closer to a universal translator

Switzerland peruses violent game ban - big brother steps in against electronic mayhem... it'll sure be boring if they pull it off

Lego Robot Solves Any Rubik's Cube in 12 Seconds - this thing is COOL! check out the vids

Robot Soccer Getting Better - news from the Robot World Cup

Minority Report Interface Is Real, Hitting Mainstream Soon - awesome gadget... I want one!!!

Nanodiamonds Produce 'Game Changing Event' for MRI Imaging Sensitivity - Nano technology doing cool stuff.

Oil droplets can navigate complex maze - scientists have taught oil droplets.... teaching inanimate objects? WTF?!

So there we are... another post down. If you enjoyed it, leave a comment, follow and tell your friends. Or tell me... I'd dig to know if anyone actually reads these things. ^^

-Odd

A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law - Asimov's 3 Laws of Robotics.

 

Evolutionary Politics

The State of the Nation address that our bold leader Zuma gave last week was a joke. I haven't heard a single person who was happy with it. A reiteration of ANC dogma was NOT what the thinking people of South Africa were looking for in this troubled time. I for one was hoping for something a little more concrete, not load of promises about how our government will create jobs, fix the economy and bring us all breakfast in bed, I wanted to know exactly how they planned to pull it off.

In South Africa we are all afflicted with the curse of Revolutionary Politics... as I see it, this means that the people who fought for freedom, having achieved it, have no idea what to do with it. Instead of actually working for the betterment of their country, government officials seem content to make empty promises and fill their not-so-empty pockets. This won't change until the electorate gets fed up enough to stop voting as if we were still under apartheid... until they realise that, while the ANC has done great things in the past, they don't have the capability or the motivation to lift South Africa to a more prosperous future.

It's not all the ANC's fault though, the opposition hasn't exactly covered itself in glory either. Where are the alternative plans? Where is the mass educational drive that will teach the disadvantaged masses about the real power of the vote and how democracy is supposed to work?

Still.... I suppose it's better to have a government that does nothing, rather than one that actively goes out of it's way to screw things up. As long as they keep that kid Julius muzzled, I'll be content (if not happy).

In the News:

How long till human level AI - a nice article about a survey of industry leaders, asking when they think we'll take the big step

Six-legged Robot Teaches Itself to Walk - a neat new robot ^^

Appeals Court Rules On Internet Obscenity Standard - The californian courts have set a worrying precedient with this one.

Where's Your Flying Car (and Your Jetpack)? - apparently... they're nearly here... Cool!

Fall Into A Black Hole At the Speed Of Light With New Simulator - a couple scienctists have developed a graphic simulation of what happens at the event horizon of a black hole. Nice.

Mixing Man and Machine - the world's first cyborg (now ex-cyborg) talks about artificially enchancing the human race.

Digital/Real World cross over - A huge step in Augmented reality, you HAVE TO watch this! it's a very different approach, and I'm seriously considering trying to build a similar rig. This guy is my new hero.

Brain Surgery Linked To Sensation of Spirituality - quite troubling if you're the religous sort (or maybe not... depends on how much of a control freak you think God is, i guess).

Scrapheap Transhumanism - this dude is seriously whacked... I, for one, would not have the balls to do this.

In an unrelated matter, I had an Epicly Awesome weekend... I officially have the coolest girlfriend in the world... so sorry for the rest of you guys ^^. Hope you enjoyed the post. As always: If you've got a comment post it, and if you enjoyed it... click the link on the right to follow... and tell your friends ^^

-Odd

"What do you mean I could be the president, of the United States of America? Tell me something, it's still WE, THE PEOPLE right?" -Megadeth, Peace Sells.