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Gaming the Future: The Book!

Month: August 2009

Amazing image of single molecule from IBM Zurich

Jason Palmer of BBC News brings us an AFM image from IBM Zurich which is simply wonderful: Their measurement of a pentacene molecule using this carbon monoxide tip shows the bonds between the carbon atoms in five linked rings, and even suggests the bonds to the hydrogen atoms at the molecule’s periphery. Breathtaking work by… Continue reading Amazing image of single molecule from IBM Zurich

Accelerating Future » Folding DNA into Twisted and Curved Nanoscale Shapes

Accelerating Future » Folding DNA into Twisted and Curved Nanoscale Shapes. Cool pics of some (artist’s conceptions of) shapes made from DNA.

Science Court

“You have given considerable study to the Bible, haven’t you, Mr. Bryan?” “Yes, sir; I have tried to … But, of course, I have studied it more as I have become older than when I was a boy.” “Do you claim then that everything in the Bible should be literally interpreted?” “I believe everything in… Continue reading Science Court

Motoman SDA10

This is the Motoman SDA10 15-axis robot (“for high level of dexterity and range of motion”) putting together an office chair. This is roughly the kind of thing we need for the Feynman Path assembly robot. (in case the embedding isn’t working on your browser, it’s here) There are several times when the Motoman uses… Continue reading Motoman SDA10

Diffusion Tensor Imaging and the Economy of Mind

More evidence for a Society of Mind model, complete with economics: The Brain Economy by Michael L. Anderson over at Forbes. Together with fMRI, DTI and connectomes offer an unprecedented opportunity to understand how the brain operates. This is similar to learning about a city from looking at a map. You could easily find major… Continue reading Diffusion Tensor Imaging and the Economy of Mind

Mind Children

As I pointed out yesterday, the internals of a super-AI are likely to look more or less like some organization of human-level AIs (which in turn are likely to be Societies of Mind of even simpler ones). So just drawing a box around it and calling it “weakly god-like” doesn’t help understand or design it. … Continue reading Mind Children

The Black Box Fallacy

Consider this marvelous story by Richard Feynman: (watch it now, this won’t make too much sense otherwise) Feynman and his friend John Tukey discover that they have completely different internal ways of thinking, or at least of counting, even though they are using the same words to talk about what it is they’re doing. Consider… Continue reading The Black Box Fallacy

Singularity or Bust

It’s a question of some interest whether the Singularity will consist of just more exponential growth, or whether some superexponential growth mode is likely to happen (or is even possible), such as would be required for a real mathematical singularity. On the side of exponential growth, as I pointed out here, is the fact that… Continue reading Singularity or Bust

Nanotechnology speeds desalination

From nanowerk: Nanotechnology speeds desalination. This story illustrates both the best and worst of near-term nanotech research and reporting. It’s a valuable result in a very important application: “Current desalination methods force seawater through a filter using energies four times larger than necessary. Throughout the desalination process salt must be removed from one side of… Continue reading Nanotechnology speeds desalination

Flying Cars: how close are we?

Previous in series: VTOL So, how close are we to flying cars? For specificity, let’s pick a technological bar to hurdle that answers most of the objections to the concept we’ve seen as comments on the previous posts: It should be relatively high-powered compared to current light craft. It should be STOVL for safety and… Continue reading Flying Cars: how close are we?

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