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Gaming the Future: The Book!

Author: Foresight Editor

"Friendly AI" now open for commentary

from the smart-allies-not-enemies dept.
From Senior Associate Eliezer Yudkowsky: The Singularity Institute has just announced that it has begun circulating a preliminary version of "Friendly AI" for open commentary by the academic and futurist communities. "Friendly AI" is the first specific proposal for a set of design features and cognitive architectures to produce a benevolent – "Friendly" – Artificial Intelligence. The official launch is tentatively scheduled for mid-June, but we hope to discuss the current paper with you at the upcoming Foresight Gathering this weekend. Read More for more details.

Singularity Institute receives tax-exempt status

from the IRS-gods-have-smiled dept.
From Senior Associate Eliezer Yudkowsky: The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Inc. is glad to announce that we have obtained tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(3) public charity. We are now accepting donations (through check, credit card, or Paypal) which will be tax-deductible to the full extent of the law.

The Singularity Institute currently analyzes seed AI (AI designed for self-understanding, self-modification, and recursive self-improvement), Friendly AI (goal architectures for benevolence), and the Singularity. The Singularity Institute is also beginning to evangelize Friendly AI to other AI projects. The Singularity Institute's long-term purpose is to directly implement the Singularity by designing, developing, and teaching the "seed AI" which becomes the first transhuman Artificial Intelligence.

(Remember to attend the Singularity SIG at this weekend's Foresight Gathering!)

Rand report examines technology trends

from the well-worth-reading dept.
A Rand Corporation "foresight" report on "The Global Technology Revolution: Bio/Nano/Materials Trends and Their Synergies with Information Technology by 2015" examines the potential effects of several technological trends over the next 15 years.
As described by the authors in their introduction, the report covers "[a] number of significant technology-related trends appear poised to have major global effects by 2015. These trends are being influenced by advances in biotechnology, nanotechnology, materials technology, and information technology . . . [the] implications are varied and can include social, political, economic, environmental, or other factors. In many cases, the significance of these technologies appears to depend on the synergies afforded by their combined advances as well as on their interaction with the so-called information revolution."

Although the authors feel "the present period in molecular manufacturing research is extremely exciting", their basic conclusion about advanced nanotechnology is rather cautious:
"Although molecular manufacturing holds the promise of significant global changes . . . it remains the least concrete of the technologies discussed here. Significant progress has been made, however, in the development of component technologies within the first regime of molecular manufacturing, where objects might be constructed from simple molecules and manufactured in a short amount of time via parallel atomic force microprobes or from simple self-assembled structures. Although the building blocks for these systems currently exist only in isolation at the research stage, it is certainly reasonable to expect that an integrated capability could be developed over the next 15 years . . . A series of important breakthroughs could certainly cause progress in this area to develop much more rapidly, but it seems very unlikely that macro-scale objects could be constructed using molecular manufacturing within the 2015 timeframe."

The full report is available online, and as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file.

Sharp Gamma Hologram; Delicate Atom Measurement

from the precision-vision dept.
ChrisPhoenix notes these two items on work that probes the fine structure of materials and atoms:
"According to a Physics News Update article, A Sharp Gamma-Ray Hologram, physicists in Krakow have made a gamma ray hologram of an iron crystal resulting in 3D images of the local crystal structure with half-angstrom spatial resolution. They've solved the "twin image" problem and hope to be mapping local magnetic environment soon. The article describes the difference between gamma ray holography and X-ray holography.

"Another physnews article, The Most Spherical Thing, describes a search for electric dipoles in atoms. The interesting thing is the precision of the measurement. They looked for a change in precession, and couldn't find it at a level of 0.4 nano-Hz. This corresponds to an energy shift of less than 2.6 x 10-43 Joule, the smallest that has ever been measured. After nanotech comes femtotech…"

NASA seeks public comment on new institutes

from the short-notice dept.
The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) plans to implement a number of University-based research centers, to be known as Research, Engineering, and Technology Institutes, or RETIs, and is seeking public comment on the implementation of this new program. Nanotechnology is prominently featured among the targeted technologies.

The goal of this plan is to strengthen NASA's ties to the academic community through long-term sustained investment in areas of innovative and long-range technology critical to NASA's future. At the same time the RETIs will enhance and broaden the capabilities of the nation's universities to meet the needs of NASA's science and technology programs. The role of the RETIs is intended to be research and exploitation of innovative, cutting-edge, emerging opportunities for technology that can have a revolutionary impact on the missions that NASA pursues in the future, while expanding the nation's talent base for research and development.

Organizations that have an interest in this activity are requested to provide information that addresses creative concepts in how to implement the RETIs, on collaborations with the NASA Centers, on mechanisms for partnering with non-university/non-NASA performers, and on RETI management.

Public Comment Due Date: April 21, 2001

DNA used to guide self-assembly of nanostructures

from the inspired-by-nature dept.
Saturngraphix spotted this press release about Purdue chemist Hicham Fenniriís work using DNA to guide the self-assembly of nanoscale structures: "Inspired by nature's own building blocks, Purdue University researchers are using the same principle that makes DNA strands link together to create tiny structures that may someday be used to manufacture molecular wires and other components for use in nanometer-sized electronic devices."

According to the release, the new technique will allow scientists to use self-assembly techniques to develop nanoscale structures with specific dimensions and chemical properties, and may help pave the way for designing new materials, electronic devices and drug delivery systems. Fenniriís research will be detailed in the 25 April 2001 issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Should human cloning be legal?

from the limits-of-government dept.
An article in the National Review Online ("Should Cloning Be Legal? It's not a federal question," 16 April 2001) considers the legal issues surrounding the possibility of human cloning. The article is by Dave Kopel, research director for the Independence Institute, and Glenn Reynolds, professor of law at the University of Tennessee and a member of the Foresight board of directors.

The issue of cloning has become increasingly visible because, as the authors note, "[President] Bush is ready to sign legislation that bans research into human cloning as soon as Congress sends it to him." But they also point out: "The federal government, as the president has reminded us, is a government of limited powers, powers that are enumerated in the Constitution. And nothing in the Constitution grants the federal government the power to ban research into cloning, or to suppress other types of science." The issue of federal authority to regulate cloning has obvious implications for regulation of nanotechnology as well.

Summary of DNA-based Nanomachines

from the biomimicry dept.
SteveLenhert at About.com writes of an short article posted there that provides a brief overview of DNA-based nanomechanics. He writes writes "This article summarizes and references recent research on DNA based nanomechanics, and discusses implications in vivo."

Have Russians created AI?

from the extraordinary-claims-require-extraordinary-proof dept.
Charles Vollum writes "In an article on ananova.com, Russian scientist Vitaly Valtsev claims to have developed the first artificial brain with the same intellectual potential as a human, using pioneering findings in neurophysiology and neuromorphology to produce a truly thinking machine."

Nanotube "roll-ups" in non-carbon flavors

from the alternatives dept.
A simple method of producing non-carbon nanotubes has been developed by O.G. Schmidt and K. Eberl, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, Germany. The new technique makes it possible to prepare tubes from very different substances, such as silicon, as well as to vary their dimensions and to deposit the nano objects very exactly. Their method employs a strained semiconductor sheet that springs free of a crystalline substrate that holds it flat; the sheet then curls up into a nanotube.

According to the researchers, "Deposition techniques are capable of combining materials of almost unlimited diversity, including semiconductors, insulators, metals, polymers, etc. This richness will create new nano-objects of unknown diversity, which will find their fortune in the wide and interdisciplinary fields of micro- and nano-electromechanical systems."

Details of the work are reported in Nature, v410:168 (8 March 2001).

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