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Gaming the Future: The Book!

Category: Nanodot

Ask Nanodot: Open Sourcing Nanotechnology

from the safety-through-openness dept.
Senior Associate BryanBruns writes "I've posted a working draft of a paper on "Open Sourcing Nanotechnology" that I'm preparing for a poster presentation at the November MNT Conference. I've found a lot of interesting stuff, which I try to lay out in the paper, but have some questions where I'd like to ask what ideas and suggestions others may have…[see "Read More" for the specific questions and an abstract]…I'm coming at this as a sociologist, with some background in economics and computers, but not an expert in nanoscience. I'd welcome comments, either directly to me ([email protected]), or here on Nanodot if you think they would be of general interest. The NanoCAD mailing list offers a continuing forum for discussion of molecular modeling software." Read more for the full post.

Deadline for Foresight Gathering: TODAY, Sept 1

from the be-there-or-be-confused dept.
Save $100 by registering for the Sept 8-10 Foresight Senior Associate Gathering by TODAY, Friday, Sept 1. See the speaker list and program. Topics include nanotech, encrypted money, machine intelligence, healing the environment, the "art of honesty", and reforming our bizarre intellectual property system. If you miss this one, it could be spring 2001 before you get another chance. Please join us.

Antioxidant therapy greatly extends nematode lifespans

from the eat-right,-live-well-(and-long) dept.

Two press releases on joint research by the Buck Center for Research in Aging and Emory University describe "using drugs that help eliminate oxygen radicals — the toxic byproducts of metabolism — scientists have extended the normal lifespan of the nematode worm C. elegans by approximately 50 percent. In addition, the scientists restored a normal lifespan to mutant worms that had a mitochondrial defect causing increased oxygen radical production and rapid aging."

The drugs used in the study were actually modified versions of naturally-occurring antioxidant enzymes. The findings were reported in the 1 September 2000 issue of the jouranl Science.

More on Robotics and Alife available

from the My-they-move-fast,-don't-they? dept.

The full text of a number of papers on evolutionary robotics design, artificial life (Alife), and swarm programming are available either online or as Acrobat PDF files as the "Feature of the Week" for the 31 August 2000 issue, on the website of the journal Nature.

Items of recent interest include:

Note: It is unclear how long Nature provides full access to articles in its "Feature of the Week" series; some past features several weeks old are still available, but others are not. Visit this site soon if you'd like to access or download these papers.

Israel upholds copyright on Dead Sea Scrolls

from the it'll-be-the-Declaration-of-Independence-next dept.
From the SJ Mercury wire services: "Israel's Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that an Isreali scholar had a copyright on his recontruction of an important Dead Sea Scroll…". The messed-up "intellectual property" system will be debated at the Sept 8-10 Foresight Senior Associate Gathering in Palo Alto; join us.

Schneier: computer security is impossible

from the capabilities-or-culpability? dept.
Bruce Schneier, author of the standard reference Applied Cryptography, has a new book out called Secrets and Lies. In an interview in Salon he talks about the book's main thesis: that secure computing is impossible: "Given the inevitability of attacks, 'prevention' can no longer be the security buzzword. Just as even the finest hockey goalies must regularly suffer the humiliation of allowing a goal, companies must learn to live with penetrations. Prepare for the worst, Schneier urges." Has the man never heard of capability security?

Memories to seed machine intelligence

from the machines-with-a-past? dept.
Adam Brown writes "It has been theorized that in order for a computer to evolve its personality, it should have past memories to draw upon. While browsing the web I found the site randomaccessmemory.org which encourages members to post their life experiences and any memories that stand out in their mind. Could such a database be used as a starting seed for the implanted past memories of an AI persona? Does anybody else know of any similar resources?" CP: there's the separate question of whether seeding with human memories is a good idea…but if so, one could use biographies.

Evolutionary AI software designs robot offspring

from the early-"engineering-AI" dept.
EddieWehri writes "Researchers developed a computer program that came up with designs for simple robots after being given simple parameters. Found on slashdot. http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSScience 0008/30_robot.html" RalphMerkle explains that this refers to "recent work at Brandeis by Jordan Pollack. Evidently, this work involves a design system that uses evolutionary algorithms to design a robotic system."

Update: A spate of press coverage of this research was set off by the publication of a paper by Pollack and co-worker Hod Lipson, also of Brandeis, in the 31 August 2000 issue of Nature. Some interesting press accounts include articles in the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times.

Critique of Josh Hall's 'Ethics for Machines'

from the major-disagreement dept.
Senior Associate Peter Voss writes "Josh Hallís Ethics for Machines suffers many of the problems endemic to moral debate: vague and shifting definitions, confusion over ëdutyí, rejecting the possibility of a rationally derived morality, and confusing description and prescription. Specifically, it fails to clearly define, or justify, its implied meta-ethical goal of ëgroup dynamismí. Other core problems are: its mischaracterization of ëethical instinctí, its condemnation of self-interest and common sense, and its failure to recognize the importance of high-level intelligence and consciousness to morality. Ethics for Transhumans addresses these points, and sketches an alternative path."

Alarms about Techno-Utopianism

from the utopian-dystopian-or-atopian? dept.
Senior Associate BryanBruns writes "Reason magazine has a story "Dystopian Fearmongers Strike Again" criticizing the "TechnoUtopian" advertisement recently run in the New York Times. (The ad is available online: technoad.pdf.) The advertisement has three paragraphs on nanotechnology, with reasonably accurate content, using nanotech as another example of technological optimism. The section on nanotech finishes by saying "[Bill] Joy has grave doubts about proceeding, citing dangers from escaping self-replicating nanomachines, and from military applications. (There are also terribly frightening surveillance and privacy concerns.) So far, Joy is one of the few major scientists to be openly critical." Read more for details and analysis.

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