American Scientist Online - An interview with Michael Gazzaniga

Author of "The Ethical Brain", which I haven't read yet, but the interview is very interesting and worth having a look at.

DARPA picks 40 robot hopefuls for $2m race | The Register

It sounds like this time things are going to be different. Can't wait.

"It is truly remarkable how much progress the Grand Challenge teams have made in a relatively short period of time,” said program manager Ron Kurjanowicz. “The (qualification event) will be very exciting and we will see autonomous vehicle performance that was not possible a year ago. The teams’ creative sparks are flying and they are making impressive progress toward DARPA’s goal of developing technologies that will save the lives of our men and women in uniform on the battlefield.”

But really:

"...DARPA’s goal of developing technologies that will save the lives of our men and women in uniform on the battlefield.”

I suppose this is funny in light of last year's event. Reminds me a bit of the graffiti: "Fighting for peace..."

Researchers find way to produce very large diamonds very fast

A while back they discovered diamond stars, and now they're making them in blocks:

The standard growth rate is 100 micrometers per hour for the Carnegie process, but growth rates in excess of 300 micrometers per hour have been reached, and 1 millimeter per hour may be possible. With the colorless diamond produced at ever higher growth rate and low cost, large blocks of diamond should be available for a variety of applications. "The diamond age is upon us," concluded Hemley.

It will never be the same again.

Beam Me to Mars :: Astrobiology Magazine :: Search for Life in the Universe

This is just so fiendish:

A typical Mars mission would begin as Earth and Mars are approaching the point of closest alignment as they progress in their orbits, with the Earth slightly behind Mars. A conventional rocket first launches the target spacecraft into orbit around Earth. The Magbeam station would fire a plasma beam at the target spacecraft for about four hours, giving it a boost toward Mars. The spacecraft coasts to Mars in about 50 days, after which another station in orbit around Mars fires a plasma beam at the spacecraft to slow it down.

The spacecraft goes into orbit around Mars and the astronauts descend to explore the surface. After 11 days, they launch to Mars orbit, where the Martian station fires its plasma beam again to accelerate the spacecraft toward Earth. After coasting toward Earth, the station in orbit around Earth fires its plasma beam at the spacecraft to capture it in Earth orbit.

And then onto Jupiter:

If the challenges can be overcome, the Magbeam system will offer several benefits: First, a fast trip to Mars will reduce the space radiation hazard to astronauts. High-speed particles from the Sun and interstellar space continually bombard any spacecraft traveling between planets. However, this space radiation can be deflected by planetary magnetic fields or absorbed by a planet's atmosphere. Getting astronauts quickly from one planet to another will reduce their exposure to space radiation. The high-speed makes Magbeam useful for missions beyond Mars as well, "We think this would be a good system for delivering payloads to Jupiter and beyond," said Winglee.

PhysOrg: Carnegie Mellon robot will run time trials to enter $2 million desert race

Just a reminder that this race is happening in October. I think my first post to this blog concerned this race (I seem to remember that the 'winner' of the race last year only managed something like 7km out of 150km...).

Economist.com | Cold fusion

Not yet a precursor to a starship engine, perhaps, but maybe an ancestor of Dr McCoy's portable diagnosis machine.

Creating fusion using a crystal. As opposed to, for instance, bubbles and rock and roll?

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | First synthetic virus created:

That was 11 July, 2002:

Scientists have assembled the first synthetic virus.

To construct the virus, the researchers say they followed a recipe they downloaded from the internet and used gene sequences from a mail-order supplier.

The animals were paralysed and then died.

The more dangerous smallpox virus would be complex and difficult to assemble, but Cello says, "it would probably in the future be possible".

Now, more recent (January 12, 2005), in the International Herald Tribune:

Synthetic virus in reach

An unexpectedly sudden advance in synthesizing long lengths of DNA has put researchers within reach of manufacturing genomes the size of the smallpox virus.

This will permit efficient and rapid synthesis of any Select Agent virus genome in very short order," he said, referring to the list of dangerous pathogens and toxins that possessors are required to register with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In his view, any facility possessing the new DNA synthesis equipment should be assumed capable of making any virus on the Select Agent list.

Church has no interest in synthesizing dangerous pathogens but is aware of the potential for misuse of DNA synthesis. He recently proposed that the machines and ingredients for synthesizing DNA should be controlled, with manufacturers selling supplies only to facilities whose DNA machines are registered.

And then I'll refer the reader to the book "Our Final Century" by Sir Martin Rees, for a more disquieting (I think they use this word quite often in relation to the book) analysis of these and other pending extinction events. The Institute for the Future (IFTF) may also be of interest for keeping an eye on...uhm...the future.

1. Hang in There: The 25-Year Wait for Immortality and 2. Inventor sets his sights on immortality

From 1.:

By then, people will start lives that could last 1,000 years or more. Our human genomes will be modified to include the genetic material of microorganisms that live in the soil, enabling us to break down the junk proteins that our cells amass over time and which they can’t digest on their own. People will have the option of looking and feeling the way they did at 20 for the rest of their lives, or opt for an older look if they get bored. Of course, everyone will be required to go in for age rejuvenation therapy once every decade or so, but that will be a small price to pay for near-immortality.

Your background is in computer science. How does that qualify you to spearhead a project on aging?

My background is enormously beneficial. There are really very important differences between the type of creativity involved in being a basic scientist and being an engineer. It means that I’m able to think in very different ways and come up with approaches to things that are different from the way a basic scientist might think.

And then from 2.:

The inventor and computer scientist is serious about his health because if it fails him he might not live long enough to see humanity achieve immortality, a seismic development he predicts in his new book is no more than 20 years away.

Why on earth are these computer scientists getting into this immortality thing? And, man, that beard! Metusaleh indeed.

But I have been thinking on this immortality thing, and I want some. I haven't, though, thought of the interesting consequence - that of the sudden increase in value of one's life when you decide to become...well...immortal. No more extreme sports. No more adventures. No more taking a stroll on the wild side.

There was something else, but it's slipped my mind (will have to look into some of those supplements Kurtzweil is suggesting). Will get back to this thread sometime.

Interpretation and Philosophical Foundation of Quantum Mechanics

The situation is quite different in the case of quantum theory [as opposed to the theory of relativity], where we do not have such a generally accepted principle which can serve as the foundation of the theory. Indeed, I would suggest that this is the very reason makes it possible that a variety of different interpretations - in the broader sense - coexist. It is important to notice that nearly all of these interpretations are in agreement with each other when it comes to definite experimental predictions. Therefore, as is to be expected for an interpretation in the broader sense, there is no way - at least not immediately - of experimentally differentiating between them.[my emphasis]

I love the logic of this paragraph. And something else:

In an application of Bohr's statement which says that a quantum phenomenon comprises both the quantum system and the measuring device, Wheeler states that we as observers are free to decide in which way we will bring a quantum phenomenon to its close. We decide, by choosing the measuring device, which phenomenon can become reality and which one cannot. Wheeler explicates this by example of the well-known case of a quasar, of which we can see two pictures through the gravity lens action of a galaxy that lies between the quasar and ourselves. By choosing which instrument to use for observing the light coming from that quasar, we can decide here and now whether the quantum phenomenon in which the photons take part is interference of amplitudes passing on both sides of the galaxy or whether we determine the path the photon took on one or the other side of the galaxy. In both cases the individual process again contains an element that cannot be controlled. For example if we decide to measure the path of the photon - to let the path become reality - we have no influence on which of the two possible paths of the photon actually will be observed.

This is the reason why Wheeler labels the individual quantum phenomenon an elementary act of creation. We as observers play a significant role in this process since we can decide by choosing the measuring device which quantum phenomenon is realized. Still, we cannot influence the specific value obtained through the measurement. Finally, since we are part of the universe, the universe, according to Wheeler, creates itself by observing itself through us.

By observing we influence fundamentally...I recently read a science fiction story by Adam Roberts, called Stone, where he proposes that, because of that influence that a consciousness has on a quantum level, that there exists only one type of consciousness per universe. Of course that's just my interpretation and memory of the story. Will have to reread it. I can certainly recommend the novel...

From the same page:

A very interesting and closely related position is taken by Just[24] from a psychoanalytic viewpoint. He compares the spontaneous and discontinuous reduction of the wave function in the quantum mechanical measuring process with the process of spontaneous realization ("Aha-Erlebnis"), to which in his opinion exactly the same characteristics apply.

I can't say I'm hundred percent sure I understand this (the original is a lecture in German, ja?), but it seems to be the sort of thing that happened when Archimedes ran naked through the streets shouting Eureka!. Eureka-Erlebnis possibly? The sort of feeling you get when you suddenly understand a difficult concept. Something I'm obviously not going to experience soon in my readings of quantum physics.

Starlab research: Christopher Altman

Look at this...

Last summer I held a research fellowship working with the Starlab CAM Brain group in studies designing and evolving artifical neural networks directly in silico. The project combines evolvable hardware and genetic algorithms in a novel approach towards the design and implementation of large-scale neural networks.

Science fiction, or what? Evolvable hardware - I'm sure he's not talking about us (spoedniek speaking for the human race).

My son is 3 years old now. If we (again I'll casually take the liberty of speaking for the human race) survive our own cleverness, I can't begin to imagine what kind of world he's going to inhabit when he's my age. ...uhm...that's 33 years from now. And how do I keep up? I barely know my iPods from my DVD-R...RW+- (What is it with these RW+ and RW-?!) Hey, and I have a job, okay? Can't surf the net all day long...

PCWorld.com - World's Most Powerful Computer Doubles in Size

It's the size of half a tennis court. And that's the compact version.

Scientists lighten up on dark energy | The Register

I'm still on about the quantum computer and artificial neural networks, but I've discovered as I waded through the mangrove swamps of information google has virtualised all around me, that it's not all as simple as I thought. In fact...well, you can imagine. Nothing about 'quantum' was ever going to be simple. But I'll keep looking. In the meantime the above article has appeared at The Register. They're theorising that all this endless carrying on about dark matter and dark energy was just so much sticky stuff to keep all sorts of other theories together, and that all cosmologists can now relax and get on to other more interesting things like...whatever it is these guys find interesting (the whole universe, for instance).

Naturally, not everyone agrees.

However, the scientific community remains sceptical. Michael Turner from the University of Chicago actually coined the term "dark energy" and in 1990, co-authored a paper with Kolb. He says: "Their paper is going to get enormous scrutiny, and my own guess is that in the end, they'll be wrong."

NewsFactor Network - Innovation -

From October 2002, some more on quantum computers...

Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: Ask the Experts: Computer Science: What makes a quantum computer so different (and so much faster) than a conventional computer?

This is the article I've been looking for.

generation5 - Simple neural network as robot brain

and

Genetic Algorithms and Lego

I don't have time to go into this, but let's keep these two articles in mind. Especially if you have a Lego Mindstorms kit...

Just checking... 

Can you see the picture?

KK emission

On my wandering through the quantum computing world I discovered the animated image...

I have to figure out how to get images on this blog...

Quantum computing FAQ The interesting bit on that page is:

interesting speculation on combining quantum computers with neural networks Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 09:38:36 +0100 (MET)

Some time ago I read a very good article on quantum computers, explaining in fairly simple terms how they should eventually work. I'll post the link somewhere on this blog when I find it again. As I was reading it I couldn't help noticing a strong (in my ignorance I certainly thought it was strong) correlation (mmh, statistically perhaps a bit loaded, that word) with artificial neural nets. Not that I know that much about neural nets either, except that they work superficially (since I only understand them superficially) the way quantum computers will work (one day when they get them to work at all).

When I discovered the link above I was quite excited since the author seem to have come to a similar conclusion, and since he obviously is more knowledgeable on the subject than I. The only downer on that one is the date. I am just soooo slow.

The British Computer Society (BCS), in 1999, then followed a similar route: Quantum Neural Information Processing

Oh, here we go. Someone who can summarise it for us nicely (ultimately from Technology Research News 10 July 2002).

neural network - Webopedia.com

Strictly speaking, a neural network implies a non-digital computer, but neural networks can be simulated on digital computers.

Neural networks are currently used prominently in voice recognition systems, image recognition systems, industrial robotics, medical imaging, data mining and aerospace applications.

Some more introductory sites on neural networks:

• An Introduction to Neural Networks

Yes, I noticed. There's only one in that list. Is that still a list, then? I'll add more as I go along.

India would become leader in nano-technology in 5 yrs

How many people in India now? Last time I checked it was 700 million, but that was in the eighties.Here are some numbers:

The population in India as at 0:00 hours on 1st March 2001 stood at 1,027,015,247 persons. With this, India became only the second country in the world after China to cross the one billionmark. India's population rose by 21.34 % between 1991 - 2001. The sex ratio (i.e., number of females per thousand males) of population was 933, rising from 927 as at the 1991 Census. Total literacy rate in India was returned as 65.38%.

More stats.

Although India occupies only 2.4% of the world's land area, it supports over 15% of the world's population. Only China has a larger population. Almost 40% of Indians are younger than 15 years of age. About 70% of the people live in more than 550,000 villages, and the remainder in more than 200 towns and cities. Religion, caste, and language are major determinants of social and political organization in India today. The government has recognized 18 languages as official; Hindi is the most widely spoken.

And a bit more interesting: India population 'to be biggest'

India is set to overtake China as the world's most populous nation by 2050, while some countries will shrink by nearly 40%, according to new research.

Britain's population is likely to overtake that of France, while the US will grow by nearly 50%, it says.

India is expected to grow from 1.08bn to 1.63bn people, overtaking China, which is forecast to reach 1.44bn from 1.3bn currently.

PREDICTED POPULATIONS, 2050 1 India, 1,628m (2) 2 China, 1,437m (1) 3 United States, 420m (3) 4 Indonesia, 308m (4) 5 Nigeria, 307m (9) Source: PRB (2004 position in brackets)

And so on. So what's the point of this blog entry? Hopefully we'll find out soon...