There are multiple potential paths to a technological singularity. Although many people think a singularity would result if computers acquired sentience and general intelligence, a singularity might also happen if methods were found to increase the IQ of individuals and populations. In Singularity Rising: Surviving and Thriving in a Smarter, Richer, and More Dangerous World …
Wired Danger Room – ” Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder, the chief of the Office of Naval Research, the Navy’s chief futurist is pushing up the anticipated date for when sailors can expect to use laser weapons on the decks of their ships, and raising expectations for robotic submarines. The US Navy should have laser cannons …
NY Times – hina in recent years established global dominance in renewable energy, its solar panel and wind turbine factories forcing many foreign rivals out of business and its policy makers hailed by environmentalists around the world as visionaries. Though worldwide demand for solar panels and wind turbines has grown rapidly over the last five …
1. Detroit Free Press – Half of all adult Americans now own either a tablet computer or a smartphone, and one-third use their mobile devices to view news stories and video clips at least once a week. That’s according to a survey by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, which polled more …
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) researchers report they have patented and are commercializing gallium arsenide (GaAs) nanowires grown on graphene, a hybrid material with competitive properties. Semiconductors grown on graphene are expected to become the basis for new types of device systems, and could fundamentally change the semiconductor industry. Crayonano is the caompny …
George Church is a giant in gene sequencing, synthetic biology and DNA science. In the October, 2012 Discover Magazine, George Church teases with some ideas he has for achieving physical immortality (indeterminant lifespans) via Synthetic biology. George’s idea is to bring in sections of DNA from exotic organisms or genes that are rare for humans …
Arxiv – On-chip quantum phonodynamics (6 pages) ABSTRACT – Sound can be just as quantum as light. But our toolbox for single quanta of sound, i.e. phonons, is currently insufficient. Here we describe a new component that enables a chip-based, solid-state analogue of cavity-QED utilizing acoustic phonons instead of photons, phonitons instead of polaritons. We …
The U.K. Health Protection Agency estimates the typical Briton receives about 2,200 microsieverts of radiation per year from background radiation, or about 0.251 microsieverts per hour — more than double the levels registered in Tokyo. Rome is also about 0.25 microsieverts per hour. “Half of the average annual radiation to people in the U.K. comes …
Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) has entered into an agreement to purchase a quantum computing system from D-Wave Systems Inc. Lockheed Martin and D-Wave will collaborate to realize the benefits of a computing platform based upon a quantum annealing processor, as applied to some of Lockheed Martin’s most challenging computation problems. The multi-year contract includes …
