← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Conservative
Thread ID: 8763 | Posts: 1 | Started: 2003-08-04
2003-08-04 20:01 | User Profile
KURZWEILAI.NET NEWSLETTER
A Business Out of Thin Air August 4, 2003
HoloTouch has developed technology that allows users to operate equipment simply by passing a finger through a holographic image. The system uses lasers and infrared sensors to create images that can be manipulated in the air.... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2273&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2273&m=9000[/url]
Supercomputing's New Idea Is Old One August 4, 2003
Scientists in government, industry and academia involved in the race to build the world's fastest computing machines are now turning their attention once again to Seymour Cray's elegant approach to building ultra-fast computers. The designs use special hardware that to handle the long strings of... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2272&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2272&m=9000[/url]
VR accommodates reality July 30/August 6, 2003
Researchers have advanced the representatiom of real objects in virtual environments by allowing real and virtual objects to coexist in a shared virtual space. The system uses four cameras and object recognition software to determine the shapes and positions of real objects in the environment.... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2271&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2271&m=9000[/url]
New Neurons on Demand? August 1, 2003
A ubiquitous signaling molecule, nitric oxide (NO), turns off the production of new neurons in the adult brain, researchers have discovered. By shutting down this off switch, doctors may one day be able to generate new neurons in the brains of patients suffering from neurological diseases or... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2270&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2270&m=9000[/url]
Circuit design evolving in distributed digital world July 31, 2003
A digital simulation of natural selection, using distributed computing in home PCs, is evolving superior electronic circuit designs.... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2269&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2269&m=9000[/url]
U.S. says Windows vulnerable to attack August 1, 2003
The Department of Homeland Security has issued an updated advisory about possible hacker attacks on computers running Microsoft operating systems.... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2268&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2268&m=9000[/url]
The Case for Terrorism Futures July 30, 2003
The cancellation on the Pentagon's Policy Analysis Market (PAM) -- a controversial plan to create a futures market to help predict terrorist strikes -- will rob the country's intelligence agencies of a tool with a strong history of accurately predicting future events, according to proponents of... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2267&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2267&m=9000[/url]
PluggedIn: Cutting-Edge Science Creates Stain-Free Pants July 27, 2003
Nanotechnology - the science of manipulating materials billionths of a meter wide - has emerged as a promising new field that could lead to stunning advances like molecule-sized computers, tiny cancer-fighting robots that travel the bloodstream and stain-resistant trousers in years to... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2266&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2266&m=9000[/url]
Most Notebooks Go Wireless by 2008 July 16, 2003
By 2008, mobile workers will be largely unhooked when they're on the road, according to a new study. Only 24 percent of notebooks PCs sold worldwide this year have embedded wireless connectivity, but that number is expected to jump to 90 percent by... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2265&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2265&m=9000[/url]
General Relativity Sinks Submarine July 30, 2003
A Brazilian physicist has resolved a paradox highlighted by Einstein's theory of relativity, which explains how movement at close to light speed can distort space. Apparently, underwater there is some inconsistency in that theory, as the Brazilian physicist has discovered with the help of a... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2264&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2264&m=9000[/url]
Unlocking the Brain's Secrets July 27, 2003
An international team of six scientists has been involved in scanning thousands of images of the brains of people of all ages with a range of conditions, in the hopes of creating a "map" that would reveal the mysteries of how the brain controls everything from language to... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2263&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2263&m=9000[/url]
Student challenges basic ideas of time August 1, 2003
A bold paper that been published in the August issue of Foundations of Physics Letters seems set to change the way we think about the nature of time and its relationship to motion and classical and quantum mechanics. The work also appears to provide solutions to Zeno's paradoxes. In the paper,... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2262&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2262&m=9000[/url]
Nanofab Partnerships Lead To Real-World Solutions July 31, 2003
Intel expects to perfect 100-nanometer chip features this year, two years ahead of schedule. At its current pace, that number should drop to 22 nanometers by 2015. To get there, Intel and other chip companies count on collaboration with universities with cutting-edge facilities such as the... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2261&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2261&m=9000[/url]
Book Questions The Necessity Of Some Technological Marvels July 31, 2003
Bill McKibben questions the necessity of many technological marvels and believes robotics, genetic engineering and nanotechnology present the risk of humans losing their... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2260&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2260&m=9000[/url]
Virtual reality conquers sense of taste July 31, 2003
The "last frontier of virtual reality," taste, has been crossed. To record taste experience, a thin-film force sensor is placed in a subject's mouth to record chewing forces, biological sensors made of lipid and polymer membranes record the major chemical constituents of the food's taste, and a... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2259&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2259&m=9000[/url]
Magic Touch for Electronic Music? July 31, 2003
The Audiopad is a colorful, dynamic, luminescent interface projected onto a table top (as in the movie Minority Report) that allows for improvised composition of live electronic music. The table top is equipped with radio sensors that track the position and movement of half a dozen plastic... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2258&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2258&m=9000[/url]
E-school would teach medicine from afar July 30. 2003
An "International Virtual Medical School" based at the University of Dundee in Scotland will allow medical students to study medicine remotely via computer. It will be based around a "virtual practice," where students would be presented by the computer with patients whom they have to treat.... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2257&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2257&m=9000[/url]
CRN endorses parts of Greenpeace nanotech report July 30, 2003
The Center for Responsible Nanotechnology (CRN) announced today its conditional support of the Greenpeace report, "Future technologies, today's choices," on the risks, benefits, and current status of nanotechnology. "We have to accept that some nanomaterials and nanotechnologies may be... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2256&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2256&m=9000[/url]
A veritable cognitive mind July 28, 2003
Marvin Minsky, MIT professor and AI's founding father, says today's artificial-intelligence methods are fine for gluing together two or a few knowledge domains but still miss the "big" AI problem. He says the missing element is something so big that we can't see it: common sense. In his... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2255&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2255&m=9000[/url]
AI quest goes small-concept July 28, 2003
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has poured hundreds of millions into every aspect of "big" artificial intelligence-expert systems, with little tangible return. Now DARPA plans to attack the big-AI problem by providing its own quantitative measures of success. Part of that process... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2254&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2254&m=9000[/url]
From Uzbek to Klingon, the Machine Cracks the Code July 31, 2003
Statistics-based language-translation technology is allowing scientists to crack scores of languages in a fraction of the time, and at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods. Johns Hopkins computer scientists hope to have working translation systems for as many as 100 languages within... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2253&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2253&m=9000[/url]
Cyborg Liberation Front July 30 - August 5, 2003
The World Transhumanist Association conference at Yale University in late June brought together academics and activists to lay the groundwork for a society that would admit as citizens and companions intelligent robots, cyborgs made from a free mixing of human and machine parts, and fully organic,... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2252&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2252&m=9000[/url]
Brain scans 'reveal baby thoughts' July 29, 2003
Researchers at Birkbeck College and University College London are attempting to answer questions on baby brain development by monitoring brain waves. Increased gamma-band activity, which is associated with the representation of hidden objects, will "inform fundamental issues about how infants... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2251&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2251&m=9000[/url]
Inventions' wonderful world on display at Microsoft fair July 30, 2003
Futuristic projects at Microsoft's advanced-research division and affiliates include a self-charging robot slave that goes to meetings in your place, a glove that translates sign language into digitized letters, a low-cost way for motor-vehicle departments and companies to create forgery-proof... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2250&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2250&m=9000[/url]
I Think, Therefore I Communicate July 30, 2003
Researchers are working on brain-computer interfaces to create a direct link between computers and the electrical signals in the brain of "locked in" individuals so they can operate devices like wheelchairs or use simple word processing programs to express their wishes. Volunteers equipped with... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2249&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2249&m=9000[/url]
Helping Machines Think Different Jul. 29, 2003
DARPA wants to build a new generation of computer systems that can reason, learn and respond intelligently to things they've never encountered before. Interim steps include LifeLog -- the controversial Defense Department initiative to track everything about an individual -- and Perceptive... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2248&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2248&m=9000[/url]
Virtual humans edge closer July 27, 2003
Avatars seem to be getting ever more lifelike, with more realistic visual appearance, speech, and body motion. But as an avatar approaches reality, it could fall into the "Zombie Zone," in which expectations that a character is actually human are suddently "violated by something that slightly... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2247&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2247&m=9000[/url]
Pentagon Abandons Plan for Futures Market on Terror July 29, 2003
DARPA has quickly abandoned an idea (the Policy Analysis Market) in which anonymous speculators would have bet on forecasting terrorist attacks, assassinations and coups in an online futures... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2246&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2246&m=9000[/url]
AI Depends on Your Point of View Jul. 29, 2003
The Real-World Reasoning project, a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program, is designed to get computers to start examining situations in more than one way, integrating rule-based and probabilistic reasoning as well as game theory and strategic thinking. It's part of a larger effort... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2245&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2245&m=9000[/url]
Pundits ponder future of space exploration at Telluride Tech Festival July 29, 2003
Famed science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, futurist Ray Kurzweil, laser inventor Charles Townes and renowned physicist Freeman Dyson will be among the speakers and honorees at the Fourth Annual Telluride Tech Festival on Aug. 8-10 in Telluride, Colorado. "The event is a celebration of the... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2244&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2244&m=9000[/url]
Electrodes in brain to 'switch off' pain July 27, 2003
Breakthrough implant surgery may help patients to control agony caused by major injury. The "deep brain stimulation" operation involves drilling two tiny holes in the skull so that two electrodes can be implanted deep in the brain. The electrodes are wired to a brain "pacemaker," a device that... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2243&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2243&m=9000[/url]
Liquid lenses may shrink feature sizes on microchips July 28, 2003
New data will assist in the design of optics for liquid immersion lithography, an old idea that recently has attracted new interest as a way to improve image resolution and thus shrink feature sizes of computer chips. Conventional optical lithography has advanced sufficiently to achieve a... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2242&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2242&m=9000[/url]
New Directions In Music Tech At Siggraph July 28, 2003
The 2003 Siggraph conference is under way in San Diego, and the Emerging Technologies booth is showcasing several noteworthy projects in the field of human-computer interaction in music... [url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=2241&m=9000]http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedire...sID=2241&m=9000[/url]
BETTERHUMANS [url=http://www.betterhumans.com]http://www.betterhumans.com[/url]
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER Monday, August 04, 2003
Life extension - Nanotechnology - Cloning - Genetic engineering
DEBATING THE FUTURE SOMERVILLE vs HUGHES
Toronto, Aug. 29 | Buy tickets now and save! [url=http://www.betterhumans.com/Events/Debating_the_Future/]http://www.betterhumans.com/Events/Debatin...ing_the_Future/[/url]
COLUMNS [url=http://www.betterhumans.com/Features/Columns/]http://www.betterhumans.com/Features/Columns/[/url]
GUEST COLUMN | Margaret Somerville
Culture Is Wedded to Nature [url=http://www.betterhumans.com/Features/Columns/Guests/column.aspx?articleID=2003-08-04-1]http://www.betterhumans.com/Features/Colum...ID=2003-08-04-1[/url] James Hughes is wrong to sever the cultural from the natural, argues bioethicist Margaret Somerville in defending heterosexual marriage
FORWARD THINKING | Simon Smith
Life Extension: Believe the Hype? [url=http://www.betterhumans.com/Features/Columns/Forward_Thinking/column.aspx?articleID=2003-08-04-2]http://www.betterhumans.com/Features/Colum...ID=2003-08-04-2[/url] Immortality may not be around the corner, but we're moving in the right direction
LATEST POLL [url=http://www.betterhumans.com/Features/Polls/]http://www.betterhumans.com/Features/Polls/[/url]
By when do you think treatments will extend maximum human lifespan? [url=http://www.betterhumans.com/Features/Polls/poll.aspx?pollID=2003-08-04-1]http://www.betterhumans.com/Features/Polls...ID=2003-08-04-1[/url]
THIS WEEK'S TOP NEWS [url=http://www.betterhumans.com/News/]http://www.betterhumans.com/News/[/url]
Nanotechnology Gets Greenpeace's Attention (398 hits) [url=http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2003-07-28-8]http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx...ID=2003-07-28-8[/url]
Company to Store Stem Cells for "True Life Insurance" (314 hits) [url=http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2003-07-31-4]http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx...ID=2003-07-31-4[/url]
Blocking Molecule Spurs Neuron Birth (240 hits) [url=http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2003-07-30-1]http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx...ID=2003-07-30-1[/url]
Test Predicts Reaction to Cancer Treatment (229 hits) [url=http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2003-07-28-7]http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx...ID=2003-07-28-7[/url]
Drug's Promise: Lose 10 Pounds in a Week (176 hits) [url=http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2003-08-01-1]http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx...ID=2003-08-01-1[/url]
Gene for Well-known Enzyme Linked to Lifespan (175 hits) [url=http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2003-08-01-2]http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx...ID=2003-08-01-2[/url]
Collagen Mix Speeds Healing by 50% (170 hits) [url=http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2003-07-29-2]http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx...ID=2003-07-29-2[/url]
Common Breast Cancer Gene Found (170 hits) [url=http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2003-07-29-3]http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx...ID=2003-07-29-3[/url]
Virtual Reality Gets Taste (164 hits) [url=http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2003-08-01-3]http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx...ID=2003-08-01-3[/url]
Gene Therapy Targets Epileptic Seizures (162 hits) [url=http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2003-07-28-6]http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx...ID=2003-07-28-6[/url]
UPCOMING EVENTS [url=http://www.betterhumans.com/Resources/Events_Calendar/]http://www.betterhumans.com/Resources/Events_Calendar/[/url]
Mortal Beings/Immortal Dreams [url=http://www.betterhumans.com/Resources/Events_Calendar/event.aspx?eventID=2003-07-07-2]http://www.betterhumans.com/Resources/Even...ID=2003-07-07-2[/url] Runs from Saturday, August 02, 2003 to Thursday, August 07, 2003 in Hiram, Ohio, USA
Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association [url=http://www.betterhumans.com/Resources/Events_Calendar/event.aspx?eventID=2003-06-10-1]http://www.betterhumans.com/Resources/Even...ID=2003-06-10-1[/url] Runs from Thursday, August 07, 2003 to Sunday, August 10, 2003 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Visions of Humanity in Cyberculture, Cyberpunk and Science Fiction [url=http://www.betterhumans.com/Resources/Events_Calendar/event.aspx?eventID=2003-03-17-1]http://www.betterhumans.com/Resources/Even...ID=2003-03-17-1[/url] Runs from Monday, August 11, 2003 to Wednesday, August 13, 2003 in Prague, Czech Republic
2003 International Conference on Emerging Technologies [url=http://www.betterhumans.com/Resources/Events_Calendar/event.aspx?eventID=2003-03-04-1]http://www.betterhumans.com/Resources/Even...ID=2003-03-04-1[/url] Runs from Monday, August 25, 2003 to Tuesday, August 26, 2003 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Northwest Gene Expression Conference [url=http://www.betterhumans.com/Resources/Events_Calendar/event.aspx?eventID=2003-08-01-1]http://www.betterhumans.com/Resources/Even...ID=2003-08-01-1[/url] Runs from Wednesday, August 27, 2003 to Friday, August 29, 2003 in Seattle, Washington, USA
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