Singularity Scenarios: The Ultimate Innovation or an AI Apocalypse? My talk last weekend at the New York Future Salon explored the likelihood and the implications of the transformative event known as the "Singularity. " I tend to part ways with many Singularity enthusiasts over two small issues: what comes before a Singularity, and what comes after. In terms of what comes before, I'm generally in the camp that machine-substrate intelligence is very likely possible, but is probably a much more complex problem than some of the more enthusiastic Singularitarians would have us think. We currently have a single model of a mind emerging from a physical structure--the human brain--and (as noted by one of the 2009 Singularity Summit speakers, David Chalmers) we're not even sure how that happens.
I've noted elsewhere that I suspect that "a stand-alone artificial mind will be more a tool of narrow utility than something especially apocalyptic. " The upper-left scenario, "Out of Control," is the more-or-less conventional Singularity story. Images: Five Predictions For The Future Of Energy. It seems like a new prediction pops up for how we will use renewable energy in the coming decades every day. Will we be using all solar in two years? In five? Will we use more nuclear, or less? Experts love making predictions. Here, we round up some of the most exciting (and upsetting) predictions that have been made in the last few months. Prediction: Solar Energy Will Be More Economical Than Fossil Fuels In 10 Years So says the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). Prediction: Solar Power Will Be As Cheap As Coal in Two Years No need to wait a decade--the researchers over at Bloomberg New Energy Finance think that solar power could reach grid parity (the point at which solar is as cheap for utilities as fossil fuels) in the next two years.
Prediction: Natural Gas Will Kill Renewables Natural gas produced from shale will kill the economics of renewable energy in the coming years, according to a report from Reuters. The future: Expect the unexpected. Dubai's 'World' Is Sinking - Sea reclaiming troubled artificial island project. How Speeding The "Most Important Algorithm Of Our Lifetime" Could Change This Modern World. Last week at the Association for Computing Machinery's Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA) a new way of calculating Fast Fourier Transforms was presented by a group of MIT researchers. It's possible that under certain situations it may be up to ten times faster than the current way we do these. At this point you are probably wondering: What the hell is he talking about? Let me explain, because improving these three little letters--FFT--may change your life. Here's a quickie explainer: Fourier transforms are a mathematical trick to simplify how you represent a complicated signal--say the waves of sound made by speaking.
They work by reducing the complex wave pattern to a simple and pretty short list of numbers that, when run through the system again, result in a very good approximation of the original signal. How so? So calculating FFTs up to ten times faster is a big deal. It's almost impossible to scope how enormous an impact this new FFT technique could have. British training 'Xbox generation' soldiers with tweaked games. Technology areas to watch in 2012 through 2016. 1. Energy Revolution - Mass produced fission, fusion, and maybe cold fusion 2. Memristors and other significant computing and electronic improvements. 3. Robotics 4.
Urbanization Broad Group skyscrapers, Tata flat packed buildings 5. Space 6. Supersmartphones, exoskeletons and wearable systems 7. Hyperbroadband 8. The most controversial has the highest potential impact 1. There is the highly controversial possibility of Rossi-Focardi Energy catalyzer. Brillouin Energy is another cold fusion contender There is also work in this area by Brian Ahern and NASA and other agencies are investigating it. EMC2 Fusion, Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, General Fusion and/or Tri-alpha energy could develop a first full scale prototype commercial system by Dec, 2016. A desktop high frequency fusion system has been proposed for space propulsion and energy generation. In Chapman’s aneutronic fusion reactor scheme, a commercially available benchtop laser starts the reaction. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Ten 100-year predictions that came true. 11 January 2012Last updated at 00:09 By Tom Geoghegan BBC News Magazine John Watkins predicted Americans would be taller, tanks would exist and C, X and Q would no longer feature in our everyday alphabet In 1900, an American civil engineer called John Elfreth Watkins made a number of predictions about what the world would be like in 2000.
How did he do? As is customary at the start of a new year, the media have been full of predictions about what may happen in the months ahead. But a much longer forecast made in 1900 by a relatively unknown engineer has been recirculating in the past few days. In December of that year, at the start of the 20th Century, John Elfreth Watkins wrote a piece published on page eight of an American women's magazine, Ladies' Home Journal, entitled What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years. Watkins was a writer for the Journal's sister magazine, the Saturday Evening Post, based in Indianapolis.
It was picked up and caused some excitement on Twitter. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Innovation Starvation. Fascinating Ways Hospitals Are Implementing iPads. Everyone’s heard one of the most recognizable Apple catch phrases: there’s an app for that. With the dawning of the iPad, this is especially true now for the realm of medicine. Having portable, lightweight access to wifi connection allows the iPad to function as a fantastic reference tool for medical professionals. We’re going to list off the most interesting, useful ways doctors and nurses are using iPads in a hospital setting. For Medical Professionals Doctors typically have to cart around patients’ charts in order to be prepared for each new person they’ll be assessing.
Also, every time they need to reference some sort of scan or test results, they have to visit the nursing station and then travel back to the patient’s room. The iPad, however, makes this whole process a breeze. Doctors and nurses alike are using iPads to view tests like X-rays, MRIs, and EKGs whenever they need them. For Patients Conclusion Tagged as: hospital technology, hospitals implementing iPads, iPads. Agile Planning. Image courtesy The last IBM Global CEO Study ('The Enterprise Of The Future') interviewed 1,130 CEO's in 45 countries and 32 industries. It found that organisations felt bombarded by change, and that many are struggling to keep up. Eight out of ten CEOs saw significant change ahead, and yet the gap between the expected level of change and the ability to manage it had almost tripled since the previous study in 2006. An inability to cope with the pace of change. That's pretty serious. We live in exponential times.
In order to be successful, said the IBM report, the enterprise of the future will be hungry for change, innovative "beyond customer imagination", disruptive by nature. And yet, with the current economic malaise, there has never been more reason to become more adaptive or a better time for re-invention. Many industries, including advertising, have gotten lazy. "Our structures need to be more speedy. I think the learnings from the software industry are very instructive.