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Moore's law

Moore's law
Moore's law is the observation that, over the history of computing hardware, the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years. The law is named after Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore, who described the trend in his 1965 paper.[1][2][3] His prediction has proven to be accurate, in part because the law is now used in the semiconductor industry to guide long-term planning and to set targets for research and development.[4] The capabilities of many digital electronic devices are strongly linked to Moore's law: processing speed, memory capacity, sensors and even the number and size of pixels in digital cameras.[5] All of these are improving at roughly exponential rates as well. The period is often quoted as 18 months because of Intel executive David House, who predicted that chip performance would double every 18 months (being a combination of the effect of more transistors and their being faster).[9] History[edit] Gordon Moore in 2004 Network capacity. Related:  The Singularity

Technological Singularity The technological singularity is the hypothesis that accelerating progress in technologies will cause a runaway effect wherein artificial intelligence will exceed human intellectual capacity and control, thus radically changing civilization in an event called the singularity.[1] Because the capabilities of such an intelligence may be impossible for a human to comprehend, the technological singularity is an occurrence beyond which events may become unpredictable, unfavorable, or even unfathomable.[2] The first use of the term "singularity" in this context was by mathematician John von Neumann. Proponents of the singularity typically postulate an "intelligence explosion",[5][6] where superintelligences design successive generations of increasingly powerful minds, that might occur very quickly and might not stop until the agent's cognitive abilities greatly surpass that of any human. Basic concepts Superintelligence Non-AI singularity Intelligence explosion Exponential growth Plausibility

This Hotel in Singapore has the Coolest Sky Gardens Ever Jan 28, 2014 Designed by WOHA Architects, the PARKROYAL on Pickering Hotel in Singapore features six incredible sky gardens that are cantilevered at every fourth level between the blocks of guest rooms. PARKROYAL on Pickering is a hotel-in-a-garden concept that incorporates energy-saving features throughout the property including the ‘zero-energy’ sky gardens. The hotel recently celebrated it’s one year anniversary. The 367-room hotel cost $350 million to build and features 15,000 square metres (161,459 sq. ft) of cascading greenery, reflecting pools, waterfalls, planter walls and four-storey high solar-powered sky gardens, constituting more than twice its land area. [via ArchDaily]

Network effect Diagram showing the network effect in a few simple phone networks. The lines represent potential calls between phones. The classic example is the telephone. The expression "network effect" is applied most commonly to positive network externalities as in the case of the telephone. Over time, positive network effects can create a bandwagon effect as the network becomes more valuable and more people join, in a positive feedback loop. Origins[edit] Network effects were a central theme in the arguments of Theodore Vail, the first post patent president of Bell Telephone, in gaining a monopoly on US telephone services. The economic theory of the network effect was advanced significantly between 1985 and 1995 by researchers Michael L. According to Metcalfe, the rationale behind the sale of networking cards was that (1) the cost of the network was directly proportional to the number of cards installed, but (2) the value of the network was proportional to the square of the number of users.

‘Vulcan Mind Meld’: First Human Brain-to-Brain Communication Lets Scientist Control Another Person’s Movement Researchers have made the first step in human telepathy, creating a brain-to-brain interface that allows one person to control the motions of another. Mind control technology has been making strikes in the medical field, helping paralyzed or disabled patients feed themselves and fly drones as researchers hope to give them more independence. But these instances have only been using a person’s brain activity to power a device, like a robot. In contrast, researchers at the University of Washington used the brain signals of one person to control the hand motions of another person. The EEG signals from Rajesh Rao’s brain were captured and then transferred over the internet to Andrea Stocco, who was wearing a cap over the part of his brain that would control his hand movement. (Photo: University of Washington/Bryan Djunaedi) The brain signals were sent over the Internet, allowing Rajesh Rao to move Andrea Stocco’s finger on a keyboard, according to the university’s website. (H/T: Popular Science)

Chaos theory A double rod pendulum animation showing chaotic behavior. Starting the pendulum from a slightly different initial condition would result in a completely different trajectory. The double rod pendulum is one of the simplest dynamical systems that has chaotic solutions. Chaos: When the present determines the future, but the approximate present does not approximately determine the future. Chaotic behavior can be observed in many natural systems, such as weather and climate.[6][7] This behavior can be studied through analysis of a chaotic mathematical model, or through analytical techniques such as recurrence plots and Poincaré maps. Introduction[edit] Chaos theory concerns deterministic systems whose behavior can in principle be predicted. Chaotic dynamics[edit] The map defined by x → 4 x (1 – x) and y → x + y mod 1 displays sensitivity to initial conditions. In common usage, "chaos" means "a state of disorder".[9] However, in chaos theory, the term is defined more precisely. where , and , is: .

Self-Assembling Nano Flowers Grown in Lab Jun 3, 2013 At a laboratory at Harvard University, scientists have grown complex self-assembling nano- and microstructures using a solution of chemicals and minerals. Some of the structures are smaller than the width of a human hair and have many potential uses in optics and engineering. Researchers have started with flowers, stems and vases as they were the easiest shape to start with. By changing the temperature, pH, and carbon dioxide content of the chemical solutions, researchers were able to manipulate and control the growth of the structures. In an upcoming paper published in Science, lead scientist Wim Noorduin explains: “The emergence of complex nano- and microstructures is of fundamental interest, and the ability to program their form has practical ramifications in fields such as optics, catalysis, and electronics. [Slideshow from Science, Science via National Geographic] If you enjoyed this post, the Sifter highly recommends:

Disruptive technology Sustaining innovations are typically innovations in technology, whereas disruptive innovations cause changes to markets. For example, the automobile was a revolutionary technological innovation, but it was not a disruptive innovation, because early automobiles were expensive luxury items that did not disrupt the market for horse-drawn vehicles. The market for transportation essentially remained intact until the debut of the lower priced Ford Model T in 1908. The mass-produced automobile was a disruptive innovation, because it changed the transportation market. The automobile, by itself, was not. The current theoretical understanding of disruptive innovation is different from what might be expected by default, an idea that Clayton M. The work of Christensen and others during the 2000s has addressed the question of what firms can do to avoid displacement brought on by technological disruption. History and usage of the term[edit] The term disruptive technologies was coined by Clayton M.

Researcher Controls Another Person's Brain Over the Internet University of WashingtonUniversity of Washington researcher Rajesh Rao, left, plays a computer game with his mind. Across campus, researcher Andrea Stocco, right, controls Mr. Rao’s right index finger to involuntarily hit the “fire” button. Researchers at the University of Washington have successfully connected two human brains over the Internet. In an experiment called “Direct Brain-to-Brain Communication in Humans,” the scientists involved in the research were able to send a brain signal through the Internet to control the way another researcher, seated in a separate area of the university campus, moved his hand. The two researchers involved in the project, Rajesh Rao and Andrea Stocco, connected their brains by slipping on a hat that included a “magnetic stimulation coil,” which can read and stimulate the brain. Technologists have been working for years to create brain-computer interfaces, which will allow us to interact with our smartphones and computers simply by using our minds.

Emerging Memetic Singularity in the Global Knowledge Society 30 April 2009 | Draft IntroductionChecklist of constraintsVarieties of singularity -- Technological singularity | Cognitive singularity | Metasystem transition -- Communication singularity | Globality as singularity | Symmetry group singularity -- Subjective singularity | Spiritual singularity | Singularity of planetary consciousness -- Metaphorical singularityEnd times scenarios -- End of history | 2012 | Timewave theory | Eschatological scenarios | End of science -- End of culture | End of religion | End of civilization | End of security | End of privacy -- End of intelligence | End of ignorance | End of knowing | End of abundance | End of confidence -- End of hope | End of truth | End of faith | End of logic | End of rationality | End of modernism -- End of wisdom | End of tolerance | End of natureBlack holes and Event horizonsConclusion Introduction Historically these were a preoccupation of the Union of Intelligible Associations and are now a focus of Global Sensemaking.

Will Synthetic Biology Evolve Into the Next Hot Field? Synthetic biology grew from a very old human desire to engineer living systems and make them do useful things for us. As genetic engineering of the 1970s has evolved into synthetic biology today, the technologies and economics for sequencing (reading) and synthesizing (writing) DNA have become optimized for large-scale DNA processing. This allows synthetic biologists to design and modify the genetics of living systems so that they produce a wide variety of materials for us that don’t occur in nature, such as drugs, biofuels, flavors, fragrances and more. The field is garnering the attention of entrepreneurs and investors -- here are some things you should know that help explain why. 1. The growing "Bioeconomy." Related: Entrepreneurs on the Moon, DNA Hacking and Real-Life Iron Man Gear 2. Despite the recent gradual slope, the exponential drop in DNA sequencing ushered in projects that would have been laughably ambitious just a few years earlier. 3. 4. 5.

Geoffrey Moore - Dealing With Darwin Can We Have Brain-to-Brain Communication? Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

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