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

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: .

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]

Moore's Law ‘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)

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:

Moore's Law 2 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.

Butterfly effect In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependency on initial conditions in which a small change at one place in a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state. The name of the effect, coined by Edward Lorenz, is derived from the theoretical example of a hurricane's formation being contingent on whether or not a distant butterfly had flapped its wings several weeks earlier. Although the butterfly effect may appear to be an unlikely behavior, it is exhibited by very simple systems. For example, a ball placed at the crest of a hill may roll into any surrounding valley depending on, among other things, slight differences in its initial position. History[edit] Chaos theory and the sensitive dependence on initial conditions was described in the literature in a particular case of the three-body problem by Henri Poincaré in 1890.[1] He later proposed that such phenomena could be common, for example, in meteorology. Illustration[edit] , then

Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies 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.