TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) brings together some of the world’s top thinkers at conferences around the world to deliver short presentations on “ideas worth spreading.” Not surprisingly, several speakers have delivered talks on topics of interest to transhumanists, such as life extension, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and more. One of the great things about TED is [...]
Posts under ‘Artificial Intelligence’
DARPA researching cameras that have “visual intelligence”
This week DARPA announced its “Mind’s Eye Program,” an effort to research visual intelligence in machines. More specifically, it will serve to not only enable cameras to recognize objects (an ability some machines are already capable of) but determine interactions between objects it sees, and then use this information to provide a “complete narrative of [...]
Where will AI be in 90 years? Experts weigh in
Silicon.com asked leading thinkers in the realm of artificial intelligence where they think AI will be in the year 2100. On the conservative side, we have responses from Noel Sharkey, who sees autonomous cars and more use of robots in medicine. On the more radical side, we have Ray Kurzweil, who believes we will have [...]
Highlights from the AAAS Annual Meeting
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) held their annual meeting this week, and naturally a lot of very interesting stories and research results were unveiled: Turning paper and clothing into batteries – By coating fabric and paper with ink “laced” with carbon nanotubes, researchers were able to coax these ordinary materials into [...]
Teaser for “Bluebrain – Year One” documentary
If you’re interested in learning more about what goes on behind-the-scenes at the Blue Brain Project, an effort to reverse-engineer the mammalian brain, this short documentary is a good start. It features interviews with project leader Henry Markram explaining more about the project and shows how his team is going about its important work. This [...]
GeekDad asks: “When do the machines take over?”
Curtis Silver, better known as Wired’s “GeekDad,” looks at our current level of technological progress, where we’re set to go in the near future, and can’t help but ask when humanity is going to face Judgment Day (well, almost). While that computer was built for a particular function and with the best intentions in mind, [...]
Engineering professor advises SyFy’s “Caprica”
Caprica, the Battlestar Galactica spinoff that debuted on the SyFy network this week, examines ethical implications of artificial intelligence and robotics. I don’t think I’m spoiling anything by revealing that, if you ever watched Battlestar, you know humanity’s dabbling with strong AI didn’t end well for our species. Even though the show is fiction, I [...]
“World’s first sex robot” debuts at Adult Entertainment Expo
“Sex robots” have been a fixture of science fiction and futurism for years. Hank Hyena illustrates the perceived benefits of “sexbots” in the article, “Sexbots Will Give Us Longevity Orgasm“: Sexbots will electrocute our flesh with climaxes twice as gigantic because they’ll be more desirable, patient, eager, and altruistic than their meat-bag competition, plus they’ll be uploaded [...]
Henry Markram: We will develop simulated brain by 2018
The Daily Mail features a very in-depth feature story about the work of Henry Markram and the Blue Brain Project, an effort to “reverse-engineer the mammalian brain, in order to understand brain function and dysfunction through detailed simulations.” Markram and team, who have already been able to simulate the workings of “about 10,000 neurons,” firmly [...]
Top Transhuman Trends and Stories of 2009 – Part Two
Just in time for New Year’s Day, here’s a continuation of the Top Transhuman Tech Trends of 2009: Improved Gene Therapy While gene therapy holds a lot of promise for providing effective treatments to previously untreatable diseases, in has traditionally been very difficult to administer effectively and also carried the very real risk of serious [...]