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Archive for the ‘computing’ category: Page 823

Jan 17, 2016

IBM, U. of Michigan Creating Chatty Computer

Posted by in category: computing

Now everyone can eventually feel like their mother-in-law is always with them. A computer that never stops talking and always has an opinion on everything.


IBM and the University of Michigan are working on a conversational computing system that will transform human-machine communication.

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Jan 17, 2016

New Quantum Record: Ball of Atoms Ends up in Two Spots at Once

Posted by in categories: computing, particle physics, quantum physics

Researchers have demonstrated the effects of superposition on the scale of everyday objects.

Of the weird implications of quantum mechanics, superposition may be the hardest for humans to wrap their minds around. In principle, superposition means that the same object can exist in more than one place at the same time.

Ordinarily, superposition is only relevant on the microscopic scale of subatomic particles. Effects on this scale are the key to some possibly groundbreaking technologies, like quantum computing. No one has ever demonstrated quantum effects on the scale of Schrödinger’s cat –the mythical unobserved cat in a box that is both alive and dead at the same time.

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Jan 17, 2016

AI Goes Mainstream

Posted by in categories: computing, neuroscience, robotics/AI, transportation

It’s leading to a different way of thinking about computing.

This year’s Detroit auto show is proving that autonomous driving is no longer a techie’s pipe dream. Even holdout Akio Toyoda has finally joined the parade. The self-driving car is coming.

But behind that development is an even more profound change: artificial intelligence (also known as “deep learning”) has gone mainstream. The autonomous driving craze is just the most visible manifestation of the fact that computers now have the capacity to look, learn and react to complex situations as well or better than humans. It’s leading to a profoundly different way of thinking about computing. Instead of writing millions of lines of code to anticipate every situation, these new applications ingest vast amounts of data, recognize patterns, and “learn” from them, much as the human brain does.

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Jan 16, 2016

Why Digital Overload Is Now Central to the Human Condition

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, mobile phones, nanotechnology, neuroscience, robotics/AI, singularity

Imagine: What happens when you’re in 2027 on the job competing with other AI; and there is so much information exposed to you that you’re unable to scan & capture all of it onto your various devices and personal robot. And, the non-intrusive nanobot for brain enhancement is still years away. Do you finally take a few hundred dollars & get the latest chip implant requiring a tricky surgery for your brain or wait for the nanobot? These are questions that folks will have to assess for themselves; and this could actually streamline/ condition society into a singularity culture. https://lnkd.in/bTVAjhb


A mom pushes a stroller down the sidewalk while Skyping. A family of four sits at the dinner table plugged into their cell phones with the TV blaring in the background. You get through two pages in a book before picking up your laptop and scrolling through a bottomless stream of new content.

Information technology has created a hyper-connected, over-stimulated, distracted and alienated world. We’ve been living long enough with internet-connected computers and other mobile devices to have begun to take it for granted.

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Jan 16, 2016

‘Bubble pen’ can precisely write patterns with nanoparticles as small as 1 nanometer

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, electronics, solar power, sustainability

Allows for more easily building tiny machines, biomedical sensors, optical computers, solar panels, and other devices — no complex clean room required; portable version planned.


Illustration of the bubble-pen pattern-writing process using an optically controlled microbubble on a plasmonic substrate. The small blue spheres are colloidal nanoparticles. (credit: Linhan Lin et al./Nano Letters)

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Jan 15, 2016

The Singularity Controversy, Part I: Lessons Learned and Open Questions: Conclusions from the Battle on the Legitimacy of the Debate

Posted by in categories: computing, policy, singularity

Friends,

When Singularity Hypotheses was published, the technological singularity was (barely) a fringe academic topic. Three years later, and the singularity is in the headlines of every magazine and tabloid.

Yet the subject became even more controversial, with some very polarizing views confusing the public.

Continue reading “The Singularity Controversy, Part I: Lessons Learned and Open Questions: Conclusions from the Battle on the Legitimacy of the Debate” »

Jan 14, 2016

RFID Tagging Chip is Here for the Human

Posted by in categories: business, computing, mobile phones

It’s about 12 millimeters in size, and embedded under your skin, most likely in the hand. The RFID chip is here. Swiping cards when we make purchase transactions will be a thing of the past. A ride on public transport, simple tasks such as accessing the photocopier at work or sending a business card to a client’s phone at a literal tap of the finger.

The RFID chip stands for Radio Frequency Identification, and a company in Sweden, Epicenter, is embracing the new technology for their employees. Co-Founder and CEO of the company Patrick Mesterton says their employees have a personal choice to be chipped or not, it’s a voluntary decision.

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Jan 14, 2016

Ex-NSA Boss Says FBI is wrong on Encryption

Posted by in categories: computing, encryption, government, privacy, security, software

Ex-NSA boss says FBI director is wrong on encryption

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Jan 13, 2016

Goldman Sachs says VR will be bigger than TV in 10 years

Posted by in categories: computing, electronics, virtual reality

In an analyst note published on Wednesday, Goldman Sachs predicted that the virtual reality (VR) market will outpace the TV market in annual revenue by 2025, making VR bigger than TV.

The banking firm writes that the VR market will generate $110 billion dollars compared to TVs $99 billion in 10 years.

This will happen if VR adoption follows their “Accelerated Uptake” projection, in which virtual reality becomes more commonplace through advances in battery and cellular technologies. By eventually ditching the current wires and accompanying computers needed to power high-end VR headsets, the devices would become truly mobile; think a headset that’s more akin to a pair of sunglasses than the bulky goggles of the first generation Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

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Jan 13, 2016

7 Mind-Blowing Digital Health Tools That Could Disrupt Health Care in 2016

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, cyborgs, electronics, existential risks, health, wearables

Wow!!! Chewing gum wearable technology, Cyborg Chips, Ingestible sensors to let doctors know if you’re taking your meds, etc. 2016 is going to be interesting


The phrase “Brave New World” has become one of the most often used clichés in medical technology in recent years. Google the title of Aldous Huxley’s 1932 dystopian, and anticipatory, novel with the word medicine and 2,940,000 results appear.

But could there be better shorthand to describe some of the recent developments in medical, health and bio-tech? Consider these possibilities coming to fruition, or close to, in 2016:

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