Singularity Summit 2010
The Singularity Summit this year is August 14th through August 15th in San Francisco. Last year's conference was great. I really recommend going to the Singularity Summit because it provides an overview of current thinking on Singularity related issues by almost all of the current thought leaders in the space.
Check out the Singularity Summit web page and watch some of the videos from last years conference.
VIDEO: 17-Year Old Ray Kurzweil Appears On TV’s “I’ve Got A Secret” (1965)
A young Kurzweil demonstrates his invention: an "electronic computer" that composes music.
Via the New York Times
GLENN REYNOLDS: The Singularity is Near
Via Instapundit's column for Popular Mechanics:
Destructive technologies generally seem to come along sooner than constructive ones—we got war rockets before missile interceptors, and biological warfare before antibiotics. This suggests that there will be a window of vulnerability between the time when we develop technologies that can do dangerous things, and the time when we can protect against those dangers. The slower we move, the longer that window may remain open, leaving more time for the evil, the unscrupulous or the careless to wreak havoc. My conclusion? Faster, please.
BOINGBOING: Building a brain inside a supercomputer
Blue Brain is an IBM computer built to simulate a human brain. It's powered by 2,000 microchips, each acting as a single neuron, that enable it to execute 22.8 trillion operations per second. Based at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, the project launched in 2005 to much controversy and skepticism. Modeling the complexity of the brain in a computer is considered a holy grail to some, and hubris to others.
“AI is a dream we shouldn’t be having”
From Noel Sharkey, via Computer Weekly:
It is my contention that AI, and particularly robotics, exploits natural human zoomorphism. We want robots to appear like humans or animals, and this is assisted by cultural myths about AI and a willing suspension of disbelief. The old automata makers, going back as far as Hero of Alexandria, who made the first programmable robot in AD 60, saw their work as part of natural magic - the use of trick and illusion to make us believe their machines were alive. Modern robotics preserves this tradition with machines that can recognise emotion and manipulate silicone faces to show empathy. There are AI language programs that search databases to find conversationally appropriate sentences. If AI workers would accept the trickster role and be honest about it, we might progress a lot quicker.
“Project Indect”: An A.I. to police all of Europe
The European Union is spending tens of millions of euros on an artificial intelligence system known as “Project Indect,” which would draw from multiple data sources, namely public surveillance cameras, in order to detect “threats” and recognize “abnormal behavior” across the whole continent.
MICHAEL S. MALONE: Exit Brain, Enter Computer
Already... computers are exhibiting characteristics far beyond anything in human imagination. The first 'petaflog' – i.e., a quadrillion operations per second – supercomputers were delivered earlier this year, and now designers are working on 'exaflop' – that's a quintillion, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 operations per second – computers.
Artificial Intelligence Helps Diagnose Cardiac Infections
Endocarditis — an infection involving the valves and sometimes chambers of the heart — can be a problem in patients with implanted medical devices. It is serious and can be deadly. The mortality rate can be as high as one in five, even with aggressive treatment and removal of the device. With additional complications, the mortality could be over 60 percent. Diagnosis usually requires transesophageal echocardiography, an invasive procedure that also has risks. It involves use of an endoscope and insertion of a probe down the esophagus.
The software program is called an “artificial neural network” (ANN) because it mimics the brain’s cognitive function and reacts differently to situations depending on its accumulated knowledge. That knowledge or training is provided by researchers, similar to how a person would “train” a computer to play chess, by introducing it to as many situations as possible. In this case, the ANN underwent three separate “trainings” to learn how to evaluate the symptoms it would be considering.
The Rise of Sex Robots and Pleasure Machines
HOLLYWOOD was right, robots are going to take over the world. But we might as well lie back and think of the invasion because it's going to be pleasurable, says a leading robot scientist.
Artificial Intelligence Used To Diagnose Metastatic Cancer
Now a team of researchers at the University of Chicago has designed a computer program that uses artificial intelligence to analyze the features of ultrasound images in order to help doctors predict earlier whether a woman's cancer has metastasized.
Article here.