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.
BREITBART.COM: Scientists find path to fountain of youth
The key to eternal -- or at least prolonged -- youth lies in genetic manipulation that mimics the health benefits of reducing calorie intake, suggesting that aging and age-related diseases can be treated.
NY TIMES: Quest for a Long Life Gains Scientific Respect
Who would have thought it? The quest for eternal life, or at least prolonged youthfulness, has now migrated from the outer fringes of alternative medicine to the halls of Harvard Medical School.
INDEPENDENT (UK): By 2040 you will be able to upload your brain…
...or at least that's what Ray Kurzweil thinks. He has spent his life inventing machines that help people, from the blind to dyslexics. Now, he believes we're on the brink of a new age – the 'singularity' – when mind-boggling technology will allow us to email each other toast, run as fast as Usain Bolt (for 15 minutes) – and even live forever. Is there sense to his science – or is the man who reasons that one day he'll bring his dad back from the grave just a mad professor peddling a nightmare vision of the future?
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.
POPSCI.COM: DARPA-funded nanotech drug automatically regulates morphine dose to injured soliders on the battlefield
The drug relies upon nanotech particles that carry both morphine and its antagonist, known as Naloxone. That creates a self-regulating feedback system where Naxolone only activates to suppress morphine when blood oxygen levels drop too low. The antagonist then goes inactive when oxygen blood levels return to normal, and allows more morphine to become available.
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.
Software That Cares
“I was impressed how powerful a response (by viewers of demos . . . and of users themselves) is evoked by the caring shown by the system.”
NY Times article here.
Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) interview re: energy, nanotechnology, and aging
Great line from an interview with Instapundit:
While immortality is another story, an end to aging is something we might plausibly see within this century. Possibly within our lifetimes, though one of my friends says he's done the math and ours will probably be the last generation to die. That would suck.
Computer-Guided Nanoparticle Therapy Destroys Tumors
Gold nanoshells are among the most promising new nanoscale therapeutics being developed to kill tumors, acting as antennas that turn light energy into heat that cooks cancer to death. Now, a multi-institutional research team has shown that polymer-coated gold nanorods one-up their spherical counterparts, with a single dose completely destroying all tumors in a nonhuman animal model of human cancer.
Full article here.