@Dawn of the 21st century

Lucidtouch - a touchscreen device with sensors in the back

2008-12-03T03:33:00.003+01:00

Here's an interesting research project I stumbled upon: Lucidtouch, for all those with fingers bigger than the Iphone practically allows for. This Microsoft device allows you to reach behind the screen to make selections...

...all these new developments and gadgets...yummy!

Folding screen for mobile phones unveiled

2008-11-28T17:24:00.008+01:00

Read all about it here. Amazing as it may be, I have nothing further to add.

India's 9/11 >> Mumbai terror attacks

2008-11-28T13:55:00.021+01:00

'Blasts rock Taj hotel as commandos try to end standoff' and 'Oberoi hotel cleared of hostages'; the news is breaking on CNN as I speak. Since I myself have been in Mumbai twice (very near the Taj hotel) and since I have enjoyed many tipsy evenings in the Leopold Cafe (one of the targets), I must say: Damn! As you can see to the left, one of the domes of the Taj is in full blaze. 9/11 all over again. What's intriguing to me (for lack of a better word) is the blogosphere. I've seen several interviews by CNN with bloggers. Of course, blogging has been here for a few years now, but this particular event, I think, symbolizes the extent to which 'the news-gathering-landscape' has changed over the last few years. The mountain of information out there is enormous; Although they're still shooting it seems every square cm has been filmed, taken a picture of, blogged about and what might not. I personally realized this once more when I saw the pictures below (thank you Arun Shanbhag).

You can see blood and a round serving tray. A waiter who was working in the Leopold Cafe was shot in the head when he was running out (with the serving tray in his hands). He fell down and died right there.

Also read: Mumbai attack aftermath detailed, Tweet by Tweet or check out Vinu's photostream

Moral Machines

2008-11-28T10:01:00.011+01:00

An interesting article in the NYTimes on whether intelligent robots can behave more ethically in the battlefield than humans currently can. Since there's quite a rush out there to develop battlefield robots that make their own decisions (South Korea and Israel already deploy armed robot border guards), several scientists are making the case that it is about time to start discussing issues like this.

“We don’t want to get to the point where we should have had this discussion 20 years ago,” said Colin Allen, a philosopher at Indiana University and a co-author of “Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right From Wrong,” published this month by Oxford University Press.

This might seem like a scary subject (probably because it is), but then again: how ethical do you think your average 18-year old is, after having lost several buddies? Check this out:

A 2006 survey by the surgeon general of the Army, found that fewer than half of soldiers and marines serving in Iraq said that noncombatants should be treated with dignity and respect, and 17 percent said all civilians should be treated as insurgents. More than one-third said torture was acceptable under some conditions, and fewer than half said they would report a colleague for unethical battlefield behavior

Maybe the question should be the other way around: Could we make robots as immoral as humans? An intriguing discussion, relevant however since technology develops so quickly. Personally I think we will get used to autonomous robots, just like we got used to airplanes and things like that. Of course there will always be flaws in the system. But how many flaws does the human system have?

Take cars that drive themselves. This is now possible. Since I am Dutch I find this a very interesting subject. Why? Because 10 years from now nobody will be going anywhere in our country. One big traffic jam! And the government doesn't seem very visionary. They are not building enough roads and they are not investing sufficiently in the public transport system. Bunch of dumb-asses! So, our roads will continue to fill up until things get so bad that the only way out will be to have cars drive themselves on the highway (this way you can fit many more cars on the same road because they will all drive at a fixed distance of each other and at the same speed). Of course, people won't want this. It scares us to think a car drives itself. Can I trust it? However, if you look at this from a national perspective: Currently, every year 1000 people die in Dutch traffic! One thousand! Personally I am not surprised. People are nervous out there! And give 'm a few seconds delay and they get pissed..

..Nah, I'll take a robotic system over your average emotionally confused & insanely impatient human driver any day now.

Machine condenses water out of thin air

2008-11-24T15:14:00.010+01:00

Now here's an invention this planet needs, a new $1,200 machine that uses the same amount of power as three light bulbs that condenses drinkable water out of the air, up to 12 Liters per day! And of course it's clean;

'The filtration system ensures your drinking water will be clean and free of toxins and bacteria - more pure than tap water or even spring water'

Read all about it here or check out the product here.

A few thoughts: I am excited because this could, eventually, help many people around the world. Let's imagine this thing will be ten times cheaper ten years from now, because, as much as I'd love to own a machine like this, come on... $1200 is too much and last but not least, people in the Western Hemisphere easily use 300-500 Liters of water a day and that is, OBVIOUSLY, way too much. So as good as this machine is, consciousness is better. So next time after you've leaked no more than half a cup of pee into the toilet, ask yourself: does this justify flushing 20 liters of water through the toilet? NO! Next time you do the dishes, plug the sink! And next time you...

...oh darn, am I going crazy again? I can't help it though. I am the grandson of a preacherman...

And the Internet keeps growing

2008-11-24T13:27:00.006+01:00

Thank you Google. Google has just announced it will disclose the entire Life Magazine photo archive (10 million pictures) in the coming months. This collection dates all the way back to the 1750's. The picture above is just an example as shown on the Google-blog.

...'Alfred Eisenstaedt snapped this in 1963, at the climax of Guignol's "Saint George and the Dragon" in the Tuileries Garden in Paris. Just as the dragon is slain, some children cry out in a combination of horror and delight, while others are taken aback in shock. Every child is consumed with emotion, masterfully captured by Eisenstaedt's camera'...

I've been browsing around myself. The picture to the left was made in 1862 in Antietam, US. It shows Maj. Allan Pinkerton, US Pres. Abraham Lincoln & Gen. John A. McClernand, in front of a pitched tent on the battlefield while the Civil War is taking place..

Just go to Google images and type something like this: 1860s US Civil War source:life

Lucky for us information addicts, there's more; Inspired by ancient Alexandria's attempt to collect the world's knowledge, the EU launched its Europeana digital library, an online digest of Europe's cultural heritage, last Thursday.

'The prototype launched Thursday contains around two million digital items, all of them already in the public domain. By 2010, the date when Europeana is due to be fully operational, the aim is to have 10 million works available, an impressive number yet a mere drop in the ocean compared to the 2.5 billion books in Europe's more common libraries. The process of digitalisation is a massive undertaking [Jarno says: Duuuh]' - check out the article here.

HaHaHa update: 'The Europeana site is temporarily not accessible due to overwhelming interest after its launch (10 million hits per hour). We are doing our utmost to reopen Europeana in a more robust version as soon as possible. We will be back by mid-December' >> typical... :)

Atoms in motion

2008-11-24T12:53:00.003+01:00

May 5, 1880. A reporter from the San Francisco Call nearly went nuts when seeing Eadweard Muybridge's latest invention: the zoopraxiscope (watch video above).

'After two years deconstructing the movement of animals with his pioneering freeze-frame photographic sequences, he was now able to reconstruct that motion to make a life-size horse trot across a big screen' - [read more here]

Back then it was amazing to see 'real life'-motion on a screen. I mean, wow, what's next. Well, better screens, and color, and higher-definition and faster motion etcetera. The ability to capture nature's movement on a screen, that's what it is all about. But since many things in nature are much smaller than the eye can meet, mankind came up with microscopes. So we can zoom in, and see what's going on. Up to now however, we haven't been able to build a microscope powerful enough to capture the movements of individual atoms...

And there we go: Now Ahmed Zewail, a chemist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, has developed a way to do just that. Zewail's research team can generate movies showing the picosecond (millionths of a millionth of a second) motion of atoms.

John Thomas, at the University of Cambridge, UK, recently described it as a "revolutionary" advance that will change physics, biology, and material science. Check out the article here.

Further blurring of reality and fiction...

2008-11-17T11:05:00.005+01:00

Thank you Stanford University and goodmorning planet Earth. My brother likes making home videos. He's just been to Cameroon for a month and so I am eagerly awaiting his latest compilation. The fun part of course, video-editing gets easier and easier over time. I've personally always thought that by 2015 we would be making our own movies at home (I mean, with special effects and all that). Well, Stanford University researchers have now brought that day a little closer by developing software that allows anyone to insert a video or still photo on almost any planar surface in an existing video and it's called '3D Surface Tracker Technology'. A mouthful I know, just watch the video above or read all about it here.

I knew it! I knew it! Evolution turns out not to be random.

2008-11-12T11:25:00.022+01:00

I started this blog in January 2005. Without knowing why I should, but simply because I could, like millions of others. Before I knew it I wasn't only putting up links and an occasional picture, but I was actually 'writing'; Done that for about a year and then forgot all about it. A few years later and Jarno is back! (hi!). I've now decided to continue this weblog and post at least a few 'articles' each week. I tend to think I have two reasons for that. One: I like being busy with words, whether it is in writing or live, I've been verbally insane my whole life. It simply feels good. And then, behind the red door, what do we have Johnny? >> Reason number two: the impact of accelerating technological development on the human race (and the planet/universe as a whole).

I've always been intrigued by technology but by late 2004 I 'virtually ran into' this website. It's called Acceleration Watch. Acceleration Watch is an educational affiliate of the Acceleration Studies Foundation (ASF). The foundation's focus revolves around helping to understand and manage accelerating technological change. This is important because, as the term acceleration implies, things go faster and faster! And for us 'poor' humans that will mean it will get harder and harder to understand the world around us and this doesn't make decision-making easier (links to a Dutch article)...

...just have a look at the articles I've posted here the past 30 days. I can hardly believe my own stories... I mean ... erasing memories? A 0,05 mm screen? Robots that hunt down humans and Mr. Green Genes - the glow-in-the-dark cat! ...

Anyway, the Acceleration Studies Foundation was founded by John Smart, a 'developmental systems theorist', who's specifically intrigued by the implications of a hypothesis known in futurist circles as the technological singularity (see powerpoint slides above or download the entire presentation and once again: Thank you very much John). The idea is this: not only do things seem to accelerate, it all seems to move towards 'one point'. It's like spinning the wheel in a casino. Round and round the ball goes until it spins faster and faster in smaller circles. The location of the ball is completely random in the sense that I cannot predict where it will be after say, 3 seconds of spinning. What we CAN predict however, is where it will ultimately be - at the bottom (whatever the number). In the PowerPoint slide above (the Developmental Spiral) you can see how human development over time seems to follow 'that ball analogy'. Faster and faster, shorter and shorter, until we 'hit the bottom' (whatever specifically that will mean).

No we are not there yet, but we are definitely getting closer :) It seems this accelerating development curve/curse does not only apply to humans. Ever since this planet came into being 4.5 billion years ago things seem to have developed exponentially. Single cell organisms, multi-cell organisms etcetera etcetera. And now we are here.

Finally, my point: all the above cannot be true if evolution is purely random (or to put it differently: if evolution would be purely random, how come everything on this planet is getting more and more complex over time?). Since there is so much scientific evidence out there to back up this 'all encompassing notion of acceleration', apart from 'its randomness', evolution MUST also have 'some sense of direction'. Darwin is right, for half. You cannot specifically predict what species will evolve and disappear (Darwin was right about this), but just like that ball in the casino, it IS all going in one direction, towards ONE point (something Darwin didn't think of).

What a story. Halleluja, but Why, Jarno, why? Because this morning I ran into this article. Scientists of Princeton University have discovered that chains of proteins found in most living organisms act like adaptive machines, possessing the ability to control their own evolution. It turns out evolution is NOT RANDOM.

"The discovery answers an age-old question that has puzzled biologists since the time of Darwin: How can organisms be so exquisitely complex, if evolution is completely random, operating like a 'blind watchmaker'?" said Chakrabarti, an associate research scholar in the Department of Chemistry at Princeton. "Our new theory extends Darwin's model, demonstrating how organisms can subtly direct aspects of their own evolution to create order out of randomness."

"What we have found is that certain kinds of biological structures exist that are able to steer the process of evolution toward improved fitness. The data just jumps off the page and implies we all have this wonderful piece of machinery inside that's responding optimally to evolutionary pressure."

"Biological change is always driven by random mutation and selection, but at certain pivotal junctures in evolutionary history, such random processes can create structures capable of steering subsequent evolution toward greater sophistication and complexity."

Ha! I knew it! I knew it!

Message to my dad: Check out this walking device! ;)

2008-11-11T11:34:00.004+01:00

It looks a little funny to say the least, but according to Honda, this (see video above) wearable walking device is as easy to use as a bicycle.

"It reduces stress, and you should feel less tired. To wear it, you put the seat between your legs, put on the shoes and push the on button. Then just start walking around. The system has a computer, motor, gears, battery and sensors embedded in it so it responds to a person's movements" - read all about it here.

Earlier this year the Japanese company Cyberdyne started renting out its exoskeleton for $1000 a month. That's cool because of two reasons. One: things are getting real. Now you can rent 'm, soon you can buy 'm. Two: is this company really called Cyberdyne? Does anyone remember Terminator II? ... 'Cyberdyne Systems Model One O One. Negative, the T One Thousand will definitely try to re-acquire us there' ... Reality starts feeling more and more like a movie everyday...

And the plot thickens >> more holograms

2008-11-11T10:52:00.004+01:00

"While flat electronic displays represent a majority of user experiences, it is important to realize that flat surfaces represent only a small portion of our physical world," the team explains on its Web site. "Our real world is made of objects, in all their three-dimensional glory. The next generation of displays will begin to represent the physical world around us, but this progression will not succeed unless it is completely invisible to the user: no special glasses, no fuzzy pictures, and no small viewing zones."

Cool :)

From CNN Holograms to quantum ghost imaging

2008-11-07T13:06:00.011+01:00

Well well well. Lot's of bizarre stuff going on out there. Seen CNN lately? They came up with quite a creative new way of bringing the news. I thought it was pretty cool myself. As you can see in the picture above, Wolf Blitzer and Jessica Yellin. Wolf Blitzer is real & Jessica is a hologram. Read all about it here.

If that's not crazy enough for you, what about this: The US army is 'pushing X-files tech development'. Example >> they are busy creating what they call self-aware virtual photorealistic soldiers that can be deployed in the battlefield through "quantum ghost imaging".

Uhm, come again? Well, just check out the picture below and then read the sentence again...

That's right. Imagine, poor suicide-bombers. Whoops, no virgins for you, you just 'blew up' a hologram. It's just not fair is it? You get filmed by robotic cameras, bombed by drones and when you finally find a real human being to get back at, he's not real. Yes yes, the Matrix is coming..

And no I'm not joking, This stuff is for real. They are working really hard on these virtual soldiers.

'We want to use massively multi-player online games as an experimental laboratory to see if they’re good enough to convince humans that they’re actually human, that can think on their own, have emotions and talk in local slang' - Dr. John Parmentola—Director of Research and Laboratory Management

Since I am Jarno it's quite easy to get me excited. I tend to think more often than not, that things go faster than expected. The statement above however, even to me, is a bold one. Because we're essentially talking full-blown artificial intelligence here. I wrote an article about that, two weeks ago, very extensive, in which I explain that I don't even believe anyone will be able to 'build' such a system by 2030 (there's a bet out there between two scientists that the Turing Test - the test for artificial intelligence - will be passed by 2029).

And that's just one part of the idea. Once the programs have been 'perfected' they want to deploy them (as you can see in the picture above, except for the fact that they won't look blue but real) by means of a technique called 'quantum ghost imaging' (pairing photons that do no reflect or bounce off an object, but off other photons >> I have no idea what that means).

Creating Artificial Intelligence and perfect holograms. And that's just ONE project. Several other projects they are CURRENTLY working on:

- Erasing bad memories

- Devices that will translate one soldier's thoughts into electrical signals that can be beamed to other soldiers

- Regenerating body parts on "nano-scaffolding"

Amazing.

Obama promises new era of scientific innovation

2008-11-07T12:15:00.006+01:00

Goodbye to the current US ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Welcome back 'National Aeronautics and Space Council' (scrapped in 1993 by George Bush senior). And much more. Check out Barack Obama and Joe Biden's plan for science and innovation here (pdf). Or check out the technology agenda on the 'change'-website that was released wednesday November 05.

As The New Scientist puts it 'Whether or not Obama's scientific motives are to improve the world we live in, or to play science and technology catch-up with the other leading nations, the new US president has certainly been making the right noises for those that value science and technology. Now we have to wait and see if he can deliver'. So let's do that...

And now for something completely different >> ByeByeBush & Enter Barack. Thank you America!!!

2008-11-06T13:27:00.026+01:00

November 04, 2008, Barack has landed and history is made (can't help it, my brains calm down when rhyming). And to all those who are sick of the hype: Of course, I understand the world's not gonna change overnight because of this. I don't even think it's gonna change at all. I mean seriously: Change the world? What exactly does that mean? Because, you know, the world consists of 6.5 to 7 billion people and Maslov already explained what we want (hierarchy of needs). So, fundamentally indeed, nothing will change. A little inspiration & positivity however, doesn't hurt. That's one. Two: The ability to take wise decisions depends on clarity of mind and experience. The former being much more important than the latter. Hence Obama.

And oh yeah. He's not a phony. I truly believe he speaks from the heart. However generalistic and abstract parts of his speeches might be (but hey, that's how inspiration works, give the guy a brake), I am fully convinced they come from the heart. I do not believe in some secret plot. I think that there are many people out there whose hearts have essentially, at least partially, been gripped by fear. Fear for change, ironically. We want change but we don't. We want change in the sense of governance, we don't want change in any other sense. The problem being: in reality, things always change in any other sense. And since you are here @dawn21stcentury, I personally believe, over time, things are changing faster and faster; information technology follows an exponential curve and information technology is touching the realms of more and more industries and life in general. Combine that general 'insight' with today's pressing issues - The financial crisis, the food & energy crisis, Global Warming & the complete Fucking Up of our environment in more general terms, global terrorism - and you get an idea of the challenge.

Given all this change on the one hand and given the nature of the human brain, in terms of wanting to resist change, on the other hand, I think clarity of mind and being open and transparent are indeed Key Factors. Furthermore he is good looking, has a good sense of humor (seen him on Saturday Night Live?), he's 'gracious' and he doesn't cheat on his wife. Admittedly: it's frustrating, isn't it?

By the way: he's the first black president of the United States of America.

Another by the way: George Bush was the dumbest president ever.

Therefore: I am SOOO HAPPY! Welcome to the 21st century. congratulations Barack and Michelle, welcome to the future.

Watch the full video (in three parts) of his Chicago Victory Speech >>

Part I

Part 2

Part 3

Programmable matter: A roadmap to the Star Trek replicator

2008-11-02T15:43:00.003+01:00

Ever heard of the Avogadro constant? Of course not! Because if you had, that would probably mean, you're a nerd like me :)

And instead of explaining myself, I'm gonna park this article, shut down the computer and cook.

See ya later and to be continued...

TankPitstop - the first refuelling robot for passenger cars

2008-11-01T12:29:00.002+01:00

The irony! One of the smallest countries in the world and still we're too lazy to get out of our cars! The project began three years ago. The robot was finally presented (Dutch article) earlier this year and now several Dutch gasoline stations are going to use it. Lovely, let's automate global warming!

Anyway, how does it work?

'The customer’s car gets a radio frequency identification chip hidden in a sticker on the inside of the windshield; this chip contains all the necessary information. The TankPitstop database has all the data: which fuel the car requires, where the filler cap is, the correct angle of the nozzle when fuelling, the amount of fuel required, etc.'

Read all about it here or Watch this video.

Samsung unveils 0,05mm 'flapping' screen

2008-11-01T11:21:00.005+01:00

'How thin can you get?' Used to be the question. I think it it's safe to say that question can now be replaced by 'how thin do you wanna get?', followed by the exclamation: Jezus! This thing gives me the same feeling as those girls on the catwalk! Wowie.

Here are the specs:

Diagonal - 4 inch
Resolution - 480*272 pixels
Contrast ratio - 100.000 to 1

I used to dream about the future. No, wait, correction. I always dream about the future, but when I used to do that as a kid, I was thinking screens everywhere. Today I live in that world. Eating a hamburger at McDonalds is hardly possible without watching MTV these days. And that's when you're lucky. Yesterday I was in this typical Dutch 'Belgian fries'-place. While waiting for my fries, this quiz passed by on this screen, about Brad Pitt. 'Did you know that .... Brad Pitt was born in 1963?'... No and I DO NOT care! What the hell! How does that make anybody happier?! Of course, that's a dumb question. I'm just getting old. Anyway. If I feel there are too many screens around nowadays, imagine what will happen 10 years from now, when screens become like wallpaper?!

Animatronics getting crazier

2008-11-01T10:57:00.005+01:00

Ever heard of the phenomenon known as the "uncanny valley"? No? It refers to this >> If a robot is clearly a robot - you know, with clunky metal limbs & stuff (like this Dutch robot) - people are rarely troubled by it. But pass a certain threshold in realism, such as giving it skin or a human-like voice, and things start getting eerie. Kinda like the feeling you get when watching the video above. This particular animatronic face was produced at the University of Bristol, UK, by US roboticist David Hanson.
Read all about it here.

Brains work best at age 39

2008-10-25T13:19:00.007+02:00

Research published in the magazine Neurobiology of Aging has shown that our brains work at top speed at the age of 39. Ha! And they always said life begins at 40. I guess because after the age of 39 your brains get slower so finally one becomes relaxed enough to truly enjoy life? Whatever.

It seems that there is this material that works as 'a coating for the neurons'. Kinda like the plastic coating around electricity cables. It helps to process signals between body and brain quickly. After 39, the body slowly stops reproducing this material, hence you get slower.

Well darn, I thought I was nuts now, 5 years from now I'll be even crazier! Combine that with another 5 years of Internet development and it becomes clear this blog will turn into one hell of an intriguing virtual philosophical playground. Stay tuned!

Packs of robots will hunt down uncooperative humans

2008-10-25T12:47:00.003+02:00

And here we go. Did I go nuts watching this movie 17 years ago. Terminator II - judgment day. I'll never forget the ominous drums in the background "August 29, 1997, the survivors of the nuclear fire lived only to face a new nightmare, the war against the machines"

Back then it was pure science fiction to me. Now the latest request from the pentagon says it all. They are looking for a "Multi-Robot Pursuit System that will let packs of robots search for and detect a non-cooperative human". It's all part of the US Army's Future Combat Systems project, which aims to make a single soldier the nexus for a large scale robot attack.

"What we have here are the beginnings of something designed to enable robots to hunt down humans like a pack of dogs. Once the software is perfected we can reasonably anticipate that they will become autonomous and become armed. We can also expect such systems to be equipped with human detection and tracking devices including sensors which detect human breath and the radio waves associated with a human heart beat. These are technologies already developed." - Steve Wright of Leeds Metropolitan University

Read all about it here

Mr. Green Genes: the glow-in-the-dark cat

2008-10-25T11:56:00.007+02:00

Well if this isn't the perfect marketing tool to get more kids into science, I don't know what is. "You want to make your own glowing animals when you grow up Johny?". Hey, that reminds me of an application: "Order your Viagra now and you'll receive a free 'glow-in-the-dark"-sample...

Seriously, what's going on here? Well, scientists at the Audubon Centre for Research of Endangered Species (go figure) in New Orleans, created a cat who's eyes, gums and tongue glow in the dark. Because when you make endangered species glow in the dark other animals will stop bothering them so they're no longer endangered? No, not really. "The researchers made him, so they could learn whether a gene could be introduced harmlessly into the feline's genetic sequence to create what is formally known as a transgenic cat. If so, it would be the first step in a process that could lead to the development of ways to combat diseases via gene therapy."

The only reason they made the cat glow, was to show that the gene went where it was supposed to go. Go with the flow and glow you know. Sorry. Read all about it here.

Yep, that's what you get when you start playing with genetics. And since these are merely the humble beginnings, make sure to stay tuned to "Creatures of creativity", our weekly show where high school children present their latest projects. Imagine. Anyway, earlier this month the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to three scientists who had discovered the gene through their work with jellyfish. So really, seriously, imagine...

...cause there are many more exciting genes out there! And one day we'll build 'm ourselves altogether. But for now I'll settle for glowing animals. Could I get some glowing hummingbirds, like 10, all in different colors. I'll have them flying through the house at night. Trippy.

Artificial Intelligence

2008-10-23T18:44:00.044+02:00

Probably the most intriguing subject to me, within the realm of technology, accelerating development and all that, is Artificial Intelligence; hence the use of Capitals :)

I find it so interesting because it makes my mind wonder. The subject touches upon the essence of what we think makes us human (as compared to, for instance, monkeys): The ability to reason logically and communicate about these 'neurological structures' on the one hand, and the fact that, whatever exactly that means, we are aware; I sit here right now being intrigued by the fact that I am sitting here right now and that I am writing this, wondering what it is the future will bring and enjoying the fact that I don't know.

When contemplating the concept of Artificial Intelligence the distinction between 'the ability to hold up an intelligent conversation' and 'awareness' is key. Two entirely different things, or are they? Food for thought indeed...

I am not the only one who's intrigued. And that's what this blogpost is about (as far as I can see right now, but, you know how it is, nobody knows what the future brings). There is a bet out there. Two very energetic scientists who have bet (lots of money involved too) on the question whether Artificial Intelligence will be achieved by the year 2029. Raymond Kurzweil and Mitch Kapor. Raymond thinks it will be done, Mitch thinks No Way. Now.

So what are they going to do? How are they going to 'test' Artificial Intelligence? They are going to use what's called the Turing Test. Back in the fifties of the last century there was this British Mathematician Alan Turing. He came up with this test 'in which one or more human judges interview computers and human foils using terminals'. Specifically what's going to happen is this:

In the year 2029 (and if so Raymond requests because he feels confident enough, earlier) three people (judges) will sit down behind a keyboard to have four different chat conversations (each lasting two hours). They can talk about anything. Three of these conversations will be with a human. One with a computer program. In the end the judges sit down and do two things: 1. They have to say which conversation was with the computer and 2. They have to rank each conversation (1 to 4, least human to most human).

The computer program 'passes' the test if: 1. at least two out of three judges thought they talked to a human and 2. if the median rank of the computer is equal to or greater than the median rank of two or more of the three human foils.

They have made this bet 'official' by publishing it online back in 2002. So please do read it for yourself, it's, well as I said, intriguing. So, let's go for the analysis: Hmm. First of all, the computer program is supposed to prove it can hold up an 'intelligent conversation'. The question whether an 'entity' is 'conscious' or 'aware' is an entirely different one. Secondly, so-called fictional histories may be used during the conversations. Since the computer program doesn't really have a history, it didn't really take that vacation last year and it definitely didn't 'grow up' chasing girls, it will have to fake. And that might even be harder then 'just being human and real'.

Imagine you are going to chat with 'someone' for two whole hours. Imagine all the questions you could ask. Imagine asking someone what exactly it is that arouses him or her, essentially, during foreplay, or how it felt growing up 20 years ago? A computer program that could fool you? For two hours? Conscious or not, that seems quite a challenge.

So what makes Ray so confident this can and will be done within the next 20 years? Well, lucky us. They put that online too. Here is why Ray thinks it will be done. Here why Mitch thinks No Way. And here where Ray says Yes Way! And here we go again: summary and analysis time >>

In order to explain Ray's confidence, let me start out by describing Moore's Law. It descibes an important trend in the history of computer hardware. Since the invention of the integrated circuit in 1958, the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit has increased exponentially, doubling approximately every two years. This trend was first observed by Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore in 1965. Almost every measure of the capabilities of digital electronic devices is linked to Moore's law: processing speed, memory capacity, even the number and size of pixels in digital cameras. So that's that >> computer hardware is developing real fast and computer hardware can be found in anything, so everything is going real fast (remember how big those arcade-machines were back in the eighties, on which you could play Pacman, and then the desktop pc's in the nineties, and then our current cellphones, and then...)

Exponential growth, ok. So what else? The second thing relevant here is what's called 'paradigm shifts'. Example: between 1946 and 1958 they used to build computers using vacuum tubes. These vacuum tubes were made smaller and smaller (exponential growth) until it was no longer feasible to 'maintain a vacuum', so it was time for something new: Tadaa! The transistor [check out these computer chronicles]. The point being: Each time one approach begins to run out of steam, research efforts intensify & the next source of exponential growth is found (that goes even faster than the previous). Within the next decade we'll have to go through a new paradigm shift because the distance between transistors on our current chips is soo small (check out this article about Intel's latest 32 nanometer chips) that new physical rules start coming into play. Hard to imagine how small? There are almost 2 billion transistors on this one chip! 2 billion!!! And still we want faster chips!? >> No problem, lots of new technologies (molecular based computing, 3D computing, etcetera) are eagerly awaiting to carry the relay baton. The transfer WILL BE there, let's just hope it'll be smooth too :)

Lastly, the phenomenon of ongoing exponential growth is far broader than computation alone; communication technologies, biological technologies, all subject to the same double exponential growth. And they influence each other too, causing things to develop even more rapidly. So... a whole mouthful, and then some.

So back to the original question: What makes Ray so confident? Well, there is hardware and there is software. First the hardware. In order to build a system that has the capacity of fooling us into thinking it is human, let's assume that that system has to be at least 'as complex' as the human brain (i.e. it has to have the same Information Processing Capacity as the human brain or more). I just told you there are around 2 billion transistors on Intel's latest chip. Well, the human brain is estimated to have around 100 billion neurons, each with a thousand connections & each connection being able to 'handle' 200 'digitally controlled transactions' per second (so 20 million billion operations per second) >> According to Moore's law by 2020 the power of the human brain could be on your desk for let's say a 1000 dollars >> 10 years later, at the same price a system 100 to 1000 times as powerful as the human brain! That's surely impressive, but without the proper software, even a system like this amounts to little more than a very powerful calculator. The trick's in the software. Trick! Ha! We're talking about reverse engineering the human brain here! Quite a trick indeed. Surely, that won't be possible, will it?

Well, Raymond thinks it will be. He is convinced that we will understand the principles of operation of the human brain and that we will be in a position to recreate its powers in synthetic substrates before the year 2030. Now to most of us that sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? I mean, come on, we're going fast, but THAT fast?! No Way! But that's the funny thing about Raymond. Everytime somebody says No Way, he says Yes Way and then he comes up with compelling arguments...

...In this case the Human Genome Project is a good example. In the late eighties a bunch of enthusiasts came up with the idea to map the complete human genome (identifying all 20.000-25.000 genes in human DNA, determine the sequences of the 3 billion chemical base pairs that make up human DNA and storing all this in a big database). They wanted to do this in 15 years! Back then, ridiculous! Science Fiction! Impossible! And so the journey began in 1990. By 1997 they had mapped out 1%. One percent! Half the time's up and 99% to go. You see, they should have listened to the sceptics. Impossible! Ha! >> 3,5 years later they were done!!! Ha! What's the moral of this story >> exponentiality! 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 + 32 + 64 + 128 + 256 + 512. Get it?! (remember that book: The King's chessboard).

Our brains think linear, we are very much incapable of truly imagining the nature of exponentiality and it's impact.

Having said that, back to reverse engineering the brain & Raymond >>
>> First of all, make no mistake, the effort to reverse engineer the brain is further along than most people realize (did you see my previous article: Erasing memories no longer Science Fiction)
>> Second, just like the Human Genome Project, our capability to 'scan the brain' is growing exponentially too. Things get smaller and smaller and smaller; scanners the size of blood cells that are observing the connections between neurons. What, 15 years?! Having your complete genetic code mapped for less than $10? What, 15 years? Your T-shirt = the computer, what 15 years?!

Previous examples are powerful enough by themselves, however, it's when thinking about the fact that all these technologies come together and what that means, that's where even my imagination (and I don't need to tell ya, I am a genuine nutcase) goes heywire. Imagine going back to the eighties and asking someone to imagine a portable phone. Then give 'm an Iphone or a Nokia N96. You think you could explain to them why you need to carry 100 LP's of music with you, on your phone (and if you are thinking 'why not a 1000', then you might catch my drift)? Then touch the screen. Ah! Touch-screen, what?! Finally explain how easy it is to update your weblog, using that phone and that the Internet access is fast enough to watch Youtube or 'general television'. And oh, please don't mention the GPS system, you wouldn't wanna give anybody a heart attack...

Catch my drift? Do I myself? Ok, things will basically change unimaginably fast the coming two decades, but will that lead to a machine that can display or 'fake' (whatever that means) emotional intelligence? Raymond thinks it will because although human emotional intelligence is complex, it nonetheless remains a capability of the human brain. Ultimately the human brain is made of the same small list of proteins that all biological systems are comprised of, so there is little basis to expect that the brain relies on some nonengineerable essence for its capabilities.

And that brings us to the last part (can you believe that?): the before-mentioned subject of consciousness/awareness. As I just said 'little basis to expect the brain relies on something non-engineerable'. And there we go, the essence. A lot of people out there who are not willing to accept the previous statement. People like my mother; 'There has to be something else', 'humans have a soul', 'humans have a spirit'. Now that could be true, just as much as it could not be true. Problem is, so far we have no way of proving nor disproving. If you want to go about doing things scientifically you have to at least be able to either prove or disprove something (don't look at me here, check out this philosopher of science, Karl Popper). And this is just my first shot...

Secondly: The assumption humans and only humans would have this specific, non-tangible soul type-of-thing, that ONE thing that makes them special, that assumption implies, if you ask me, a rather black-and-white worldview. We have the spirit, animals don't. Ok. humor me and look at that chimp at the top of this article. He seems rather 'aware'. Maybe not to the extend we are...

...and that's exactly it right there. That last sentence reflects the essence of how I think about consciousness/awareness. I don't believe in black-white thinking. everything is a grey area. It reminds me of my time as an exchange student in Davis, California (back in 1998). I had a wonderful girlfriend there, Silvana Renteros (and please rest her soul) and she had an autistic daughter, with the beautiful name Aurora Renteros. She was 5 years old. I remember going to the playground with her, remember 'trying to control her' in the alleys of Safeway. She just loved smacking everything she saw onto the ground. With passion! I remember nights, so many nights, where Aurora had gotten up, redecorated the room by means of the contents of the fridge and then she would always, (always!) end up at the bathroom sink, staring at the flow of the water. If it rained outside, she would run outside and go nuts! nuts I tell you. She just loved water. Jarno! Yes? What's your point? My point? Hmm. You couldn't approach Aurora. she would hit you. She seemed 'completely absorbed' in her own reality. She loved water, but we'll never know why. Was it the look, the sound, the touch? They say autistic people perceive the world as one big amalgam of stimuli. video, audio, touch, all blended into one big mix.

Question: Are they aware they are here?
Answer: Yes, no and everything in between.

I read many books on autism. One of them: 'Thinking in pictures' by Temple Grandin. On the back of the book and I quote:

'I hardly know what to say about this extraordinary book. This remarkable woman gives us much insight into animals and into the world of autism. The explanations of consciousness and her unique experience of it provide a way to understand the many kinds of sentience, human and animal, that adorn the earth" - Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, author of the hidden lives of dogs.

The point being: I think 'consciousness/awareness' is nothing more than the combination of all electrical signals that are flying through our brains. Whatever brain: Cow, monkey, human (autistic, non-autistic or simply nuts like me, whatever). There is no black and white, there are different 'levels'. As I said before, look at the face of that chimp at the top of this page, you know he is conscious to some extend. Am I right? Does it feel that way? If it does, doesn't exactly that sentence, 'to some extend', prove my point?

Oh, and there's just one more thing! Conscious not conscious... does it even matter? When there's interaction between two 'beings', behavior of one being depends, in part, on the behavior of the other being. Not so much on the question whether that other being is conscious.

...What?...

Did you ever see people talking to their dogs? Exactly, that's what I mean. Dogs are dogs. They want to run around, sleep, shit, mark their territory by pissing onto any tree they can find, fuck other dogs, and eat. That's it. And Oh yeah, the hierarchy. They need to have a boss. Well, goody, the human is the boss. But talking to him? Talking?! There are psychological treatments out there..., for dogs. Clinics. Stores with dogg-stuff. Vast amounts of dogg... stuff...

...Have you seen this video of children playing with this robotic toy 'Pleo'. A robotic dinosaur. It was treated like any other animal with 'feelings'.

All I mean to say is this: The question whether another 'being' is thought of as being 'aware'/'conscious' is irrelevant.

Well then. Who will win this bet? Raymond believes it will be possible, Mitch thinks the essence of what it is to be human cannot be captured into some program (prior to 2030), hence it's not possible. Hmm. I'll side with Ray when it comes to his belief that our imagination falls short significantly when predicting the future, due to the nature of exponentiality. Does that mean I believe the Turing Test will be passed by 2029? No way!

Although I believe firmly that consciousness need not to be a prerequisite for passing the Turing Test, and although I also do believe the next two decades come with breathtaking change, when it comes to having 'an intelligent discussion' with a program, if you ask me, seriously, there's not yet even a glimmer of hope; Two weeks ago I wrote this article about the Loebner Prize competition. I was pretty excited back then about the outcome and I have had several chats with Elbot myself since then. I agree with Luciano Floridi. He was one of the judges at this years' competition & he is an influential thinker in the field of philosophy of technology and ethics. On his blog he wrote he had great fun and he was intrigued by the whole competion, but in the end concluded that the computer failed miserably.

"It was the usual, give-away, tiring, Eliza-ish strategy, which we have now seen implemented for decades."

Sounds kindda harsch, but indeed, I felt the same way about the online version of Elbot. Although its linguistic analysis abilities are in some respects impressive, it really doesn't 'get' anything. Let alone if I would subject the program to some questions as proposed by Luciano >>

1. 'If we shake hands, whose hand am I holding?'
2. 'I have a jewellery box in my hand. How many cd's can I store in it?'
3. 'The four capitals of the UK are three, Manchester and Liverpool. What's wrong with this sentence?'

So, we currently have a worldwide network of pretty powerful computers, I recently blogged about the fact that, this year alone, something like 370 exabytes of data has been created, and indeed technologically we've come quite far > they've even managed to erase specific memories in mice. Yet, a few simple questions like the ones above cannot be answered...

...I think we're on the wrong track here. And the nature of acceleration doesn't change that. Things have been accelerating for a while now, so I would have expected at least that glimmer of hope by now, if I were to believe the Turing Test could be passed by 2030 (or, at all). So No Way Ray! But I do hope, you'll prove me wrong.

Thank you for tuning in and,

Bye bye now,
By the way: Try this Chatbotgame.

Jarno de Vries

Erasing memories no longer Science Fiction

2008-10-23T13:33:00.007+02:00

Remember that Jim Carrey movie? Eternal Sunshine of the spotless Mind? In which he played a guy who wanted to erase parts of his memory because of a bad relationship? Well, brain scientists at the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine, in collaboration with scientists at East China Normal University in Shanghai, have now actually managed to erase new and old memories in mice!

The molecular mechanism is such that specific memories can be erased quickly and without doing damage (at least, that's what they say). Quite impressive, since, well, since many things, but specifically this: In the article to which I refer below it is explained that memory has four distinct stages: learning, consolidation, storage and recall. The trick has always been to dissect the molecular mechanisms underlying these different stages but so far researchers lacked techniques to manipulate proteins quickly enough. Not anymore though! Read all about it here.

Lunar Lander X-prize competition

2008-10-18T12:25:00.012+02:00

Coming October 24-25, nine teams (with nine rocket-powered vehicles) will compete for NASA's $2 million, 2008 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge , with the obvious aim of accelerating development of commercial Lunar Landers capable of bringing payloads or humans back and forth between lunar orbit and the lunar surface. They will broadcast live here and you can read more here and here. All this is of course important because they're planning for manned moon missions by 2020. And they're not the only ones. The Japanese also wanna go, somewhere around 2025.

Ok. That's a lot of info right there. I think it's probably a good idea for them to hurry up! Because, meanwhile, on planet Earth >>

December 07, 2007 -- WWF says 50% of rainforest gone by 2030 [check it out]
September 29, 2008 -- Amazon destruction jumped 228 percent in August when compared to the same month a year ago! [check it out]
September 30, 2008 -- Brazilian government faces criminal charges over Amazon deforestation [check it out]
October 18, 2008 -- Jarno says: since things keep accelerating over time, things will probably be worse, therefore >> Don't miss out on the destruction, grab a cup of coffee and follow things 'Live' by means of Google Earth [check it out]

May 22, 2007 -- CO2 emissions rise outpaces worst-case scenario [check it out]
September 26, 2008 -- Greenhouse gas emissions shock scientists [check it out]
October 16, 2008 -- Researchers call for drastic emissions cuts [check it out]
October 18, 2008 -- Jarno says: intriguing isn't it? By early 2007 things are worse than worst and still scientists manage to be surprised 1.5 years later that the emissions are so high!!!

March 09, 2008 -- The year of global food crisis [check it out]
October 18, 2008 -- Jarno says: ok, I'll stop now. All this just reminds me of this new Dutch foundation that focuses on atelosology, the science of pointlessness. Yep, the planet's an absurd place, keep smiling cause everything's relative!

Supercool transhumanist magazine launched!

2008-10-17T14:16:00.006+02:00

'Cutting-edge ideas and interviews with leaders in longevity, neuroengineering, nanofabrication, open-source robotics and other breakthrough areas', (thank you Raymond Kurzweil).

I'm talking about H+ Magazine, a new web-based quarterly magazine that focuses on Transhumanism, introduced by Humanity Plus (the former World Transhumanist Association).

Let me take a sip of my coffee here before I get lost in my own sentences..

..ok. Since this is most typical dawn21stcentury-news, I'd like to take the opportunity to elaborate a little bit and since I have all the virtual freedom of the world: I can so I will >>

For all of you who haven't been introduced to the concept of GNR, here we go: Genetics, Robotics, Nanotech, three different realms of heavy impact for this century. Since the speed of development is ever-increasing, the combination of the use of all these different technologies will lead to an ever exploding number of potential applications (I'm gonna need more coffee today). Very powerful applications. The impact on us, humans, is and will be much more so, enormous. This explains the presence of the formerly mentioned Humanity Plus organization (since I am not the only nutcase around who's more than intrigued by these developments). Over time, this organization has only one direction to go: it'll get much much bigger, until eventually, if you ask me, there will be two options left: you're either transhumanist to some extend, or Amish.

If your neurological network diggs this stuff, check out Convergence 08.
If not: check out this place.

Koreans develop robotic plant

2008-10-17T13:08:00.004+02:00

Just yesterday I wrote about Light Blossom, the flower-like streetlight-concept that was introduced by Philips recently. Well, here we go again. This time straight from the robot research laboratory at Chonnam National University, Korea.

'It is a 130 cm tall and 40 cm in diameter 'plant' and consists of a pot, a stem, and five buds of a flower reminiscent of a rose of Sharon.'

Ok, yet however beautiful that might be, and however cruel it might sound, plants do need to have a more elaborate resume if they want to be featured @Dawn21stcentury. That's why this plant emits oxygen, moisture, and aroma and of course it responds in various ways to stimuli from the outside >>

'If a person comes within a 40 cm radius of the flower, the stem bends towards the person, and the buds come into full bloom. When the person leaves, the plant returns to its original state. When the room lights up, the buds open and close, and when music is played, the plant dances'!

Of course the big difference with Light Blossom is the fact that this plant feeds on electricity, whereas Light Blossom generates electricity, which brings up two new ideas:

1. A robotic plant with solar reflective leaves
2. Streetlights that start dancing when they here music (imagine your trip home on the highway)

Read essentially the same here or here

Everything is relative

2008-10-16T21:34:00.005+02:00

I've just spent 15 minutes or so typing in this real long SMS-message. Then, my battery dies >> just like last year: 300-400 gigabytes of music. Boom, deleted. And if that's not enough: 5 years with a beautiful woman, with a beautiful name: Ramona. And then she walks (for good reasons, which makes the whole thing even more painful!).

Life is what happens, while you're making other plans, which reminds me of this story (of which I learned during my time in India in 1996):

This Buddhist monk, he got up at 5.00 AM every day, with only one purpose: to work on his sand castle. 14 hours a day, every day, for a year >> 365 days. Then, when it was finally finished, he went to sleep. The next morning he got up, walked towards the sand castle and destroyed it.

What's my point?! Everything is relative. You wanna be happy?! Think about this: The planet is full of plants and animals. But we are the only ones who are seemed to be cursed with the ability to sit here and think: "Hey! I am here! Now what!?". What does that mean? I do not know either. But what I do know is this: if you are lucky, you live for 80 years, maybe less. So what should you do when you get up tomorrow? Be aware that live is an amazing thing, and the fact that you are here is amazing, the fact that you are aware of the fact that you are here! (smile), but most importantly: It can be over any moment now.

Therefore, the moral of this story: Enjoy, to the fullest, what it is you love, but when it's gone, it's gone.

May this entry finally convince myself

Light Blossom: creative flower-like streetlight

2008-10-16T20:28:00.006+02:00

As a proud Dutchie, I just can't let this one go: Electronics giant Philips just unveiled (in Moscow, which has something to do with the fact that Anton Philips delivered 5000 light bulbs to the Tsar back in 1898) a new 'green' initiative in the form of a flower-like streetlight.

The idea is this: when it's sunny, the 'flower's leaves' open up slowly so it can feed on solar energy.

If however it's cloudy & windy, it closes it's leaves so it can rotate them, thereby generating wind energy. And of course, it's smart enough to switch effectively between both states.

But the most amazing thing is this: if there's no sun and no wind, it'll switch to nuclear energy! Nuclear-backpack-type technology is actually decades old. Meanwhile, things have gotten even smaller. By cooperating with Russia's Federal Technology Agency, Philips has managed to further shrink nuclear capability to the point that it now fits inside something the size of a pole. Albeit highly classified for years, it now seems they're finally coming out with this new Juggernaut of technology. An amazing accomplishment, especially since everything I have been saying just now is nothing more then a joke. I mean, come on, nuclear energy in a streetlight!? The relevant question now: if I had been going on for a while, bloody serious, would I have had even the slightest chance of convincing you? And if so, what does that mean?

So much for this week's episode of Philosophy for the Insane. Thank you for watching and stay tuned :)

Record growth in DNA Database

2008-10-15T23:20:00.005+02:00

Earlier today I put up a post on the Freedom Not Fear - Movement. They're worrying about Privacy Invasion and things like that. And what do you know! Just now I came about this article. It's about the fact that "Britain's DNA database is being built by stealth as the Government admitted record numbers of profiles were added last year."

"Many of the 722,464 new samples were taken by police from people who have never been convicted of – or even charged with – a criminal offense. Britain now has a DNA database holding nearly five million samples – by far the largest in the world. Anyone picked up for an arrestable offense has to provide a DNA sample"

And then the story continues when these records get put on some USB-stick and left behind on the backseat of a bus. Privacy is dead if you ask me. The technological landscape is what it is and there's nothing anyone can do about that. Go with the flow, cause the flow goes. And if you don't like the flow, peddle ashore. Once you've planned the right direction you can reach the shore if you peddle real hard so you can then run off into the forest to finally be at ease within the realm of silence. But in the background, the water flows and so the flow goes.

So much for our weekly program Philosophy for the Insane. Thank you for tuning in and have yourself a lovely evening. Bye bye now.

Data boom requires storage overhaul

2008-10-15T17:48:00.005+02:00

Did you know that, since the beginning of 2008, more than 369 exabytes of data has been created? Well, I didn't!

I just read this article @ computerworld.com. It is about the Storage Networking World conference that was held in Dallas, Texas this week. Since data creation is growing by 60% each year, companies face the daunting task of finding ways to effectively manage all this info.

"Information is fast becoming the world's single most valuable asset," Chuck Hollis, global marketing chief technology officer at EMC, said. "As such, it's important to oversee the entire information portfolio, understand where it's being stored, how it's being used, and to stay out of trouble by complying with all security and data retention regulations."

369 Exabytes! I don't know the exact nature of the next sentence but it probably will have something to do with Jezus. I mean: Wow. And for all of you who need refreshment on the meaning of the term exabyte, here it is >>

8 bits = 1 byte
1000 bytes = 1 kilobyte
1000 kilobytes = 1 megabyte
1000 megabytes = 1 gigabyte
1000 gigabytes = 1 terabyte
1000 terabytes = 1 petabyte
1000 petabytes = 1 exabyte
1000 exabytes = I have no idea and I am too lazy to look it up right now.

And since I have jotted down (is that proper English) the previous sentence, it has now become clear to me that the spelling checker doesn't even know about the term petabyte, let alone exabyte. So I guess it's safe to say we're dealing with quite a bit of information here (ha ha, a bit, get it).

If we survive the next 200 years, we should be OK

2008-10-15T15:56:00.006+02:00

In an exclusive CNN interview Professor Stephen Hawking lay down his view of our future.

Speaking at Cambridge's Centre for Mathematical Studies, he said: "I see great dangers for the human race. There have been a number of times in the past when its survival has been a question of touch and go. The Cuban missile crisis in 1963 was one of these. The frequency of such occasions is likely to increase in the future. We shall need great care and judgment to negotiate them all successfully. If humans can survive the next 200 years and learn to live in space, then our future will be bright."

Hmm. That's interesting and who am I to doubt Hawking? But then again, the interview did remind me of this article I once read 'Look to Inner, not Outer Space' by Michael Anissimov in which he said and I quote:

"Instead of discovering new and interesting things, we have to invent them. This is already happening with online games like World of Warcraft and the upcoming Spore. We have to admit that the universe is in a relatively steady state on human timescales, and our ability to understand it exceeds its ability to generate new and interesting things on its own. If we want aliens, we have to custom-design genomes and use them to create new entities. If we want bizarre and wonderful exo-terrestrial landscapes, we have to build them in virtual reality. Because our voracious minds are already beginning to exhaust what the universe itself has to offer."

Well Good Golly Miss Molly, it ain't easy predicting the future is it?

Freedom Not Fear 2008

2008-10-15T14:48:00.003+02:00

Biometry, cameras, data mining, fingerprinting, DNA. As technology develops the fear of privacy invasion is entering the public consciousness. Things seem to get a bit Orwellian lately.

And where there's fear, there will be a movement. So on October 11, there have been demonstrations in several European cities.

The impact of technological change on society, don't you just love it!? The faster the pace of change, the more nervous we'll get, the more movements we'll have. It brings to mind Tommy Lee Jones in No Country For Old Men. An old mind trying to deal with a changing world. Not an easy task, since that damned world kept changing anyways. What do you think, movements like this, do they make a difference?

Relax. Soon you can let Siri do it for you...

2008-10-15T13:51:00.003+02:00

Nowhere to go, nowhere to flee, we've landed @Dawn of 21stcentury.

I just really felt like writing that down..

..anyway, I remember back in 1994, a beautiful day at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, I was accessing 'the web' by using things like Gopher. Then came the Christmas holidays, and when I came back on Monday January 2 1995, this icon had been added to the windows 3.1 desktop >> Netscape!

I could hardly believe it, this whole 'website thing'. Pictures on which you could click and then off you were, to the next website..., amazing it was.

Now, over a decade later, the web has definitely developed nicely and we are currently blessed with browsers such as IE, Firefox and Chrome.

Now the intriguing question to me: what's next? Well, maybe Siri is. It represents a new interaction paradigm for the consumer internet experience (as they put it themselves). You see, in the past 5 years over 200 million dollars has been put in this government-backed research project called CALO (Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes). Some elements of the developed technology will now be commercially exploited by means of Siri. The idea being that the Internet has become way too complex for the average user and that we need a new way of interacting with the web by means of an intelligent interface.

News like this is food for fantasy to me. I am very curious how browsers/access interfaces will develop over time. For now we'll have to wait though. Siri will be available in a public beta in the first half of 2009. You can sign up here.

Chatbot or human? 25% of judges just got fooled!

2008-10-14T09:12:00.005+02:00

Hold on to your horses, cause this is cool:

Last sunday oktober 12, At the university of Reading (Berkshire, UK), the 18th Loebner Price competition has taken place. The aim of this competition is to test the conversational abilities of so-called chatbots, or artificial conversational entities.

Each chatbot competed in a series of five-minute long, unrestricted conversational tests thereby trying to pass themselves off as humans to the judges. The ultimate holy grail being passing the so-called Turing Test devised by 20th-century British mathematician, Alan Turing in 1950; for a chatbot to pass this test at least 30% of human interrogators have to be fooled into thinking they are actually communicating with a human.

Elbot, the winner of last sunday's competition came real close; it managed to fool 25% of judges into thinking they were actually talking to a human. And Jarno says: that's impressive!!!

Although not as smart as the system used during the competition, you can have a chat with Elbot here. And oh, while you're at it, be sure to check out this T-shirt.

Create and print your own 3D objects>> Shapeways!

2008-10-13T12:22:00.005+02:00

Good afternoon dear planet,

A lovely sunny afternoon out here in the lowlands, but then again, who cares.

Anyways, 100.000 years ago mankind was smacking stones against each other to make fire, now we have lighters, decades ago we had to find, grind & process beans to make a coffee, now we have a Senseo-machine (thank you Philips and besides, if you ask me it's not a coincidence that the Dutch are known for their pot and coffee, kinda like Ying Yang), 10 years ago we had roadmaps, now your phone knows where it is...

The point being: technological development is merely a reflection of our ability to 'manage' matter and energy, and in order to do so, over time we are working on a smaller and smaller scale. Playing your own movies at home? back in the seventies, when the video recorder was introduced it was both amazing (not needing a cinema to watch a movie) and scary to the television industry, They thought this would mark the beginning of the end of television...

So the second point being: it's always impossibly difficult to imagine the true impact of new technologies on society over time. But the fundamentals are clear, things get smaller and more personalized (how many different cellphones are there now, how many different landline phones were there 20 years ago) and so it will be, that ultimately, thanks to the advent of nano-technology, when it comes to juggling with matter, we will be free! Your typical 20th century seized factory will ultimately collapse into something the size of a big box, so like real Star Trekians we will be able to ask the computer for a coke and the computer will synthesize.

We are not quite there yet, but step by step we walk, so let's start with the ability to devise your own 3D objects online and have 'm printed: Shapeways! This Eindhoven-based company gives you the option of both uploading your own 3D designs or customise existing ones, using their online creator and then have the objects shipped to you. And I think that's cool, so just wanted to let you know.

Stay tuned for more.

Stick around!

2008-10-12T13:15:00.010+02:00

In a paper published in the October 10 (2008) issue of Science, an improved carbon nanotube-based material (see left, isn't it beautiful :) has been described with a gripping ability ten times better than a real gecko at resisting perpendicular shear forces.

What?

They invented superglue! >> The adhesive force being about 10 kg per square centimeter!!!
And just like natural Gecko feet >> very easy to lift back up.

So?

In the future Spiderman-outfits might get really cool!

Read all about it
Watch it work
Watch something entirely different

Polar Rose >>let's help The Matrix label us carbon units!

2008-10-10T12:51:00.003+02:00

Hello World,

Check out Polar Rose. An initiative that grew out of computer vision research - the analysis of digital images and video - at the Universities of Lund and Malmö in southern Sweden.

The idea is simple. You download a browser-plugin. Then everytime when there are faces on the website, the plugin recognizes them as faces and you can 'label' the face by name, so that in the near future the Web knows who we all are. Of course the web will ultimately house a database that contains all of our complete genetic blueprints. But since we still have to cough up $5000 for having our code sequenced, well, just using a name is still easier :)

Hello world! Jarno's back and this time..

2008-10-09T21:16:00.007+02:00

Intriguing... it's been over 3 years and this !@$%* blog is still here! In fact, not only has this blog not been erased, I could now log in with my Google account..

I've spent over 2 years building up a digital music database, like 300 to 400 gigabytes of music. It then got erased. Every computer I've ever had, stopped breathing after , let's say 4 years. I've taken I don't know how many pictures with cell-phones, they're all gone now..

Digital information is supposed to go, at least in the end, I always thought. Yet my blog is still here.
I mean, you know, I'm willing to write. Seriously. The fact that I can, online you know, is amazing in itself. The fact that I am sitting here, in Apeldoorn, Holland, and that when after I press the return botton, the whole world can see and respond to this text, I mean, that's just amazing, actually, when you come to think of it..

..the fact that, at the same time, I have access to the whole world, I can talk to anyone, find any information, do anything basically, just by means of a keyboard and a screen..

Wow! But still, what if I wake up tomorrow, try to log in, and this blog is gone? Nah, that won't happen. Ok. What if Google goes bankrupt one day? Doesn't sound plausible to me, but hey, then again, the whole worldwide financial system just went down, so, let's think again, what will ultimately happen with all the information I am generating as I type?

Well I guess there's only one answer: calm down Jarno, Focus not on the Negative, my young apprentice...

The aim of this weblog therefore, is to do 2 things:

1. Entertain! laughter and happiness are the basis of positive energy. And that's definitely what this planet needs right now. Get up with a smile @ enjoy being crazy when you can!

2. Inform about technological developments. They are ever accelerating. And so grows the impact on our daily lives. Coupled with the severe challenges we face: the basics of our economic system (you know, the financial crisis and all that) , questions of global governance, climate change, looming food & energy shortages leading to 'resource wars', the impact of technology on issues such as governments invading citizens' privacy, robots in our lives, virtual reality, the fact that you can have your DNA mapped for less then 500 dollars within the next 5 to 10 years, and, well, once again, calm down Jarno..

The point being: the next few decades will come with breathtakingly fast pace of change and seriously challenging issues. This blog aims to both entertain and challenge you to respond, think about and laugh(!?) about these issues. By communicating in positive spirits, about these issues, I would like to humbly hope to foster an environment, intriguingly being entirely digital and global, in which we will challenge eachother to come up with solutions, both practical and effective to meet the environmental, socio-political, economic and technological, without pretending to be complete..., challenges of the next few decades.

OK, I admit, when a man drinks wine, at talking he seems fine.. I really think I'm almost there.. please, give me the benifit of the doubt? Ah?

Let me put the previous in more practical terms:

- How can we use computers to finally bring our educational system up to a 'humanly acceptable' level?

- How can we make sure local communities can 'survive' by producing there own energy and food. Can we produce food in cities, in community gardens, public places, whatever?

- In the eighties there where large arcade systems on which you could play a simple game, in the nineties there where desktop computers onto which you could store 100 megabytes, now there are cellphones that know where they are, are rather touch-sensitive and can store up to 32 gigs, so imagine ten years from now.., something the size of a button, that can do a $%#! of a lot more then the last thing described, wow!, once again a long story, but, anywhays, what impact will that device have on our daily lives? Anyone? Anyone?

And so it is that I would like to keep asking questions, and foster the process of humanity of preparing for the near future to come. Ok, I've had enough wine now.

Thank you planet Earth for listening and Oh! There's just one more thing! >>

Check out this website >> SuperStruct - play the game - invent the future

Take care now, bye bye then,

Straight from Apeldoorn, Holland.
Jarno de Vries

Streamload - freedom for your digital lifestyle

2005-08-13T16:39:00.000+02:00

Hey everybody! Just wanted to inform ya'll on the Streamload-service; this service offers unlimited storage, the ability to send and receive megafiles, but most importantly: you have access to your files from anywhere (so you can host your files and unburden a website or something).

So check it out if you'd like and if not, well then don't! Oh and remember: If I'm not back in 5 seconds, just wait longer... take care now, bye bye then!

Do YOU ever have tech-burnout?

2005-08-13T03:39:00.000+02:00

Just wondering: have you ever had the feeling of being burned out on technology; that you're just sick and tired of writing emails and IM's, that you have to force yourself to pick up the phone? A feeling that kicks in just once or a few times a year, that you're just DONE with it all, that you just need a break? That you basically get all technophobic or communifobic? Do not think you are the only one..

Virtual Keyboard finally available!

2005-08-13T02:12:00.000+02:00

It has taken some time, fuzz over patents and what's more, but now the damn thing is finally available: A Virtual Laser Keyboard. US-citizens can buy it here (not bluetooth version for $149), Europeans here (Bluetooth version for Euro 199).

As you can see it's a device that projects the keyboard onto any desired surface, by use of a red laserbeam. Obviously it also detects the movement of your fingers, so it knows what keys you've been hitting :) And when you hit a key, a subtle soundsignal is given. Uhm, what else? Oh yeah, with the included lithium-ion batteries it's supposed to 'be alive' for 120 hours @ a time.

Of course, there are obvious disadvantages: since there's no tactile feedback, pulling thru a long computer-session might result in painful fingertops. But then again, if you ask me (I know, nobody does, but this is MY virtual space :), this is a typical mobility-device. I haven't tried it out yet, but I can imagine, if you do a lotta typing on your cellphone or PDA-type device, it might actually come in handy (especially the Bluetooth version). And if you have a girlfriend (or are there actually females in my audience, cause in that case let me rephrase 'if you have a boyfriend...') you can first give her a massage and by the time she has fallen asleep, use her back as your keyboard (not that I have any idea what good that would do, but hey, we gotta try things out in life).

And if you know how to read the wonderful Dutch language, then here's the source..

Seeya,

Jarno

56 cents/hour in a 'videogame-sweatshop' >> Welcome to the online underworld!

2005-08-12T13:54:00.000+02:00

Goodafternoon fellow-earthbots! Here's yet another wild story, straight from Rotterdam. But first for something completely different: The Dance Parade! What? Hundreds of thousands of people going nuts on Trance & Techno, tomorrow, right here (After clicking, you'll be requested to download a file: Don't worry, it's a Google Earth Placemark (kmz-file), so you'll be flown to the exact place where I'll be dancing! And I am not going to tell you again that you need to have Google Earth installed).

Now that I've slipped into the realm of Marketing anyways, I might as well say this: We've also had Formula 1 Racing (yes, in the centre of Rotterdam, once again, The Dutch are known for smoking too much..), Summercarnaval and the Red Bull Air Race. All this summer! So now for the moral of this story: Rotterdam = cool! Thank you for listening, let's get back to the program >>

And today's program is about Sack (I am NOT responsible for this name), a chinese guy who works for 56cents an hour, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on the U.S. Lineage II server. On a monthly basis that means $150 for him and $60.000 for his employer. And what does he do? He's a 'farmer', exacly, not in the original sense, but in the dawn21stcentury-sense. He works in a MMORPG and he manually controls automated agents (so they're not automated enough if you ask me) out of 'their dungeons' to go sell their goods (gold & items & stuff) and then returns them to their dungeons again so they can beef up on gold, items and stuff again. And that's it. So the moral of this story: If you want to make real money in the virtual world, it's all about the ability to write game macros or the money to purchase them. And if you know where to look, they are on the open market. A macro that uses a teleportation exploit in World of Warcraft is currently going for $3,000. Then just hire cheap labor to monitor the bots...

It's a strange planet.

Space Adventures offers moontrips by 2008!

2005-08-11T14:12:00.000+02:00

They cooperate with the Russian space agency Energiya, they're gonna fly in the Soyuz, it's gonna cost 100 million dollar per trip, 2 people @a time and eventually, of course, they want to put people on the moon.

I don't think there's much left to say, other then, I really hope I can afford a space- or moontrip, let's say, 30 years from now; so really rich people: Go and invest and invest and invest!!! So that the 'simple people' like me can afford this in the near/midterm future!

Read more @DeepSpaceExpeditions.com

By the way, which reminds me! Did you know the Japanese wanna have a true robot moonbase by 2025?! Complete with "robot satellites" (they service, repair and refuel other satellites) and all. Advanced versions of Qrio and Asimo would be walking around there. Nice! Then all we need to do is make sure that that crazy dude that's running Virgin Galactic has our moonhotels ready. Something like a dome like Eden would be nice virgin-dude :) complete with nice-looking female android hostesses and all. In this garden of Eden-type dome we obviously would have a bar to go to, but we'd call it the Spacebar and let the Dutch run it (so as to make sure it would REALLY BE a Spacebar :), take that, a female android and the view and Wow, you'd have yourself a hell of a vacation man!! But I guess I personally don't need space, I seem to be trippin anyways! And so far for our weekly Irrelevant Information Show! Have yourself a nice one and remember! Be well and be efficient, my fellow Earthbots :)

Jarno says bye.

Very virtual & Very real: 50hrs gaming kills South Korean dude

2005-08-10T14:15:00.000+02:00

There are many addictive things in life (this remark has nothing to do with the fact that I am Dutch, ok!), anyway, gaming is clearly one of of them. I personally also remember many a times that it was sooo damn difficult to 'stop gaming' and go to bed. I had my toughest moments with Halo on the X-box. I'll never forget how impressed I was when I saw that game for the first time. But these South-Korean dudes!? Wow, they definitely top off the charts! I think 16 hours straight is my personal best, but 50 hours? This guy did it and died...

Nanotech & Space Exploration - Nasa's thinking small...

2005-08-10T10:41:00.000+02:00

Good morning planet Earth! Just passed by an interesting feature on Nasa's site; it's about Nanotech and the future of space exploration and that's what Jarno likes! It explains that Nanotech is about more then just shrinking things, because when deliberately ordering and structuring matter @the molecular level, amazing new properties sometimes emerge.

Currently all trendy in the nanotech-world and a great example of this: The Carbon Nanotube! (see drunk nanotube above). Did you know that carbon can occur as graphite or as diamond and that the only difference lies in the specific 'arrangement of the carbon atoms'? Anyways, when scientists arrange the same carbon atoms into a "chicken wire" pattern and roll them up into miniscule tubes only 10 atoms across, you get the so-called Nanotubes. And they are very very strong (100 times steel) & light & act as great conductors & semiconductors, so that's all just great. Because of these rather extraordinary traits carbon nanotubes can be used for all kinds of things: a strong cable for a space elevator, as molecular wires for nano-scale electronics (see what IBM's doing) or as tiny rods and gears in nano-scale machines (watch a Nanofactory Animation Movie here), but that would just represent the short term...

600 square miles of free Wifi-access in Oregon >> we need this in Holland!

2005-08-08T14:00:00.000+02:00

This NYT-editorial describes Hermiston, Eastern Oregon, where highschools hold 'kiss the pig' - contests; pretty rural. And you know what? They have the largest wifi hotspot in the world; 600 square miles and they're already starting to introduce WiMax, the next generation of technology after Wi-Fi. What's more: it's free for consumers and has been up and running for more than a year and a half.

Now that's how the cookie crumbles! 600 square miles ~ 1500 square kilometres. Holland has about 35000 in total! And although we do have pigs too, we also have 16.5 million people! And it's not like our flat lands are the most difficult terrain to cover. Kim Puzey, the general manager of the Port of Umatilla, envisions broadband Internet access as just another utility, like electricity or water. I think that's clever thinking, but who am I? Considering the fact that computerchips get 10 times as powerful in 5 years, considering the fact that RFID-chips will break the 5cent barrier in the next 5 years & will then be put in everything, considering the fact that computerscreens get better, thinner and cheaper @a frantic pace, considering the fact that one new blog is being created every second & that everybody I know thinks the Internet is cool, YEAH, I'D SAY A FREE DUTCH NATIONWIDE WIMAX-NETWORK WOULD PROBABLY PAY OFF FOR THE DUTCH ECONOMY!

So are you listening Jan-Peter? (the Dutch government finds being modern very important...). Now, I don't know how much such a thing would cost but, well, first of all, I don't think it would really matter, cause it would pay off anyways, but second of all the Dutch government should easily be able to afford this by using a bit of the money they make on gasoline...

... Yes, we (although I personally do not have a car right now) pay Euro 1,41 for a liter of gasoline. With the Euro being about 1,25 dollars right now, that means $1,76 for a liter, which translates into (3,6 * $1,76 ) = $6,34 for a gallon of gasoline and about 75% of that is money for the government! Now IS THAT a good deal or what!? It truly is, since we have about 7 million cars riding around in our 35.000 square-kilometre pot-clouded water-managed Harry Potter theme park. How much is that per square kilometre per year? Could you finance a Wimax-network with that? All the roads in the world won't alleviate the clogged-ness of the Dutch highways; with a new road here, the bottleneck moves there! Building more roads now results too much in 'bottleneck replacement' and too little in a fundamental solution. So hold back on the roads, build the Wimax-network and by the time it is ready, it can be used by the by-then 8 million cars to communicate with eachother and drive themselves (@ fixed speeds & distances so as to use the existing roads way more effectively).

But, then again, why am I worrying about all this?

Remote-controlled woman :)

2005-08-08T10:04:00.000+02:00

Ever heard of galvanic vestibular stimulation, or GVS? Well I hadn't, but now I have and such an interesting article I stumbled upon, oh jolly! ;)
Anyway, this is the deal: Your vestibular system controls your sense of movement and balance, and apparently it can be trown off-kilter by delivering two weak electrical currents to the mastoid (area of bone) behind your ear. Because when this happens, the body responds by shifting the balance toward the anode & if the current is strong enough it won't just throw you off-balance but will alter your course of movement.

At the 2005 SIGGRAPH computer graphics conference in Los Angeles NTT-researchers have shown a remote-controlled device to deliver these currents. And why is that cool? Well, just watch this remote-controlled woman

What is it with Black Holes?

2005-08-07T14:59:00.000+02:00

What is it with black holes that intrigues me so much? (the picture to the left is not a black hole, but nice anyways) Or is it simply the fact that it's too easy to intrigue me? I don't know. I do remember my mom used to tell me how, when I was 4/5, and we lived on a farm, I used to walk all the way towards the end of the path leading to our house. There was a fence there. But after I had figured out how to open that fence, I would simply walk into the woods nearby. And I would simply not stop walking, which resulted in many scared moments for my mom. Well, sorry! But anyway, I loved to discover then, and I do now, so what is it with black holes that intrigues me so much? Well, anyhow, they say they discovered a whole bunch of new ones.

PS: 'Black holes cannot be seen directly, because they trap light and anything else that gets too close. But astronomers infer their presence by noting the behavior of material nearby: gas is superheated and accelerated to a significant fraction of light-speed just before it is consumed.'

Welcome to blogumentary!

2005-08-07T13:04:00.000+02:00

This morning, when I was 'virtually tripping' again, I hit upon Chuck Olson's Blog: a true Blogumentary about the blogosphere.

He writes: 'Blogs empower us to tell our story, spout and debate our politics, and share ourselves with the rest of the world – or at least the 5 people who read our blog. What compels us to blog? How does it affect us, each other, our work, the mediascape, the world? Do bloggers have anything in common? Does the blogosphere have a life of it's own, like the emergent behavior of an ant colony excited by the discovery of food?'
and explores themes like 'Personal expression and transformation. Democratic non-corporate media in action. Tension between revelation and anonymity. Blog personality vs. real-life personality (e.g. shyness). Relationship dynamics: romantic, family, friends, work. Connectedness. Blogosphere as a living organism. Humanity.'

Well Chuck, let me tell you that I find this truly interesting! This apparent 'urge' that many of us seem to have to write about our interests, ourselves, to show the world with imagery and videos, to share all that makes 'me'. It seems to be in our nature to wanna communicate, explore & understand and then store Information. That's also why I liked the specific arrangement of the following 5 words :) 'Blogosphere as a living organism', Because I truly believe that that's what we're doing: creating a worldwide metallic/silicon 'autonomously operating' organism (like pieces of a grant puzzle: blogging/videologging/omnipresence of access to the web/chip-size being reduced to dust >> omnipresence of chips [in products/food/medicine/our own body] /step by step creation of 'virtual personalities' [avatars/verbots/game personalities/'autonomously operating' blocks of software]/robotics/'smart materials' and Nano-tech in general/genetics=software)

That's why this is my personal ideal: to have a house in the mountains/forest with an amazing view and nothing much in the house but 'the connection'. More and more of what we are doing on a daily basis, seems to be lying in or near the realm of the virtual. The Internet like quicksand. As if the virtual world is slowely but surely covering our beings.

Which reminds me of this article about the fact that real-world trading of virtual items used in online games has rocketed (also check this previous post). Imagine paying 100 real-world dollars for a virtual sword, then blogging about it and posting videos of you 'in action' with the sword. Yep, the realm of the virtual is closing in on us. So now imagine to have the inside of your house wallpapered with 'video-plastics' and your occasional 3D-screen and that you stand in your living room talking to Ramona, 'the virtual personality' if you want something from Google. Once that's the case, of course we will say: "Nice, but now what?" and further down the rabbit hole (inspired by The Matrix, thank you) we will move. What an akward future we must have ahead of us...

Statement I found @ this blog, nicely reflecting the urge to express oneself: 'This VideoBlog will be updated everyday of 2005 with a video. It'll kill me. But what the hell. So Check back daily!'.

Blablablabla and so it goes on & on, enough now Jarno, down boy!

Boost for narrowcasting: holograms!

2005-08-06T19:13:00.000+02:00

An image that floats in front of a screen, but can turn around as well, visible upto 30 metres. McDonalds Australia already has it and its coming to a cinema near you pretty soon: Holographic imagery.

Watch this flash-movie
Read more here and here
Visit Opticality Corp. and Vizoo

Food for thought

2005-08-05T19:27:00.000+02:00

Dear reader,

Did you know that if you want to buy a ticket for the train in Holland, then you can either buy that ticket @ a touch-screen ticket machine or go to the counter & buy it there. Since last year though, if you go to the counter, they do not only print you your train ticket but also an extra one for which you have to pay an additional 0,50 euro. They call it 'administrational costs' but the underlying thought is to force your inefficient ass to the machine next time you wanna catch a train - so they don't have to keep those expensive human beings on their payroll forever. So instead of 'administrational costs' I like to call it 'Inefficiency Fine'; They print you an extra ticket! One that specifically says 0,50 Euro. I mean: if you have the guts to bug a poor human being with something as futile as the purchase of a ticket, to whatever service for that matter, well then that's your call, but don't expect us to not say anything about it, you Inefficient System! 0,50 Euro, woohaha!! You should be happy we don't charge you 5,00 Euro's for this. Any idea what human beings cost to maintain? ... ... ...

Did you know that between 1995 and 2002 the U.S.A. lost 2 million industrial jobs, mostly to China? Did you also know that China, in that period, lost 15 million such jobs, mostly to machines?

Dìd you know that automation of farming pushed people into factories and that automation of factories is pushing people into service and that automation of service is pushing people into information tech and that automation of information tech will push people into symbiont groups and that automation of symbiont groups will push people beyong biology and that we will then be transhuman, whatever that means?

Am I confusing everybody again? Well, I can imagine! But anyways, the moral of the story is that I think ultimately, everything is about efficiency. I mean: when we discovered fire, why did we keep it? Not JUST because it was cool, I'd say. I'd say that it helped keeping us warm more efficiently and it helped us catch our food more efficiently, by allowing us to scare each & every animal's pants off by chasing them off a cliff with the fire on a stick. So if you ask me (who does? But that's the great thing about this virtual world, what do I care! :), every choice we have ever made, was essentially a choice towards greater efficiency...

... I mean, @ the 'beginning of days' each & every individual was surviving for him/her self. Then we figured out the concept of 'division of labor', so some people went hunting and others went searching for food. then we discovered that we could actually stay 'home' all day and simply grow the food from the ground up. Then we decided to extrapolate on that concept by doing the exact same thing, but by the millions; welcome to the age of empires! Ratata! The Greec, the Romans etcetera. Then we discovered things like alchemy and before we knew it we got scientific, which was handy cause now we could invent something called 'machines'. Food organization by the millions, but why do the hard labour ourselves? And so we build ever bigger and more efficient machines. But in order to operate the machines you need to pull all kinds of levers & stuff. Whaa, we don't wanna pull levers! So let's invent another machine that can operate the machines; we'll call it 'a computer'. But for computers to be useful we have to make them faster. And faster and faster. But then computers got so fast that it became difficult for the humans to operate them. All this typing & clicking! Whaa, we don't wanna type & click! So let's invent a way that we don't have to. And so the age of symbioses began. And from 'talking to' and 'being with' it went to 'merging with'. Cause this way things were more efficient.

The end.

From Gmail to Lifelogs & the arrival of the Symbiotic Age

2005-08-05T14:12:00.000+02:00

Did YOU know that it's Google's mission to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful? No? Well, it is. And within that context they're testing this new Email-service, called Gmail (how original) >>

Gmail differs significantly from other mail-services though; it is built on the idea that you should never have to delete mail and you should always be able to find the message you want. So they give you over 2000 Megabytes (2 Gigabytes) of storage for free and preserve, for the first time, everything you will ever type and Google Search quickly recalls any message you have ever sent or received - so no more need to file messages! So Gmailers are bloggers really, even if they don't realize, since everything that gets typed, gets logged. Next thing you know, we store everything we've ever said and then everything we've ever seen. Combined with effective systems for auto-archiving and auto-indexing, this is where the true realm of LifeLogging begins.. (check out the Nokia Lifeblog to get an idea)...

... Lifelogging or not, since technological development itself is speeding up exponentially, quite quickly we're brought back to that one question again: 'Yeah, but now what?' And then I say: well, better to brace yourself and prepare for the coming of the Symbiotic Age...

" Technology is becoming organic, Nature is becoming technologic " (Brian Arthur, SFI)

Yahoo gets serious with Audio Search

2005-08-05T12:13:00.000+02:00

Hello! Information-access has just taken yet another step towards complete 'seemlessness'; see, in the not-too-distant future Microsoft's operating system might not be called 2000, XP or Vista but something more along the lines of Communications and a Google-search will entail talking to a virtual personality instead of typing words - the moral of this story: a single point of access for whatever you want to do...

In the meantime however, I just find it interesting to watch the steps taken towards that goal. As if we humans are ants, frantically working to complete the hundreds of thousands of pieces that alltogether make up that one giant puzzle: One big earth-wide electronic brainsystem! I mean, if you'd separate an individual ant from its antfarm and ask him what exactly it is he is building, then the ant would probably reply by saying 'Huh?', because most likely the ant wouldn't have a clue - all it knows is how to work - the endgoal is not what's relevant. Well, you know what?! That strikes me as an intriguing parallel to humans; there's no individual human being who has a clue what's happening on this planet, where all changes will lead to - humans just know how to work. The only difference between us and the ants is that we're not building a giant ant-palace but a planet-wide electronic brain.

Anyway, look at me babbling again; the Internet is definitely a place where it is not all that difficult to almost literally go virtually crazy. Then again, since the word 'crazy' reflects no more then a 'certain deviation from a norm', in this case the question arises 'what's the norm?' - isn't that just exactly it with the current weblog/videolog/lifelog - development? Isn't the only reason why they're so popular, the fact that they give each and every person a chance to create his/her own 'virtual' - reality? Like a virtual cocoon, with your memories, your thoughts, your rules; we'll soon be starring in our own movies and that in itself reminds me of The Matrix again...

For all you truly interested readers, back to the subject at hand: Yahoo Audio Search. The free service allows you to sift thru a database of over 50 million music files, podcasts, spoken word-files and artist websites! The first service to give access to songs featured on most major music download sites, thru a single point of access. Ever heard of the 'Trockener Kecks' or 'Normaal'? Old Dutch audio-stuff, but I DID find it using Yahoo Search. And you know what that means? That I'm impressed :)

And don't forget to have yourself a lovely day now, cause, whether it's God, Allah, Green Tara, nobody, some 'unknown dude's intelligent design' or just the mathematical way of the universe, fact is: we're stuck in that universe and life is short so enjoy damnit :)

Uhm, ever heard of Robot camel-jockeys?

2005-08-04T23:56:00.000+02:00

Date: Monday July 18, 2005
Location: Al Wathba racing track, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Subject: Desert racing! Yeah Baby!

Why do I tell you this stuff? Because 'robots' were used! I got this from NewScientist.com & the article literally says that since the use of child jockeys has been condemned by human rights activists, robots have now been developed; remote-controlled riders with mechanical legs for balancing or leaning and mechanical arms for pulling on their camel's reins.. intriquingly weird if you ask me.. by the way, this reminds me of the Japanese, not that they're not allowed to use children for whatever cause, but in the near future they won't have any! And that is their reason for pumping shitloads of money into 'robotic reasearch'. By the year 2015 the Japanese government wants to 'put robots to use' in daily chores; helping the elderly finding their daily route to the toilet & stuff like that. No I'm not joking damnit! The Japanese love robots..

Or check out some of the previous posts (brought to you by 'The Marketing Department':)
-> Robots help Japan care for its elderly
-> Toyota to employ robots
-> New robots walk like humans
-> Did you know the Honda Asimo robot could run?
-> Robots that can feel, reason and desire

Robot catcher grabs ball at 300 km/hour!

2005-08-04T22:57:00.000+02:00

Hello everybody. Here I am again to bore you all with some high tech news. This time: the realm of robotics. Here we go :)
Scientists at the University of Tokyo, Japan (where else..) have developed a 'robotic catcher' that can comfortably grab a ball flying thru the air at 300 kilometres per hour, or 83 metres per second. And then I say: wow! yet another little piece of the big "Come with me if you want to live/Terminator II" - puzzle, solved! Anyway, the damn thing has an array of 32 by 48 individual photo detectors in its “palm” so as to track a ball's trajectory @ high speed and a series of specialised image processing circuits to 'recognise' the movement almost instantly. And last but not least: It uses High speed actuators to move its fingers through 180 degrees in 0.1 second!

And the reason for making this thing? Well, there was some blabla, but I think they just had nothing better to do and did it because they could. Cause come on.. if we human beings needed any other reason, we would still live in the jungle.

So greetings fellow earthlings & don't forget to smile once in a while!

Meet Snuppy, the cloned South Korean dog!

2005-08-04T09:44:00.000+02:00

He's 16 weeks down the road and amazingly Snuppy is still alive. Already to be found in the Museum of cloned animals were: Dolly the sheep, CC the cat and Ralph the rat. Snuppy, whose name stands for Seoul National University puppy, was made from a cell taken from the ear of a three-year-old male Afghan hound.

Using an online game to help teach computers to see

2005-08-03T16:56:00.000+02:00

Hi everybody! This is a story about so-called computer vision. Computer vision is still at a primitive stage, in part because it takes so much time to teach computers how to identify objects -- a process that involves highlighting objects or features in images for the computer. But now there's this online game: Peekaboom (How Peekaboom works and why you should play). Peekaboom is intended to help teach computers to see. Since the Post-Gazette first wrote about Peekaboom in October 2003, more than 80,000 people have played the game and in the process have generated more than 10 million descriptive words for 1 million images...

The beauty of reality captured in virtuality

2005-08-03T15:51:00.000+02:00

After typing the words surreal and purple in Flickr Photo Search I got some interesting search results. One of them is the picture to the left. It came from A Blog's Eye View of Sydney. the picture was taken at Yarramalong Valley, a picturesque spot an hour north of Sydney during foggy weather.

The moral of this story? Well: some guy in Australia decides to take a road-trip and then happens to catch this purple sunset scene on camera. Thru the fog it looks so purple that it's almost surreal. And then there's this bored guy, 20.000 km away from the roadtrip-guy, in a country called Holland. He has absolutely nothing to do and therefore he decides to look for purple surreal pictures on the Web. And then he ends up looking at the picture of the roadtrip-guy. The Internet is just amazing! We must never forget how insane this is! Imagine 10-15 years ago. If I had wanted to find a purple surreal picture taken by an an Australian dude, wow, that would have taken quite some effort. So I am amazed and intrigued that all this is possible. Just so you know :)

Cool new features in Flickr!

2005-08-03T12:24:00.000+02:00

Have you heard of Flickr yet? No! Well listen up then: It's almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world! (No, nobody's paying me to say this, I just got outta bed with a lot of enthusiasm today). On the Flickr-blog 2 new features were recently announced:
Clustering, a better way to explore photos through tags, and Interestingness, a ranking algorithm based on user behavior around the photos.

With the clustering-feature, when exploring photos, you can now also root around finer distinctions. So 'dog nose red' will leave you with other hits then 'dog nose blue' (and they make sense too, try it out yourself)

But there's more to tell about Flickr. In order to get there though, firstly for something completely different: KML-documents. Google Earth KML Documents detail everything you need to know to create and share information with the Google Earth client. The simplest kind of KML documents are those that can be authored directly inside the client (Google Earth). That is, you don't need to edit or create any KML in a text editor. Placemarks, ground overlays, paths and polygons can all be authored directly in the Google Earth client! So that's cool, now back to Flickr >>

This guy at Geobloggers.com has created a so-called KML-network link so that after opening the file (which you can download here) Google Earth will open (so obviously you have to have Google Earth installed) it will enable you to see the 50 photos hosted on Flickr that are geospatially tagged as being closest to the center of your present viewpoint (so far 36,938 photos have been tagged)

'The photo set will refresh four seconds after you stop moving, so fly where ever you want to visit, pause for a few seconds, and then enjoy the arrival of 50 thumbnail images that are tagged as in that neighborhood. Like what you see? Click on one of the thumbnail images to get a link to the full-size hosted image'.

A story about Google Earth, virtual flights & logfiles

2005-08-02T15:31:00.000+02:00

In Google Earth, there is this feature called 'layers'. One of the layers you can activate is the 3D-layer. When flying thru Houston for example (see picture below), you can then really see the buildings in 3D, although they still look like giant white boxes, I think it's still pretty darn cool! Anyway, since I live in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, I am obviously frustrated that the Rotterdam architecture hasn't been mapped out yet. But I guess that's just a matter of time. Wouldn't it be cool though if you could actually see what the buildings would like like, instead of white boxes? But I guess that's also just a matter of time. If you would then add a 'game-like layer' by means of which you could actually land on the ground in Google Earth. You could then walk around (just like in the games) and 'enter shops' and so on in the virtual world. By accessing the physical location, you would then get access to the store's website or something.

The other way around, maybe they could develop this easy-to-use software-tool for the cell-phone. By pressing one button you could have 'your journey logged'. The log would contain both audio, video and location-based meta-information. The logfile would than be contained in a format compatable to Google Earth. So back home you can enjoy a virtual flight thru the places you just actually visited, on your large screen TV.

Then imagine a world in which RFID-chips have reached the 2.5 - 5 cent price-level. So let's say, in 5 years, all products the consumer can buy anywhere will then be tagged. All portable devices will then also have an RFID-capability. Again, with a nice software-tool added to the mix, this way, a logfile can automatically be uploaded to your 'lifelog' on the web, containing information about what products you bought at what time in which stores, at what price etcetera etcetera. Since the RFID-chips contain information on the specific manufacturer of the product at hand, date of fabrication, contact-info, etcetera, all this info would also be contained in the logfile.
Combined with the Google Earth - story this would mean that you would for instance go shopping on saturday. Then you come home, switch on the television, upload the Google Earth compatable log-file from your cellphone or whatever mobile device and then on screen your taken on a virtual flight thru the streets that you just visited. Then you could 'stop the movie' at any time, fly around yourself simply because you can, enter the shop you just visited, but virtually this time, and then get access to the log-file of the products you just bought there.

With storage capacity growing, processing speed further increasing, manufacturing costs of chips decreasing, over time we will log a an-ever growing percentage of our daily lives. From whatever perspective you take. Whether it is the logging of 'meta-ìnformation' (what product was bought at what price), or actual info (audio/video/your own movements) or 'related information' (product and manufacturing information on RFID chips etcetera). And why would we store and log so much? because we can! Just look at the growth of weblogging. Does THAT make any sense? Most people just like myself do not really have anything very much substantial to say in their weblogs, yet every 5 months the number of weblogs is still doubling! It's in our nature to 'store information'.

One blog created 'every second'

2005-08-02T12:38:00.000+02:00

This article talks about the fact that according to blog trackers Technorati, the number of blogs it was tracking now stood at more than 14.2m blogs, up from 7.8m in March. They suggest, on average, the number of blogs is doubling every five months. They also pointed to the growth in moblogs, blogs to which people with camera phones automatically send pictures and text.

Read more about the State of the Blogosphere on David Sifry's (founder and CEO of Technorati) Alerts.

Inscriptions in a cave's bedrock, inscriptions on stone tablets, writing onto paper (books), photo-albums and letters, weblogging, video-logging, life-logging, uploading of thoughts&emotions/ personality capture, moving beyond biology, isn't the future just bizarre?

Fujitsu creates 'first' color, non-volatile e-paper

2005-07-30T20:18:00.000+02:00

And they wanna go commercial early 2007

Fiber Optics Bring the Sun Indoors

2005-07-28T14:25:00.000+02:00

The HSL 3000, a hybrid lighting system developed by Sunlight Direct, carries the actual light of the sun indoors. The system’s 48-inch primary mirror concentrates light into a secondary mirror, which strips away the infrared and ultraviolet components, and directs the visible light into the receiver

“When you come in, in the morning and you’re tired, and you’ve got your coffee in your hand and you’re not quite awake, you like seeing the reddish glow… the same type of light as outside.” Dr. Duncan Earl, CEO of Sunlight Direct, explained the psychological appeal of his company’s hybrid lighting system to the Canadian Discovery-Channel’s host Jay Ingram. People are more comfortable “waking up with the sun” and as the light becomes white they work through the day. “And at the end of the day when there’s a reddish glow, you know it’s time to go home.”

Japanese develop 'female' android

2005-07-28T13:44:00.000+02:00

With flexible silicone for skin rather than hard plastic, fluttering eyelids and the fact that 'she' (Repliee Q1) appears to be breathing, this is definitely the most human-like robot yet!

Read more
See more

FUTURES MARKET

2005-07-27T15:20:00.000+02:00

Very interesting article here about a Technology Timeline compiled by researchers at BT's futurology department with a list of advances they say will change tomorrow's world. Here's some of what they predict:

(2006-2010) Emotionally responsive toys, Electronic medical prescription, Video tiles (2008-2012) Medicine delivered via fruit, Video tattoos, Sensitive fabrics (2011-2015) Self-driving car, Tooth regeneration, Microchips in food (2013-2017) Active make-up, Robots guide blind people (2016-2020) Electronic lifeform gets basic rights, Viewers play film roles, Emotion control devices (2021-2025)
E-translation, Holographiv TV (2026-2030) 3D home printers (2031-2035) Biostasis in space travel, Computer geniuses

Computer scientists to copy brain of a mammal

2005-07-26T14:40:00.000+02:00

Read the article here

'IBM and Switzerland's Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) have teamed up to create the most ambitious project in the field of neuroscience: to simulate a mammalian brain on the world's most powerful supercomputer, IBM's Blue Gene.

Most theoretical neuroscientists have tried to simulate the brain using artificial neural networks. "That is not our goal," says Henry Markram, the professor leading the project. Markram wants to simulate the brain at every level of detail, even going down to molecular and gene expression levels of processing. At EPFL's Brain and Mind Institute, every facet of the brain is being examined and modelled'

Furby is back and THIS TIME...

2005-07-26T11:46:00.000+02:00

... he's gotten really smart. Furby will hit the market in a few weeks now, his manufacturer says (or should I say his mom/dad).
Wanna know what Furby can do?

Well, he can laugh, smile, frown, gasp, yawn and express fear or boredom using its flexible beak, expressive eyes, and movable ears & eyebrows. All this driven by Hasbro's new Emoto-Tronics technology, a combination of advanced robotic technology, puppetry and realistic lifelike reactions and movements.
Since Furby also has a light sensor, a tilt sensor and several touch sensors, his response to you really depends on how you handle him. The touch sensors can be found in his back, mouth and stomach, so petting, feeding and tickling makes a real difference. But of course, that's not all..

Using advanced voice recognition, Furby listens to you and talks back. So he can tell you all kinds of stories since he has an impressive vocabulary of both 'Furbish' and English, but you can also ask Furby to tell you a joke for instance and he'll most likely deliver a knock-knock zinger. Of course, his response depends on his 'mood'.

He also recognizes other Furby's in his vicinity and did I mention that he can dance and sing?
And you know what the bizarre thing is? Furby costs $39.99! So far I have no idea when and at what prize it will be available in Europe, so I keep track of these guys, cause they ship worldwide.

Want Virtual Reality in Google Earth?

2005-07-25T21:33:00.000+02:00

The boys and girls at Berkeley university have created this huge database of VR-panoramas.

This German guy, Thomas Rauscher, has been so nice as to create a bookmarklist for Google Earth that links to the Berkeley-database..

So, if you have Google Earth, download this kmz.file and get VR-panoramas like this in your GE (this one happens to be the exact beach at Pulau Tioman, Malaysia, where I went for 3 weeks in 2002 and learned how to dive >> so with a small tear in my eye I say: Google, Berkeley and German dude, thank you!)

Oh, and don't forget to check out the Google Earth Community

A.I. based bionic knee hits market

2005-07-25T12:35:00.000+02:00

Thought this was a nice one..

'What makes the Rheo-Knee different is that it's the first to use artificial intelligence -- tiny sensors that analyze the knee 1,000 times per second allowing it to adjust to any step or misstep'

By the way: It costs $30.000, you can watch the 3D-video here & download the official brochure (pdf) here

By the way 2: The term Bionic describes the application of biological principles to the study and design of engineering systems, especially electronic systems - Bi(o) + (electr)onics.

Retail TV

2005-07-23T15:23:00.000+02:00

Just thought this was a nice picture. Thanks Emerce!

One-atom-thick materials promise a 'new industrial revolution'

2005-07-23T14:29:00.000+02:00

Boy, do I love this nanotech-stuff! This one is pretty serious though: Scientists at The University of Manchester have discovered (The findings were published 18 July, 2005) a new class of materials which have previously only existed in science fiction films and books.

Dr Kostya Novoselov, a key investigator in this research, said "Although some of the applications are probably decades away, I expect to see ultra-fast transistors, micromechanical devices and nano-sensors based on the discovered one-atom-thick crystals already in a few years time."

In this regard, you might wanna check out the posting I uploaded last week 'From Sticks & Stones to Nanotech!'; gives you a nice overview of what's going on..

Are you Vlogging yet?

2005-07-15T12:44:00.000+02:00

No? Then quickly check out the links below (or look at the right side of this blog for some video-blogs straight from the videoblogging-universe, move the mouse over the 'pictures' and they will turn into video..). Did I mention that I love this stuff?

Popcast - Open Access Internet TV
Broadcast Machine
Vlogdir - The Videoblog Directory

Hold on to your horses cause the future is coming!

2005-07-15T01:36:00.000+02:00

Wanna know what the 2 screenshots below are all about?
Thank you soo much John Smart @Accelerationwatch.com, cause finally I can put my finger on this awkward feeling I've had for the past 20 years... (No, no, I'm 31 springs young, but the first 11 were quite harmless)

'You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world.
You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind...'

Tech Singularity? What are you talking about Dude?

Startup Deep Light claims to have multiplexed 3D HDTV

2005-07-14T21:10:00.000+02:00

' We are proud to announce the release of our new 3D displays which will begin shipping in the first quarter of 2006. These low cost, high-resolution displays will be used in industrial, medical, government and home applications and will be available in a variety of sizes and form factors. All deepLight displays are designed for natural viewing without a need for special glasses. '

Bla bla marketing, or will they actually be close? I definitely hope so, cause ever since I've seen this holographic shark in the movie 'Back to the future II', I've been waiting. And I'm still waiting!!! Just recently I posted this piece on Philips' 3D ambitions, so at least it seems things are cooking in the kitchen, but when it is that mommy really calls in the children for dinner.... who knows ... let's just hope the food doesn't get burned this time.

The world is a better place without fear!

2005-07-14T13:40:00.000+02:00

How the Internet brings people together...

Zooming in on my hometown - in 8 steps!

2005-07-14T11:41:00.000+02:00

Philips ready to start selling 3D-screens by October

2005-07-14T10:38:00.000+02:00

In a press briefing yesterday, Philips announced that they'll be ready to start selling their new 'Multi-view' 3D-screen by October this year (not yet to the end-consumer though). They've had talks with Steve Wynn for instance. Dude? Steve Wynn? Yeah, dude man! He's the guy behind Treasure Island, Mirage and Bellagio in Vegas. He's thinking 3d-screen equipped gambling machines; good for business you know. And what about Killzone II for the Playstation 3, in 3D! (well, that's just my own little fantasy).
Anyway, before I get overly excited again, let's finish up this post >>
Here's the link :) :)

By,

Jarno

From Sticks & Stones to Nanotech!

2005-07-13T18:37:00.000+02:00

After a few billion years of evolution on this planet, about 150.000 years ago nature had finally completed 'the design' (evolutionary development) of what we so proudly call today: Homo Sapiens Sapiens. Monkeys had already figured out that you could chase any competition away by throwing sticks & stones at eachother. We (well, the hominids right before us, to be exact) however managed to figure out that if you would bang two stones on top of eachother long enough, you could actually change the shape of these stones. And this is how the 'manufacturing process' of sharp edges started. Very useful, cause it enabled us to more effectively kill animals (so we could survive using less effort).

And this is how the story begins. From there on we basically embarked on a path of ever more effective 'manipulation' of the environment (the basic essence of survival for us); shaping tools and building stuff, basically.

Essentially our approach to building stuff has never really changed, we still use a Top-Down approach; take a house for instance: we literally stack layers and layers of bricks on top of eachother.

Now, @dawn of the 21st century, we have also learned that things are much smaller than they seem @first glance: atoms are the basic building blocks of everything, Barbie-dolls, sigarettes, humans, we're all nothing more than an intricate system of trillions of atoms..

Obviously we could build things much better if we would be more precise, if we would use a Bottom-Up approach instead of a Top-Down approach; if we could figure out a way of building something by doing it atom-for-atom, we could literally make things perfect - upon returning to Earth, astronauts wouldn't have to worry about part of their spacecraft's heatshield to 'let go', McDonald's wouldn't have to worry about strange stuff popping up in their Burgers and I wouldn't have to sit here writing in my naked upperbody, because 90 degrees or not, the sweat just wouldn't stick to my shirt! - And so on and soforth, because every single atom would 'know it's place'.

So to cut a long story short: Molecular Manufacturing is the Future, a not-too-distant one too. And I think that's cool! And I'm not the only one. The only reason I'm all excited about this, is this guy, Eric Drexler. Back in 1986 he wrote this book 'Engines of Creation', in which he explained the powerful potential of Nano-Technology.

Although the Top-Down approach still is the dominant one when it comes to building stuff, things have indeed already gotten a lot smaller. Just look at the way medicine is being produced, or IBM's carbon nanotubes, or RFID-chips (and Smart Dust shortly thereafter), or, and many more examples...

As exciting as things have already gotten, we haven't even begun to touch upon the true power of the Nanotech age though. Because in a truly developed nanotech-society we would have 'factories in a box' (literally). All you need would be a 'pool of basic goo' (containing all required atoms) and a factory so small you can't see it, that would 'put every required atom in the right place, at lightspeed. And then you're in the realm of Star Trek where you can tell the computer what food you want and it would be produced instantly (from our very very large Top-Down human perspective).

Would this be possible? Yes! Yes! Yes! But it obviously sounds ridiculous to most people anyways, just like lightbulbs, phones (yes even fixed-line phones :), cars, airplanes, computers, nuclear bombs, the Internet and all these other things sounded ridiculous 200 years ago.

But, do not worry Oh fellow-earthlings! Welcome to the age of limitless visualization! What? Well, animator and engineer, John Burch, and pioneer nanotechnologist, Dr. K. Eric Drexler have now completed a new computer-generated animated short film called "Productive Nanosystems: from Molecules to Superproducts".

So get ready to enjoy: The future of Manufacturing (60+ MB)

Read more about Nanotech here! (thanx to the British government)

With kind regards and shitloads of love,

Yours truly,

Jarno

The Filtered Future

2005-07-12T11:29:00.000+02:00

The Filtered Future - China's bid to divide the Internet.
The Americans wage wars in their pursuit of Democracy on the one hand, but in China on the other, Google doesn't even show articles about democracy and Microsoft also recently admitted that its Chinese blog site would block titles like "freedom" and "democracy,". With a market potential of over a billion consumers, you wouldn't want to piss off the Chinese government, now would you?

How Earth-Scale Engineering Can Save the Planet

2005-07-12T09:40:00.000+02:00

This article presents some quite far-reaching ideas on how to counteract the effects of global warming (mirrors in space, nanobots in the air and soforth)

We need Water! >> desalination - current situation and future prospects

2005-07-10T14:18:00.000+02:00

I personally find this an interesting article. It's about 'the world situation concerning the production, processes, technologies and costs of desalination (taking salt out of water). Experience accumulated worldwide and in Israel enables the forecasting of developmental trends, namely, a continuation of cost reduction, when Israel will enter the era of large-scale desalination'.

I find it interesting to monitor technologies like these because the biggest challenge of our generation will be the question of how to sustain our current way of life, given the declining availability of resources (oil, water, etc.) on the one hand, and growing demand for these resources on the other.

Besides the question of how to secure access to much needed resources, there's the question of how to counteract the effects of using those resources (global warming, etc.). It's nice that we have the Kyoto Protocol, but we'll probably need a hell of a lot more to counter the effects of global warming and soforth.

Google Earth!

2005-06-27T13:25:00.000+02:00

And yet again, we are one step closer to complete virtualization of
this planet

Japanese robot guards to patrol shops, offices

2005-06-25T16:17:00.000+02:00

Burglars beware, robot guards are here..

In remembrance: Jack St. Clair Kilby

2005-06-23T02:52:00.000+02:00

Jack St. Clair Kilby, the American who presented one of the first working microchips in 1958 in a texas Instruments laboratory, has passed away last monday (aged 81)

Audience With the Podfather

2005-06-21T19:58:00.000+02:00

A very interesting phone-interview here with Adam Curry about the ipodder program, podcasting etc.

So why do I find this interesting? The only reason I ever find anything interesting is because I think of the bigger picture. I wish governments would do the same..

Anyway, weblogging, podcasting, very intriquing to see how the Internet is developing.
See, first there was 'the beginning' of the Internet; a way for companies & institutions in general to make information about themselves available to the big public (without any interactivity), then software developed, connection speeds increased, the number of households online grew, etcetera and now we're entering the next phase, where it it real easy to share information, of whatever nature (text, audio, video..), so you get things like weblogs and podcasts. But as you all know, things keep changing and developing..

So expect weblogging to become lifelogging (thank you John Smart @ www.accelerationwatch.com).
You see, computer chips increase their speed by a factor 10, every 5 years. Storage capacity is growing at the same rate. Connection speed is growing exponentially as well...

So in 25 years, kids will have cameras (recording systems) in their sneekers, filming & recording 24 hours a day (in High Definition of course..) and they'll have an army of personally-built robots following them around, taking care of all kinds of chores.
And 25 years beyond that? .....

To understand what's happening we have to put everything into a more abstract framework: Ever since the beginning of the Information Age (1950 and beyond), mankind is progressing on an ever more elaborate description of the physical world into the silicon (or virtual world); we store our knowledge in computers, we run cameras and record what's happening around us, we share our thoughts using computers (silicon-based chips in essence), we use Google Earth to navigate around the planet (Do we? A Beta-version of Google-Earth was released in June 2005), even the way humans walk and talk is being 'described' as accurately as possible, by means of games (watch some of the trailers of games now being developed for the X-Box 360 and Playstation III @ www.gamespot.com).

To cut a long story longer: Before you know it, we've stored everything that's happening in the physical world, onto silicon and we will have 'All Information' available, literally, to our fingertips. Then what? Well, by that time (obviously not a fixed date, there's no Black, there's no White, only Grey... but expect this to happen within, say 20 years) we will have to start working on making the access to previously-described information more 'seemless' (available at our fingertips is nice, but it's even better if we can just talk to our computers or just think about something and make it happen).

And by the time truly seemless interaction between 'us' and the 'silicon system' is omnipresent, we've ended the 'Symbiotic Age' (as opposed to the 'Information Age' that started around 1950). Then what? ...

Well, then it's time for the 'Autonomous Age' (expect this age to start around 2050). By 2050 we will have definitely completely tucked ourselves in, in an omnipresent 'Virtual System'. Whatever we want to do, we won't have to 'physically go anywhere' to do it. We'll just stay in our virtual world and command things from there.
But it's still gonna be 'Us' that have to command things, we will still be the biggest brain around. We will be the ones thinking up creative new ways of improving The System. Why cannot The System improve itself? Well, it can... and so, welcome to the Autonomous Age, where step by step, The System will 'learn' to improve itself..

And by the time it will have learn enough, The System will 'move autonomously'. It won't be sudden, neither will it take forever. It will be a step-by-step process.
(In order to understand this, think of our own systems (Homo Sapiens Sapiens). We've been around for 150.000 years, genetically unchanged. Genetically unchanged or not, 150.000 years ago our 'Communicational Capacity' ended with sentences like 'Uuh and Duuh' etc. Although we DID NOT genetically change ONE BIT, look at how much 'we've learned' (developed, whatever)). The same idea goes for the previously described 'Silicon System'. Step by step it will take over from us (think of an Athletic track where the first runner gives the stick to the next; at first runner no #1 is the only one running, then as he approaches runner #2 starts running too but initially at much lower speed than runner #1, then slowly but surely runner #1 starts slowing down and runner #2 starts speeding up until runner #2 is actually running faster than runner #1. And in the end? Runner #2 will be the ONLY one running and runner #1 will have come to a complete standstill)

So, there you have it, all this crossed my mind when thinking of Podcasting...

Sincerely yours and hugs to all,

Jarno de Vries

Outer space, Inner space?

2005-06-20T11:38:00.000+02:00

The Mundane Manifesto
Good stuff this is, cause our future won't be in outer space, but in inner space if you ask me. See, my view about the future and the universe and all is simple: The universe IS NOT ABOUT life or death or whatever. The universe IS ABOUT mathematics. I believe in Singularity Economics (see below), meaning, (think pinball-machine) you don't know the exact 'path' that will be taken (by the universe), but you do know where it all goes in the end. It all started 12 billion years ago (with the Big Bang that is) and 'it' has been 'developing' ever since (stars/planets/atoms, molecules, animals, brains, etc). I don't think the universe is about life or death but about mathematics and continious change.

Sounds like I am babbling? I personally obviously don't think so and neither do these guys.

Or check out this Powerpoint Presentation about Singularity Economics

DigitalCamera@101reviews � Digital Clock as Thin as Paper

2005-06-19T13:01:00.000+02:00

DigitalCamera@101reviews � Digital Clock as Thin as Paper

KurzweilAI.net

2005-06-15T01:07:00.000+02:00

KurzweilAI.net

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

2005-06-14T00:52:00.000+02:00

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

New Scientist Breaking News - See virtual worlds in the round

2005-06-11T18:46:00.000+02:00

New Scientist Breaking News - See virtual worlds in the round

Tweakers.net - Nieuws [ Virtueel op reis met Google Earth ] (Dutch article)

2005-05-22T12:41:00.000+02:00

Tweakers.net - Nieuws [ Virtueel op reis met Google Earth ]
Plan your route, have it projected on satellite photos and fly over the route before you actually take off...
Planet Earth Virtualization Process continuing..

RFID Journal - L.A. County Jail to Track Inmates

2005-05-19T01:12:00.000+02:00

RFID Journal - L.A. County Jail to Track Inmates

PhysOrg: Motorola Debuts First Ever Nano Emissive Flat Screen Display Prototype

2005-05-10T12:49:00.000+02:00

PhysOrg: Motorola Debuts First Ever Nano Emissive Flat Screen Display Prototype
Better, cheaper and a hell of a lot smaller (40 inch HDTV @ a thickness of 3.3 millimeters)

White Box Robotics Accepting Orders

2005-05-04T16:25:00.000+02:00

White Box Robotics Accepting Orders
''White Box Robotics is the creator of the PC-BOT, the worlds first mobile robot made from off-the-shelf PC parts. Their patent-pending technology delivers flexible, affordable and visually striking mobile robots for commercial and educational markets.''

blinkx

2005-04-23T02:12:00.000+02:00

blinkx
Hi everybody (not that anybody is reading, am I therefore officially crazy for talking to myself.... Mmm... I wonder)!
Anyway, Blinx created Shareable Smart Folders. You know, instead of your good old & boring directory folders, the Smart Folders automatically find content about the subject as defined, on your hard drive & the Web. So you can check your smart folder every day, to see what's new on the subject of your interest. You can have the folders specifically find tv, or whatever format and share them with friends & whomever. Step by step by step everything gets automated. And before you know it, truly everything works autonomous..

Yes.

By now.

Station Exchange

2005-04-20T18:32:00.000+02:00

Station Exchange
What I personally find so interesting about this service is, well, actually not so much the service itself, but more the company that's behind this: Sony!

The fact that a giant like Sony jumps onto the "Virtual Stuff Auctioning"-bandwagon signifies how intertwined the realm of the 'real' and the virtual have become.

I find this real interesting: the continious and ever more rapid digitization of the physical world. And where do YOU think it's all going? What does the world look like in say 2035, 30 years from now? Check out Acceleration Watch. Check it out & spread the word..

Scientists Create Remote-Controlled Flies

2005-04-12T12:39:00.000+02:00

Scientists Create Remote-Controlled Flies

2005-04-06T14:40:00.000+02:00

This 3 metres-high machine comes the closest to anything I imagine that would walk around in your typical late-21stcentury war-environment :) Wauw, the machines are coming...

2005-04-06T14:27:00.000+02:00

US scientists have designed a bionic eye (yes, a complete eye, not just a replacement for the retina or something..) to allow blind people to see again. Human trials will begin within a year, hopes Professor Dagnelie.

Economist.com | Mathematics

2005-04-06T13:57:00.000+02:00

Economist.com | Mathematics
Just what does it mean to prove something, when nobody has the capacity to verify the infinite number of steps..., the computer has taken?