The Asymptotic Leap

32 year-old Dmitry Itskov (pictured) believes technology will allow him to live forever in a hologram body - and has over 20,000 supporters of his 2045 Initiative to create the technology to let him do it.

Ron Finley plants vegetable gardens in South Central LA -- in abandoned lots, traffic medians, along the curbs. Why?

Exclusive timelapse: See climate change, deforestation and urban sprawl unfold as Earth evolves over 30 years.

Urthecast says that two high-resolution cameras, one for video and one for stills, will be launched into space in October on a Russian rocket and bolted to the International Space Station's hull by the end of the month. Then, a few months later, they'll be turned on and start streaming content live to the Earth.

Millions of people around the world use charcoal and wood-fueled stoves on a daily basis. VOTO (above), developed by the company Point Source Power, converts the energy these fires release as heat into electricity, which can power a handheld light, charge a phone or even charge a spare battery. The company initially designed VOTO for backpackers and campers in wealthy countries so they can charge their devices during trips, but is also trying to find a way to make it accessible to residents of the developing world for daily use.

This is just excellent. ISS Commander Chris Hadfield was recently asked by high school students Kendra Lemke and Meredith Faulkner to demonstrate what happens when you wring out a waterlogged washcloth in space.

The next frontier for the robotics industry has always been to build machines that think like humans. Scientists have pursued that elusive goal for decades, and some now believe that they are now extremely close to achieving the goal.

DARPA's Physical Intelligence program represents a potential major advance in artificial intelligence research, as the “physical intelligence” device would not require computer programming or the use of human controllers to provide directions, as with traditional robots. Instead, the device operates via nano-scale interconnected wires that send signals through synthetic synapses, just like the human brain. Such a system is capable of remembering information, meaning that robots might be able to act like humans in the foreseeable future.

IBM’s Watson is like nothing we have ever seen before.

 

While humans use neuronal networks to store information  in the brain, Watson has the ability to use the Internet and internal data as its extended mind. When asked a question, it creates a statistical average based upon the information gathered, and gives a confident probabilistic answer.

 

Yes, I said confident. Let me give you an example to explain my meaning.

KL02 and other miniature chips like it will invisibly enliven virtually everything we interact with on a daily basis. Richard York of Embedded Processor Products says the Internet of Things ecosystem could “range from tiny sensors helping to monitor crops and deliver irrigation, to microcontrollers that enable entire buildings to be more energy efficient.”

But that’s just version one—the next iteration would place these tiny microchips in the human body to release medicine, perform diagnostics, fight cancer, or provide a digital  interface between brains and machines. Freescale’s Steve Tateosian told Wired, “We are working with our customers and partners on providing technology for their products that can be swallowed but we can’t really comment on unannounced products.”

Transcranial magnetic stimulation alters the activity of the brain without the need for an invasive physical procedure. But for such a ground-breaking and potentially alarming technique, it is not very well known

Google Glass isn't the only Android-based wearable computer in town. Introducing the Jet HUD computer, with built in sunglasses and rugged design.

The Galaxy
by Mike Gottschalk

Occupy Love, a film by Velcrow Ripper (Scared Sacred, Fierce Light) connects the dots in this era of rapidly evolving social change. Featuring interviews with some of the world’s key social and economic visionaries along with captivating insider scenes from the Egyptian Revolution, the Indignado uprising in Spain, Occupy Wall Street, the climate justice movement, and beyond, Occupy Love shows that love can unite as much as greed can divide.

 

A moving, transformative, heartfelt film, featuring stunning visuals and rich soundscapes, Occupy Love is a powerful cinematic experience that will leave audiences inspired.

The Window Socket offers a neat way to harness solar energy and use it as a plug socket. So far we have seen solutions that act as a solar battery backup, but none as a direct plug-in. Simple in design, the plug just attaches to any window and does its job intuitively.
Read more at http://www.yankodesign.com/2013/04/26/plug-it-on-the-window/#BLtkEMRsHlKmDI5O.99

Does texting mean the death of good writing skills? John McWhorter posits that there’s much more to texting -- linguistically, culturally -- than it seems, and it’s all good news.

We're on the cusp of a bio-tech/nanotech/artificial-intelligence revolution that will open up new worlds of exploration. And we should open our minds to the limitless, mind-boggling possibilities.

Civilization's transition mirrors that of many individuals: an old world falls apart and eventually we step into a new. As that happens, much that was once certain disintegrates, and our old ways of making choices and effecting change become obsolete. Vast new possibilities arise, even miraculous possibilities, yet we may also go through periods of loneliness and doubt. Let us ground ourselves more solidly in the new world, so that we may more fully believe - and enact - what we know in our hearts. Learn more about the theme of this talk in a recent article by Charles entitled, 2013: The Space Between Stories http://www.realitysandwich.com/node/166725

 

David Korten, author of When Corporations Rule the World, called Eisenstein “one of the up-and-coming great minds of our time.” Eisenstein graduated from Yale University in 1989 with a degree in Mathematics and Philosophy, and spent the next ten years as a Chinese-English translator. He currently lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania with his wife and four sons. For more information about Charles Eisenstein, visit http://charleseisenstein.net/

In the movie Fantastic Voyage, a submarine and its crew were shrunk and injected into the body of a sick man in an attempt to save his life. Despite the fictional nature of this story, in the near future miniaturized, organic “computers” may roam our bodies, detecting early-stage diseases and treating them on the spot. There are already 10 times more bacterial cells than human cells in our bodies – so why not add a few more?

A group of scientists led by Todd Coleman at the University of California at San Diego is developing wireless flexible electronics one can apply on the forehead just like temporary tattoos to read brain activity. Electronic tattoos are almost invisible on skin, cause they’re about 100 microns thick. They are made of a circuitry embedded in a layer or rubbery polyester that allow them to stretch, bend and wrinkle. The tattoos can detect electrical signals linked with brain waves; they include solar cells for power and antennas that allow them to communicate wirelessly or receive energy. Todd Coleman claims that, If placed on the throat, these gasgets could act as subvocal microphones through which people could communicate silently and wirelessly. This noninvasive means of controlling machines via the mind might in future enable people to fly drones with only thought and talk seemingly telepathically without speech over smartphones.