New Audio Post:
BUCKYBALL LIFE EXTENSION WITH A SIDE OF NAMESAKE
Spoken just like it sounds in my head!
And cut me some slack – this one’s about quality of content, not so much on the production value. So yeah, if it doesn’t sound like it was recorded in someone’s apartment with basically no real audio equipment whatsoever, well, I guess you’re not an audiophile.
All audio posts stored at Minus.com – have a listen, if you dare.
It’s Totally Not What it Looks Like
At the U.S. Navy’s new LASR research facility (Lab for Autonomous Systems Research), they’re making robot firefighters – and it’s really excellent work. But, I’ve seen a few robotics and tech websites (no names) kinda making fun of some recently publicized research (video below, and via Gizmodo). It’s really not fair, and kinda irresponsible.
Here’s why:
This is Not the Robot Anybody’s Looking For
Yeah, the robot above and the one in the video below, which do look a bit high, are primitive, slow, and physically ineffective. But what you’re seeing here is the software end of the mule. Robotics reporters should know that this outdated platform is an MIT facial gesture tester from 2008. It appears here simply to give a physical presence to the artificial intelligence that’s learning by observing gestures and parsing human speech – this is merely proof-of-concept, which obviously works better with a stand-in physical presence.
Obviously, right? I mean, in this project it would be silly to pursue a wheeled or tracked robot of any kind, because it’s like, you know, the Navy. With boats and stuff. They tend to be kinda cramped. And have stairs. And are made for people.
So… you know – just sayin.
2 + 2
Okay lets see, I’m going to go ahead and make the not-at-all unsafe assumption that the Navy’s fancy new Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research is pretty hip to what’s going on over at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). Hell, the former might even be part of the latter! Looking just a bit closer at the issue – surprise, surprise: here’s a timeline of the NRL’s 85-year history of autonomous systems development, including the March 2012 announcement of the LASR facility, where the above seemingly baked robot is doing his thing.
Curious kids might wonder what else goes on at the NRL, and a few seconds of reading reveals a startling correlate! Continue reading »
Here at Anthrobotic.com, I like to keep an eye on both extant and in-development technologies for disabled humans – also known, to me anyway, as the TRANSHUMANISM TEST PILOTS.
Here’s the Thing:
Much of the technology used to improve the lives of the disabled kinda overlaps or pushes subtly into human 2.0/transhumanist/rebuild-the-animal territory. Otherwise stated, the somewhat primitive yet practically necessary prosthetics and human augmentation implements of today could easily evolve into the voluntary upgrades of tomorrow.
Okay, so…
Wheelchairs
As my 6 regular readers know, I’ve made it quite clear that wheelchairs suck and are totally not invited to the future. Admittedly, they’ve helped millions of disabled people. But we can do so, SO much better – I mean come on – the goddamn wheelchair has gone essentially unimproved upon for more than 100 years!
AMS Mekatronik’s Tek RMD Represents
Humans want to stand. Our physiology and psychology demand this from our body. And this company has an answer. I could blah blah blah about this for several more paragraphs, but your best bet is to watch the video below. This technology can’t help all people confined to wheelchairs, but it’s an amazing step. And dont worry – thought-controlled exoskeletons aren’t far off.
Wanna know what else is being pioneered through helping the disabled?
See all related posts: TRANSHUMANISM TEST PILOTS
BBC’s Ongoing Bionics Coverage Updated
As mentioned here last week, the BBC’s put together a nice overview of the state of the art past, present, and future – complete with interactive parts swapping, video, and brief write-ups on the developers, short documentaries on current users, etc. The series will continue for a few weeks – don’t sleep!
[BUILDING A HUMAN BODY VIA BBC]
[BBC's BIONICS COVERAGE OVERVIEW]
Anthrobotic Pieces:
[BIONIC & BIOLOGICAL: THE FEROCIOUS CONUNDRUM OF BEING 50/50]
[WHERE HUMAN ENDS, MACHINE, BLAH BLAH VIA HERE]
[TRANSHUMANISM TEST PILOTS, I.E. THE DISABLED]
Bionics. Cybernetics. New Parts.
There are million different angles to discuss here, but by far the most interesting idea is a gradual, mutual, acquisitional merger – the pending-yet-not-far-off arrival of homeostasis between biological and mechanical life. One has to kinda, you know, aggressively focus on redefining notions of life and intelligence and awareness and consciousness and pretty much every facet of human existence.
Barring global cataclysm, of course.
Anthrobotic Parity
We’ve steadily marched toward this parity for a long, long time. But now we’re sprinting. When the formerly machine-only and flesh-only entities reach equal saturations of each other’s parts, we then get a philosophical quandary like none other before in the history of life as we know it in the universe. At least, you know, I think so.
Because at 50/50 – which are you?
Your thoughts?
Body?
This is nothing new, in Where the Human Ends & the Machine Begins: Getting Unclearer, I talked about this issue at much more length and with much more snark and external resources – have a read. Also covered here are the Transhumanism Test Pilots, a new series examining how the disabled are effectively the human-trial stage for the voluntary upgrades of the future. So – have a look there, and then jump over to this:
Roll Your Own
BBC’s Bionics Bonanza
They’ve put together a nice overview of the state of the art – complete with interactive parts swapping, video, and brief write-ups on the developers. The series will continue for a few weeks – don’t sleep!
[BUILDING A HUMAN BODY VIA BBC]
[WHERE HUMAN ENDS, MACHINE, BLAH BLAH VIA HERE]
Okay, Can We Build a Quantum Computer or Not?
This latest development in the push toward molecular quantum computation is salient. And the reason is because I think quantum computing means something like your computer turns on before it turns on and completes computations before it completes them. Which is dead sexy.
What we got here, a dependably switchable unimolecular transistor, is a considerable leap in the quantum computing direction. Researchers from three separate universities (with their work focused at the University of New South Wales) have built one, and while single-molecule transistors aren’t brand new, the way this one works is much more practical and potentially scalable. It’s a serious advancement.
It’s a really, really big deal, man!
Oh That Can Never Work…
To be fair to the unimpressed naysayers who scoff at quantum computing, the practicality of this development in and of itself is extremely relative, particularly regarding the need for that littlest piece of phosphorus to be super cold in order to remain stable. I won’t repeat how cold it needs to be, because for the layperson, after you pass -100C it’s just kinda meaningless insane incomprehensible goddamn cold. And this thingy, well – it has to be even colder than that.
…but it Probably Will Eventually Work Because
Think about the track record of the That’s-Impossible-Don’t-Be-Stupid teams of everyday people, politicians, scientists, and clown shoes of every color – people who scream that technology A, B, or C is stupid impossible – utterly inconceivable. How often do those people tend to be correct?
So, to the revered and respected engineers from a few years back, the ones talking about how Moore’s Law will fail pretty soon, how any day now we’re going to hit the upper feasibility limits for calculations per second, how CPUs in general are rapidly approaching game-over no more speed, and how this actually achieved demonstration was entirely impossible:
Maybe, uhhh, quit while you’re ahead and focus on legacy?
Anyway, as is probably the case with most people writing about this development, I can’t quite articulate and don’t even entirely understand the implications of practical quantum computing, but I’m pretty sure I want it.
