Mar 22, 2013 20:54
And this is how the Robot Apocalypse begins. DARPA -- the futuristic research arm of the Defense Department -- is working on developing artificial intelligence systems which, through a technique formally known as "probabilistic programming", can learn from their experiences. Such systems would have a wide variety of applications. Aside from the military uses, improved artificial intelligence can help with everything from self-driving cars to building better search engines.
One of the main technological features in the novel Daemon, which has become one of my favorites, is "augmented reality", accessed through a special set of glasses that allows the users to access a level of "virtual space" (known as D-space) and even manipulate virtual objects within that space. Google is working on such technology, which would allow you to handle tasks such as climate control or opening your garage door right from your glasses.
If the robots don't get us, the next solar flare might. The last major solar flare was in 1859, but a flare of the same size now would have even more devastating effects since the world is far more dependent on technology in the 21st century.
The rather entertaining war between Apple and Samsung isn't going to be confined just to smart phones. The next front in the conflict is already heating up: smart watches.
Needless to say, it's not very practical to just cut the heads off of two humans and switch them. But strangely, scientists have been doing such experiments with insects for decades.
New research published in the journal Nature Geoscience discusses microbes thriving at the very bottom of the Mariana Trench.
How cool would it be to have a dinosaur named after you. That's just what happened to a nine-year old girl who stumbled across a new species of flying dinosaur as she went about her hobby of collecting all sorts of slimy things.
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