If 1971 was the end of the “Golden Quarter”; would say 2016 is the “Dawn of Singularity”
“A challenging context inspired a new generation of scientists and entrepreneurs to break new ground and build better societies”
Although the recent article and announcement of Josiah Zayner (CA scientist) new do it yourself gene editing kit for $120 sent shock waves across industry as well as further raised the question “how do we best put controls in place to ensure ethics and prevent disaster or a crisis?”; this genie truly is out of the bottle. Because Josiah created this easily in his own kitchen, it can be replicated by many others in their own homes. What we have to decide is how to best mitigate it’s impact. Black markets & exotic animal, etc. collectors around the world will pay handsomely for this capability and raise the stakes of the most bizarre animals (deadly and non-deadly) to be created for their own profits and amusements.
BURLINGAME, Calif. — On the kitchen table of his cramped apartment, Josiah Zayner is performing the feat that is transforming biology. In tiny vials, he’s cutting, pasting and stirring genes, as simply as mixing a vodka tonic. Next, he slides his new hybrid creations, living in petri dishes, onto a refrigerator shelf next to the vegetables. And he’s packaging and selling his DIY gene-editing technique for $120 so that everyone else can do it, too.
A wearable device promises to help steady hand tremors by using an old technology—gyroscopes.
Official website of Boeing’s centennial, featuring story-sharing, historical videos, a traveling exhibit, educational resources, merchandise and more.
The article states that European royal houses are all closely related. Well in humanities history it’s thought that over 80% of all marriages were between second cousins or closer. While until the industrial revolution the nobility would have been the only demographic who could travel further than as far as you can walk from your home and back in a day. So until the industrial revolution the nobility were probably the most genetically diverse demographic.
‘Virgin births’ happen in nature more than we thought, says Frank Swain, so what’s stopping human beings from doing the same?
https://youtube.com/watch?v=vXu5toPPqVE
Microsoft technical evangelist Bruce Harris has unveiled new details for Microsoft’s augmented reality headset, HoloLens. At an event in Tel Aviv, Harris was recorded (via Petri) saying that that any universal Windows 10 app will run natively on the device, as we’ve already heard, and that developers will naturally need to create 3D apps to realize the HoloLens’ full potential.
But Harris also talked about how the device features Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, describing it as “totally wireless.” In fact, he said a wired version of the HoloLens would not be available.
Researchers have demonstrated the effects of superposition on the scale of everyday objects.
Of the weird implications of quantum mechanics, superposition may be the hardest for humans to wrap their minds around. In principle, superposition means that the same object can exist in more than one place at the same time.
Ordinarily, superposition is only relevant on the microscopic scale of subatomic particles. Effects on this scale are the key to some possibly groundbreaking technologies, like quantum computing. No one has ever demonstrated quantum effects on the scale of Schrödinger’s cat –the mythical unobserved cat in a box that is both alive and dead at the same time.
It’s leading to a different way of thinking about computing.
This year’s Detroit auto show is proving that autonomous driving is no longer a techie’s pipe dream. Even holdout Akio Toyoda has finally joined the parade. The self-driving car is coming.
But behind that development is an even more profound change: artificial intelligence (also known as “deep learning”) has gone mainstream. The autonomous driving craze is just the most visible manifestation of the fact that computers now have the capacity to look, learn and react to complex situations as well or better than humans. It’s leading to a profoundly different way of thinking about computing. Instead of writing millions of lines of code to anticipate every situation, these new applications ingest vast amounts of data, recognize patterns, and “learn” from them, much as the human brain does.
