http://www.futureport.dk/news - 2003-02-12 (21 articles)

From: Max M (maxmcorp@worldonline.dk)
Date: Wed Feb 12 2003 - 03:00:22 MST

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    http://www.futureport.dk/news - 2003-02-12 (21 articles)

    [AI]
    Falling prey to machines - Can sentient machines evolve?
    ========================================================
    http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-02/uomc-fpt021103.php

    It's coming, but when? From Garry Kasparov to Michael Crichton, both
    fact and fiction are converging on a showdown between man and machine.
    But what does a leading artificial intelligence expert--the world's
    first computer science PhD--think about the future of machine
    intelligence? Will computers ever gain consciousness and take over the
    world? "Computer sentience is possible," said John Holland, professor of
    electrical engineering and computer science and professor of psychology
    at the University of Michigan. "But for a number of reasons, I don't
    believe that we are anywhere near that stage right now."

    [Aging]
    Dementia Isn't Inevitable
    ==============================
    http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2003-02-11-6

    Even without life extension advances, you can live to 90 and above
    without forgetting friends' names or getting lost in your own
    neighbourhood. A new Mayo Clinic study shows that memory can be sharp in
    many people 90 to 99 years old, and that a significant percentage of
    nonagenarians are free of dementia.

    [Health]
    "Neuro-Chip" Reads Living Brain Cells
    ===============================================
    http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2003-02-11-8

    Betterhumans - Read any good brains lately? A new biochip has, and the
    advance promises to help scientists better understand the brain's
    functioning and develop treatments for neurological diseases.

    [Health]
    Increased blood flow could lead to healthier blood vessels
    ==========================================================
    http://www.lef.org/news/disease/2003/02/06/eng-newsrx/eng-newsrx_093843_1420203681842196978.ew.ew.html

    Scientists have found a new way in which exercise may protect against
    heart disease. Increased blood flow can mimic the powerful
    anti-inflammatory actions of certain glucocorticoid steroid drugs,
    according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's Institute
    for Medicine and Engineering. The researchers discovered that an
    increase in shear stress - the drag force exerted by blood flowing over
    endothelial cells that line blood vessels - results in the same sort of
    anti-inflammatory events normally associated with high doses of steroids.

    [Nanotech]
    IMAGO SLINGS FASTEST MICROSCOPE
    ===============================
    http://smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=5471

    Small Times - Imago's Local Electrode Atom Probe (LEAP) microscope
    analyzes materials atom by atom and produces detailed imaging and
    analysis in three dimensions. Atom probe microscopes have been around
    for decades, but LEAP's claim to fame is its blazing analytic speed ..

    [Nanotech]
    Making Tiny Machines by Mimicking Cells
    =======================================
    http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2003-02-11-5

    A joint institute opened yesterday that will fuse biotechnology,
    nanotechnology and informatics in an effort to produce tiny machines by
    mimicking cells. A partnership between NASA and the University of
    California Los Angeles, the Institute for Cell Mimetic Space Exploration
    will enhance biological cells by adding molecular machines capable of
    monitoring and modifying their condition.

    [Nanotech]
    NBIC - Scientists of Very Small Draw Disciplines Together
    =========================================================
    http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/10/technology/10NANO.html

    NY Times - First coverage of the recent NBIC conference. NBIC stands for
    the convergence of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology
    and cognitive science... plans to ask the Bush administration to invest
    hundreds of millions of dollars a year in a new program to encourage
    collaborative work in NBIC technologies, according to James Canton, a
    technology consultant involved in the effort through the National
    Science Foundation. "NBIC are the power tools of the 21st century," said
    Mr. Canton..

    [Nanotech]
    Nanotechnology Could Save The Ozone Layer
    =========================================
    http://www.spacedaily.com/news/ozone-03b.html

    SpaceDaily - Whilst experimenting with nanospheres and perfluorodecalin,
    a liquid used in the production of synthetic blood, researchers at
    Germany's University of Ulm have stumbled across a phenomenon that could
    ultimately help remove ozone-harming chemicals from the atmosphere. The
    perfluorodecalin, against all expectations, was taken up by a
    water-based suspension of 60 nm diameter polystyrene particles.

    [Nanotech]
    Researchers Develop 'Natural Bandages' That Mimic Body's Healing Process
    =======================================================================================
    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/02/030211072313.htm

    Science Daily - With the same compound the body uses to clot blood,
    scientists at Virginia Commonwealth University have created a nano-fiber
    mat that could eventually become a "natural bandage." Spun from strands
    of fibrinogen 1,000 times thinner than a human hair, the fabric could be
    placed on a wound and never taken off — minimizing blood loss and
    encouraging the natural healing process.

    [Nanotech]
    What is Nanotechnology?
    =======================
    http://nanodot.org/article.pl?sid=03/02/11/0130235

    Nanodot - Published in the IOP journal Nanotechnology (January 2003)
    What is Nanotechnology?, by Tim Harper, Founder and President of CMP
    Cientifica, and Founder and Executive Director of European NanoBusiness
    Association, focuses on the values of near-term nanoscale science and
    technology, but discounts the promises and perils of advanced molecular
    manufacturing...

    [Science]
    Bridging the â??Power Gapâ?? - Fuel-Cell Technology
    ===================================================
    http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/FutureTech/fuelcell030211.html

    ABC News - Laptop and portable computers are getting faster and more
    powerful processors. Bright, colorful display screens are appearing on
    ever-smaller cell phones. And handheld computers are turning into
    wireless radios to send and receive Internet data. But all of these
    snazzy features have at least one thing in common: They demand lots of
    electrical power. And experts say current rechargeable-battery
    technology hasn't progressed at the same pace as these other portable
    technologies, leaving a so-called power gap. But bridging that gap may
    now be possible through fuel cells, a clean-energy technology that
    produces electricity from the chemical reactions between hydrogen and
    oxygen.

    [Science]
    Parallel Universes
    ==================
    http://www.hep.upenn.edu/~max/multiverse.html

    Max Tegmark - In Science and Ultimate Reality: From Quantum to Cosmos,
    honoring John Wheeler's 90th birthday, J. D. Barrow, P.C.W. Davies, &
    C.L. Harper eds. Cambridge University Press (2003). A less technical
    adaptation is scheduled for the May 2003 issue of Scientific American.

    [Science]
    Universe to expand for ever
    ===========================
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2748653.stm

    BBC - The Universe will expand for ever, at an ever-increasing rate,
    Nasa scientists are to announce. They base their conclusion on new data
    obtained by the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (Map) satellite, which has
    been orbiting the Sun beyond the Moon since shortly after its launch in
    2001.

    [Self transformation]
    Infineon Builds Chip to Read Brain Cell Signals
    ===============================================
    http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=2203905

    Reuters - Researchers at Infineon Technologies AG in Germany have
    developed new semiconductor technology that will allow scientists to
    read electrical signals in living nerve cells, the company said on
    Tuesday. Being able to read and record the signals, with the aid of
    computers, will help scientists better understand how the brain works
    and could eventually lead to treatments for neurological diseases, like
    Alzheimer's, said Roland Thewes, senior director in corporate research
    at Munich-based Infineon...

    [Space]
    Designs for Next-Generation Shuttle Stalled from Launch
    =======================================================
    http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/US/shuttle_futureshuttle030210.html

    When the space shuttle first launched on April 21, 1981, it opened a
    whole new era in space exploration for NASA. For the first time, the
    agency — and the world — had a space vehicle that could be recovered
    and used repeatedly. Now, the tragic loss of Columbia may speed up the
    hunt for the next-generation shuttle — a task the aerospace industry
    has pursued almost since the current shuttle came into existence.

    [Space]
    The Future Of NASA
    ==================
    http://www.theonion.com/onion3905/wdyt_3905.html

    The Onion - In the wake of the Columbia tragedy, many are questioning
    the wisdom and necessity of NASA's manned-space-flight program. What do
    you think?

    [Space]
    Thinking Beyond the Shuttle
    ===========================
    http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/11/science/space/11OTHE.html?ex=1045630800&en=b62e42751c0f2442&ei=5040&partner=MOREOVER 

    NY Times - The true next-generation spacecraft, which probably will not
    start flying until after 2020, will look quite different from the
    shuttle. For one thing, it might take off from a runway, not a launching
    pad. "NASA's goal is to make this as much an aircraft operation as
    possible"..

    [Technology]
    Moore Tells Chip Engineers that His Law will Hold
    =================================================
    http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2003-02-11-4

    In a rare public appearance, Intel cofounder Gordon Moore has said that
    his law of exponential computer processing power increases doesn't need
    rewriting yet. "Another decade is probably straightforward," Moore told
    the 50th anniversary meeting of the International Solid-State Circuits
    Conference, in San Francisco.

    [Technology]
    Supercomputing Resurrected
    ==========================
    http://sci.newsfactor.com/perl/story/20730.html

    Newsfactor - The United States has fallen painfully short in the very
    field where computing muscle matters most and where the nation has the
    most to gain: in simulating such complex systems as weather on the
    macroscopic end and protein folding on the microscopic.

    [Transhumanism]
    Progress's Dirty Little Secret
    ===================================
    http://www.betterhumans.com/Features/Columns/Forward_Thinking/column.aspx?articleID=2003-02-09-6

    Betterhumans - In the mid-1800s, there was a vaginal implement carved
    from whalebone. In more modern times there was a condom with musical
    computer chips. Those are just two of the 800 items submitted to the
    United States Patent and Trademark Office between about 1840 and the
    mid-1990s, according to American Sex Machines.

    [Transhumanism]
    The Future of Sex
    =================
    http://www.betterhumans.com/Features/Columns/Change_Surfing/column.aspx?articleID=2003-02-09-7

    Betterhumans - I'm quite certain that transcending cancer and the
    70-year lifespan does not threaten anything I value about Humanity 1.0.
    I also look forward to a world in which every child can ace the calculus
    class I dropped out of, and I think we could do without any
    schizophrenia and depression. But a world in which no one every felt the
    urge to woo, exchange back massages and then mix body fluids in a
    furious acrobatic display? Is it possible that many people would choose
    to stop stirring their tea with their finger and seek subtler rewards?
    What aspects of sex and romantic love will we inevitably transcend as we
    become posthuman, and which are intrinsic to the liberated self-aware mind?

    Made in cooperation with Transhumanity at:
    http://transhumanism.com/news.shtml

    -- 
    hilsen/regards Max M Rasmussen, Denmark
    http://www.futureport.dk/
    Fremtiden, videnskab, skeptiscisme og transhumanisme
    


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