PBS NewsHour on Man vs. Machine: Will Human Workers Become Obsolete?

by Socrates
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Part of his series on Making Sen$e of financial news, Paul Solman has been showcasing the future of technology from a recent conference run by a California think tank — things such as 3-D printing of prosthetic legs and iPhone heart tests. But the conference also resurfaced an age-old question about the future of human workers. Transcript: JEFFREY BROWN: And now, more on the challenges of creating enough new jobs in an ever more automated and high-tech economy. NewsHour economics correspondent Paul Solman has the story. It’s part of his ongoing reporting Making Sense of financial news. NARRATOR: American labor, management and capital. PAUL SOLMAN: Our favorite economics cartoon is a piece of free market propaganda from decades ago that envisioned a sort of cornucopia machine of the future, manned by the happy and lucky American worker, given the name King [...]

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Anders Sandberg on Singularity 1 on 1: We Are All Amazingly Stupid, But We Can Get Better

by Socrates
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Dr. Anders Sandberg is a well known transhumanist, futurist, computational neuroscientist and currently a research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute in Oxford University. I have been thinking of inviting him on Singularity 1 on 1 for some time and when one of my readers actually asked me to do it I could not be happier to oblige. (Thanks Shahan!) Dr. Sandberg is one of those rare individuals who clearly loves his work and is always very enthusiastic to discuss it. I really enjoyed talking to him and feel that we could have talked a lot more than we did. Thus I will try to bring him back on the show for little more focused discussion on one of his areas of expertise - transhumanism, mind uploading and the ethics thereof. During our first discussion with Anders we cover a wide variety of topics [...]

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Top 10 Reasons We Should Fear The Singularity

by Socrates
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Why do we fear the technological singularity? Well, let me give you what I believe are the top 10 most popular reasons: 1. Extinction Extinction is by far the most feared as well as the most commonly predicted consequence of the singularity. The global apocalypse for the human race comes in many flavors but some of the most popular ones are: the supersmart terminator AI’s – a robopocalypse; nanotechnology gone rogue – the so called grey goo scenario, home-made Smart Weapons of Mass Destruction – used by terrorists and nihilists; genetic modifications or mutations – turning us into living-dead zombies; science experiments gone wrong – the Large Hadron Collider creating a black hole that engulfs the planet… In short, the fear is that, as Bill Joy notoriously put it: The Future Doesn’t Need Us. 2. Slavery Perhaps the second most common reason for fearing the singularity is the potential slavery or subjugation of the entire human race. [...]

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Elon Musk to Launch SpaceX Tomorrow Morning

by Socrates
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Tomorrow May 19th, SpaceX will become the first commercial company in history to attempt to visit the International Space Station. You can watch the launch live on SpaceX.com beginning at 1:15 AM Pacific / 4:15 AM Eastern / 08:15 UTC. Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk hopes to make history when his SpaceX Dragon Capsule attempts to become the first privately-built spaceship to dock with the International Space Station. President Kennedy: “I believe that this nation should commit itself, to achiving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” Elon Musk: “It’s it’s been 43 years since 1969 and what have we done?!” Well, tomorrow morning we are all going to see if SpaceX did it or not. If the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket is successful and the Dragon capsule docks safely with the International Space Station, then, the era of commercial space travel has officially arrived. Good luck Elon, it is time to show the world what you have done!

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PAL-V: The Dutch Flying Car

by Socrates
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This flying car is made by Dutch company PAL-V, or Personal Air and Land Vehicle. It took its maiden flight in March, and is certified for the air as well as the road. It needs only 165 metres to take off and, depending on weight, can fly for up to 500 kilometres, or 315 miles. The top speed is the same on the ground as in the air, around 180 kilometres an hour, or 110 miles an hour. Lift is generated by an auto-rotating rotor on top, forward speed from a propeller on the back. This configuration is known a gyrocopter, and the company says it’s quiet, easy to fly and safe. Before taking the controls customers must get their private pilot’s license. But PAL-V hope to attract buyers beyond weekend flying enthusiasts.

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An Atheist Who Wears a Cross and a Verb! What About You?!

by Socrates
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The issue of religion is one of the more common questions that I ask most of my guests on Singularity 1 on 1. But this is hardly the most important thing during any conversation. Still, if we are talking about the future of humanity, it may be relevant to know a little more about the person’s past and present religiosity. In this way when we move on to topics such as cosmology, metaphysics, ethics or epistemology, we are more mindful of our own implicit presumptions. The danger in the above approach is that one might embrace the label a bit too tightly and thereby ruin the potential for a genuine conversation and exchange of ideas. Thus we must also be aware of all the religious, intellectual, political or other such shortcuts we are using. While they can be useful in the short term, in the longer term they omit so [...]

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The BrainGate Project: Paralysed Woman Moves Robot Hand With Her Mind

by Socrates
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Cathy Hutchinson has been unable to move her own arms or legs for 15 years. But using a pioneering brain-machine interface she can steer a robotic arm towards a bottle, pick it up, and drink her morning coffee. The interface utilizes the BrainGate implant system – a sensor chip implanted in Cathy’s brain, which ‘reads’ her thoughts, and a decoder, which turns her thoughts into instructions for the robotic arm. In this video you can watch Cathy control the arm and hear from the team behind the pioneering study.   You can check out the original research paper here: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v485/n7398/full/nature11076.html   The same story on Reuters News: Groundbreaking new research is allowing quadriplegics to control objects with a robotic arm and the power of their thoughts. A study involving a brain-computer interface developed at Brown University in Rhode Island, shows that people who have [...]

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iPads for Apes: Did Arthur C. Clarke Get It Right Again?!

by Socrates
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The very first Arthur C. Clarke book I ever read was a 1963 edition of Dolphin Island. This science fiction novel is about a runaway teenager who gets shipwrecked in the Pacific Ocean where he is eventually saved by “the people of the sea”: dolphins. The protagonist – Johnny Clinton, ends up on a mysterious island of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef where a brilliant Professor invents a small handheld device that is used to communicate with dolphins… *** Orangutans at the Jungle Island Zoo in Florida are learning to use iPads to identify object like body parts and food. The hi-tech approach to communication is modeled on a system used successfully with autistic children. The zoo is hoping it will help visitors connect with the apes and promote awareness of their endangered status in the wild. Original story by Ben Gruber for Reuters News:

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