IEEE Special Report on the Singularity

Great articles on various aspects of the Singularity
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/singularity

First contact would probably be with robots

A few interesting points sparked by this article - andn it's good to see scientists coming around to my point of view! ;-)

• The average alien civilization is probably 50,000 years older than ours
• The technological advances that would be possible in 50,000 years of civilization are mind-boggling. The Arthur C. Clark quotation "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" comes to mind.
• This nonsense with manned space exploration being the primary mission of NASA has to come to an end. Just as unmanned military aircraft are the future, so are unmanned spacecraft.

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/04/04/858045.aspx

Spooky Doo - the robotic dogs are coming

Filed under "signs of the Apocolypse" - You have to see this to believe it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww

http://www.bostondynamics.com/content/sec.php?section=BigDog

Turing test candidate - already?

IBM's Blue Gene, the world's most powerful supercomputer, will power an avatar in a virtual world such as Second Life in an attempt to pass a modified Turing test. Could AI be that close to passing a computer off as a human?!

http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206903246

Exponential change ahead for ... people

Kurzweil gives a keynote at the Game Developers Conference, providing an update to some of his Singularity predictions. He also shows a handheld he developed that can accurately read cursive. His predictions include biotech enhancements and exponential longevity.

Now that information technology is affecting medicine, Kurzweil projected that in 15 years, the life expectancy of people will start expanding at the rate of more than a year for every year that passes, essentially not only delaying death, but actually pushing it further away with each passing day.

http://www.news.com/Kurzweil-Exponential-change-ahead-for-games,-people/2100-1043_3-6231644.html?tag=newsmap

Drexler quote about nanotechnology

"The technology underlying cell repair systems will allow people to change their bodies in ways that range from the trivial to the amazing to the bizarre. Such changes have few obvious limits. Some people may shed human form as a caterpillar transforms itself to take the air; others may bring plain humanity to a new perfection. Some people will simply cure their warts, ignore the new butterflies, and go fishing."

-K.Eric Drexler, Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology

DNA manufacturing

Science is now on the verge of using the building blocks of life itself to assemble machines.

"With DNA, chipmakers could phase out multibillion fabrication facilities stocked with lithography systems, which cost tens of millions of dollars, and the other "top-down" style equipment.
Potentially, DNA techniques could allow manufacturers to produce features that are smaller than patterns that could be achieved even with the most advanced lithography systems, predicted Wallraff. E-beam lithography, which is extremely difficult to use in mass manufacturing, goes down to 10 nanometers. "

http://www.news.com/IBM-experimenting-with-DNA-to-build-chips/2100-1008_3-6231183.html?tag=nefd.lede

Singularity Summit

http://www.singinst.org/summit2007/

The Singularity Is Near

http://www.singularity.com