[From New Scientist via Revelations Radio Network]

Immortal avatars: Back up your brain, never die

Jun 09, 2010

Zoe Graystone is a girl with two brains. Only one of them is human: the other is an exact digital copy that has become conscious in its own right. When the human Zoe dies, her digital brain is implanted into a humanoid robot, effectively bringing her back from the grave.

Such ideas have littered science fiction for decades. Indeed, Graystone is a character in the American TV drama Caprica. But could such a tale ever become reality?… read more. “Telepresence and death: Immortal avatars: Back up your brain, never die”

[From The New York Times, where the story includes several images, videos and interactive features]

Smarter Than You Think

What Is I.B.M.’s Watson?

By CLIVE THOMPSON
Published: June 14, 2010

“Toured the Burj in this U.A.E. city. They say it’s the tallest tower in the world; looked over the ledge and lost my lunch.”

This is the quintessential sort of clue you hear on the TV game show “Jeopardy!” It’s witty (the clue’s category is “Postcards From the Edge”), demands a large store of trivia and requires contestants to make confident, split-second decisions. This particular clue appeared in a mock version of the game in December, held in Hawthorne, N.Y. at one of I.B.M.’s research labs. Two contestants — Dorothy Gilmartin, a health teacher with her hair tied back in a ponytail, and Alison Kolani, a copy editor — furrowed their brows in concentration.… read more. “Playing ‘Jeopardy!’ with I.B.M.’s Watson AI ‘answering machine’”

[From CNN, where the story includes several videos]

New tech moves beyond the mouse, keyboard and screen

By John D. Sutter, CNN
June 18, 2010

(CNN) — Goodbye computer mouse, keyboard and monitor.

Say hello to a new, simpler era of human-computer interaction — this time, with no clunky hardware standing between you and digital information.

In this new world, there are options aplenty.

Instead of sliding a mouse across your desk, you could just point at whatever you’d like to select. Instead of pecking away at a keyboard, you could just say what you’re thinking. And instead of glaring at a big screen all day, why not just project that information on the surface of your contact lenses?

None of this is science fiction. These ideas are here today, some of them in research labs and others already on store shelves.… read more. “New tech moves beyond the mouse, keyboard and screen”

[From Scientific American]

June 8, 2010

Can People Become Experts without the Experience?

A geologic field study explores whether expertise can be taught to novices

By Charles Q. Choi

Editor’s note: This is an extended version of the News Scan story “Expert Education,” from the June 2010 Scientific American.

DEATH VALLEY, CALIF. —The dozen students and scientists spread over an area called Furnace Creek looked like cyborgs in floppy hats scrabbling over the boulders. Before hammering chips off rocks, they inspected them with magnifying lenses held up next to eyeglasses sporting miniature cameras and infrared lights.

A seasoned geologist could tease out a history of earthshaking clashes here from evidence in the terrain—a break in a steep grey slope, for instance, suggested a fault at work fracturing the landscape. The aim now of the cameras was to see how researchers’ eyes darted across this scene, to figure out how experienced minds unconsciously scan the world for clues that point the way to discoveries.… read more. “Eye-tracking on field trip in Death Valley to create virtual geologic training experiences”

[From GreenMuze (“Green Ideas and Innovations!“)]

Virtual Reality Veneer

Monday, 14 June 2010
Michael Jantzen

For over forty years I have been working as an experimental artist and designer. In all of that time I have become very aware of how important aesthetics are in dictating the amount of the Earth’s resources that are consumed by the human population. Most things, including building, have to look a certain way in order for people to feel good about using them, and most often a lot of resources are consumed just to make these things look a particular way.

Much of the stuff we use could be made with much less of the Earth’s resources if they did not have to maintain a specific aesthetic, directed toward a specific consumer. As an example, buildings, especially houses, in most cases would function very well as places in which we are sheltered from the elements and our basic functional needs are supported without the requirement to maintain a specific aesthetic image.… read more. “Jantzen’s Virtual Reality Veneer (VRV) disguises environmentally-efficient homes”