10 things that will soon disappear forever
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/technolo ... 9#image=10
How Driverless Cars May Interact With People
SAN FRANCISCO — There are plenty of unanswered questions about how self-driving cars would function in the real world, like understanding local driving customs and handing controls back to a human in an emergency.
Now a start-up called Drive.ai, based in Mountain View, Calif., is trying to address how an autonomous car would communicate with other drivers and pedestrians. The company is emphasizing what is known in the artificial intelligence field as “human-machine interaction” as a key to confusing road situations.
How does a robot, for example, tell everyone what it plans to do in intersections when human drivers and people in crosswalks go through an informal ballet to decide who will go first and who will yield?
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/31/techn ... 87722&_r=0
*****
Handwriting Just Doesn’t Matter
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/opini ... atter.html
Extract:
Indeed, the desire to write faster has driven innovations throughout history: Ballpoint pens replaced quill pens; typewriters improved on pens; and computers go faster than typewriters. Why go back?
Some experts argue that handwriting offers children neurological benefits. Professor Virginia Berninger of the University of Washington says that “handwriting — forming letters — engages the mind, and that can help children pay attention to written language.” A 2012 study of 15 children found that forming letters by hand may facilitate learning to read. But there seems to be no difference in benefits between printing and cursive. A 2014 study found that college students who took handwritten notes in lectures remembered the information better than those who typed notes, but that may indicate only that the slower speed of handwriting causes students to be more selective about what they write down. Perhaps, instead of proving that handwriting is superior to typing, it proves we need better note-taking pedagogy.
The goal of early writing education should be for children to achieve “cognitive automaticity” in it — the ability to make letters without conscious effort — as soon as possible, so they can think about what they want to say instead of how to write the words they need to say it. Many students now achieve typing automaticity — the ability to type without looking at the keys — at younger and younger ages, often by the fourth grade. This allows them to focus on higher-order concerns, such as rhetorical structure and word choice.
Some also argue that learning cursive teaches fine motor skills. And yet so did many other subjects that are arguably more useful, such as cooking, sewing and carpentry, and few are demanding the reintroduction of those classes.
These arguments are largely a side show to the real issues, which are cultural. In April, when the Louisiana State Senate voted to put cursive back into the public school curriculum, senators yelled “America!” in celebration, as though learning cursive were a patriotic act.
Responses to the above article
Why Handwriting Is Still Important
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/31/opini ... ef=opinion
TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT
How Tech Giants Are Devising Real Ethics for Artificial Intelligence
SAN FRANCISCO — For years, science-fiction moviemakers have been making us fear the bad things that artificially intelligent machines might do to their human creators. But for the next decade or two, our biggest concern is more likely to be that robots will take away our jobs or bump into us on the highway.
Now five of the world’s largest tech companies are trying to create a standard of ethics around the creation of artificial intelligence. While science fiction has focused on the existential threat of A.I. to humans, researchers at Google’s parent company, Alphabet, and those from Amazon, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft have been meeting to discuss more tangible issues, such as the impact of A.I. on jobs, transportation and even warfare.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/02/techn ... 87722&_r=0
SAN FRANCISCO — For years, science-fiction moviemakers have been making us fear the bad things that artificially intelligent machines might do to their human creators. But for the next decade or two, our biggest concern is more likely to be that robots will take away our jobs or bump into us on the highway.
Now five of the world’s largest tech companies are trying to create a standard of ethics around the creation of artificial intelligence. While science fiction has focused on the existential threat of A.I. to humans, researchers at Google’s parent company, Alphabet, and those from Amazon, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft have been meeting to discuss more tangible issues, such as the impact of A.I. on jobs, transportation and even warfare.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/02/techn ... 87722&_r=0
Your Car’s New Software Is Ready. Update Now?
TIRED of your vehicle and its aging, limited features? Don’t trade it in just yet. Download new software instead.
In some cases, that is already possible. And over the next few years, as the already extensive software on modern cars becomes even more feature-rich and upgradeable, manufacturers mean to step up the effort. They plan to offer many types of improvements or repairs through downloads that are beamed directly to the car via satellite, Wi-Fi or cellular signal, without the vehicle’s having to be brought into the shop.
Eventually, your car will be serviceable like a giant smartphone, with new features added periodically while you sleep.
A leading proponent of the approach is Tesla, the maker of electric luxury cars, which has been sending updates to its cars’ operating systems since 2012. The company is expected to announce an updated operating system next week. The chief executive, Elon Musk, has said via Twitter that the update will include improvements to the company’s Autopilot automated driving system.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/09/autom ... 87722&_r=0
*******
Passing My Disability On to My Children
Extract:
Occasionally, I come across the term “designer baby,” and I am reminded that some parents now have the option to screen or modify the genes of their unborn children to ensure or avoid certain traits. It always gives me a feeling of unease. Obviously, I did not take this route — partly because, at least with my son, I never had to actually make the decision. My third child, Eliza, was a late midlife accident. I chose to have her despite the possibility she would have XLH, but would I have made the same decision in a planned pregnancy or if given a choice much earlier in the process? I can’t help suspecting that because of advances in genetic mapping, genetic testing, the sheer range of prenatal choices, chances are that in a generation or two, there will be no one in the world who has XLH, no one who looks like me or my children — at least not in the so-called developed world — and I don’t know how to feel about that.
More..
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/07/opini ... d=71987722
TIRED of your vehicle and its aging, limited features? Don’t trade it in just yet. Download new software instead.
In some cases, that is already possible. And over the next few years, as the already extensive software on modern cars becomes even more feature-rich and upgradeable, manufacturers mean to step up the effort. They plan to offer many types of improvements or repairs through downloads that are beamed directly to the car via satellite, Wi-Fi or cellular signal, without the vehicle’s having to be brought into the shop.
Eventually, your car will be serviceable like a giant smartphone, with new features added periodically while you sleep.
A leading proponent of the approach is Tesla, the maker of electric luxury cars, which has been sending updates to its cars’ operating systems since 2012. The company is expected to announce an updated operating system next week. The chief executive, Elon Musk, has said via Twitter that the update will include improvements to the company’s Autopilot automated driving system.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/09/autom ... 87722&_r=0
*******
Passing My Disability On to My Children
Extract:
Occasionally, I come across the term “designer baby,” and I am reminded that some parents now have the option to screen or modify the genes of their unborn children to ensure or avoid certain traits. It always gives me a feeling of unease. Obviously, I did not take this route — partly because, at least with my son, I never had to actually make the decision. My third child, Eliza, was a late midlife accident. I chose to have her despite the possibility she would have XLH, but would I have made the same decision in a planned pregnancy or if given a choice much earlier in the process? I can’t help suspecting that because of advances in genetic mapping, genetic testing, the sheer range of prenatal choices, chances are that in a generation or two, there will be no one in the world who has XLH, no one who looks like me or my children — at least not in the so-called developed world — and I don’t know how to feel about that.
More..
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/07/opini ... d=71987722
No Driver? Bring It On. How Pittsburgh Became Uber’s Testing Ground
PITTSBURGH — Any day now, Uber will introduce a fleet of self-driving cars in Pittsburgh, making this former steel town the world’s first city to let passengers hail autonomous vehicles.
So with the world watching, what has the city of 306,000 done to prepare for Uber’s unprecedented test? The answer is not much.
There have been no public service announcements or demonstrations of the technology. Except for the mayor and one police official, no other top city leader has seen a self-driving Uber vehicle operate up close. Fire and emergency services don’t know where the Uber cars will travel.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/11/techn ... d=71987722
******
A Robot May Be Training to Do Your Job. Don’t Panic.
Extract:
The widespread adoption of social robotics in the workplace faces a host of potential problems, including a lack of infrastructure and power requirements, deficient awareness of surroundings, and public resistance. Eventually, though, the moment will come when machines possess empathy, the ability to innovate and other traits we perceive as uniquely human. What then? How will we sustain our own career relevance?
I think the only way forward is to look at artificial intelligence developments as an opportunity rather than a threat. We need the mind-set that success is no longer about our level of knowledge but about our level of creative intelligence. If we accept the process of lifelong learning, in which we adapt to new ways of working as technology improves, we’ll always find roles that take advantage of our best qualities.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/11/jobs/ ... d=71987722
PITTSBURGH — Any day now, Uber will introduce a fleet of self-driving cars in Pittsburgh, making this former steel town the world’s first city to let passengers hail autonomous vehicles.
So with the world watching, what has the city of 306,000 done to prepare for Uber’s unprecedented test? The answer is not much.
There have been no public service announcements or demonstrations of the technology. Except for the mayor and one police official, no other top city leader has seen a self-driving Uber vehicle operate up close. Fire and emergency services don’t know where the Uber cars will travel.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/11/techn ... d=71987722
******
A Robot May Be Training to Do Your Job. Don’t Panic.
Extract:
The widespread adoption of social robotics in the workplace faces a host of potential problems, including a lack of infrastructure and power requirements, deficient awareness of surroundings, and public resistance. Eventually, though, the moment will come when machines possess empathy, the ability to innovate and other traits we perceive as uniquely human. What then? How will we sustain our own career relevance?
I think the only way forward is to look at artificial intelligence developments as an opportunity rather than a threat. We need the mind-set that success is no longer about our level of knowledge but about our level of creative intelligence. If we accept the process of lifelong learning, in which we adapt to new ways of working as technology improves, we’ll always find roles that take advantage of our best qualities.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/11/jobs/ ... d=71987722
Get Ready for Embryos From Two Men or Two Women | TIME
Genetic research is advancing to the day when gay couples could fulfill their dreams of having children related to them both.
I’ve helped many same-sex couples over the years have children of their own through assisted reproductive procedures. Egg donation and surrogacy allow two gay men to have children genetically related to one partner and the egg donor, but not to both. It’s the same dynamic for lesbians and sperm donors. I’ve been asked many times by countless same-sex couples over the years: “can we make a baby that’s a combination of both of us?”
It’s a question that I’ve considered from a scientific and medical perspective for a long time. Advances in genetic research keep getting us closer to the day when the answer to that question is “yes.”
Throughout history, a child has come from a man and a woman. It’s been one of the tenets of anti-gay activists for decades: “Two men can’t have a biological child, and two women can’t have one either.”
For some anti-gay people, that seems to make these relationships somehow wrong, as though any relationship that can’t result in a child should somehow be forbidden. They deem it unnatural in the eyes of God.
However, science is advancing and may ultimately change all of that.
More...
http://time.com/3748019/same-sex-couple ... -children/
********
What It Feels Like to Ride in a Self-Driving Uber
Extract:
I experienced those self-driving ambitions firsthand this week, riding in Boron 6 for about an hour in light downtown traffic. On Wednesday, Uber rolled out a pilot program of its driverless cars to its most loyal customers in Pittsburgh, giving them the chance to hail an autonomous Uber for the first time. With the trial, a handful of test vehicles — Ford Fusions at first — will roam the streets, each car coming with a human safety engineer who has undergone training to reassure riders that the process is safe.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/15/techn ... 87722&_r=0
******
How Did G.M. Create Tesla’s Dream Car First?
Extract:
This year, Mr. Musk’s white whale — a car that will get 238 miles per charge, and will sell for about $30,000 after a federal rebate — will finally make it to the roads. Mr. Musk’s master plan has gone exactly as he promised, except for one tiny hitch.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/15/techn ... d=71987722
******
Your Next Pair of Shoes Could Come From a 3-D Printer
The assembly line at Feetz has 100 humming 3-D printers. Their sole purpose is to make shoes.
Each printer is named after a cartoon character: Wonder Woman, Scooby-Doo. Though whimsical, the printers, which cost $5,000 each, are out to upend mass retailing by making every shoe to order, cheaply.
“We’re the technologists coming in to help,” said Lucy Beard, chief executive of the two-year-old Feetz, in San Diego. “I saw 3-D printers in a magazine, and I thought ‘mass customization.’”
Photo and more...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/15/busin ... d=71987722
Genetic research is advancing to the day when gay couples could fulfill their dreams of having children related to them both.
I’ve helped many same-sex couples over the years have children of their own through assisted reproductive procedures. Egg donation and surrogacy allow two gay men to have children genetically related to one partner and the egg donor, but not to both. It’s the same dynamic for lesbians and sperm donors. I’ve been asked many times by countless same-sex couples over the years: “can we make a baby that’s a combination of both of us?”
It’s a question that I’ve considered from a scientific and medical perspective for a long time. Advances in genetic research keep getting us closer to the day when the answer to that question is “yes.”
Throughout history, a child has come from a man and a woman. It’s been one of the tenets of anti-gay activists for decades: “Two men can’t have a biological child, and two women can’t have one either.”
For some anti-gay people, that seems to make these relationships somehow wrong, as though any relationship that can’t result in a child should somehow be forbidden. They deem it unnatural in the eyes of God.
However, science is advancing and may ultimately change all of that.
More...
http://time.com/3748019/same-sex-couple ... -children/
********
What It Feels Like to Ride in a Self-Driving Uber
Extract:
I experienced those self-driving ambitions firsthand this week, riding in Boron 6 for about an hour in light downtown traffic. On Wednesday, Uber rolled out a pilot program of its driverless cars to its most loyal customers in Pittsburgh, giving them the chance to hail an autonomous Uber for the first time. With the trial, a handful of test vehicles — Ford Fusions at first — will roam the streets, each car coming with a human safety engineer who has undergone training to reassure riders that the process is safe.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/15/techn ... 87722&_r=0
******
How Did G.M. Create Tesla’s Dream Car First?
Extract:
This year, Mr. Musk’s white whale — a car that will get 238 miles per charge, and will sell for about $30,000 after a federal rebate — will finally make it to the roads. Mr. Musk’s master plan has gone exactly as he promised, except for one tiny hitch.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/15/techn ... d=71987722
******
Your Next Pair of Shoes Could Come From a 3-D Printer
The assembly line at Feetz has 100 humming 3-D printers. Their sole purpose is to make shoes.
Each printer is named after a cartoon character: Wonder Woman, Scooby-Doo. Though whimsical, the printers, which cost $5,000 each, are out to upend mass retailing by making every shoe to order, cheaply.
“We’re the technologists coming in to help,” said Lucy Beard, chief executive of the two-year-old Feetz, in San Diego. “I saw 3-D printers in a magazine, and I thought ‘mass customization.’”
Photo and more...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/15/busin ... d=71987722
Modern Technology Unlocks Secrets of a Damaged Biblical Scroll
Nearly half a century ago, archaeologists found a charred ancient scroll in the ark of a synagogue on the western shore of the Dead Sea.
The lump of carbonized parchment could not be opened or read. Its curators did nothing but conserve it, hoping that new technology might one day emerge to make the scroll legible.
Just such a technology has now been perfected by computer scientists at the University of Kentucky. Working with biblical scholars in Jerusalem, they have used a computer to unfurl a digital image of the scroll.
It turns out to hold a fragment identical to the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible and, at nearly 2,000 years old, is the earliest instance of the text.
The writing retrieved by the computer from the digital image of the unopened scroll is amazingly clear and legible, in contrast to the scroll’s blackened and beaten-up exterior. “Never in our wildest dreams did we think anything would come of it,” said Pnina Shor, the head of the Dead Sea Scrolls Project at the Israel Antiquities Authority.
Scholars say this remarkable new technique may make it possible to read other scrolls too brittle to be unrolled.
More....
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/22/scien ... 87722&_r=0
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Quantum Teleportation Moves Closer To Reality
In what is being hailed as a breakthrough in demonstrating the feasibility of quantum teleportation, two independent teams of scientists have succeeded in transferring quantum information over several miles of commercial optical fiber networks. The experiments, carried out in the cities of Calgary, Canada and Hefei, China, are separately described in twostudies published in the journal Nature Photonics.
First proposed by scientists nearly two decades ago, quantum teleportation relies on "entanglement" — a weird and counter-intuitive phenomenon once famously derided as “spooky action at a distance” by Albert Einstein. When two subatomic particles are entangled, changing the quantum state of one immediately changes the quantum state of the other, no matter how far apart they are.
More...
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/techandsc ... li=AAggFp5
*****
A Lesson of Tesla Crashes? Computer Vision Can’t Do It All Yet
Jitendra Malik, a researcher in computer vision for three decades, doesn’t own a Tesla, but he has advice for people who do.
“Knowing what I know about computer vision, I wouldn’t take my hands off the steering wheel,” he said.
Dr. Malik, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, was referring to a fatal crash in May of a Tesla electric car that was equipped with its Autopilot driver-assistance system. An Ohio man was killed when his Model S car, driving in the Autopilot mode, crashed into a tractor-trailer.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/20/scien ... dline&te=1
Nearly half a century ago, archaeologists found a charred ancient scroll in the ark of a synagogue on the western shore of the Dead Sea.
The lump of carbonized parchment could not be opened or read. Its curators did nothing but conserve it, hoping that new technology might one day emerge to make the scroll legible.
Just such a technology has now been perfected by computer scientists at the University of Kentucky. Working with biblical scholars in Jerusalem, they have used a computer to unfurl a digital image of the scroll.
It turns out to hold a fragment identical to the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible and, at nearly 2,000 years old, is the earliest instance of the text.
The writing retrieved by the computer from the digital image of the unopened scroll is amazingly clear and legible, in contrast to the scroll’s blackened and beaten-up exterior. “Never in our wildest dreams did we think anything would come of it,” said Pnina Shor, the head of the Dead Sea Scrolls Project at the Israel Antiquities Authority.
Scholars say this remarkable new technique may make it possible to read other scrolls too brittle to be unrolled.
More....
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/22/scien ... 87722&_r=0
*********
Quantum Teleportation Moves Closer To Reality
In what is being hailed as a breakthrough in demonstrating the feasibility of quantum teleportation, two independent teams of scientists have succeeded in transferring quantum information over several miles of commercial optical fiber networks. The experiments, carried out in the cities of Calgary, Canada and Hefei, China, are separately described in twostudies published in the journal Nature Photonics.
First proposed by scientists nearly two decades ago, quantum teleportation relies on "entanglement" — a weird and counter-intuitive phenomenon once famously derided as “spooky action at a distance” by Albert Einstein. When two subatomic particles are entangled, changing the quantum state of one immediately changes the quantum state of the other, no matter how far apart they are.
More...
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/techandsc ... li=AAggFp5
*****
A Lesson of Tesla Crashes? Computer Vision Can’t Do It All Yet
Jitendra Malik, a researcher in computer vision for three decades, doesn’t own a Tesla, but he has advice for people who do.
“Knowing what I know about computer vision, I wouldn’t take my hands off the steering wheel,” he said.
Dr. Malik, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, was referring to a fatal crash in May of a Tesla electric car that was equipped with its Autopilot driver-assistance system. An Ohio man was killed when his Model S car, driving in the Autopilot mode, crashed into a tractor-trailer.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/20/scien ... dline&te=1
8 iconic billionaires who plan to conquer outer space
Lots of kids grow up dreaming of someday making it to outer space, only to find as they get older that their chances of making it into NASA 's astronaut program are incredibly slim. For most people, that's the end of the dream, but some leaders of industry didn't give up quite so easily. The rise of private spaceflight companies has reinvigorated their fascination — and these visionary founders are willing to put their cash on the line to explore it further. Several high-profile business leaders, entrepreneurs and successful dreamers have made significant investments in space programs. Here's a look at some of the biggest names.
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/technolo ... ailsignout
Lots of kids grow up dreaming of someday making it to outer space, only to find as they get older that their chances of making it into NASA 's astronaut program are incredibly slim. For most people, that's the end of the dream, but some leaders of industry didn't give up quite so easily. The rise of private spaceflight companies has reinvigorated their fascination — and these visionary founders are willing to put their cash on the line to explore it further. Several high-profile business leaders, entrepreneurs and successful dreamers have made significant investments in space programs. Here's a look at some of the biggest names.
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/technolo ... ailsignout
Stephen Hawking Predicts, "This Pill Will Change Humanity"
Extract:
Over a decade ago ago Harvard assembled a team of neuroscientists to work on coming up with a natural brain supplement that could effortlessly boost IQ.
Today, those scientists made the breakthrough they were seeking and made the discovery of a lifetime.They came up with a brain boosting smart drug that surpasses all limits of known science.
The Supplement they created is now THE best treatment available to improve memory, sharpen attention, increase focus and boost overall IQ.
After numerous rounds of testing results were astonishing. One test subject was quoted as saying:
"As soon as I took it started working within minutes of taking it. All of a sudden, it felt like a dark cloud had been lifted up from in front of me. I was more alert, more focused, had long lasting energy, and experienced a mental clarity that I’d never felt before" – Ben Lishger Harvard Sophomore."
More....
http://forbes-daily-news.com/brain/int/ ... X19zaWQuLg
********
Protecting Humans and Jobs From Robots Is 5 Tech Giants’ Goal
Five major technology companies said Wednesday that they had created an organization to set the ground rules for protecting humans — and their jobs — in the face of rapid advances in artificial intelligence.
The Partnership on AI, unites Amazon, Facebook, Google, IBM and Microsoft in an effort to ease public fears of machines that are learning to think for themselves and perhaps ease corporate anxiety over the prospect of government regulation of this new technology.
The organization has been created at a time of significant public debate about artificial intelligence technologies that are built into a variety of robots and other intelligent systems, including self-driving cars and workplace automation.
The industry group introduced a set of basic ethical standards for engineering development and scientific research that its five members have agreed upon.
In a conference call on Wednesday, five artificial intelligence researchers representing the companies said they thought the technology would be a major force in the world for social and economic benefits, but they acknowledged the potential for misuse in a wide variety of ways.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/29/techn ... 87722&_r=0
*******
You will never lose your keys again with this device
VIDEO:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/technolo ... ailsignout
Extract:
Over a decade ago ago Harvard assembled a team of neuroscientists to work on coming up with a natural brain supplement that could effortlessly boost IQ.
Today, those scientists made the breakthrough they were seeking and made the discovery of a lifetime.They came up with a brain boosting smart drug that surpasses all limits of known science.
The Supplement they created is now THE best treatment available to improve memory, sharpen attention, increase focus and boost overall IQ.
After numerous rounds of testing results were astonishing. One test subject was quoted as saying:
"As soon as I took it started working within minutes of taking it. All of a sudden, it felt like a dark cloud had been lifted up from in front of me. I was more alert, more focused, had long lasting energy, and experienced a mental clarity that I’d never felt before" – Ben Lishger Harvard Sophomore."
More....
http://forbes-daily-news.com/brain/int/ ... X19zaWQuLg
********
Protecting Humans and Jobs From Robots Is 5 Tech Giants’ Goal
Five major technology companies said Wednesday that they had created an organization to set the ground rules for protecting humans — and their jobs — in the face of rapid advances in artificial intelligence.
The Partnership on AI, unites Amazon, Facebook, Google, IBM and Microsoft in an effort to ease public fears of machines that are learning to think for themselves and perhaps ease corporate anxiety over the prospect of government regulation of this new technology.
The organization has been created at a time of significant public debate about artificial intelligence technologies that are built into a variety of robots and other intelligent systems, including self-driving cars and workplace automation.
The industry group introduced a set of basic ethical standards for engineering development and scientific research that its five members have agreed upon.
In a conference call on Wednesday, five artificial intelligence researchers representing the companies said they thought the technology would be a major force in the world for social and economic benefits, but they acknowledged the potential for misuse in a wide variety of ways.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/29/techn ... 87722&_r=0
*******
You will never lose your keys again with this device
VIDEO:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/technolo ... ailsignout
Robot baby unveiled in Japan as birthrates plummet
An antidote to Japan’s rapidly falling birthrate may soon come in the unlikely form of a miniature robot.
The Kirobo Mini was unveiled Monday by Toyota as part of the automaker’s Heart Project, which aims to provide a “cuddlesome” robot baby companion for humans.
The unveiling of the robot comes as Japanese adults increasingly find themselves childless, as the country’s population continues to shrink. Between 2010 and 2015, the world’s population grew by almost half a billion while Japan’s population fell by almost one million. This is unprecedented for a country not affected by war, famine or plague.
“Toyota Heart is a unique project that explores the development of meaningful communication between humans and robots,” a spokesperson for Toyota tells Newsweek. “The program has been created with the assumption of having a conversation with young children.”
“In other words, the Kirobo Mini has been created with the image of a young child in mind, and since it sometimes remembers what it and the user talked about—like preferences and hobbies—it can actually ‘grow.’”
More...
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/offbeat/r ... ailsignout
******
Birth of Baby With Three Parents’ DNA Marks Success for Banned Technique
A few months ago, after a fertility procedure at a Mexican clinic, a healthy baby boy was born in New York to a couple from Jordan. It was the first live birth of a child who has been called — to the dismay of scientists who say the term is grossly misleading — a three-parent baby.
“This is huge,” said Dr. Richard J. Paulson, president-elect of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, after the birth was reported on Tuesday.
The method used to help the couple is one that reproductive scientists have been itching to try, but it is enormously controversial because it uses genetic material from a donor in addition to that of the couple trying to conceive. The purpose is to overcome flaws in a parent’s mitochondria that can cause grave illnesses in babies.
Mitochondria, the cell’s energy factories, are separate from the DNA that determines a child’s inherited traits. But mutations in these little organelles can be devastating, resulting in fatal diseases involving the nerves, muscles, brain, heart, liver, skeletal muscles, kidney and the endocrine and respiratory systems that often kill babies in the first few years of life.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/28/healt ... dline&te=1
An antidote to Japan’s rapidly falling birthrate may soon come in the unlikely form of a miniature robot.
The Kirobo Mini was unveiled Monday by Toyota as part of the automaker’s Heart Project, which aims to provide a “cuddlesome” robot baby companion for humans.
The unveiling of the robot comes as Japanese adults increasingly find themselves childless, as the country’s population continues to shrink. Between 2010 and 2015, the world’s population grew by almost half a billion while Japan’s population fell by almost one million. This is unprecedented for a country not affected by war, famine or plague.
“Toyota Heart is a unique project that explores the development of meaningful communication between humans and robots,” a spokesperson for Toyota tells Newsweek. “The program has been created with the assumption of having a conversation with young children.”
“In other words, the Kirobo Mini has been created with the image of a young child in mind, and since it sometimes remembers what it and the user talked about—like preferences and hobbies—it can actually ‘grow.’”
More...
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/offbeat/r ... ailsignout
******
Birth of Baby With Three Parents’ DNA Marks Success for Banned Technique
A few months ago, after a fertility procedure at a Mexican clinic, a healthy baby boy was born in New York to a couple from Jordan. It was the first live birth of a child who has been called — to the dismay of scientists who say the term is grossly misleading — a three-parent baby.
“This is huge,” said Dr. Richard J. Paulson, president-elect of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, after the birth was reported on Tuesday.
The method used to help the couple is one that reproductive scientists have been itching to try, but it is enormously controversial because it uses genetic material from a donor in addition to that of the couple trying to conceive. The purpose is to overcome flaws in a parent’s mitochondria that can cause grave illnesses in babies.
Mitochondria, the cell’s energy factories, are separate from the DNA that determines a child’s inherited traits. But mutations in these little organelles can be devastating, resulting in fatal diseases involving the nerves, muscles, brain, heart, liver, skeletal muscles, kidney and the endocrine and respiratory systems that often kill babies in the first few years of life.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/28/healt ... dline&te=1
Stepping Up Security for an Internet-of-Things World
The vision of the so-called internet of things — giving all sorts of physical things a digital makeover — has been years ahead of reality. But that gap is closing fast.
Today, the range of things being computerized and connected to networks is stunning, from watches, appliances and clothing to cars, jet engines and factory equipment. Even roadways and farm fields are being upgraded with digital sensors. In the last two years, the number of internet-of-things devices in the world has surged nearly 70 percent to 6.4 billion, according to Gartner, a research firm. By 2020, the firm forecasts, the internet-of-things population will reach 20.8 billion.
The optimistic outlook is that the internet of things will be an enabling technology that will help make the people and physical systems of the world — health care, food production, transportation, energy consumption — smarter and more efficient.
The pessimistic outlook? Hackers will have something else to hack. And consumers accustomed to adding security tools to their computers and phones should expect to adopt similar precautions with internet-connected home appliances.
“If we want to put networked technologies into more and more things, we also have to find a way to make them safer,” said Michael Walker, a program manager and computer security expert at the Pentagon’s advanced research arm. “It’s a challenge for civilization."
More....
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/17/techn ... d=71987722
The vision of the so-called internet of things — giving all sorts of physical things a digital makeover — has been years ahead of reality. But that gap is closing fast.
Today, the range of things being computerized and connected to networks is stunning, from watches, appliances and clothing to cars, jet engines and factory equipment. Even roadways and farm fields are being upgraded with digital sensors. In the last two years, the number of internet-of-things devices in the world has surged nearly 70 percent to 6.4 billion, according to Gartner, a research firm. By 2020, the firm forecasts, the internet-of-things population will reach 20.8 billion.
The optimistic outlook is that the internet of things will be an enabling technology that will help make the people and physical systems of the world — health care, food production, transportation, energy consumption — smarter and more efficient.
The pessimistic outlook? Hackers will have something else to hack. And consumers accustomed to adding security tools to their computers and phones should expect to adopt similar precautions with internet-connected home appliances.
“If we want to put networked technologies into more and more things, we also have to find a way to make them safer,” said Michael Walker, a program manager and computer security expert at the Pentagon’s advanced research arm. “It’s a challenge for civilization."
More....
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/17/techn ... d=71987722
The Pentagon’s ‘Terminator Conundrum’: Robots That Could Kill on Their Own
The United States has put artificial intelligence at the center of its defense
strategy, with weapons that can identify targets and make decisions.
Extract:
The Terminator Conundrum
The debate within the military is no longer about whether to build autonomous weapons but how much independence to give them. Gen. Paul J. Selva of the Air Force, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said recently that the United States was about a decade away from having the technology to build a fully independent robot that could decide on its own whom and when to kill, though it had no intention of building one.
Other countries were not far behind, and it was very likely that someone would eventually try to unleash “something like a Terminator,” General Selva said, invoking what seems to be a common reference in any discussion on autonomous weapons.
Yet American officials are only just beginning to contend with the implications of weapons that could someday operate independently, beyond the control of their developers. Inside the Pentagon, the quandary is known as the Terminator conundrum, and there is no consensus about whether the United States should seek international treaties to try to ban the creation of those weapons, or build its own to match those its enemies might create.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/26/us/pe ... 05309&_r=0
********
As Artificial Intelligence Evolves, So Does Its Criminal Potential
Imagine receiving a phone call from your aging mother seeking your help because she has forgotten her banking password.
Except it’s not your mother. The voice on the other end of the phone call just sounds deceptively like her.
It is actually a computer-synthesized voice, a tour-de-force of artificial intelligence technology that has been crafted to make it possible for someone to masquerade via the telephone.
Such a situation is still science fiction — but just barely. It is also the future of crime.
The software components necessary to make such masking technology widely accessible are advancing rapidly.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/24/techn ... d=71987722
*******
Artifically intelligent ‘judge’ developed which can predict court verdicts with 79 per cent accuracy
A computer ‘judge’ has been developed which can correctly predict verdicts of the European Court of Human Rights with 79 per cent accuracy.
Computer scientists at University College London and the University of Sheffield developed an algorithm which can not only weigh up legal evidence, but also moral considerations.
As early as the 1960s experts predicted that computers would one day be able to predict the outcomes of judicial decisions.
But the new method is the first to predict the outcomes of court cases by automatically analysing case text using a machine learning algorithm.
More...
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/offbeat/a ... ailsignout
The United States has put artificial intelligence at the center of its defense
strategy, with weapons that can identify targets and make decisions.
Extract:
The Terminator Conundrum
The debate within the military is no longer about whether to build autonomous weapons but how much independence to give them. Gen. Paul J. Selva of the Air Force, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said recently that the United States was about a decade away from having the technology to build a fully independent robot that could decide on its own whom and when to kill, though it had no intention of building one.
Other countries were not far behind, and it was very likely that someone would eventually try to unleash “something like a Terminator,” General Selva said, invoking what seems to be a common reference in any discussion on autonomous weapons.
Yet American officials are only just beginning to contend with the implications of weapons that could someday operate independently, beyond the control of their developers. Inside the Pentagon, the quandary is known as the Terminator conundrum, and there is no consensus about whether the United States should seek international treaties to try to ban the creation of those weapons, or build its own to match those its enemies might create.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/26/us/pe ... 05309&_r=0
********
As Artificial Intelligence Evolves, So Does Its Criminal Potential
Imagine receiving a phone call from your aging mother seeking your help because she has forgotten her banking password.
Except it’s not your mother. The voice on the other end of the phone call just sounds deceptively like her.
It is actually a computer-synthesized voice, a tour-de-force of artificial intelligence technology that has been crafted to make it possible for someone to masquerade via the telephone.
Such a situation is still science fiction — but just barely. It is also the future of crime.
The software components necessary to make such masking technology widely accessible are advancing rapidly.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/24/techn ... d=71987722
*******
Artifically intelligent ‘judge’ developed which can predict court verdicts with 79 per cent accuracy
A computer ‘judge’ has been developed which can correctly predict verdicts of the European Court of Human Rights with 79 per cent accuracy.
Computer scientists at University College London and the University of Sheffield developed an algorithm which can not only weigh up legal evidence, but also moral considerations.
As early as the 1960s experts predicted that computers would one day be able to predict the outcomes of judicial decisions.
But the new method is the first to predict the outcomes of court cases by automatically analysing case text using a machine learning algorithm.
More...
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/offbeat/a ... ailsignout
Uber Aims To Fly People To Work Within A Decade
Commuters could be flying to work in electric vehicles within a decade if business and government work together to make it happen, ride-hailing company Uber says.
In a 99-page report released last week, the company that has already revolutionized urban transportation made it clear it has much larger ambitions in mind: A service called "Uber Elevate" that uses a fleet of electric vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) vehicles that put an end to slow commutes on gridlocked roads.
The research paper says more than a dozen companies around the world are working on the technology.
More..
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/topstori ... ailsignout
******
Male Birth Control Shots are 96% Effective, Study Finds
Yep, hormonal birth control for men is a thing—and it works almost as well as condoms.
Male birth control just got one step closer to becoming a reality (finally!). A new study shows that giving contraceptive injections to men can effectively prevent pregnancy in their partners. The caveat: the shots won't be available any time soon. Their formulation must be tweaked to reduce side effects, and larger studies are needed before they can be brought to market.
Hormonal birth control has never been an option for men, who currently have few choices when it comes to managing their fertility, including condoms, vasectomies, and the not-always-effective withdrawal method.
More...
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/health/medical ... ailsignout
Commuters could be flying to work in electric vehicles within a decade if business and government work together to make it happen, ride-hailing company Uber says.
In a 99-page report released last week, the company that has already revolutionized urban transportation made it clear it has much larger ambitions in mind: A service called "Uber Elevate" that uses a fleet of electric vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) vehicles that put an end to slow commutes on gridlocked roads.
The research paper says more than a dozen companies around the world are working on the technology.
More..
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/topstori ... ailsignout
******
Male Birth Control Shots are 96% Effective, Study Finds
Yep, hormonal birth control for men is a thing—and it works almost as well as condoms.
Male birth control just got one step closer to becoming a reality (finally!). A new study shows that giving contraceptive injections to men can effectively prevent pregnancy in their partners. The caveat: the shots won't be available any time soon. Their formulation must be tweaked to reduce side effects, and larger studies are needed before they can be brought to market.
Hormonal birth control has never been an option for men, who currently have few choices when it comes to managing their fertility, including condoms, vasectomies, and the not-always-effective withdrawal method.
More...
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/health/medical ... ailsignout
Can Networked Knowledge Help Communities Thrive on a Turbulent Planet?
Science has long been focused mainly on knowledge frontiers, with universities often seeming to track “impact factors” of published papers more than a researcher’s impact in the real world.
But there’s been a welcome effort, of late, particularly in fields relevant to sustainable development, to shift priorities toward helping communities address challenges as humanity’s “great acceleration” plays out in the next few decades. An early iteration of this call came in a 1997 essay on “the virtues of mundane science” by Daniel Kammen of the University of California, Berkeley, and Michael R. Dove of Yale. (I discussed the essay in a lecture last year.)
It seems such efforts are gaining steam. For example, consider the growth of the Thriving Earth Exchange, an effort by the American Geophysical Union to help connect its global network of scientists with communities seeking science-based solutions to a variety of vexing problems:
When the initiative launched in 2013, the director Raj Pandya, wrote an article for Eos, the American Geophysical Union magazine, explaining the goal is “to enable communities to partner with Earth and space scientists and access the expertise needed to address problems arising from hazards, disasters, resource limitations, and climate change.”
More...
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/ ... dline&te=1
*******
New Research Center to Explore Ethics of Artificial Intelligence
Carnegie Mellon University plans to announce on Wednesday that it will create a research center that focuses on the ethics of artificial intelligence.
The ethics center, called the K&L Gates Endowment for Ethics and Computational Technologies, is being established at a time of growing international concern about the impact of A.I. technologies. That has already led to an array of academic, governmental and private efforts to explore a technology that until recently was largely the stuff of science fiction.
In the last decade, faster computer chips, cheap sensors and large collections of data have helped researchers improve on computerized tasks like machine vision and speech recognition, as well as robotics.
Earlier this year, the White House held a series of workshops around the country to discuss the impact of A.I., and in October the Obama administration released a report on its possible consequences. And in September, five large technology firms — Amazon, Facebook, Google, IBM and Microsoft — created a partnership to help establish ethical guidelines for the design and deployment of A.I. systems.
Subra Suresh, Carnegie Mellon’s president, said injecting ethical discussions into A.I. was necessary as the technology advanced. While the idea of “Terminator” robots still seems far-fetched, the United States military is studying autonomous weapons that could make killing decisions on their own — a development that war planners think would be unwise.
“We are at a unique point in time where the technology is far ahead of society’s ability to restrain it,” Mr. Suresh noted.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/02/techn ... d=71987722
Science has long been focused mainly on knowledge frontiers, with universities often seeming to track “impact factors” of published papers more than a researcher’s impact in the real world.
But there’s been a welcome effort, of late, particularly in fields relevant to sustainable development, to shift priorities toward helping communities address challenges as humanity’s “great acceleration” plays out in the next few decades. An early iteration of this call came in a 1997 essay on “the virtues of mundane science” by Daniel Kammen of the University of California, Berkeley, and Michael R. Dove of Yale. (I discussed the essay in a lecture last year.)
It seems such efforts are gaining steam. For example, consider the growth of the Thriving Earth Exchange, an effort by the American Geophysical Union to help connect its global network of scientists with communities seeking science-based solutions to a variety of vexing problems:
When the initiative launched in 2013, the director Raj Pandya, wrote an article for Eos, the American Geophysical Union magazine, explaining the goal is “to enable communities to partner with Earth and space scientists and access the expertise needed to address problems arising from hazards, disasters, resource limitations, and climate change.”
More...
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/ ... dline&te=1
*******
New Research Center to Explore Ethics of Artificial Intelligence
Carnegie Mellon University plans to announce on Wednesday that it will create a research center that focuses on the ethics of artificial intelligence.
The ethics center, called the K&L Gates Endowment for Ethics and Computational Technologies, is being established at a time of growing international concern about the impact of A.I. technologies. That has already led to an array of academic, governmental and private efforts to explore a technology that until recently was largely the stuff of science fiction.
In the last decade, faster computer chips, cheap sensors and large collections of data have helped researchers improve on computerized tasks like machine vision and speech recognition, as well as robotics.
Earlier this year, the White House held a series of workshops around the country to discuss the impact of A.I., and in October the Obama administration released a report on its possible consequences. And in September, five large technology firms — Amazon, Facebook, Google, IBM and Microsoft — created a partnership to help establish ethical guidelines for the design and deployment of A.I. systems.
Subra Suresh, Carnegie Mellon’s president, said injecting ethical discussions into A.I. was necessary as the technology advanced. While the idea of “Terminator” robots still seems far-fetched, the United States military is studying autonomous weapons that could make killing decisions on their own — a development that war planners think would be unwise.
“We are at a unique point in time where the technology is far ahead of society’s ability to restrain it,” Mr. Suresh noted.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/02/techn ... d=71987722
Watch a lightning-fast robot build a house in just two days!!
VIDEO
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/us/watch- ... ailsignout
If the three little pigs had this machine to build their house, the big bad wolf would probably still be starving.
Australian company Fastbrick Robotics released a time-lapse video of its commercial brick-laying robotic arm building the shell for a house in a staggering two days -- without ever needing to stop for coffee breaks -- and it's something to behold.
The Hadrian X is a 98-foot 3D robotic crane located atop a truck. The machine works fast, really fast, cutting, routing and placing bricks following a 3D computer-aided design model. The navigation system is so precise it allows for accuracy within less than half a millimeter, according to the company.
The robot can work with bricks of almost any size, without needing human interaction. Fastbrick Robotics aims to reduce construction time, waste and cost for consumers. You might want to start thinking about the mansion of your dreams.
This article originally appeared on CNET.
*****
This innovative backpack will keep your suit wrinkle-free when you travel
VIDEO
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/video/topvideo ... ailsignout
VIDEO
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/us/watch- ... ailsignout
If the three little pigs had this machine to build their house, the big bad wolf would probably still be starving.
Australian company Fastbrick Robotics released a time-lapse video of its commercial brick-laying robotic arm building the shell for a house in a staggering two days -- without ever needing to stop for coffee breaks -- and it's something to behold.
The Hadrian X is a 98-foot 3D robotic crane located atop a truck. The machine works fast, really fast, cutting, routing and placing bricks following a 3D computer-aided design model. The navigation system is so precise it allows for accuracy within less than half a millimeter, according to the company.
The robot can work with bricks of almost any size, without needing human interaction. Fastbrick Robotics aims to reduce construction time, waste and cost for consumers. You might want to start thinking about the mansion of your dreams.
This article originally appeared on CNET.
*****
This innovative backpack will keep your suit wrinkle-free when you travel
VIDEO
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/video/topvideo ... ailsignout
How a self-driving car sees the road
What do I do with my hands?
VIDEO:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/video/te ... vi-AAkFTPv
This robot can whack weeds for you
And it won't kill any of your plants by mistake!
VIDEO:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/video/news/thi ... ailsignout
*****
Technology firms may struggle to disrupt the food business
Zume tries to reinvent America’s $34bn pizza business, one robot at a time
THE office parks of Silicon Valley boast many firms that are trying to change the world. But there are plenty with more modest goals. Zume Pizza, a tiny startup that is located a few miles from the sprawling headquarters of Google, wants to redesign the way pizzas are made. Zume has programmed robots to make pizzas that are then put into a van and baked as they hurtle towards customers. Ovens are timed to finish cooking in sync with the vehicles’ arrival at their destination, so the pies are always piping hot.
In recent weeks spies from rival pizza companies and from food-delivery firms have been driving by in unmarked cars taking photographs of the office and the vans, says Julia Collins, one of Zume’s co-founders. To protect its business, the startup has patented the whole process of cooking food in ovens while a vehicle is moving (the patent probably gives Zume defensible intellectual property, says one patent lawyer). The company only operates in Mountain View, but has expansion plans. Since its founding last year it has reportedly raised $6m from investors, among them Jerry Yang, a co-founder and former boss of Yahoo, an early giant of the internet.
Tech entrepreneurs have not spared the food industry, but their principal focus has been on delivery services. Actually making the food represents a fresher opportunity. Restaurant chains have been slow to invest in technology themselves because the cost of labour is usually fairly cheap, says John Glass, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, a bank. They have spent money on mobile payments and on online ordering, but there is scope for more innovation.
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/business- ... lydispatch
What do I do with my hands?
VIDEO:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/video/te ... vi-AAkFTPv
This robot can whack weeds for you
And it won't kill any of your plants by mistake!
VIDEO:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/video/news/thi ... ailsignout
*****
Technology firms may struggle to disrupt the food business
Zume tries to reinvent America’s $34bn pizza business, one robot at a time
THE office parks of Silicon Valley boast many firms that are trying to change the world. But there are plenty with more modest goals. Zume Pizza, a tiny startup that is located a few miles from the sprawling headquarters of Google, wants to redesign the way pizzas are made. Zume has programmed robots to make pizzas that are then put into a van and baked as they hurtle towards customers. Ovens are timed to finish cooking in sync with the vehicles’ arrival at their destination, so the pies are always piping hot.
In recent weeks spies from rival pizza companies and from food-delivery firms have been driving by in unmarked cars taking photographs of the office and the vans, says Julia Collins, one of Zume’s co-founders. To protect its business, the startup has patented the whole process of cooking food in ovens while a vehicle is moving (the patent probably gives Zume defensible intellectual property, says one patent lawyer). The company only operates in Mountain View, but has expansion plans. Since its founding last year it has reportedly raised $6m from investors, among them Jerry Yang, a co-founder and former boss of Yahoo, an early giant of the internet.
Tech entrepreneurs have not spared the food industry, but their principal focus has been on delivery services. Actually making the food represents a fresher opportunity. Restaurant chains have been slow to invest in technology themselves because the cost of labour is usually fairly cheap, says John Glass, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, a bank. They have spent money on mobile payments and on online ordering, but there is scope for more innovation.
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/business- ... lydispatch
‘It’s Like a Miracle’: Woman Gives Birth Using Ovary Frozen Since Childhood
LONDON — A woman has made medical history by giving birth after having had an ovary removed and its tissue frozen at age 9, before reaching puberty.
Moaza al-Matrooshi, now 24, was born with beta thalassemia, an inherited blood disorder that was treated with chemotherapy and a bone-marrow transplant when she was a child. Because chemotherapy damages ovaries, her parents had authorized the removal of her right ovary in advance at the University of Leeds.
The medical community celebrated the birth of Ms. Matrooshi’s baby boy on Tuesday in London at the Portland Hospital for Women and Children, saying the event could pave the way to restoring fertility to women who suffer cancer and other illnesses at an early age. Until now, many prepubescent girls who have undergone chemotherapy have had to abandon hopes of bearing children as adults.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/world ... d=71987722
LONDON — A woman has made medical history by giving birth after having had an ovary removed and its tissue frozen at age 9, before reaching puberty.
Moaza al-Matrooshi, now 24, was born with beta thalassemia, an inherited blood disorder that was treated with chemotherapy and a bone-marrow transplant when she was a child. Because chemotherapy damages ovaries, her parents had authorized the removal of her right ovary in advance at the University of Leeds.
The medical community celebrated the birth of Ms. Matrooshi’s baby boy on Tuesday in London at the Portland Hospital for Women and Children, saying the event could pave the way to restoring fertility to women who suffer cancer and other illnesses at an early age. Until now, many prepubescent girls who have undergone chemotherapy have had to abandon hopes of bearing children as adults.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/world ... d=71987722
Amazon made its first drone delivery in the U.K.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced on Twitter on Dec. 14, that the company had made its first ever drone delivery.
Amazon Prime Air, the name of the service, completed its first customer trials near Cambridge, England and flew an Amazon Fire streaming device and popcorn to a customer on Dec. 7. The 13-minute flight covered two miles (3.2 km) from the delivery center and was navigated via GPS.
The drones, so far, are limited to carrying merchandise weighing less than five pounds (2.3 kg) and can only fly below 400 feet (121 meters). The service is available only in daylight and good weather.
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/weekendre ... out#page=2
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced on Twitter on Dec. 14, that the company had made its first ever drone delivery.
Amazon Prime Air, the name of the service, completed its first customer trials near Cambridge, England and flew an Amazon Fire streaming device and popcorn to a customer on Dec. 7. The 13-minute flight covered two miles (3.2 km) from the delivery center and was navigated via GPS.
The drones, so far, are limited to carrying merchandise weighing less than five pounds (2.3 kg) and can only fly below 400 feet (121 meters). The service is available only in daylight and good weather.
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/weekendre ... out#page=2
Drone-based blood deliveries in Tanzania to be funded by UK
The UK government is to fund a trial of drone-based deliveries of blood and other medical supplies in Tanzania.
The goal is to radically reduce the amount of time it takes to send stock to health clinics in the African nation by road or other means.
The scheme involves Zipline, a Silicon Valley start-up that began running a similar service in Rwanda in October.
Experts praised that initiative but cautioned that "cargo drones" are still of limited use to humanitarian bodies.
More...
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-38450664
******
For Millions of Immigrants, a Common Language: WhatsApp
Extract:
Tales of immigrant woe are not unusual in Silicon Valley. But Mr. Koum’s story carries greater resonance because his app has quietly become a mainstay of immigrant life. More than a billion people regularly use WhatsApp, which lets users send text messages and make phone calls free over the internet. The app is particularly popular in India, where it has more than 160 million users, as well as in Europe, South America and Africa.
More..
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/21/techn ... ile=0&_r=0
The UK government is to fund a trial of drone-based deliveries of blood and other medical supplies in Tanzania.
The goal is to radically reduce the amount of time it takes to send stock to health clinics in the African nation by road or other means.
The scheme involves Zipline, a Silicon Valley start-up that began running a similar service in Rwanda in October.
Experts praised that initiative but cautioned that "cargo drones" are still of limited use to humanitarian bodies.
More...
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-38450664
******
For Millions of Immigrants, a Common Language: WhatsApp
Extract:
Tales of immigrant woe are not unusual in Silicon Valley. But Mr. Koum’s story carries greater resonance because his app has quietly become a mainstay of immigrant life. More than a billion people regularly use WhatsApp, which lets users send text messages and make phone calls free over the internet. The app is particularly popular in India, where it has more than 160 million users, as well as in Europe, South America and Africa.
More..
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/21/techn ... ile=0&_r=0
Humans are at the forefront of what could be the first major shift of evolution in over a billion years
VIDEO
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/video/news/hum ... ailsignout
VIDEO
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/video/news/hum ... ailsignout
From Hands to Heads to Hearts
Software has started writing poetry, sports stories and business news. IBM’s Watson is co-writing pop hits. Uber has begun deploying self-driving taxis on real city streets and, last month, Amazon delivered its first package by drone to a customer in rural England.
Add it all up and you quickly realize that Donald Trump’s election isn’t the only thing disrupting society today. The far more profound disruption is happening in the workplace and in the economy at large, as the relentless march of technology has brought us to a point where machines and software are not just outworking us but starting to outthink us in more and more realms.
To reflect on this rapid change, I sat down with my teacher and friend Dov Seidman, C.E.O. of LRN, which advises companies on leadership and how to build ethical cultures, for his take. “What we are experiencing today bears striking similarities in size and implications to the scientific revolution that began in the 16th century,” said Seidman. “The discoveries of Copernicus and Galileo, which spurred that scientific revolution, challenged our whole understanding of the world around and beyond us — and forced us as humans to rethink our place within it.”
Once scientific methods became enshrined, we used science and reason to navigate our way forward, he added, so much so that “the French philosopher René Descartes crystallized this age of reason in one phrase: ‘I think, therefore I am.’” Descartes’s point, said Seidman, “was that it was our ability to ‘think’ that most distinguished humans from all other animals on earth.”
The technological revolution of the 21st century is as consequential as the scientific revolution, argued Seidman, and it is “forcing us to answer a most profound question — one we’ve never had to ask before: ‘What does it mean to be human in the age of intelligent machines?’”
In short: If machines can compete with people in thinking, what makes us humans unique? And what will enable us to continue to create social and economic value? The answer, said Seidman, is the one thing machines will never have: “a heart.”
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/04/opini ... ef=opinion
Software has started writing poetry, sports stories and business news. IBM’s Watson is co-writing pop hits. Uber has begun deploying self-driving taxis on real city streets and, last month, Amazon delivered its first package by drone to a customer in rural England.
Add it all up and you quickly realize that Donald Trump’s election isn’t the only thing disrupting society today. The far more profound disruption is happening in the workplace and in the economy at large, as the relentless march of technology has brought us to a point where machines and software are not just outworking us but starting to outthink us in more and more realms.
To reflect on this rapid change, I sat down with my teacher and friend Dov Seidman, C.E.O. of LRN, which advises companies on leadership and how to build ethical cultures, for his take. “What we are experiencing today bears striking similarities in size and implications to the scientific revolution that began in the 16th century,” said Seidman. “The discoveries of Copernicus and Galileo, which spurred that scientific revolution, challenged our whole understanding of the world around and beyond us — and forced us as humans to rethink our place within it.”
Once scientific methods became enshrined, we used science and reason to navigate our way forward, he added, so much so that “the French philosopher René Descartes crystallized this age of reason in one phrase: ‘I think, therefore I am.’” Descartes’s point, said Seidman, “was that it was our ability to ‘think’ that most distinguished humans from all other animals on earth.”
The technological revolution of the 21st century is as consequential as the scientific revolution, argued Seidman, and it is “forcing us to answer a most profound question — one we’ve never had to ask before: ‘What does it mean to be human in the age of intelligent machines?’”
In short: If machines can compete with people in thinking, what makes us humans unique? And what will enable us to continue to create social and economic value? The answer, said Seidman, is the one thing machines will never have: “a heart.”
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/04/opini ... ef=opinion
Japanese company replaces workers with artificial intelligence
Human workers at Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance are set to be replaced by an artificial intelligence that can calculate payouts to policyholders.
After the 200m yen (£1.4m) AI system is installed this month, the company believes productivity will be increased by 30 per cent and that it would save about 140m yen (£1m) a year.
The company also said it believes it will get a return on its investment in under two years.
The 34 employees will be made redundant by the end of March.
The artificial intelligence system is based on IBM’s Watson Explorer, which, according to the tech firm, has "cognitive technology that can think like a human" and can analyse and interpret data, "including unstructured text, images, audio and video".
This means it can analyse all manner of medical data before calculating payouts.
More...
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/topstori ... ailsignout
*******
Clean Disruption: Why Current Energy and Transportation Systems Will Be Obsolete by 2030
VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0F4SobqxyU
Human workers at Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance are set to be replaced by an artificial intelligence that can calculate payouts to policyholders.
After the 200m yen (£1.4m) AI system is installed this month, the company believes productivity will be increased by 30 per cent and that it would save about 140m yen (£1m) a year.
The company also said it believes it will get a return on its investment in under two years.
The 34 employees will be made redundant by the end of March.
The artificial intelligence system is based on IBM’s Watson Explorer, which, according to the tech firm, has "cognitive technology that can think like a human" and can analyse and interpret data, "including unstructured text, images, audio and video".
This means it can analyse all manner of medical data before calculating payouts.
More...
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/topstori ... ailsignout
*******
Clean Disruption: Why Current Energy and Transportation Systems Will Be Obsolete by 2030
VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0F4SobqxyU
30 inventions that changed the world forever
Game-changing innovations
Every once in a while, a revolutionary invention comes along with the power to advance humanity and change the course of history. From the wheel to the World Wide Web, here are the 30 most important innovations ever.
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/technolo ... ut#image=1
Game-changing innovations
Every once in a while, a revolutionary invention comes along with the power to advance humanity and change the course of history. From the wheel to the World Wide Web, here are the 30 most important innovations ever.
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/technolo ... ut#image=1
A tissue of truths
Printed human body parts could soon be available for transplant
How to build organs from scratch
EVERY year about 120,000 organs, mostly kidneys, are transplanted from one human being to another. Sometimes the donor is a living volunteer. Usually, though, he or she is the victim of an accident, stroke, heart attack or similar sudden event that has terminated the life of an otherwise healthy individual. But a lack of suitable donors, particularly as cars get safer and first-aid becomes more effective, means the supply of such organs is limited. Many people therefore die waiting for a transplant. That has led researchers to study the question of how to build organs from scratch.
One promising approach is to print them. Lots of things are made these days by three-dimensional printing, and there seems no reason why body parts should not be among them. As yet, such “bioprinting” remains largely experimental. But bioprinted tissue is already being sold for drug testing, and the first transplantable tissues are expected to be ready for use in a few years’ time.
Just press “print”
Bioprinting originated in the early 2000s, when it was discovered that living cells could be sprayed through the nozzles of inkjet printers without damaging them. Today, using multiple print heads to squirt out different cell types, along with polymers that help keep the structure in shape, it is possible to deposit layer upon layer of cells that will bind together and grow into living, functional tissue. Researchers in various places are tinkering with kidney and liver tissue, skin, bones and cartilage, as well as the networks of blood vessels needed to keep body parts alive. They have implanted printed ears, bones and muscles into animals, and watched these integrate properly with their hosts. Last year a group at Northwestern University, in Chicago, even printed working prosthetic ovaries for mice. The recipients were able to conceive and give birth with the aid of these artificial organs.
No one is yet talking of printing gonads for people. But blood vessels are a different matter. Sichuan Revotek, a biotechnology company based in Chengdu, China, has successfully implanted a printed section of artery into a monkey. This is the first step in trials of a technique intended for use in humans. Similarly, Organovo, a firm in San Diego, announced in December that it had transplanted printed human-liver tissue into mice, and that this tissue had survived and worked. Organovo hopes, within three to five years, to develop this procedure into a treatment for chronic liver failure and for inborn errors of metabolism in young children. The market for such treatments in America alone, the firm estimates, is worth more than $3bn a year.
Johnson & Johnson, a large American health-care company, is so convinced that bioprinting will transform parts of medical practice that it has formed several alliances with interested academics and biotechnology firms. One of these alliances, with Tissue Regeneration Systems, a firm in Michigan, is intended to develop implants for the treatment of defects in broken bones. Another, with Aspect, a biotechnology company in Canada, is trying to work out how to print parts of the human knee known as the meniscuses. These are crescent-shaped cartilage pads that separate the femur from the tibia, and act as shock absorbers between these two bones—a role that causes huge wear and tear, which sometimes requires surgical intervention.
More immediately, bioprinting can help with the development and testing of other sorts of treatments. Organovo already offers kidney and liver tissue for screening potential drugs for efficacy and safety. If this takes off it will please animal-rights activists, as it should cut down on the number of animal trials. It will please drug companies, too, since the tissue being tested is human, so the results obtained should be more reliable than ones from tests on other species.
With similar motives in mind, L’Oréal, a French cosmetics firm, Procter & Gamble, an American consumer-goods company, and BASF, a German chemical concern, are working on printing human skin. They propose to use it to test their products for adverse reactions. L’Oréal already grows about five square metres of skin a year using older and slower technology. Bioprinting will permit it to grow much more, and also allow different skin types and textures to be printed.
Skin in the game
Printed skin might eventually be employed for grafts—repairing burns and ulcers. Plans are also afoot, as it were, to print skin directly onto the surface of the body. Renovacare, a firm in Pennsylvania, has developed a gun that will spray skin stem cells directly onto the wounds of burns victims. (Stem cells are cells that proliferate to produce all of the cell types that a tissue is composed of.) The suggestion is that the stem cells in question will come from the patient himself, meaning that there is no risk of his immune system rejecting the new tissue.
The real prize of all this effort would be to be able to print entire organs. For kidneys, Roots Analysis, a medical-technology consultancy, reckons that should be possible in about six years’ time. Livers, which have a natural tendency to regenerate anyway, should also arrive reasonably soon. Hearts, with their complex internal geometries, will take longer. In all cases, though, printed organs would mean that those awaiting transplants have to wait neither for the altruism of another nor the death of a stranger to provide the means to save their own lives.
This article appeared in the Science and technology section of the print edition under the headline "A tissue of truths"
http://www.economist.com/news/science-a ... n/NA/email
Printed human body parts could soon be available for transplant
How to build organs from scratch
EVERY year about 120,000 organs, mostly kidneys, are transplanted from one human being to another. Sometimes the donor is a living volunteer. Usually, though, he or she is the victim of an accident, stroke, heart attack or similar sudden event that has terminated the life of an otherwise healthy individual. But a lack of suitable donors, particularly as cars get safer and first-aid becomes more effective, means the supply of such organs is limited. Many people therefore die waiting for a transplant. That has led researchers to study the question of how to build organs from scratch.
One promising approach is to print them. Lots of things are made these days by three-dimensional printing, and there seems no reason why body parts should not be among them. As yet, such “bioprinting” remains largely experimental. But bioprinted tissue is already being sold for drug testing, and the first transplantable tissues are expected to be ready for use in a few years’ time.
Just press “print”
Bioprinting originated in the early 2000s, when it was discovered that living cells could be sprayed through the nozzles of inkjet printers without damaging them. Today, using multiple print heads to squirt out different cell types, along with polymers that help keep the structure in shape, it is possible to deposit layer upon layer of cells that will bind together and grow into living, functional tissue. Researchers in various places are tinkering with kidney and liver tissue, skin, bones and cartilage, as well as the networks of blood vessels needed to keep body parts alive. They have implanted printed ears, bones and muscles into animals, and watched these integrate properly with their hosts. Last year a group at Northwestern University, in Chicago, even printed working prosthetic ovaries for mice. The recipients were able to conceive and give birth with the aid of these artificial organs.
No one is yet talking of printing gonads for people. But blood vessels are a different matter. Sichuan Revotek, a biotechnology company based in Chengdu, China, has successfully implanted a printed section of artery into a monkey. This is the first step in trials of a technique intended for use in humans. Similarly, Organovo, a firm in San Diego, announced in December that it had transplanted printed human-liver tissue into mice, and that this tissue had survived and worked. Organovo hopes, within three to five years, to develop this procedure into a treatment for chronic liver failure and for inborn errors of metabolism in young children. The market for such treatments in America alone, the firm estimates, is worth more than $3bn a year.
Johnson & Johnson, a large American health-care company, is so convinced that bioprinting will transform parts of medical practice that it has formed several alliances with interested academics and biotechnology firms. One of these alliances, with Tissue Regeneration Systems, a firm in Michigan, is intended to develop implants for the treatment of defects in broken bones. Another, with Aspect, a biotechnology company in Canada, is trying to work out how to print parts of the human knee known as the meniscuses. These are crescent-shaped cartilage pads that separate the femur from the tibia, and act as shock absorbers between these two bones—a role that causes huge wear and tear, which sometimes requires surgical intervention.
More immediately, bioprinting can help with the development and testing of other sorts of treatments. Organovo already offers kidney and liver tissue for screening potential drugs for efficacy and safety. If this takes off it will please animal-rights activists, as it should cut down on the number of animal trials. It will please drug companies, too, since the tissue being tested is human, so the results obtained should be more reliable than ones from tests on other species.
With similar motives in mind, L’Oréal, a French cosmetics firm, Procter & Gamble, an American consumer-goods company, and BASF, a German chemical concern, are working on printing human skin. They propose to use it to test their products for adverse reactions. L’Oréal already grows about five square metres of skin a year using older and slower technology. Bioprinting will permit it to grow much more, and also allow different skin types and textures to be printed.
Skin in the game
Printed skin might eventually be employed for grafts—repairing burns and ulcers. Plans are also afoot, as it were, to print skin directly onto the surface of the body. Renovacare, a firm in Pennsylvania, has developed a gun that will spray skin stem cells directly onto the wounds of burns victims. (Stem cells are cells that proliferate to produce all of the cell types that a tissue is composed of.) The suggestion is that the stem cells in question will come from the patient himself, meaning that there is no risk of his immune system rejecting the new tissue.
The real prize of all this effort would be to be able to print entire organs. For kidneys, Roots Analysis, a medical-technology consultancy, reckons that should be possible in about six years’ time. Livers, which have a natural tendency to regenerate anyway, should also arrive reasonably soon. Hearts, with their complex internal geometries, will take longer. In all cases, though, printed organs would mean that those awaiting transplants have to wait neither for the altruism of another nor the death of a stranger to provide the means to save their own lives.
This article appeared in the Science and technology section of the print edition under the headline "A tissue of truths"
http://www.economist.com/news/science-a ... n/NA/email
Change is sweeping through the world of work
Automated production lines, ageing populations, superstar companies — these are just some of the forces of change sweeping through the world of work.
As new technologies and extended lifespans upend and disrupt the job market, knowing how to stay ahead of the trends, and making the right choices in your career, can seem like a challenge.
Stay informed with The Economist. Read our free guide on the world of work by clicking on the image below. Here you’ll find a selection of some of our best articles on how the working world is changing, including:
• How lifelong learning may help you survive in the age of automation
• Why today’s technology will affect tomorrow’s jobs
• How to spot a superstar company
More...
http://learnmore.economist.com/story/58 ... 6c0ee8f1bc
Automated production lines, ageing populations, superstar companies — these are just some of the forces of change sweeping through the world of work.
As new technologies and extended lifespans upend and disrupt the job market, knowing how to stay ahead of the trends, and making the right choices in your career, can seem like a challenge.
Stay informed with The Economist. Read our free guide on the world of work by clicking on the image below. Here you’ll find a selection of some of our best articles on how the working world is changing, including:
• How lifelong learning may help you survive in the age of automation
• Why today’s technology will affect tomorrow’s jobs
• How to spot a superstar company
More...
http://learnmore.economist.com/story/58 ... 6c0ee8f1bc
Why augmented reality will be big in business first
THE history of computers is one of increasing intimacy. At first users rented time on mainframe machines they did not own. Next came the “personal computer”. Although PCs were confined to desks, ordinary people could afford to buy them, and filled them with all manner of personal information. These days smartphones go everywhere in their owners’ pockets, serving as everything from a diary to a camera to a voice-activated personal assistant.
The next step, according to many technologists, is to move the computer from the pocket to the body itself. The idea is to build a pair of “smart glasses” that do everything a smartphone can, and more. A technology called “augmented reality” (AR) would paint computerised information directly on top of the wearers’ view of the world. Early versions of the technology already exist (see article). If it can be made to work as its advocates hope, AR could bring about a new and even more intimate way to interact with machines. In effect, it would turn reality itself into a gigantic computer screen.
For the time being, the most popular AR apps are still found on smartphones. Pokémon Go, a smartphone game that briefly entranced people in 2016, used a primitive form of the technology. Another popular application is on Snapchat, a messaging app whose parent firm is gearing up for an IPO (see article): when teenagers overlay rabbit ears onto the faces of friends and family, they are using AR.
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/2 ... /8764907/n
THE history of computers is one of increasing intimacy. At first users rented time on mainframe machines they did not own. Next came the “personal computer”. Although PCs were confined to desks, ordinary people could afford to buy them, and filled them with all manner of personal information. These days smartphones go everywhere in their owners’ pockets, serving as everything from a diary to a camera to a voice-activated personal assistant.
The next step, according to many technologists, is to move the computer from the pocket to the body itself. The idea is to build a pair of “smart glasses” that do everything a smartphone can, and more. A technology called “augmented reality” (AR) would paint computerised information directly on top of the wearers’ view of the world. Early versions of the technology already exist (see article). If it can be made to work as its advocates hope, AR could bring about a new and even more intimate way to interact with machines. In effect, it would turn reality itself into a gigantic computer screen.
For the time being, the most popular AR apps are still found on smartphones. Pokémon Go, a smartphone game that briefly entranced people in 2016, used a primitive form of the technology. Another popular application is on Snapchat, a messaging app whose parent firm is gearing up for an IPO (see article): when teenagers overlay rabbit ears onto the faces of friends and family, they are using AR.
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/2 ... /8764907/n
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Kateeeeeeeeee
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Hello everyone, My name is Katiya. I am a Ukrainian who has been retained to launch an Ismaili website. I need some help with content. Therefore i decided to search an Ismaili website to find someone who is an Ismaili and can help with this Project. Once the site has been launched, we will be looking for full time staff in maintaining this world wide website. Please contact me on my email amira.dream13@gmail.com if you are able too assist. Thank you very much Katiya.
Reproductive technologies
Gene editing, clones and the science of making babies
Ways of reproducing without sexual intercourse are multiplying. History suggests that they should be embraced
IT USED to be so simple. Girl met boy. Gametes were transferred through plumbing optimised by millions of years of evolution. Then, nine months later, part of that plumbing presented the finished product to the world. Now things are becoming a lot more complicated. A report published on February 14th by America’s National Academy of Sciences gives qualified support to research into gene-editing techniques so precise that genetic diseases like haemophilia and sickle-cell anaemia can be fixed before an embryo even starts to develop. The idea of human cloning triggered a furore when, 20 years ago this week, Dolly the sheep was revealed to the world (see article); much fuss about nothing, some would say, looking back. But other technological advances are making cloning humans steadily more feasible.
Some are horrified at the prospect of people “playing God” with reproduction. Others, whose lives are blighted by childlessness or genetic disease, argue passionately for the right to alleviate suffering. Either way, the science is coming and society will have to work out what it thinks.
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/2 ... /8885810/n
Gene editing, clones and the science of making babies
Ways of reproducing without sexual intercourse are multiplying. History suggests that they should be embraced
IT USED to be so simple. Girl met boy. Gametes were transferred through plumbing optimised by millions of years of evolution. Then, nine months later, part of that plumbing presented the finished product to the world. Now things are becoming a lot more complicated. A report published on February 14th by America’s National Academy of Sciences gives qualified support to research into gene-editing techniques so precise that genetic diseases like haemophilia and sickle-cell anaemia can be fixed before an embryo even starts to develop. The idea of human cloning triggered a furore when, 20 years ago this week, Dolly the sheep was revealed to the world (see article); much fuss about nothing, some would say, looking back. But other technological advances are making cloning humans steadily more feasible.
Some are horrified at the prospect of people “playing God” with reproduction. Others, whose lives are blighted by childlessness or genetic disease, argue passionately for the right to alleviate suffering. Either way, the science is coming and society will have to work out what it thinks.
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/2 ... /8885810/n
A Facebook-Style Shift in How Science Is Shared
Calvin Coffey, a professor of surgery at the University of Limerick in Ireland, has a world of gadgetry, scientific equipment and medical tests at his disposal.
Recently, he added another tool: social media.
During a monthslong project to prove that the mesentery — folded tissue that connects the intestines to the wall of the abdomen — was in fact a human organ, Professor Coffey regularly turned to his followers on ResearchGate, a free Facebook-style social network aimed solely at scientists worldwide, for tips and suggestions on where his four-person team should focus their research.
“It’s real-time feedback from people who are experts in this field,” said Professor Coffey, who published his findings last month in the The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology, a prestigious British medical journal. “It’s not like your typical social media.”
That paper was, in part, shaped by his interactions on the social network, indicative of a shift in how scientific research is conducted. As Professor Coffey noted, researchers once faced difficulty in getting feedback from peers before publication, and their projects were often closed to outsiders.
This change was initially gradual. But it has increased at pace in recent years as the cost of cloud computing has plummeted and researchers have become comfortable in uploading their work onto social media.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/tech ... d=71987722
Calvin Coffey, a professor of surgery at the University of Limerick in Ireland, has a world of gadgetry, scientific equipment and medical tests at his disposal.
Recently, he added another tool: social media.
During a monthslong project to prove that the mesentery — folded tissue that connects the intestines to the wall of the abdomen — was in fact a human organ, Professor Coffey regularly turned to his followers on ResearchGate, a free Facebook-style social network aimed solely at scientists worldwide, for tips and suggestions on where his four-person team should focus their research.
“It’s real-time feedback from people who are experts in this field,” said Professor Coffey, who published his findings last month in the The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology, a prestigious British medical journal. “It’s not like your typical social media.”
That paper was, in part, shaped by his interactions on the social network, indicative of a shift in how scientific research is conducted. As Professor Coffey noted, researchers once faced difficulty in getting feedback from peers before publication, and their projects were often closed to outsiders.
This change was initially gradual. But it has increased at pace in recent years as the cost of cloud computing has plummeted and researchers have become comfortable in uploading their work onto social media.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/tech ... d=71987722
The wonder drug
A digital revolution in health care is speeding up
Telemedicine, predictive diagnostics, wearable sensors and a host of new apps will transform how people manage their health
WHEN someone goes into cardiac arrest, survival depends on how quickly the heart can be restarted. Enter Amazon’s Echo, a voice-driven computer that answers to the name of Alexa, which can recite life-saving instructions about cardiopulmonary resuscitation, a skill taught to it by the American Heart Association. Alexa is accumulating other health-care skills, too, including acting as a companion for the elderly and answering questions about children’s illnesses. In the near future she will probably help doctors with grubby hands to take notes and to request scans, as well as remind patients to take their pills.
Alexa is one manifestation of a drive to disrupt an industry that has so far largely failed to deliver on the potential of digital information. Health care is over-regulated and expensive to innovate in, and has a history of failing to implement ambitious IT projects. But the momentum towards a digital future is gathering pace. Investment into digital health care has soared (see chart).
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/business/ ... /9012562/n
*******
Lunar spaceflight
Two races to the Moon are hotting up
One involves robots. The other involves humans
THE $30m Google Lunar XPRIZE has had a slow time of it. Set up in 2007, it originally required competitors to land robots on the Moon by 2012. But the interest in returning to the Moon that the prize sought to catalyse did not quickly materialise; faced with a dearth of likely winners, the XPRIZE Foundation was forced to push back its deadline again and again. Now, though, five competing teams have launch contracts to get their little marvels to the Moon by the end of this year. And as those robotic explorers head into the final straight, a new contest is opening up.
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/science-a ... n/NA/email
******
Why literature is the ultimate big-data challenge
In a few decades, statistical analysis of literature has gone from crackpot theorising to cutting-edge research
Extract:
This new edition of the Complete Works made headlines last October as it identified 17 of Shakespeare’s 44 plays as collaborations (by comparison, the 1986 edition named only eight). The most thrilling new name on the contents page is that of Christopher Marlowe; his inclusion seems to give credence to authorship theories previously dismissed as conspiracies. What has really raised eyebrows, though, is the technique used to identify Marlowe’s hand: not traditional editorial insight, but computational analysis. So how do today’s data linguists figure out who wrote what, without confusing authorship and influence? And more importantly, why does it matter?
Computers and human readers can identify Shakespeare’s writing through “plus-words”—such as “gentle”, “answer”, “beseech”, “tonight”—which he uses frequently. This method becomes less accurate, though, when writers ape one another’s style as they often did in Elizabethan theatre-land. Early modern playwrights were a close-knit bunch and 16th-century audiences do not appear to have placed a high premium on novelty. “Tamburlaine”, Christopher Marlowe’s wildly popular play, spawned so many knock-off sequels and serials that Ben Jonson, a fellow playwright, felt compelled to lament the endless “Tamerlanes and Tamer-chams of the late age”. Shakespeare was as guilty of this as anyone. In “The Jew of Malta” (1589), Marlowe’s Barabas spies his daughter Abigail on a balcony:
More...
http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero ... n/NA/email
A digital revolution in health care is speeding up
Telemedicine, predictive diagnostics, wearable sensors and a host of new apps will transform how people manage their health
WHEN someone goes into cardiac arrest, survival depends on how quickly the heart can be restarted. Enter Amazon’s Echo, a voice-driven computer that answers to the name of Alexa, which can recite life-saving instructions about cardiopulmonary resuscitation, a skill taught to it by the American Heart Association. Alexa is accumulating other health-care skills, too, including acting as a companion for the elderly and answering questions about children’s illnesses. In the near future she will probably help doctors with grubby hands to take notes and to request scans, as well as remind patients to take their pills.
Alexa is one manifestation of a drive to disrupt an industry that has so far largely failed to deliver on the potential of digital information. Health care is over-regulated and expensive to innovate in, and has a history of failing to implement ambitious IT projects. But the momentum towards a digital future is gathering pace. Investment into digital health care has soared (see chart).
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/business/ ... /9012562/n
*******
Lunar spaceflight
Two races to the Moon are hotting up
One involves robots. The other involves humans
THE $30m Google Lunar XPRIZE has had a slow time of it. Set up in 2007, it originally required competitors to land robots on the Moon by 2012. But the interest in returning to the Moon that the prize sought to catalyse did not quickly materialise; faced with a dearth of likely winners, the XPRIZE Foundation was forced to push back its deadline again and again. Now, though, five competing teams have launch contracts to get their little marvels to the Moon by the end of this year. And as those robotic explorers head into the final straight, a new contest is opening up.
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/science-a ... n/NA/email
******
Why literature is the ultimate big-data challenge
In a few decades, statistical analysis of literature has gone from crackpot theorising to cutting-edge research
Extract:
This new edition of the Complete Works made headlines last October as it identified 17 of Shakespeare’s 44 plays as collaborations (by comparison, the 1986 edition named only eight). The most thrilling new name on the contents page is that of Christopher Marlowe; his inclusion seems to give credence to authorship theories previously dismissed as conspiracies. What has really raised eyebrows, though, is the technique used to identify Marlowe’s hand: not traditional editorial insight, but computational analysis. So how do today’s data linguists figure out who wrote what, without confusing authorship and influence? And more importantly, why does it matter?
Computers and human readers can identify Shakespeare’s writing through “plus-words”—such as “gentle”, “answer”, “beseech”, “tonight”—which he uses frequently. This method becomes less accurate, though, when writers ape one another’s style as they often did in Elizabethan theatre-land. Early modern playwrights were a close-knit bunch and 16th-century audiences do not appear to have placed a high premium on novelty. “Tamburlaine”, Christopher Marlowe’s wildly popular play, spawned so many knock-off sequels and serials that Ben Jonson, a fellow playwright, felt compelled to lament the endless “Tamerlanes and Tamer-chams of the late age”. Shakespeare was as guilty of this as anyone. In “The Jew of Malta” (1589), Marlowe’s Barabas spies his daughter Abigail on a balcony:
More...
http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero ... n/NA/email
Resist the Internet
So far, in my ongoing series of columns making the case for implausible ideas, I’ve fixed race relations and solved the problem of a workless working class. So now it’s time to turn to the real threat to the human future: the one in your pocket or on your desk, the one you might be reading this column on right now.
Search your feelings, you know it to be true: You are enslaved to the internet. Definitely if you’re young, increasingly if you’re old, your day-to-day, minute-to-minute existence is dominated by a compulsion to check email and Twitter and Facebook and Instagram with a frequency that bears no relationship to any communicative need.
Compulsions are rarely harmless. The internet is not the opioid crisis; it is not likely to kill you (unless you’re hit by a distracted driver) or leave you ravaged and destitute. But it requires you to focus intensely, furiously, and constantly on the ephemera that fills a tiny little screen, and experience the traditional graces of existence — your spouse and friends and children, the natural world, good food and great art — in a state of perpetual distraction.
Used within reasonable limits, of course, these devices also offer us new graces. But we are not using them within reasonable limits. They are the masters; we are not. They are built to addict us, as the social psychologist Adam Alter’s new book “Irresistible” points out — and to madden us, distract us, arouse us and deceive us. We primp and perform for them as for a lover; we surrender our privacy to their demands; we wait on tenterhooks for every “like.” The smartphone is in the saddle, and it rides mankind.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/11/opin ... d=45305309
So far, in my ongoing series of columns making the case for implausible ideas, I’ve fixed race relations and solved the problem of a workless working class. So now it’s time to turn to the real threat to the human future: the one in your pocket or on your desk, the one you might be reading this column on right now.
Search your feelings, you know it to be true: You are enslaved to the internet. Definitely if you’re young, increasingly if you’re old, your day-to-day, minute-to-minute existence is dominated by a compulsion to check email and Twitter and Facebook and Instagram with a frequency that bears no relationship to any communicative need.
Compulsions are rarely harmless. The internet is not the opioid crisis; it is not likely to kill you (unless you’re hit by a distracted driver) or leave you ravaged and destitute. But it requires you to focus intensely, furiously, and constantly on the ephemera that fills a tiny little screen, and experience the traditional graces of existence — your spouse and friends and children, the natural world, good food and great art — in a state of perpetual distraction.
Used within reasonable limits, of course, these devices also offer us new graces. But we are not using them within reasonable limits. They are the masters; we are not. They are built to addict us, as the social psychologist Adam Alter’s new book “Irresistible” points out — and to madden us, distract us, arouse us and deceive us. We primp and perform for them as for a lover; we surrender our privacy to their demands; we wait on tenterhooks for every “like.” The smartphone is in the saddle, and it rides mankind.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/11/opin ... d=45305309