MemeBox FutureBlogger

Portable Fan Wars

Jeff Hilford — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:21:00 -0400

These Parrot AR.Drone's are pretty cool but I wonder if they would be best suited as mobile personal cooling units, following you around and keeping you cool on a hot day.

Then all you would need is your personal theme music t-shirt and you'd be good to go.

Via Slashgear

Category: Gadgets
Year: General
Tags: parrot, drones, fans, personalsoundtracktshirt

iPhone App Starts Car

Jeff Hilford — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:58:01 -0500

Crap...did I lock the car?

No worries. With the Viper SmartStart you can not only remotely lock and unlock your car but also start it and adjust the climate control. From anywhere.

Another step forward in the smartphone as remote control for life.

Category: Technology
Year: 2009
Tags: iphone, viper, smartstart, remoteentry, remotecontrol, car, auto

Is Twitter a Complex Adaptive System?

VenessaMiemis — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:23:05 -0500

cross-posted from www.emergentbydesign.com

I've seen a bunch of posts bubble up over the past few days that are really sparking my curiousity about what is really going on with Twitter, so I need to do a little brain dump. Bear with me.

Insight #1

An article by Rosabeth Moss Kanter was just published today on the Harvard Business Review website, titled On Twitter and in the Workplace, It's Power to the Connectors. In it, she highlights the fact that there is an organizational trend moving away from the hierarchical networks of the 20th century, and towards complex, distributed, non-hierarchical structures of business organization and leadership. She also points out that success today is based on a person's ability to leverage power and influence within their social networks, to act as "connectors" between people and information, and in turn build social capital. She leaves the evaluation of the significance of Twitter open-ended, but she lays out a few characteristics of Twitter that I found most interesting:

In the World According to Twitter, giving away access to information rewards the giver by building followers. The more followers, the more information comes to the giver to distribute, which in turn builds more followers. The process cannot be commanded or controlled; followers opt in and out as they choose. The results are transparent and purely quantitative; network size is all that matters. Networks of this sort are self-organizing and democratic but without any collective interaction.

(just keep those points in mind, I'm going to come back to it)

Category: Information
Year: 2009
Tags: social, media, socialmedia, collaboration, complexity, intelligence, collectiveintelligence

The Future of Collaboration Begins with Visualizing Human Capital

VenessaMiemis — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:08:45 -0500

How can the power and scope of social networks, combined with human capital metrics, be used to facilitate shared creation and innovation?

Category: Business & Work
Year: General
Tags: social, media, socialmedia, collaboration, visualization, capital, humancapital, change, socialchange, socialcapital, ideas, business, work, design, innovation, creativity, strategy

Your Time and Mine

Jason — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:55:43 -0400

By Jason M. Vaughn

Citizens of the late-2009 Earth

Pardon my husky voice. It’s dusty here, or I’ve got a Supercold and the future’s all out of throat lozenges; take your pick.

I realize that many of you are thrilled about a possibly-imminent Singularity. I realize this because the young me is among you right now. Anyway, that Singularity sounds pretty cool, doesn’t it? Well, it could be, but please heed this warning: If you don’t take certain precautions, your cool Singularity could get damn nasty; and I mean five-stories-tall-robots nasty and scary-robot-motorcycles nasty and ruggedly-handsome-robot-human-hybrids-who-steal-a-movie-right-out-from-under-you nasty. And do I really need to mention the dust problem again, or the Supercolds…

[cough]

…and the unfortunate lack of throat lozenges around here?

Category: Information
Year: Beyond

Web-Mediated Learning Found More Effective Than the Traditional Classroom

memebox — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:38:47 -0400

A comprehensive report asserts that web-mediated learning has been found to be more effective than face-to-face learning.

New York Times: Over the 12-year span, the report found 99 studies in which there were quantitative comparisons of online and classroom performance for the same courses. The analysis for the Department of Education found that, on average, students doing some or all of the course online would rank in the 59th percentile in tested performance, compared with the average classroom student scoring in the 50th percentile.

My initial reaction is that both learning settings are critical and that students empowered with laptops in a classroom setting, such as in Maine, would probably outperform both groups. That said, it certainly does open the doors wider to distance learning and, hopefully, sweeping educational reform.

Category: Education
Year: 2009
Tags: web, learning, education

Incredible Data Visualization of the Allosphere

Jeff Hilford — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:17:17 -0400

Check out this stunning video of inventor JoAnn Kuchera-Morinis demonstrating the Allosphere at the last TED conference. The Allosphere is a 3 story high chamber that allows researchers to stand in the middle of incredible visual and sonic representations of their data. Complex algorithms are powered by a super-computer to bring data to life in breakthrough fashion.

One can imagine many uses for this technology and it is a good example of one way the scientific discovery process will accelerate in the near future.

Category: Technology
Year: 2009
Tags: allosphere, ted, joannkucheramorin, data, visualization, mapping, supercomputer, sound, art

10 Questions with SIAI President Michael Vassar

Alvis Brigis — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:30:00 -0400

Recently appointed Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence (SIAI) President Michael Vassar, a hardcore proponent of science and reason, emphasizes the importance of "human rationality" when discussing the future, making clear that SIAI is an "analytical think tank and research organization, not an advocacy group". Vassar says he's apprehensive about a "possible decrease in the quality of debate as the [Singularity] goes mainstream" and that he would find a public backlash against intelligent debate of a Singularity "odd".

Enjoy the candid and insightful interview.

FB: What are your main near-term goals at SIAI?

Put on a 2009 summit and establish a regular schedule of summits on alternating coasts and with a regular format.
Develop a body of technical and popular position papers and analysis that reflect our current views.
Develop software to help interested people to explore the future forecasting consequences of a range of assumptions.
Organize, probably with the Future of Humanity Institute, an essay contest in order to identify novel global catastrophic risks deserving of more serious analysis and drawing attention to the idea of rational treatment of catastrophic possibilities.
Reinvent Enlightenment values by building a better forum than currently exists for rational deliberation and cooperative analysis and decision making.
Most critically, as always, identify and train potential friendly AI researchers.

FB: Has the organization undergone any significant strategic or tactical shifts since you assumed the Executive Director position?

MV: Our efforts to develop a rigorous theory of Friendly Artificial Intelligence will continue, but our public outreach efforts will focus less narrowly on AI and more on the Singularity more generally and on promoting human rationality.

Category: Social Issues
Year: 2009
Tags: vassar, michaelvassar, singularity, singularityinstitute, singinst

Are We Destined to Merge With Our Avatars?

Alvis Brigis — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:44:19 -0400

Futurist Thomas Frey of the DaVinci Institute has posted a thought-provoking avatar roadmap detailing an increasingly critical and symbiotic relationship between man and this progeny of ours. Frey argues that this increasing reliance on avatar extensions will change our fundamental values, eventually leading to a great blur of humans and avatars.

Frey: With each generation of avatar, they will become more life-like, growing in realism, pressing the limits of autonomy as we become more and more reliant on them for experiencing the world. The avatar will become an extension of ourselves. The pain that we feel is the same pain that they feel, and vice versa. Like symbiotic twins separated only by a dimension or two, we are destined to become one with our avatars.

Is that a fair frame and likely prediction, or are we already indistinguishable from our technology and environment? Are we destined to merge with our avatars? Are we already avatars generated by Gaiia or the Great Simulator(s)?

Category: Technology
Year: General
Tags: avatar, thomasfrey, frey, davinciinstitute

The Singularity Backlash

Alvis Brigis — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 23:53:54 -0400

With a pair of feature films due for release in 2009, Ray Kurzweil is poised to shotgun the Singularity mega-meme to the mainstrean.

But how will the message and messenger be received? And what effect will Kurzweil's rising star have on associated memes such as accelerating change, transhumanism, extropianism, futurism, AGI and other less extreme Singularity definitions?

If recent Newsweek ("is this the next great leap in human evolution, or just one man's midlife crisis writ large?") and slanted io9 ("the famous futurist's meat brain has made some ludicrously inaccurate predictions") coverage is any indicator, the seeds of a Kurzweil backlash are beginning to sprout -- a social dynamic that probably also extends to technology in general.

Though I'm no proponent of Kurzweil's Strong Singularity school of thought, relegating it to a low-probability event, I do think the man has contributed a great deal to the study of accelerating change and the human condition. I find the aforementioned criticism, and especially the voluminous associated comment threads, superficial and incendiary, not productive. And though I'm not all that surprised about the reaction, I'm a bit worried now that I'm actually witnessing the number of Singularity haters rise, especially because the mentality is likely to extend to the notion of the clearly palpable and verifiable accelerating change occuring in many human-related domains.

Now, if you're going to criticize Kurzweil -- and I think more people should do just that -- it makes more sense to carefully take a go at the definition of the Singularity itself rather than his, frankly, rather safe hardware and computing predictions. But that takes time, commitment to simulating multiple futures, and careful consideration, which means there will be many millions of emotionally anti-tech eager to pan Kurzweil's brand of techno-utopianism and accelerating change rather than engage in rigorous debate.

Like I said, it's not surprising, just scary.

Hopefully the story will end more positively than, say, the tale of Giordano Bruno, advocate of heliocentrism, one of my all-time faves. But alas, if things do turn nasty and all apocalyptic, neo-luddite versus transhuman, then perhaps we'll need Skynet to save us from ourselves after all, thus making Kurzweil's Singularity a twisted self-fulfilling prophecy.

Say it won't be so Ray. Some of us will believe you!

Category: Technology
Year: General
Tags: raykurzweil, kurwzeil, singularity

Researchers Create Model for Synthetic Hydrogen Catalyst Using Low Cost Materials

Garry Golden — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:49:00 -0400

Researchers at the University of Illinois have created a synthetic catalyst model of the active hydrogen producing site of a naturally occuring enzyme based on 'cheap and plentiful building blocks – iron, nickel and sulfur.'

The results could achieve the catalytic performance seen in rare and expensive metals such as platinum, and further humankind's ability to use nanostructured systems to elegantly manipulate the interactions of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, electrons, photons and metals to enable new forms of energy production, storage and conversion.

“Nature relies on a very elaborate architecture to support its own ‘hydrogen economy,’ ” said Chemistry Professor Thomas Rauchfuss, a professor of and corresponding author of the paper. “We cracked that design by generating mock-ups of the catalytic site to include the substrate hydrogen atom.”

Manipulating Natural Molecular Building Blocks
Enzymes are proteins that facilitate chemical reactions via catalysis. Today, human beings know very little about the molecular magic of hydrogen producing enzymes (known as 'hydrogenase') and the complex reactions that occur inside the core reaction sites.

Developing accurate models of these activation sites is the first step towards developing low cost synthetic catalysts that can break the bonds of oxygen and hydrogen or carbon and hydrogen. The Illinois team is the first to model a nickel-iron structure with the use of a key link or bridge (hydride ligand).

Hydrogen's Hype vs Profitable Role of Chemical Storage & Distributed Power Generation

Category: Energy
Year: General
Tags: energy, hydrogen

[Video] Oil 101: Geology Professor Reminds Us That Oil Does NOT Come From Dinosaurs But From Ancient Microbes

Garry Golden — Tue, 19 May 2009 18:32:33 -0400

The Art Center College of Design in Pasadena should get bonus points for including an Energy 101 presenation at its recent 2009 Summit: Expanding the Vision of Sustainable Mobility. Most conferences about energy and the environment skip science altogether leaving their audiences without a firm grounding in energy science. Case in point? Oil does not come from dinosaurs. The 'fossil' in 'fossil fuels' refers to a geological period, not the ancient remains of mammals.

UC Davis Geology Professor Kenneth Verosub reminds us that oil (a 'hydrocarbon') is the result of bioenergy. Ancient diatoms (shelled algae) that used light to bind carbon and hydrogen that died and then with help of geological processes became a viable 'fuel' for humanity. [Video]

Category: Energy
Year: General
Tags: energy, oil, hydrocarbon, coal, carbon, hydrogen, bioenergy

Researchers Design Nanoscale Fuel Cell Catalyst Using Less Platinum

Garry Golden — Fri, 15 May 2009 19:00:00 -0400

The nanoscale design of basic energy components is once again revealing new solutions to the historical problems of high cost alternative energy systems.

Materials scientists from Washington University in St. Louis and Brookhaven National Laboratory have designed a nanostructured bimetallic (platinum and palladium) fuel cell catalyst that is 'efficient, robust and two-to-five times more effective than existing commercial catalysts.'

Fuel cells are important as 21st century 'power plants' that produce electricity on demand without a grid connection. Fuel cells can be designed as small as a AA battery (for portable gadgets), a breadbox (for electric vehicles), a small refrigerator (for home power) or the size of a small room (for utility power generation).

Commercialization of fuel cells depends on our ability to lower the costs of core membranes (MEAs) that convert chemical energy into electricity.

So what is the way forward? Nanostructured design of key membrane components.

Nanoscale Revolution:
Rethinking Surface Area & Shape
Team leader Professor Younan Xia explains the importance of the breakthrough: "There are two ways to make a more effective catalyst," Xia says. "One is to control the size, making it smaller, which gives the catalyst a higher specific surface area on a mass basis. Another is to change the arrangement of atoms on the surface. We did both. You can have a square or hexagonal arrangement for the surface atoms. We chose the hexagonal lattice because people have found that it's twice as good as the square one for the oxygen reduction reaction (which determines the electrical current generated)."

To reduce costs and improve performance the team experimented with new core and branching structures. The catalyst has a core made of palladium which branching arms (‘dendrites’) of platinum that are seven nano-meters long.

According to Xia's team release: ‘At room temperature operation the team’s catalyst was two-and-a-half times more effective per platinum mass for this process than the state of the art commercial platinum catalyst and five times more active than the other popular commercial catalyst. At 60 degrees C (the typical operation temperature of a fuel cell), the performance almost meets the targets set by the U.S. Department of Energy.’

The next step for the team?

Integrating gold as a third metal catalyst to deal with the problem of carbon molecules that reduces performance by binding and blocking valuable surface area.

Category: Energy
Year: General
Tags: energy, nanoscale, nanotechnology, catalysts, carbon, electricity, fuelcells, fuel, cell, hydrogen

Cellulosic Biofuel Startup Mascoma Announces Breakthough in Single Step Biomass Conversion

Garry Golden — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:15:23 -0400

Cellulosic biofuels startup Mascoma has announced a breakthrough in a single step consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) method used in converting non-food biomass feedstocks into liqud cellulosic ethanol.

By tapping the power of genetically engineered thermophilie (bacteria that grow at high temperatures) and yeast, the company has demonstrated a way to eliminate the need for multiple step processing using more expensive enzymes and additives typically needed in breaking down biomass material.

Breakthourgh Potential in Bioenergy
“This is a true breakthrough that takes us much, much closer to billions of gallons of low cost cellulosic biofuels,” said Dr. Bruce Dale of Michigan State University’s Biomass Conversation Research Center “Many had thought that CBP was years or even decades away, but the future just arrived. Mascoma has permanently changed the biofuels landscape from here on.”

The ability to reduce the steps needed to convert carbon rich material into more hydrogen-rich fuels is key to lowering costs.

“These advances enable the reduction in operating and capital costs required for cost effective
commercial production of ethanol, bringing Mascoma substantially closer to commercialization,” said Jim Flatt, Executive Vice President of Research, Development and Operations at Mascoma. “Our results go a long way toward establishing the feasibility of the processing concept that we have built our company around - so this is a big day for us.”

Category: Energy
Year: General
Tags: energy, bioenergy, biofuels, algae, cellulosic, ethanol, hydrogen

[Video] NY Times Features Electric Car Startups Fisker Karma and Aptera

Garry Golden — Sun, 10 May 2009 01:59:20 -0400

Category: Transportation
Year: General
Tags: energy, transportation, electricity, hydrogen, batteries, fuel, cells, fuelcells, cars

[Video] Watch This Video of Andy Karsner Speaking at Art Center of Pasadena on the Future of Transportation

Garry Golden — Thu, 07 May 2009 14:20:36 -0400

The Art Center of Pasadena has released video highlights from its recent Summit: Expanding the Vision of Sustainable Mobility held in March 2009. There are a number of energy related videos to share, but we'll start with one that gets the blood pumping!

Former Assistant Secretary in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Andy Karsner, is a fresh voice on long held but widely suppressed ideas that promote a holistic policy strategy towards transportation, energy and urban design.

I'm impressed with Andy's ability to communicate! Of course, Karsner shares a few perspectives that I might challenge. Namely, looking back at the past with a critical lens. The problem was not our failure to build vehicles that get more miles per gallon, it's the entire supply chain and manufacturing footprint of the internal combustion engine. A Detroit version of the Prius would not have helped GM or Chrysler's flawed 'new car' sale business model.

And, I agree with Karsner that our 'big plans' (e.g. FreedomCAR) were destined to fail. What we needed was an event - the Fall of 2008.

The recent collapse of the auto industry was just what the doctor ordered- a well-timed crisis to force the accelerated death of a century old mobility platform. Tweaking the combustion engine around hybrids or flex fuels was never the solution. Sometimes the future needs a crisis, not a plan!

Andy Karsner passionately describes the beginning of this transition from mechanical engines to electric drive trains powered by the integration of batteries, fuel cells and capacitors. He is someone who can frame this vision and rally the troops. And I agree it is time to push the acceleration button!
Watch this Video!!

Category: Transportation
Year: General
Tags: energy, transportation, electricity, hydrogen, batteries, fuel, cells, fuelcells, cars

Yale Researchers Build Nano-sized Cantilever that Bends with Light

Garry Golden — Mon, 04 May 2009 21:32:56 -0400

Creating devices that can manipulate and interact with light (photons) is not an easy feat, but the potential pay off is tremendous as we consider the wide-reaching applications of nano-photonics.

Electronics to Photonics
The past fifty years of technological innovation have been shaped largely by our ability to manipulate the flow of electrons inside 'microscale' sized transistor chips based on the science of micro-electronics.

In the next fifty years we will open up new opportunities across a range of industries based on 'nanoscale' design of optical devices that use light instead of electrons!

These nano-optical devices are likely to be applied to a range of energy related applications from low power consumption-high performance chips. new lighting and display systems, and solar cells.

Nano-optical devices are also useful in the study of molecules involved in materials used in batteries and fuel cells as well as the study of biochemical systems around algae-based bioenergy systems.

A Breakthrough in Bending with Photons
In April, Yale University researchers announced that they have built a silicon-based nanocantilever sensor that can detect as little deflection as 0.0001 Angstroms — one ten thousandth of the size of an atom.

The team's work could lead to a wide range of low cost, low energy consuming, nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) built around these tiny 'springboards' that "bend" when molecules "jump" on them and register a change that can be measured and calibrated.

"The system we developed is the most sensitive available that works at room temperature. Previously this level of sensitivity could only be achieved at extreme low temperatures" said Assistant Professor Hong Tang in the Yale School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Category: Energy
Year: General
Tags: nanoscale, nanotechnology, nano, energy, light, photons

NPR's Interactive Map of US Electricity Grid and Solar-Wind Potential

Garry Golden — Sun, 03 May 2009 17:31:33 -0400

NPR has released a fantastic interactive map of the US Electrical Grid as part of its Series - Power Hungry: Re-Envisioning Electricity in the US. The tool looks at grid connection points, major sources of power by region, power plant location as well as potential for solar and wind power.

Category: Energy
Year: General
Tags: energy, electricity, solar, wind, smartgrid, smart

Wolfram Demos Alpha (VIDEO)

Alvis Brigis — Sat, 02 May 2009 18:34:28 -0400

Wondering what all of the Alpha hype is about? Here's a dense 10-minute video snippet of the official Wolfram Alpha "computational knowledge engine" unveiling, presented by the mathematician himself, at Harvard's Berkman Center.

I found notable:

the label "computational knowledge engine" - reinfirces that we're moving from the information age to the knowledge age (and fairly quickly)
Alpha's ability to factor in the location of the user submitting the request into computation results
results that begin with a list of assumptions that essentially present your query back to you in more technical terms (an advanced "did you mean this?" feature) which seems to make a great deal of sense when relating to machine data/knowledge, it's like having a conversation about science and establishing basic consensus before venturing complex and potentially unrelated ideas
the program's seemingly robust ability to mix data from different sources to return logically related results

Conclusions: Upon launch, Wolfram Alpha will be a science researcher's dream if it can perform as effectively - for a wide range of queries - as it did in this demo. It'll also serve as a nice accelerative kick in the ass for Google. I can't wait to try this new quantification assistant.

Category: Information
Year: 2009
Tags: wolframalpha, computation, knowledge, search, computationalknowledgeengine

[Video] 60 Minutes Clean Coal Program Misses Chance to Introduce Bio-based Carbon Solutions

Garry Golden — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:49:16 -0400

60 Minutes recently aired a program on the future of coal power featuring Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers (an advocate of longer term 'Cathedral Thinking' carbon reduction) and leading climate scientist James Hansen (an advocate of a moratorium on building coal plants).

The CBS report was solidly mainstream in framing coal as central to the conversation on energy, environment and global economic development- but it failed to move the conversation beyond ideas that have existed for several decades.

Time for Big Ideas, not Big Battles
Coal is the world's fastest growing source of energy due largely to growth outside the United States. And despite all the rapid growth rates expected with wind and solar, coal is likely to gain global market share in the years ahead.

So this is not just a conversation about US policy and US-based utilities! And there is no way to just 'wish' coal away. We must develop low cost carbon solutions that can be applied around the world within existing power plants. And everyone agrees - these low cost solutions do not exist today!

CBS Producers missed an opportunity to introduce more advanced non-geoengineering strategies to carbon neutralization and left viewers stuck at ringside watching the same old 'pro' vs 'anti' battle.

Carbon's Molecular Dance between Oxygen and Hydrogen
Carbon is a 'sticky' molecule that interchangeably binds with oxygen and hydrogen based on its journey through biochemical pathways or via human induced energy conversion (e.g. power plants and combustion engine).

Human beings have a choice to approach carbon solutions through geo-engineering (shoving it underground), or as bio-engineers who can bind carbon with hydrogen for use as a hydrocarbon fuel (for transportation or onsite electricity generation) or a bio-feestock for industrial applications. CBS viewers would have been better off understanding the long-term view of carbon rather than watch a debate without a viable solution. (Continue Reading Below).

Seeing Carbon through a Lens of Biology

Category: Energy
Year: General
Tags: energy, coal, electricity, cleancoal, clean, fuelcell, fuel, cell, hydrogen, carbon