July 08 2008 / by juldrich
Category: Business & Work Year: 2017 Rating: 2
By Jack Uldrich 
Cross-posted from www.jumpthecurve.net
Imagine sitting in your home and being able to control a device
in a different room, a different city or even a different country
by thought alone. Sounds impossible doesn’t it? Well, accordingly
to this fascinating article from Popular
Mechanics, advances in the field of cybernetics are occurring so rapidly that such
things may be possible in the not-too-distant future.
Consider this: a monkey in North Carolina can already send a
signal to Japan (where it controls a robot) faster than it can send
a message from its brain to its own muscles. One immediate
practical application of this technology may occur in the field of
surgery whereby a surgeon could control a small robotic device
faster and more precisely than she could move her hand. In a field
like brain surgery such a distinction could make a big
difference.
It will be some time before other cybernetic devices move into
the mainstream, but it is interesting to consider how such
mind-machine devices may change how we perceive and interact with
our environment in the future. For example, imagine being able to
control a robot by thought alone. Forget to feed your dog this
morning, just “think” your bot to do it. Forget to water the plants
or turn off the iron? Not a problem. A solution is just a thought
away. (cont.)
Read More
July 04 2008 / by juldrich
Category: Business & Work Year: General Rating: 4 Hot
By Jack Uldrich
Cross-posted from www.jumpthecurve.net
Last week, I explained how humans might soon be learning things from
robots. 
Today, I’d like to explain why robots might become a more
integral part of our lives faster than most people expect.
Yesterday, Technology Review published an interesting article
entitled: “Robots Learns to Use Tools.” What
is really intriguing about the article, which describes a new robot
called the UMass Mobile Manipulator or
UMan for short, is that the robot is employing sophisticated
algorithms to teach itself how to deal with unfamiliar objects.
One of the major barriers to date with robotics is that
programmers have had to write complicated software code to help
robots deal with almost every contingency that it might encounter.
For example, for a household robot to be effective, it needs to
recognize every item that might conceivably be in someone house –
everything from a pair of scissors to a flower vase. This is no
easy chore.
In the near future, however, robots need not necessarily know
how to handle every object; they merely need to learn how to deal
with that object in an appropriate fashion. Using the scissors as
example, UMan can study the device and then can tinker with the
blades until it understands how they are connected and how the
object operates. Presumably, the robot will then know that it would
be inappropriate to “run with scissors.” (cont.)
Read More
July 02 2008 / by juldrich
Category: Biotechnology Year: General Rating: 10 Hot
By Jack Uldrich
Cross-posted from www.jumpthecurve.net
I speak to a great many student groups and I am often struck by
how few of them appreciate the difference between one million, one
billion and one trillion. (In the name of fairness, the same is
true of many adults). 
Perhaps, it is because the three figures are all large
numbers that most people don’t think there is an appreciable
difference. Perhaps, it is because the words – million, billion,
and trillion – the rhyme; or maybe it’s just because they’re
dumb—or have had poor teachers. I really don’t know.
One way I have tried to convey the difference between the
numbers is by explaining the figures in a different way. To
wit:
One million seconds was 12 days ago; One billion seconds was
roughly 30 years ago; One trillion seconds was approximately 30,000
years ago – 28,000 B.C.!
My point with the analogy is that one trillion of anything is a
really BIG number, and it is much, much
different than one billion. This analogy is important because on
January 17, 2006 the Wellcome Sanger Institute announced it had
archived it’s one billionth DNA sequence. It was an impressive
accomplishment.
Well, today, Wired magazine reported that
the prominent genetics institute sequenced its trillionth base of
DNA. This is a one thousand-fold
improvement in just over two years. (cont.)
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June 30 2008 / by juldrich
Category: Business & Work Year: General Rating: 10 Hot
By Jack Uldrich
Cross-posted from www.jumpthecurve.net
Nanotechnology is expected to be a $2.6 trillion market by 2015.
At the heart of this big new sector is something very small –
molecules. To understand how and why nanotechnology – which is
defined as the manipulation of matter at the molecular level –
matters, you can begin at home. 
The Writing is Off-the-Wall
Behr and others are now using nanoparticles to produce anti-mildew paints and anti-graffiti
paints. Another company is perfecting a nano-enhanced wall paint
that blocks cellphone calls and, longer-term, researchers expect to
create a nano-solar paint that can turn your wall and even your
house into a giant solar cell.
Scratch-Free
BASF has developed a nanoceramic material that is
three times more resistant to scratching. It is already being
employed on kitchen tabletops and car exteriors. The company hopes
to have self-healing materials on the market in the near
future.
Wipe Away Your Worries
Pilkington’s “Activ” glass uses
nanoparticles of titanium dioxide to create self-cleaning windows;
while Eddie Bauer, Tommy Hilfiger and Brooks Brothers all sell
clothes that contain tiny “nano-whiskers” and make pants, shirts
and ties resistant to stains of every kind. Upholstery and carpet
are up next.
Wrap Your Head Around This: The New Flat Will Be
Round
Nanostructured polymer
films are being used in next-generation OLED (organic light emitting diode) lights. The
benefit is that the lights are ten times more energy-efficient than
regular lightbulbs and can be wrapped around poles. Super-thin,
flexible electronic television screens that can be curved to create
a more immersive experience are on the drawing board. (cont.)
Read More
June 27 2008 / by juldrich
Category: Business & Work Year: 2020 Rating: 4
By Jack Uldrich
Cross-posted from www.unlearning101.com
In 1899,
just a few years before the Wright brothers
achieved their historic accomplishment, Lord
Kelvin – then one of the world’s brightest men and most
accomplished scientists – declared heavier than air machines to be
"impossible."
He was wrong. To add insult to injury, Lord Kelvin was proved
wrong by a pair of bicycle repairmen from Dayton, Ohio.
A few years ago, a relatively unknown computer scientist,
Aubrey de
Grey, declared that aging should not be viewed as something
which will necessarily ultimately result in death. Rather, he
theorized that aging is a disease and should be treated as
such.
The outcry from the scientific community was similar to Lord
Kelvin’s reaction to human flight. One group of scientists even
declared that de Grey’s idea was "so far from plausible that it
commands no respect at all within the informed scientific
community."
Well, according to this article
in Wired, the idea is now beginning to gain some acceptance within
scientific circles. (cont.)
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June 26 2008 / by juldrich
Category: Business & Work Year: 2020 Rating: 6 Hot
By Jack Uldrich
Cross-posted from www.jumpthecurve.net
When contemplating the future, people need to keep a very open
mind about what might be possible. Consider this article which describes how researchers at UC San
Diego are developing facial recognition technology that can
recognize if a person is having trouble understanding an
educational lesson – say in mathematics or biology. 
As the technology continues to improve, one possible implication
is that smart devices and robots will become better and more
effective teachers because they will be able to pace lesson plans
to an individual student’s ability to comprehend the information
which is being presented.
Longer term, it is possible that robots and other smart devices
will become more effective teachers than even human teachers
because the machines will understand each student’s learning
idiosyncrasies and then present material in a manner which is
optimized for that individual student’s learning style.
Now, I understand how discomforting the idea that a robot might
be a better teacher than your old favorite third grade teacher,
Mrs. Hubbard, ever was; but, as that wise American philosopher
Yoggi Berra once said, “The future ain’t what it used to be.”
(cont.)
Read More
June 25 2008 / by juldrich
Category: Biotechnology Year: General Rating: 5 Hot
By Jack Uldrich
Cross-posted from www.jumpthecurve.net
Chris Anderson, the editor of Wired, has written an excellent
article entitled “The
End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes Scientific Method
Obsolete” in which he convincingly argues that massive amounts
of data, in combination with sophisticated algorithms and super
powerful computers, offers mankind a whole new way of understanding
the world. 
Anderson believes that our technological tools have now
progressed to the point where the “old way” of doing science –
hypothesize, model and test – is becoming obsolete. In its place, a
new paradigm is now emerging whereby scientists, researchers and
entrepreneurs simply allow statistical algorithms to find patterns
where science cannot.
If Anderson is correct – and I believe he very well could be –
this will take science in a whole new direction. In short, instead
of modeling and waiting to find out if hypotheses are valid the
scientific community can instead rely on intelligent algorithms to
do the heavy lifting.
Before this vision can be achieved, however, it will require a
great many brilliant scientists to unlearn the idea that their
“model-based” method of trying to make sense of today’s
increasingly complex world is the only way to search for new
meaning. (cont.)
Read More
June 19 2008 / by juldrich
Category: Business & Work Year: 2015 Rating: 12 Hot
By Jack Uldrich
Cross-posted from www.jumpthecurve.net
Reading. Most of us do it every day and it is so ingrained from
such an early age that it is difficult to imagine that there is
another way of doing it. Yet, there is.
On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to sit down with Adam Gordon,
the vice-president of marketing for Live Ink, to discuss
his company’s revolutionary new technology—Live
Ink.
Before explaining the technology, however, have you ever
wondered why we read the way we do? That is, why do we read words
in block text – such as you are doing at this very moment.
I am no historical scholar but I suspect the answer goes back
thousands of years and it is partly dependent on writers need to
make efficient use of limited resources. First, stone tablets; then
papyrus and, ultimately, pulp-based paper.
In much the same way that the QWERTY
keyboard has become the de facto way we write on computers – even
though it has been demonstrated that there are more efficient and
faster methods of typing –
the same can be said for how we read. But instead of dealing with
one hundred years of established tradition – as in the case of
QWERTY keyboard – printed text in block
form has been around since Johannes Gutenberg printed off his first
bible.
In the near future, however, the resistance to this long-held
paradigm will begin to fade. I am not suggesting that printed block
text will fade away overnight, but a convergence of technologies
has now created an environment in which a different method of how
we access the written word has been created. (cont.)
Read More
June 18 2008 / by juldrich
Category: Business & Work Year: 2016 Rating: 2
Jack Uldrich
Cross-posted from www.jumpthecurve.net
One of the fun things about being a futurist is trying to
understand how the convergence of various emerging technologies
might lead to the creation of radically different products in the
future. 
For instance, consider these two articles which, on their face,
appear to have little in common with one another. The first article
announced that
four robotics companies in Japan are uniting in an effort to create
a mainstream market for robots. (For fans of accelerating
technological change, please note how they hope to increase by
ten-fold the number of domestic robots employed in Japan by
2013). The second article discusses how
researchers at the The Franhofer Institute in Europe are making
impressive progress in having computers anticipate human
needs.
Now, one of the largest markets for robots in Japan is to have
them serve the country’s growing – and rapidly aging – population
of senior citizens. (cont.)
Read More
June 17 2008 / by juldrich
Category: Business & Work Year: 2020 Rating: 4 Hot
By Jack Uldrich
An Opinion/Question Piece
It was reported last week that US life expectancy
topped 78 years as a variety of diseases – including heart
disease, diabetes and flu – decreased this past year. 
More interestingly, life expectancy – which has been increasing
about two or three months from year to year – jumped an impressive
four months this year. This caused one demographer to note that the
increase was “an unusually rapid improvement.”
It was “an usually rapid improvement,” but I’d like to argue
that such rapid improvements will become “usual” for the
foreseeable future. If one tracks the amazing rate of progress in
biotechnology, genomics, stem cell research and nanotechnology; it
is hard – barring a devastating calamity that kills thousands or
millions of people – to envision how life expectancy will do
anything but continue to increase at an accelerating rate.
It seems only prudent, therefore, that we should at least begin
preparing for life expectancies in the neighborhood of 100 within
the next few decades.
Given the existing pressure on such social programs as Social
Security and Medicare, I believe one implication of this “unusually
rapid improvement” is that these systems will need to be radically
overhauled in order to survive this new demographic reality.
I’d be interested in hearing from other Future Bloggers and
readers what you think should be done to modify these systems or
whether you think that they will simply collapse under their own
weight?
