Rebane's Ruminations

About

January 2026
S M T W T F S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031

ARCHIVES

OUR LINKS

YubaNet
White House Blog
Watts Up With That?
The Union
Sierra Thread
RL “Bob” Crabb
Barry Pruett Blog

Category: Singularity Signposts

  • Singularity Signposts – Consciousness and Coprocessors and …

    George Rebane In 1976 Julian Jaynes, the late Princeton psychologist, developed in three volumes his groundbreaking theory of consciousness.  Combined between one set of covers in 1990, it was called The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind.  In this mouthful Dr Jaynes presented a definition of consciousness from which people comprised…

  • Singularity Signposts – 9aug2010

    George Rebane New advances in walking and evolving intelligence. Today we’re a lot closer to robots walking naturally, and maybe tomorrow we’ll add the concurrent ability to chew gum.  A team of systems engineers heavy in six-degree-of-freedom kinematics and control theory has developed a totally new paradigm for robot locomotion that gets closer to how, say,…

  • DARPA’s Little Dog (4jun2010 update)

    George Rebane The ability of autonomous quadruped robots to cross very difficult terrain has taken another leap forward.  The Defense Advanced Projects Agency sponsored work at Boston Dynamics in developing Little Dog is reported on in the video below.  RR readers were introduced to Big Dog in 2008 (here).  Think of the possibilities that this technology will enable in…

  • Nanofoods Are Coming

    George Rebane … and not a minute too soon to suit this pudgy commentator who always licks his platter clean.  Many food research outfits have been working on modifying our favorite foods and condiments so as to increase their nutrition, taste, and satisfaction while reducing their harmful effects – starting with how much we want…

  • First Designed and Built Living Cell

    George Rebane By now you’ve probably heard that Man has been able to mess with some snippets of DNA and fabricate a new double helix that when inserted into an ‘empty’ (of nucleus) cell body, the thing became a living and self-replicating cell.  While not the real deal of starting from scratch with a bunch…

  • Singularity? What’s that? (w/appendix)

    George Rebane [This piece is published here in The Union today as my April column.  Coincidentally, today’s (10apr10) WSJ also published an article that expands on the Singularity in its discussion of galactic civilizations.  I have appended the relevant paragraph.] In my past columns I have hinted at the enormous impact that accelerating technology is having on…

  • Singularity Studies at Rutgers

    George Rebane Rutgers University is announcing a new course on the Singularity – its basis and advent.  The online course will be taught this summer.  According to the bulleting, “The course is especially recommended for anyone who anticipates working in a high-technology industry or applying future technologies in any area of human endeavor.   Future entrepreneurs…

  • Singularity Signposts – 17jan2010

    George Rebane Here is a flurry of recent developments and advances that serve as ever more rapidly passing milestones as we approach the Singularity.  Their relevance to everyday life is sometimes hard to see for the non-technician, but they all have an impact on how most of us will be able to earn a living…

  • … and now on two legs

    George Rebane Recall the four-legged pack mule robot (here) that clambered up the hillside and could recover from strong shoves.  Well, technology continues to accelerate and Boston Dynamics has now developed its two legged cousin Petman whose walk is eerily human.  (Control and estimation theory rules!) Can you see it all coming together?

  • Singularity Signposts – 22sep2009 (updated)

    George Rebane – Advanced, cheaper solar panels rival fossil-fuel electricity;– Human made crises coming faster than we can deal with them;– Orwellian public monitoring system developed by EU;– Nanotube springs as energy storage devices may replace batteries;– New omni-flu vaccine, ‘one dab’ll do ya’.– The future of human enhancement from Nick Bostrom New breakthroughs in…

RR FUNDAMENTALS

About the Bastiat Triangle

Glossary & Semantics

A Conservetarian Credo

Commenting Rules

RECENT POSTS

RECENT COMMENTS

CATEGORIES