Category Archives: Technology

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Alexa, Cortana, and Siri aren’t novelties anymore. They’re our terrifyingly convenient future.

“Alexa—and Siri and Cortana and all of the other virtual assistants that now populate our computers, phones, and living rooms—are just beginning to insinuate themselves, sometimes stealthily, sometimes overtly, and sometimes a tad creepily, into the rhythms of our daily lives. As they grow smarter and more capable, they will routinely surprise us by making our lives easier, and we’ll steadily become more reliant on them.”

Source: Alexa, Cortana, and Siri aren’t novelties anymore. They’re our terrifyingly convenient future.

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New microscope controls brain activity of live animals — ScienceDaily

For the first time, researchers have developed a microscope capable of observing — and manipulating — neural activity in the brains of live animals at the scale of a single cell with millisecond precision. The device, which uses lasers to create holographic images within the brain, is envisioned as a “Rosetta Stone” to crack the code on how brains work.

Source: New microscope controls brain activity of live animals — ScienceDaily

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Mapping the Brain to Build Better Machines | Quanta Magazine

An ambitious new program, funded by the federal government’s intelligence arm, aims to bring artificial intelligence more in line with our own mental powers. Three teams composed of neuroscientists and computer scientists will attempt to figure out how the brain performs these feats of visual identification, then make machines that do the same. “Today’s machine learning fails where humans excel,” said Jacob Vogelstein, who heads the program at the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA). “W

Source: Mapping the Brain to Build Better Machines | Quanta Magazine

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Stop ‘innovating’: Aim higher | VentureBeat | Entrepreneur | by Iliya Rybchin, Highnote Foundry

When NASA achieved JFK’s goal of putting a man on the moon, it somehow managed to accomplish that without any bestselling innovation books, using a 10-step innovation processes, or employing innovation consultants. By any definition of the word, putting a man on the moon was innovative. It changed the basis of competition in the space race, and it had meaningful societal consequences for decades to come. Everyone working on the moon landing knew they were innovating — the word meant something.

Source: Stop ‘innovating’: Aim higher | VentureBeat | Entrepreneur | by Iliya Rybchin, Highnote Foundry

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Robotics makes baby steps toward solving Japan’s child care shortage | The Japan Times

“Unlike human day care staff, the Or-B don’t suffer from mental or physical fatigue. They’ll never tire of repeating the same stories and performing the same daily tasks,” Hara said.

“Furthermore, as they can access a vast library of “Anpanman” and “Teletubbies” episodes, they can quickly defuse any temper tantrum and crying jag that might occur.”

In terms of teaching and nurturing, Or-B units have certain advantages.

“Or-B’s voice can be female, male or gender neutral,” said Yoshikazu Musaki, a specialist in early childhood education. Furthermore its learning capabilities, coupled with the latest in artificial intelligence, will allow it to customize its care to each child, Musaki added.

Source: Robotics makes baby steps toward solving Japan’s child care shortage | The Japan Times

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Why Learning To Code Won’t Save Your Job | Fast Company | Business + Innovation

Although I certainly believe that any member of our highly digital society should be familiar with how these platforms work, universal code literacy won’t solve our employment crisis any more than the universal ability to read and write would result in a full-employment economy of book publishing.

It’s actually worse. A single computer program written by perhaps a dozen developers can wipe out hundreds of jobs. As the author and entrepreneur Andrew Keen has pointed out, digital companies employ 10 times fe

Source: Why Learning To Code Won’t Save Your Job | Fast Company | Business + Innovation

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A Typical Day in a Blockchain-Enabled World Circa 2030 | Blockchain Futures Lab

Although there is no question that governments and central authorities will continue to exist and play a meaningful role in the world’s future, much of the current work performed by these governments and other authorities is also needlessly repetitive and mundane.

Just as robots have helped the world reduce menial physical labor, so cryptocurrency technology now gives us the tools to automate the menial labor of bureaucracy. Optimistically, the entirety of humanity will benefit as a result.

Source: A Typical Day in a Blockchain-Enabled World Circa 2030 | Blockchain Futures Lab

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Your Data Footprint Is Affecting Your Life In Ways You Can’t Even Imagine

Predictions about you (and millions of other strangers) are starting to deeply shape your life. Your career, your love life, major decisions about your health and well-being, and even if you end up in jail, are now being governed in no small part by the digital bread crumbs you’ve left behind—many of which you don’t even know you’ve dropped in the first place.

Source: Your Data Footprint Is Affecting Your Life In Ways You Can’t Even Imagine

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AlphaGo’s victory means the world is about to change

“AI methods are progressing much faster than expected, (which) makes the question of the long-term outcome more urgent,” said AI expert Stuart Russell of the University of California’s Berkeley Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences department.

“In order to ensure that increasingly powerful AI systems remain completely under human control… there is a lot of work to do,” he continued.That means that the long held fantasy of a true form of general artificial intelligence is going to be upon humanity sooner than we thought.

Source: AlphaGo’s victory means the world is about to change

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We all think robots are going to steal other people’s jobs

A majority of Americans – 65 percent – now believe that robots will “definitely” or “probably” take over much of the work we humans do within 50 years – but less than 20 percent see this transformation happening to their current job.

Despite the fact that this is already happening, many more people are worried about being pushed out because of someone else undercutting them, according to a Pew survey of 2,000 people, rather than their role simply being automated out of existence.

Source: We all think robots are going to steal other people’s jobs