Singularity Hub | The Future Is Here Today…Robotics, Genetics, AI, Longevity, The Brain…

Des chiffres et des voix : comment les statistiques changent la politique
▻https://ijsbergiscoming.fr/347-des-chiffres-et-des-voix

https://ijsbergiscoming.fr/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/chiffresetvoix_fb.jpg

#data et #marketing_électoral #fichage (et évidemment surtout pas de politique)

When the Mother of Invention Is a Machine, Who Gets Credit ?
▻http://singularityhub.com/2016/11/03/when-the-mother-of-invention-is-a-machine-who-gets-credit

“I argue that we ought to acknowledge a computer as an inventor because it would incentivize the development of creative computers and result in more innovations for society,” says Abbott, a professor of law and health sciences (…) and registered patent attorney with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

(…) Abbott offers a framework for revamping how the USPTO approaches­­ nonhuman inventors. The current regulations are outdated and don’t recognize that computers are already producing patentable inventions,

Mais quelle bonne idée, donnons toute la #propriété_intellectuelle aux #algorithmes et aux #spammeurs ; surtout en #santé où la combinatoire génétique va permettre de privatiser des “inventions” de manière exponentielle…

#IA #capitalisme #invention #brevets #recherche

This Smart Vest Lets the Deaf ’Hear’ With Their Skin
▻http://singularityhub.com/2016/10/09/this-smart-vest-lets-the-deaf-hear-with-their-skin
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c1lqFXHvqI

A modern incarnation of the pushpin dental chair is the sleek BrainPort, which sits on a blind person’s tongue and translates information from a wearable digital camera (similar in looks to Cyclops’ visor) into electrical vibrations on the tongue.

With time, users are able to interpret the “bubble-like” patterns as the shape, size, location and motion of objects around them. They get so good that they can navigate through an obstacle course.

“I do not see images as if I were sighted, but if I look at a soccer ball I feel a round solid disk on my tongue,” says one user, “the stimulation…works very much like pixels on a visual screen.”

#sens #augmentation_sensorielle #braille #aveugles #substitution_sensorielle #post-humanité

il y a un côté ravi de la crèche dans cette présentation (c’est TED…) mais c’est totalement bluffant

La seconde vidéo montre comment marche la transposition du signal sonore (rapide et unidimensionnel) en toucher (lent mais bidimensionnel)
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTSGX6RYuiM

Self-Driving Trucks Are Coming—Here’s Why They Make Sense
▻http://singularityhub.com/2016/05/17/self-driving-trucks-are-coming-heres-why-they-make-sense

99% of truck driving is actually very straightforward — stay in a highway lane, usually the slow one, with no fancy moving about.

▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK76W1kH4jA

Some companies have done exploration of truck automation. Daimler/Freightliner has been testing trucks in Nevada. Volvo (trucks and cars together) has done truck and platooning experiments, notably the Sartre project some years ago. A recent group of European researchers did a truck demonstration in the Netherlands, leading up to the Declaration of Amsterdam which got government ministers to declare a plan to modify regulations to make self-driving systems legal in Europe.

#autopilote #voiture_autopilotée #transport #routiers

Pentagon Turns to #Silicon_Valley for Edge in Artificial Intelligence
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/12/technology/artificial-intelligence-as-the-pentagons-latest-weapon.html

On Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter made his fourth trip to the tech industry’s heartland since being named to his post last year. Before that, it had been 20 years since a defense secretary had visited the area, he noted in a speech at a Defense Department research facility near Google’s headquarters.

#Pentagone #IA

Solar Power Is Ready to Dominate Energy Thanks to New Tech
▻http://singularityhub.com/2016/05/09/solar-power-is-ready-to-dominate-energy-thanks-to-new-tech

What Is #Perovskite ?

Perovskite is a light-sensitive crystal that has the potential to be more efficient, inexpensive, and versatile than all other existing solar solutions to date.

Over the past five years, perovskite’s conversion efficiency has increased dramatically — from 4 percent to nearly 20 percent, making it the fastest developing technology in the history of photovoltaics.

http://i1.wp.com/www.abundance360summit.com/podcast/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Untitled.png?resize=600,515

#énergie #solaire #matériaux

Why We Should Teach Kids to Code Biology, Not Just Software - Singularity HUB
▻http://singularityhub.com/2016/04/07/we-should-be-teaching-kids-to-code-biology-not-just-software

Domesticating biotechnology means bringing it to the masses, and that means we’d have even less control over it than when it was limited to university or government funded labs.

The answer to Dyson’s first question seems clear: This trend is not going to stop. There’s too much momentum. We have learned too much about how to control our own biology to turn back.

And this is all the more reason to teach the next generation early on about the power and ethics of rewriting the code of life.

#biotechnology #biohacking

As Technology Barrels Ahead—Will Ethics Get Left in the Dust? - Singularity HUB
▻http://singularityhub.com/2016/03/05/as-tech-barrels-on-will-ethics-get-left-in-the-dust

This [l’affaire Apple-FBI] is a prelude of things to come, not only with encryption technologies, but everything from artificial intelligence to drones, robotics, and synthetic biology. Technology is moving faster than our ability to understand it, and there is no consensus on what is ethical. It isn’t just the lawmakers who are not well-informed, the originators of the technologies themselves don’t understand the full ramifications of what they are creating. They may take strong positions today based on their emotions and financial interests, but as they learn more, they too will change their views.

Imagine if there was a terror attack in Silicon Valley — at the headquarters of Facebook or Apple. Do you think that Tim Cook or Mark Zuckerberg would continue to put privacy ahead of national security?

#silicon_army

China’s Curious Dream of Floating Nuclear Plants on the Ocean - Singularity HUB
▻http://singularityhub.com/2016/02/17/chinas-curious-dream-of-floating-nuclear-plants-on-the-ocean

Buongiorno and his team at MIT have suggested placing reactors on platforms similar to those used for deep-sea oil drilling. The plants would be situated between 8 and 12 miles from the coast at a depth of at least 100 meters. Power cables would run to switchyard facilities situated on land.

Being placed so far from land would help protect the plants against earthquakes and tsunami waves, which are relatively small so far out.

#nucléaire #énergie #océan (je vois pas comment ça pourrait foirer)

Elon Musk’s Billion-Dollar AI Plan Is About Far More Than Saving the World
▻http://www.wired.com/2015/12/elon-musks-billion-dollar-ai-plan-is-about-far-more-than-saving-the-world

Elon Musk and Sam Altman worry that artificial intelligence will take over the world. So, the two entrepreneurs are creating a billion-dollar not-for-profit company that will maximize the power of AI—and then share it with anyone who wants it.

At least, this is the message that Musk, the founder of electric car company Tesla Motors, and Altman, the president of startup incubator Y Combinator, delivered in announcing their new endeavor, an unprecedented outfit called OpenAI. In an interview with Steven Levy of Backchannel, timed to the company’s launch, Altman said they expect this decades-long project to surpass human intelligence. But they believe that any risks will be mitigated because the technology will be “usable by everyone instead of usable by, say, just Google.”

#Elon_Musk #Google #Intelligence_artificielle #Open_source #OpenAI #Sam_Altman #Tesla_Motors #Y_Combinator

Robocars Are at Peak Hype: But What They’ll Actually Look Like Inside May Surprise Carmakers - Singularity HUB
▻http://singularityhub.com/2015/10/07/robocars-are-at-peak-hype-heres-what-theyll-actually-be-like

some models of robocar in the future will be incredibly cheap. Particularly the “city cars” which never go on the highway and only carry one to two people. With simple electric drivetrains they will be easy to build and maintain, and eventually their battery cost will become very reasonable. The dashboard vanishes along with many other controls. The expensive sound system vanishes. The windshields need not be a large custom piece of curved glass — in fact they don’t even have to exist other than for passenger comfort. The parts count goes down significantly.

#voiture_autopilotée

Watch This Open Source AI Learn to Dominate Super Mario World in Just 24 Hours - Singularity HUB
▻http://singularityhub.com/2015/06/18/watch-this-open-source-ai-learn-to-dominate-super-mario-world-in-jus
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv6UVOQ0F44

In a new YouTube video, Seth Bling explains the magic behind software he developed to learn how to play Nintendo’s Super Mario World.

“This program started out knowing absolutely nothing about Super Mario World or Super Nintendos,” Bling says. “In fact, it didn’t even know that pressing ’right’ on the controller would make the player go towards the end of the level.”

le code:
▻http://pastebin.com/ZZmSNaHX

#machine_learning #algorithmes_génétiques #neural_networks #jeux_vidéo

La #Singularité approche encore plus vite — nouvelle #prédiction du Pape Ray Kurzweil :

Within seven years the smartphones in our pockets will be as computationally intelligent as we are.

The Coming Problem of Our iPhones Being More Intelligent Than Us | Singularity HUB
▻http://singularityhub.com/2015/04/24/the-coming-problem-of-our-iphones-being-more-intelligent-than-us

Discover the Chemical Composition of Everyday Stuff…With a Smartphone Camera | Singularity HUB
▻http://singularityhub.com/2015/04/17/point-and-shoot-spectral-imaging-and-chemical-composition-with-a-sma

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/ra8hs0w4p56o8rn/mobile%20hyperspectral%20camera.png?dl=0

“The tricorder is no longer science fiction,” a recent Tel Aviv University (TAU) article declared. (...) Created by TAU engineering professor, David Mendlovic, and doctoral student, Ariel Raz, (...) the smartphone cameras #hyperspectral images that record the #spectrum of light present in every pixel of the image. Software then creates a spectral map and compares it to a database of spectral “fingerprints” associated with substances.

#lumière #chimie

les transhumanistes s’intéressent à l’avenir du #travail :

Why We Need Local Economies to Balance Technological Unemployment | Singularity HUB
▻http://singularityhub.com/2015/03/31/why-we-need-local-economies-to-balance-technological-unemployment

The Growing Precariat: Why We Need a Universal #Basic_Income - Guy Standing is Professor of Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies
▻http://singularityhub.com/2015/03/30/the-growing-precariat-why-a-basic-income-is-needed

http://singularityhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/shutterstock_172625840-150x150.jpg

for the precariat in particular, much of [using electronic gadgets] is hard work. It includes networking, retraining, upgrading skills, seeking paid work opportunities, keeping up to date in one’s own field of work, and regularly applying for benefits or services needed for survival.

Most of that activity is not desired as leisure; it is necessary #work.

Google développe un bracelet « anti-cancer »
▻http://www.linformaticien.com/actualites/id/36140/google-developpe-un-bracelet-anti-cancer.aspx

Le géant de Mountain View a déposé un brevet qui lève le voile sur un bracelet capable de repérer, marquer, compter mais également détruire les cellules cancéreuses. Google contre La Mort : Round 1.
 
« L’homme qui vivra mille ans est peut-être déjà né ». Cette phrase n’est pas tirée d’un quelconque bouquin de science-fiction : elle est signée du multispécialiste Laurent Alexandre. Mais il ne fait nul doute que Sergei Brin et Larry Page, les co-fondateurs de Google, sont d’accord avec lui. Sergei Brin n’a d’ailleurs jamais caché ses rêves transhumanistes, ni même le rôle hégémonique qu’il souhaite voir son entreprise jouer à l’avenir. Pour concrétiser ces desseins, Google a d’ailleurs déjà mis le pied à l’étrier : algorithmes, travaux sur le génome humain, création de Calico en 2013… Les moyens mis en œuvre sont déjà énormes. Discrets, mais énormes, et laissent entrevoir un futur (pas si éloigné) qui sera radicalement méconnaissable du point de vue de l’Humanité.

Cibler, marquer, détruire
C’est via sa start-up Calico que Google vient de déposer un brevet auprès de la World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). S’il prend la forme d’un bracelet, il est loin de se limiter aux fonctions des Fitbit et autres appareils du genre. Non, son ambition va bien au-delà : cibler, marquer et détruire les cellules cancéreuses du système sanguin. 

La description détaillée du brevet de Google/Calico est passionnante, mais il faut bien avouer qu’il est complexe de tout comprendre pour des non-initiés.

http://www.linformaticien.com/Portals/0/2015/mars/Go1.png

Why the US Government Is Terrified of Hobbyist #Drones
▻http://www.wired.com/2015/02/white-house-drone

Un constructeur de drone, #DJI, incorpore dans ses appareils un logiciel permettant le #géorepérage (geofencing) afin d’éviter qu’ils puissent survoler des endroits comme les aéroport ou la Maison Blanche. En vain d’après l’auteur de l’article.

Geofencing Won’t Prevent Terrorism

While alarming to some, DJI’s paternal interference in its customers’ flight plans probably will reduce unintentional incidents like last week’s White House landing. But it certainly won’t prevent the scenario feared by official Washington: an attacker looking to weaponize a drone. For one thing, hardcore drone hobbyists tend to be tinkerers, and sooner or later their rumbling will translate into published firmware hacks and workarounds anyone can use.

“Right now there doesn’t exist any hacks to remove the #geofencing or downgrade the firmware,” says Herbert. “I’m sure they’re coming. People will figure it out eventually.”

But, he notes, drone fliers who don’t want geofencing have many options. DJI’s mandatory update only affects the Phantom 2 line—ironically, the older Phantom 1 that landed at the White House isn’t included. And Phantom 2 owners will receive the mandatory update only when they link their drone to their Internet-connected PC or Mac. And if you really want to exercise your own judgment when flying, DJI says you can simply buy from a competitor.

“We do provide different layers of security to make it difficult to hack and get around,” says DJI’s Perry. But for those determined to avoid geofencing, “there’s an easy way to do that, which is to buy another quad-copter.”

That may be true for now, but it’s easy to see lawmakers and regulators jumping on DJI’s mandatory update as an easy cure, and mandating geofencing industrywide. When that happens, you can expect that circumventing drone firmware, for any reason, will become illegal, the same way hacking your car’s programming is illegal. One thing is for certain: Nobody willing to strap a bomb to a toy drone will be deterred.

#terrorisme #Etats-Unis #apprenti_sorcier

#AI Has Arrived, and That Really Worries the World’s Brightest Minds
▻http://www.wired.com/2015/01/ai-arrived-really-worries-worlds-brightest-minds

On the first Sunday afternoon of 2015, Elon Musk took to the stage at a closed-door conference at a Puerto Rican resort to discuss an intelligence explosion. This slightly scary theoretical term refers to an uncontrolled hyper-leap in the cognitive ability of AI that Musk and physicist Stephen Hawking worry could one day spell doom for the human race.

That someone of Musk’s considerable public stature was addressing an AI ethics conference—long the domain of obscure academics—was remarkable. But the conference, with the optimistic title “The Future of AI: Opportunities and Challenges,” was an unprecedented meeting of the minds that brought academics like Oxford AI ethicist Nick Bostrom [cf. ▻http://seenthis.net/messages/320860] together with industry bigwigs like Skype founder Jaan Tallinn and Google AI expert Shane Legg.

Musk and Hawking fret over an AI apocalypse, but there are more immediate threats. In the past five years, advances in artificial intelligence—in particular, within a branch of AI #algorithms called deep neural networks—are putting AI-driven products front-and-center in our lives. Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Baidu, to name a few, are hiring artificial intelligence researchers at an unprecedented rate, and putting hundreds of millions of dollars into the race for better algorithms and smarter computers.

AI problems that seemed nearly unassailable just a few years ago are now being solved.

Can DNA Nanobots Successfully Treat #Cancer Patients? First Human Trial Soon | Singularity HUB
▻http://singularityhub.com/2015/01/08/can-dna-nanobots-successfully-treat-cancer-patient-first-human-trial

http://singularityhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/1000_genome_dna-1-150x150.jpg

“No, no it’s not science fiction; it’s already happening,” said Ido Bachelet (...) the reason Bachelet and his colleagues’ call their creations #robots (and not just inert shapes) is that they perform actions given the right conditions. The nanobots themselves are cylindrical clamshells on flexible #DNA hinges. Locked with twin DNA double helixes at the front, they carry a molecular payload, like a cancer drug, inside.

The DNA locks are engineered to react only with specific molecules or proteins on the surfaces of cancer cells. If present, the locks bind to these molecules, the clam shell opens, and the nanobot’s payload is delivered.

#recherche

Worm ‘Brain’ Uploaded Into Lego Robot | Singularity HUB
▻http://singularityhub.com/2014/12/15/worm-brain-simulation-drives-lego-robot

The worm’s brain contains 302 neurons and 7,000 synapses. The human brain, in comparison, has 86 billion neurons and 100 trillion synapses. Whether we’ll ever fully map the human brain (or should) is a hotly debated topic.

But since we’ve already mapped the C. elegans connectome—the researchers at OpenWorm thought they’d feed it stimuli using a few external sensors and give it a robotic body to carry out whatever motor instructions the brain provided.
(...)

The fascinating thing? The robot behaves much like a real worm would, given similar sensory stimulation—tripping the nose sensor halts forward progress, touching the front and rear sensors makes the robot move forward and back.

#transhumanisme #it_has_begun en tout cas pour les vers