HIV Vaccine Reduces Infection
Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said: "For the first time, an investigational HIV vaccine has demonstrated some ability to prevent HIV infection among vaccinated individuals.
"Additional research is needed to better understand how this vaccine regimen reduced the risk of HIV infection, but this is certainly an encouraging advance for the HIV vaccine field."
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Geekologie on to something...
Ethicists Demand New Laws For Robots
FTA: Wow, psychopathic robots -- I didn't see that coming. And by didn't see that coming I mean I'VE BEEN TRYING TO WARN YOU FOREVER.
Yeah, I'm no neoludite, but I really think we need to be on top of this stuff.
From the referenced article: A human-robot co-existence society could emerge by 2030, says Chen in his paper. Already iRobot’s Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner and Scooba floor cleaner are a part of more than 3 million American households. The next generation robots will be more sophisticated and are expected to provide services such as nursing, security, housework and education.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Fake bus stop keeps Alzheimer's patients from escaping
I think this is not only creative, but also brilliant.
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/06/05/fake-bus-stop-keeps.html
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/06/05/fake-bus-stop-keeps.html
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
Same argument... echoing through the ages.
Just listen to this for two minutes than you can turn it off and go back to not learning:
Did your two minutes? Did it remind you of this?
I swear to you it's the same damn fight, over and over again. I've been watching these lectures on line and it's remarkable how many of the pro-states rights (aka slavery) arguments have been repackaged and now being sold as defense of marriage (aka anti-gay) arguments.
How's the saying go? Those who don't learn history are doomed to repeat it? I guess this is what happens when you spin it as the 'war of Northern aggression.'
Did your two minutes? Did it remind you of this?
I swear to you it's the same damn fight, over and over again. I've been watching these lectures on line and it's remarkable how many of the pro-states rights (aka slavery) arguments have been repackaged and now being sold as defense of marriage (aka anti-gay) arguments.
How's the saying go? Those who don't learn history are doomed to repeat it? I guess this is what happens when you spin it as the 'war of Northern aggression.'
Sunday, July 5, 2009
AI, the future is now... well, nowish.
I've long argued against the idea that AI and robotics need to achieve human abilities sets before they begin being an economic danger to broad swaths of the human population. Part of my argument is that it doesn't take human inputs to get human level results.
To wit:
This is exactly the sort of solution I'm talking about. To replace a human worker you don't need to build a robot that does everything they do. You can build various robots which together do the things that the worker does. Similarly you don't have to create a program which is capable of doing everything the human can do - to replace a worker, the AI doesn't have to have an opinion on films or understand the differences between being sarcastic vs. being sardonic, it just needs to preform a task, or a series of tasks, essentially as well as a human and do so at a price point that is attractive to its corporation.
Since we're Americans, we can also expect to soon see systems of robots like these employed on battlefields all over the world! Lowering the cost of war in terms of American lives mean the jingoists will want to go to war at the drop of a hat (what else is new?) and it will be harder to convince them when it's time to stop. It also means, as I've said before, that we're going to see a *rise* in terrorism. Terrorist are not vandals. The whole point of sending a machine instead of a soldier is that we don't really care (at least on an emotional/moral level) what happens to the machine, so the terrorists will behave around the machines and then they will target civilians.
Listen, roboticists, you're all very bright and clever, but I don't suppose you'd be so kind as to do a little more work on solar power, eh? Maybe wind?
To wit:
This is exactly the sort of solution I'm talking about. To replace a human worker you don't need to build a robot that does everything they do. You can build various robots which together do the things that the worker does. Similarly you don't have to create a program which is capable of doing everything the human can do - to replace a worker, the AI doesn't have to have an opinion on films or understand the differences between being sarcastic vs. being sardonic, it just needs to preform a task, or a series of tasks, essentially as well as a human and do so at a price point that is attractive to its corporation.
Since we're Americans, we can also expect to soon see systems of robots like these employed on battlefields all over the world! Lowering the cost of war in terms of American lives mean the jingoists will want to go to war at the drop of a hat (what else is new?) and it will be harder to convince them when it's time to stop. It also means, as I've said before, that we're going to see a *rise* in terrorism. Terrorist are not vandals. The whole point of sending a machine instead of a soldier is that we don't really care (at least on an emotional/moral level) what happens to the machine, so the terrorists will behave around the machines and then they will target civilians.
Listen, roboticists, you're all very bright and clever, but I don't suppose you'd be so kind as to do a little more work on solar power, eh? Maybe wind?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)