Forty-five years ago, Ernst Stuhlinger, the associate director of science at Nasa’s Marshall Space Flight Center, an original member of Wernher von Braun’s Operation Paperclip team, was asked by Sister Mary Jucunda, a Zambia-based nun, how he could suggest spending billions of dollars on spaceflight when many children were starving on Earth.
Continue reading… “The growing problem of space junk”
Ronald C. Arkin: I’ve been engaged in the debate over autonomous robotic military systems for almost 10 years. I am not averse to a ban, but I’m convinced we should continue researching this technology for the time being. One reason is that I believe such systems might be capable of reducing civilian casualties and property damage when compared to the performance of human warfighters. Thus, it is a contention that calling for an outright ban on this technology is premature, as some groups already are doing.
Most people don’t change jobs because of their bosses. Or because their work is either too challenging or not challenging enough. Or even because they aren’t paid enough.
Continue reading… “Top reasons people switch jobs”
If you have a fear of needles the VeinViewer will relieve you of that fear. The device uses harmless, near-infrared light to show precisely where veins are located and take the guesswork out of finding a vein.
Continue reading… “VeinViewer shows where patient’s veins are located”
Over the years, Hollywood films have immortalized future. Nothing seemed to capture sci-fi geeks’ imaginations like the hoverboard. The concept seems simple enough yet a working model as remained tantalizingly out of reach. Until now. The Lexus hoverboard is a real thing.
Continue reading… “The Lexus Hoverboard Is a real thing”
August 2008, Tony Wyss-Coray waited for his lab’s weekly meeting to begin at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Palo Alto, California. Wyss-Coray, a professor of neurology at Stanford University, was leading a young group of researchers who studied ageing and neurodegeneration. As a rule, the gatherings were forgettable affairs – the incremental nature of scientific progress does not lend itself to big surprises. But a lab member scheduled to speak that day had taken on a radical project, and he had new results to share.
Continue reading… “Can old age be reversed by infusing blood from the young?”
Microsoft’s Chinese-language chatbot has captured the attention and affection of millions of people who message it regularly. Continue reading… “Microsoft’s chatbot in China has millions of loyal followers”
Facebook has built an actual plane. The 140-foot, solar-powered, unmanned Aquila will serve as a flying Internet hub that will provide Wi-Fi access to parts of the world where connectivity is lacking. Continue reading… “Facebook’s plan to bring the world internet access with a solar-powered drone”
Raytheon is moving into the next generation of surveillance, while most of the country is still focused on the growing number of drones in this country – both military and civilian. Continue reading… “Goodbye drones, hello disposable satellites”
3D printing is beginning to gain some traction within the fashion industry. It has gained popularity by some of the industry’s most popular designers, and has attracted the attention of both celebrities and fashionistas from around the world. (Video)
Tim Dettmers: In this blog post I will delve into the brain and explain its basic information processing machinery and compare it to deep learning. I do this by moving step-by-step along with the brains electrochemical and biological information processing pipeline and relating it directly to the architecture of convolutional nets. Thereby we will see that a neuron and a convolutional net are very similar information processing machines. While performing this comparison, I will also discuss the computational complexity of these processes and thus derive an estimate for the brains overall computational power. I will use these estimates, along with knowledge from high performance computing, to show that it is unlikely that there will be a technological singularity in this century.
Thomas Frey predicted that 50% of colleges would collapse by 2013. Similarly, Clayton Christiansen is quoted as saying that 50% of colleges will not exist in 15 years. Others have made similar claims. Such predictions are based on tracing the impact and likely trajectory of innovations like blended and online learning, open learning, technologies allowing for mass customization and personalization, adapting learning software, and a growing set of alternative pathways to gainful and skilled employment.
Continue reading… “The future of higher education: The #HigherEd #Startup revolution”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.