The Beginnings of Brain Implants & Artificial Intelligence. . .

BBC NEWS | Technology | Mouse brain simulated on computer

This is the first necessary, but not sufficient step towards the creation both of artificial intelligence, but also brain tissue-computer chip interfacing. This last presents the possibility of being able to "download" entire sections of world history, quantum mechanics, or learn a new language relatively effortlessly.

Of course Terminator predicted that AI would spontaneously generate and become a threat to humanity on August 29, 1997. We've made it 10 years past that deadline, and I'm not sure how to feel about the advent of AIs with complex reasoning skills. Its possible that their emergence will cement the current social strata and hinder vertical income movement.

From the BBC article:

US researchers have simulated half a virtual mouse brain on a supercomputer.
The scientists ran a "cortical simulator" that was as big and as complex as half of a mouse brain on the BlueGene L supercomputer.
In other smaller simulations the researchers say they have seen characteristics of thought patterns observed in real mouse brains.
Now the team is tuning the simulation to make it run faster and to make it more like a real mouse brain.

Potentially scary stuff. How do our politics catch up with such potential social change? How will the current faux left-right structure be replace by a dominant, shared national ideology that could be effortlessly transmitted to anyone by virtue of a brain-computer automatic "update." How do such advances interact with advances in biotechnology and is there some type of possible synergy.

Looks like 20th Century Science Fiction may eventually become 21st Century science and consumer goods.

Gotta Love the Post-Modernism of Robotics Ethics Laws Based on Asimov

The tradition of SciFi writers predicting the future continues and has now advanced from Jules Verne to Isaac Asimov. It'll be interesting to see how long it takes to get to some of the things Heinlein predicted.

That said there is something vaguely creepy about an entire national obsession with robots and the need for a nation to actually have a robotic ethics codes. Even the Europeans are getting in on the act. Though it does make practical sense for nations whose populations are imploding. However, it seems premature to establish robotic ethics at all before any of them pass the Turing test.

The most interesting implications of robotics combined w/limited AI are those related to creating sex robots. And all new successful technology from the VCR to the internet has been driven through its applicability to pornography (and making its use more anonymous). If robots are to become commonplace this is the most profitable place for manufacturers/researchers to start. And regardless of what I think, it's only a matter of time before some company starts doing this. Most likely Korea or Japan due to the population pressures mentioned above (which is getting worse due to the aborting of what would be female children in those cultures - we're actually witnessing cultural suicide, from a detached perspective, it would make an excellent PhD thesis).

The positive aspects the spread of sex robots could virtually eliminate trafficking in women and sexual slavery. This has enormous potential to reduce human rights abuses and vastly improve the lives of women around the world since sexual slavery would become comparatively more expensive.

Of course, despite these positive cultural impacts, the christianists likely will rise up in outraged opposition. I'm sure they'll find some obscure Biblical passage to justify opposing another form of sexual release. More likely however, they'll just trot out the chestnut about Onan. Any literate reader of Scripture would realize his punishment was due to "gaming the system" to keep fucking his sister-in-law - which Hebrew law condoned in order to give her a son, but which activity would have to stop once she became pregnant - not for having sex that didn't result in conception (even the Song of Songs praises sexuality) which as become the justification for opposing birth control etc.

Biological Data Storage

How cool is this? Using artificial DNA to store information in bacteria is just brilliant and potentially will lead to faster computer processors, and EMP-proof data storage for corporations. Someone's going to figure how to make a lot of money off of this.

For all the potential benefits, it does raise three questions:

(1) What exactly is "artificial DNA," and what are its other potentially malicious uses of which we should be wary?

(2) Can this data be written into creatures beyond bacteria? Will I eventually be able to use my dog as a backup storage device? How cool would that be?

(3) Will scientists be able to use this artifical DNA to modify humans? In what way will they choose/be able/forced to do so? How far away is this?

Anyway, just things to consider. Still doesnt' change the coolness factor.

More Potential for Biotech

How cool is this?

Scientists Grow Mouse Teeth From Single Cells
02.19.07, 12:00 AM ET

MONDAY, Feb. 19 (HealthDay News) -- Using tissue regeneration technology, Japanese researchers have been able to grow a new tooth from single mouse tooth cells and use it to replace natural teeth in a mouse.
The achievement is "a breakthrough in the development of bioengineered organs and proposes a novel concept for the organ replacement in future regenerative therapies," lead researcher Takashi Tsuji, associate professor, Department of Biological Technology, Tokyo University of Science, said in a prepared statement.

Reporting in the Feb. 19 online issue of the journal Nature Methods, Tsuji's team started by using the two cell types that form teeth -- mesenchymal and epithelial cells. They grew sufficient quantities of each of these cells and then injected them into a drop of collagen. This eventually developed into a budding tooth, which they transplanted into the cavity left by an extracted tooth in a mouse. . .

Regeration and cloning of limbs leads to a whole host of ethical issues that no one has confronted yet with the exception of a few Science Fiction writers. Our society as a whole has had no real discussion or discourse on the implications of such technologies because scientfic/medical research is far outpacing the ability of our society to digest these changes and adopt a coherent, consensus regarding these changes. For example, regeneration may lead to longer life spans for those here whenn it is fully realized, but may also lead to the birth of fewer children, resulting in the loss of some genes and increased risk of decimating plagues.

Regenerating Limbs through Biotechnology

Biotechnology has the potential to radically affect our culture. Here's an interesting story from the AP with about the cultural implications of biotechnolgy.

Allowing soldiers to regrow lost limbs might enable our military to lower its recruiting goals to still meet its obligations. Alternatively, the technology could be used for civilian uses, but such use could be regulated in a way that not everyone needing such a procedure will get it.

Science Finding Ways to Regrow Fingers

Feb 18 11:33 PM US/Eastern
By MALCOLM RITTER
AP Science Writer


NEW YORK (AP) -- Researchers are trying to find ways to regrow fingers _ and someday, even limbs _ with tricks that sound like magic spells from a Harry Potter novel.

There's the guy who sliced off a fingertip but grew it back, after he treated the wound with an extract of pig bladder. And the scientists who grow extra arms on salamanders. And the laboratory mice with the eerie ability to heal themselves.

This summer, scientists are planning to see whether the powdered pig extract can help injured soldiers regrow parts of their fingers. And a large federally funded project is trying to unlock the secrets of how some animals regrow body parts so well, with hopes of applying the the lessons to humans.

The implications for regrowing fingers go beyond the cosmetic. People who are missing all or most of their fingers, as from an explosion or a fire, often can't pick things up, brush their teeth or button a button. If they could grow even a small stub, it could make a huge difference in their lives.

And the lessons learned from studying regrowth of fingers and limbs could aid the larger field of regenerative medicine, perhaps someday helping people replace damaged parts of their hearts and spinal cords, and heal wounds and burns with new skin instead of scar.

Modern Technology: Turning War into a Videogame

Will Saletan has an excellent article about this interesting topic in Slate on Feb. 12 called Joystick vs. Jihad. Below are a few choice quotes to give you the flavor of the article...

This is the future of warfare: hunting enemies abroad at little or no risk to ourselves. A year ago, at least 750 unmanned aerial vehicles were assisting American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan; by now, the number is probably closer to 1,000. The Pentagon's budget and its Quadrennial Defense Review, released last week, propose a near doubling of our arsenal; within two decades, "45% of the future long-range strike force will be unmanned." ...

... In the Cold War, we used satellites to spy and intercontinental ballistic missiles to deter. We could track the Red Army level Moscow in minutes. But those devices won't work in the age of terrorism. You can't see an army, because terrorist don't have one. You can't threaten cities, because terrorists don't own any and don't care how many people die. Our lame attempt to kill Osama Bin Laden with cruise missiles in 1998 exposed the obsolescence of satellites and missiles. We need machines that can hunt and kill closer to the enemy...

...Drones fit the bill. In Kosovo, we used them to spy. After Sept. 11, we armed them with missiles. We hunted and blew away one al-Qaida operative after another—at least 19 hits in the last four and a half years, according to U.S. officials. Whenever a commando assault in unfriendly territory risked too many casualties, we sent a drone to do the job. We couldn't match terrorists' love of death, their willingness to take their own lives in the course of taking ours. But we could counter their expendable human killers with expendable inhuman killers. The joystick answered the jihad....

...Reluctance to kill was a big problem in World War II. By one military estimate, fewer than one in four American riflemen in combat pulled the trigger, and "fear of killing rather than fear of being killed was the most common cause." The Army tried to solve this problem by making its training exercises feel more like real combat. But what if we could do the opposite? What if we could make combat seem unreal? What if we could turn it into a video game?

Very interesting article that is worth a look in Slate.

Wired's take on Blogs: They Have Legs

Wired News: Like It or Not, Blogs Have Legs