Science News

The concept of “the Singularity,” a moment in the not-too-distant future when we will manage to create superhuman intelligence, either in machine form or by augmenting our own brains with biotechnology, is particularly effective at inspiring this kind of technophobia or technophilic zealotry. Mathematician and Science Fiction author Vernor Vinge coined the term in a 1993 article – analogizing our inability to envision a post-A.I. world to modern physics’ inability to explain what happens at the center of a black hole. In the hands of Futurist Ray Kurzweil and friends, the Singularity has evolved into an inspirational movement with its own Institute and University, both dedicated to hastening the coming of the big event and ensuring that its outcomes are beneficial – rather than disastrous – for mankind.

Scientists are teaching machines to decode our brain chemistry to better understand what a person is thinking from the outside. UCLA researchers presented cigarette smokers (nicotine addicts) with three visual stimuli: a video mean to induce a nicotine craving, a neutral video and no video at all. While the smokers watched, researchers measured brain function. With the help of machine learning, researchers were able to tell whether people were resisting their cravings while watching the video or indulging them.

Advances in artificial intelligence could cause a big change in the way we interact with our devices over the coming year says one of Intel's experts.

Physicist Richard Feynman in his famous 1959 talk, 'Plenty of Room at the Bottom,' described the precise control at the atomic level promised by molecular machines of the future.