In his article for The Atlantic, Get Smarter, Jamais Cascio points out that only by embracing all forms of intelligence augementation might we have a chance of surviving, and ultimately taming, an increasingly hostile future.

By 2030, then, we’ll likely have grown accustomed to (and perhaps even complacent about) a world where sophisticated foresight, detailed analysis and insight, and augmented awareness are commonplace. We’ll have developed a better capacity to manage both partial attention and laser-like focus, and be able to slip between the two with ease—perhaps by popping the right pill, or eating the right snack. Sometimes, our augmentation assistants will handle basic interactions on our behalf; that’s okay, though, because we’ll increasingly see those assistants as extensions of ourselves.

The amount of data we’ll have at our fingertips will be staggering, but we’ll finally have gotten over the notion that accumulated information alone is a hallmark of intelligence. The power of all of this knowledge will come from its ability to inform difficult decisions, and to support complex analysis. Most professions will likely use simulation and modeling in their day-to-day work, from political decisions to hairstyle options. In a world of augmented intelligence, we will have a far greater appreciation of the consequences of our actions.

…

Coping with the various world-histori­cal dangers we face will require the greatest possible insight, creativity, and innovation. Our ability to build the future that we want—not just a future we can survive—depends on our capacity to understand the complex relationships of the world’s systems, to take advantage of the diversity of knowledge and experience our civilization embodies, and to fully appreciate the implications of our choices. Such an ability is increasingly within our grasp. The Nöocene awaits.

thanks to halia for the tip-off!

Parkour? Check. Android? Check.

The Runner -Exploit yourself- from BLR_VFX on Vimeo.

via Richard Kadrey

New Scientist brings us the work of UK-based designers James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau. They believe that “if robots are ever to be welcomed into people’s homes, they’ll need to fit in with the rest of the furniture, and earn their keep”.

This lampshade is just one of their designs.

Insects are lured into the shade by ultraviolet lights – which are lit only at night – and become trapped.

Trapped insects eventually fall into the fuel cell below.

This generates electricity to power the ultraviolet LEDs, which can then switch on to trap more flies when the house lights are off.

Keep reading for more such interesting designs.

From New Scientist:

The brain maintains a physical map of the body, with different areas in charge of different body parts. Researchers have suggested that when we use tools, our brains incorporate them into this map.

To test the idea, Alessandro Farné of the University of Claude Bernard in Lyon, France, and colleagues attached a mechanical grabber to the arms of 14 volunteers. The modified subjects then used the grabber to pick up out-of-reach objects.

Shortly afterwards, the volunteers perceived touches on their elbow and fingertip as further apart than they really were, and took longer to point to or grasp objects with their hand than prior to using the tool.

The explanation, say the team, is that their brains had adjusted the brain areas that normally control the arm to account for the tool and not yet adjusted back to normal.

“This is the first evidence that tool use alters the body [map],” says Farné.

Farné says the same kind of brain “plasticity” might be involved in regaining control of a transplanted hand or a prosthetic limb when the original has been lost.

via Cat Vincent

Photo from ~EvidenceE~‘s flickr stream.

Far from a Apocalypse Bunker, a Smithsonian employee builds a tunnel structure beneath his house in the 1930s as a way to relax his eyes from hours staring through the microscope. Via oobject.com

Thanks to LBA for the link!

The story here is that CNN is reporting this. Or as reader Paul Luthy wrote “It seems significant that a major network news source is treating this as science news…”

So not much progress has been made since we posted about this in Jan ’08; but more people are aware of it now. Thanks CNN!

From Universe Today:

On June 19, ground will be broken in New Mexico for Spaceport America, the world’s first commercial spaceport built for launching private citizens into space. Groundbreaking ceremonies will include a flyover by Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo, the mothership that will send tourists on their way to space in SpaceShip2. Virgin Galactic will be the first – if not most important — tenant of Spaceport America, and already more than 250 people have put money down to take trips to the edge of space as early as next year.

via Mac Tonnies

Via The Frisky comes this rather spooky French short-film.

Via Digital Urban comes word of this heavily branded zombie shooter for NVIDIA’s new hand-held. The tech is impressive, but why the hell do you have to shoot Skittles?

From BBC News:

From NewScientist:
 

Inflatable pneumatic modules already used in some spacecraft could be assembled into a 15-kilometre-high tower, say Brendan Quine, Raj Seth and George Zhu at York University in Toronto, Canada, writing in Acta Astronautica (DOI: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2009.02.018). If built from a suitable mountain top it could reach an altitude of around 20 kilometres, where it could be used for atmospheric research, tourism, telecoms or launching spacecraft.

The team envisages assembling the structure from a series of modules constructed from Kevlar-polyethylene composite tubes made rigid by inflating them with a lightweight gas such as helium. To test the idea, they built a 7-metre scale model made up of six modules. Each module was built out of three laminated polyethylene tubes 8 centimetres in diameter, mounted around circular spacers and inflated with air.

To stay upright and withstand winds, full-scale structures would require gyroscopes and active stabilisation systems in each module. The team modelled a 15-kilometre tower made up of 100 modules, each one 150 metres tall and 230 metres in diameter, built from inflatable tubes 2 metres across. Quine estimates it would weigh about 800,000 tonnes when pressurised – around twice the weight of the world’s largest supertanker.

This is just some of the stunning footage now being uploaded, taken by Japan’s Kaguya (Selene) probe as it orbited the Moon.

Dennō Coil just got a little closer to reality.

As Kotaku describes it:

Using the PSP and a specially designed disk, Invizimal hunters will have to locate and trap 100-plus hidden creatures, adding them to their collection. Creatures will be spawned based on environmental conditions, with a bit of randomness, to keep things interesting. The trapping of those creatures is vaguely Ghostbusters-esque: find the Invizimal with the on-screen sensor, throw down the trap, then slap the beast to stun it.

From gizmag:

Students at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany are developing a pair of interactive data eyeglasses that can project an image onto the retina from an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) micro-display, making the image appear as if it’s a meter in front of the wearer. While similar headwear only throws up a static image, the students are working on eye-tracking technology that allows wearers, with just the movement of the eyeball, to scroll through information or move elements about.

via Mac Tonnies

From the movie ‘They Live’

Via imgfave.com.

Rings like this can form as an aircraft traveling low over the water nears the speed of sound. Pressure created by sound waves squeezes moisture from the air, creating the “artificial cloud.”

Photo and words via nationalgeographic.com.

Pitched to be this year’s most talked-about climate change film, The Age of Stupid is a new movie from director Franny Armstrong (of McLibel) and producer John Battsek (of One Day In September). In this epic tale, Pete Postlethwaite stars as a man living alone in the devastated future world of 2055, looking at old footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?

Link and words via inhabitat.com.

It’s a cat. With wings!

Okay, so they’re just bone growths. And they don’t flap. Nor can the cat fly. But look at it! Mutant kitty!

Irrational exuberance on my part aside, it seems no one knows how this cat, who was born normal, grew these bone ‘wings’. It’s just one of those awesome mutations that happen every now and then that makes so so happy that nature makes ‘mistakes’.

I, for one, welcome our new winged kitty overlords.

Article and more pictures here.

Edit: There is more than one!