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Technology Review: 10 advances will shape our future

 
 
grant
13:42 / 06.07.01
MIT's Technology Review had this pretty cool selection of 10 advances that their science staff think are the way forward.

They are:
Brain-Machine Interface (Jack your head into the matrix, baby.)

Flexible Transistors (they're durable and semi-organic, could be woven into your clothes. That *is* a smart outfit...)

Data Mining (building a better consumer base by knowing everything you need to know about people and products; collating terrabytes of information in under a second)

Digital Rights Management (copyright law for the instantly reproducible product)

Biometrics (We've covered this one here: computerized identity scanning.)

Natural Language Processing (teaching computers how to talk like they do on Star Trek and in 2001.)

Microphotonics (using ultra-reflective materials to create an all-light Internet, among other things)

Untangling Code (Making programming easier)

Robot Design (you can figure this one out)

Microfluidics (doing for biotech what the ttransistor did for electronics)
>>>>

Think they missed anything?

Know anything else about any of these?

What would YOU use this stuff for?
 
 
Red Cross Iodized Salt
17:44 / 06.07.01
I've used SAS Data Miner, and the stuff you can do with it is crazy. Complicated statistical procedures can be carried out thousands of times on vast quantities of data to find patterns / relationships in the data that you would not otherwise have been able to see. Its straight out of a William Gibson novel.

There's a good FAQ here: http://www.ipc.on.ca/english/pubpres/sum_pap/papers/datamine.htm#What
 
 
ynh
11:20 / 07.07.01
I think there are two routs for the BMI. One's based on EEG output, and presumably input; sorta of a lame helmet or small patch on your head like a bandaid. Direct implants are, of course, a bit cooler. A friend actually working in the field described it to me. Isert two uniform electrodes "doped" with a cocktail of nerotrophic factors in the subject's (animal/human) brain: one in the sensory cortex (input), one in the motor cortex (output). You can theorhetically get 50 distinct units of output from the MC outs. The MC ins would be on a neuroperipheral (the first of these will likely be artificial limbs). The SC outs would be on same, with the ins stimulated by a very mild electrical current.

You'd have to learn to control it, using lots of visual input and T&E, but after awhile it'sd be second nature, sort of like operating the mouse.

The dirty tech's already there. All those poor mice with electrodes on their pleasure centres cumming themselves to death, and this guy:

The return of the Robo-roach:
 
  
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