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POPSInvention: Self-replicating materials Experiments on colloids have proved that self-replication is possible, they say. By tagging colloid particles with a range of DNA coatings that fluoresce at different wavelengths, they were able to see how a mixture gradually turned into a collection of ordered lines of particles after a self-replicating "seed" structure was added." This ir really a potential breakthrough! slowly science fiction looses its fiction part :)
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POPSFedora Linux Would Have Cost $10.8 Billion? These numbers come from the Linux Foundation, so they're likely rather inflated. But there's still truth to the fact that massive amounts of development time have gone into these open source projects, and they've achieved things that major software vendors would have a hard time replicating.
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POPSBiologists on the Verge of Creating New Form of Life "We've made more progress on how the membrane of a protocell could grow and divide," Szostak said in a phone interview. "What we can do now is copy a limited set of simple sequences, but we need to be able to copy arbitrary sequences so that sequences could evolve that do something useful." By doing "something useful" for the cell, these genes would launch the new form of life down the Darwinian evolutionary path similar to the one that our oldest living ancestors must have traveled. Though where selective pressure will lead the new form of life is impossible to know.
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POPSTransformers - The Nature of Alien Life
The driving factor is a pragmatic desire to improve mental capacity. Alien beings may have already reached a point in their evolution where, having exhausted the potential of their biological brains, they have taken the next logical step and opted for robotic brains equipped with artificial intelligence. This brain swap may not be as far off for humans as one might think. In only a few decades, the computer revolution here on Earth has produced supercomputers capable of performing more than a quadrillion calculations per second. According to research by Hans Moravec, an artificial-intelligence expert at Carnegie Mellon University, that rate trumps the human brain’s estimated top speed of 100 trillion calculations per second. Some scientists speculate that in a few decades, an event called the technological singularity will occur, and machines armed with computer brains will become sentient and surpass human intelligence. Civilizations equipped with technology light-years ahead
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POPSBio Lego -MIT & Harvard Scientists Create Living Building Blocks The self-assembly is based on "the thermodynamic tendency of multiphase liquid–liquid systems to minimize their contact surfaces", the most awesomely complicated way of saying "oil and water don't mix" possible. By preparing polyethylene microgel components and adding them to an oil/water mixture, the specially shaped bits align themselves along the spherical liquid interfaces. Applying a few seconds of UV light fixes the microgel in position and you have a ready made, biocompatible (and degradable) matrix ready for the addition of cells. Replicating the different tissue organizations of different organs becomes nothing more than a recipe book, choosing your initial microcomponents, mixture and baking time.
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POPSSmart Car Puts 'High Level of Safety Into Very Small Package' The institute's test* follows government findings that gave the Smart four out of five stars on front-end crash testing on the driver's side. While the car's small-is-cool image and 36-mpg gas thriftiness made the timing of its entry in the U.S. market fortunate, safety has remained the question mark. The new crash results are "really exciting," says Smart USA President Dave Schembri. "It really validates that small can be safe." About 7,000 Smart cars are plying American roads since the French-made car went on sale earlier this year at list prices ranging from $11,590 to $16,590. Smart USA is part of Detroit's Penske Automotive Group pag, which struck a deal to import the little cars that are already sold throughout the world under a deal with Smart's parent, Germany's Daimler. Because it lacks front-end crush space, Smart relies more on the car's seat belts and air bags to protect occupants.
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POPSRepRap -- A self-replicating machine A robot that can build itself. RepRap, a machine that can replicate itself by using rapid prototyping: manufacturing objects under the control of a computer has been demonstrated recently. The machine is distributed under the GNU General Public Licence and a kit with all components, you need to assemble a RepRap machine is available.
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POPSdangerous? I think this is way beyond any monster science fiction world possible to conceive. How did humanity get so far astray?
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POPSI am a transhumanist, thanks I say, fear not. If you have clearly transhumanist beliefs, like the notion that human enhancement is coming in the next few decades and will be a big deal, then don’t be afraid to call yourself one. As Dr. Wittgenstein, one of my favorite philosophers ever, used to argue, words are just labels we fill with our own content. To think that a word has any inherent meaning aside from its use in language is absurd.
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POPSho-lee-shit. self-reassumbling robots are going to take over the world this video demonstrated a principal (and shows it in practice) how we can program robots with smaller segmented parts, to seek out and attach to one another to form a more complex device capable of more efficiently accomplishing a task. That task? Destroy humanity, then go about programming emotion into their operating systems. EX-TER-MI-NATE! EX-TER-MI-NATE!
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POPSBio-fuels are a disaster We are wrecking our rainforests and depleting our agricultural land while fueling astronomic fuel increases to keep gas guzzling vehicles on the road - it's crazy!
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POPSRepRap: the self-replicating rapid prototyper A "3D printing" device (rapid prototyper) made from parts that the machine itself can make; thus, it can "copy" itself. This project is still under development, but it seems likely that it will be built in the not-too-distant future.
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POPSHuman beings only have a 50-50 shot of making through the 21st century nanotech pioneer K. Eric Drexler. Drexler describes grey goo in Chapter 11 Engines Of Destruction: "...early assembler-based replicators could beat the most advanced modern organisms. 'Plants' with 'leaves' no more efficient than today's solar cells could out-compete real plants, crowding the biosphere with an inedible foliage. Tough, omnivorous 'bacteria' could out-compete real bacteria: they could spread like blowing pollen, replicate swiftly, and reduce the biosphere to dust in a matter of days. Dangerous replicators could easily be too tough, small, and rapidly spreading to stop - at least if we made no preparation. We have trouble enough controlling viruses and fruit flies."
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POPSPrint your own stuff with a DIY replicator Zack Hoeken, one of my fellow members of NYC Resistor is working on a opensource do-it-yourself 3D printer called RepRap. The RepRap community (and Zack himself) are working like crazy to make this machine a reality, with the eventual goal of it being able to print itself!
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