Archive for the 'Rise of the Machines' Category
Intel Brain Scan Analysis Software
April 9th, 2010Via: AP / USA Today: Mind reading may no longer be the domain of psychics and fortune tellers — now some computers can do it, too. Software that uses brain scans to determine what items people are thinking about was among the technological innovations showcased Wednesday by Intel Corp., which drew back the curtain on […]
Unknown Budget, Unknown Purpose: U.S. Air Force Plans to Launch X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle
April 4th, 2010Blank Spots on the Map: And then there was Dan Vanderhorst, who “has been the lead pilot on seven classified aircraft to date.” In fact, according to his biography, “Vanderhorst has made his career in the cockpit of so many classified aircraft, there is not much that we can say about him, on the record,” […]
Meet the Sims… and Shoot Them: The Rise of Militainment
April 4th, 2010Via: Foreign Policy: The country of Ghanzia is embroiled in a civil war. As a soldier in America’s Army, your job is to do everything from protect U.S. military convoys against AK-47-wielding attackers to sneak up on a mountain observatory where arms dealers are hiding out. It is a tough and dangerous tour of duty […]
Neuroscientists Don’t Believe in Souls—But That Doesn’t Mean They Can’t Sell Theirs (to the Pentagon)
March 28th, 2010Via: Scientific American: It is because I have such high hopes for neuroscience that I’m so upset by two trends in financing of the field. One involves neuroscience’s growing dependence on the Pentagon, which is seeking new ways to help our soldiers and harm our enemies. For a still-timely overview of neuroweapons research, check out […]
IBM Researchers Develop Energy Efficient Method to Analyze the Quality of Data at Record Speeds
February 26th, 2010Via: IBM Press Release: Research today unveiled a breakthrough method based on a mathematical algorithm that reduces the computational complexity, costs, and energy usage for analyzing the quality of massive amounts of data by two orders of magnitude. This new method will greatly help enterprises extract and use the data more quickly and efficiently to […]
The Future Where Soda Cans Have Screens
February 24th, 2010My ability to grasp what many people consider to be “normal” is slipping away, a little bit each day. I wonder if this is how my dad felt when, over a decade ago, I explained to him that I didn’t always need to go to the office in order to do my work. My dad […]
America’s Deadly Robots Rewrite the Rules
February 15th, 2010Via: Sydney Morning Herald: The kohl-eyed Hakimullah Mehsud probably is dead. He was the target for a missile fired last month from an unmanned aircraft hovering over the Afghan-Pakistani border – but launched by an operator in the US. Mehsud was the ruthless mastermind of multiple suicide bomb attacks in Pakistan. He was part of […]
Britain: Police UAVs Might be Armed with Non Lethal Weapons
February 11th, 2010Via: Wired: Police forces all over the UK will soon be able to draw on unmanned aircraft from a national fleet, according to Home Office plans. Last month it was revealed that modified military aircraft drones will carry out surveillance on everyone from protesters and antisocial motorists to fly-tippers, and will be in place in […]
Family Spends $5000 Per Year on Screen Related Services
February 10th, 2010You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it. —Morpheus, The Matrix Don’t breathe the air, don’t drink the water, don’t eat the food, but, being saturated with endless electronic […]
Pentagon Looks to Breed Immortal ‘Synthetic Organisms,’ Molecular Kill-Switch Included
February 6th, 2010Via: Wired: The Pentagon’s mad science arm may have come up with its most radical project yet. Darpa is looking to re-write the laws of evolution to the military’s advantage, creating “synthetic organisms” that can live forever — or can be killed with the flick of a molecular switch. As part of its budget for […]
