Unabashed

Did you know MIT posts all their course material online? And that it’s freely available to anyone on the internet (they call it MITOpenCourseWare)? If you want a little light summer reading, give it a try. This guy is, and he’s going to blog about the experience. It won’t count towards a degree, but if you’re just after the brainstuff, then why not. After all, knowledge is power, right? He’ll have plenty of knowledge once he’s done, I guess. His goal is to be able to pass the course ”Biological Systems in Nature and Medicine.” I think it’s a grand idea, and I’m looking forward to reading about it.

I’m going to have to cull some of my RSS feeds. It’s getting ridiculous. And to think: it wasn’t that long ago that I sent out a request for good blogs to read. I’ve gotten more than my fill now, thanks. Though, I have to say, if it’s really good, I’d love to have another ;-)

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: education, edumacation, knowledge, MIT, OpenCourseWare, power

MIT’s article “Hope on the Horizon” brims with observations on the kinds of advancements that illustrate, profoundly, that life is about to change, inexorably, for all humans, forevermore. In the article, they ask a panel of researchers to point out some economy-boosting technologies that are imminent.

Life extension, sustainable cities, robots, biosolar cells, electromechanical energy–advancements that are in the pipe right now, and have the potential not only for economic stimulus, but could also mark a metamorphosis moment for mankind (AKA the Singularity).

Embedded electronics

One transformation on the near term horizon is the embedding of low-cost electronics into almost every object that we encounter on a day-to-day basis. A pair of sunglasses may have the ability to project a visual display accessing the Internet, have an embedded cell phone and actuate other devices as one glances at them. The technology for this already exists. Flexible electronic paper and electronic clothing will change the way information is projected and harnessed at a personal level. Everyday objects may sense, detect and constantly adjust to our environment, controlling temperature, lighting, noise level, etc.

Digital fabrication

The most significant coming technology is the digitization of fabrication, the impact of which will be analogous to the digitization of communication and computation. Like those earlier revolutions, the consequence will be personalization, in this case, allowing anyone to make almost anything, anywhere.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: advancements, biosolar, cells, digital fabrication, electromechanical, electronics, embedded, Energy, extension, Life, MIT, robots, Singularity, sustainable cities

I’ve expressed my displeasure of the current solar market before. Now the folks at MIT are pledging to revolutionize the technology for the very near future. For me, this is both great news, and not so great news. Supposing MIT is successful and in a few years announces a breakthrough in solar power, making it–as promised–abundant and affordable, the burning of fossil fuels, and potentially even nuclear power, will quickly go bust. That’s a lot of jobs going away, worldwide, including, potentially, mine (Though I’m not in the power generation business myself, the company I work for is owned by a Fortune 500 energy corporation.

On the other hand, it would mean that mankind’s carbon footprint would, what, half? It would shrink astronomically, regardless. And let’s face it, if we all had our own power generation resource, we would be more independent (to me that’s a good thing). If my power went out due to a storm, I’d have the materials and skill to get myself back online and wouldn’t have to wait for the power company to get to my street. Sure, I might still be down for a few days, but I’d have something to keep me busy, right?

So what will our lives be like in 20 years? Speculating that MIT’s pledge is a smashing success and cheap, renewable power is available worldwide, the world will change. Everything will change. Our lives, for better or poorer, will change. This could be the foundation for what will become the Singularity, the dawning of a new civilization. Things are happening rapidly, hold on!

Now I think of it, maybe energy companies need to think about getting into the solar panel installation market. It seems like it would be a conflict of interests, but if solar really becomes the Next Big Thing, they’re going to need something to fall back on, quickly.

Photo from Flickr.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: , electricity, Energy, grid, MIT, power, renewable, solar, sun

Yes, the ubiquitous “they” are about to open up a black hole in France which will devour the Earth and possibly the entire solar system. Global warming doesn’t quite seem so bad now, does it? Seriously, the LHC is a pure geek thrill for those of us who love discovery and exploration. Because it is exploring; the LHC is exploring the micro-multi-uni-verse, in hopes of bringing us closer to some of the fundamental reasons for life, the universe, and everything.

In some ways the LHC is the equivalent of Deep Thought, the computer Douglas Adams created for the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy that was tasked with answering that same question–of life, the universe, and everything. Or, if you keep up with your science news, the answer has already been discovered–A.K.A. the “God Particle“–in which case the LHC would actually be the descendent of Deep Thought, which, you’ll know, turned out to be Planet Earth. Earth was designed to provide the actual question itself–the question of life, the universe, and everything.

When activated, it is hoped that the collider will produce the elusive Higgs boson — often dubbed the God Particle — the observation of which could confirm the predictions and ‘missing links’ in the Standard Model of physics, and explain how other elementary particles acquire properties such as mass. The verification of the existence of the Higgs boson would be a significant step in the search for a Grand Unified Theory which seeks to unify three of the four fundamental forces: electromagnetism, the strong force, and the weak force. The Higgs boson may also help to explain why the remaining force, gravitation, is so weak compared to the other three forces.

If the God Particle is the answer, then the LHC is intended to provide the proof of concept, at least, along with a few million other questions, including: 

• Are there other dimensions?
• What is Dark Matter?
• What is Dark Energy?
• Why is the universe expanding?
• What did the universe look like immediately after the Big Bang?
• I haven’t read about this any where, but I have to wonder if the LHC will be able to give us a proof of concept for fusion…
• Will a fabricated black hole suck me into it and what will it feel like to be spaghettificated?

And to surf through the billions of terabytes of data the LHC is going to churn out? (Yes, this just keeps getting better and better…) Well, they’ve built a new, better internet and called it “the Grid.”

The Grid will not only enable sharing of documents and MP3 files, but also connect PCs with sensors, telescopes and tidal-wave simulators …  focusing on a project in which resources from Pan-European research institutions will analyze data generated by a new particle collider being built at Swiss particle-physics lab CERN

And amidst all this clarifying chaos, I will only add that the Singularity is near.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: , Accelerator, CERN, collider, god particle, grid, hadron, higgs boson, LHC, Particle, Singularity, spaghettification, the grid

This is brilliant, really. Freightliners on transoceanic voyages guzzle gas like nobody’s business. A company called Skysails, based in Hamburg, Germany, has unveiled a product that can reduce fuel consumption of those vessels by up to 35%.

The best apparatuses and advancements in the world, to me, are those which utilize traditional concepts and methods while at the same time capitalize on modern technology. They’re nostalgic–in a good way–but at the same time they’re modern and technological. This may seem like an oxymoron–past/future; historical technology?–but they combine the quaint with the futuristic in a way that’s very appealing. To me at least. I love reading about the Age of Sail, the era of tall ships, and I’ve pined for the romanticism of sailing ships exploring the world. (My love of old things-made-new manifests itself, obliquely, in my reading: I love equally to read Charlie Stross and Patrick O’Brian, Joe Haldeman and Shelby Foote.) The Skysail concept doesn’t go so far as to suggest a regression, but augments modern apparatuses with forward-thinking modifications to historical concepts, improving historical technologies.

I like new stuff, too. Like microwaves. Love microwaves :-)

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: , age of sail, freightliner, futuristic, historical, nostalgia, sail, sailing, ship, ships, skysails, tall ship, transoceanic

I’ll have mine with telescopic and xray, plz. Oh, and a HUD. Yes, a HUD, with a Terminator-style readout. So far the speculation for these contacts, which are being engineered by the University of Washington, is that they’ll be capable of zoom, possibly wired to monitor the body’s sugar levels for diabetics along with a few other medical possibilities. But something like this opens my eyes to many, many other possibilities, and who knows how much capability something like this could have? They’ve speculated as to the gaming potential, which doesn’t interest me that much right away, but I would be very interested in having this thing wired into the web, giving me immediate access to a HUD-like display of weather radar, GPS, traffic conditions, email, danger warnings (like brake lights ahead), and even restaurant and movie listings, updateable by whatever street you’re walking down. That’s a lot of usability to pack into a dime-sized piece of silicone, but hey, if I’m gonna dream, I’m gonna dream big.

The model is still in testing, and they’re still trying to figure a way to power it wirelessly, but once they do that…. :-)

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: , bionic, contacts, eyes, vision