Toward a Virtual Economy.

And I don't mean it doesn't 'exist' in reality.

Millions of people are spending real money on virtual clothes in online hangouts, digital items in multiplayer games and presents for their friends in social networking sites.

This digitalisation of consumption is an inherent consequence of the increasing involvement of communication technology in everyday social activities, says Helsinki Insititute for Information Technology HIIT Researcher Vili Lehdonvirta. Lehdonvirta's thesis "Virtual Consumption" will be examined on 14th of Dec at Turku School of Economics, Finland.

You don't have to be an Internet addict or live in an online community to appreciate virtual goods. Today, around 10 percent of users in a typical online service are likely to be spending money on microtransactions, such as virtual items and gifts. Much of this spending relates to social activities involving friends and family, says Lehdonvirta.

In public discourse, spending real money on virtual goods is frequently dismissed as an irrational fad or as a result of abusive marketing. But Lehdonvirta's thesis suggests that the fundamental drivers of virtual consumption are found in individuals' social and hedonic motivations.
- People buy virtual goods for the same reasons as they buy material goods. In online spaces, virtual goods can function as markers of status, elements of identity and means towards ends in the same way as material consumer goods do in similarly contrived physical spaces, says Lehdonvirta.

In his doctoral thesis, Lehdonvirta also considers the economic and ecological consequences of the digitalisation of consumption. According to Lehdonvirta, the present economic downturn may turn out to be a boost to virtual consumption, because consumers spend more time at home and favour small purchases over large ones. The ecological sustainability of virtual consumption depends on whether it continues to spur additional computer hardware purchases or whether it substitutes material consumption by providing an alternative use for money.

From a macroeconomic perspective, it does not matter what consumers buy, as long as they keep on spending. Virtual consumption might offer an ecological way out of this consumer society's dilemma, says Lehdonvirta.

According to Lehdonvirta's thesis, people in East Asian countries such as Korea, China and Japan have been quicker to adopt virtual consumption styles.

What is considered as an appropriate way to spend your time and money varies between cultures and changes over time. Perhaps in three years' time, virtual consumption is considered rational in the West, and the rationality of filling your house with expensive objects starts to be questioned, ponders Lehdonvirta.

.

So my question is: When will the VR Economy become bigger than the physical?

Desktop Factory Unites with 3D Systems.

Continued effort to find the best financial alternative for Desktop Factory. That search, which put them on the road to a sale of the company, has finally come to an end. What I could not confirm at that time is that their buyer is the leadership brand in the Additive Manufacturing industry, which means that they have the resources and desire to deliver on the promise of a truly low cost, easy to use 3-D printer.

The complete terms of the sale, which closed on August 31, 2009, have not been disclosed. However, 3D Systems Corporation of Rock Hill, South Carolina has acquired the key assets of Desktop Factory including intellectual property, know-how and tools. Recognizing the importance of continuity, the core team of remaining Desktop Factory employees was invited to join 3D Systems, underscoring their intention to move forward with the development of a sub-$5K 3-D printer.

Paula Apsell, NOVA's senior executive producer laments the sad state of science journalism and discusses how NOVA is more essential than ever.

In a world where the public understanding of science is diminishing, she makes a strong case for NOVA's tradition of depth and substance, tackling the most pressing issues in science, in a thoughtful and visually complex manner.

Apsell brings clips from some recent NOVA programs to illustrate the role of television's most prestigious science documentary series in the vast television and web content landscape.

She provides insights into the editorial processes of topic selection, treatment, and production standards. In a world of decreasing attention spans, Apsell considers the challenges of providing meaningful science content, keeping it interesting, while not leaving the audience behind.

Click here to see her talk.

Driver-less car in high-speed rally.

Imagine driving at top speed on a steep, winding mountain pass in the Alps, or the Himalayas, or the Rocky Mountains.

Now, take your hands off the steering wheel and cover your eyes. Or grab a camera and take some pictures of the snowy mountain peaks. Or send a text message to a friend describing the scenery. You'd skid off the road and plunge into a deep ravine within seconds, right? Not if a group of graduate students at Stanford University can program the car to drive itself.

The mechanical engineering students are creating an autonomous -- or driverless -- car that they plan to race up and down the treacherous Pikes Peak highway in the Rocky Mountains next year. The vehicle is the latest creation of a Stanford team, funded in part by Volkswagen, that in recent years has won awards for speed and manoeuvrability in competitions among unmanned cars.

The students say programming a car to run by itself up a curving mountain road is more than simply an engineering exercise; it's a way of creating and testing safety systems they hope one day will be used in all vehicles.

WEDGE.

The`WEDGE' immersive projection theater has been built as an affordable installation for university VR infrastructure in Australia. It achieves a 'semi-immersive' sense of presence without, apparently, giving rise to significant discomfort.

The vertex region of the theater appears to be especially effective in giving a sense of presence.

See click here for more details.

Note: the paper starts way down the pages!

DARPA Challenge!

In the interests of investigatng how broad-scope problems can be solved using Internet technologies (and to remind everybody that they invented the Internet 40 years ago), DARPA is offering $40,000 to the first person who can solve the following problem.

On Dec. 5, 2009, for one day, DARPA 1s going to put out a large red weather balloon in each of 10 locations, in plain sight, across the continental U.S. First person to identify the locations of all 10, wins.

Go here!

Ever been homeless?

I expect not!

However, when was the last time you thought positively about someone on the street or living in rusty van?

Becky Blanton has not only a great idea, but an insight gained through experiance.

Click here to view her TED speak!

.

I 'HOPE'you get it!

Nick's Blog Below has a Rather 'Cleaver' Paper.

You know the parable: 'Pascal's Wager?'

.

Or Pascal's Gambit is a suggestion posed by the French philosopher Blaise Pascal that even though the existence of God cannot be determined through reason, a person should wager as though God exists, because so living has everything to gain, and nothing to lose. It was set out in note 233 of his Pensées, a posthumously published collection of notes made by Pascal in his last years as he worked on a treatise on Christian apologetics.

Historically, Pascal's Wager was groundbreaking as it had charted new territory in probability theory, was one of the first attempts to make use of the concept of infinity, marked the first formal use of decision theory, and anticipated the future philosophies of pragmatism and voluntarism.

However! Nick has probably moved it on a good march.

Well click here to read 'Pascal's Mugging.'

Nick Bostrom has something to say about the furture of man.

'Suppose we get many little things right and make some progress. What use, if we are marching in the wrong direction? Or wasting our resources on projects of small utility while pivotal tasks are left undone? What if we are profoundly mistaken about what matters most?

There are big potential gains from getting better at thinking about the right kinds of macro-questions, because at stake is our whole scheme of priorities.

Some of these questions are about moral judgment and values. Others have to do with rationality and reasoning under uncertainty. Still others pertain to specific concerns and possibilities, such as existential risks, the simulation hypothesis, human enhancement, transhumanism, and the singularity hypothesis.

My working assumption: These high-leverage questions deserve to be studied with at least the same level of seriousness, scholarship, and creativity that is routinely applied to all sorts of insignificant micro-questions.

This assumption might be wrong. Perhaps we are so irredeemably inept at thinking about the big picture that it is good that we usually don’t. Perhaps attempting to wake up will only result in bad dreams. But how will we know unless we try?'

View Nick's blog by clicking here.

or

Read his fantastic paper on 'The Future of Humanity.'

BigDog Beach'n.

Amazing how far we have come. One of my favorite robots, BigDog kicks back at a beach in Thailand in this video. Wet sand, salt water, no problem. Would love to think he's carrying fruity drinks and paper parasols.

Click here to watch latest BigDog robot video.

The UK Needs to Follow US Form.

Quote from Egils Milbergs Center for Accelerating Innovation Website.

'U.S. Commerce Secretary Locke announced a new Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Inc. 500/5000 Conference.

Recognizing that new businesses are vital to the economic growth of the USA, the Office will focus on removing barriers for entrepreneurs seeking to take ideas and translate them into new products and services. The Office will work with the White House and other federal agencies to find ways to encourage entrepreneurship, including training, access to capital and policy incentives.

The National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship will advise the Secretary and the Administration on key issues relating to innovation and entrepreneurship. It will include successful entrepreneurs, innovators, angel investors, venture capitalists, non-profit leaders, and other experts on these issues.

The Council will identify and recommend solutions to issues critical to the creation and development of entrepreneurship ecosystems that will spawn new businesses and jobs. It will also serve as a vehicle for ongoing dialogue with the entrepreneurship community and other stakeholders.

Secretary Locke speaks about entrepreneurship and its importance to economic growth and job creation.'

End quote.

Now me:

We (the UK) need to set up a similar agency. Innovation and Entrepreneurship is not getting the support or the notion required to reach effectivity.

Click here to view Secretary Locke's talk.

Batman: Dead End....

.... is a fan film made by Sandy Collora that premiered at the San Diego Comic Con, and on the internet shortly thereafter.

The film, made for a reported $30,000,[1] stars Clark Bartram as the Batman, who is chasing down an escaped Joker, played by Andrew Koenig.

But there's a surprise move, but ????

Batman character has previously fought the ???? in the comic books from Dark Horse Comics, and the film draws some of its imagery from those comics and possibly why Batman wasn't surprised at them.

Film director and comic book writer Kevin Smith called it "possibly the truest, best Batman movie ever made"[3], and comic book artist Alex Ross praised it as "Batman the way I've always wanted to see him"[4].

Film director Collora has stated in interviews that the film was made as a demonstration reel to attract attention to his directing skills, and as such, succeeded in its goal.

Fan Films Quarterly listed Batman: Dead End as one of the 10 most pivotal moments in fan film history.

Click title to view.

The Jill and Julia Show!

Two of TED's favorites, Jill Sobule and Julia Sweeney, team up for a delightful set that mixes witty songwriting with a little bit of social commentary.

Click here to view act!

Electrifying!

Organ virtuoso Qi Zhang plays her electric rendering of "Ridiculous Fellows" from Prokofiev's "The Love for Three Oranges" orchestral suite.

This exhilarating performance from TED features the Yamaha Electone Stagea, a rare, imported instrument specially programmed by Qi herself.

Click here to see her performance!

Building Innovative Teams.

Thanks Robin, I'm flattered.

'This is an impressive book by any standards and I for one have very much appreciated that Harris has chosen to share his methodologies...I have read the book three times, such is the level of richness and guidance provided, and each time I pick it up I get new insights. I strongly recommend Building Innovative Teams.'

Robin Campbell, Journal of Management Development.

.

Click here to review.

The BIG C Detector.

It will happen to about a third of us.

But it is the time it takes to euclidate the illness that expands the fright.

Now a new micro chip has been invented that can detect Cancer within 30 seconds.

Click here to see how it works!

Who's in Big Brother's Database?

On a remote edge of Utah's dry and arid high desert, where temperatures often zoom past 100 degrees, hard-hated construction workers with top-secret clearances are preparing to build what may become America's equivalent of Jorge Luis Borges's "Library of Babel," a place where the collection of information is both infinite and at the same time monstrous, where the entire world's knowledge is stored, but not a single word is understood.

At a million square feet, the mammoth $2 billion structure will be one-third larger than the US Capitol and will use the same amount of energy as every house in London combined.

Unlike Borges's "labyrinth of letters," this library expects few visitors. It's being built by the ultra-secret National Security Agency—which is primarily responsible for "signals intelligence," the collection and analysis of various forms of communication—to house trillions of phone calls, e-mail messages, and data trails:

Web searches, parking receipts, bookstore visits, and other digital "pocket litter." Lacking adequate space and power at its city-sized London sized headquarters, the NSA is also completing work on another data archive, this one in San Antonio, Texas, which will be nearly the size of the Alamodome.

And so, 2 things?

1. Be careful what you say over the net/com.

Because:

2. A spy centre that requires the energy input of a city, well that means Yottabytes (1024 Bytes) by 2015. Roughly equal to about a septillion (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) pages of voice, text and numbers. And that every call, every day, for the foreseeable future.

.

.

Click here to resume!

Global Ethic: I'm not one for political propaganda!

But this TED talk by Gordon Brown (PM) took me by surprise.

At last a leader with a Global Vision. A whole world view that is intent on manifesting global economic stability, ecological correction, wolrd poverty disolvement, and wholistic political morality.

Gordon Brown is - like it or not - becoming the world's first Global Politician, based on a Global Ethic.

Click here to see his talk.

All Marketers are Liars!

Fundamental theorem-that perception trumps reality-informs this dubious marketing primer.

In an age when consumers are motivated by irrational wants instead of objective needs and there is almost no connection between what is actually there and what we believe, presenting stolid factual information about a product is a losing strategy.

Instead, marketers should tell "great stories" about their products that pander to consumers' self-regard and worldview. Examples include expensive wine glasses that purport to improve the taste of wine, despite scientific proof to the contrary; Baby Einstein videotapes that are useless for babies but...satisfy a real desire for their parents; and organic marketing schemes, which amount to "telling ourselves a complex lie about food, the environment and the safety of our families."

Because consumers prefer fantasy to the truth, the marketer's duty is to be "authentic" rather than honest, to live the lie, fully and completely so that "all the details line up"-that is, to make their falsehoods convincing rather than transparent. Troubled by the cynicism of his own argument, Godin draws a line at deceptions that actually kill people, like marketing infant formula in the Third World, and elaborates a murky distinction between "fibs" that "make the thing itself more effective or enjoyable" and "frauds" that are "solely for the selfish benefit of the marketer."

To illustrate his preferred approach to marketing, the author relates a grab bag of case studies, heavy on emotionally compelling pitches and seamless subliminal impressions. Readers will likely find the book's practical advice as rudderless as its ethical principles.

Brain Researchers Open Door to Editing Memory.

Suppose scientists could erase certain memories by tinkering with a single substance in the brain. Could make you forget a chronic fear, a traumatic loss, even a bad habit.
For all that scientists have studied it, the brain remains the most complex and mysterious human organ; and now the focus of billions of $, £, & Y, worth of research to penetrate its secrets.

Researchers in Brooklyn N.Y. have recently accomplished comparable feats, with a single dose of an experimental drug delivered to areas of the brain critical for holding specific types of memory, like emotional associations, spatial knowledge or motor skills.

The drug blocks the activity of a substance that the brain apparently needs to retain much of its learned information. And if enhanced, the substance could help ward off dementias and other memory problems.

Millions of people might be tempted to erase a severely painful memory, for instance — but what if, in the process, they lost other, personally important memories that were somehow related? Would a treatment that “cleared” the learned habits of addiction only tempt people to experiment more widely?

In this field we are merely at the foothills of an enormous mountain range, and unlike in other areas of science, it is still possible for an individual or small group to make important contributions, without any great expenditure or some enormous lab.”

But, how on earth can a clump of tissue possibly capture and store everything — poems, emotional reactions, locations of favourite bars, distant childhood scenes? The idea that experience leaves some trace in the brain goes back at least to Plato’s Theaetetus metaphor of a stamp on wax, and in 1904 the German scholar Richard Semon gave that ghostly trace a name: the engram.

What could that engram actually be?

The answer, previous research suggests, is that brain cells activated by an experience keep one another on biological speed-dial, like a group of people joined in common witness of some striking event. Call on one and word quickly goes out to the larger network of cells, each apparently adding some detail, sight, sound, smell. The brain appears to retain a memory by growing thicker, or more efficient, communication lines between these cells.

Bottom line is: we’re getting close to controlling memory, and that means closer control of our thoughts! Imagine no more off days, no more regrets, and no more getting over it!..... That’s big.

Wireless Electricity Delivered Over Distance.

Imagine a future in which wireless electricity makes everyday products more convenient, reliable, and environmentally friendly.

Cell phones, game controllers, laptop computers, mobile robots, even electric vehicles capable of re-charging themselves without ever being plugged in. Flat screen TV’s and digital picture frames that hang on the wall—without requiring a wire and plug for power.

Industrial systems and medical devices made more reliable by eliminating trouble prone wiring and replaceable batteries.

WiTricity Corp. is working to make this future a reality, developing wireless electricity technology that will operate safely and efficiently over distances ranging from centimeters to several meters—and will deliver power ranging from milliwatts to kilowatts.

WiTricity Corp.’s vision is to develop a family of wireless electric power components that will enable OEM’s in a broad range of industries and applications to make their products truly “wireless.” Wireless electric power delivered over room scale distances, and with high efficiency.

Wireless electric power that is safe for people and animals. Wireless electric power—imagine no more… it’s here!

Click here!

The three elements of full employment

You will never be out of work if you can demonstrably offer one of the following:

1. Sales
   


2. Additive effort
   


3. Initiation

Sales speaks for itself. If you can sell enough to cover what you cost and then some, there will always be someone waiting to hire you.

Additive effort is distinguished from bureaucracy or feel-good showing up. Additive effort generates productivity far greater than the overhead you add to the organization. If your skills make the assembly line go twice as fast, or the sales force becomes more effective, or the travel office cuts its costs, then you've produced genuine value. That surly receptionist at the doctor's office--she's just filling a chair.

The third skill is the most difficult to value, but is ultimately the most valuable. If you're the person who can initiate useful action, if you're the one who makes something productive or transformative happen, then smart organizations will treasure you.

The quest for prolonged youthfulness has now migrated from the outer fringes of alternative medicine to the halls of Harvard Medical School.

At a conference on aging held there talks where held about ‘Resveratrol,’ a chemical found in some red wines. Resveratrol has been found to activate proteins called ‘Sirtuins.’ Activation of sirtuins is thought to help the body ride out famines.

Mice and rats put on a diet with 30 percent fewer calories can live up to 40 percent longer. Sirtris’s researchers think that drugs that activate sirtuins mimic this process, strengthening the body’s resistance to the diseases of aging.

In mice, sirtuin activators are effective against lung and colon cancer, melanoma, lymphoma, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s disease, said David Sinclair, a Harvard Medical School researcher. The drugs reduce inflammation, and if they have the same effects in people, could help combat many diseases that have an inflammatory component, like irritable bowel syndrome and glaucoma.

Many theories of aging attribute the build-up of mutations in a person’s DNA. Dr. Sinclair said that in his view “aging can be reversed” because the DNA mutations did not directly cause aging. Rather, they induce the sirtuin molecules that help control the genome to divert to the site of damage. With the sirtuins absent from their usual post, genes are not regulated efficiently, and the cells’ performance degrades. Diversion of the sirtuins should be a reversible process, in Dr. Sinclair’s view, unlike DNA damage, which is not.

The quest for longevity drugs is founded on solid and promising research. But most drugs fail at some stage during trials. So there is no guarantee that any of Sirtris’s candidate compounds will work in people. The first result from a Phase 2 clinical trial is not expected until the end of next year at the earliest.

Meanwhile, it is a pleasant and not wholly unfounded thought that, just possibly, a single drug might combat every degenerative disease of Western civilization. So in about 5 or 6 or 7 years there may be drugs that prolong longevity.

Quote of the week (and it's only Monday)!

Lemmy said...

"Both the revolutionary and the creative individual are perpetual juveniles. The revolutionary does not grow up because he cannot grow, while the creative individual cannot grow up because he keeps growing."

Eric Hoffer.

http://www.lemsworld.com/

One of my favorite companies is GoInnovate. They know their stuff when it comes to strategic innovation!

As they say, 'In innovation you must continually move between the car and the helicopter!?'

Click on above 'GoInnovate' and read an article about project management and innovation.

My favorite comedy take @ TED is Julia Sweeney's 'Letting go of God.'

Controversial?..... Maybe?

Funny?.... Absolutely!

And if ever you meet her, please don't touch her hair!

Click here to see Julia's TED sketch.

FusionGFX is a company based just down the road from where I live.

Fusion GFX are a Hyperinnovative concern that provide 3D visualisation and simulation equipment, including Real-Time Dynamic Immersive 3D Applications; Immersive Displays, 3D Laser Scanning, and Consultancy

They say:

'By 'fusing' together media from an ever-growing range of sources such as; print, photography, CAD, real-time databases, film, multi-media and the Internet, we are able to create dynamic interactive content to suit any requirement. Our extensive knowledge not only covers visualisation & simulation but the installation and management of the environments that they are used in. These range from Large Scale Immersive Environments such as; Domes, CAVEs™, Reality Rooms, Media Walls etc. to interactive web sites.'

Once again, by interconnecting ideas in n-dimensions you get an emergence that's greater then the individual parts.

Click here to view their website.

Tinker, Tinker Little Star, How I Wonder What You're Creating?

Do you (and if you have any) and your kid(s) tinker? Play around with stuff? Just get some old bits and pieces and make creative thing-up?

Play is the harbinger of creativity, and tinkering is at it root.

Click here to begin to learn the importance of tinkering around!

Serioussss Playyyy!

What's play all about?

Is it something grown-ups shouldn't? Should we all grow up and stop acting the kid?

Well a man called Stuart Brown says something quite different!

Stuart Brown has researched that notion and nature of play through research on murderers -- unlikely as that seems (glup) -- after he found a stunning common thread in killers' stories: lack of play in childhood. Since then, he's interviewed thousands of people to catalog their relationships with play, noting a strong correlation between success and playful activity.

With the support of the National Geographic Society he has observed animal play in the wild, where he first concieved of play as an evolved behavior important for the well being -- and survival -- of animals, especially those of higher intelligence.

Now, through his organization, the National Institute for Play, he hopes to expand the study of human play into a vital science -- and help people everywhere enjoy and participate in play throughout life.

"Finally, a good excuse to goof off … Brown builds a compelling case for the importance of recreation to success and creativity -- and insists that grown-ups need it too."
Discover Magazine.

Click here and watch his TED talk! (I'm off to play with my dinner!!!!)

World Friendly and Free!!!!!!

It’s the Ecology Stupid and I’ve been harping on about this for bloody years.

Reducing CO2 emissions - even if we had a magic wand and stopped it immediately - will not stop climate change and global warning.

CO2 does create a green house effect and does accelerate global warming. But even if emissions were drastically reduced, the climate will still march on upward by 2 degrees C over the next 30 to 40 years.

Why?

Because the ecology is dying due to the size of the human population. 7.3 billion of us chewing up the environment, turning green lands into deserts, pastures into barren waste lands – by the mega-square-meter per day.

So, reduce population growth dramatically, and reduce consumption not only by technological efficiency and innovation (as my blog), but by behaviour change. By changing our culture of progress lead by want want want.

By the (linear) projection trends by 2020 consumption will have doubled, and raw material demand and urbanisation will grow by a third. Again pushing the ecology to near deaths door.

A moon-shot-like project to make us reduce CO2 emissions wont work.

What we need is to bring about the equivalent of a 60s’ 'like' cold war competition between the superpowers to battle intellectually and innovativelly with each other on ecological efficiency and growth. Not a green movement. But an world wide bio-ecological boom.

Think about!!! Not World War III. But World Friendly and Free!!!!!!!!!

Scientists are only months away from creating artificial life, it was claimed.

Dr Craig Venter – one of the world’s most famous and controversial biologists – said his U.S. researchers have overcome one of the last big hurdles to making a synthetic organism.

The first artificial lifeform is likely to be a simple man-made bacterium that proves that the technology can work.

But it will be followed by more complex bacteria that turn coal into cleaner natural gas, or algae that can soak up carbon dioxide and convert it into fuels.

They could also be used to create new vaccines and antibiotics.

The prediction came after a breakthrough by the J Craig Venter Institute in Maryland USA.

Researchers successfully transferred the DNA of one type of bacteria into a yeast cell, modified it and then transferred it into another bacterial cell.

Read on, click here.

New Book: The Genie in the Machine.


Can you believe that we've reached the era of Artificial Innovation.

"We've entered the Artificial Invention Age, where programs can automatically synthesize new product designs given only a description of what's required. What's the invention here? Is it the new design? The program? The requirements? And which of these should be patentable? The Genie in the Machine lays out the choices for patent and invention policy with compelling clarity. It's an essential roadmap for anyone concerned with the future of innovation."

Hal Abelson
Professor of Computer Science and Engineering,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

We've come a long long way. Now machines are beginning to create artifacts. The book is clear, the designers of the now need to move on to this technology just as they did with CAD in the 1980s.

Well, what's next? I'll keep you posted.

To review the book click here.

6 Mega-Trends for the Future.

Forecast #1: The Race for Genetic Enhancements Will Be What the Space Race Was in the 20th Century—Genetic therapies and biomedical enhancements will be a multibillion-dollar industry. New techniques will enable doctors to change your DNA to revitalize old or diseased organs, enhance your appearance, increase your athletic ability, or boost your intelligence.

Forecast #2: Water Becomes the New Oil—Water desalination may soon become one of the world’s largest industries. By 2040, at least 3.5 billion people will run short of water—almost 10 times as many as in 1995. The huge demand, plus new more efficient desalination technologies, will create enormous profit opportunities and bring new life to arid regions.

Forecast #3: WiMAX Networks Will Soon Create Country-Wide Wireless Internet Access—Often described as “Wi-Fi on steroids,” WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) will cover entire countries with a vibrant, high-speed wireless communications network. Internet access and other data and video applications will be available anywhere with many applications for automobiles.

Forecast #4: By 2025, the Worldwide Average Life-Span Will Be Extended by One year Per Year—Only 15% of deaths worldwide will be due to naturally occurring infectious diseases.

Forecast #5: Bioviolence Becomes a Greater Threat—In the next decade, biological technologies that were once at the frontiers of science will become available to anyone with minimal scientific training. Emerging biotechnologies, such as genomics and nanotechnology, will allow bacteria and viruses to be altered to increase their lethality or make them more resistant to antibiotics.

Forecast #6: Invention Becomes Automated Tomorrow’s inventors won’t toil away in workshops painstakingly building, testing and refining their creations. Instead, the Edisons of the next decade will spend their days writing descriptions of the problems they want to solve, and then hand those descriptions to computers to work out the solutions. This technology has already designed a successful antenna for a NASA space mission and invented innovative consumer products. It promises to spark a revolution in innovation and allow non-technical people to become inventors. Click here a vistit the Automation Invention website.

Regeneration of Earth's Climate Regulatory System!

Regulation via the planet's ecosystem - as in a biological kind-of-thermostat - is the answer to climate changes and global warming. And it is life, in the main, that does that.

A way to restart this so-called 'biostat' would be to grow and bring back the once dense biodiversity to the world's oceans, which have now become relatively impoverished and becoming evermore barren. The vast centres of the great oceans have now become a deep violet blue instead of the viscus rich greens, yellows and turquoise of life. Sterile Tantra is everywhere!

If we did bring back the biostat to its former magnitude CO2 would be gobbled up at an enormous rate. Gigatons of carbon would be digested, synthesised and caught in living ecology's in real-time.

But how do we do that?

I suggest you read a letter to Nature magazine by James Lovelock. Click on his name here: James Lovelock(sorry but the letter is pay per view, but it is mind blindingly grandiose in its thesis).

Lies, more lies and dirty statistics.

Today, the UK media (News Papers, TV, Radio, etc) have reported a government projection that says that Britain will face an energy crisis within 8 years.

I can understand the drama. It sells News Papers of course.

But it is simply not true when one looks at the evidence.

Grid parity (re; my blog post of 20 August 2008) is here and now in many alternative and sustainable energy generation technologies. Solar panel systems are growing exponentially in power feeds and falling in cost. The volume is not here now to meet energy that’s consumed now. But by 2017 it will.

What would dinner be like with these two?

'Most of the things we have been told to do might make us feel better - don't use plasticity shopping bags, turn off your lights, insulate the house, etc - but they won't make any difference. Global warming has passed the tipping point, and catastrophe is unstoppable.'

James Lovelock,
Inventor of the Gaia Hypothesis.

'At the onset of the twenty-first century, humanity stands on the verge of the most transforming and the most thrilling period in its history. It will be an era in which the very nature of what it means to be human will be both enriched and challenged, as our species breaks the shackles of its genetic legacy and achieves inconceivable heights of intelligence, material progress, and longevity.'

Ray Kurzweil,
Technological Futurist.

The Nature of Technology: What it is and How it Evolves.

In biology new species evolve by slow changes over a long time. Humans, for example have emerged from Apes through a long process of adaptation and variation over a long period.

But new, and radically new technology does not emerge out of slow adaptations and variations alone, but through the combination of older, existing technologies.

Brain Arthur's new book 'The Nature of Technology' examines and explains this process in some detail. In fact, it is being offered up as an equivalent explanation for technological evolution, as Darwin's explanation is to biological evolution: technological Darwinism!

By interconnecting (combining in Brian's words) existing technologies in multidimensional ways can and does create novel technologies to again interconnect to create even more new technology, ad'infinitum.

Click on above title to review Brian's book. A must read for all technologists (which every human is).

Wizz..... A real automative innovation.

Aptera Motors is an IdeaLab company building lightweight, low cost, composite, electric hybrid vehicles that are safe and reliable.

By combining patent pending low cost composite manufacturing methods and cutting edge computational fluid dynamics, the company's first car, the Aptera typ-1 will be available for under $30,000 (c.£18,000).

At Aptera conservation and efficiency is central to the design approach to ensuring sustainability.

By entering into every issue with the question of 'how to be more efficient' they maximize the value of every component combined, be they tangible or intangible.

For example, the seats and carpet were born of old plastic bottles and cups, and the fabrics throughout the vehicle use natural dyes.

And the 100 miles per plug-in (as in fill her up) you get costs a mere $0.50. Now that's something!

IBM research is looking to the building blocks of life -- DNA -- to become the structure of next-generation of microchips.

As chipmakers compete to develop ever-smaller chips at cheaper prices, designers are struggling to cut costs. Artificial DNA nanostructures, or "DNA origami" may provide a cheap framework on which to build tiny microchips, according to a paper published on Sunday in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

"This is the first demonstration of using biological molecules to help with processing in the semiconductor industry," says IBM research manager Spike Narayan.. "Basically, this is telling us that biological structures like DNA actually offer some very reproducible, repetitive kinds of patterns that we can actually leverage in semiconductor processes."

The research was a joint undertaking by IBM's Almaden Research Center and the California Institute of Technology. Right now, the tinier the chip, the more expensive the equipment. Narayan said that if the DNA origami process scales to production-level, manufacturers could trade hundreds of millions of dollars in complex tools for less than a million dollars of polymers, DNA solutions, and heating implements.

"The savings across many fronts could add up significantly," he said. But the new processes are at least 10 years out. Narayan said that while the DNA origami could allow chipmakers to build frameworks that are far smaller than possible with conventional tools, the technique still needs years of experimentation and testing.

Jobs that don’t yet exist.

Future Jobs R Us.

What kinds of jobs will be created in 10-20 years time through advances in science and technology? On initial research I've identified and defined 10 new job roles that could become reality within a decade or 2.

1. Personal Entertainment Programmers: Designers of in-person or electronic activities that meet the needs of individualised services.

2. Genomics Baby Designer: With the unravelling of the human genome, new roles emerge to design personalised enhancements and select the genetic make-up of unborn children.

3. Resource Use Consultant: As environmental awareness rises, roles emerge for advisors who help citizens grade the impact of every action / purchase / item and manage down the ecological footprint of our lifestyles and purchases.

4. Personal Enhancement Advisors: Advances in hypermaterials, productive nanotechnologies, cognitive science, natural therapies and pharmaceuticals will offer an increasingly broad range of legal (and illegal) personal enhancements. These could be used to give sports people a competitive edge, enhance our memory capacity when studying for exams or increase the strength and endurance of soldiers in the field. Roles emerge professionals who take a holistic approach advising across a full range of possible enhancements.

5. Psycho-Customiser: Future generations of mobile phones could offer a range of applications to help monitor and manage stress levels and counsel us on key decisions. Tomorrow's retail assistant could perform behavioural assessments to help customise our devises to match our personality type.

6. Nano-Medic: Advances in nanotechnology offer the potential for a range of sub-atomic 'nanoscale' device inserts and procedures that could transform personal healthcare. A new range of nano medicine specialists will be required to administer these treatments.

7. Vertical Farmers: There is growing interest in the concept of city based vertical farms, with hydroponically-fed food being grown in multi-storey buildings. These offer the potential to dramatically increase farm yield and reduce environmental degradation. The managers of such entities will require expertise in a range of wide scientific disciplines, engineering and commerce.

8. Spaceline Pilots: With Virgin Galactic and others pioneering space tourism the need for space trained pilots will arise.

9. Climate Change Reversal Specialist: As the threats and impacts of climate change increase, a new breed of engineer-scientists will be required to help reduce or reverse the effects of climate change on particular locations. They will need to apply multi-disciplinary solutions ranging from filling the oceans with iron filings to erecting giant umbrellas that deflect the sun's rays.

10. Hydrogen Fuel Station Manager: Hydrogen will be cost-competitive with gasoline if refuelling stations were mass-produced. The hydrogen would be produced on-site, so managers would need an entirely different set of skills than those required in today's gas stations.

In addition to the jobs described above, I've also identified a further 20 possibilities:

1. Professional VR Citizen
2. Second Life Lawyer
3. Nano Design Engineer
4. Machine Linguist
5. Complexity Manager / Gaiantologist
6. Robot Mechanic
7. Chief Health Officer
8. Telemedicine Technician
9. Pharmer of Genetically Engineered Crops and Livestock
10. Spaceport Designer
11. Space Tour Guide
12. Terraformer of the Moon and Other Planets
13. In-Company Gene Screener
14. Drowned City Specialist
15. Quarantine Enforcer
16. Biorefinery Operative
17. Holographer
18. Virtual Reality Actor
19. Narrowcaster
20. Dirigible Pilot

Robot playing a Violin!

I said that the Robots are coming. Well, click on and watch the above 1 min video.

Skycar update.

Paul Moller is getting closer. His Skycar concept, along with the beginings of Skyway infrastructure, will be here within a decade!

Click on the above title and watch his 12 min video.

Space for all coming soon (Part I)?

5 years ago, on 29 September, the space industry was turned on its head by a tinny spacecraft made in a workshop in California's Mojave desert.

SpaceShipOne (SS1) successful flight flew in a new era. One in which space flight would one day be affordable, frequent and accessible to you and me.

SS1 was the first crewed spacecraft to be developed privately. Designed, built and flown on a budget of roughly $25 million, it was towards 10,000x cheaper than the Space Shuttle life costs to date.

SS1 broke the altitude record for winged vehicles set more than 40 years earlier by NASA's X-15 rocket plane. Clearly, a fully reusable space-plane is an essential milestone on the road to a real space-flight future. And yet years on it's easy to regard SS1 as anoma than a pertenant future trend. After making 2 sub-orbital flights in 2 weeks, it never flew again.

However, 'Spaceship Company' - a partnership between SS1's creator Burt Rutan and Richard Branson - have yet too unveil the larger passenger-ready SS2, although the company has revealed the Carrier Aircraft designed to launch it.

Whatever its limitations, SS1 has galvanised attempts to break the 'Space Access' problem. There are now many many more spacecraft development efforts under way than at any point in the history of space flight.

So which idea, or set of ideas, will produce the breakthrough vehicle?

To achieve a true revolution in cost and reliability we have to make a truly reusable system. And that's an enoumous technical challenge. Yet this challenge is gradually yielding to human ingenuity and innovation.

A company called 'SpaceX' has successfully flown its Falcon rocket, after several aborted attempts; and other companies are doing evermore advanced tests with new engines, systems and designs. And one long-awaited test flight later this year may herald a major technological breakthrough in air-breathing engines that could power a winged vehicle from runway to orbit.

Both of these efforts will bring low cost and reliable space access much closers. However, there's much more afoot than meets the eye (see part II below)

Space for all coming soon (Part II)?

So what's the issue?

Well encombant space vehicles can be broadly divided into two categories: (1) those inspired by winged aircraft and (2) those inspired by ballistic rockets (the difference between wizz and the bang).

In the early days of the space race both winged and ballistic craft were considered viable options for reaching orbit. Yet they represent vastly different ideas about space travel in terms of both the engineering challenges and economic viability.

Ballistic spacecraft basically pile in the fuel and use brute force to push their way into space, shedding engines and fuel tanks on their way up to lighten the load.

Winged spacecraft are the more elegant option. Launching from the ground or from the back or belly of another aircraft, they use the Earth's atmosphere for lift as long as possible. On the way back, they glide down to Earth to be used again and again. Their potential reusability has led to the tantalising idea that winged spacecraft could, in time, be much cheaper to operate than ballistic throwaways. They might even use the same facilities as commercial airliners, opening up space travel to commerce and tourism.

In plain reality, winged spacecraft like SS1 and NASA's X-15 - which reached an altitude of 107 kilometres - have never really made it past the lower reaches of space. Their on-board rocket engines lacked the oomph to propel them the extra 60 kilometres (to 167k) needed to reach orbit.

The conspicuous exception to this rule is the space shuttle, a vehicle that was part winged spacecraft and part ballistic vehicle. The shuttle isn't completely reusable, however, on each flight the expensive external fuel tanks are dumped in the ocean. Yet it showcases the most important technologies for low-cost, reliable access to space. The key is Reusability, combined with Flying Often. Where the shuttle falls down is the 'Flying Often' part.

Originally designed to fly hundreds of times a year and reduce costs of each flight, the shuttle fleet has never managed more than 9 flights in a year.

However, NASA's so-called 'Constellation Programme' - a mega-project set to replace the current shuttle - has a amjor goal of sending people to the moon on a regular basis. But while some elements of Constellation's spacecraft are designed to be reusable, the design - I think - is a step back towards the Apollo era. It can probably be made reliable enough, but it will never be low-cost because it will never be flown enough.

And so? The true space era - based on these encumbant technologies - seems, well, some way-away.

But that's not the end of the story. There are alturnative space access technologies now being experimented with that are so radical, so revolutionary, and so compelling that, I think, may shock even the most hardend Hyperinnovator (see part III below).

Click here to see the big picture!

.
Space for all coming soon (Part III)?
.


Recall the much loved story 'Charley and the Great Glass Elevator?' It may be a metaphor for the shape of space-flight to come!

Not to worry, I'm not going to try to convince you that we are all about to attach large silicon boxes to space anchored sky-hooks.

But from serious fact to fascinating fiction Space Elevators have been called space bridges, space ladders, beanstalks, skyhooks, and the great glass elevator.

So, now down to earth (and maybe up again).... What is actually happening?

Believe it or not the original idea goes back to 1895 to Konstantin Tsioikovsky. Back then he proposed a free standing Tower stretching to a level where obits can take place. That's where earth's atmosphere and its gravitational pull relinquishes to a point where masses can hover or can circle the earth. And that happens at about 170 kilometers up.

Most space Elevators ideas hang on tether and sheet like cables, where the structure is in tension on earth and counter weighted in space like a guitar string held taut. Problems is, a tether material made, for example, of Carbide Steel (CS) with a diameter of a mere 1mm would snap under its own weight. In fact the total mass of CS needed to construct such a structure would be so great that the cable would break in less than 2000 meters down.

News is that the much much famed CarbonNanoTube (CNT) is around 20 times the strength of CS in its natural from. Even better news is the kinds of molecular bonds obtainable from CNTs. They give an extraordinary number of creative interconnections, resulting in ultra-strength multidimensional geometric weaves. This Hypermaterial offers not just linear strength (20x steel), but 1000x the strength of steel, with at least 1000x less the weight.

But how strong does a Space Elevator tether have to be?

Many numbers are bandied about, and usually with a designation of GPa (Giga-Pascals) as their unit of measure. However, a GPa figure is meaningless without a density figure to go with it. The metric at question is GPa/(g/cc), or specific strength - strength-per-density.

The textile industry, which often deals with specific strength of materials, uses the unit of N/Tex. If you work out the units, a N/Tex turns out to be exactly equivalent to a GPa/(g/cc). In the metric system, we define 1 Yuri = 1 Pa/(kg/m3), and so a GPa/(g/cc) or a N/tex are equal to 1 MYuri (Mega Yuri).

Think about it this way: if you pull on a garden hose and it breaks at 100 lb, and if the diameter of the hose is such that its area is 2 square inches, can you say that the rubber failed at 50 PSI? Of course not - the hose is mostly air, only the wall of the hose is holding the force. you should use the area of the wall, not the hose.

In exactly the same way, if 12 inches of the garden hose weighs a pound, can you say that the density of the rubber is 1/24 [lbs/in3]? Of course not - only the wall of the hose has weight.

BUT!!! You can safely say that the *specific strength* of the rubber is 50/(1/24)=1200 PSI/(lb/in3) and you don’t have to even measure the diameter of the hose - just divide the breaking force (100) by the linear mass density (1/12), and you get the same exact number (1200). The cross-sectional area canceled out, and the only two things we need to measure is the breaking *force* (in lbs) and the weigh-per-linear-inch. Hence N/Tex.

So back to the Space Elevator: computer simulations of CNTs cap the specific strength of individual tubes at between 40 and 50 MYuri. Practical measurements seem to converge on that number as well. The density of Carbon Nanotubes is 2.2 g/cc, so using this density the proper strength figure is 88-110 GPa.

Remember though, it’s the 40-50 MYuri figure that’s the deal maker. We can build a Space Elevator using a 40 MYuri material. Even 30. It’s just that the lower the specific strength, the heavier the ribbon, and the more powerful our motors have to be.

So when will this all happen?

I'll come to that in later blog postings. But for now I would urge you to spend sometime watching the above video. Click on the above title and see.

Watch Touchable Holography

.


Touchable holographic displays?

Researchers from The University of Tokyo Shinoda lab have figured out a way to add touch to holograms.

It's surprising stuff.

Click on title to watch vid!

Hyperphones with nanoscale engineering capabilities are in the R&D labs NOW.

Click on title to a product concept video presenation from Nokia Nanotech.

Mind blowing stuff. Capable of things we now do not only have, but have not even have thought of before.

Click here to see latest move toward Nanomanufacturing.

.


The above picture is of IBM's prototype 3D-Nanochip, which gives massively powerful parallel computing capability in ultra-tiny space.

In essence, within 5 years ultra-computing (100 teraflops) will be in your handheld device for around 500 hundred dollars.

That's 100 million times improvement in terms of price-performance since the time when mobile handheld computers came to market.

The functionality will take Hyperinnovation to new heights.

Microlasers will enable 3D laser holographic projectors to be embedded in such handheld devicea.

That means small devices that emit light-based functional interface technologies, such as keypads that is laser projection. Bang goes the hardware, here comes lightware!

Please view this short picture flash.

.


Architecture is taking off. Much of this is now coming off the drawing board. See if you can recognise any buildings being constructed now.