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Excerpted from “The Human Age: The World Shaped by Us” by Diane Ackerman — Salon.com

http://media.salon.com/2014/09/c3p0_r2d22.jpg

Hod Lipson is the only man I know whose first name means “splendor” in Hebrew and a V-shaped wooden trough for carrying bricks over one shoulder in English. The paradox suits him physically and mentally. He looks strong and solid enough to carry a hod full of bricks, but he would be the first to suggest that the bricks might not resemble any you’ve ever known. They might even saunter, reinvent themselves, refuse to be stacked, devise their own mortar, fight back, explore, breed more of their kind, and boast a nimble curiosity about the world. Splendor can be bricklike, if graced by complexity.

His lab building at Cornell University is home to many a skunk-works project in computer sciences or engineering, including some of DARPA’s famous design competitions (agile robots to clean up toxic disasters, superhero exoskeletons for soldiers, etc.). Nearby, two futuristic DARPA Challenge cars have been left like play-worn toys a few steps from a display case of antique engineering marvels and an elevator that’s old and slow as a butter churn.

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Blitzkrieg Foresight!

0  wildest

Let us stop the universal guesswork to make decisions by ignoramuses of supine ignorance, beginning with the elitist “…intellectuals…”, specially those postdoctorals from the Ivy-league and Oxbridge.

You do not make (throughput to output) decisions to be instituted in the past, but in the Continual Present, whose Continuum is hugely connected to the Future.

ALL CONTAINED HERE IS A VERY BRIEF LITERAL EXCERPT OF ANDRES AGOSTINI’S WHITE SWAN BOOK:

LET US GET STARTED:

The American Heritage Dictionary’s Introduction (fourth edition, 2000) by Joseph P. Pickett, Executive Director, literally indicates, to further illustrate the reader, [54]:

“…This Fourth Edition of The American Heritage Dictionary combines the best of traditional making with key innovations that afford new ways of looking at our language… This edition has nearly 10,000 new words and senses that reflect the rapid pace of change in the English language today. Technological innovations in computing and communications along with advances in the sciences have been especially rich sources of development in the lexicon (for example, bit map, domain name, and raster in computing; dark matter, photonics, and yoctosecond in science). Medicine and medical research continue to produce an astonishing array of new terms for chemicals and substances (endostatin, leptin, transfatty acid), for disorders and infectious agents (Asperger’s syndrome, erectile dysfunction, hantavirus), for treatment (cocktail, molecular knife, xenotransplant), and for a variety of creations and discoveries (designer gene, enteric nervous system, microsleep) .… In addition, continuing social change in postindustrial society has given rise to expressions that describe new business practices (buyback, microcredit, reverse mortgage), a changing workplace (face time, job-share, mommy track), and evolving political positions and governmental policies (family leave, term limit, workfare). New sports terms have arisen (clap skate, five hole, skyboard), as have words for new educational practices (charter school, distance learning, homeschool). The names of foods from other cultures continue to be adopted (baba gannouj, garam masala, quesadilla). A host of new cultural developments has produced a host of new compound cords (assisted living, poetry slam, shock jock). And English speakers continue to be an exuberance force in creative coinage (bloviate, newbie, wannabe) .… To ensure accuracy in the coverage of our rapidly changing vocabulary, we have worked closely with distinguished consultants in a wide variety of specialized fields, including anthropology, astronomy, genetics, immunology, philosophy, and physics, to name but a few. We have also gone to great lengths to make our biological and geographic entries as timely as possible. Many new biographical entries have been added, especially in the areas of sports, music, film-making, and literature. To the geographic entries we have added new country names, such as Myanmar and the Republic of Congo, and newly prominent places such as Kosovo …”

AND ALSO FOR INSTANCE:

WHAT DO LUMINARIES SAY OF UTILITY HAVE TO SAY HERE?

ALSO #1 of #18:

Napoleon Bonaparte, to this end, asserted,

“…I have only one counsel for you — be master [.…] No longer it is question simply of education, NOW IT BECOMES A MATTER OF ACQUIRING [HARD] SCIENCE …” Brackets are of the author.

ALSO #2 of #18:

Dr. Carl Sagan, PhD. wrote,

“…We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows about science and technology…”

ALSO #3 of #18:

Prof. Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, PhD.,

“… We live in a high-tech age with archaic guesswork guiding life and death decisions …”

ALSO #4 of #15:

Harvard Business School professor Clay Christensen, Ph.D. indicated,

“… Change is hard, failure is much harder, and would you rather be sick or would you rather be dead?…”

ALSO #5 of #18:

In a June 2012 feature, Jeff Bezos told the Wall Street Journal:

“ … We humans have become so technologically sophisticated that in certain ways we’re dangerous to ourselves. It’s going to be increasingly important over time for humanity to take a longer-term view of its future …”

ALSO #6 of #18:

Jacob Bronowski advised,

“ … We are a scientific civilization .… that means a civilization in which knowledge and its integrity are crucial. Science is only a Latin word for [organized] knowledge .… knowledge is our destiny …”

OTHER STUPIDS, DO THEY NOT UNDERSTAND THIS?:

(1.-) “.. Science…” is Organized Knowledge.

(2.-) “… Wisdom …” is Organized Life.

ALSO #7 of #18:

Professor Stephen Hawking, Ph.D. warned,

” … Mankind must colonize other planets to survive [….] THE LONG-TERM SURVIVAL OF THE HUMAN RACE IS AT RISK AS LONG AS IT IS CONFINED TO A SINGLE PLANET [.…] SOONER OR LATER, DISASTERS SUCH AS AN ASTEROID COLLISION OR NUCLEAR WAR COULD WIPE US ALL OUT. BUT ONCE WE SPREAD OUT INTO SPACE AND ESTABLISH INDEPENDENT COLONIES, OUR FUTURE SHOULD BE SAFE [….] There isn’t anywhere like the Earth in the solar system, so we would have to go to another star […] The primitive forms of artificial intelligence we already have, have proved very useful. But I think the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race [….] We are pushing the boundaries of what is possible through technology – without it I would not be able to speak to you today …”

ALSO #8 of #18:

FINANCIAL TIMES (December 2, 2014, 6:13 pm) posits,

“ … Prof. Stephen Hawking warns on rise of the machines … The astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has warned that artificial intelligence ‘could outsmart us all’ and is calling for humans to establish colonies on other planets to avoid ultimately a ‘near-certainty’ of technological catastrophe … ’ … By contrast, according to Moore’s Law, computers double their speed and memory capacity every 18 months. The risk is that computers develop intelligence and take over. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superseded,’ he said … Both PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, the entrepreneur behind the electric car Tesla and SpaceX, the private space flight company, have warned of the dangers of complacency over the consequences of unconstrained advances in artificial intelligence … Google is making a push into ‘…quantum computing …’ and has established an ethics committee to monitor the work of DeepMind, the artificial intelligence start-up it bought for £400m (US$625.84) earlier in the year. Consumers are coming into increasing contact with “smart” machines, including flying drones and prototypes of self-driving cars … A recent paper from researchers at the Oxford Martin School at Oxford university has warned governments to plan for the risk of ‘robo-wars’ in which autonomous weapons can identify and decide to kill targets without human intervention … But he also warned that there was potentially a more destructive element to technology. ’ … We face a number of threats to our survival, from nuclear war, catastrophic global warming, and genetically engineered viruses; the number is likely to increase in the future, with the development of new technologies, and new ways things can go wrong, …’ he said. … ’ … We need to expand our horizons beyond planet Earth if we are to have a long-term future, spreading out into space, and to other stars, so a disaster on Earth would not mean the end of the human race. Establishing self-sustaining colonies will take time and effort, but it will become easier as our technology improves …’ …” FINANCIAL TIMES at https://lnkd.in/eB2Mn8z

ALSO #9 of #18:

Albert Einstein observed,

“ … It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity …”

ALSO #10 of #18:

Cambridge University’ Sir Martin Rees, Ph.D. (British Astronomer Royal) noticed,

“ … Science is emphatically not, as some have claimed, approaching its end; it is surging ahead at an accelerating rate. We are still flummoxed about the bedrock nature of physical reality, and the complexities of life, the brain, and the cosmos. New discoveries, illuminating all these mysteries, will engender benign applications; but will also pose NEW ETHICAL DILEMMAS AND BRING NEW HAZARDS …. BUT THERE IS A DARK SIDE: NEW SCIENCE CAN HAVE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES; IT EMPOWERS INDIVIDUALS TO PERPETRATE ACTS OF MEGATERROR; EVEN INNOCENT ERRORS COULD BE CATASTROPHIC. THE ‘DOWNSIDE’ FROM TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY TECHNOLOGY COULD BE GRAVER AND MORE INTRACTABLE THAN THE THREAT OF NUCLEAR DEVASTATION THAT WE HAVE FACED FOR DECADES. AND HUMAN-INDUCED PRESSURES ON THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT MAY ENGENDER HIGHER RISKS THAT THE AGE-OLD HAZARDS OF EARTHQUAKES, ERUPTIONS, AND ASTEROID IMPACTS …”

ALSO #11 of #18:

Charles, Prince of Whales, observed:

“ … The strategic threats posed by global environment and development problems are the most complex, interwoven and potentially devastating of all the challenges to our security. Scientists …. do not fully understand the consequences of our many-faceted assault on the interwoven fabric of atmosphere, water, land and life in all its biological diversity. Things could turn out to be worse than the current scientific best guess. IN MILITARY AFFAIRS, POLICY HAS LONG BEEN BASED ON THE DICTUM THAT WE SHOULD BE PREPARED FOR THE WORST CASE. WHY SHOULD IT BE SO DIFFERENT WHEN THE SECURITY IS THAT OF THE PLANET AND OUR LONG-TERM FUTURE? …” [229]

ALSO #12 of #18:

Prof. Daniel Berleant, Ph.D. observes,

“… Will we destroy ourselves in a matter of years, decades, or centuries, or will we last indefinitely? Many people see our increasing power over nature, coupled with self-destructive tendencies, leading us to destroy ourselves [.…] Perhaps we will transcend both technology-enabled self-destruction and normal evolution …”

ALSO #13 of #18:

And a Sephardi Hebrew, gave me an Arab adage that argues,

“… The one who foretells the future correctly, lies even if he is telling the truth …”

ALSO #14 of #18:

However, as a counterpoint Lockheed Martin argues:

“… What’s impossible today won’t be tomorrow …”

ALSO #15 of #18:

Subsequently, the hugely-ignored Chinese proverb indicates,

“…Don’t look at the waves but the currents underneath…”

ALSO #16 of #18:

Nevertheless, the Panchatantra (body of Eastern philosophical knowledge) establishes,

“… Knowledge is the true organ of sight, not the eyes … ”

ALSO #17 of #18:

And Antonio Machado argues,

“… An eye is not an eye because you see it; an eye is an eye because it sees you …”

ALSO #18 of #18:

Prof. Michio Kaku, Ph.D. indicates,

“… By the end of the twentieth century, science had reached the end of an era, unlocking the secrets of the atom, unraveling the molecule of life, and creating the electronic computer. With these three fundamental discoveries, triggered by the quantum revolution, the DNA revolution, and the computer revolution, the basic laws of matter, life, and computation were, in the main, finally solved .… That epic phase of science is now drawing to a close; one era is ending and another is only beginning .… The next era of science promises to be an even deeper, more thoroughgoing, more penetrating one than the last .… Clearly, we are on the threshold of yet another revolution. HUMAN KNOWLEDGE IS DOUBLING EVERY TEN YEARS [AS PER THE 1998 STANDARDS]. In the past decade, more scientific knowledge has been created than in all of human history. COMPUTER POWER IS DOUBLING EVERY EIGHTEEN MONTHS. THE INTERNET IS DOUBLING EVERY YEAR. THE NUMBER OF DNA SEQUENCES WE CAN ANALYZE IS DOUBLING EVERY TWO YEARS. Almost daily, the headlines herald new advances in computers, telecommunications, biotechnology, and space exploration. In the wake of this technological upheaval, entire industries and lifestyles are being overturned, only to give rise to entirely new ones. But these rapid, bewildering changes are not just quantitative. They mark the birth pangs of a new era .… FROM NOW TO THE YEAR 2020, SCIENTISTS FORESEE AN EXPLOSION IN SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITY SUCH AS THE WORLD HAS NEVER SEEN BEFORE. IN TWO KEY TECHNOLOGIES, COMPUTER POWER AND THE DNA SEQUENCING, WE WILL SEE ENTIRE INDUSTRIES RISE AND FALL ON THE BASIS OF BREATHTAKING SCIENTIFIC ADVANCES. SINCE THE 1950S, THE POWER OF OUR COMPUTERS HAS ADVANCED BY A FACTOR OF ROUGHLY TEN BILLION. IN FACT, BECAUSE BOTH COMPUTER POWER AND DNA SEQUENCING DOUBLE ROUGHLY EVERY TWO YEARS, ONE CAN COMPUTE THE ROUGH TIME FRAME OVER WHICH MANY SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGHS WILL TAKE PLACE .… BY 2020, MICROPROCESSORS WILL LIKELY BE AS A CHEAP AND PLENTIFUL AS SCRAP PAPER, SCATTERED BY THE MILLIONS INTO ENVIRONMENT, ALLOWING US TO PLACE INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS EVERYWHERE. THIS WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING AROUND US, INCLUDING THE NATURE OF COMMERCE, THE WEALTH OF NATIONS, AND THE WAY WE COMMUNICATE, WORK, PLAY, AND LIVE…” [171]

SIGNIFICANTLY AS WELL, TO BE BARED IN MIND:

British people insist that as per the Rosicrucian Englishmen, Shakespeare was really Francis Bacon. Having said that, and coming back to the hard-core subject, Sir Francis Bacon (1561 −1626) wrote,

“… Men have abandoned universality [of knowledge], or philosophia prima, which cannot but cease and stop all progression [pursued through arbitrarily established specialization and even super-specialization]. For no perfect discovery can be made upon a flat or a level; neither is possible to discover the more remote and deeper parts [, both subtle and dramatic,] of any science if you stand but upon the level of the same science, and ascend not to a higher science [towards true non-theological omniscience] …” Brackets of the Author.

CONCLUSION:

Austrian-American Peter Ferdinand Drucker (ISBN: 978–0060851149) strongly argues, as I have verified in my 33-year-old continual evidence-based research, that people’s schemas (understandings of the world), belief systems, worldviews, and most cherished notions and truisms, as well as Weltanschauungs, have a median and in average — as per the 1990’s standards — of twenty (20) years of obsolescence per each person. This obsolescence is insanely grave for the viability of Earth.

Factual proof, available and to the possession of this Author, strongly indicates that such obsolescence has exponentially widened with the elapse of time while technological breakthroughs and scientific discoveries are more prevalent and obvious.

If you don’t understand this, get ready to be Strategically Surprised beyond your most-colossal nightmares. Something(s) seismic and tectonic FORCES will happen globally between 2014 and early 2016. You have been warned!

To-this-end details are to be found in the White Swan book. The reader has seen 0.001% of such a book.

HOWEVER, THERE IS FUNDAMENTAL COPING AVAILABLE FOR THE ONE PAYING ATTENTION. SAID COPING MUST BE INSTITUTED BEFORE THE FACTS, NOT AFTER THE FACTS. I CAN HELP!

ABSOLUTE END.

Authored By Copyright Mr. Andres Agostini

White Swan Book Author (Source of this Article)

http://www.LINKEDIN.com/in/andresagostini

http://www.AMAZON.com/author/agostini

https://www.FACEBOOK.com/agostiniandres

http://www.appearoo.com/aagostini

http://connect.FORWARDMETRICS.com/profile/1649/Andres-Agostini.html

@AndresAgostini

@ThisSuccess

@SciCzar

N.B.: IT IS ARGUED IN MY LINKEDIN PROFILE MY GARGANTUANEST INCLINATION IN WOMB-TO-TOMB THINKING THROUGH SYSTEMS APPROACH AND THE NON-THEOLOGICAL OMNISCIENCE PERSPECTIVE.

Sam Chaltain — NEPC

Whenever I want to get a feel for the national mood, I look to Hollywood – and the films it thinks we’ll pay to see. In the post-911 malaise, there was the dystopian world of The Dark Knight. In the era of extended male adolescence, there’s just about anything from Judd Apatow. And now, in the shadow of the Technological Singularity, there are a slew of movies about humankind’s desire to transcend the biological limits of body and brain.

What’s the Singularity, you say? That’s the moment when the whole game board changes – the moment when artificial intelligence purportedly pulls even with, and then rapidly exceeds (or merges with) human intelligence. Hollywood’s best effort to portray it thus far is Spike Jonze’s Her, the unsettling story of a man who falls in love with his operating system, which also happens to be the first artificially intelligent OS (think Siri with a personality, and a conscience, and Scarlett Johansson’s voice). But there are others: Lucy, the film about a woman (curiously, also Scarlett Johansson) who begins to use 100% of her brain’s capacity; Transcendence, in which Johnny Depp plays a dying scientist who gives the Grim Reaper the slip by uploading his mind to the mainframe; and then, starting October 10, there’s Automata, a story about the moment man-made robots acquire a consciousness separate from their creators.

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FUTURISM UPDATE (December 09, 2014) — Mr. Andres Agostini, Amazon, LinkedIn

INTRO

FUTURE OBSERVATORY: Wireless brain sensor-transmitter could unchain neuroscience from cables http://www.kurzweilai.net/wireless-brain-sensor-transmitter-could-unchain-neuroscience-from-cables

FUTURE OBSERVATORY: Australian researchers set new world record in solar-energy efficiency http://www.kurzweilai.net/australian-researchers-set-new-world-record-in-solar-energy-efficiency

FUTURE OBSERVATORY: Spray-on solar sensors for random surfaces http://lnkd.in/e_9vjFR

THE GUARDIAN: Radical new economic system will emerge from collapse of capitalism http://lnkd.in/ejYWpDv

FUTURE OBSERVATORY: How Meshnets Are Changing The Face Of The Web http://lnkd.in/eVVF8Yk

MOSCOW TIMES: Ruble Plummets as Oil Price Slips Again http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/rubles-plummets-as-oil-price-slips-again/512699.html

DER SPIEGEL: ‘The Most Dangerous Emerging Disease Is Drug Resistance’ http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/infectious-disease-expert-jeremy-farrar-on-ebola-epidemic-a-1006019.html

FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Why They Fought. How War Made the State and the State Made Peace http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/142257/michael-mandelbaum/why-they-fought

Daily Mail‎ — German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday accused Russia of ‘creating problems’ for countries which are seeking closer ties with the EU. http://lnkd.in/eCYhw8c

WALL STREET JOURNAL: Alibaba: Alipay Processing More Transactions Through Mobile Devices http://www.wsj.com/articles/alibaba-alipay-processing-more-transactions-through-mobile-devices-1418000582

Bloomberg- China Takes Nuclear Weapons Undersea Where Prying Eyes Can’t See https://lnkd.in/ePTmrte

Seeking Alpha- How I’m Playing The Collapse In The Price Of Oil http://seekingalpha.com/article/2739265-how-im-playing-the-collapse-in-the-price-of-oil

FUTURE OBSERVATORY: Four Ways To Innovate Using Big Data And Analytics http://www.forbes.com/sites/ibm/2014/12/08/four-ways-to-innovate-using-big-data-and-analytics/

THE GLOBE AND MAIL: Another retailer credit card breach: Bebe Stores hit http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/tech-news/another-retailer-credit-card-breach-bebe-stores-hit/article21968065/

CHINA’S soaring stockmarket, the growing peer-to-peer lending market and the surge in corporate dollar borrowing in emerging markets http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2014/12/money-talks-december-8th-2014

REUTERS: U.S. stocks stumble, oil falls to five-year lows http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/08/us-markets-global-idUSKBN0JM01D20141208

Huffington Post- The Future Landscape of Identity Theft: Why Children and Seniors Are Prime Targets for Identity Predators http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adrian-nazari/the-future-landscape-of-i_b_6189460.html

Huffington Post- Why Caste Won’t Disappear From India http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shashi-tharoor/caste-wont-disappear-india_b_6257354.html

BY MR. ANDRES AGOSTINI

White Swan Book Author (Source of this Article)

http://www.LINKEDIN.com/in/andresagostini

http://www.AMAZON.com/author/agostini

http://www.appearoo.com/aagostini

http://connect.FORWARDMETRICS.com/profile/1649/Andres-Agostini.html

@AndresAgostini

@ThisSuccess

by — SF Movie Review

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cBEbPznzme8/U_QTtB0lIOI/AAAAAAAAAEw/6uHQ0T-bEe8/s1600/Automata%2Bnew%2BPoster%2B(2).jpg

At the brink of human destruction, with almost all of the Earth’s population killed by a massive increase in solar storms, one city remains. It’s humanity’s last gasp, complete with artificial cloud cover created and managed by the primitive Automata Pilgrim 7000 robots. Millions of them. All working to keep the last vestige of humanity alive.

In a nod to Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, the millions of robots in this dismal future world are ruled by two unalterable, built-in security protocols: Robots are prohibited from harming any form of life and Robots cannot alter themselves or any other robots. But what if they started modifying themselves anyway?

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By — Grist

A team of scientists over in Europe have decided to take the idea of “green” power very, very literally: They have developed a system to harness the energy generated by moss.

Modern Farmer:

Along with two scientists from the University of Cambridge, Felder developed a way to use moss as a “biological solar panel.” Put simply, moss creates surplus electrons during photosynthesis. Felder’s collaborators have tapped into this electricity on a small scale — they’ve built a functional, moss-powered radio. …

The radio only runs for a couple minutes at a time. … But it’s early yet — the scientists have only figured how to harness about 0.1% of moss’s energy.

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By — 3D Printing Industry

layfom 3D printing memory foam material

Kai Parthy, inventor of the original Laywoo-D3 and Laybrick filaments, is back with an exciting new material for desktop filament fabricators. An extension of his foam PORO-LAY line, Kai has developed a sponge filament he calls Layfomm. Though objects printed with Layfomm are pretty ordinary and stiff, upon initial printing, when they’re dipped in water for two to three days, they become soft and flexible.

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FUTURISM UPDATE (December 06, 2014) — Mr. Andres Agostini, Amazon, LinkedIn

18

MOSCOW TIMES: King of Thailand Buys Russian Planes for Royal Fleet http://lnkd.in/ejaUFk8

“…Once humans develop artificial intelligence, it would take off on its own and redesign itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superseded…”

MIT Technology Review (blog)- Who Owns the Biggest Biotech Discovery of the Century? http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/532796/who-owns-the-biggest-biotech-discovery-of-the-century/

MIT Technology Review (blog)- Who Owns the Biggest Biotech Discovery of the Century? http://lnkd.in/epFxZDC

International Business Times AU‎ — 21st Century Cold War Has Began; US House Of Reps Passes Resolution 758 Even As US Tells Russia To Stop Self-isolation http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/574969/20141205/cold-war-house-resolution-758-russia-isolation.htm#.VIJIQcn5N30

Center for Research on Globalization‎ — America is on a “Hot War Footing”: House Legislation Paves the Way for War with Russia? http://lnkd.in/eEBEEHs

Businessweek- MetaMind Raises $8 Million to Bring Artificial Intelligence to the Masses http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-12-05/metamind-raises-8-million-to-bring-a-dot-i-dot-to-the-masses

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN: Quest for Quantum Computers Heats Up http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/quest-for-quantum-computers-heats-up/?WT.mc_id=SA_Facebook

THE ECONOMIST: Vladimir the Great http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21635690-russias-president-tells-his-people-west-out-get-them-vladimir-great?fsrc=scn/fb/te/bl/ed/vladimirthegreat

BY MR. ANDRES AGOSTINI

White Swan Book Author (Source of this Article)

http://www.LINKEDIN.com/in/andresagostini

http://www.AMAZON.com/author/agostini

http://www.appearoo.com/aagostini

http://connect.FORWARDMETRICS.com/profile/1649/Andres-Agostini.html

@AndresAgostini

@ThisSuccess

Daily Kos group — Daily Kos

Wow, this is the kind of article that causes me to space out — way out, like totally out of this world and quite a few others as well. James Cave writes a galactic mind-stretcher of an article in, New Galaxy Map Relocates The Milky Way To A Ginormous Supercluster Called Laniakea, which tells us how astronomers have greatly expanded our three-dimensional star maps analyzing the motion of 8,000 neighboring galaxies to discover we are part of a different super-galactic structure than we previously thought.

It turns out we are part of the Laniakean super-cluster not the super-cluster of Virgo.

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Samsung 850 Pro: The solution to Moore’s Law ending.

During the last few years, the semiconductor industry has been having a harder and harder time miniaturizing transistors with the latest problem being Intel’s delayed roll-out of its new 14 nm process. The best way to confirm this slowdown in progress of computing power is to try to run your current programs on a 6-year-old computer. You will likely have few problems since computers have not sped up greatly during the past 6 years. If you had tried this experiment a decade ago you would have found a 6-year-old computer to be close to useless as Intel and others were able to get much greater gains per year in performance than they are getting today.

Many are unaware of this problem as improvements in software and the current trend to have software rely on specialized GPUs instead of CPUs has made this slowdown in performance gains less evident to the end user. (The more specialized a chip is, the faster it runs.) But despite such workarounds, people are already changing their habits such as upgrading their personal computers less often. Recently people upgraded their ancient Windows XP machines only because Microsoft forced them to by discontinuing support for the still popular Windows XP operating system. (Windows XP was the second most popular desktop operating system in the world the day after Microsoft ended all support for it. At that point it was a 12-year-old operating system.)

It would be unlikely that AIs would become as smart as us by 2029 as Ray Kurzweil has predicted if we depended on Moore’s Law to create the hardware for AIs to run on. But all is not lost. Previously, electromechanical technology gave way to relays, then to vacuum tubes, then to solid-state transistors, and finally to today’s integrated circuits. One possibility for the sixth paradigm to provide exponential growth of computing has been to go from 2D integrated circuits to 3D integrated circuits. There have been small incremental steps in this direction, for example Intel introduced 3D tri-gate transistors with its first 22 nm chips in 2012. While these chips were slightly taller than the previous generation, performance gains were not great from this technology. (Intel is simply making its transistors taller and thinner. They are not stacking such transistors on top of each other.)

But quietly this year, 3D technology has finally taken off. The recently released Samsung 850 Pro which uses 42 nm flash memory is competitive with competing products that use 19 nm flash memory. Considering that, for a regular flat chip, 42 nm memory is (42 × 42) / (19 × 19) = 4.9 times as big and therefore 4.9 times less productive to work with, how did Samsung pull this off? They used their new 3D V-NAND architecture, which stacks 32 cell layers on top of one another. It wouldn’t be that hard for them to go from 32 layers to 64 then to 128, etc. Expect flash drives to have greater capacity than hard drives in a couple years! (Hard drives are running into their own form of an end of Moore’s Law situation.) Note that by using 42 nm flash memory instead of 19 nm flash memory, Samsung is able to use bigger cells that can handle more read and write cycles.

Samsung is not the only one with this 3D idea. For example, Intel has announced that it will be producing its own 32-layer 3D NAND chips in 2015. And 3D integrated circuits are, of course, not the only potential solution to the end of Moore’s Law. For example, Google is getting into the quantum computer business which is another possible solution. But there is a huge difference between a theoretical solution that is being tested in a lab somewhere and something that you can buy on Amazon today.

Finally, to give you an idea of how fast things are progressing, a couple months ago Samsung’s best technology was based on 24-layer 3D MLC chips and now Samsung has already announced that it is mass producing 32-layer 3D TLC chips that hold 50% more data per cell than the 32-layer 3D MLC chips currently used in the Samsung 850 Pro.

The Singularity is near!