Evolutionary algorithms now surpass human designers

CHARLES DARWIN’s theory of evolution has been the source of much controversy since its publication in 1859, most recently involving the intelligent design (ID) lobby in the US. Now the theory is fuelling another debate, although for once the battle lines have nothing to do with religion. Instead of pitting God against science, the emerging spat centres on evolutionary algorithms (EAs), which mimic the processes of natural selection and random mutation by “breeding”, selecting and re-breeding possible designs to produce the fittest ones.

Site – http://www.newscientisttech.com

Second Earth

The World Wide Web will soon be absorbed into the World Wide Sim: an environment combining elements of Second Life and Google Earth. MIT’s Technology Review has published an interesting article called “Second Earth” by Wade Roush. This is a lengthy article, but is a worthy read if you are interested in the developing trends on virtual globes – like Google Earth, World Wind, and Virtual Earth – and social virtual worlds like Second Life, There, and World of Warcraft. Not surprisingly, most people in the industry believe the Internet is evolving towards increasing 3D interfaces and that real virtual globes like Google Earth with soon be linked up with fantasy virtual worlds like Second Life.

Site – http://www.treehugger.com

Transhumanism: Evolution’s Next Big Move?

A special roundtable discussion–”Transhumanism: Evolution’s Next Big Move?”–on the international Coast To Coast AM radio show will feature presenters from the upcoming TransVision 2007 conference in Chicago, including James Gardner, Ray Kurzweil, Charlie Kam, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Philippe Van Nedervelde, and James Hughes.

Site – http://www.transvision2007.com

Online help sought to organize galaxies

Scientists need help sorting through an unusual digital photo album: pictures of about 1 million galaxies. They are asking volunteers on the Internet to help classify the galaxies as either elliptical or spiral and note, where possible, in which direction they rotate. It would be the largest galactic census ever compiled, something scientists say would provide new insight into the structure of the universe. “We’re in the golden era of astronomy,” said Bob Nichol, an astronomer at the University of Portsmouth in southern England. “We have more data than we can assimilate, and we need help.”

Site – http://www.cnn.com

Rise Of Roboethics

In April, the government of Japan released more than 60 pages of recommendations to “secure the safe performance of next-generation robots,” which called for a centralized database to log all robot-inflicted human injuries. That same month, the European Robotics Research Network (EURON) updated its “Roboethics Roadmap,” a document broadly listing the ethical implications of projected developments like robotic surgeons, soldiers, and sex workers. And in March, South Korea provided a sneak peek at its “Robot Ethics Charter” slated for release later in 2007. The charter envisioned a near future wherein humans may run the risk of becoming emotionally dependent on or addicted to their robots.

Site – http://www.seedmagazine.com

World’s largest optical telescope to see first light

A huge new observatory, called the Great Canary Telescope, is set to open its eye to the sky on Friday. With a main mirror 10.4 metres across, it will effectively be the largest telescope for visible and infrared light in the world. The next largest are the twin Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, US, which have main mirrors 10 metres across. The Hobby-Eberly Telescope near Fort Davis, Texas, US, and South African Large Telescope (SALT) near Sutherland, South Africa both have main mirrors 11.1 by 9.8 metres across, but because of the way they are constructed, only a patch 9.2 metres across can be used at any given time for observations.

Site – http://space.newscientist.com

Is dark energy lurking in hidden spatial dimensions?

The mysterious cosmic presence called dark energy, which is accelerating the expansion of the universe, might be lurking in hidden dimensions of space. The idea would explain how these dimensions remain stable – a big problem for the unified scheme of physics called string theory.

Site – http://space.newscientist.com

What’s next for the Internet

If you think of the World Wide Web as a cloud of largely undifferentiated information, the mission of the company he’s about to unveil, Radar Networks, is to take that cloud and impose order on it. Not just any order, but a very special kind known to experts by one of the hottest buzzwords in computer science today: the semantic Web. For all the wonders that today’s Web can deliver to your fingertips — the Norwegian word for ice cream, a seat on the next flight to Paris, the best price for a Clash CD — it has a fundamental flaw. It’s basically a compendium of billions of text documents designed to be read by humans. You can search it for keywords, but the results aren’t much use until you sort through them to find the page that has the info you want. To take the Web to the next level — to move from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 — the information in those documents will have to be turned into data that a machine can read and evaluate on its own. Only then will computers be able to take over tasks we now do by hand: find the nearest restaurant, book the best flight, buy the cheapest CD.

Site – http://money.cnn.com

10 Questions For The Dalai Lama

Why do the poor often seem happier than the rich? Must a society lose its traditions in order to move into the future? How do you reconcile a commitment to non-violence when faced with violence? These are some of the questions posed to His Holiness the Dalai Lama by filmmaker and explorer Rick Ray. Ray examines some of the fundamental questions of our time by weaving together observations from his own journeys throughout India and the Middle East, and the wisdom of an extraordinary spiritual leader.

In an era when many religious and political leaders are viewed with suspicion, and when cynical agendas rule both government and clergy, the Dalai Lama is undeniably authentic. Along with Martin Luther King, Gandhi and Jesus, this great leader inspires millions and has influenced the world in so many ways.

Site – http://www.rickrayfilms.com

The universe will destroy the evidence of its origin

Back around the early 1900s, the universe was a fairly simple place. It was static, had always been there, and largely consisted of our own galaxy and a few neighboring bits of matter. Over the course of the 20th century, that view collapsed. Many sources of light were revealed not be stars, but rather galaxies like (and, in many cases, unlike) our own. Distant galaxies were found to be rocketing away from us, propelled by the unfolding of the universe itself, which has accelerated since the big bang. Modern cosmology has revealed a universe teeming with dark matter and unseen energy, entering a new stage of inflation.

Site – http://arstechnica.com

What Happened Before the Big Bang?

“My paper introduces a new mathematical model that we can use to derive new details about the properties of a quantum state as it travels through the Big Bounce, which replaces the classical idea of a Big Bang as the beginning of our universe,” said Martin Bojowald, assistant professor of physics at Penn State. Bojowald’s research also suggests that, although it is possible to learn about many properties of the earlier universe, we always will be uncertain about some of these properties because his calculations reveal a “cosmic forgetfulness” that results from the extreme quantum forces during the Big Bounce.

Site – http://www.physorg.com