[tt] KurzweilAI.net Daily Newsletter

Mon Jun 2 14:10:13 UTC 2008

KURZWEILAI.NET NEWSLETTER

NEWS
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What Dictionaries and Optical
Illusions Say About Our Brains
ScientificAmerican.com May 30, 2008
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Mark Changizi, assistant professor
of cognitive science at Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute, has writtten
papers that explain how our lexical
systems evolved and another that
suggests how the brain's visual
system is adapted to anticipate the
future a fraction of a second before
we actually see it....
http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=8792&m=40924

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Dean Kamen's Robot Arm Grabs More
Publicity
Wired Gadget Lab May 29, 2008
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Dean Kamen's mind-controlled
prosthetic robot arm, dubbed "Luke,"
is a sophisticated bit of
engineering that's lightyears ahead
of the clamping "claws" that many
amputees are forced to use today.
The arm is fully articulated, giving
the user the same degrees of
movement as a natural arm, and is
sensitive enough to pick up a piece
of paper,...
http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=8791&m=40924

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Interview: Why our brains are so
clumsy
New Scientist news service May 30, 2008
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In his new book, Kluge: The
haphazard construction of the human
mind, Gary Marcus describes the
brain as a clumsy collection of
spare parts. Evolution tends not to
optimise things; it simply tinkers
with what's already there, he says.
So it tends to make things better
but there's no guarantee that it
will make the best. "Survival of the...
http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=8790&m=40924

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Molecular 'robots' explore cellular
landscapes
New Scientist Tech June 2, 2008
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Molecular sensors have been
developed by Queen's University
(Belfast) chemists to map the
chemical environments (hydrogen ion
concentration and charge polarity)
of living cells and encode the
measurements into light...
http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=8789&m=40924

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How to harvest solar power? Beam it
down from space!
CNN.com Technology June 1, 2008
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Skyrocketing oil prices, a
heightened awareness of climate
change, and worries about natural
resource depletion have recently
prompted a renewed interest in
beaming extraterrestrial energy back
to Earth. A 2007 report released by
the Pentagon's National Security
Space Office encouraged the U.S.
government to spearhead the
development of...
http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=8788&m=40924

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The Singularity: A Special Report
IEEE Spectrum June 2008
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In a special issue, IEEE Spectrum
examines the Singularity--addressing
such issues as how to prepare for
it, what the signs are, if machines
can be conscious, escaping death by
uploading your mind, reverse
engineering the brain, and how
machines could put us out of work....
http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=8787&m=40924

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Two Paths to the Singularity
IEEE Spectrum June 2008
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Neil Gershenfeld, director of MIT's
Center for Bits and Atoms, sees a
future in which physical reality is
infused with embedded, distributed,
self-organizing computation
everywhere, while Ray Kurzweil sees
a future with increasingly
realistic, full-immersion
virtual-reality computers. But
Gersenfeld and Kurzweil agree that
these worlds will...
http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=8786&m=40924

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Drugs to Grow Your Brain
Technology Review June 2, 2008
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Researchers at BrainCells Inc. have
developed drugs that encourage the
growth of new neurons (neurogenesis)
in the brain. Hippocampus section:
Mature neurons are green, newborn
neurons are orange, and neural stem
cells are red (BrainCells Inc.) The
drugs could also treat depression
without the side effects and failure
rate of existing...
http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=8785&m=40924

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Immune cells 'vacuum up'
Alzheimer's clumps
NewScientist.com news service May 30, 2008
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Yale University researchers have
found that blocking a gene in mice
allowed white blood cells to enter
the brain (crossing the blood-brain
barrier) and destroy the amyloid
plaques that cause Alzheimer's....
http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=8784&m=40924

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Telltale DNA sucked out of
household dust (article preview)
New Scientist June 1, 2008
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In a finding reminiscent of the
movie Gattaca, Virginia Commonwealth
University researchers have
identified human DNA in dust. Though
each sample contained just
trillionths of a gram of DNA, it was
enough for amplification and
profiling via the DNA kits used in
forensic labs. The amount of DNA in
dust is tiny and from so many people
that...
http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=8783&m=40924

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Ray Kurzweil to appear on Glenn
Beck show on CNN Headline News
KurzweilAI.net May 30, 2008
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Ray Kurzweil will appear on the
Glenn Beck television show on CNN
Headline News for a full hour on
Friday May 30, 2008. The show airs
nightly at 7, 9, and midnight ET....
http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=8782&m=40924

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