Web/SF/transhumanist-crossover titans such as Warren Ellis, Charles Stross, and gerontologist Aubrey de Grey are interviewed in this free 1st edition pdf of H+ Magazine.
Whatever your thoughts on transhumanism, it’s all well worth reading.
All posts by Tom James
Brain computer interface works on monkeys
Good news on the Brain Computer Interface front, from PhysOrg:
Researchers in a study funded by the National Institutes of Health have demonstrated for the first time that a direct artificial connection from the brain to muscles can restore voluntary movement in monkeys whose arms have been temporarily anesthetized.
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“A robotic arm would be better for someone whose physical arm has been lost or if the muscles have atrophied, but if you have an arm whose muscles can be stimulated, a person can learn to reactivate them with this technology,” says Dr. Fetz.
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Here, the researchers discovered that any motor cortex cell, regardless of whether it had been previously associated with wrist movement, was capable of stimulating muscle activity.
This finding greatly expands the potential number of neurons that could control signals for brain-computer interfaces and also illustrates the flexibility of the motor cortex.
Researcher Dr. Fetz says that this is still around a decade away from clinical applications, but hopefully this kind of research will eventually lead to new treatments for paralysis.
Nobel laureate Paul Krugman discusses interstellar trade
Recent recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics Paul Krugman wrote a humorous academic paper on interstellar trade back in 1978:
This paper extends interplanetary trade to an interstellar setting. It is chiefly concerned with the following question: how should interest charges on goods in transit be computed when the goods travel at close to the speed of light?
This is a problem because the time taken in transit will appear less to an observer travelling with the goods than to a stationary observer. A solution is provided from economic theory, and two useless but true theorems are proved.
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It should be noted that, while the subject of this paper is silly, the analysis actually does make sense.
This paper, then, is a serious analysis of a ridiculous subject, which is of course the opposite of what is usual in economics.
Beautiful. The paper itself is full of zingers and whatnot, and is well worth a read.
[via the FT and David Friedman’s blog][image from Gaetan Lee on flickr]
Interesting juxtaposition of EMP technologies
It seems that various organisations are preparing for the war of the future with the news that the US military is working on an EMP bomb and a means of shielding electrical power grids from EMP bombs is under development, from The Register:
The electromagnetic pulse (EMP, aka High Power Microwave or HPM) weapon has long been theorised upon, ever since it was found that a nuclear explosion would produce such effects at the tail end of World War II.
People have speculated ever since that one might use EMP strikes – produced either by high-airbursting nukes, or perhaps by conventional explosives-pumped systems of some kind – for offensive purposes.
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the US general in charge of the Air Armament Center has suggested that an HPM weapon “packaged in inventory munitions mold line” – ie, it is a bomb – is already at the stage of “industry technology assessment” and a technology demonstrator could be built next year.
And:
“A rogue state or terrorist organization could easily acquire nuclear material for a smaller weapon for $20m,” says Charles Manto, president of Instant Access Networks corp.
“That weapon could be fitted onto a Scud missile for as little as $100,000, fired and detonated 80 miles into the air and affect the entire US east coast,” he adds.
Manto has just scored some state funding to prep the Maryland power grid for the inevitable terrorist Scud nuke pulse strike. He reckons to do this using “patent-pending shielding technology that encloses a room or similar structure and protects it from EMP events
Very sensible, I suppose: if you’re going to make a weapon then at least prepare yourself to be attacked by it.
If you should seek war, prepare for war.
Magnetic currents and efficient memory
Japanese physicists have found something called the Spin Seebeck Effect that could lead to practical magnetic batteries:
Essentially, this spin-segregated rod now has two electrodes and serves as the basis for a new kind of battery that produces “spin voltage,” or magnetic currents, which have been difficult to produce. With this tool, physicists can work toward developing more kinds of spintronics devices that store information magnetically.
Magnetic information storage is inherently more efficient than storing information electronically because there is no waste heat.
This is an interesting development. There seems to be a lot going on in the world of practical applications for quantum dots, quantum cryptography and spintronics. I suspect it will be one of those areas that heralds a lot of unexpected innovation over the next few years and decades.