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The Future of Search?

Logo BigA company called Powerset will be making a new natural language search technology available to the public in September. If the company’s claims are true (as credulously reported in the Technology Review), their search technology will be fundamentally different than the many algorithms that have been used in the past. Instead of developing results based on word and synonym matching, Powerset’s technology teases out the deep linguistic structures embodied in the search queries and in the searched text to make both more accurate and less obvious connections. Points to Powerset CEO Barney Pell for admitting that:

There was not one piece of technology that solved the problem… but instead, it was the unification of many theories and fragments that pulled the project together.

…and that most of the technology was licensed from Xerox PARC. If you’re interested you can sign up for the beta on their website. [kurzweilai]

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Bruce Schneier and Kip Hawley in Conversation

Kip HawleyBruce Schneier, that pragmatic and insightful observer of the so-called security state, is interviewing Kip Hawley, the head of the Transportation Safety Administration. The interview is going up on Schneier’s blog in 5 installments. Read part 1 to start.

Kip Hawley comes out sounding almost reasonable, though Schneier demolishes most of Hawley’s points (or at least those points that don’t reduce to, “it’s secret, so just trust me”).

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Your five-year internet fast starts now, courtesy of Elton John

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Fear not, folks – Elton John is here to save us from the impending degradation of culture! Because, you see, the reason there’s so much rubbish music and art about these days is because we all spend too much time on the internet. It’s a relief to know he’s worked out why his own contributions to global culture have been so unilaterally appalling over the last decade or so … though I can think of numerous artist and musician acquaintances whose work has been enhanced or expanded for the better by their use of the internet, be it for networking or acquiring new tools or ideas. Clay Shirky agrees, too – destroying limits liberates creativity, as opposed to stifling it. But it also destroys the culture that went before it … which is probably what has Sir Elton so worried.

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Space is the place for a resource-rich and peaceful existence

astronauts in orbit over earthI think I’m largely preaching to the choir when I plug the benefits of space exploration here at Futurismic, but I’m not going to let that stop me. And we’re not alone in our beliefs – the former President of India says that the vast energy resources that space technologies can exploit make the price of admission well worthwhile.

Meanwhile over at Space.com, Al Globus explains how space colonisation is a viable alternative to war (here’s a hint – resources again), and points out that repurposing the military budgets of the world into space habitats would make the necessary budgets look tiny. I agree with him entirely, but I doubt he’ll have much luck convincing the hawkish types who make decisions of that kind. Still, fingers crossed. [Image from NASA]

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