The ancient oriental board game Go is a thousand years older than chess, and is the focus of a number of artificial intellignece programmers for a number of reasons: it has an immense number of potential moves and outcomes; it is much harder to assess the outcome of a game from observing the state of the board halfway through; and a computer has never beaten a human master of the game. But they’re getting better all the time – especially a machine known as Crazy Stone that uses ‘Monte Carlo method’ algorithms to learn the most effective moves.

Sure, your country has civic CCTV systems to prevent crimes and help prosecute the people who commit them. But us lucky Brits, well, we’ve got one up on all of you for a change. You see, now we have CCTV systems that can shout at you when you are spotted commiting an act of disobedience. I feel safer already!

It’s nice to get some good news on the environmental front every once in a while – so I was pleased to see Worldchanging mention a report that says renewable energy sources are becoming cost-competitive with fossil fuels in the United States. As with all changes though, there are consequences to consider. Futurismic’s columnist Jamais Cascio is also pleased to see renewables taking up the strain, but warns that we should consider the potential consequences of a reduced demand for oil in the politically unstable OPEC nations.

The optical fibres of the internet carry huge amounts of data at great speed, but the computers we attach to it have to work with comparatively crude electrical signals to route data around inside of themselves. Chip-making giant Intel is working towards a solution to this problem, by embedding lasers into special silicon chips to achieve cheaper faster switching. If and when this technology becomes readily available, the data transfer landscape may be irrevocably altered in favour of speed, utility and low cost.

The power of computer games not to merely entertain but to educate their players is a growing phenomenon. Two upcoming releases address the nature of the recent Israel-Palestine conflict, and from very different angles. Global Conflict: Palestine puts you in the role of an embedded journalist walking the wrecked streets of Palestine, talking to soldiers, terrorists and civilians and trying to get to the bottom of the story while developing your own views of the situation. Peacemakers, on the other hand, allows you to assume the leadership of either of the two states, and work through the conflict as if it were a turn-based strategy game. I wonder if players will take the opportunity to look at the other side of the equation, or act on the assumptions they already hold?