Here’s another answer to the excess of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere – why don’t we just hide the stuff away in deep sea sediments? The proponents of the idea claim that even an earthquake wouldn’t release it. Disregarding the issue that it does nothing to address the release of greenhouse gases and merely sweeps the problem under a metaphorical carpet, and also the potential of raised sea levels doing what earthquakes cannot, there is one obvious flaw – won’t it take a lot of energy to extract the gas and pump it a few miles beneath the ocean?
Petaflop Rivalry
The US wants the supercomputing crown back, having only just lost it to Japan after a decade of being top dog in instructions-per-second. The Energy Department is inking a deal with supercomputer experts Cray to build a petaflop computer in 2008. The resulting machine will not just provide more processing power for big science simulations, but its construction will develop novel methods of problem solving and software development.
Swarms, Not Flocks
Here’s an interesting round-up of info about the work being done on developing UAVs that fly in swarms. The swarm is a great model of operations for flying robots, as it allows for complex behaviours without centralised control of the individuals, by using a form of communication referred to as ‘stigmergy’. Not convinced? Think of a flock of birds at dusk, and the way they can all move with a uniform fluidity, never crashing into one another, and seemingly thinking as one. We’ll probably see military apps first, but this technique could be applied to planetary exploration too.
Second Genesis
Flushed with the success of the first version, Robert Bigelow has announced the launch date for the second Genesis experimental inflatable space habitat. It appears he’s a CEO with a heart, unless there’s more to his chosen date of late January 2007 than his stated wish to not keep his staff away from home over the holidays.
Conscious Machines
Professor Igor Aleksander works at University College, London, researching in the field of Neural Systems Engineering – basically, he’s trying to build conscious machines. In this interview at Velcro City Tourist Board, he discusses the difference between his work and that of artificial intelligence researchers, the definition of non-animal consciousness, whether or not we will need to define a set of rights for machine entities, and his hopes and fears for the next few decades of science and technology.