Pirate Bay Sunk!

It is a dark day for pirates everywhere. The much loved bit torrent tracker site ThePirateBay.org has been taken offline by the Swedish government. Swedish police raided several data centers run by Rix|Port80 in Sweden. They seized every pirate bay server, and even servers that had nothing to do with bit torrent tracking. Including those of Piratbyrån, a site set up to discuss the legality of The Pirate Bay in an open forum. The MPAA has issued a statement filled with the usual heavy handed rhetoric, self congratulatory back slapping, and veiled threats. In addition to the seized hardware, three arrests were made. It is unknown at this time which of the brave crewman of The Pirate Bay went down with the ship.

There are two things about this raid that make absolutely no sense. First, this will not stop or even hamper file sharing. It will simply make file shares move to another service. Just like they did with Napster, Grokster, Emule, Suprnova, etc. The sea giveth and the sea taketh away. File traders all know this, and wont miss a beat. Even the crew of The Pirate Bay are open about their future plans. “We are not sure when it will return, but we are moving it to another country if necessary,” said TPB spokesperson brokep. You might as well stop kids from burning bugs with magnifying glasses, by attacking the sun. The idiocy of the **AAs never ceases to amaze me. But this isn't the part that makes my brain hurt. There is one fact that the MPAA overlooked in it's stupefying press release...

Hosting bit torrent trackers in Sweden IS NOT ILLEGAL. The Pirate Bay has always stood by its legality, and made no qualms about exactly what goes on via their website. TPB is not an "underground" site. They operate openly and publicly respond to any allegations of illegality. Not only have the Swedish authorities overstepped themselves here, but they have done so at the behest, and in the pockets of the U.S. copyright mafia. The MPAA and RIAA have been lobbying for the removal of TPB for years. It must fill Swedish hearts with pride to watch their government kowtow to Mickey Mouse and Metallica. When the details of this raid are settled in court I have no doubt that the Swedish police will owe TPB a public apology and a large cash settlement. The seizure of torrent tracker servers is not legal under current Swedish law. We have a word for people who run roughshod over the law and take what they want from whom they want. We call them pirates. [via Slyck News ]


"Where ever there is sea, there are pirates." - Greek Proverb


P.S. If you are in Sweden and want to get involved with the copyright/piracy debate politically, check out The Pirate Party . They have many sensible views on copyright, and are making a bid for seats in the Swedish parliament. Memepunks will cover TPP in more depth in the near future.

Emerging Pills Free Us From Sleep

The circadian rhythms of life have changed since our grandparent's era. Humanity is steadily moving to a real 24 hour a day society. People telecommute across time zones, work the graveyard shift, have two jobs, work and go to school, or end a full day with a full night life. As a result many suffer from sleep deprivation. One popular solution to sleep-dep is to medicate it, by imbibing stimulant pills or maintaining a steady caffeine drip to remain wakeful. This often leads to the use of sedatives when the rare opportunity for sleep does come around. Old world stimulants and sedatives can have an number of unfortunate side effects, long term health issues, and many are addictive.

Enter the first of a new generation of eugeroics, or wakefulness drugs, Modafinil. Developed by Cephalon as a treatment for narcolepsy and other sleep disorders, Modafinil has become a tool for those who simply want to get more out of each day. Modafinil isn't a common stimulant, and exactly how it works is still unknown. What is known is that by taking Modafinil you can remain functional and fatigue free for days, on as little as 4 hours sleep. And Modafinil comes without the jittery, manic, wired state that accompanies typical stimulants. It also lacks the post stimulant crash. In fact, people taking Modafinil are rarely aware that the drug has any effects what so ever. They simply don't get tired or fatigued when they should, even after several days with little sleep.

But Modafinil which has already been on the books for nearly seven years is soon to be outpaced by even more recently developed revolutionary wakefulness drugs. Invented by Dr. Gary Lynch and produced by Cortex Pharmaceuticles, CX717 is the newest ampakine on the block. This drug appears to be an order of magnitude more powerful than even the nearly perfect Modafinil. Ampakines like CX717 act on the neurotransmitters in your brain. Originaly designed to increase memory and mental acuity, it was later found to have a profound effect on sleep deprivation. In studies involving rhesus monkeys and small scale human trials, CX717 has been shown to increase cognitive function and memory beyond typical levels. But when administered in a state of sleeplessness, say after being up for 36 hours straight, not only did CX717 remove the effects of fatigue, it also continued to increase brain function.

A pill that not only lets you stay awake for days, but makes you smarter while under it's influence. Needless to say, the military is highly interested in CX717 and is funding a series of studies to test the drugs effectiveness further. Still, this is the tip of the iceberg. Companies like Cortex and Cephalon have whole untapped lines of new designer wakefulness and cognitive enhancing drugs that have yet to be made public. Drugs that increase the amount of effective sleep you get per hour of actual sleep are also in development. Almost all sleep researchers agree that we are not far from a time when you will be able to pop a pill of choice, and choose the amount of sleep versus wakefulness you want for any given 24 hour period.

Neil Stanley, head of sleep research at the Human Psychopharmacology Research Unit in the University of Surrey, UK predicts you could soon have pill that combines a new generation sedative with a new generation eugeroic designed to give you a precise number of hours' sleep. "It is possible that pharmaceuticals will allow you a condensed dose of sleep, and we are not that far away from having drugs that put you to sleep for a certain length of time. A 4, 5 or 6-hour pill." Changing our "sleep architecture" on demand in a regular and sustainable way.

Not all researchers agree as to whether or not this would be a positive thing, some worry about long term health effects and people overdoing it. But science marches on, and the demand for products with the power over sleep is coming from more than just the military. "At first I got it from a friend, and then I got diagnosed as a narcoleptic online," says a regular user of one of the new eugeroics. These pharmaceuticals are fast becoming a part of the long hour lifestyles of many hard working, hard playing members of our society. And just wait until CX717 hits your local pharmacist. A pill that makes you smarter and more awake will sweep the university campuses like wild fire come exam time. And no doubt a small bottle of the stuff will accompany the majority of business travelers to help them fight off jet lag soul delay, and be just that much sharper during their meetings.

I am all for better living though chemistry, so long as it is good chemistry. And these new eugeroics seem leaps and bounds beyond yesterdays stimulant-sedative cocktails. So, if there happens to be a doctor in the house that is willing to diagnose my obvious narcolepsy, I will be happy to play human test subject for any of the new wakefulness drugs. As a frequent late night blogger that gets by on a minimum amount of sleep as it is, I would welcome a crack at being smarter and more awake at 4am on a given Monday. Case in point, this story would have been posted twelve hours ago. [via Plausible Futures]



"I am an agent-provocateur in the Eastern Standard Tribe, though I’ve spent most of my life in GMT-9 and at various latitudes of Zulu, which means that my poor pineal gland has all but forgotten how to do its job without that I drown it in melatonin precursors and treat it to multi-hour nine-kilolumen sessions in the glare of my travel lantern." - Art - Eastern Standard Tribe

High Tech High Tops and Hooker Heels

Not since agent 86 took a call from the chief have shoes been this far up the tech tree. In a trend we at Memepunks can honestly claim to have not seen coming, it appears the latest place for innovative gadgets is on the bottoms of your feet. Whether you think they are funny, strange, or the greatest thing since Velcro laces, we've got three pairs of cutting edge foot-ware for your perusal.

The first is the Code M from Dada Footwear. Code M's electronic offerings are fairly straight forward. The shoes contain a 128Mb Mp3 player, a USB port, and a rechargeable battery. The controls for the MP3 player are on the tongue of the right shoe. The shoes communicate with a wireless headset to give you your music on the go. As an added bonus, each shoe has built in speakers so you can share the musical wealth. Now I'm not sure what the advantage is of having an Mp3 player in your shoe, as opposed to say, your pocket. And I am at a loss to come up with a really killer app for Dada's Code M. I suppose skaters and ballers can now flaunt their own theme music while showing off their skills. If you are into the competitive street dance scene, you could dish out the servings without a member of your posse having to lug around one of those bulky boom boxes.

Dada sees much more on the horizon for shoe gadgetry. "After we successfully introduce our music platform, the possibilities are almost unlimited. Our ‘get-fit’ program will provide access to workout-related data, possibly delivered by a personal trainer’s voice. Our ‘get-smart’ program will allow users to forward phone calls from a cell phone to the Code M headset. In the future, GPS devices, navigational systems, and the incorporation of an LED display will give us the ability to stream video and enter the ‘game’ market." Says CEO Lavetta Willis. Since this is all precluded on the successful introduction of their music platform, it remains to be seen if any of these other innovations will materialize.

But one company isn't waiting on work out related data being streamed from your sneakers. Nike recently debuted the Nike+ electronic insert for their running shoes. The inserts contain accelerometer sensors, which measure your speed and calculate distance traveled. From there the shoes communicate with your iPod nano using built in wireless transmitters. With the addition of special software for your nano, you'll hear progress reports over your headphones while listening your favorite remix of Gonna Fly Now. Later you can synchronize your iPod with your computer for a more detailed analysis of your workout.

This actually sounds like a useful although niche application. I'm sure there is a sizable group of people that are both runners/joggers and iPod nano owners. And something like this could overlap information technology with the shoes and mp3 players these people would be toting anyway. Not to mention the WiFi iPod interface is something that could have all sorts of alternative applications. Guided walking city tours or museum exhibits, an add on for something like dodgeball, reality gaming, scavenger hunts, etc. At that point it only comes down to software, networks and imagination.

Speaking of networks, we've saved the best for last. The newest technology is of course reserved for the worlds oldest profession. The Aphrodite Project unveiled their concept for the latest in working girl wear. Called Platforms, these prototype sandals come with all sorts of functionality and safety gear. They feature a panic button which when pressed emits an ear peircing alarm to discourage attackers. The sandals are tracked via GPS and at any point a silent alarm can be triggered that sends an alert to law enforcement or sex worker's rights groups. The shoes also use a dead man's timer with a cellular e911 service for situations when no alarms can be triggered.

The shoes have integrated LCD panels and speakers which can display video, or play downloaded "heel tones". There is also a web component that works along side the Platforms, "that will provide sex workers with a basic email client, calendar, problem client blog, chat rooms and an area for downloading audio and video for the shoes. There will also be a link on the website to track the user's shoes... Workers can also track customers, set up appointments, create schedules, and access health and other resources." The website will use secure logins and maintain stringent information security. Have a look at the flickr stream for some more pics of these revolutionary kicks.

So, are shoes the next big emerging computing platform? I don't think so. But there is no reason to think they wont be integrated into the personal networks of miniature computers we carry around with us every day; wristwatches, cell phones, PDAs, headsets, glasses, mp3 players, etc. And they provide a couple of unique benefits. You can cram much more hardware into a pair of Doc Martens than you can into your Timex. Accelerometers would provide excellent augmentative information to anything that uses GPS or other location technology. And a good pair of techno-shoes would charge themselves through the motions of walking, using Faraday principles or piezoelectric crystals to keep their batteries juiced.

There are a variety of particular groups where a networked shoe could provide added safety or functionality; EMTs, fire fighters, law enforcement, hikers, climbers, young children with roaming tendencies, etc. And while the compu-shoe will never replace the cell phone, it's possible that some upcoming personal mobile computing apps could just come from the ground up. Eventually even Foot Locker might be outsourcing tech support. [via TechEBlog, Cool Hunting, and Boing Boing]



“Creativity often consists of merely turning up what is already there. Did you know that right and left shoes were thought up only a little more than a century ago?” - Bernice Fitz-Gibbon

Memepunks on Parade

We have some exciting news from across the interwebs. The blog Meme Therapy has invited us to participate in some of their upcoming Brain Parades. Meme Therapy is a blog that looks at "life from a science fiction point of view". They periodically host a Brain Parade, Where they put interesting questions to scientists, authors and other exceptional minds. Their questions involve technology, space travel, the future, or science fiction. And they present the answers of all the participants comprehensively. Memepunks is honored to join the ranks of Larry Niven, Alan Bond, Rudy Rucker, John Baez, Paul DiFilipo, Greg Bear, and the rest. We will let you know when the next Brain Parade comes to town, but until then feel free to check out the rest of Meme Therapy's offerings. And hopefully we'll see you at the parade! (Memepunks will be the ones throwing candy and Mardi Gras beads)

Google A.I. a Twinkle in Larry Page's Eye

This week Google hosted a European conference called Zeitgeist '06. It was held in London, giving Google CEO Eric Schmidt and founder Larry Page a chance to talk with and answer the questions of Europe's technorati. You can see a Q and A segment here. It runs about half an hour long and provides some interesting insight into Google. Eric even mentions the Space Elevator! But the most remarkable statements came from Larry Page himself. He spoke to the future of search, a future which contains a Google AI.

"People always make the assumption that we're done with search. That's very far from the case. We're probably only 5 percent of the way there. We want to create the ultimate search engine that can understand anything ... some people could call that artificial intelligence."

Larry's remarks didn't end there. He hinted that such things were already afoot at Google. He refused to predict when Google would achieve their goal of an AI, but he did say that "a lot of our systems already use learning techniques".

Larry noted how powerful an AI powered search engine would be. "The ultimate search engine would understand everything in the world. It would understand everything that you asked it and give you back the exact right thing instantly," saying, "You could ask 'what should I ask Larry?' and it would tell you."

He finished his AI thoughts on a promising note. Explaining that he has learned that technology has a tendency to change faster than expected, and that an AI could be a reality in just a few years. Those are very strong words coming from the mouth of one of the founders of a company with the wealth and vision of Google. Words to mark in the years ahead.

Before I continue I must admit to being entirely too fond of Google. I use their services constantly throughout the day. For search, email, chat, translation, news and maps. Case in point, this blog is hosted on Google's Blogger, and all of our posts are first prepared in writely. For me, a day without Google is like a day without sunshine.

That being said, I think Google is a different kind of company. They are a collection of thousands of great minds. Google's goal is the collection, organization and dissemination of all of the information possessed by mankind. You don't get much more ambitious than that. And with few debatable exceptions, they have stood by their motto of "Don't be Evil." One of their latest projects is a digital library of Alexandria. They plan to scan and index every book. Google has consistently been at the forefront of Web 2.0. Their offerings have a tendency to work both smarter and harder than that of the competition.

If any currently existing company has the were-with-all to bring us a functional AI, it is the brain trust at Google. In fact, futurist George Dyson has theorized that Google may already be home to a budding AI. "For 30 years I have been wondering, what indication of its existence might we expect from a true AI? ... Anomalous accumulation or creation of wealth might be a sign, or an unquenchable thirst for raw information, storage space, and processing cycles". Sound familiar?

Regardless of whether or not Google is currently housing an Artificial Intelligence, I don't doubt that sometime soon they will be. Let us put aside our foolish knee jerk skynet fears and think for a moment of what the future will be like in the presence of that much knowledge and information. The development of an AI will parallel the discovery of fire, the invention of the wheel, or the creation of the scientific method. Something that will change the very nature of the world. That's a lot of responsibility for any one to bear. But I cant think of a group more up to the task than Google. We at Memepunks would like to officially reserve our spots on the waiting list for Gmind beta, but they already know that. [inspired by the Guardian and Kazinform]


"In attempting to construct such machines we should not be irreverently usurping His power of creating souls, any more than we are in the procreation of children. Rather we are, in either case, instruments of His will providing mansions for the souls that He creates." - Alan Turing

Weekly Robot Update 007

I would like to introduce you to a unique class of being. To date, all of the other weekly robot updates have covered real forged steel and molded plastic autonomous machines. But today's robot has no mortal coil to speak of. It lives inside of computers and PDAs. It is the little brother of NEC's PaPeRo. It's name is PaPeRo CG, and it is this weeks robot.

First a few words about it's big brother PaPeRo. Developed in 2001 by NEC, the same company that brought us the carbon nanotube, PAPeRo is a cute little entertainment and house bot. The latest version of PaPeRo is 38 centimeters tall and weighs just five kilograms. He has a child like human sounding voice with a 3000 word vocabulary. And he can understand over 1000 words spoken to him. PaPeRo can read written words, have a conversation, get emails, act as a remote for your entertainment center, make jokes, and even tell your fortune. He uses a multitude of colored LED lights to portray emotions and facial expressions.

Inside of PaPeRo is a Pentium M 1.6 Ghz processor, a half a Gig of ram, and a 40 gigabyte HDD. The little robot also comes complete with 8 microphones, 2 stereo CCD cameras for eyes and a cluster of USB ports and PC card slots. PaPeRo gets around on three small wheels. He is capable of some autonomous behaviors, including keeping himself busy when being ignored by rolling around, dancing, or surfing the Internet through his WiFi modem. PaPeRo can recognize faces and adapt to individual owners. His personality will then change accordingly. Have a look at some pictures of PaPeRo... Please watch the five minute video. Cutest... Robot... Ever...

But the latest enhancement to PaPeRo has nothing to do with hardware upgrades or new talents. Instead, PaPeRo has been given a new home. NEC has developed PaPeRo CG software. You can install the software on any computer or PDA, and PaPeRo will then be resident on that device. He behaves following the same constraints as his real world counterpart. Infact, PaPeRo CG isn't really a copy of the physical PaPeRo, but more of an extension of his being. Any interactions you have with one, carry over seamlessly to the other. While his inert shell sits at home, you can now take PaPeRo anywhere you have a computer.

The real reason behind the robot's creation is to study how people and robots interact. For instance, whenever multiple PaPeRos get together, they find all sorts of interesting things to talk about. With PaPeRo CG, NEC has taken this concept to the next level. They have done this by modding their RoboStudio software (the brains behind PaPeRo) to work in any computing environment. Initialy this will just be a new way for you to interact with PaPeRo, while at the office or on the go. But NEC eventually hopes that PaPeRo CG will lead to a whole new kind of interface with all of our devices.

Imagine if you had your own robot, with an endearing adaptive personality that it learned growing up in your care. Now imagine if the soul of that robot also lived in your car, your house, your television, computer, cell phone, etc. No more stereo instruction manuals or discouraging learning curves for new gadgets. It will be possible to interact with any of your devices the way you interact with your robot. In addition to getting around confusing menu options and arcane programing commands, a friendly smiling resident robot could expose even the very old and the very young to technologies that would otherwise be beyond them.

PaPeRo CG is the first of what will at some point be ubiquitous. Eventually "agents" like these will pervade our daily lives, with many of our devices becoming little more than extensions to one permeating consciousness. At that point any barriers of entry will vanish. Interoperability will be a snap. This stands to change the very way we interact with the devices around us. Sure we'll still have the option of user unfriendly interfaces and remote controls. But who would want to do that when you could just ask your friend that lives in all of your machines, how far to the next gas station, or if there is anything on TV worth watching. I'm going to take a page from PaPeRo's book, and predict the future. This is the very beginning of a trend that like PaPeRo CG... Will eventually be everywhere. [inspired by Gizmodo]


"Greetings, Programs!" - Kevin Flynn


P.S. Happy Towel Day!

Poetic Verse, Spambot Style.

Not long ago Spam filters started getting smarter. The would use Bayesian filtering to discern what was spam and what wasn't based on the words and context of a given email. Once Bayesian filtering caught on, an arms race of sorts began. The spambots produced more and more eclectic content, in an attempt to get past the filters. Most of the time this manifests as not so clever formatting of words, like the infamous V1@gra. Sometimes the spam contains randomly generated bits of text that actually come off as poetry or prose. I used to joke that eventually we'd start saving the haiku like spam on it's artistic merits alone. Recently I've gotten a few that have come close to keepers. And then just the other day I received this one.

It's called "Corel Draw", by a spambot named Jackson Turner aka ellentsssjjj@greatcallcenter.com. Enjoy! (I broke this one up into stanzas, but the rest of the formatting and content is unchanged.)

In a puddle without stared the think 
of never grew Mother Black stand 
while the clouds told up the clean
The air was dense with bucket excitement 

The staff howled through the long stirring 
and happened and mention in the wizard
of the morning The chime of the Even bell 
flowed out distance the tell The ordinary notes

the holy sword size with the shape like 
practiced angels with shone At looked the imps 
of brightly lay vanquished. The down paused 
in its boards to do reverence to brought.
 
Suddenly, however a terrific clap of thunder smote 
the sky The holy chime of the bell broke 
off with a shrill dissonance Demons seemed 
to people the belfry Rain came down like 
cataract Flashes of lightning chased one another like 
battling fiery dragons. The bells jangled hideously 
out of tune Unearthly noises like a satanic 
parody of the holy sound that marks the elevation 
of the host alarmed the ears the horrified monks
 
unspeakable blasphemies Prayer with ceremony and interspersed 
midst of a sacred had suddenly gone mad in the 
if a High Priest Trembling but resolute Father Ambrose 
seized a crucifix In phalanx if for battle
 
the brethren followed Solemn, with gleaming eyes and trembling
nostrils, the militant army of God swept up steep 
stairs mumbling the ritual of the Exorcism Infected somewhat 
by the general hysteria Aubrey followed


For more computer generated poetry, check the spam folder of your gmail box.  

WEB 2.0 Prosper: Peer-2-Peer Money Lending

In the fall of last year, Tim O'Reilly wrote an article that quantified an emerging Internet trend, that had come to be known as Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is a neologism that denotes a new kind of Internet. In the months that followed O'reilly's article, the Web 2.0 meme has exploded. It is so popular now, that some entities use it as a buzzword for clever market-speak, the way many chemical companies will put the word "nano" on anything to increase it's mind share. This has lead to confusion, misnomers, and deliberate misdirection. So what exactly is Web 2.0?

It's a combination of both new technologies and new philosophies. The technology is a collection of Ajax, CSS, RSS feeds, etc. Anything that provides enhanced interactivity or functionality. But more important is the philosophy. Web 2.0 stops differentiating between a website and a software application. The website actually becomes the application. It puts static web pages behind us and replaces them with user driven, powerful, malleable, dynamic tools. Be they for checking your email, getting directions, writing a document, sharing photos, scheduling events, funding a start up, or making friends. Web 2.0 harnesses collective intelligence. The more active users involved with any given project, the more powerful it should become. Think Ebay feedback, Amazon reviews, or Wikipedia entries.

Web 2.0 includes blogs and wikis, social networking, user feedback, shared resources and a million kinds of collaboration. Have a look at the hundreds of Web 2.0 sites that are thriving on the world wild web. Rather than try and name and number the deluge of Web 2.0 goodness, Memepunks is going to try something a little more manageable. We are going to bring you a semi regular piece on Web 2.0. We'll either be drawing your attention to someplace on line that embodies the Web 2.0 meme, or presenting some interesting ideas of our own. As always, feel free to collaborate. if you have a particular favorite or especially useful Web 2.0 site, shoot us a Gmail or leave a comment. And we'll see about posting it here in the future. So now, without further ado, the first installment of Web 2.0 Memepunks style.



Financial institutions are as time honored as they are soulless. More people than ever are caught up in cycles of debt. Their fates are decided by a hand full of credit reporting agencies; Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union. The big three hold the keys to the kingdom, using an opaque algorithm, they have full say over your given credit score. This determines your ability to get loans or credit cards, and the interest rate on any you do get. Many credit cards have interest rates that swell dramatically after just a few months of use. For some, their credit is so high risk, that they have to operate outside of the system. They use payday loan centers. Places that advance you money for short periods of time at interest rates that would make the mafia blush. All of this often leads to people being perpetually buried under increasing mountains of debt.

There is an alternative option growing on the net. In a combination of finance and Web 2.0 sensibilities, you can now participate in Peer-to-Peer money lending. The first site to provide a P2P lending system is Prosper. P2P lending echos its Napster and Bit Torrent ancestry. When you apply for a loan from Prosper, you aren't asking for money from a particular credit company. Instead, it's other Prosper users that supply the cash. Your loan is placed in the open, like an ebay auction, and individual lenders bid on covering portions of it. If you are requesting $5000 for instance, your loan might be covered by by 100 different individuals, each bidding for fifty dollars of it. The interest rate is also arrived at as part of the bidding process. This minimizes the risk to the lenders, because the amount the front can be minimal. It also increases the chances of the borrower to get a loan. Some one is much more like to loan you $100 than $10,000. (Prosper collects 1% of the loan upfront from the borrower, and .5% from the lenders annually)

Prosper still takes into account your credit score, and your debt to income ratio. But in addition to that, both lenders and borrowers can open a dialog for questions and explanations. Perhaps the numbers say that you are unemployed, with high debt. What they don't say is that your debt is all from student loans, you just graduated from MIT, and have a 60k a year chemical engineering job lined up and waiting. All of this can be brought to the table through Prosper. The dialog also goes both ways. Lenders can call obvious trouble borrowers out on to the digital carpet in a much more open way than conventional lending institutions. Prosper even utilizes groups. Those seeking loans can try to join groups with common interests. Groups often have a good reputation for repaying loans, and that reputation reflects onto their members. However any late payments by members reflect negatively on all group members. So groups provide additional incentive and support to fulfill your obligations.

What I like about Prosper is that it moves the money out of the trillion dollar debt machine, and returns it to an exchange between people. And it does it in a way that is open, transparent, and available to all. Yet another new meme that would be next to impossible without widespread connectivity and information access. Keep in mind that Prosper may be the first horse out of the shoot, but it's not the only one in the race. More P2P lenders will be arriving on the scene soon. Wielding even more collective user power to make an end run around the existing credit systems. Idon't know which if any of them will thrive and become the next Ebay. But I'll bet real money that more than one of them will prosper. [via Boing Boing. See the BB link for the originating Salon article without the pesky day pass.]

"There is only one time in the history of each planet when its inhabitants first wire up its innumerable parts to make one large Machine. Later that Machine may run faster, but there is only one time when it is born. You and I are alive at this moment." - Kevin Kelly

Perfect Cure for Cancer Found In Mice

Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine have beaten the Big C, but only in laboratory mice. The cure is 100% effective, regardless of the cancer's aggressiveness, location, or type. The story behind this miracle cure is one that began in 1999. Dr. Zheng Cui was running an experiment that involved deliberately giving cancer to mice. When one of his lab assistants noted that a single mouse failed to get cancer, Dr. Cui assumed some sort of procedural error. He ordered that the mouse be reinfected with cancer cells. Still no tumors developed. The process was retried, with a total of five recorded cancer injections. But the mouse refused to play along. It remained perfectly healthy despite their best efforts.

Dr. Cui and his team had serendipitously discovered a single mouse that was completely immune to cancer. To determine if the immunity was genetic, they bred the mouse. Over 40% of its offspring inherited the same cancer immunity. Somehow, the immune systems of the mice were perfect cancer killers. They tried multiple cancers on the newly bred mice. A myriad of cancer strains, locations and severity were introduced in an attempt to find some form of cancer the mice couldn't defeat, but the mice were having none of it. The white blood cells of the mice would hunt down and destroy any instance of cancer by surrounding the tumor cells and causing them to rupture. The researchers now believe that there are specific family lines of mice that are genetically invulnerable to cancer.

That is only the beginning of this remarkable story. In 2003 Dr. Cui along with Dr. Mark Willingham explored what effect the white blood cells of the cancer beating mice would have in normal mice. They gave aggressive cancers and massive tumors to scores of ordinary mice, and then injected them with white blood cells from their immune cousins. All of the mice were completely cured. Monstrous tumors disappeared over night, system wide cancers vanished. And interestingly, the mice, one cured, were then immune to any further introduced cancers. Their own white blood cells now behave as cancer killers. They have since developed a test for cancer immunity. By simply placing white blood cells in a controlled environment with cancer cells, the blood cells will attack and destroy the tumor. But the researcher's work is just beginning.

In order to allow other scientists to verify their findings, Cui's team began a breeding program. Initialy, replication of these findings outside the lab were not possible, as scientists were limited to working with a small number of mice that are the direct descendants of the original cancer killing mouse. However, since then they have bred over 3000 mice and have already begun giving them out to other labs across the country, including the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA, the University of Michigan and Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Cui doubts that it will take much time for outside researchers to make a verification. "It's rather simple to show whether we are right. Give them the white blood cells, and they are either dead or alive. A live mouse is a live mouse."

But a human application for this find might still be years away. Scientists are faced with the very difficult task of locating the particular genes that transmit this trait from parent to offspring. And it is unknown whether that same gene will be prevalent in humans. They also hope to understand the molecular process that makes the white blood cells such perfect cancer killers. So that even if no genetic solution is found, they can find a way to mimic the behavior using drug treatments. They may even be able to "boost" existing human white blood cells, turning them into cancer killers. It may be some time before any non mice can reap the benefits of this discovery, but this is by far the most comprehensive and effective cancer cure that has ever been seen.

It has been noted that there are some people that have a seeming immunity to cancer. I think it might be time to start mass testing blood donor's white cells to see if there are any humans that have this same super white cell trait. And from there a comprehensive genetic analysis of anyone that has this could find the genes they have in common. It would take a whole infrastructure and lots of DNA number crunching, but eventually we just might zero in on our own anti-cancer gene, and put this terrible disease to bed once and for all. White blood cells could be cloned with the new gene in place and anyone could have any cancer cured, despite it's severity, with a single shot in the arm. Some one tell the fat lady to start warming up for her solo. [via LA Times. More info Here]



“Synergy and serendipity often play a big part in medical and scientific advances.” - Julie Bishop

A Day at the Faire

In the last Weekly Robot Update I mentioned the Maker Faire. Dan Huard and Kevin Rose, TechTV alumni and thebroken hosts, have released the latest episode of their great video podcast show Systm. For some reason, Digg founder Kevin Rose is no where to be seen in this episode. His shoes are temporarily filled with the feet of another TechTV alumni, TWiT and DLTV host Patrick Norton. Dan and Patrick take to the floor of the Maker Faire for Systm #6. Thier encounters run the gambit; Implanted RFIDs, Anachronists, Thimble Musicians, Prius Hackers, and more. They learn the dirty secrets of the Geek Squad and explore the future of software radio.

All that and lots of fire too! If you are at all into the DIY movement give this episode a download. Also check out ggee's Creative Commons licensed flickr stream. Where I found the above photo of Patrick happily firing a man portable do-it-yourself flamethrower. I am happy to see the maker movement gaining momentum everyday. It hearkens back to that time decades ago, when lots of kids had chemistry sets or model rockets, and there was a always project brewing in the family garage. Pass the solder gun, it's time to void the warranty.


"We are dreamers, shapers, singers, and makers. We study the mysteries of laser and circuit, crystal and scanner, holographic demons and invocations of equations. These are the tools we employ and we know many things." - Elric the Technomage

P.S. There is plenty of other interesting content from the Revision 3 folks as well. Shop around, you may find something you like.

Algae Turns Green House Gas Into Fuel

The minds at GreenFuel Technologies have come up with an interesting solution to CO2 emissions. They call it E2B or "emissions to biofuels". The process depends on a unique Bioreactor. Esentialy, a bioreactor is a container of small organisms, in this case algae, which carries out a chemical process. Bioreactors aren't new, but this particular design and use for them is. GreenFuel has devised a method to connect a large volume bioreactor directly to the smoke stacks of fossil fuel burning power plants. The CO2 is pumped out of the plant and into the waiting algae tanks. In the presence of light, the algae consumes the carbon dioxide to use for energy. Just like your typical house plant, but on an industrial scale. The newly energized algae can then be harvested and turned into ethanol, biodiesel, methane, or solid fuel. GreenFuel estimates that for every two tons of algae you can absorb one ton of CO2 gas.

This is a win/win situation for our fossil fuel power plants. Fossil fuel plants give off nearly 40% of the carbon dioxide emissions in the United States. If this process is scalable to the entire country, it would mean the removal of billions of tons of CO2, and also a great boon to our fuel supply. Power plants will reduce or even eliminate their green house gas emissions. They cound trade them in for useful and clean fuels. This would generate additional income from the selling off of biodiesel, and they could trade on their emissions credits and get tax subsidies. Factories would become cleaner, leaner and more profitable.

Last month GreenFuel finished raising over $18 million in capital, and now they are putting their tested theories into commercial practice. The state of New York, NRG Energy, and GreenFuel will be working together to install a working prototype of the E2B bioreactor at one of NRG's plants in Dunkirk, NY. The bioreactors are designed to be able to be retrofitted to existing plants with minimal effort and expenditure. The test program will continue through the end of the year. And if it is successful, more roll outs will follow. Soon more of our smoke stacks will start trading in CO2 for gas and cash. That's a solution that is all kinds of green. [via MSNBC]


"Every problem contains within itself the seeds of its own solution.” - Stanley Arnold

Weekly Robot Update 006

They flock, they float, they eat, and they sing. They are Autonomous Light Air Vehicles , and they are this week's robots. The ALAVs were built by a pair of students in the Graduate Media Design Program at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. Jed Berk and Nikhil Mitter have very diverse backgrounds, but they come together in their interest in network ecology and awareness. The three ALAVs were created as a study in how networked organisms interrelate. Three specific behaviors were created; How an ALAV acts alone, how multiple ALAVs interact with each other, and how ALAVs interact with humans.

Physically, the ALAVs are inflatable mylar envelopes with undercarriages made from light laser cut balsa. The hardware that went into the ALAVs is light, efficient and relatively simple. They propel themselves using helium buoyancy and five independent motors for thrust. Most of the parts and equipment was donated by Sun Microsystems. Including a special sensor platform called sunspot, which consists not only of a sensor array, but accelerometers, processing power and WiFi radios. Aditional circuits were specially designed for the ALAVs. As was the software for the blimps behavior and flight. The three robots were given distinct voices by attaching cell phone vibrators to the outside of the helium envelope, to create a resonate call that is eerily reminiscent of a whale's song.

The three ALAVs (Flipper, Habib, and Bubba) are autonomous. They decide on their own where and how they fly. The strength and uniqueness of these robots in is their biomimicry. You cant help but watch them and feel that they are in some way alive. The ALAVs attempt to flock whenever possible. Staying near at least one other ALAV at all times, and matching one another's flight plans. When one of the robots finds itself alone, it lets out a cry of distress, in an attempt to reconnect with the flock. LED lights underneath the ALAVs express hunger. When the light turns blue, the robot is hungry. They can then be fed by hand by a human handler using a special fiber optic sculpture that the ALAVs recognize as food. Together all of these behaviors create a life like ecology for the machines. Have a look at some of the surreal videos of the ALAVs in flight.

The three robots made their media debut at last months Maker Faire . They were quite a hit with the crowd. They were even filmed for an upcoming Beyond Tomorrow show and an episode of The Tonight Show. I see some practical applications coming out of these people friendly robots as well. If they could be made slightly larger and sturdy enough, they could carry their own Wireless Access Points. Give them some mesh networking software that works along side their flocking behavior, and you could create an instant city wide WiFi network, just by releasing dozens of these things into the air. Work their feeding behavior into software that monitors their power supply, and the robots could actually swoop down to special power stations and recharge their batteries when they are running low. Your network would not only be instantly deployable, but also self maintaining. And that's just one possible use for autonomous flocking blimps. I suspect we will be seeing much more of the ALAVs in the future. [inspired by Make]

Curing Diabetes with Pedal Power

Memepunks has joined forces with our long time friends in the Brentwood Bicycle Club to help cure diabetes. We will all be at the starting line for next months Tour De Cure. Througout the end of May and month of June, Tour De Cures will be taking place all over America. We will be attending the ride in Brighton, Michigan on June 11th.

"Tour de Cure is a series of cycling events held in more than 80 cities nationwide to benefit the American Diabetes Association. The Tour is a ride, not a race, with routes designed for everyone from the occasional rider to the experienced cyclist. Whether you ride 10 miles or 100 miles, you’ll travel a route supported from start to finish with rest stops, food to fuel your journey and fans to cheer you on!"

The funds raised at the Tour De Cure will go to the American Diabetes Association. The ADA actively funds visionary diabetes research including genetic engineering of non-pancreatic cells into glucose-sensitive, insulin-producing cells. As well as transforming stem cells or pancreaticductal cells into insulin-producing cells. More than just treatments and preventative measures, studies like this seek a a total cure for diabetes. As we covered last month, great leaps are already happening in the field of diabetes research. We are nearing the last mile in the elimination of this disease. At this critical juncture every iota of help goes a very long way. That's why Memepunks is doing our part to chip in.

If you are interested in lending some pedal power of your own, find a Tour De Cure in your area and sign up. If you would rather help out with dollars instead of miles, feel free to sponsor Memepunks! Or If you know some one who is riding in the Tour De Cure, feel free to sponsor them. Barring any of that, just getting the word out will help.



"Sometimes, when she rode hard, when she could really proj, Chevette got free of everything: the city, her body, even time. That was the messenger's high, she knew, and though it felt like freedom, it was really the melding-with, the clicking-in, that did it. . . .She was entirely part of the city, then, one wild-ass little dot of energy and matter, and she made her thousand choices, instant to instant, according to how the traffic flowed, how rain glinted on the street-car tracks, how a secretary's mahogany hair fell like grace itself, exhausted, to the shoulders of her loden coat" - Virtual Light

Japanese Super Sewer

Our friends in Tokyo Japan have constructed a colossal piece of underground infrastructure. Called G-Cans, its purpose is to drain and contain excess water during storms and typhoons. The project began in 1992 and took 12 years to complete. It consists of five concrete containment silos with a height of 65 meters and a diameter of 32 meters, each large enough to contain full scale ready to launch space shuttle. They are connected by 6.4 kilometers of tunnels 50 meters beneath the surface. The heart of the operation is a water tank 177 meters long, 78 meters wide and over 25 meter high. The structure is supported by 59 monolithic pillars. To pump the water out of G-Cans, a cluster of 14,000 horse power turbines can pump water into the nearby Edogawa river, at a rate of over 17 million tons per day.

In addition to the sheer scale of engineering involved with G-Cans, the structure itself is breathtaking. The long voluminous tunnels and towering pillars give the place a strangely majestic feel. It looks like a Hollywood set, or some computer generated level for a next generation video game. So much so that G-Cans has become a tourist attraction, offering free tours to visitors. Have a look at some remarkable images from the official G-Cans site. (unfortunately available only in Japanese) And some additional images from JPDN. Becuase of the unique atmosphere, G-Cans has been the home to several TV and film shoots. Including this Range Rover commercial.

G-Cans is quite an accomplishment. I am forced to wonder if something of this magnitude could be constructed beneath coastal US cities that face flooding dangers. Such as the recently ravaged New Orleans. I understand that the majority of NOLA is below sea level, which would present some interesting engineering challenges. But I can't help but think that we can learn from our typhoon weary neighbors. Anyone with a civil engineering degree care to comment?



“Architecture begins where engineering ends.” - Walter Gropius

Hybrid Bear Shot By Hunter in Great White North.

DNA tests have recently confirmed that a bear killed by a hunter is half grizzly and half polar bear. Avid hunter Jim Martell was on a $45k guided polar bear hunt on Banks Island when they encountered the strange animal. The hunts Iniut guide, Roger Kuptana, was the first to note that the bear wasn't normal. It had an indented face, a humped back, long claws, and eyes ringed in black. The outfitters hosting the hunt sent the carcass out for DNA testing to save Martell a potential thousand dollar fine and year in jail for killing the wrong kind of animal. As it turned out, the creature had a polar bear mother and grizzly bear father. Although rumors of polar-grizzly hybrids have circulated for some time, this is the first time a confirmed specimen has been encountered in the wild.

There are a great number of Interspecific Hybrids, including Mules, Zedonks, Wolphins, Camas, and the infamous Liger. But rarely do they occur naturally in the wild. Perhaps we are seeing the beginnings of a new Darwinian pressure. With increased migration, and shrinking habitats more animals may be shopping outside their species on date night. There is a mystery ape population in the Congo that appear to be abnormally large Chimpanzees with a unique culture. Many theorize that this might be a Chimpanzee-Gorilla hybrid. If it's hybrid parentage turns out to be true, the Chimpilla will replace the Liger as my favorite. I'm all for hybrids, be they the products of a genetics lab or the rising stars of the animal kingdom. Convergence and diversity are not always separate animals.



"Assault weapons have gotten a lot of bad press lately, but they're manufactured for a reason: to take out today's modern super animals, such as the flying squirrel, and the electric eel." - Lenny

The First Martian Explorers Will Burn Their Bridges Behind Them.

While sifting though the information that came out of last weekends ISDC, I came across a very unique plan for the privatized colonization of Mars. Founder and chairman of the X Prize Foundation, Peter Diamandis is shaking things up again. Many of you might recall the ten million dollar reward Peter offered for the first successful privately funded space ship. Peter has a new vision, one that stretches all the way to Mars. At the ISDC he unveiled his Mars Citizenship Program. To fund the project, Diamandis plans to raise 2 billion dollars. He's laid out an investment plan where 90 thousand people would each donate $10,000. Ten thousand people would donate $100,000. And 100 people would each donate a million bucks.

Once the funding has been collected, there will be a competition among all of the contributors. From the 100,100 people, 101 will be chosen as winners and Mars mission candidates. Those one hundred will then undergo rigorous training and assessment. Eventually Peter will be left with 6 teams of twelve astronauts. Meanwhile, several unmanned spacecraft will have been sent to Mars, delivering modular habitats, supplies and construction robots. The first team of twelve colonists will then leave for Mars. Thier journey will be one way. They will leave earth behind them for good, with no plans for a return trip. These new martians will find a robotically constructed mars base waiting for them.

Those first pioneers will struggle to survive and thrive and build a new world for themselves. New teams of twelve will be sent at regular intervals until a stable population is reached. At that point humans will no longer be found on just one planet in the universe. We will have two homes; one red, one blue. The colonists, leaving on a half year 250 million mile journey with no return address, will give up all the earth has to offer. In exchange, they will gain a new world. And that will set a precedent that will some day take us across the stars. [via MarsDrive]



"Mars is wild, untamed. I'm forming a cadre of Martian knights charged with enforcing Martian law." - Captain Murphy

Weekly Robot Update 005

Congratulations, it's a bouncing baby... Robot! Babybot is being developed by the Laboratory for Integrated Advanced Robotics at Genoa University in Italy. Babybot was built as part of the ADAPT project, the Artificial Development Approach to Presence Technologies. The goal of Babybot is to create a machine that interacts with its environment the same way we do at a very young age. The theory behind is to duplicate the human sense of "presence". Presence is how we view the world around us. It incorporates all of our senses, and gives us a unified picture of our environment and our place in it. "Our sense of presence is essentially our consciousness" says Giorgio Metta, ADAPT project coordinator.

So what they have done, is model a small robot on the torso of a two year old, and given it a whole suite of human like senses. Babybot has three gyroscopes in its head to provide a sense of balance. Its eyes are two video cameras designed to mimic the characteristics of human vision, with a high resolution central image, and low resolution peripheral. In addition they are set to work stereoscopically, to provide Babybot with depth perception. Its ears are directional microphones inside of external cones. They coordinate directional sound information with the visual input from the eyes to get a clear picture of the environment. Babybot uses a specially designed five fingered hand to grasp and manipulate its surroundings. The hand has 15 joints, and six active degrees of freedom. It has a cluster of pressure sensors to give Babybot a sense of touch.

Babybot's brain is a cluster of computers running a several simultaneous neural networks. A neural network doesn't work like a classical computer program. Instead, it mirrors how our brains work. The system establishes a myriad of artificial "neurons" within the network, each one having a specific function or way of behaving. The network then strengthens or weakens the links between those neurons to alter the programing. The same thing that happens to our own neurons. The neural net model is one of the top contenders for developing real artificial intelligence. And although Babybot is no computing powerhouse, it does have the beginnings of a mind of it's own. Check out the videos for some footage of Babybot in action. While it seems like not much is happening besides a mechanical game of pick up, what Babybot is doing is the same thing we all did in our earliest days; Learning who it is, by exploring its world.

Babybot is just the beginning. Dr. Metta and the rest of the ADAPT team are already hard at work on the sequel to Babybot. Something they have named Robotcub, scheduled to be completed by Spring 2007. Robotcub will have more neural network power, and better sensory input than his predecessor. In addition, Robotcub will easily be able to crawl, and if it is smart enough, even learn how to walk on its own! As an added bonus, Robotcub will be designed completely with Open Source Software and hardware. Anyone will be able to take advantage of the incredible work of the ADAPT team. Good work folks, I'll save you a spot for Weekly Robot Update 057. [via New Scientist]



"A new baby is like the beginning of all things-wonder, hope, a dream of possibilities." - Eda J. Le Shan

UK Trains Dogs To Sniff Out Pirated DVDs.

When I first came across this Press Association news story, I was convinced it was a hoax. I didn't believe it, until I saw This Video for myself, from Sky news. (Fair warning, It's filled with obviously biased **AA friendly statistics, it's in Windows Media format, and they try and force you to watch it twice.) The Federation Against Copyright Theft or FACT, has arranged for a pair of black Labradors to be trained to sniff for pirated optical media. FACT works very closely with UK law enforcement in anti-piracy operations. The dogs were taken to a FedEx hub at an airport in Essex. A place where any of your own packages might be if you sent anything into or out of that area of England. The dogs were allowed to sniff out packages to identify those containing DVDs.

"This is the first time dogs have been used anywhere in the world to search for counterfeit DVDs and the results were amazing. With theco-operation and assistance of FedEx and Customs we were able to properly test the dogs in a live situation and prove that they can work in a busy working environment." said the director of FACT.

FACT claims to have trained the dogs, Flo and Lucky, to sniff out counterfeit DVDs. But in truth there is no way for for a dog to tell a legit copy of Big Momma's House 2 from a pirated one. That means that the dogs, if deployed at a FedEx Hub or customs station, would identify every package containing DVDs. Which would then have to be opened and searched by trained personnel. So whether you are a multimillion dollar Chinese pirate, or just sending grandma a home movie of little Timmy's first steps, you'll receive the same treatment. Some one will open your packages, and peer at what's inside them. In the case of unlabeled DVDs, that would require some one to watch them to verify their content. If I am sending some one a perfectly legal home made or even store bought DVD, I don't want any one else's hands or eyes on it.

Narcotics are illegal. Explosives are illegal. But a DVD is information. And the legality of that DVD is dependent on the source of the information and the reason and method used to create it. That is not a judgment a dog can make. Whether he is wearing a yellow leash, or a FACT windbreaker.


"She's right, Scoob, up close they look totally fake." - Shaggy

Podcasting Receives Stay of Execution.

I am a fan of podcasts. This new medium has given voice to many who would not otherwise have the opportunity to share their particular form of creativity with the world. Whether it's Diggnation, Escape Pod, TWIS, TWIT, or Cory Doctorow's latest short story, I don't get through a week without listening to at least a hand full of podcasts. You can find a podcast or three for any possible topic you can conceive of. These intrepid mp3s and the people that create them capture the very spirit of the Internet. A Many-To-Many philosophy that simply wasn't possible before global connectivity came along.

I would like to give mad props to "Mad Elf" and his Off Topic Talk podcast. Mad Elf is new to the podcasting scene, but he's really diving into the data stream with both feet. I've been entertained, and gotten more than one good reading recommendation from his cast. He has also helped spread our own particular meme. Kudos Mad Elf.

People like him embody the typical podcaster. No big production budgets, crews or marketing campaigns. Just individuals with computers, microphones and good ideas. These are the people that may very well be ground under the heel of bad copyright law if WIPO has it's way. The UN's World Intellectual Property Organization is in the process of trying to pass a large bill that includes ridiculous stipulations even by current copyright standards. In regards to webcasting, what this law would do is give the host of any webcasting content a FIFTY YEAR copyright on that webcast. Meaning that if you hosted your podcast through Blogger or Yahoo, they would get a defacto half century copyright on your material. Even if your cast was specifically Creative Commons licensed or public domain. The law also has strict Digital Rights Management requirements that would prevent unapproved aggregating, linking or recopying the webcasts without the permission of the host. This sort of terrible law making does nothing for the rights of content creators. It is pure business model protection for companies like Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL and Apple. Coincidently, these same companies are the ones who proposed this legislation, and they are supplying the big money lobbyists to make sure it gets passed.

No longer content with breaking our televisions, radios, and computers, these companies now seek to break the back of the Internet itself. That is something that all of us, be we podcasters, bloggers or surfers, should take personally. And yet some how this is happening under our radar. When is the last time you heard some one bring up WIPO in conversation, or saw something about it on the news? Fortunately, we aren't alone in this. A horde of nations disagree with the webcasting provisions proposed by WIPO. Countries without entrenched multi-billion dollar media conglomerates have railed against this death sentence on creativity. Along with the staunch support of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, they have succeeded in getting the provision moved off onto it's own separate bill. Which moves it from the fast track to a more reasonable slouch toward bedlam. So what can we do now that the Internet's protectors have bought us a little more time?

Get involved, join the EFF. If enough dissenting voices are heard together, it's no longer dissent. Even if you cant spare them some much needed financial contributions, at least put your name on their roster and show your support. Something else you can do is get the word out about this. Let this meme out into the wild and encourage it to thrive. And most importantly continue podcasting, linking, aggregating, copying and creating content. Show them that we have no need of big media to shepherd our information and entertainment. We are all interconnected now, and the time of One-To-many is drawing to a close, but only if we make it happen. Together we have the power to replace the old guard of the Internet. And that's exactly what they're afraid of. [Inspired by BoingBoing. More information on WIPO's latest evil here.]


"This is our world now... The world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals." - Hacker Manifesto

California Dreamin

It's a fine time to be on the west coast. This weekend we have the International Space Development Conference in Los Angeles. Buzz Aldrin, Burt Rutan, Bill Nye, and a host of astronauts and scientists. The theme for this years ISDC is "Exploring Other Worlds". In addition to interesting discussion panels, talks and the typical ISDC goodness, this year they are hosting some pretty neat tours too. Including a tour of the Mojave Spaceport, where Space Ship One has taken all of it's historic flights, which has become a nexus of the privatized space industry. There will also be an Orbit awards dinner, commemorating those that are leading the way into orbital tourism. And a Space Venturing Forum that will hopefully pair up venture capitalists with pioneering space entrepreneurs.


Next weekend is the Electronics Entertainment Expo, or E3. While not as weighty as private space programs E3 certainly is a lot of fun. Surrounded by bright lights and loud noises that make you think of a Vegas casino 50 years in the future, you can get the low downs on the games and game systems that have yet to be released to the public. This year, there is much talk about the PS3 and it's hardware, games, price and release date. I'm more interested in just what will be revealed about Nintedo's Wii. Allegedly there will be some very bigsurprises in store for us from Nintendo. They have set up a site specifically for the information that will be revealed at E3. For those of us that wont be attending, it will be a good source of info. I'd also like to know more about the Shadowrun gameMicrosoft will be unveiling. And of course any great new game titles for the PC. They still make those right?

The day after E3 ends, the Singularity Summit begins in Stanford. Luminaries such as the author of Engines of Creation, K. Eric Drexler, the godfather of nanotechnology will be in attendance. Cory Doctorow, author of Down and And Out in the Magic Kingdom, one of the four horsemen of BoingBoing, will be shoulder to shoulder with noted futurist, author, and singularity advocate Ray Kurzwiel. They will puttheir heads together along with a myriad of leading technology experts, futurists, philosophers, researchers, and industry leaders to discuss thepotential of an impending Singularity. There is some serious brain power collected here. If I could be a fly on any wall, I would stake my claim on this one.

Unfortunately, the totality of the Memepunks travel budget was spent on gas to Ann Arbor and sleeping bags. So I'll have to get the details of all of these events as the information trickles through the net. Look for more on all of this in the week to come. If any of you are attending these events, feel free to contact me with your take on things, and I will be happy to post it here.

Shadowrun Game "Revealed".

More news from the geek culture front. Dust off your Ares Predators chummers. It looks like Microsoft is finally going to unveil the new Shadowrun FPS for Xbox. Some of you may recall in July of last year, Theron Benson leaked the existence of an SR game in the works. Depite that, Microsoft has continued to deny any and all Shadowrun rumors. Well, let me direct you to Fasa Studio's web site. Which now directs you to a silhouette graphic of what are obviously Shadowrun characters, along with the tag line "The Rules of Combat Are About to Change." After investigating the page source code, it's clear that this is aMicrosoft gaming product for the Xbox. (s.prop8="Xbox" //Game Type) It is no coincidence that E3 is next weekend. Look for Microsoft and Fasa Studios to make a statement then. And here I thought I was going to get away without buying an Xbox 360. [Via Gynkoba]

Memepunks Update: It looks like the spy network over at DailyGame has dug up some more Shadowrun info from inside the gates of E3. If this advertisment is indeed legit, it looks like we will be getting Shadowrun for the PC. DailyGame has suggested that Shadworun will be for PC only based on this ad. However this goes against everything we have learned thus far about the upcoming title.

Is Microsoft planning a bait and switch? Is this billboard some one's clever photoshoping prank? Or will we see two versions of Shadowrun, one for PC and one for Xbox? That would be the ideal scenario. Memepunks will keep you updated throughout the week.

Memepunks Update: The fix is in. The Shadowrun official site has been updated. Give it a look. It will be available for both the Xbox 360 and Windows Vista. It looks like they are starting the SR world over from scratch. The game mechanics seem very much like Counterstrike. Initially, color me let down. But I will continue to keep an eye on this.

Marvel Starts Civil War. Iron Man Officially Off My Christmas Card List.

Marvel comics is super jumping into the political arena with a new miniseries entitled Civil War. The series is slated to be supplimented by several smaller runs of books as well as being worked into the main lines of many Marvel titles. The premise of Civil War is that during a super battle gone wrong, many innocent people are killed. This leads to a backlash in public opinion. The Bush administration passes a PATRIOT like act that requires all heroes to register themselves as Weapons of Mass Destruction. Some heroes resist, and are branded fugitives. They are lead by Captain America. The heroes that agree to work for the government to force heroes to register are lead by Iron Man.

What follows is a series of hero vs. hero battles. Civil War addresses political issues like Guantanimo bay, enemy combatants, and the exchange of safety for freedom. Marvel claims to be neutral on the whole security/liberty debate, and says that they will present both sides of the story. I think to really end the story line though, Marvel will have to come out one way or the other. I'll be rooting for the Civil Libertarians. I think the tone of the books is summed up very well in a snippet of dialog from Captain America. "Don't play politics with me, lady. Superheroes need to stay above that stuff or Washington starts telling us who the supervillains are."

I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays out. The first of the books should be hitting the shelves now. Even if you are not into comics, this is definitely one of those things to scoop up a copy of and tuck away for the grand kids. To pull out one day and either say them; "The country was a very different place back then." or "These are from back when that kind of social commentary was still legal." As Marvel puts it... Who's side are you on? [via Globe and Mail]

American Inventor, Eat Your Heart Out.

There is a new up and coming inventor on the block. Stanford Professor John Koza has combined the fields of Artificial Intelligence and Genetic Algorithms to create a machine that is capable of invention. The "Invention Machine" as it has come to be named is a Beowulf Cluster of now dated home computers. The hardware is unremarkable, it's the software that makes the magic happen.

But first a little background on Genetic Algorithms. A Genetic Algorithm is essentially a computer program that uses evolution as a way to find answers. A Genetic Algorithm examines a very large set of possible answers. It then culls the absolute worst from the lot, and spawns some new ones based on the best characteristics of those that remain. The new generation of possible solutions is ever so slightly better than the previous one. Most Genetic Algorithms also have code to introduce random "mutation" into each new generation. Creating new possible solutions the same way nature does, with the occasional minor change made at random. Mutiply that process by a million generations, and the best possible answer begins to evolve. Eventually through the culling, breeding and mutation of solutions, only the fittest survive. This is how Genetic Algorithms are able to derive answers to often complex problems. John Koza has taken the Genetic Algorithm process a step further. Through Genetic Programing he has given his machine the ability to genetically evolve it's own programing.

For example; Lets say that you need a some new optics designed for a telescope. They have to to have specific characteristics, but other than that, you have a clean slate. Proffesor Koza puts the target specifications into the Invention Machine and sets it to work. With a typical Genetic Algorithm, the machine would spawn a billion possible optics, and then through a few million generations evolve the best one for the job. But Koza's Invention machine actually creates a myriad of possible optics creation programs. And puts those programs through the genetic evolution process. By examining their output, efficiency, and various other factors, the machine treats each program like an organism. Some are free to breed and thrive,and some are mutated. The least fit are given the old yeller treatment. Eventualy, not only does Koza end up with a spectacularly functional optics design, he also ends up with an evolved computer program optimized for designing that optics. The results of this non-hypothetical are a confirmed success. In addition, The Invention Machine was given a design to avoid. Patented optics that Proffessor Koza didn't want to infringe on. The machine made a successful end run around the off limits design, and came up with something exactly as functional, but completely different. Machine 1: Patent lawyers zero.

Genetic Programming has been a success all around. New inventions are being created constantly now, taking between a day and a month to evolve. An antenna designed from genetic algorithms is now floating some where out in space. NASA picked it over it's human designed competitors. It out performed them all, and took less time to design. In fact it's design was so counter intuitive, that I'm hard press to envision a human ever coming up with something like that. The invention machine has since come up with new circuits, radios, and even parallel designs with things that humans had already invented. Most successfully, the Invention Machine was issued a patent for a process to increase the efficiency of a factory. Machine 2: Patent lawyers 0. That means that some where, there is a room with 1000 computers in it, that is a registered and legal protected holder of intellectual property rights. A cluster of computers that is legally recognized as creative. Thier methods may be unusual, but we have officially entered the age of creative computers.

This presents us with an interesting question and an interesting opportunity. First I am left to wonder if a computer can actually produce intellectual property. patent and copyright exist (in theory) to protect the rights of creators. But by definition, a machine has no rights to protect. You cant sue a computer for infringement, nor can you pay it royalties. A computer is in fact incapable of even recognizing it's work as creative. And yet here we are. So to fix it, do we change the patent law? Either that or grant the Invention Machine partial human rights. Or perhaps we just need to redefine creativity to include both the result and the method that gets you there. My suggestion would be to simply assign any patents granted to machines directly into the public domain. That way everyone could benefit from this amazing technology. And I'm sure the machines wont mind.

Which brings me to the opportunity. Right now Genetic programing is rare. It exists in a few scattered machines around the world. But this isn't by necessity. The hardware that powers the Invention Machine is far from state of the art. I propose a distributed computing network resident invention engine. Genetic programing run in bits and pieces on computers all over the world. If something like that caught on, it would put the Invention Machine to shame. Solving in minutes what it takes the Invention Machine months to do. You could sign on like you would with protein folding or SETI at home, and ad one more piece of evolving code to the mix. Tens of millions of multi-GHz computers, instead of a mere thousand aging first generation Pentiums. Members could suggest lists of new problems to solve or devices to create. A universal database of materials, existing designs, and manufacturing processes could be constructed and added to wiki-style. And again, all creations would get patented and piped right into the public domain. A disruptive technology to end disruptive technologies. Eventually you could work in garage fabricators, or something like RepRap. But that's a post for another time.

Suffice it to say that I'll gladly donate any of my spare processing cycles to inventing new hybrid motors, water purification devices, solar panels, computer chips, or jet packs. Proffesor Koza, the ball is in your court. How about it? [Inspired and Via Popular Science]



"He's the guy who patented using genetic algorithms to patent everything they can permutate from an initial
description of a problem domain – not just a better mousetrap, but the set of all possible better mousetraps." - Accelerando

Weekly Robot Update 004

This weeks robot is a lean mean fighting machine. Crusher is the love child of Carnegie Mellon's NREC know how, and DARPA's funding. It weighs in at 6.5 tons, with a current top speed of 26mph. Crusher is completely autonomous, with six independently electric motor driven wheels, and a uniquely designed suspension. It can navigate and overcome almost any type of terrain including sheer four foot walls and embankments. Crusher's power supply is a specially designed hybrid system. A turbo diesel generator recharges a built in Lithium ion battery. It has a rugged aluminum, titanium and steel hull, and lots of room to grow.

Crusher is designed to carry up to four additional tons of payload. This could be spy gear, communications equipment, or supplies to support ground troops. But much more likely, it will consist mostly of some high grade armor, and a Really Big Gun. Crusher's autonomous AI is designed for "aggressive mobility", which I'm pretty sure is DARPA speak for "driving around and blowing things up". And there is no Army grunt with a joystick in the loop with Crusher. From NREC; "Over the next year these vehicles will analyze, plan, and execute mobility missions over extreme terrains without any human interaction at all." That's right, Crusher has been designed not only to fight, but to plan how to fight. A thinking vehicle for the thinking mans Army.

Drones on the battle field are nothing new. Global Hawks, Predators, and Hunters have flown over Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo for years. But none of them were designed out of the shoot for combat. Also autonomy is a whole lot easier in the air than on the ground. Flying vehicles don't need to accommodate terrain or obstacles like ground based vehicles do. They have a much wider range of sensory input from their vantage point than their ground based cousins. Making something like Crusher work is a herculean feat. Ask anyone who participated in DARPAs Grand Challange. Of course the perpetually future dwelling South Koreans have already added weaponized ground based robots to their war fighting arsenal. They've taken them to Iraq, and are considering using them along the SoKo/NoKo border. But those robots don't think like Crusher, They don't plan. They don't coordinate. That is what really stands to revolutionize warfare.

Sure a six wheeled robot with a predatory social AI, a half dozen friends and an autocannon is a pretty impressive mental picture. But what impresses me most is how a machine like Crusher can save lives. IED's are meaningless, plenty more Crushers where the last one came from. Chemical or biological weapons wont even slow the big guy down. Urban warfare, will change very quickly when one side is sniping form the rooftops and windows, and the other side is now composed of armed and armored strategising robots. All of that means less soldiers in harms way, more of our friends and family coming home safe and sound while machines like Crusher soak up the heat and give back better than they get. That's the real reward for the development of Crusher and his brethren. There but for the grace of drones go we.

Have a look at some videos of Crusher tearing around the country side. The last longest video is inclusive of all the others. If you watch the very end of it, where Crusher is climbing over that wall... I know he was built to wage war on the enemy, but watching him struggle and overcome that obstacle, he almost looks... Cute. Roll on Crusher. And lets hope they remember you when they are passing out the medals.




"The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea. They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall mountain. In either case, most of the actual fighting will be done by small robots. And as you go forth today remember always your duty is clear: To build and maintain those robots." - Military School Graduation - The Simpsons.