It is number 3 on my project list:
http://onexerxes.blogspot.in/2012/01/my-project-list.html
And now, people are not laughing at it quite so hard:
http://news.yahoo.com/warp-drive-may-more-feasible-thought-scientists-161301109.html
Fun times ahead!
Showing posts with label Project List. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Project List. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
The Knowledge Stream Keeps Inching Closer
I first mentioned the Knowledge Stream in my project list post. In case you didn't get to read about it, the Knowledge Stream is a network of neural implants. The idea is that all human knowledge could be shared instantaneously, without being restricted to a certain language. The Stream would contain representations of information and concepts in a form mirroring that of your brain itself.
Anyone could subscribe to any feed of knowledge and get updates as they are published. Likewise, anyone could search the Stream simply by thinking about the question or topic.
Anyway, the reason I'm writing about it again is because since the last post, there have been so many articles that are related to this. They each cover a piece of the technology required. Here is the latest one in which researchers created neural implants that are powered by your own body chemistry:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2405796,00.asp
I'm telling you, it's going to happen!
Anyone could subscribe to any feed of knowledge and get updates as they are published. Likewise, anyone could search the Stream simply by thinking about the question or topic.
Anyway, the reason I'm writing about it again is because since the last post, there have been so many articles that are related to this. They each cover a piece of the technology required. Here is the latest one in which researchers created neural implants that are powered by your own body chemistry:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2405796,00.asp
I'm telling you, it's going to happen!
Thursday, January 26, 2012
My Project List
I have a terrible memory. Over the past few years, random ideas for projects would pop into my head and then, just as quickly, pop out. It was frustrating. So here I'm going to put my future project list into writing... mostly so I don't forget it.
Wireless Power
One of the biggest hurdles in our current state of technology is energy - particularly portable access to it. Everything from cell phones to electric automobiles is currently at the mercy of battery capacity. So the solution is simple: we kill theBatman battery.
Nikola Tesla did some fantastic work on this concept. And that was about a hundred years ago. It is theoretically sound. We just need to make it happen.
I imagine it will start with portable energy stations, distributing power over a limited radius. For example, you could drive one up to a construction site to wirelessly power lights and tools. Eventually, though, entire cities would be energized. Devices would be registered on the power network and electricity usage would automatically be billed to the device's owner.
The Knowledge Stream
Again, I am frustrated by my poor memory. But modern tools like the Internet are making memory less and less important. It's easy to do a quick search on your phone to get the answer to something. But there are still three problems:
1) There is still non-trivial effort involved. You need to have a connected device. You need to type in your query and wade through results.
2) This is a "pull" system. You need to make the above effort to retreive the data, which may or may not actually exist.
3) This type of search is still, despite current efforts, more syntactic than semantic. In other words, when we have a query, we need to guess at the keywords and hope that they lead to a relevant result. There is still no good search engine that understands like a human would.
The Knowledge Stream solves these three issues. I imagine it like a constant flow of knowledge available as humankind uncovers it. Maybe we would have implants in our brains that connect us to it (a la The Matrix), but the implementation is secondary. Whatever the mechanism, the Stream would solve these three issues:
1) The effort to find knowledge drops dramatically, making it essentially no more difficult than accessing one of our own memories.
2) You would now have an alternative to seeking out knowledge. You could simply subscribe to domains that interest you and receive a feed of new knowledge as others discover and "publish" it.
3) The knowledge is not stored as text, but in a format that emulates how concepts are stored in our brains. So "questioning" becomes simply pattern matching and "learning" becomes simply copying the resultant pattern. (See my post "Reading is Too Serial" ... hmm ... actually I didn't write that yet. Ok, it's coming soon.)
Granted, this is a huge undertaking. But once it is complete, it will accelerate tremendously the pace of scientific and technological progress.
Edit Feb 20, 2012: Google is starting this
Edit Mar 12, 2012: Getting closer to understanding memory encoding
Edit May 7, 2012: This is really gonna happen
Warp Drive
This was my original project idea. I have listed it last because I think it will require the previous two to be functional before it becomes probable.
I'm assuming we all are familiar with warp drive from Star Trek. If not: it is an engine that allows for faster-than-light travel. Given the size of our universe, warp drive will be necessary to travel in any meaningful way throughout it.
So there's the list. I don't want to attach time estimates to any of the projects because they would be completely arbitrary. But I'm thinking the three could keep me busy for a thousand years at least. Anyone want to help?
Wireless Power
One of the biggest hurdles in our current state of technology is energy - particularly portable access to it. Everything from cell phones to electric automobiles is currently at the mercy of battery capacity. So the solution is simple: we kill the
Nikola Tesla did some fantastic work on this concept. And that was about a hundred years ago. It is theoretically sound. We just need to make it happen.
I imagine it will start with portable energy stations, distributing power over a limited radius. For example, you could drive one up to a construction site to wirelessly power lights and tools. Eventually, though, entire cities would be energized. Devices would be registered on the power network and electricity usage would automatically be billed to the device's owner.
The Knowledge Stream
Again, I am frustrated by my poor memory. But modern tools like the Internet are making memory less and less important. It's easy to do a quick search on your phone to get the answer to something. But there are still three problems:
1) There is still non-trivial effort involved. You need to have a connected device. You need to type in your query and wade through results.
2) This is a "pull" system. You need to make the above effort to retreive the data, which may or may not actually exist.
3) This type of search is still, despite current efforts, more syntactic than semantic. In other words, when we have a query, we need to guess at the keywords and hope that they lead to a relevant result. There is still no good search engine that understands like a human would.
The Knowledge Stream solves these three issues. I imagine it like a constant flow of knowledge available as humankind uncovers it. Maybe we would have implants in our brains that connect us to it (a la The Matrix), but the implementation is secondary. Whatever the mechanism, the Stream would solve these three issues:
1) The effort to find knowledge drops dramatically, making it essentially no more difficult than accessing one of our own memories.
2) You would now have an alternative to seeking out knowledge. You could simply subscribe to domains that interest you and receive a feed of new knowledge as others discover and "publish" it.
3) The knowledge is not stored as text, but in a format that emulates how concepts are stored in our brains. So "questioning" becomes simply pattern matching and "learning" becomes simply copying the resultant pattern. (See my post "Reading is Too Serial" ... hmm ... actually I didn't write that yet. Ok, it's coming soon.)
Granted, this is a huge undertaking. But once it is complete, it will accelerate tremendously the pace of scientific and technological progress.
Edit Feb 20, 2012: Google is starting this
Edit Mar 12, 2012: Getting closer to understanding memory encoding
Edit May 7, 2012: This is really gonna happen
Warp Drive
This was my original project idea. I have listed it last because I think it will require the previous two to be functional before it becomes probable.
I'm assuming we all are familiar with warp drive from Star Trek. If not: it is an engine that allows for faster-than-light travel. Given the size of our universe, warp drive will be necessary to travel in any meaningful way throughout it.
So there's the list. I don't want to attach time estimates to any of the projects because they would be completely arbitrary. But I'm thinking the three could keep me busy for a thousand years at least. Anyone want to help?
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