Category Archives: Nanotechnology

Slaughterbots & Von Neumann Machines

The fictional but not-too-distant-from-future-reality Slaughterbots scenario is thought provoking: UC Berkeley professor Stuart Russell and the Future of Life Institute have created an eerie viral video titled “Slaughterbots” that depicts a future in which humans develop small, hand-sized drones that … Continue reading

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Nano-Extinction

From the Daily Mail: Despite being just the size of an insect, tiny military weapons being developed by the military have the incredible power of hundreds of tons of TNT. In a new book, Louis del Monte, a physicist from … Continue reading

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Robot Apocalypse – Pt. 3,183

From the WSJ (“Supersmart Robots Will Outnumber Humans Within 30 Years, Says SoftBank CEO”): BARCELONA—Within 30 years, artificial intelligence will be smarter than the human brain. That is according to Masayoshi Son, chief executive of SoftBank Group Corp., who says … Continue reading

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Is Artificial Intelligence a Threat?

In a Chronicle article (“Is Artificial Intelligence a Threat?“), the focus is on the thought experiments of Nick Bostrom, who directs the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford. When the world ends, it may not be by … Continue reading

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Von Neumann Machines

The Independent reports: Experts warn of danger that the new viral strains created by mixing bird-flu virus with human influenza could escape from the laboratory to cause a global pandemic killing millions of people. I recall some years back, how … Continue reading

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