The all new (and improved) Hinge of History Thread.

[Valin]

Oct 2, 2014

Bill Whittle gets the answers from some of your favorite PJTV personalities about artificial intelligence. Will the so-called AI "singularity" destroy human civilization, or will it enhance the lives of everyone? Find out

[Valin]

Z machine makes progress toward nuclear fusion

Daniel Clery

10 October 2014

 

Scientists are reporting a significant advance in the quest to develop an alternative approach to nuclear fusion. Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, using the labs Z machine, a colossal electric pulse generator capable of producing currents of tens of millions of amperes, say they have detected significant numbers of neutronsbyproducts of fusion reactionscoming from the experiment. This, they say, demonstrates the viability of their approach and marks progress toward the ultimate goal of producing more energy than the fusion device takes in.

 

Fusion is a nuclear reaction that releases energy not by splitting heavy atomic nuclei apartas happens in todays nuclear power stationsbut by fusing light nuclei together. The approach is appealing as an energy source because the fuel (hydrogen) is plentiful and cheap, and it doesnt generate any pollution or long-lived nuclear waste. The problem is that atomic nuclei are positively charged and thus repel each other, so it is hard to get them close enough together to fuse. For enough reactions to take place, the hydrogen nuclei must collide at velocities of up to 1000 kilometers per second (km/s), and that requires heating them to more than 50 million degrees Celsius. At such temperatures, gas becomes plasmanuclei and electrons knocking around separatelyand containing it becomes a problem, because if it touches the side of its container it will instantly melt it.

 

Fusion scientists have been laboring for more than 60 years to find a way to contain superhot plasma and heat it till it fuses. Today, most efforts are focused on one of two approaches: Tokamak reactors, such as the international ITER fusion project in France, hold a diffuse plasma steady for seconds or minutes at a time while heating it to fusion temperature; laser fusion devices, such as the National Ignition Facility in California, take a tiny quantity of frozen hydrogen and crush it with an intense laser pulse lasting a few tens of billionths of a second to heat and compress it. Neither technique has yet reached breakeven, the point at which the amount of energy produced by fusion reactions exceeds that needed to heat and contain the plasma in the first place.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

The Latest and Unlikeliest Man to Reinvent Online Education

Laura Entis

Oct. 15 2014

 

Its dusk. New York Citys streetlights have just flickered on. You cross the street, dodge a trolley and a Model T, and pass the legendary Lafayette Theater where a live performance of Macbeth is in mid-swing. You walk on, into the wail of a Jazz riff that signals a frenzy yet to come.

 

You arrive at your destination the Cotton Club and stand for a moment in the patch of sidewalk lit by its iconic, neon sign. The doors open, revealing the elegant ballroom dotted with palm trees and mocha-skinned chorus girls, circulating through the clubs all-white clientele.

 

Welcome to Harlem at the height of its renaissance. More specifically, welcome to a virtual representation of Harlem, as it existed in the 1920s, built to scale on the virtual reality platform Utherverse (similar to the better-known Second Life). Its a preview of whats possible in online education, a sector that has yet to tap into its promise. And this preview is brought to you from a very unlikely source: adult entertainment pioneer Brian Shuster.

 

A racy start

 

Brian Shuster is an online veteran, one who started his career back in the mid-90s when the web was something of an X-rated Wild West. In 1995, Shuster and his personal trainer invested $700 to launch XPics.com, a search engine for adult content that made money by directing traffic to individual porn sites. A little more than a year later, the site generated $10 million in monthly revenue. Racy content drove that sites growth as users accessed adult pictures and video anonymously, online. And with every click and amateur photo, they fueled the growth of the web itself.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

4 Things Every American Should Know About Uber.Com, AirBnB.Com, et. al.
Austin Hill

Oct 19, 2014

 

Uber.Com. AirBnB.Com. TaskRabbit.Com. What are these websites about, and why are they so controversial?

 

Let's be clear: these websites, and others like them, are online hubs for what is best described as the emerging "freelance services industries." The service providers you find through these websites are most certainly freelancers, not established corporate business owners or employees of other peoples' companies.

 

Uber.Com, a San Francisco-based venture that matches people who need a ride from one end of a city to another with people who have cars and are willing to travel, is perhaps the most high profile of these entities.Visit the company's website, download the app, and search for people who are ready right now to shuttle you about. If you want to be a freelance service provider, Uber.Com has a screening process whereby you can register to deliver transportation services.

 

This very basic " seller-hooks-up-with-buyer" type of transaction is happening at an increasing rate in cities all across the country, all on a freelance non-professional basis and mostly all via online connections. Need someone in your area to run errands or perform household chores? TaskRabbit.Com might help you find a provider who's ready right now. Got an extra room to rent for people visiting your town? AirBnB.Com connects travelers with in-home accommodations. If Uber.Com doesn't have the ride you want, their main competitor Lyft.Com might be helpful.

 

(Snip)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[clearvision]

Interesting idea on ability to get expensive critical things (in this case a defibrillator) from one central location to need very quickly with a drone.

 

 

Ambulance drone is a flying defibrillator with fast response time

 

The response time of emergency services can reach 10 or 15 minutes in many cities with heavy traffic, but that’s not good enough when someone is suffering a heart attack. A student at the Netherlands’ Delft University of Technology has unveiled a possible solution. The ambulance drone designed by Alec Momont can fly at 60 miles per hour (100 kph) to deliver a defibrillator to a patient in mere minutes.

 

The ambulance drone is a hexacopter painted in emergency services yellow. It can be dispatched to a location within 4.6 square miles (12 square kilometers) in about a minute. Upon landing, anyone able to help the victim will be talked through using the attached defibrillator by an operator. The operator will also have access to a live camera feed from the drone to make sure everything is done correctly.

 

[Valin]

[Valin]

Health Care in the Third Dimension

Nov. 21 2014

 

We are increasingly able to print what we need for health care. The New Yorker has a piece in its latest issue on the progress scientists and researchers have made towards creating biological structures using 3-D printers. Though we wont be able to print complete, functioning human organs anytime soon, researchers have already found several medical applications for 3-D printers and are finding more every year. They started by using the printers to produce medical devices like splints, braces, and artificial limbs, but are increasingly finding success in printing tissues and protein matrices out of cells. The latter is the first step towards printing organs, but even the printed tissues will be hugely useful on their own:

 

 

For her part, [Harvard scientist Jennifer] Lewis is passionate about the changes that 3-D printing could bring to the pharmaceutical industry. Billions of dollars each year are spent on drug development that fails. If bioprinted tissues were readily available, experimental drugs could be tested on them to see how the drugs are metabolized and what side effects result. We want to provide a fail-fast model, Lewis said, so that drugs can be assessed in 3-D human tissue and their toxic properties identified before spending money and effort in animal and human testing.

 

(Snip)

 

As more people gain the ability to print their own medications and materials, our health care system will start to look very, very different from its current form. That transformation could be even more intense if its joined to other technologies like Skype, which allows for digital doctors visits, and smartphones, which can be turned into portable medical devices. If you add all those things together, its possible to envision a day when every home is a pretty adequate medical center, only deficient when it comes to major procedures like surgeries. That day is still a long ways off (if it arrives). It will undoubtedly look different from all predictions, and certainly bring challenges and risks as well as benefits. But even though decentralized, tech-ed up health care is still only in its infancy (if that), will almost certainly lower the costs of care for many people, and could end up improving it. We need to do what we can to welcome that kind of innovationsomething at which we have not, so far, been very good.

[Valin]

WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!.....or something

 

Automation Makes Us Dumb
Human intelligence is withering as computers do more, but there’s a solution.

Nicholas Carr
Nov. 21, 2014

 

Artificial intelligence has arrived. Today’s computers are discerning and sharp. They can sense the environment, untangle knotty problems, make subtle judgments and learn from experience. They don’t think the way we think—they’re still as mindless as toothpicks—but they can replicate many of our most prized intellectual talents. Dazzled by our brilliant new machines, we’ve been rushing to hand them all sorts of sophisticated jobs that we used to do ourselves.

 

But our growing reliance on computer automation may be exacting a high price. Worrisome evidence suggests that our own intelligence is withering as we become more dependent on the artificial variety. Rather than lifting us up, smart software seems to be dumbing us down.

 

It has been a slow process. The first wave of automation rolled through U.S. industry after World War II, when manufacturers began installing electronically controlled equipment in their plants. The new machines made factories more efficient and companies more profitable. They were also heralded as emancipators. By relieving factory hands of routine chores, they would do more than boost productivity. They would elevate laborers, giving them more invigorating jobs and more valuable talents. The new technology would be ennobling.

 

 

(Snip)

 

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

Coming Soon

 

 

 

Or Not.

 

 

[KWARX]

Dec 11, 2013

 

The rise of 3D printing has raised hopes of rejuvenating the long-beleaguered U.S. manufacturing sector. Hugh Evans of 3D Systems, Brad Pietras of Lockheed Martin, and Cliff Waldman from the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation discuss the current state of 3D printing technology and its implications for U.S. competitiveness, the structure of global supply chains, and the future composition of the labor force.

 

Speakers:

Hugh Evans, Vice President, Corporate Development and Ventures, 3D Systems

Brad Pietras, Vice President, Technology, Lockheed Martin Corporation

Cliff Waldman, Council Director and Senior Economist, Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation

 

Presider:

Brett B. Lambert, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary, Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy, U.S. Department of Defense

 

THAT was a VERY fascinating presentation/discussion. Thanks, Valin,

 

I'm still a bit . . . curious about the paradoxes of

 

the CFR folks

 

. . . essentially these folks . . . . Hyper control freaks . . .

 

http://www.contenderministries.org/UN/globalismquotes.php

 

. . . discussing such rosy colored things, decentralizing things . . . with a straight face . . . LOL.

 

Of course they had a keen emphasis on "globalism."

 

And, interestingly they were more supportive of industry than government . . . fitting given the 'government of corporatism.'

 

Will be interesting to see how that industry sweeps down on the planet in the near and mid term future.

[KWARX]

3D Printers About to Go Mainstream

Peter Svensson

11/13/14

 

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Some of the oddest items on display this week at International CES gadget show were edible, origami-like sculptures made of sugar, their shapes so convoluted as to baffle the eye.

 

. .

 

Ink can be selectively added to the water so the sculptures come out in full color - a feature sure to set the minds of wedding and party planners spinning. Next to the geometric sculptures was a wedding cake supported by a delicate lattice-work tower of sugar that would be nearly impossible to make by conventional means.

 

Oh, and the printer can print in chocolate too.

 

(Snip)

 

 

NO PICS! Sounds exciting . . . particularly when the talk about printing parts impossible to make any other way . . . and e.g. the weight reduction possible in airplane parts . . .

[KWARX]

Toshio Suzuki

January 11, 2014

 

. .

A fighter jet used by the United Kingdoms Royal Air Force flew with 3-D printed metal components for the first time recently, according to the planes manufacturer.

 

The air intake support struts, protective guards for take-off shafts and cockpit radio covers inside the Tornado jet were all made by 3-D metal printing, said defense manufacturer BAE Systems.

 

The test flight took place at RAF Warton, England, but BAE Systems is deploying 3-D printers at other installations in an effort to explore cheaper ways to supply aircraft parts.

 

(Snip)

 

 

Sooooooooo, Valin,

 

When are you getting a 3D printer???

 

And what would you like to print?

[Valin]

 

Sooooooooo, Valin,

 

When are you getting a 3D printer???

 

And what would you like to print?

 

 

 

FYI Google Shopping 3D printer

[Valin]

[KWARX]

 

 

Sooooooooo, Valin,

 

When are you getting a 3D printer???

 

And what would you like to print?

 

 

 

FYI Google Shopping 3D printer

 

 

Which one of those did you choose?

 

And why?

[Valin]

Do you get it? 3D printing is just an example of how the world is changing right before our eyes.

[Valin]

[KWARX]

@Valin,

 

Interesting "Fire Wall"

 

Thx.

[Valin]

@Valin,

 

Interesting "Fire Wall"

 

Thx.

 

 

The thing is people need to step back. All to often we obsess on the small details..when we see a different view from 30,000 ft. and its a much more hopeful view.

[KWARX]

Do you get it? 3D printing is just an example of how the world is changing right before our eyes.

 

Uhhhhh . . . Yeah.

 

Got that long ago.

 

There will be more dramatic changes.

 

Some claim this year . . . .

 

http://www.thecommonsenseshow.com/2014/12/07/the-calm-before-the-storm-all-hell-will-break-loose-in-2015/

 

I don't know how much technology will be around when the dust and ashes settle.

 

I've sometimes wondered if every 6-12,000 years or so God mushed everything over and started again at a basic hunter-gatherer level.

 

I know that those that think they have it all in the bag . . . those that think that THEY are on top of things . . . everything . . . ruling and controlling everything . . . are in for some very big surprises.

 

Though they will certainly cause devastating suffering for billions of people.

[KWARX]

There is HOPE . . . but not in technology

 

not in government

 

not even in religion.

 

in God alone.

[Valin]

 

Do you get it? 3D printing is just an example of how the world is changing right before our eyes.

 

Uhhhhh . . . Yeah.

 

Got that long ago.

 

There will be more dramatic changes.

 

Some claim this year . . . .

 

http://www.thecommonsenseshow.com/2014/12/07/the-calm-before-the-storm-all-hell-will-break-loose-in-2015/

 

I don't know how much technology will be around when the dust and ashes settle.

 

I've sometimes wondered if every 6-12,000 years or so God mushed everything over and started again at a basic hunter-gatherer level.

 

I know that those that think they have it all in the bag . . . those that think that THEY are on top of things . . . everything . . . ruling and controlling everything . . . are in for some very big surprises.

 

Though they will certainly cause devastating suffering for billions of people.

 

 

 

Wish I had a dollar for everytime I read something like that.

 

 

For the record I have never said it was oing to be sunshine and lollipops. Changes like this are almost always accompanied with.... unrest.....the 30 years war comes to mind.

[KWARX]

Agreed.

.

 

Though the CFR and other globalist spokes persons in those videos seemed eager to present a more or less rosy picture. LOL.

.

 

They of all people.

.

 

Yes, lots of predictions have come and gone without much fruition.

.

 

HOWEVER, have you NOT noticed the incremental 'frog-in-the-bucket' inching toward such forces and events? Things have NOT remained static and stability has NOT strengthened!

.

 

At least . . . not stability in any freedom loving egalitarian sense!!!

.

[Valin]

Agreed.

.

 

Though the CFR and other globalist spokes persons in those videos seemed eager to present a more or less rosy picture. LOL.

.

 

They of all people.

.

 

Yes, lots of predictions have come and gone without much fruition.

.

 

HOWEVER, have you NOT noticed the incremental 'frog-in-the-bucket' inching toward such forces and events? Things have NOT remained static and stability has NOT strengthened!

.

 

At least . . . not stability in any freedom loving egalitarian sense!!!

.

 

 

Things have NOT remained static and stability has NOT strengthened!

 

 

Of course not. When the world goes through a period such as I believe we are going through, stability is the last thing you should expect.

[Valin]

Instapundit

December 12, 2014

 

THE GOLDEN QUARTER: Some of our greatest cultural and technological achievements took place between 1945 and 1971. Why has progress stalled? The Greens and the Luddites got power, just as Nixon initiated the Regulatory Explosion that brought us OSHA, EPA, and various new regulatory regimes, even as money was being diverted to transfer payments to people who didn’t produce anything except votes — from funding the X-15 to funding Section 8. Not a formula for progress.

[Valin]

Jan. 1 1975 The Day The World Changed

 

 

The Altair 8800 of Ed Roberts

 

In contrast with the first microprocessor based personal computer—Micral, the MITS Altair 8800 was extremely successful market product. The designer—Ed Roberts intended to sell only a few hundred to hobbyists, but he was surprised when he sold thousands in the first month.

 

The microcomputer was sold by mail order through advertisements in Popular Electronics, Radio-Electronics and other hobbyist magazines. Both kits and fully assembled machines were available. Today the Altair 8800 is widely recognized as the first spark, that led to the microcomputer revolution of the next few years, because the computer bus designed for the Altair was to become a de facto standard in the form of the S-100 bus, and the first programming language for the machine was Micro-Soft's founding product—Altair BASIC.

 

In 1969 an engineer, working at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico—Henry Edward Roberts (born 1942), together with 3 other colleagues decided to use his electronics background to produce small kits for model rocket hobbyists. Therefore they founded Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) in Roberts' garage in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and started selling radio transmitters and instruments for model rockets. Rocket kits didn't achieve a market success, this later on MITS switched to calculator kits, which appeared to be more successful venture.

 

The microcomputer industry really took off when Intel introduced the 8080 CPU in April of 1974. The 8080 processor was capable of addressing up to 64Kb of RAM and was powerful enough to build a real computer. Following the line of several improved models of calculator kits and test equipment, Roberts decided to design an Intel 8080 based computer, and in the first prototype was ready in October 1974. At the same time he was contacted by one of the editors of the magazine Popular Electronics, who knew MITS was working on an Intel 8080 based computer project and thought Roberts could provide the project for the always popular January issue. Thus the Altair 8800 (the name Altair was suggested by the editors, not by Roberts) was born (see the lower image).

 

(Snip)