The Singularity is the technological creation of smarter-than-human intelligence. There are several technologies that are often mentioned as heading in this direction. The most commonly mentioned is probably Artificial Intelligence, but there are others: direct brain-computer interfaces, biological augmentation of the brain, genetic engineering, ultra-high-resolution scans of the brain followed by computer emulation.

Some of these technologies seem likely to arrive much earlier than the others, but there are nonetheless several independent technologies all heading in the direction of the Singularity - several different technologies which, if they reached a threshold level of sophistication, would enable the creation of smarter-than-human intelligence.

:: po§ted by valis @ 27.4.03 :: §end :: ::

The relationship between brain physiology and human behavior is notoriously difficult to understand and easy to misapply. Obviously consciousness, subjectivity and human religious experience isn't reducible merely to an explanation of neural pathways. It is a mystery whether our hard-wiring creates the God Experience, or whether God creates our psychophysical wiring.

:: po§ted by valis @ 21.4.03 :: §end :: ::

Not just a staple of science fiction, other universes are a direct implication of cosmological observations

:: po§ted by valis @ 16.4.03 :: §end :: ::

PALO ALTO, California -- Michel Gingras is getting ready for bed, a ritual not complete until he straps on his NovaDreamer. "It's the best form of virtual reality. It's a reality in which you can do absolutely everything," he said. Gingras is one of thousands who swear by the new technology, developed by The Lucidity Institute in Palo Alto, California. Tonight's "Tech Live" takes a look at the device that helps control and create dreams.

"Flying is the most classic example," said Gingras, a Web designer and videographer from Canada. "When you realize you're having a lucid dream, you just take off and fly!"

Realizing you're in a lucid dream is the key, and that's where the new technology comes in.

"When you do something in a dream, to the brain it's as if you're actually doing it," LaBerge said.

:: po§ted by valis @ 10.4.03 :: §end :: ::

A draft government report says we will alter human evolution within 20 years by combining what we know of nanotechnology, biotechnology, IT and cognitive sciences. The 405-page report sponsored by the US National Science Foundation and Commerce Department, Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance, calls for a broad-based research program to improve human performance leading to telepathy, machine-to-human communication, amplified personal sensory devices and enhanced intellectual capacity.

People may download their consciousnesses into computers or other bodies even on the other side of the solar system, or participate in a giant "hive mind", a network of intelligences connected through ultra-fast communications networks. "With knowledge no longer encapsulated in individuals, the distinction between individuals and the entirety of humanity would blur," the report says. "Think Vulcan mind-meld. We would perhaps become more of a hive mind - an enormous, single, intelligent entity."

:: po§ted by valis @ 8.4.03 :: §end :: ::

A "brain chip" could be used to replace the "memory centre" in patients affected by strokes, epilepsy or Alzheimer's disease, it has been claimed.

US scientists say a silicon chip could be used to replace the hippocampus, where the storage of memories is coordinated.

:: po§ted by valis @ 7.4.03 :: §end :: ::

This exclusive research project has been conducted by Todd Brendan Fahey, author of the novel Wisdom's Maw.

:: po§ted by valis @ 1.4.03 :: §end :: ::