hmmmm... keep up grandpa

the rare weekend post...
All the time i see articles that talk about when some sort of tech is supposed to reach us, whether it's something simple like a holographic hard drive capable of carrying terabits of information, swarm robots that think and work and share information and energy together, or an AI as smart as you or I. one thing they seem to underestimate is the exponential growth of tech and information. Keep in mind that if you look at the rise of the robots article i linked to about AI (above), you'll see that in '99 (and this was reprinted in a recent special report on robotics somehow) they thought that it would be another 50 years before human level intelligence, while various recent estimates go anywhere from only 5 (SEED article on blue brain) to 12 years away (computerworld poll of tech experts).

super eyes, super robots, super scientists, super bad!

If you've know someone who wasn't born blind, and doesn't have glaucoma, then they might soon be able to see again with this eye. Right now this is to help people who are blind, but when the technology gets better, goddamnit i'll rip my own eyes out for this....
Scientists are working on swarm robots that could, among other things find people in wreckage, or become a robot's immune system (???). wow.
You all know my co-pilot, and it seems he ain't the only one who wants to play god. Scientists at the University of Groningen just opened a synthetic biology department. I'd want to make a half monkey, half lizard....
Carbon Nanotubes are going to be used to make even more computer parts, and it makes me wonder if these will be THE material of the next twenty years.... There are billions of nanocompounds out their yet to be found, but that should get way easier now that they can design and test them in cyberspace....
And finally. not only are we in a wet universe, but the amino acids that made life were seeded by meteors that were formed at the creation of the solar system. IF.... this is something that happens everywhere, and not just here, then you are talking about a universe that is far more wet and organic than anyone could have dreamed or hoped for....
people.... science rocks. crack doesn't.