The Discover Interview: Marvin Minsky - - science news articles online technology magazine articles The Discover Interview: Marvin Minsky

The Discover Interview: Marvin Minsky - - science news articles online technology magazine articles The Discover Interview: Marvin Minsky: "It sounds like you could make a very smart computer, but is your ultimate goal to actually reproduce a human being?

Or better. We humans are not the end of evolution, so if we can make a machine that's as smart as a person, we can probably also make one that's much smarter. There's no point in making just another person. You want to make one that can do things we can't.

To what purpose?

Well, the birthrate is going down, but the population is still going up. Then we're going to have old people, and we'll need smart people to do their housework, and take care of things and grow the vegetables. So we need smart robots. There are also problems we can't solve. What if the sun dies out or we destroy the planet? Why not make better physicists, engineers, or mathematicians? We may need to be the architects of our own future. If we don't, our culture could disappear."

The Discover Interview: Marvin Minsky - - science news articles online technology magazine articles The Discover Interview: Marvin Minsky

The Discover Interview: Marvin Minsky - - science news articles online technology magazine articles The Discover Interview: Marvin Minsky: "The history of AI is sort of funny because the first real accomplishments were beautiful things, like a machine that could do proofs in logic or do well in a calculus course. But then we started to try to make machines that could answer questions about the simple kinds of stories that are in a first-grade reader book. There's no machine today that can do that. So AI researchers looked primarily at problems that people called hard, like playing chess, but they didn't get very far on problems people found easy. It's a sort of backwards evolution. I expect with our commonsense reasoning systems we'll start to make progress pretty soon if we can get funding for it. One problem is people are very skeptical about this kind of work."

The Discover Interview: Marvin Minsky - - science news articles online technology magazine articles The Discover Interview: Marvin Minsky

The Discover Interview: Marvin Minsky - - science news articles online technology magazine articles The Discover Interview: Marvin Minsky: "Yes, through the lens of building a simulation. If a theory is very simple, you can use mathematics to predict what it'll do. If it's very complicated, you have to do a simulation. It seems to me that for anything as complicated as the mind or brain, the only way to test a theory is to simulate it and see what it does. One problem is that often researchers won't tell us what a simulation didn't do. Right now the most popular approach in artificial intelligence is making probabilistic models."

The Discover Interview: Marvin Minsky - - science news articles online technology magazine articles The Discover Interview: Marvin Minsky

The Discover Interview: Marvin Minsky - - science news articles online technology magazine articles The Discover Interview: Marvin Minsky: "Throughout, Minsky has written philosophically on the subject of AI, culminating in the 1985 book Society of Mind, which summarizes his theory of how the mind works. He postulates that the complex phenomenon of thinking can be broken down into simple, specialized processes that work together like individuals in a society. His latest book, The Emotion Machine, continues ideas begun in Society of Mind, reflecting twenty-some additional years of thought. It is a blueprint for a thinking machine that Minsky would like to build—an artificial intelligence that can reflect on itself—taking us a step forward into a future that may seem as if out of an Asimov story."

Foreign Policy: Think Again: India

Foreign Policy: Think Again: India: "Consider India’s relationship with Iran. The energy-hungry subcontinent looks at Iran in the same way that the United States views Saudi Arabia. Iran and India reached a “strategic partnership” in 2003, cementing the “historical ties” between the two nations. India is now chafing at Western demands that it stop backing Iran’s right to develop its nuclear capacities. Despite a new American deal to share advanced nuclear technology with India, Delhi is likely to resist opening its own nuclear facilities to serious international inspection and remains steadfast in its refusal to sign major international arms-control agreements. A key player in the development of its nuclear weapons, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, is now the country’s president."

PINR - The Pentagon's Bid to Militarize Space

PINR - The Pentagon's Bid to Militarize Space: "The third fundamental problem is of a strategic nature. The implications of space militarization are enormous, and its consequences can't be predicted. It is certain that -- in the short term -- U.S. financial and technological superiority would increase the already prominent gap in military power between Washington and the rest of the world. In addition, some of the new weapons could give the White House new effective tools to fight against symmetrical (states) and asymmetrical (terror networks) threats. However, in the long run, a military colonization of outer space could very well be started by other powers -- which would hardly tolerate Washington's quasi-private use of space.

The Clinton administration decided to take the opposite route and avoided international space militarization, as it considered a new front useless because of the U.S. military's overwhelming dominance on land, sea and air."

PINR - The Pentagon's Bid to Militarize Space

PINR - The Pentagon's Bid to Militarize Space: "The White House will face several problems if it wants to pursue the ambitious project of space militarization consisting of both offensive and defensive weapons.

The first point is the political issue. International reactions to U.S. plans have already appeared: Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov recently evoked an immediate reaction from Moscow, and serious consequences were threatened should an orbital weapon deployment be performed by Washington. Such a reaction could consist of a modified version of the SS-18 intercontinental ballistic missile, capable of putting into orbit a remarkable quantity of space vehicles -- which could even carry military nukes, thus making the U.S. planned intercepting effort much more difficult."

PINR - The Pentagon's Bid to Militarize Space

PINR - The Pentagon's Bid to Militarize Space: "series of Pentagon initiatives aimed at space militarization and at the creation of new types of armament -- capable of precisely striking small targets in every corner of the world and of neutralizing most of today's anti-aircraft defenses -- will likely result in a new power battlefield in the near future.

While the implementation of space weapons is likely to increase the capability gap between Washington and other powers at first, a broader vision reveals dangers involved in the move that could affect U.S. interests, for it will likely trigger off determined reactions by its competitors. Competitor states could successfully deploy a small number of low cost orbital weapons, thus forcing the U.S. to design an extremely expensive space defense system.

At the moment, a space weaponization policy may generate more troubles than advantages for Washington."

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4203874.html
If Pentagon strategists get their way, there will be no place on the planet to hide from such a US assault. The plan is part of a program — in slow development since the 1990s, and now quickly coalescing in military circles — called Prompt Global Strike. The goal, according to the U.S. Strategic Command's deputy commander Lt. Gen. C. Robert Kehler, is 'to strike virtually anywhere on the face of the Earth within 60 minutes.' "

Earth Policy Institute Book Bytes - The Environmental Revolution: "Restructuring the global economy according to the principles of ecology represents the greatest investment opportunity in history. In scale, the Environmental Revolution is comparable to the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions that preceded it.

The Agricultural Revolution involved restructuring the food economy, shifting from a nomadic life-style based on hunting and gathering to a settled life-style based on tilling the soil. Although agriculture started as a supplement to hunting and gathering, it eventually replaced it almost entirely. The Agricultural Revolution eventually cleared one tenth of the earth’s land surface of either grass or trees so it could be plowed and planted to crops. Unlike the hunter-gatherer culture that had little effect on the earth, this new farming culture literally transformed the earth’s surface.

The Industrial Revolution has been under way for two centuries, although in some countries it is still in its early stages. At its foundation was a shift from wood to fossil fuels, a shift that set the stage for a massive expansion in economic activity. Indeed, its distinguishing feature is the harnessing of vast amounts of solar energy stored beneath the earth’s surface as fossil fuels. While the Agricultural Revolution transformed the earth’s surface, the Industrial Revolution is transforming the earth’"

Rise of China and India changes course of global economic history -- Shanghai Daily | 上海日报 -- English Window to China News: "The rise of China, India, other Asian economies, and other emerging market economies is a major watershed for the global economy. Their rise - as former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers put it last January in Davos - may be the most important event in human history in the last 1,000 years, after the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution.

In 'Chindia,' 2.2 billion people are starting to join the global labor force; this is a massive and challenging process of integration in the global economy.

With economic power - a larger share of global GDP coming out of emerging markets - also comes political power, as the rising influence of China and India on geopolitical affairs clearly shows."

Rise of China and India changes course of global economic history -- Shanghai Daily | 上海日报 -- English Window to China News: "THE overarching theme of the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting, which will take place in Davos, Switzerland, tomorrow, is 'The Shifting Power Equation.'

Participants will try to make sense of the various ways that power is being transferred and re-distributed in our ever-more-connected global polity. One manifestation of this shift is the changing global economic architecture. "

CRIMES AND CORRUPTIONS OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER NEWS: Is Energo-fascism in Your Future? : : The Pentagon Energy-Protection Racket: "Such future possibilities are generating great anxiety among officials of the major energy-consuming nations, especially the United States, China, Japan, and the European powers. All of these countries have undertaken major reviews of energy policy in recent years, and all have come to the same conclusion: Market forces alone can no longer be relied upon to satisfy essential national energy requirements, and so the state must assume ever-increasing responsibility for performing this role. "

CRIMES AND CORRUPTIONS OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER NEWS: Is Energo-fascism in Your Future? : : The Pentagon Energy-Protection Racket: "Powerful, potentially planet-altering trends like this do not occur in a vacuum. The rise of Energo-fascism can be traced to two overarching phenomena: an imminent collision between energy demand and energy supplies, and the historic migration of the center of gravity of planetary energy output from the global north to the global south.
For the past 60 years, the international energy industry has largely succeeded in satisfying the world's ever-growing thirst for energy in all its forms. When it comes to oil alone, global demand jumped from 15 to 82 million barrels per day between 1955 and 2005, an increase of 450%. Global output rose by a like amount in those years. Worldwide demand is expected to keep growing at this rate, if not faster, for years to come -- propelled in large part by rising affluence in China, India, and other developing nations. There is, however, no expectation that global output can continue to keep pace. "

CRIMES AND CORRUPTIONS OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER NEWS: Is Energo-fascism in Your Future? : : The Pentagon Energy-Protection Racket: "A ruthless scramble among the great powers for the remaining oil, natural gas, and uranium reserves of Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia, accompanied by recurring military interventions, the constant installation and replacement of client regimes, systemic corruption and repression, and the continued impoverishment of the great majority of those who have the misfortune to inhabit such energy-rich regions. "

CRIMES AND CORRUPTIONS OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER NEWS: Is Energo-fascism in Your Future? : : The Pentagon Energy-Protection Racket: "the world actually faces a far more substantial and universal threat, which might be dubbed: Energo-fascism, or the militarization of the global struggle over ever-diminishing supplies of energy.
Unlike Islamo-fascism, Energo-fascism will, in time, affect nearly every person on the planet. Either we will be compelled to participate in or finance foreign wars to secure vital supplies of energy"

OECD Observer: Energising change: "Striking a new energy approach is a realistic way forward since it means implementing policies already being considered. Demand for energy is rising and so all energy sources must be involved, whether oil and gas, carbon sequestration, nuclear power, biomass, wind or solar energy. Some new technologies will have to be further developed, and others made more effective.
Take coal. This is the most carbon-emitting fuel in power generation, but it is an abundant and dense energy source. China is the world’s largest user of coal and it is the main fuel for electricity generation in the US and Germany too. Its use is set to go on rising. Equipping new coal generators with technologies to capture carbon to reduce emissions and increase efficiency will be important."

Foreign Affairs - Background on the News: "China has just overtaken Japan as the world's second-largest spender on research and development, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reports — and its efforts are furrowing brows abroad. Yet spending alone might not be enough to overcome China's deep structural problems in this area. As George Gilboy pointed out in Foreign Affairs two years ago, China has traditionally imported technological processes wholesale, without investing in long-term capabilities of its own, and it has yet to develop a domestic R&D network linking innovative local firms, universities, and research centers. In other words, China is extremely dependent on technology from industrialized states and that could limit the country's growth down the road."

The Power and Interest News Report (PINR): "Finally, there are also larger geopolitical concerns, which likely provided some of the basis for the U.S. decision to invade Iraq in the first place. If the U.S. hand is removed from the Green Zone, it will provide the green light to Iran to increase funding for its actors in Iraq. If Iran is able to assist into power a regime that is pro-Iranian, then Iraq will move more toward the policy aims of Iran rather than those of the West or of the Sunni powers in the region. The United States, which is already engaged in a political struggle with Iran, hopes to avoid Iran becoming even stronger, which is what would occur should Iraq become more stable yet under Iranian influence."

The Power and Interest News Report (PINR): "Iraq's history outlines the gravity of today's circumstances. The Ba'athist establishment suppressed Iraq's different power factions for decades. Upon the removal of that establishment, it was natural that the different power factions would engage in conflict until a proper power sharing balance, or state disunion, was eventuated. In all conflicts, the quest for a power balance often involves violent struggle, similar to the struggles seen in other non-homogonous countries such as Lebanon and Yugoslavia. The one way to avoid this in Iraq was to foster Iraqi nationalism as a unifying force. However, throughout the process of forming transitional governments, drafting a constitution, and forming the permanent government, maintaining self-imposed deadlines was given greater importance than containing sectarian divisions. In fact, political parties were formed on sectarian lines, and the constitution itself now provides more space to the divvying up of resources and power along these lines than to the actual form of the government."

The Power and Interest News Report (PINR): "The removal from power of Saddam Hussein acted as a giant release valve for Iraq's competing interest groups. Throughout the process of drafting a constitution and fielding political parties, sectarian divisions were placed above national ties. After the constitution was completed, sectarian groups used their own security forces and militias to protect their territorial holdings and gain leverage over other power factions. With the bombing of the al-Askariya mosque in February 2006, the sectarian violence increasingly took on the nature of a civil war.

The country is now engaged in a non-polarized civil war, where the different parties are using their resources to gain the instruments of power."

Global Shift in Christianity Tops List of Religious Developments | Christianpost.com- Christian News Online , Christian World News: "Gordon-Conwell seminary's Center for the Study of Global Christianity says 62 percent of the world's 2 billion Christians live in Africa, Asia and Latin America, a percentage that's destined to rise.

Africa's Christian boom since 1900 'may well be the largest shift in religious affiliation that has ever occurred, anywhere,' said Penn State historian Philip Jenkins."

KurzweilAI.net
Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis found that the human mind taps into the same parts of the brain while imagining the future as it does when recollecting the past.

This means that the brain apparently predicts the course of future events by imagining them taking place much like similar past ones.