Brian Wang

a long time futurist (he won second place in the Honeywell University Futurist contest). Listed as a big Thinker on the KurzweilAI site Member of the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology taskforce. Advisor to the Nanoethics Group. Director of Research for the Lifeboat Foundation.

http://nextbigfuture.com
http://www.aboutsf.com/speakers/speakerinfo.php?speakerID=147
http://www.kurzweilai.net/bios/frame.html?main=/bios/bio0261.html?

Artificial intelligence milestone - a computer beat a human master in a 9X9 game of GO
This was the first ever officially sanctioned 'non blitz' victory of a 'machine' over a Go Master. Although Catalin Taranu beat the computer in a 19x19 configuration with a nine-stone handicap, the Go Master nevertheless rated the IA system as 'approaching Dan standard' in a performance that promises some formidable battles to come between man and machine.

by brianwang on 2008-04-16 0 comments

Thin film domes over cities ($153 million) for protection from nukes and providing high speed communication
Thin film domes using todays technology can provide simple protection from nuclear devices and high speed communication for less than the cost and more convenience than a communication satellite

by brianwang on 2008-04-15 0 comments

Survey shows 20% usage of cognitive enhancers and generally favorable views of enhancers
New methods with superior performance improvements and greater safety will increase the adoption of enhancements of all kinds

by brianwang on 2008-04-09 0 comments

More details on technical challenges and solutions for exaflop and zettaflop machines
on chip photonic communication (80 Terabytes/second) and nanomemories are critical enabling technology for full speed chips

by brianwang on 2008-04-08 0 comments

Intel forecasts Moore's law to continue to 2029 and zettaflop computers (million petaflops)
Pat Gelsinger, head of the Digital Enterprise Division at Intel, says that Moore's Law will continue until 2029 with zettaflop supercomputers at that time.

by brianwang on 2008-04-07 0 comments

Transhumanist comic book
Transhumanist fiction and reality

by brianwang on 2008-03-28 0 comments

zyvex's Atomically precise manufacturing effort received $15 million in funding
Zyvex presented their APM plan at the Productive Nanosystems: Launching the Technology Roadmap a conference held by the Society of Mechanical Engineering. Uses atomic layer epitaxy and selective removal of hydrogen and building up atomically precise layers.

by brianwang on 2008-03-26 0 comments

Whole genome sequencing costs continue to fall: $300 million in 2003, $1 million 2007, $60,000 now, $5000 by year end
Inexpensive costs that will accelerate the transformation of medicine into personal genomics and personal medicine. Prices are going to keep falling with better nanopores and highly parallel approaches. Easy and widespread differential genetic analysis will provide more and better targets for gene therapy and modification.

by brianwang on 2008-03-26 5 comments

room temperature superconductor from supercompressed silicon and hydrogen [premature]
This would be huge [premature announcement]. They have a new class of superconductors which have a shot at reaching higher temps because of the [unproven] theory of metallic hydrogen being a room temp superconductor. Other news still awaiting confirmation is unpressurized superconductors at 185K.

by brianwang on 2008-03-18 3 comments

Artificial Intelligence ? You are soaking in it
Most financial transactions are made by program trading systems which use classic artificial intelligence methods. Google uses AI for search and to match ads with results. More AI and more power AI is being adopted all the time. Its influence is huge and increasing.

by brianwang on 2008-03-14 0 comments

More details on the promising new molecular devices and architecture
Anirban Bandyopadhyay expects to make spherical devices with more connections and to connect 1024 devices within 18 months. They may be working with Nanoink (massively parallel AFM arrays for input and output). That pace of progress would be better than most other molecular electronic approaches. 2 inch sphere of the devices would equal power of the human brain (direct singularity tie in)

by brianwang on 2008-03-12 1 comment

Making affordable exaflop and petaflop supercomputers with custom chips
Custom chips by Tensilica and others could make supercomputers ten to one hundred time cheaper and twenty to forty times more energy efficient.

by brianwang on 2008-02-26 0 comments

Reverse engineering the brain is where MIT Tech Review Emerging tech 2008 intersects NAE grand challenge
A crossover between the two lists is The Grand challenge of reverse engineering the human brain and Connectomics, map all connections between neurons in the mammalian brain, on the MIT Tech list. This is the key to Ray Kurzweil vision of the technological singularity and for one path to the development of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)

by brianwang on 2008-02-19 0 comments

Implantable device can extract stem cells, killing cancer and rejuvenating stem cells
A coatd microtube device has isolated and collected adult stem cells to eight times greater purity than can be obtained through traditional centrifugation. Could be used to kill cancer cells and to enable better transplants and combined with other methods to provide an unlimited supply of your rejuvenated cells

by brianwang on 2008-02-13 0 comments

Dwave is indicating 2000-4000 qubits for quantum computer by end of 2008
Dwave Systems closed a $17M financing round as of the end of January 2008. These funds will be used primarily to push the level of integration of our chips into the low thousands of qubits by the end of the year.

by brianwang on 2008-02-04 3 comments

Examining the next step or two in technological acceleration
Looking at the long term history of economic and technological progress, the next step should be consistent 16-25% annual growth. What is required and what would it mean

by brianwang on 2008-02-02 2 comments

There are four natural DNA bases and now two artificial DNA bases
This combines with other recent announcements about using DNA to assemble millions of three dimensional nanoparticles, being able to synthesize strings of DNA over 500,000 base pairs long and all molecular programmable DNA construction. I would say that the combined work indicates that we are completely within the age of DNA nanotechnology (using DNA for molecular control and construction).

by brianwang on 2008-01-31 0 comments

Using DNA to assemble and hold millions of nanoparticles together
DNA was used to build a three-dimensional structure out of 15 nanometer gold nanoparticles. The gold nanoparticles are the bricks and the DNA is scaffold and mortar. Three-dimensional nanoparticle arrays are likely to be the foundation of future optical and electronic materials.

by brianwang on 2008-01-31 0 comments

Genetic testing USB stick for less than $100 could transform medical testing and public health
Adverse drug reactions are a major problem in health care. By running a quick genetic test on a cancer patient, for example, doctors might pinpoint the type of cancer and determine the best drug and correct dosage for the individual.

by brianwang on 2008-01-29 0 comments

Progress to human wall crawling [pics]
Better gecko like materials. 2 square centimeters almost supports 1 pound. Hand and foot coverage would be enough to support the weight of an average person. A prediction I made in 2006 was that this would be achieved by 2008-2012 for climbing enthusiasts

by brianwang on 2008-01-29 1 comment

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