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Reminder: Future Tech Column on Hold

Yac — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 09:37:23 +0000

I wanted to remind readers that the Future Tech column has been put on hold indefinitely. I have set up a new feed which you can subscribe to. It will notify you every time I bookmark an interesting links about future technology.

I refer you to last week’s post for more details:

After some thought, I’ve decided to stop writing my regular Friday column on future tech. I’ve got a few reasons:

While the topic is fascinating to me, I’m no longer motivated to write at length about it on regular basis. Every time I sit down to write them, I feel like I’m punishing myself. That is definitely not the mental state I want.
I think it is diluting both the focus of this site and my focus. Game development needs to be my first priority.
I’ve generally got more interesting comments to make about game development, and I’m not making it because of limited time.

My interest in the field hasn’t disappeared completely, but it’s not the most productive use of my time. I may still write a future tech article once in a while when the urge strikes me, but for now, it’s on hold. However, I’ve come up with a more effective solution for the readers who are actually interested in this topic. From now on, I am adding all the relevant links to a Delicious account (an online bookmarking site). I’ve also set up a new feed (that you can subscribe to) which is updated each time I bookmark a new link. So if you’d like, you can keep track of any cool links about future technology that I come across.

I hope I haven’t upset anyone who was only reading this site for the future tech column (the new feed should essentially fill that gap), but if you feel strongly one way or another about, please leave a comment.

Delicious account is here.

Subscribe to the feed here.

The Second Coming of the Space Age

Yac — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 18:01:56 +0000

First, there was the excitement of the space age, with our initial space explorations, culminating with our most visible achievement so far: sending a man to the moon. The next couple decades saw a decreasing public interest in space exploration. However, the last few years have brought renewed hope for a second coming of the space age.

First, the big news of the week is that November 20^th marked the 10^th anniversary of the International Space Station, the first long-term international space cooperation.

The resurgence in interest of space exploration has been mostly lead by private interests (as opposed to the first wave which was lead by public companies. The new private space race is spurred by the young but growing market for space tourism, but also for the more long-term, and potentially vastly lucrative resource mining business.

The burgeoning tourism demand is already having a large impact on the demand for rocket planes. Private space flight is being encouraged through various competitions such as the Google Lunar X Prize as well as NASA’s recent embracing of private space firms. Private groups are already lining up to tackle the Google’ Lunar Challenge.

The appearance of lawyers specialized in space law is worrying, but lends further credence to the re-emergence of space exploration.

This past year saw the Internet’s reach finally extend to space through the hard work of Vint Cerf (commonly known as the father of the Internet). Vint has been working on the interplanetary network protocol for last few years. This protocol will likely be the base communication model for all interplanetary communication for generations to come. After years of planning, NASA turned to field trials in October, and this past week, they announced the successful tests of the first “Deep Space Internet”. This will probably one day be considered a landmark moment in the history of space exploration.

This resurgence in interest in space is not solely limited to private groups. Growing interest from new emerging space powers (such as India, China and Japan) is also driving space exploration, and applying pressure on conventional space leaders (such as the US) to do more. The key fact remains, the dawn of a new space age is upon us, and it feels like the real deal this time.

Novel Energy Uses

Yac — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 17:42:46 +0000

We all know that energy use is a major concern for humanity going forward. Thanks to skyrocketing prices, dwindling supplies and environmental concerns, everyone is focused on the challenges of reducing our energy consumption, increasing efficiency, etc. On a wider level, our energy needs are only going to increase as our societies advance, as our populations continue to grow, and as our expansion beyond this planet becomes a necessity. We don’t yet have all the answers, but as our oil supplies continue to be consumed, I trust in the ingenuity of mankind to find new, innovative ways to acquire energy.

We’ll start on the smaller scale front first: what better way to power the various electrical devices you carry (and all your future electronic implantsJ) than to generate electricity from walking. Fitting in nicely with our previous discussions on repairing the body, researchers in California “have created an artificial muscle that heals itself and generates electricity”.

This next invention addresses two important issues at once: it’s a bike which purifies water as you pedal. Obtaining safe drinking water is sadly still a major difficulty in many parts of the world, and at least this invention offers another possibility for those afflicted. Speaking of water, another intriguing method has been found to tap into a natural energy source: harvesting energy from rain drops. This won’t produce massive amounts of energy, but it will be sufficient to power low-consumption devices.

On the exploration front, scientists have created a new submersible robot “that runs on energy absorbed from the heat of the sea”, allowing it to stay at sea at least twice as long as previous autonomous submersibles. Meanwhile, the ESA has released estimates that Titan’s surface contains more liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and gas reserves on Earth. I guarantee we’ll be there harvesting it in the next 200-250 years. We’re going to need all that energy to explore further into the stars. The key is finding enough energy to get us there (the old chicken and egg problem).

One way to power our future spaceships (as well as providing power here on earth) is fusion. While we are still a couple decades away from being able to properly make use of fusion, research continues to advance in this field, and I point you to the work being done at MIT’s fusion lab for a fascinating read.

Finally, we wrap things up today with a story announced just this week: a new venture seeks to develop power plant which will use plasma to vaporize trash and produce enough energy to power 50,000 homes. The article is vague on whether such a method would be cost-effective, but it potentially offers a new way to tap into cleaner energy. That’s always a worthwhile area of research in my book.

Nerve Regrowth

Yac — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 19:22:01 +0000

Continuing our discussion on repairing the human body, we turn our attention to the subjects of nerve regeneration and nerve remapping. A key component of recovering from dramatic injuries (and as we’ll see later, expanding human capabilities) is finding a way to reestablish the connection between the brain and the severed nerves of injured areas.

Reversing paralysis has been a major area of research for a long time. For people who have been paralyzed, there has been very little to no hope of ever recovering the full use of their afflicted bodies. But things are changing and a hefty amount of advances in this field suggests that severe paralysis will soon become reversible.

For many years, the biggest obstacle was the regrowth of neurons, which was simply assumed to be impossible through natural means due to the scarring that forms around the site of injury. Yet earlier in this decade, several breakthroughs were achieved that changed these assumptions. First, scientist at King’s College London discovered a bacterial enzyme, which “destroys some of the molecules in the scar, allowing nerves a path along which to grow back”. That same year, scientists at the University of Texas discovered a way of turning stem cells into neurons by implanting them directly into the central nervous system. This is especially important given that scientists had previously been unable to generate new nerve cells.

Since then, research has progressed swiftly, with new breakthroughs coming on a regular basis. Researchers have focused on many ways to regenerate control and feel of paralyzed areas by literally rewiring the brain and rerouting signals around afflicted areas, be it by using computers, or by growing nerve cells around the severed point. The key thing to note is that scientists are finding real success using these techniques, and restoring the feel and control of paralyzed limbs is no longer the realm of science fiction. Within 20 years, I fully expect remedies to be available to all humans affected by physical paralysis.

The other benefit of this area of research is of course tied to the topic from last week: improving the human body. For prosthetics and augmentations to become really useful, they need to be controllable by the host human body. Well, the science in this area is also well along, and researchers are close to being able to provide real feel and touch and control using prosthetic limbs. One of the major scientific mainstream stories this past year was of a monkey remotely controlling a robotic arm using solely his brain signals. The implications for paralysis victims are immediately discernible.

I should note that brain control of foreign objects is a huge subject and a fascinating one for me. The possibilities that it opens up, especially in terms of interfacing with various devices, is compelling. Think about being able to control any device you interact with (like a television, a car, a computer) simply with your mind. It’s truly telepathy. This ability definitely lies in our near future and it is a subject that I will be sure to revisit many times.

Improving the Human Body

Yac — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:24:31 +0000

Last time, I explored the promising new frontier of repairing the human body and regrowth of human body parts. Today we will explore the natural counterpart of repairing the human body: cybernetic augmentations and bionic implants. Or in other words, the improvement of our bodies through artificial means.

The biggest uses of cybernetics so far has been for restoring normal functionality that has been impaired. For example, the use of cochlear implants for the loss of hearing, or artificial limbs for those who have lost the use of their limbs, or even Lasik surgery for people with deteriorating eyesight. Of course, we cannot forget the simple pacemaker which has saved thousands of lives.

There is no reason why these techniques and devices cannot be taken a step further. In the future, they will become improved versions of the human components they are replacing. Already with Lasik surgery, one can sometimes obtain better eyesight than a normal human’s 20/20 vision. Perhaps there are limits to what laser surgery can do, but in the future we will have the ability to completely augment the eye. Research is being done both to replicate the amazing capabilities of the human eye, and to provide bionic vision (ie, artificial eyes) to blind patients. The bionic system described in the article is still basic but also very promising. Research into restoring eye sight in blind patients is being undertaken on various fronts.

Meanwhile, on the domain of hearts, scientists are on the brink of human clinical trials of total heart replacements. These are not just pacemakers, or new valves, but entire heart replacements. Think of the impact, on the number of patients who would otherwise die due to the severe lack of transplant donors. These devices will not just improve lives, but also save lives.

Bionic Arm by The Johns Hopkins University

Finally, we turn to artificial limbs. They are in fact some of the most interesting devices to follow, having evolved from crude wooden structures and into complex systems. I’m sure you have all heard of the double amputee South African sprinter who could nearly compete with Olympians due to his specially-crafted prosthetic legs. Even then, his double blade system is still an incredibly basic prosthetic. The future of prosthetic lies in systems that can more faithfully emulate the functionality of natural limbs. We’re talking of Luke Skywalker’s hand here. Money is being poured into this important field by both governments and private universities, and the quality of prosthetics is going to drastically improve over the next decade.

All these systems will continue to improve by leaps and bounds because of the amount of research being invested in the field of bionics. However, in order to really take a step into the next-generation of intelligent devices, it’s the field of nerve remapping that these researchers will have to tap in. Luckily, we’ll explore that topic in depth next week.

Repairing the Human Body

Yac — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 20:55:49 +0000

The idea of my body becoming old and slowly breaking down is disturbing and highly irritating. I won’t lie; I’d like to live for a very long time. A couple hundred years, at least.

In my vision of the future, we will develop technology to be able to almost always fully repair the human body, as long core parts remain (like the brain). Short of being vaporized, you stand a chance to fully recover from any serious injury. Limbs can be rebuilt. Already we have made such progress. Consider the advances we have made in the last 100 years. We can rebuild almost all broken bones, joints and tendon tears. Some methods are still cruder than others (using metal rods in legs for serious bone fractures) but these techniques are improving every day.

Eventually we will be able to repair and grow tissues, tendons, muscles, nerves and entire limbs, and organs. A huge field of research is focused on rebuilding or rewiring neurons for paralyzed patients so they can regain use of their paralyzed bodies.

For all these things to happen, scientists need to fully understand and master the science of cell generation and stem cell generation (stems cell being the fundamental building blocks since they can differentiate themselves into a wide range of specialized cell types). It seems like every other week another important breakthrough in this area is announced:

In February, researchers at Harvard Stem Cell Institute have taken a major step towards being able to reprogram adult cells to an embryonic stem cell-like state. Understanding the reprogramming process will allow scientists to aid and direct the body when to rebuild certain damaged areas. Our bodies are amazing machines which can heal themselves to a degree, but we are learning ways to tap into new techniques to do even more amazing things.
In the same month, researchers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital “have discovered a dance of proteins that protects certain cells from undergoing apoptosis, also known as programmed cell death. Understanding the fine points of apoptosis is important to researchers seeking ways to control this process.” Understanding how and why cells die not only opens up interesting prospect in limiting the deaths of certain types of limited cells, but also how to address diseases like Parkinson’s disease which cause the early (and unnecessary) deaths of perfectly healthy cells.
If it wasn’t clear yet that regrowing limbs is not just a science fiction pipe dream, consider that the US Department of Defense is investing $250 million to “to harness stem cell research and technology in finding innovative ways to use a patient’s natural cellular structure to reconstruct new skin, muscles and tendons, and even ears, noses and fingers.” Seriously, try to imagine that. In 10-15 years, we will be able to regrow most extremities and possibly entire limbs.
In fact, you really need to read this Slate article (which discusses the story above), it’s absolutely mind-blowing stuff, and it’s about to become part of our reality. The article’s is chock full of links to other advances in the regrowth of various body parts: “tissue regeneration is well underway. The military has been working on regrowing lost body parts using extracellular matrices. Scientists in labs have grown blood vessels, livers, bladders, breast implants, and meat. This year they announced the production of beating, disembodied rat hearts.”
Here’s another great article (with video) of a regrown severed fingertip using a substance made from pig bladders called extracellular matrix. There are labs around the world, which are actively making new body parts. How crazy is that?

Regrowing limbs is just the start, let your mind wander and the possibilities are endless. If we can regrow parts of the bodies, why not the entire body in turn? Is the idea of youth rejuvenation as presented by one of my favorite sci-fi authors Peter F. Hamilton (and I’m sure by many others) a possibility? In 50 years, that may be the reality of the world we live in.

The field of human repair also nicely intersects with the field of cybernetics augmentations (i.e. human bodies augmented with artificial systems). But I’ll save that topic for next week.

And apologies for the slight delay this week. The intersection of the iPhone conference, poker and alcohol led to some unforeseen delays.

Artificial Intelligence: Turing Test and Robocars

Yac — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 19:09:52 +0000

Let’s talk a little bit about Artificial Intelligence today. My take on it is that, given continued technological improvements and research, one day we will engineer an artificial intelligence more “intelligent” than humans. I don’t know when this will happen, or what form such an intelligence would take, but it is inevitable. This moment is commonly described as the singularity point. It is called that because we have no idea what will occur from that moment on, the idea being that once machines surpass humans in intelligence they will be able repeatedly improve on their own designs in new unforeseen ways, leading to an exponential growth in intelligence.

Where we go from there is a mystery. It could be disastrous for humankind, or really beneficial. Anyways, we’re still quite far off from that faithful day. There are people who focus solely on the type of AI research that would lead to the singularity (and you can read all about it here), but the field of AI is vast, and research is being spear-headed in many other areas. It’s the combined results in those fields which will continue to improve our lives. Let’s take a brief random tour:

In the virtual world Second Life, researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have engineered an Artificial Intelligent agent which has the mental reasoning ability of a 4 year old child, and continuously learns from his environment and interactions.
Arstechnica have done a series on the future of self-driving cars (partially inspired by the thorough research done by EFF chairman Brad Templeton). In fact, the push for automated vehicles is becoming more pronounced every day: researchers at Berkeley have demonstrated a highly accurate automated guidance system for buses, and the EU has reserved a radio frequency band solely for the use of communication between cars and the road infrastructure. This topic could use entire post on its own.
Meanwhile, a PDA-like device is being developed by DARPA (you know, the guys who brought you the internet) for use by American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, which will automatically translate English phrases into the local dialect in real-time. In fact, this article bills the technology as being straight out “star Trek”. I’m telling you, the future is here. Science fiction becoming reality. It’s fantastic.

I’ve gone the long way around to get to the main topic of this post. I wanted to point you to a series of articles this week on a nearly successful Turing test. A Turing test is used to determine if a computer is able to demonstrate human-like intelligence during five minutes of questioning from a number of judges. In order to pass the Turing test, and AI program needs to fool 30% of the judges. The annual Loebner Prize contest held this week seeks to reward AI entries which fare the best in these Turing tests. And this year, one program came tantalizingly close.

Passing the Turing test isn’t the threshold for true artificial intelligence, but just another step along the way. What is clear is that every day, our machines are being made more intelligence.

Brain Interfaces Redux

Yac — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:11:21 +0000

Some of the feedback I received about last week’s post on Brain Interfaces was worried queries about what lies ahead. The possibility for anyone with the right tools being able to see exactly what you’re thinking, or extract your memories of events is frightening. Well, I do believe that one day such technology could exist, but this is a long way off. Let me explain.

The type of brain-reading interfaces needed to manipulate objects or to activate virtual interfaces is relatively rudimentary. The technology does not need to map the entire brain, or extract complex imagery in order to work. It only needs to translate basic commands and directions; commands which would be actively “expressed” by your brain. For a machine to read your mind, or your memories, it would either need to have a complete mapping of all your neurons, or to intensely trigger various parts of your brain in order to elicit all the memories that are stored. Either way, it would be very invasive and extremely difficult.

Consider a lie detector (polygraph) machine. It cannot actually detect whether you are lying, but simply measures various physiological responses (such as blood pressure, pulse, etc), and from the variability of those responses, the operator can deduce whether you are lying. It is just informed guess work. Simple brain-reading interfaces will be the same. Complete mind-reading is several orders of magnitude more complex.

To understand how close we are (or more precisely, how far we are) from fully understanding the brain — let alone being able to fully read someone’s mind — take a look at this great article from the IEEE Spectrum (which is part of the amazing singularity special report from June 2008. If you have a few hours to kill, I urge you to dive in).

Having said all that, authorities do take the study of the brain seriously. This article takes a look at the advances in neuroscience which could have implications on how intelligence services will interact with the brain. The military clearly views brain warfare as part of future battlefields.

I’ll end this edition on a lighter note; consider this ultrasound machine which amazingly ages wines and whisky. I really, really want one of those. If you can take a regular bottle of wine and make it magically age, think of what you can do with a 12-year old single malt. Yeah, it might be just a scam, but imagine the possibilities if it’s not…

Brain Interfaces

Yac — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:49:58 +0000

One technology I simply cannot wait for is brain interfaces, ie, the ability for our brains to directly control external devices the way we can do now with our muscles. In fact, it irritates me that I have to physically type this blog post instead of just thinking it. Honestly, what a waste of time. It’s particularly bad for me (and others like me). I spend most of my time thinking about what I’m going to write instead of actually writing it, going over it again in my head. I have to mentally force myself to sit down and type out the words. I hate it, it’s boring, and it doesn’t capture the flow of my ideas effectively. Also, I’m lazy.

So, I think you can understand why being able to mentally control objects with your mind would be so amazing. And if you can’t, look at it this way: it’s like electronic telepathy. Literally, whatever you think of, happens. You think of a song while driving, it starts playing. You remember that you have an appointment next Tuesday, it’s automatically added to your iPhone calendar. When you play a game, you want to control the character directly, not through the awkward interface mapping of a game pad. The possibility are limitless. Communicating with others becomes real-time with in-brain instant messaging, and emails.

The beauty of this tech is that it is definitely coming. One day, whether 10, 20 or 50 years from now, it will be the standard way of interfacing with most devices. And it will feel natural once everyone is using, in the same way that portable phones have become second-nature to most of the world’s population. Devices that facilitate and extend communication between people are always embraced.

This brain interface theme is something I will revisit quite a few times, as it such an exciting field. The mechanics for brain interfacing fall under several categories: invasive and non-invasive. One requires a physical connection to the neurons in the brain, and the other uses an external devices to capture the thought pattern emitted as waves by the brain. Another property of the brain interface is that can work in two directions: the brain can control external devices, or information can be fed into the brain from external devices (or both, of course). Today, I will restrict myself to research on non-invasive techniques, where the brain controls devices.

One difficulty with these interfaces is understanding the extremely complex entity that is the brain. Researchers are learning more about it every day, but we still have a very long way to go. Luckily, cool things can be accomplished using even simple, crude techniques. Back in 2001, a colleague of mine at the (now defunct) at U of T developed a technique to react to drivers falling asleep and alert them. He wrote a program that measured the intensity of the EEG waves emitted by the brain using a couple electrodes, and triggered an alarm when the level dropped below a certain threshold. It was basic, but very cool. Researchers in Taiwan have recently developed a more modern version of this device.
I mentioned video game interfaces earlier. Well, several companies have recently released commercial products taking a shot at brain controlled video games. The results are mixed – it takes a bit of training to learn to control the device effectively – but the devices works. The technology is undoubtedly moving in this direction (consider the success of the Wii, and the iPhone, with their more intuitive, direct tactile interfaces).
While people are developing interfaces to read the brain, others are spending their time understanding what these signals emitting from the brain actually mean. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have developed a mind-reading computer. By using it, they will attempt to decipher how the brain stores information, and how we mentally form words and phrases. The hope is that this research could “lead to improved treatments for language disorders and learning disabilities”. While I have my own selfish reasons for wanting such a technology, the potential benefits for disabled people is mind-boggling. On that respect alone, it is an important area of research.
Finally, scientists at UC Berkely have developed a technique to accurately distinguish which images a person is looking at by scanning their brainwaves. Does the following quote make you shudder or excite you? “Our results suggest that it may soon be possible to reconstruct a picture of a person’s visual experience from measurements of brain activity alone. Imagine a general brain-reading device that could reconstruct a picture of a person’s visual experience at any moment in time.” I admit the idea of a such a tool in the hands of governments worries me, but on the flip side, being able to access such technology myself is enticing. Regardless, we cannot stop the progress of technology. We can either embrace it or be passed by.

My ideal world of being able to mentally write an email, and stream a movie, book or song straight to my in-brain display all while riding a bus are dependent on many more technologies being developed (such as blanket wireless internet coverage, tiny wearable computers, amazing advances in bi-directional brain interfaces), but we’re constantly taking steps bringing us closer to that goal. Today was just a small slice of scientific advances that will make this technology a reality one day.

Medical Advances in Cancer

Yac — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:49:06 +0000

Ever since I got the idea for this regular column a year ago, I’ve been collecting links of cool new technologies or interesting advances in various fields. After having recently sorted through the list, I found that the largest category of links so far is in the field of medical advances. I don’t know if I unconsciously gravitate towards these links because of my desire to live forever, or that the medical environment is better at marketing themselves, but one thing’s for sure: medical research is advancing at an incredible, if not accelerating rate. It’s simply fascinating.

Today we’ll take a quick look at the landscape of cancer research. The improvements in the treatment of cancer over the last thirty years have been astounding. People live longer, the rates of recovery are ever increasing, but the fact remains that cancer is responsible for 25% of the deaths in developed countries, and 13% of deaths worldwide — a grim statistic.

Medical researchers are investing a lot of time and money in learning how to block the growth of cancer. There have been several interesting findings in 2008 that should instill hope that we are on the path of curing cancer once and for all:

Scientists at Harvard Medical School have identified “identified an enzyme which enables cancer cells to consume the huge quantities of glucose they need to fuel uncontrolled growth”. When the cells are forced to produce an alternative enzyme, the cancer cells quickly stemmed their growth. This research was done on lab mice, but we could soon see tests on human patients.
A 52-year-old man in the UK with skin cancer was injected with his own immune cells, and within two months, all the man’s tumors vanished from his body. This was done as part of experimental therapy using a complex technique, but is extremely promising. The cells were extracted from the body, cloned, then re-injected. These newly injected cells immediately attacked the cancer cells, and soon the entire immune system picked up on the attack and followed suit. Have a look at the article, it’s a great read.
The article title’s a bit sensationalist (“Cancer Cured?”), but the research discussed within the article is once more very promising. It involves again taking white blood cells known to attack cancer and injecting them into afflicted patients. The tests run by the scientists involved taking white blood cells known as granulocytes from a cancer-resistant mouse and transfusing them to cancer-infected mice. In their lab tests, they managed to cure 100% of the mice. The best part of this is that this treatment which has been researched for the last ten years is now ready for full human trials.
One last interesting link for today: “Researchers at Yale University have found that a virus that’s in the same family as rabies effectively kills an aggressive form of human brain cancer in mice”. It’s an interesting and non-conventional use of an organism we usually spend time fighting and using it for our cause. This method is not ideal as it requires weakening the immune system of the host (in order to let the virus survive), but it opens many possibilities of novel use of viruses and DNA manipulation to create effectively a cancer destroying agent.

So, I know cancer isn’t the most uplifting subject to discuss when trying to project an amazing future, but it is a fact of life and one of humankind’s greatest challenges moving forward as a species. I believe we will eventually tackle it completely.