I just StumbledUpon an interesting article about a new type of printer that can make 3D objects. You can use various materials as input ranging from plastics to chocolate if you wanted. This device reminded me of the Matter Compiler in The Diamond Age which I reviewed recently. This is still a primitive technology, but I wonder if what Neal Stephenson envisioned might ever come true. Check out the original site to watch a brief video demonstration of the device.
Fab at Home Open-Source 3D Printer Lets Users Make Anything
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Isaac Asimov introduces the Radio Shack TRS-80 pocket computerIsaac Asimov introduces the Radio Shack TRS-80 pocket computer
I ran across this ad recently for an amazing new product, promoted by my own favorite science fiction author, Isaac Asimov.
Radio Shack’s TRS-80 Pocket Computer turned my dreams into a reality. Now I can take the power of a true computer with me wherever I go.
— Isaac Asimov
The marketing guys chime in a few paragraphs later.
And it can also function just like a calculator — something a desktop computer can’t do.
— Radio Shack
Wait, what!? With a standard calculator included in just about every phone that I can think of, it is hard to imagine a desktop computer ever existing without that ability. Crazy, right? Now that I think of it, it wasn’t too far in the distant past that desktop computers couldn’t be used for voice communications, something a simple phone could do. So what does $169.95 actually get you?
From Dave Dunfield’s old computer page:
The machine was actually a Radio Shack branded version of the Sharp PC-1211, which features:
- Sharp SC43177/SC43178 4-bit CPU running at 256khz
- 1×24 character LCD display
- 57 key “Qwerty” keyboard
- 1.5k of RAM for user program storage
- Pizoelectric buzzer
Be sure to check out the full breakdown at Dave’s TRS-80 Pocket Computer page
As a point of comparison, here are a few highlights of Motorola’s Droid 2 tech specs:
- 1 GHz processor
- 480×854 Pixel display (Characters displayed depends on the font)
- QWERTY keyboard
- 8GB flash (expandable to 32GB)
- Support for stereo bluetooth (not sure if actual speaker is stereo or not)
- 100’s of other features like camera, video capture, streaming video, and get this includes the ability to make phone calls. Sadly though, it can’t make you breakfast… yet.
Let me whip out my calculator on my i7 Desktop Computer! The Droid 2 has a 3,906.25 times faster processor (just based on clock rate, not actual computational power) and has 5,592,405.33 times more storage. That seems crazy right? The TRS-80 pocket computer came out in 1980, about 20 years ago. I wonder how people will feel about our state of the art smartphones in 2020? That is assuming we haven’t been taken over by robots gone wild, destroyed ourselves with nukes, or succumbed to a raging nano-plague. But that is all just science fiction.
Isaac Asimov promotes Radio Shack's TRS-80 Pocket Computer
Humans to become immortal cyborgs within 20 years?Humans to become immortal cyborgs within 20 years?
About a year an a half ago, I reviewed The Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil. I never did get around to reading his slightly newer book, The Singularity is Near. I just ran across an article that quotes him as saying
I and many other scientists now believe that in around 20 years we will have the means to reprogram our bodies’ stone-age software so we can halt, then reverse, aging. Then nanotechnology will let us live for ever.
He goes on to describe a number of medical advancements that seem unbelievable. He doesn’t really expand on how many people, or rather WHO will have access to this technology. We can’t very well have billions of immortal cyborgs running around for eternity, now can we? I think that those denied immortality, or at least extended life-spans, would wage war against those that would keep the technology for themselves.
Credit: Telegraph via Geekologie
Note: For those of you not familiar with Geekolgie, be sure to check that blog out. I added it to my newsreader about 2 months ago and it keeps me entertained every day!
New advances in Nanotechnology, should we be excited or scared?New advances in Nanotechnology, should we be excited or scared?
I have been interested nanotechnology, or nanoscience as this video refers to it, for a very long time. If you have heard about nanotech, but haven’t seen any visuals, I highly recommend this video. It touches on properties at the nano scale both in nature and how we are developing our own new materials. They also touch on the development of nano machines. What worries me is for nanotech to become useful, they will probably have to develop self-replicating machines.
In one of my reviews a few years ago for The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson, he writes about Matter Compilers, usually referred to as an M.C. for short. That’s great right? We can just make whatever we want, any time we want! There are also little battles between autonomous nanobots called mites that break out. If I remember correctly, these massive battles on the nano scale result in a type of dust that pollutes the air and causes respiratory problems. That’s no good! There is a little excerpt on Google books that doesn’t really have any spoilers. It begins on the end of page 59 through page 61. Click through this link for the full text.
I can certainly see something like what Stephenson describes happening within our lifetimes. What do you think?