For those of you that want to continue following the links I picked out for the Trendwatch, the new RSS feed is here. And now the Wetware content will start floating again.

Enjoy.

• Robots from the Victorian era
• Buildings get nerve systems
• AI helicopters
• BOINC for distributed computing
• Running robots

…and more.

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Bridges and other constructions are increasingly being built with a “nerve system” of their own.
Engineers Work on ‘Smart’ Bridges, Roads

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This article gives a little insight in several applications of “grid technology”.
British government backs grid technology

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BBC series from Professor Vilayanur Ramachandran on the brain and the latest advances in brain sciences.

The Emerging Mind (via Kuro5hin)

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Sony’s QRIO robot is a 58cm tall, bipedal humanoid robot that can jog at speeds up to 14 meters a minute.
Sony unveils world’s first ‘running’ robot QRIO

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Beware of the traffic police automated helicopter army!
A.I. Helicopter?

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Immunizing the right individuals – the nodes in social networks – may be more efficient and far less expensive than current means.
‘Six Degrees of Immunization’ Strategy Proposed

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Yet another story on how IT security companies are mimicking immune systems to protect agains viruses, worms, etc.
Mother Nature Recruited for War on Cyber Terror

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Venture capitalists are looking to nanotechnology for their next bets.
As nanotech gains visibility, venture capital follows

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BOINC: A new environment for distributed computing systems
Software shares out spare processing power (via Slashdot)

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A brilliant site about “pre-historic” robots
History of Robots in the Victorian Era

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2003: More viruses, worms and other plagues than ever before
The Internet Is a Very Sick Place

• Mind controlled video games
• Self-assembling chips from IBM
• Social insects inspire algorithms for robot teamwork
• Google becoming a command line interface to the Internet
• Game theory helps to work out peace treaties

…and more.

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Magnetic nanoparticles used as detox treatment.
Ironing Out Blood Impurities (thanks Joi)

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News.com reports on Intel’s work on helping people teach computers and robots.
Intel researchers open ‘learning library’

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Yahoo News reports on a 17 year old student winning the 2003-04 Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science and Technology for new discoveries in how the brain works.
N.Y. Teen Wins Westinghouse Competition

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The Globe and Mail reports on a self-assembling chip from IBM.
IBM gets chip circuits to draw themselves (via SmartMobs)

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A species of beetle, that squirts its predators with a high-pressure spray of boiling liquid, could provide the key to significant improvements in aircraft engine design.
Beetles Could Prove A Hit With The Aircraft Industry

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Steven Johnson wrote an article in Discover on video games that you control by thinking! Steven, the author of one of my favorite books, Emergence, is also releasing a book in just a few months on the impact of recent advances in brain sciences: Mind Wide Open. Surely one to put on the wish list!
The Anti-Video Game

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SmartMobs reported on how “the Bio Tracking project at the Georgia Tech Institute is trying to track and model the movements of social insects with the goal to create algorithms that enable robots to work as a team.”
Social insects will teach robots how to function

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Interesting article on ZDNet on changing the “fence out” strategy currently being used to guard computers from viruses and other malware to a “honey pot” strategy, catching the intruder and making sure it can’t make use of the computer’s resources. Not a new idea, but nicely put.
Turn your antivirus strategy inside out

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Techdirt on Google gradually becoming a unified command line interface to the Internet.
Google As The Operating System To The Internet

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Nature Science Update on applying game theory to war settlements.
Mathematics could stabilize peace treaties

• Programming like a human or breeding your software?
• Walking wheelchairs (is it still a “wheel”-chair?)
• Animals that know their cognitive limits
• Memory makes Sims more fun
• Paraphrasing software

…and more.

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Walking is the nature’s most successful ground locomotion method. No wonder people are trying to copy it for human transportation.
Researchers invent walking wheelchair

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Research indicates that some animals can feel uncertain about thinks, doubt their decisions and sense limits of their cognition. I wish all humans were as clever.
New Research Finds Some Animals Know Their Cognitive Limits

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JoHo writes about the Sims 2 is coming out. The biggest new addition is character’s memory, supposedly making the game more realistic and fun to play. Is that a hint to its importance in real life?
Artificial Life: God and the Game

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Technology Review’s Simson Garfinkel wrote an article claiming that long term data storage is maybe not the huge problem people tend to claim. A thought provoking article, but has me by no means convinced.
The Myth of Doomed Data [subscription required]

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Technology Research News on using statistical methods to teach software to “say it differently”. And a Slashdot discussion to go with it.
Software paraphrases sentences
Paraphrasing Sentences With Software

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And here is a prime example of the Wetware approach. The Register writes about a page that shows a variety of programming concepts that have been addressed with two different methods: Straight forward human computing and genetic methods. See who does better in each case:
Humans struggle for supremacy in online robot wars

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Finally I ran into this list of distributed computing projects, that I thought you might find interesting:
Internet-based Distributed Computing Projects

• Software that predicts customer behavior
• The flaws of an ever-changing web
• Robot receptionists
• The latest maps of the Internet
• A lobster-inspired robot

…and more.

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Yahoo! News on a test of lobster-inspired robot at Brooklyn College, New York.
Robo-lobsters may one day roam the seas for scents

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Slashdot on the flaws of an ever-changing web.
Web Pages Are Weak Links in the Chain of Knowledge

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Joho the Blog on software to help you skim through documents.
Skim, Not Aggregate

…followed by an automated summary of the Book of Genesis in 10 sentances, courtesy of Microsoft Word.
Bible in 10 sentences

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Roland Piquepaille’s Technology Trends and Nature Science Update on a new robot receptionist. Ok, robots are useful for many things, but this is one of the last places they will excel in my opinion.
Inkha, the Roboceptionist
Robo-receptionist clocks on

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Slashdot had a story on the latest maps of the Internet by the Opte.org project. Beautiful!
Latest Maps of the Internet

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AI guru Ray Kurzweil got a patent on poetic software that imitates the styles of known human poets. Slashdot ran a story.
Kurzweil Gets A Patent For Poetic Software

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A most interesting article on Nature Science Update on research of the fractal nature of coastlines. I guess someone won a major award for his use of fjords on the coast of Norway.
Coastline carve thyself

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The predictive nature of humans is always as interesting. Yahoo News is running a piece on how SPSS is using their tools to predict customer behavior:
New Software Helps Predict Customer Behavior

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Wired Magazine ran an article on how to build computers that care about their users.
The Love Machine

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Nature reviews on the first fruits of GENSAT (Gene Expression Nervous System Atlas), a project based at Rockefeller University that aims to provide a complete gene expression map of the mouse brain.
BACking brain research

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In any case, here’s this week’s Wetware related stuff in the media, including:

• Man vs. Machine: It’s a tie
• Genetic Algorithms and compiler optimizations
• Finally: A PDA that controls your brain
• Glowing fish
• Artificial nose wags the dogs

…and more.

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Kasparov and X3D Fritz match up ends with a tie.
Kasparov and Computer End 3-D Chess Series in Tie – Yahoo! News
Kasparov Draws Game 4 and Match Against X3D Fritz – Slashdot

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An interesting piece on Slashdot about clever use of Genetic Algorithms in high performance programming.
Genetic Algorithms and Compiler Optimizations

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Technology Review had a short piece on self-assembling nano materials.
Model Leverages Nano Tethers

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News.com wrote about the PEEG (personal electroencephalogram), a gadget unveiled by DreamFree at Comdex. It reportedly stimulates the brain by altering brainwaves and is controlled by a PDA.
A ‘brain charger’: The ultimate PDA accessory?

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Yahoo! News wrote about the few remaining “speakers” of an ancient language that is whistled, not spoken. Interesting to see a language that uses such a different medium for communication.
Near-Extinct ‘Whistling Language’ Returns

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Honey, please turn that fish off, will’ya? The world’s first genetically engineered pet glows in the dark.

Glowing Fish to Be First Genetically Changed Pet – Yahoo! News
Glowing Fish are First Genetically Engineered Pets – Slashdot

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Reuters NewsAlert, has a piece on an artificial nose that may cause unemployment in the ranks of the world’s sniffing dogs.
Electronic nose may replicate dog’s sniffing skill

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No more drunk pilots. Yahoo! News on computer controlled airplanes:
Technology Removes Need for Human Pilots

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• Vatican approving genetically modified food?
• Robot Hall of Fame
• Dirty details of machine learning
• Swarm robots
• Kasparov and Fritz tied with only one game to go

…and more.

Slashdot discussed Carnegie Mellon’s unveiling of the Robot Hall of Fame.
CMU Unveils Robot Hall Of Fame

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This Yahoo story baffled me completely. The Vatican might actually be approving genetically modified food as means of alleviating world hunger. The Vatican has hitherto been less than welcoming to genetic technologies. I wonder what this makes of the claims that messing with genes is “playing God”?
Vatican Steps in on Biotech Foods Debate

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Kuro5in had an interesting (and quite technical) piece on machine learning.
Perceptrons: Intro to Machine Learning

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Mark Kaelin expressed some doubts that grid computing lives up to the hype. Well, it is curing cancer.
Grid computing: A skeptic’s perspective

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Technology Review wondered if Santa has got competition in the stalking department. “He sees you when you’re sleeping; he knows when you’re awake…”
Behavior-Monitoring Machines

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“And on the eighth day Institute of Biological Energy Alternatives created life.” Yahoo News on scientists that created an artificial virus.
Scientists Gain on Artificial Organism

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Simson Garfinkel elaborated on the possible futures of mankind in a blog entry at Technology Review. His vision is not pretty.
Why Matrix 3 Doesn’t Matter

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Popular Mechanics has a piece on how iRobot – the company that brought us the vacuum cleaning Roomba – is developing swarming robots that can be used e.g. to search for mines.
Robots Clean House

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CNet talked about the teams competing in DARPA’s robot race, a 1M$ competition on building a robot that can navigate itself from Los Angeles to Las Vegas in the shortest time.
High schoolers take on CalTechies in robot race

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Yahoo! – Man vs. Machine, Kasparov and X3D Fritz are tied before final game.
Kasparov Wins in Computer Chess Match

• Drowning in data
• Call for deep-sea exploration
• Digital Biology meeting in Maryland
• Japan and Chine connected with automatic translation
• Google connected to your brain

…and more.

BBC News told us about the gigantic amount of information flowing around the world. Some 800MB of information is produced per annum for every single human on the planet.
World drowning in oceans of data

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New Scientist had a piece on smart robots that avoid collisions with objects, such as near-by humans.
Smart software helps robots dodge collisions

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Yahoo News, reported that the National Research Council (“the” meaning USA, as it so often does), is urging scientists to explore the depths of the oceans, as they may conceal “Undiscovered foods, useful chemicals and drugs, and potential sources of energy”.
Report Urges Major New Study of Oceans

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Wired pointed out that the DNA sequences for man, mouse and other species are available for download from an open database. The keepers hope this will lead to faster discoveries of what the GATTACCA is all about.
DNA That’s Yours for the Taking

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Nature Science Update informed us of a meeting called “Digital Biology: the Emerging Paradigm” (http://www.capconcorp.com/digitalbiology/), where biologists and techies are meeting to discuss how they can best work together especially on new methods of biology research.
Biology gets digital in Maryland

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On the funnier side, The Register discussed the Miss Digital World contest, where the world’s most beautiful avatar will be selected.
Lara Croft to hit the catwalk

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Australian IT, reported on plans to connect China and Japan with a fiber optic network that has built-in automatic translation, meaning that what goes in at one end in Japanese comes out the other in Chinese.
Japan, China test fibre translation

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Yahoo News posted a reminder that the newest battle in the war against the machines is coming up. Kasparov meets Deep Blue’s grand-child X3D Fritz in just over a week.
Chess Great Kasparov Faces NY Virtual Realty Test

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And MIT’s Rodney Brooks wrote in Technology Review about a direct Google-Brain Interface. Search like you’ve never felt it before.
This Is Your Brain….This Is Your Brain on the Internet

• Computer reconstructions of butterfly wing patterns
• CIA’s equivalent of James Bond’s Q reveals old tests
• Donald Trump and Perry Barlow want brain implants
• This years Loebner prize awarded
• Using your head as speakers

…and more.

Nature has a piece on a computer program that reconstructs the patterns of extinct butterfly’s wings by comparing the patterns on related living species.
Ancient wings unfurled

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Internet.com has a piece on how Smart Dust is going mainstream.
Smart Dust Collecting in the Enterprise

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Yahoo reported on a rubber catfish, a laser controlled dragonfly and an erratic bumblebee used as spy gadgets by CIA’s gadget master. I wonder if “M” will allow this?
CIA Used Dragonfly, Catfish as Spy Gadget Models

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In a series about technologies that influential people would like to see, John Perry Barlow told NY times he wanted a brain implant:
Dump the Doodads, and Retrofit the Brain

…and so did Donald Trump…
Your Wish Is My Command

…while William Gibson wants his computer to tell lies (that is to be able to tell him what’s lies).
Lies Exposed in Telltale Colors

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This Technology Review piece told of a research where a simulated stock market revealed some interesting behavioral patterns in traders’ strategies.
Web Game Reveals Market Sense

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BBC News reported on the results of this year’s Loebner Prize, awarded for the chat bot that comes closest to passing the Turing test.
German chatty bot is ‘most human’

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Roland Piquepaille’s Technology Trends, has this “slightly” weird story. Say no more:
Turn Your Head Into Speakers

So here’s this week’s batch, including:
- Programmers’ view on the design of the human brain
- “Daily Me” saved by “Daily Us”
- 10mb transmission speed through human body
- The use of neuroscience in marketing

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The Register, completed its highly interesting two-part article on how little we actually know about the workings of the brain.
Part I of II: Software engineers – the ultimate brain scientists?
Part II of II: Design patterns for a Black Box Brain?

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Yahoo has a piece on how biologists are creating the first unified database of the roughly 2 million species of marine life.
Scientists Conduct First-Ever Fish Census

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Steven Johnson (Author of Emergence) writes about how the “Daily Me” concept, highly personalized newspapers originally conceived by Nicolas Negroponte, can be saved from its most common criticism using collaborative methods.
Breaking the News

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Yahoo again, now on how technology, previously used to identify flaws in computer chips, is now used to find flaws in cancer cells.
Intel, Cancer Research Center Collaborate

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Technology Research News and Technology Review were among those whose attention was raised by 10mb data transmission achieved using the human body as “cable”:
Body network gains speed
Human Body Network Gets Fast
Data Faster Than Speeding Bullet

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And finally NY Times did an article on the use of neuroscience in marketing.

There’s a Sucker Born in Every Medial Prefrontal Cortex
– Slashdot discussion on the article

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That’s it for this week, please keep posting me interesting material.