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A symphony of machines at the Museum of Mathematics
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As I walked around the edges of a metallic boxing ring, a half dozen or so crab-like robots scurried under my feet and followed my every move, their backs glowing the same green color as a tracker I wore on my shoulder. Inside the ring, the robots moved beneath a thick layer of transparent flooring, not entirely dissimilar to a glass-bottom boat. A few red-hued robots passed by, causing a brief pile-up that they (slowly) sorted through.
And then suddenly, all my minions turned around and tried to (again, slowly) roll as far away from me as possible. The monitor overhead alerted me that their programming had changed from "pursue" to "run away." Some rushed immediately to the opposite corner. Others seemed to shake in place — a delay in calculating the most efficient path that I couldn't help but anthropomorphize as being frozen in fear.
"If you want to motivate a kid to study music, you take them to a symphony. Where do we do that in mathematics?"
This week the Museum of Mathematics (MoMath) opens Robot Swarm, a new exhibit to demonstrate emergent behavior — the concept that you can mathematically explain and even predict certain group behaviors like those that occur in flocks of birds and schools of fish. According to MoMath founder Glen Whitney, while the end result might seem lifelike or intelligent, "at the root it's just a simple mathematical rule being applied over and over again."
The trilobite-esque robots themselves are able to sense each other's presence, but they don't directly "talk" to each other. Instead, each robot reads its position based on the patterned floor tiles coordinate their movements via a central server overhead. Some of the technology in the exhibit is the same that Amazon uses to ensure its factory robots don't collide with each other while processing orders.
Right now, the "swarm" possesses five distinct behaviors that you can select via an adjacent kiosk. In addition to modes like "Run Away" and "Pursue," there are also more intricate behaviors like "Robophobia," wherein the robots all flee from one another and in turn create a lattice-like structure akin to molecules in a crystal.
The pre-programmed swarm behaviors are already pretty impressive, but they'll soon be joined by others. MoMath hopes to release an API late next year that will allow people to create their own behaviors, and submit for potential use in the exhibit.
Whitney hopes that letting kids interact with emergent groups will get them excited about math. "If you want to motivate a kid to study music," Whitney said, "you take them to a symphony. Where do we do that in mathematics?"
Source: http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/15/7394021/how-to-be-a-god-among-machines-momath-robot-swarm
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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