The United States Technological Future: An Endless Frontier?

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Endless Frontier, the 1945 civilian-science manifesto by U.S. wartime research chief Vannevar Bush, cites the information technology, life-science and consumer-product breakthroughs of the 1930s (radar and radio, sulfa drugs and penicillin, rayon and air conditioners) as evidence of the possible future:

More jobs, higher wages, shorter hours, more abundant cropslearning to live without the deadening drudgery which has been the burden of the common man for ages pastcontrol of our insect enemiesmeans of defense against aggressionprevention or cure of diseases.

To bring dreams to earth, Endless Frontier suggested a permanent government commitment by the United States to scientific research and education. This would include federal investment in basic research, scholarships for science and engineering students, transparent patent laws, a research and development tax credit and so on.

Mr. Bush (unrelated to the political family of the same name) seems to have worried that idealistic hopes and predictions of better lives might not be enough to get the job done. So he added a mildly nationalistic warning:

A nation which depends upon others for its new basic scientific knowledge will be slow in its industrial progress and weak in its competitive position in world trade.

Seven decades later, the Obama administration hopes to win approval for a $135 billion science budget, replete with interesting follow-ons to the 1930s breakthroughs. It includes projects for deep-space exploration, carbon capture, anti-viral medicine, nano-engineered materials, cyber-security and more.

Apart from the merits of this work, how does it fit into the 21st-century scientific world?

The OECDs annual Main Science and Technology Indicators provides figures for research spending, scientific employment and more in the 34 OECD member countries plus Argentina, China, Taiwan, Russia, Singapore and South Africa.

The OECDs most recent estimates find the United States home to 1.25 million working researchers, out of roughly 6.3 million worldwide. It is home to 16% of the worlds researchers. By comparison, the United States has about 4% of all world workers.

Measured by spending, the OECD finds about $1.6 trillion in R&D worldwide as of 2013, of which the United States, with a commitment of about $470 billion, is the worlds largest spender.

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The United States Technological Future: An Endless Frontier?

Self-confidence sets millennial women apart

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Nigel Marple

"NANO GIRL": Michelle Dickinson is a perfect example of a millennial woman.

When a computer advised a young Michelle Dickinson to be a fish farmer when she grew up, she did the only sensible thing: she grew up to be a bio engineer - albeit unintentionally.

"I found that totally by accident at a university open day," Dickinson says.

"It wasn't until I finished my PhD in biomaterials engineering that I had a clearer idea about where I wanted my career to go and I had been in university for eight years by then."

The self-starter went on to found New Zealand's first nanomechanical research laboratory after gaining a PhD from Rutgers University in the United States and a Masters in biomedical materials engineering from Manchester University.

Now she holds down a senior lecturer position at the University of Auckland's engineering department, writes her own science blog, Nano Girl, and squeezes in regular television appearances with TV3's Firstline Breakfast and 3rd Degree.

The high-energy millennial woman also counts adventure sports as a favourite pastime and at one stage planned to be the first woman to kitesurf under the Auckland Harbour Bridge until bad weather put paid to that idea.

According to new research by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Dickinson is the type of woman more women want to be like, with millennial women - those born between 1980 and 1995 - more ambitious than any other generation.

The survey of nearly 9000 women from 75 countries found more are highly educated, are entering the workforce in unprecedented numbers and have "entirely new career mindsets".

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Self-confidence sets millennial women apart

The Revealingly Flawed AI of "Chappie"

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Chappie (left) meets his non-AI counterpart and contemplatesjust a littlewhat it is that distinguishes conscious matter from unconscious matter. (Credit: Sony Pictures)

What is consciousness?

That question has been fertile ground for millennia of philosophical debates, centuries of scientific research, and decades of juicy movie plots, going back at least to Fritz Langs Metropolis. This week it gets a workout yet again in Chappie, a new movie directed by Neill Blomkamp (District 9) and starring sci-fi stalwarts Sigourney Weaver and Hugh Jackman along withless predictablyDev Patel, best known as the star of Slumdog Millionaire.

Broadly speaking, there are three classes of machine intelligence fiction. Class One assumes that human consciousness is unique and can exist in a machine only if that machine is part human (RoboCop is a prime example). Class Two assumes that machines can mimic many aspects of human consciousness but lack the essential soul (the Terminator movies are a modern archetype). Class Three treats consciousness as a solvable programming problem: Put in the right code, or give the wrong code some kind of mysterious scramble, and a conscious machine emerges. Familiar examples of Class Three movies include Her, AI: Artificial Intelligence and, er, Short Circuit.

Chappie falls squarely into Class Three, with all of the dramatic potentials and conceptual pitfalls it entails. I spoke with Blomkamp and his cast about why they went down this path. Their commentary explains a lot about the movies take on artificial intelligence and its confusing scientific politics. Chappie turns out to be a great case study in the challenges of squeezing an expansive concept into the tight confines of mainstream Hollywood entertainment.

If youve seen the trailer you get the basic concept. Chappie is set in a near-future South Africa, where the government has decided to address rampant crime by introducing a squadron of robotic police officers. So far so good: This is a classic forward-spin on existing ideas and technologies. Simple battlefield robots already exist and have been tested in limited deployment, and the company that builds Chappie is patterned knowingly on South African arms company DENEL. I also note that the Chappie design looks similar to the humanoid robots that participated in an ongoing DARPA robotics challenge.

But in true Short Circuit style, a rogue element emerges: One of the military robots becomes self-aware, and takes off on a totally new mission to understand his identity. In this case, the change occurs not via a lightning strike, but through the deliberate actions of Deon Wilson, a genius computer programmer (Patel). And heres where Chappie goes intriguingly awry as it dips into some common sci-fi tropes.

Chappie and Deon, his creatora prime, improbable example of the lone genius at work. (Credit: Sony Pictures)

The lone genius. Its a common theme: A single man (and yes, its almost always a man), through sheer brilliance, solves one of the greatest science or technology puzzles in historyand does it with no help and, seemingly, without even consulting anyone else. In the case of Chappie, Deon not only develops a conscious computer program, he seemingly solves the problem in a single night of furious work. This kind of plot device serves an obvious cinematic function by creating a simple, solitary hero, but it doesnt have much relationship to the real practice of research and engineering.

I was curious what Blomkamp had in mind. Was this pure storytelling economy, or is Chappie intended as commentary on the nature of the creative process?

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The Revealingly Flawed AI of "Chappie"

EDM Artist ALIA Launches Kickstarter Campaign For Music Project "Feminine Medicine" – Video

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EDM Artist ALIA Launches Kickstarter Campaign For Music Project "Feminine Medicine"
EDM Artist ALIA Launches Kickstarter Campaign For Music Project "Feminine Medicine" Feminine Medicine is an electronic music album and stage show that is a platform to bring more women #39;s...

By: SanDiego Evidence

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EDM Artist ALIA Launches Kickstarter Campaign For Music Project "Feminine Medicine" - Video