The big deal about quantum computing is that when you have that kind of power, you can model things – organic molecules, materials, the interactions of complex systems – down to the atomic level. That means you can figure out how to build all kinds of useful things, without having to actually build the ones that won’t work.

Which effectively means “a quantum computer worked it out” is like “a wizard did it,” only for SF.

Originally shared by Singularity Hub

Quantum computing is such an enormous advancement it’s unfair to even describe it in terms of computers as we know them.

http://bit.ly/2dGyHbo

Originally shared by Adafruit Industries

Jacques Cousteau’s grandson is 3D printing coral reefs

https://blog.adafruit.com/2016/10/10/jacques-cousteaus-grandson-is-3d-printing-coral-reefs/

Via Smithsonian

Climate change, water pollution and fishing practices have been decimating coral reefs for decades, threatening the ecosystem that’s home to 25 percent of all marine species. Within the next 15 years, nearly three quarters of all reefs will likely be damaged or destroyed.

Scientists have long been searching for ways to help repair these delicate living structures. They’ve replanted reefs, using both natural and artificial materials. They’ve tried replacing reefs’ algae with stronger varieties. They’ve even used electric current to help stimulate coral growth. Lately, they’ve been working with one of the technology community’s current darlings, 3D printing. Printed reefs can closely mimic natural ones, providing a home for baby coral to take root and grow. The process is still in its infancy—in 2012, the first 3D printed reefs were sunk in the Persian Gulf off the coast of Bahrain, where the existing reefs had been badly damaged. Similar projects are in the works around the world.

Read more: https://blog.adafruit.com/2016/10/10/jacques-cousteaus-grandson-is-3d-printing-coral-reefs/

I first encountered Spring-Heeled Jack in Tim Powers’ excellent The Anubis Gates. There’s great potential in the legend for casting him as an alien, a time-traveller, or something supernatural.

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/meet-springheeled-jack-the-leaping-devil-that-terrorized-victorian-england

Makes the point that the US founders believed in using objective knowledge to undermine authoritarianism.

Originally shared by Winchell Chung

It’s a good start

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-plan-to-defend-against-the-war-on-science/

And here is the lowest layer of an entirely new technology stack, waiting for its compilers and its high-level languages.

Originally shared by Larry Panozzo

Tiny molecular machines. Their work marked the advent of nanobiotechnology.

James M. Tour, a professor of chemistry at Rice University in Houston, said the Nobel would bestow legitimacy on the field and help convince people that nanomachines are not just fantastical science fiction of the far future.

“No one is making money on these right now, but it will come,” he said. “These men have established and built up the field in a remarkable way.”

Dr. Tour predicted that the first profitable use of the technology might be machines that open up cell membranes in the body to deliver drugs. “It’s really going to be quite extraordinary,” he said.

http://m.phys.org/news/2016-10-nobel-chemistry-prize-world-tiniest.html

Via Larry Panozzo. The article explicitly points out something I’ve been noticing for a while: at each stage of the development of technology, the previous stage’s cutting edge is packaged and standardised so that it can be treated as self-contained building blocks to make the next stage, which is why a twelve-year-old can now program a successful mobile game that would once have been beyond the most advanced computer scientists.

At the end, it talks about virtual decision support advisors, which sparked the thought: what about a future election where everyone used these advisors to decide who to vote for? All of a sudden, the candidates would need to switch from convincing voters to convincing AIs that their policies would benefit voters…

Originally shared by Ward Plunet

Deep Learning trying to go wide

A company called Bonsai joins a movement to democratize machine learning. Get ready to build your own neural net.

…But what if you could get the benefits of AI without having to hire those hard-to-find and expensive-to-woo talents? What if smart software could lower the bar? Could you get deep learning with a shallower talent pool? A startup called Bonsai and an emerging class of companies with the same idea say yes. Brace yourself for the democratization of AI. It’s a movement that might eventually include millions of people — and, some say, billions.

https://backchannel.com/you-too-can-become-a-machine-learning-rock-star-no-phd-necessary-107a1624d96b#.lbt0ljoyw

Via Walter Roberson. I have no way to evaluate the accuracy of this article, but it suggests story possibilities.

Originally shared by Chris Jones

https://aeon.co/essays/what-chinese-corner-cutting-reveals-about-modernity

Originally shared by Singularity Hub

“This opens up the tantalizing possibility of not only rerouting but actually augmenting our perceptual experience with inputs previously out of reach to humans.”

http://suhub.co/2dqRhUZ