Gary Wolf: “Petaflop macroscope” is a terrible, nerdy name for what turns out to be mostly iPhone apps to collect personal data. Besides collecting data on yourself, you can help do collaborative science. QuantifiedSelf.org.
Michael Nielsen: Mass Collaboration in Science. Sucessful examples of mass collaboration: Linux, Wikipedia. Galaxy Zoo project allows anyone to be an astronomer by classifying galaxies by type in difficult to read photographs. Anyone can be a scientist mining bioinformatic data. Polymath project. The most successful projects support traditional expert activities like publishing papers. Projects that don’t support these career-building activities are seen as a waste of time by experts.
Gregory Benford, UC-Irvine, physicist & science fiction author. His company Genescient is about longevity. They use artificial selection of fruit flies as a supercomputer to determine which genes most affect aging. This information can then be used in humans, since we have many similar genes. These genes affect various chemical pathways, and we can manipulate these pathways with drugs. The company has already found substances that allow normal (not longevity-selected) animals to enjoy the same benefits of long, healthy life, and even reverse aging.
Brad Templeton, EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation). “The Finger of AI: Automated Electrical Vehicles and Oil Independence”. www.robocars.net. Human drivers suck. 6 million accidents a year in USA, 1.8 million with injuries. It’s not human-level intelligence, but rather horse-level intelligence, or locust-level intelligence. (Locusts are able to move in large swarms without hitting each other or obstacles).
The X-prize foundation produces innovation competitions, and Templeton proposes a competition where NASCAR drivers compete with robocars to see who is the safest in avoiding (fake) pedestrians.
Is this Brad Templeton the same one who moderated rec.humor.funny?
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