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Using Avatars for Training
(Jeanette Borzo, The Wall Street Journal, May 24, 2004)
Corporate training has found a valuable new high-tech tool: the avatar. . . . Avatars -- well known to players of online games -- are computer depictions of humans, ranging from cartoonish characters to photo-realistic representations. Increasingly, companies are using them as imaginary coaches, co-workers and customers in computer-based training sessions designed to help, for example, sharpen sales skills, reinforce leadership expertise or boost management prowess. . . . By using avatars, companies find they can combine the best parts of both face-to-face training and computer-based learning. Like other computer-based training programs, those using avatars can be cheaper and more efficient than human trainers, and deliver a more consistent message. At the same time, they offer an almost human touch that may help reinforce that message. . . . Typically, corporate trainees see head-and-shoulder views of an avatar who comes and goes as the PC-based training runs its course. . . . For example, at CDW Corp., a technology products and services company in Vernon Hills, Ill., account manager Danielle Paden took a sales-training course in which an avatar coach guides the trainee through a series of mock phone interactions with customers. . . . The program is "the closest thing you can get to [actual] client interactions," says Ms. Paden. "I was very pleased with the experience." . . . Customers are finding that there are other advantages to avatar training as well. Compared with in-person training, it can be quicker and less expensive -- especially on big jobs. British telecommunications giant BT Group PLC, for example, was able to train 4,500 salespeople in a little more than four weeks with an avatar-based course . . . A Glimpse of the Future . . . Avatar-based training used in military and space-exploration training already involves far more-realistic, three-dimensional views and avatar movements than what can be seen now on corporate desktops. . . . "Eventually this technology comes down to industry," says Bruce Damer, president and chief executive officer at Digital Space Inc. of Santa Cruz, Calif., which is working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on avatar programs. "It trickles down." . . . One simulation developed by Digital Space and NASA represents life in the polar conditions of Mars. You can enter the virtual environment as an avatar that isn't part of the simulation, to simply observe the living and working conditions, says Maarten Sierhuis, a NASA scientist. In another mode, he says, "you can participate as one of the crew members in the simulation, working alongside and together with other avatars. We envision that this is more the training model that we aspire to create."

posted by Lorenzo 9:12 AM

 

How Brain Science Will Shape The Future of
Business, Politics, and Culture
(CCLE, Zack Lynch In Conversation With R.U. Sirius)
[A principal with NeuroInsights, Zack Lynch is the executive director of the Neurosociety Institute. He writes a daily column, "Brain Waves: Neurons, Bits and Genes" that analyzes the societal implications of neurotechnology. His forthcoming book, Neurosociety: How Brain Science Will Shape The Future Of Business, Politics And Culture, will be published in 2005.]

Neurotechnology is being driven by the development of nano-biochips that will be able to do DNA, RNA and protein analysis. I expect a reliable bioanalysis system like this around 2010. The second set of converging technologies behind neurotechnology is coming from how information technology and neuroscience are making it possible to perform more accurate human brain imaging. . . . And this is an important point. If we're going to understand human emotions and human cognition, animal models aren't sufficient. . . . So what is the result of all these converging technologies? Well, if you look at continuously decreasing the cost of biochips and brain imaging technologies and project reasonably aggressive innovation rates, what you see is that by 2020 you will have the capacity to make new tools for mental health that I call neuroceuticals. . . . What are neuroceuticals? Neuroceuticals are not psychopharmaceuticals. Sometimes that causes a bit of a problem when people say, "Oh you’re talking about better drugs." Yes and no … don’t look at Prozac as an example. That’s the wheel folks. . . . Neuroceuticals will be able to target, deliver and regulate specific neurological pathways in specific regions of the brain without disturbing nearby processes. In short, we’ll have the capacity to do dynamic intracellular regulation of these systems. . . . While the ethical implications of neurotechnology are clearly profound, I am particularly interested in how these new tools for mental health will be used by businesses. What's beyond information technology-based competitive advantage? I call this neuro-competitive advantage. . . . The question is, how will people use these new tools for mental health to enable them to live better? How will these new tools impact economic productivity and personal well being? . . . We’re on the verge of having the capacity to develop highly effective, non-addictive tools. I’ve got a researcher from the Wheeler Center of Addiction on my board who I discuss the end of addiction with, because addiction is a real fear when you discuss this topic with people. They say, "Oh you’re talking about drugs and people are going to get addicted." But once you have intracellular re-regulation, there are ways around that. You can start re-regulating the specific protein pathways many ways so that it doesn't become a single receptor getting nailed every single time; learning on it. You’re tagging it a bunch of different ways. And just think of the productivity hit, the social hit that would happen if we had non-addictive recreational substances. . . . An important fact that I like to get across is that in the past 200 years human society has transformed in two dimensions that make the world we live in radically different. Those dimensions are population size - 300 million to 6.5 billion in two hundred years - and lifespans. In 1750 the average lifespan was about 32 years. In 1850 it rose to 45 years. Now women in Japan are living 81 years on average. So the life space on the planet is a hugely different social infrastructure environment and we need new tools to help us successfully survive this new social environment.

posted by Lorenzo 4:39 PM

 

'Junk' DNA throws up precious secret
(Julianna Kettlewell, BBC, 12 May 2004)
Researchers inspecting the genetic code of rats, mice and humans were surprised to find they shared many identical chunks of apparently "junk" DNA. . . . This implies the code is so vital that even 75 million years of evolution in these mammals could not tinker with it. . . . According to the traditional viewpoint, the really crucial things were genes, which code for proteins - the "building blocks of life". A few other sections that regulate gene function were also considered useful. . . . The rest was thought to be excess baggage - or "junk" DNA. But the new findings suggest this interpretation was somewhat wanting. . . . David Haussler of the University of California, Santa Cruz, US, and his team compared the genome sequences of man, mouse and rat. They found - to their astonishment - that several great stretches of DNA were identical across the three species. . . . To guard against this happening by coincidence, they looked for sequences that were at least 200 base-pairs (the molecules that make up DNA) in length. Statistically, a sequence of this length would almost never appear in all three by chance. . . . Not only did one sequence of this length appear in all three - 480 did. . . . "It absolutely knocked me off my chair," said Professor Haussler. "It's extraordinarily exciting to think that there are these ultra-conserved elements that weren't noticed by the scientific community before." . . . The really interesting thing is that many of these "ultra-conserved" regions do not appear to code for protein. If it was not for the fact that they popped up in so many different species, they might have been dismissed as useless "padding". . . . But whatever their function is, it is clearly of great importance. . . . We know this because ever since rodents, humans, chickens and fish shared an ancestor - about 400 million years ago - these sequences have resisted change. This strongly suggests that any alteration would have damaged the animals' ability to survive. . . . "These initial findings tell us quite a lot of the genome was doing something important other than coding for proteins," Professor Haussler said. . . . "The fact that the conserved elements are hanging around the most important development genes, suggests they have some role in regulating the process of development and differentiation," said Professor Haussler. . . . Despite all the questions that this research has raised, one thing is clear: scientists need to review their ideas about junk DNA. . . . He added: "I think other bits of 'junk' DNA will turn out not to be junk. I think this is the tip of the iceberg, and that there will be many more similar findings."

posted by Lorenzo 4:55 PM

 

Mexican air force captures invisible 'UFOs' on film

(Tim Gaynor, The Independent, 13 May 2004)
The Mexican air force has released video footage of unidentified flying objects picked up by an infrared camera as they whizzed around a surveillance plane, in scenes eerily reminiscent of a Hollywood alien invasion movie. . . . The fuzzy images that have entranced Mexican television viewers since Monday show up to 11 bright objects, some sharp points of light and others like large headlights, moving rapidly in loose formation across what appears to be a late-evening sky. . . . Filmed by air force pilots on a routine patrol for drug smugglers over the eastern coastal state of Campeche in early March, the objects were first picked up on the radar monitor, then captured using an infrared camera slung under the aircraft's fuselage. . . . He told a news conference on Tuesday that the objects were real and that they appeared to be "intelligent", because at one point they changed direction and surrounded the plane chasing them. . . . "They were invisible to the eye but they were definitely there, there is no doubt about it. They had mass, they had energy and they were moving about," he said, after showing a 15-minute video. . . . Widely broadcast on Mexican television news bulletins earlier this week, the clip included excited commentary by the clearly shaken pilots. "We are not alone!" shrieked one over the howl of the aircraft's turbines. "This is so weird." . . . the pilots said they grew nervous when the objects, still invisible, turned back during a chase and surrounded the plane, which was cruising at an altitude of 11,500ft. Major Magdaleno Castanon said: "There was a moment when ... the screens showed they were behind us, to the left and in front of us. It was at that point that I felt a bit tense." . . . While Mexico has a long history of fanciful UFO sightings - most of which are dismissed by scientists as space debris, missiles, weather balloons, natural weather phenomena or hoaxes - the latest recordings have gained more serious attention. . . . After watching the videos carefully on national television news, Gustavo Paez, a retired airline pilot, said they appeared to be "totally real, despite the fact that some people dismiss sightings such as these as fantasies of the disturbed". . . . "We have to give this credibility as it was spotted by the air force," Mr Paez, who flew for the Mexican airline Taesa during a 22-year career, told The Independent. "They recorded the velocity and the altitude on radar, and the luminosity of the objects. I think it was real and it should be taken seriously."

posted by Lorenzo 4:00 PM

 

Solar wind to shield Earth during pole flip
(New Scientist, 15 May 2004)
A new model of the way the Earth interacts with the solar wind indicates that a replacement field will form in the upper atmosphere during the switch. . . . Scientists had previously thought that the planet would be left without a protective shield to stop lethal radiation from space reaching the surface. . . . In normal circumstances, the magnetic field protects the Earth's surface from dangerous high-energy particles, including particles from the sun and cosmic rays from deep space. . . . But as the field switches polarity, it can drop to below 10 per cent of its normal strength for thousands of years. Such a weakened field would allow lethal radiation to reach the Earth's surface, with potentially disastrous consequences for the atmosphere, the climate and particularly for life. . . . In a paper to be published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, Guido Birk and Harald Lesch of the University of Munich, Germany, and Christian Konz of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Garching report an investigation of exactly what happens when the field is drastically reduced or vanishes altogether. . . . Their simulations show that the solar wind - the million-kilometre-an-hour stream of hydrogen and helium nuclei from the sun - wraps itself around the Earth in a way that induces a magnetic field in the ionosphere as strong as the original field. . . . The news comes at an opportune moment. The Earth's magnetic field is showing worrying signs that it is about to reverse again. Not only has the magnetic north pole wandered by 1100 kilometres in the past 200 years, but its strength is dropping at a rate of 5 per cent a century. . . . "This is the fastest decrease since the last reversal 730,000 years ago," Lesch says.

posted by Lorenzo 2:45 PM

 

Staring into the Singularity 1.2.5
(Eliezer S. Yudkowsky)
The short version:

If computing speeds double every two years,
what happens when computer-based AIs are doing the research?

Computing speed doubles every two years.
Computing speed doubles every two years of work.
Computing speed doubles every two subjective years of work.

Two years after Artificial Intelligences reach human equivalence, their speed doubles. One year later, their speed doubles again.

Six months - three months - 1.5 months ... Singularity.

Plug in the numbers for current computing speeds, the current doubling time, and an estimate for the raw processing power of the human brain, and the numbers match in: 2021.

[Please use the link above to access the full essay. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!]

posted by Lorenzo 3:55 PM

 

Could vitamins raise levels of bad cholesterol?
KurzweilAI.net, May 3, 2004
A new study suggests that antioxidant vitamins, such as E, C, and beta carotene, could raise the production by the liver of the so-called bad form of cholesterol, which transports cholesterol into artery walls. The New York University School of Medicine study found that antioxidant vitamins increase the secretion of VLDL in liver cells and VLDL is converted in the bloodstream to low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the bad form of cholesterol. The study also explains why omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, the good fatty acids found in cold water fish, are healthy for the heart: they activate the pathway in the liver that breaks down the bad lipoproteins.

posted by A Curmudgeon 11:52 AM

 

A Gigantic Unplanned Experiment ... On You
(Bruce Damer, April 18, 2004)
A terrible discovery, terrible in the truth of it, but also terrible in its ramifications, has just been made. It is that the brain seems to be wired to operate at two speeds: cognitive (fast gear) and emotive (slow gear). You can make logistical calculations in milliseconds and hand-eye coordinated movements in just a little longer, this is what millions of years evolving in trees and then later on the savanna evolved you to be able to do. But emotional and body memory take much longer to sink in, and is slower to be recalled. Recalled emotion and the sense of the body give you all those important intuitive skills for healthy group social behavior, body and spirit health, and connection to other living beings. As we increasingly become creatures of cognition and stimulus-response, emotion and the sense of the body are being factored out of our life equation. . . . It is a terrible irony that as beings we are perfectly built for this experiment. Brain researchers are only now documenting this two-speed system and tracking the decline of test subjects' emotional and body memory markers. When people get into states of low emotional and body-sense, and substitute cognitive and speed-sense they enter into a dangerous realm described by these researchers as "emotional neutrality". . . . If I am a husband and emotionally neutral, can my wife or kids ever reach me, can I ever truly know them or grow old with them? If I am a company boss and see ways to cook the books and walk away with millions (and I am emotionally neutral) I won't fear consequences as much and certainly won't care about the poor employees or shareholders or destroyed natural landscapes left behind by my disaster. . . . for the emotionally neutral, there can and will be a sudden return of the agony of unexpressed and underdeveloped feelings and bodily pain. And this will come on with such force that it can be hard to imagine surviving it. Nothing in the efficiencies of daily living, in multitasking, in being wired, will prepare you for that sudden crash. The fast spinning cognitive gearbox simply explodes into pieces. . . . America and its people are entering the Twenty First Century with a growing set of maladies and bad behaviors we can't explain. Why is America always right and lashing out at the world? Why is America's media abusing the mental peace and sanity of its own people? Why do America's voters seem so passive about candidates, the political process and the radical changing of rights and laws? Why is America consuming ever more and becoming even sicker? How did America lose track of its roots, its history and its purpose as a nation? Why do most Americans not seem to care about any of this? . . . In the experiment, America and Americans have the privilege of being first. I fear, however, that we may also be the first to no longer be truly whole human beings and the whole structure we have built may be headed for a crash that will darken the face of the whole world. . . . Isn't it time to shift down into that slower, safer gear, people?

posted by Lorenzo 12:00 PM

 

The Neurobiology of the Good Life
This was a one-day workshop at UCLA that featured some of the leading minds in their fields. This was one of a series of workshops UCLA makes available to the public each year, many of which require no admission charge. . . . The agenda included:

Edward Slingerland, University of Southern California Departments of Religion and East Asian Languages & Cultures
Taking Joy in the Way: A Confucian Meditation on Embodied Morality and Modern Neuroscience

Jordan Peterson, University of Toronto Department of Psychology
Chaos, Order, and Paradise Lost

Seana Coulson, UC San Diego Department of Cognitive Science
Embodiment and Language Comprehension: Event-related Brain Potential Studies

Daniel Kahneman, Professor of Psychology, Princeton University and Nobel Laureate in Economics
Towards a Science of Well-Being

Mark Terrano, Microsoft
What Makes Great Game Great, or How to Create Csikszentmihalyi's 'Flow' Experience in a Virtual Environment

Paul Zak, Claremont Graduate University Department of Economics and Center for Neuroeconomics Studies
The Neurobiology of Trust

posted by Lorenzo 3:43 PM