Trans-Future: Future Trends - Upcoming stories

Online Forex Course Guide

forexandpips — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:56:10 GMT

Looking for the online forex trading? Then you must know the basic principle to invest your money in forex trading.

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Drug tries to offset 10,000 years of evolution

transfuture — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:56:10 GMT

Squirting a little nasal spray up the nose before mealtime is helping obese people shed an average of 50 lbs in a year. Nastech Pharmaceutical Company of Bothell, WA said its compound, known as PYY, addresses obesity and other ailments suffered by overweight patients – diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, arthritis, and cancer. Statistics show that 65% of Americans are overweight and nearly half of them are considered obese. In an Associated Press interview, Nastech CEO Steven Quay stated that in tests, PYY reduced patients’ daily calorie intake by 30 percent.

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Smart pills’n such: cognitive enhancement is “easy” - but risky?

transfuture — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:56:10 GMT

It has long been known that certain psychoactive chemicals, found in such plants as the peyote cactus and diviner’s sage, enhance access to other planes of awareness. (Hence the old saw, “Reality is for people who can’t handle drugs.” Needless to say this comes with risks as well.) More recently, pills have revolutionized brain function among the mentally ill, beginning with the discovery of chlorpromazine in 1950. Now, drugs that enhance mental functioning in healthy people are becoming known and - increasingly - used. We are in the midst of a series of discoveries that will progressively enhance mental abilities. Alpha-CaM kinase II causes remembering a bad memory to erase it, at least in mice. Credible evidence exists for other biomolecular approaches to cognitive enhancement, some listed in the table.

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The Realities of Tomorrow (and today)

transfuture — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:56:10 GMT

Virtual Reality (VR) has advanced to incredible heights. For those who haven’t kept up with the gaming scene, the newest game renowned for impressive graphics is Fallout 3. Of course, graphics aren’t all that matters to gamers, which is why another one of the hottest games on the block right now is Spore, which looks very cartoonish. Nevertheless, consistent advances in both graphics software and hardware have been propelling ever more realistic graphics into our homes. Movies and gaming were the vanguard for realistic graphics. In only a couple decades we went from Pong to Fallout 3. Yet, we still haven’t ditched the joystick, mouse, and keyboard.

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The Weather Machine

transfuture — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:56:10 GMT

J. Storrs Hall is the author of Nanofuture: What’s Next for Nanotechnology, a book covering the physical principles of engineering at the atomic scale, possible applications of nanomachines, and their potential alteration of human society. More recently he published Beyond AI: Creating the Conscience of the Machine, a review of the history of AI, discussing some of the major roadblocks that the field has recently overcome, and predicting the probable achievements in the near future. At October’s Global Catastrophic Risks conference in Mountain View he gave a presentation entitled “The Weather Machine” on the potential for nano-enabled “Climate Control for the Earth”

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Progress Toward Nanomedicine

transfuture — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:56:10 GMT

There is still a long way to go, but we are seeing significant progress in enabling technologies that could someday bring about the realization of high-performance nanomedicine. First, let's define the eventual goal. For that, we'll turn to Robert A. Freitas, author of Nanomedicine, volumes I and II.

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The Future of Medical Devices

transfuture — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:56:10 GMT

This past week, Stephen Oesterle, an executive at Medtronic gave a sobering keynote speech on the future of medical devices—and, if you’re in the medical device industry, the news wasn’t good. According to the Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog, Oesterle was quoted as saying, “When biotechnology gets it right we’re finished. Because it’s restorative, not palliative as device are.” If the message still wasn’t clear to his audience, he then added, “It’s done. [Medical] devices ultimately are done.”

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Nanotech is changing the world

transfuture — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:56:10 GMT

Nanotech is changing the world.

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The Singularity: A Period Not An Event

transfuture — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:56:10 GMT

The Singularity: A Period Not An Event

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Toward Human-Level Intelligence in Autonomous Cars

transfuture — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:56:10 GMT

Toward Human-Level Intelligence in Autonomous Cars

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