Better All The Time #21
 |
||
|
Depending on how you voted earlier this week, you might be in need of a little good news...or maybe you're just ready for a little more. Either way, enjoy.
I believe that all of this will happen, and sooner than we may think, because we're America, and America always moves forward.
-- Senator John Kerry
Item 1
The
Post-Election Peace Pledge
As defined by blogger Jeff Jarvis
After the election results are in, I promise to:
: Support the President, even if I didn't vote for him.
: Criticize the President, even if I did vote for him.
: Uphold standards of civilized discourse in blogs and in media while pushing both to be better.
: Unite as a nation, putting country over party, even as we work together to make America better.
The good news:
Bloggers far and wide, of every stripe, have signed on with the Pledge. The Pledge provides the blogosphere the opportunity to be the starting place for a whole new kind of political discourse in this country. In support of the Pledge, we identified three major qualities that we would like to see put (back) into American public discourse:
- Collegiality
- Presumption of Good Will
- Humility
Read more about this revolutionary proposal here.
Item
2
Polite Robots
Robots are learning lessons on "robotiquette" - how to behave socially - so they can mix better with humans.
By playing games, like pass-the-parcel, a University of Hertfordshire team is finding out how future robot companions should react in social situations.
The good news:
Those endless problems we've had with stubborn, unfriendly, and otherwise just poorly socialized robots are about to become a thing of the past! Sure, they'll be able to play Twister. But will they be able to play poker?
- - - - -
Item 3
Mouse
Brains to the Rescue
Harvard scientists have manipulated stem cells already present in the brains of mice to induce the birth of new neurons, an advance once considered impossible by most scientists.
They induced the birth of new cells by killing nearby neurons in mice, which set off a cascade of events that led to stem cells, producing new neurons in the cerebral cortex. If scientists can turn this into a therapy for humans, it would mean that patients could literally heal themselves with stem cells already present in their brains.
The Good News:
This development holds incredible promise for the treatment of any number of degenerative diseases, not to mention brain damage caused by accidents or other trauma. Excellent! Moreover, we can add this to the arsenal of brain enhancements that might soon be available.
Item 4
Frying
Your Brain...the Good Way
Connecting a battery across the front of the head (the prefrontal cortex) can boost verbal skills, says a team from the US National Institutes of Health.
A current of two milliamperes applied for 20 minutes is enough to produce a significant improvement, they found.
The good news:
One
of the best tasks we can put a human brain to is the task of improving how a
human brain works. And our brains just seem to keep on delivering.
The obvious implications:
It won't be long before we see kids preparing for their SATs by strapping batteries to their heads.
Item 5
The Brain
Fix
The world’s first brain prosthesis has passed the first stages of live testing.
The microchip, designed to model a part of the brain called the hippocampus, has been used successfully to replace a neural circuit in slices of rat brain tissue kept alive in a dish. The prosthesis will soon be ready for testing in animals.
The device could ultimately be used to replace damaged brain tissue which may have been destroyed in an accident, during a stroke, or by neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. It is the first attempt to replace central brain regions dealing with cognitive functions such as learning or speech.
The good news:
In addition to treating degenerative conditions, brain prostheses will eventually be used to enhance learning and skills for everyone. Hardware upgrade that bestow the ability to play the piano or speak Italian can't be far behind.
Item
6
Virtual
Beauty Queens
Kaya is ravishing. She has full lips, long lashes, and a slightly upturned nose. Her expression radiates confidence and power, and her smooth skin is well scrubbed and dotted with freckles. But she doesn't have much of a body. At all. In fact, she exists only from the neck up. Kaya is a CG model, a 48,200-polygon beauty created by an artist in São Paulo, Brazil. And she's sure to be a finalist in the Miss Digital World beauty pageant.
The Good News:
At last, beauty pageant contestants who won't offer up pleas for world peace, or explain that if they could live at any time in history, past or future, they would choose right now. And there's no talent competition! (For now.)
Item 7
We're Simpler
than We Thought
Ten years ago most genetic scientists thought that the human genome consisted of 100,000 or more genes.
When the working draft of the genome was published in 2001, scientists were very surprised to learn that the estimate of functioning genes fell between 30,000 and 35,000.
The good news:
If finding the cause of a genetic disease were like finding a needle in a haystack,
the size of the haystack is only 25% of the size we thought it was a decade
ago. So we're that much closer to many effective treatments of these diseases.
Item 8
Is
This Your Floor?
One line of nanotube research has been to find ways to make the tubes grow continuously. Long nanotubes could be used as wires in electronic circuits and woven into macroscopic fibers that could be used to make extremely strong fabrics and rope. One long-range possibility is using ultralong carbon nanotubes fibers to make an elevator to low Earth orbit.
The Good News:
The space elevator will make it easy for people and goods to be transported into Earth orbit without all that noise and waste that rockets produce. Oh, and at about 100th of the cost per pound. The space age truly begins with the space elevator, and every leap forward with carbon nanotubes brings it closer.
Item 9
Better all
the Time...It's Math, See?
Any time we witness something increasing exponentially, we’re in for quite a show. Things can start out small and get crazy really quickly. Let's look at a few exponential trends that are actually taking place in our world today.
Computer Processing
Computer Storage
DNA Sequencing
Total Global Wealth
A Telling Story:
It
starts with the invention of a game called Chaturanga in India some 1400 years
ago. Chaturanga is the precursor to the game we call chess; it’s played
on a board similar to the one used today for chess, checkers, and backgammon.
The ruling prince of the region where the game was developed was so taken with
Chaturanga that he summoned the game’s inventor and offered to reward him
for his genius.
Now the man who invented Chaturanga was, indeed, a genius. He asked the prince that he be given only a very modest reward. Just one grain of rice placed in the first square of the Chaturanga board. That’s all. Oh, and then two grains of rice in the second square and four in the third and eight in the fifth and so on, doubling until all 64 squares were filled.
Well, the prince was pretty shocked that his subject should ask for such a
paltry reward, but he felt he had to comply. So he dispatched one of his stewards
to fulfill the order. It took the steward quite a while to report back, and
when he did the news was not good. Although harvest was just completed, the
gift was going to completely exhaust the royal granaries. And they were only
on the 40th square!
Where might this lead?
Apply the same doubling principle that took all the prince's rice to things like computer processing or the total amount of wealth in the world, and we're in for a very interesting future indeed.
- - - - -
Item
10
Saints
Preserve Us, It's the Little People!
SCIENTISTS who announced yesterday they had discovered a new human species suspect the "hobbits" could have lived as recently as 500 years ago.
Experts from two NSW universities told how finding the dwarf-like skeleton in a remote cave on the Indonesian island of Flores was just the tip of the iceberg.
They hope to continue digging in other parts of the island -- and prove some of the species survived until the 1500s, when Dutch explorers settled in the area.
If the theory is proved correct, it would mean the 1m-tall hobbit -- scientifically known as homo floresiensis -- interacted with modern-day man, until it eventually died out.
"Could they have persisted somewhere else on the island? Yes, they could have done," Professor Bert Roberts of Wollongong University asked.
The good news:
Well, er, uh...why is this good news? Oh, come on. You have to admit that Hobbits in Indonesia is at least better news than, say, alien fish in Chicago.
Better All The Time is compiled by Phil Bowermaster, Stephen Gordon, Kathy Hanson, and Robert Hinkley.
For more good news, try the Good News Broadcast. And there's always Good News Saturdays on Winds of Change.
Live to see it!