Slashdot Mirror

jameshowison writes "Some of the researchers responsible for the Internet, including Bob Branden of ISI and David D Clark from MIT, have outlined what they see as the grand challenges for internetworking and computation in the next 10-15 years (PDF). The report from the IRTF's 'End-to-End Research Group' discussed the question, 'How might the computing and communications world be materially different in 10 to 15 years' and how do we get there? From a universal system for location, to small-area networks, to operation in time of crisis, software radio and an agenda to reduce the energy required for communications this document tries to imagine what will be like packet-switching was for the past 15 years."

192939495969798999 writes "This article points out how BBN, developers of ARPANET, have actually created a quantum-encrypted intranet that serves pages to a small group of research scientists. I firmly believe this is as significant as the very first internet transmission some years back. If the technology is working and 100% secure, how long until it makes its way at least into government websites? This might be the end of the hacked by Chinese index pages!" Reader Kent adds "A New York based company, MagiQ Technologies, has begun selling units for commercial use while a group in Europe recently made the first quantum encrypted bank transaction in Vienna, Austria - April 2004. But the Boston network - though limited to three locations - is believed to be the first Internet-integrated system that runs continuously between multiple distant locations."

An anonymous reader writes "DARPA's OASIS program consists of more than 20 research projects in intrusion-tolerant systems. The basic idea is to concede that systems will be penetrated by malware and hackers, but to keep operating anyway. Other projects take a wide variety of technical approaches to providing intrusion tolerance. MIT's Automatic Trust Management uses models of trust to choose from a variety of ways to achieve system goals; Duke/MCNC's SITAR (Scalable Intrusion Tolerant Architecture) adapts tricks from fault-tolerant systems and distributes decision-making; BBN-Illinois-Maryland-Boeing's ITUA employs unpredictable adaptation. Shutting down the military while waging war is not an option, but the idea of continuing to operating critical defense systems even after known penetration by hostile hackers or damaging worms will take some getting used to."

After an episode of Babylon 5 with a nice twist, Allan Doyle's contribution was somewhat spooky... Mindsong Inc (notice the Psi Corps sign on their page) has received U.S. Patent No. 5830064... the first patent for a device that can assess the influence of a person's mental intentions on the outcome of a random event. S: As Allan says "Gotta wonder what kind of range they claim to get...". If you take this to be true, should it be patented? If you take it to be false, it's another fine example that anything can be patented. They've got some paper abstracts online. They are a spin-off from Princeton University's Pear Program which has had some pretty interesting results. The beginning of their book is available online. Princeton's experiment goes like this: Take a quantum device that produces a true random binary output (not like a the rand() function). Create a plot such that every time the device outputs a one, the line goes up, otherwise it goes down. Sit a human in front of the screen and ask it to mentally will the line up or down. It has an effect. Consciousness is misunderstood by Western Science, and this experiment is one of the first serious attempts at looking into it. My take is that I've seen this quite a few places over a few years, and have not heard much counter-evidence, but it's still hard to believe. However, coming from an AI background, the only difference I can see between my mental processing and what a computer can do is complexity (which I am sure we will master) and that I am conscious... and I don't see in what way consciousness helps me survive versus your average Zombie/Computer.

Remember that getting a patent does not mean very much. There is a possibly apocryphal story of a British inventor who wanted to prove that anything could be patented. So he patented a foolproof method to kill a fly: hit it with a large heavy object such as a hammer. He duly received his patent.

Finally this article is obviously controversial, being on the margins of modern science. It's very easy to flame, so don't bother. If you have some criticism of their method, some knowledge of value to the others, please contribute. But mindless flames waste everybody's time, and reflect poorly on you.

-dsr- writes "This morning, NPR's Morning Edition ran a story on the rise of the PalmPilot, including an interview with Jeff Hawkins, one of the principal designers. www.npr.org should have this available tomorrow morning... "