Slashdot Mirror
Top Ten Advances in 2004
An anonymous reader writes "Technology Research News has released it's top
ten picks for advances of 2004. Something for everyone here including notable advances in biotechnology, communications, computing, engineering, energy, security, nanotechnology, applied physics and the Internet."
They forgot Poland!
Is Space Ship One?
There is nothing inherently safe about liberty. That's why so many people died protecting it.
It's all cool stuff but nothing truly revolutionary. Where's my flying car? My transporter? I think that in 50 or a 100 years, life will be pretty much the same, except stuff will be smaller, quieter, and maybe cheaper.
DUPE!
China's implimentation of IPV6 was pretty cool...
Some call me Howie Feltersnatch
...the Nintendo DS on that list?
I took an advance a girl earlier this year. And we ended up getting married.
Did you set her up a ring?
However much they make computers better, they still haven't solved the classic PEBKAC problem...
Stem cells, and spaceship one didn't even make the list!? If this were in a standard Newspaper, I'd say it'd belong in the opinion section.
Go ahead and call me unreliable; reliable is just a synonym for predictable.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3576594. stm
- This and all my posts are public domain. I am a Physicist. I am not your Physicist. This is not Physically advice
Most important discovery of last 200 years.
A major reevaluation of the ways in which we perceive our world will move us forward more rapidly. Current modes of science/scientific thinking often inadequately address the nature of the universe, consciousness, and our place in the cosmos (consider these issues: Chaos theory, Triadic theory, and Quantum theory, to name a few).
Sigs cause cancer.
There's a girlfriend/wife application in there somewhere: "And scientists from the NASA Ames Research Center developed speech recognition technology that allows users to speak silently. The scheme uses throat nerve activity rather than acoustics to glean information about what a person is saying."
The really big advances can't be put into a list spanning a year. Propably the biggest acheivement is the mapping of the Genome, which took years and is still being added to and made more complete. Not to mention the foundation of scientific advances that the project built itself on. I am sure there are a few "Eureka!" moments in science, but really this can't be looked at with an "MTV" short attention span perspective. It makes an end of year list but that is realy all that it is.
"We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. " Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
There are real ethical issues that don't get discussed in the popular press; these are just in the biotech field:
Placebos in clinical trials
Genetic mapping and privacy
Patents on gene sequences/organisms
Cloning
The genie does not go back in the bottle. Let's get it right the first time.
Isn't revelling in technological advances one way those who are debilitatingly incompetent at relating to people avoid having to face up to that?
Are you adequate?
How can the parent post be modded anything above "-1 Troll" when its .sig is not only blatant spam, but is blatant spam revealing either the stupidity or the venality of the poster?
Methinks you're looking for the Commodore discussion.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
Although I agree that Space Ship One isn't a technological advance, I didn't realize the luftwaffe had a suborbital vehicle that was launched from a plane. Not to mention the craft's use of different wing configurations to orient itself on descent and as control surfaces later on in descent.
"When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it
I'd put in for China's plan to expand their energy generation. It would be awesome to see Pebble Bed reactors get some decent coverage mainstream to their stability and safety. If china leads here, I can only hope we play follow the leader. Rolling blackouts, caused by deadly waves of stupid, are just embarrassing. wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_bed_reactor
Hey! I've still got 1 more day to invent cold fusion.
Technology, the cause of and solution to all of life's problems.
Computing - can't see SCO there :-(
None of that is NEW, just better (or differently funded) implentations of stuff that's been around for forty years.
This list is made up of NEW things.
libertarianswag.com
That's set up her a ring. Your grammar is negatively awful.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
"And scientists from the NASA Ames Research Center developed speech recognition technology that allows users to speak silently. The scheme uses throat nerve activity rather than acoustics to glean information about what a person is saying. "
It'd be better if the device could make people -think- before speaking (silently or otherwise). Lincoln noted "Better to keep one's mouth shut and be thought a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt".
Now doubt can be removed without opening of a mouth!!
<SILENT>hehehehehe - the fools!!</SILENT>
He's just zis guy, you know?
When making "it" possessive, the correct form is "its." When joining "it" and "is," the correct form is "it's." This is a common error, but it's an eyesore.
I think that's the most important advance of 2004. What else could I get high and waste hours doing... either give me excellent computer games, or give me a flying car. One way or the other, I'll be disoriented, slightly confused, but satisified.
We are one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. Back to you with the weather, Bob!
Surely, the IPod should have been number 1!
I think you meant to post this in a different posting's thread. I belive RTFP would only vaguely apply here, as you apparently read the post, however you managed to post to the wrong post. PTTPFP would be more accurate. Sheesh...
Willy Wonka's Everlasting Gobstopper!
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
The Get the Facts campaign from Microsoft. Maybe is not an advance that help humanity, but is a clear demostration to how far into the insanity realm could be reached just playing with numbers.
I'm probably the only person who thinks this is a really good list. They focused on new technologies being developed in Universities and not what we have already done. The Mars rover isn't anything new. We have had the technology to do it for years. All of these advances will not be seen for years to come.
Exploration in itself is not a technological advance. What technological advances were made this year to make these explorations possible?
- This and all my posts are public domain. I am a Physicist. I am not your Physicist. This is not Physically advice
Sure, SpaceShipOne accomplished what was accomplished in the 60's but to do it at the fraction of the cost from private funding and support, if you ask me, that should be considered a technology breakthrough of 2004.
MPAA and RIAA makes the P2P community evolve at a geometric rate... enjoy EXEEM folks.
Home of Faramir Paint Shop Pro scripts
Where are the Lego logic gates? That's a major advance to miniaturizing these giant computers of ours! Anyways, the extra energy from CO waste gas seems interesting and important, although from skimming I couldn't figure out what would be the chemical product of extracting the extra energy. Does anyone know?
- Move "Sig". For great justice!
The balance on my credit card :-(
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I just googled this as it was the first time I had heard of it. I don't understand how you can consider it on par with the other two theories you mentioned.
- This and all my posts are public domain. I am a Physicist. I am not your Physicist. This is not Physically advice
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/0 2/1830247&tid=126&tid=14/
You knows it.
- This and all my posts are public domain. I am a Physicist. I am not your Physicist. This is not Physically advice
Seriously.. how'd you manage that?!
What is your penile percentile?
Seriously, you don't think there's anything new in the technologies that enabled the rovers or that made SpaceShipOne possible?
Cassini you might be able to make an argument about, but I think these other two are certainly as much of an advancement as the "robot that can do science experiments" that made their list.
FWIW...
Are you talking about the Sanger Silverbird? That's the only design that I've seen that had two parts, and the "pusher" was strictly ground-bound. I'd be very interested in a link to any information on the design you're talking about.
Floating face-down in a river of regret...and thoughts of you...
... "The Biggest Loser"? Clearly, transplanting people from Springer to reality TV is analogous to the first heart transplant.
"A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes." -Mahatma Gandhi
Rats! For a moment I read it like 'Top Ten Adventures in 2004'. Then I realised that this is a very big number for this type of game the last years... :-(
TRIADIC THEORY Finding its origins in the work of the late-19th century American philosopher C.S. Peirce, triadic theory is concerned with the unique nature of human language as a "space-time" event qualitatively different from all other known phenomena of nature. More precisely, while modern scientists are readily accustomed to studying nature from a cause-and-effect (or "dyadic") vantage point, the "language event" itself cannot be reduced solely to such terms. For as explained by language philosopher Walker Percy (1916-1990), symbolization at root involves *three* irreducible variables: the "symbol-user," the "symbol," and its "referent." Human language, therefore, fundamentally being a process involving "triads," cannot be explained from a cause-and-effect model; rather it supercedes traditional scientific methodology in ways that fully have yet to be appreciated. Triadic theory is a part of the scientific discipline known as "semiotics," which is concerned with the systematic study of signs (or symbols) and their meaning. Needless to say, the theory and the discipline both have key insights to offer current explorations into the complex nature of human consciousness.
What humanity really need is a breakthrough in an effective source of clean energy. If all nations will get free and cheap energy it will solve huge number of a political and social problems in a world. No more oil wars, cheap transportation and so on. And a biology of cause. I am just wondering how much it could bring to the world if Bush spend all Iraq campaign money for biology researches? Cure for cancer or HIV? Next generations of antibiotics which will kill only specific viruses? Let's try someday to spend more money on fundamental researches, not war or political games and see what we will get.
Funny? That should be a +5:makes me sad.*
:(
*I'm in the same boat. Damn economy.
We live in a country where you can rent a woman's womb for 9 months and pay her to carry your baby.
We live in a country where you can buy and sell organs.
We live in a country where you can buy and sell children.
I think we should stop pretending that we care about any ethics or morals.
If you got the cash, I got what you want.
evil is as evil does
Must be a new year. Time for the reporters to get lazy and do nothing but top 10 lists instead of covering real news stories.
Oh well, it's not like they cover real news during the rest of the year either.
I've heard that bloggers using banner ads from google adsense are starting to make money. So, maybe this is the year for you to start your own blog and rake in the cash.
Meh.
9 unordered categories, multiple entries per category, this is not a "Top Ten List"
(OK I love to Nit-Pick)
Letter To Iran
Considering that all the things both those do were designed and built many years ago, and in some cases, even launched into space well over a year ago, they can't really be called 2004 technology. That they were put to USE in 2004 is irrelevant.
It doesn't take away their achievement, but it doesnt apply to technology and news that is the literal cutting edge.
-
in a situation like that, the control group would be all those other people who AREN'T getting the new drug or treatment. It obviously fails the strictly classical dictionary definition of course, but it would help those if the thing works at all. People typically volunteer for those tests when they have no other options available, when no other previously approved drug or treatment has worked for them, and they have limited time left. So giving them *nothing* was the original point,it's bogus, and I can see it, and I agree, all the test subjects should be given the treatment for-real if they volunteer for it and chose that method. I agree that it's cruel and unethical at that point, IF it's a life threatening disease of some immediacy and no other treatment has proven of any worth. If it's gotten so far as to be having human trials, and the volunteers have very short projected calendar times remaining, it's far enough along to offer it to people who sign a disclaimer, etc as their "last ditch hope", so don't mess with them by giving them a placebo. It is not "idiocy" for someone to want to have a possible effective treatment when nothing else has worked, and it was quite rude of you to suggest that of the other poster. Offer the drug/treatment to all that volunteer. They are already suffering enough, don't make them have the additional lottery aspect to it, it's bad enough as it is. This is a situation by situation call, there is NO "one size fits all" method that "works" with research, especially if you are talking about peoples last hopes.
And as to "approved" or not, that's a different subject, millions of people are not all that happy with the entire FDA and what they "approve" or not. They are not the end all and be all of either pure science or practical applications of science, they are just another half corrupt and half lame government agency with a ton of documented failures and questionable "rulings" to their credit. And it also violates peoples basic civil rights, IMO humans have the RIGHT to decide what to do with their bodies and for their medical care. If they choose to try an "experimental" method, let them. Give them an OPTION to either be in a classical double blind type study that includes placebos, OR NOT, let them actually have the bonafide drug or treatment in an experimental study that DOESN'T use placebos,if they choose that, and you can do research both ways.
Don't forget User Too Stupid.
One could argue if the buy of the Commodore brand is an advancement or a step back.
Based on my experiences with Amigas and WIndows, I'd have to say that it could be considered both. Just depends on your current location;-)
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
An array of small pressure sensors on a flexible sheet from University of Tokyo researchers promises to lead to smart rugs and robot skin.
I bet Bill Shatner's salivating at that one :)
I wonder if this means that people who move their lips when they read have an advantage using this technology?
(Only partially tongue-in-cheek).
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
And now, we can hardly go anywhere without needing to holler, "Turn that damned thing down!" :)
hawk
Remove biotechnology, physics and nanotechnology from the list and we have top seven advances in computing.
Man, you are so wrong, the most biggest advance of 2004 was the release of Duke Nukem Forever!
.... hmmm... sorry! maybe next year! =^P
What else could be as much expecting as this great game!
What? It didn't came out yet!?
Aerosol cheese is passed over. Once again there is no justice.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
yep sorry everyone. I'm a bit tired... I ment to post a correction but oh well.
I like muppets.
Claiming energy from Carbon Monoxide0 4/Fuel_cel l_converts_waste_to_power_092204.html
http://www.trnmag.com/Stories/2004/0922
Can this be a replacement for the Oxidization Catalyst in our catalytic converters?
This seems (IMNSHO) very exciting from an environmental standpoint, and will be moreso if it can be done without precious metals, though the O Catalyst is made with platinum already. Also, the reclaimed energy can be used to heat the Reduction Catalist, if only minimally.
If these can't be adapted for cars, try $industry smokestack or even residential use, especially in gas heated homes. How it might compare with the already-developing Natural Gas home full cell systems, I don't know.
Vote Fraud perfected in 2004 by ITAA, NASED, ESS, Diebold, ABC, CBS, NBC, Senate, Blackwell, And Hackers.
Just flip the bit from a 1 to a 0 and you have supreme power.
Just let the technician tweek on the box[s] before an audit / recount.
Don't keep phone records. Have the Modem Dial out to get the data.
Use Scanners, so you can have a rigged election, and nobody will ever count the paper for a sanity check.
PASS HAVA (Help America Vote Act) using exploited electronic devices.
Get the media to report on ANYTHING ELSE but rigged elections.
Intimidate voters.
Steer the stories towards something like hanging chads on paper.
When recounting, only recount 3%.
OWN the Senate, that way there will never be reform.
Keep PUSHING agenda like, lets have the electronic boxes PRINT paper, meanwhile the actual bits for the count are manipulated secretly.
NOW...IN THE USA, THERE WILL NEVER BE A NON RIGGED ELECTION EVER AGAIN.
To Election officals - a BIG FUCK YOU.
To Media - a BIG FUCK YOU.
To Senators that do nothing - a BIG FUCK YOU.
if the media won't report, the senators won't fight, the election officials don't care or are "sold out" what other recourse is there?
I'll let you think about that one.
When do you think a discovery or invention will be made that will profoundly change the lives of every single person on the face of the earth? what will it be?
will this ever happen?
i say energy related in 20 - 40 years, or increase in life expectancy in 50+ years.
You will gain the convenience of flying from A to B but your flight will be fully controlled by a third party (company, goverment or both) to ensure safety.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Somebody else posted about this guy getting married?
How can the parent post be modded anything above "-1 Troll" when its .sig is not only blatant spam, but is blatant spam revealing either the stupidity or the venality of the poster?
Because people are moderating the post, not the signature? Many of us have signatures switched off, you know.
About the training robots with simulationv olution_trai ns_robot_teams_051904.html)
(www.trnmag.com/Stories/2004/051904/E
and evolution and then downloading it
to the physical device article.
General people goal function:
The selfish DNA-theory.
Humanics:
Were just the simulation machine + the droid in one package.
*Simulation time = dreams(sleep), only time we need most of brains.
*Playing = a testing scheme in an unknown environment autonomously to create and evolve our "graphics"-card which takes most of our head. It has physics-engine built in etc. support.
*Every night it's like the robots without body in a simulation - we're cut off from the muscless and don't actually move. We're like the simulated robots "evolving" combinations of actions and outcomes and combining them according to our "selfish DNA" goal function. Next morning the offspring of the fittest ideas is downloaded to the physical apparatus=the body.
*As the day goes we collect new data for the next night simulation run. At morning the short term state of mind feels emptied.
Now suppose we changed the goal function of humans:
*Ways to do this for girls might be the "pill". Makes sex more usable in "selfish DNA" use as means to get the best father for her offspring.
*Sperm/Egg - plant children/Genetic engineering. Get the perceived best DNA and a "nurse"-character to raise them.
*Nordic Wellfare state. The society does most of the "nursing" to any level of education/status. Caring/kindness loses value. A more liberal free sexish scenario.
*Tough love state. The society might do some "nurcing" for a price(risk of losing life or limb). The value of Caring/kindness increases. But the jealosy of the carer also increases because of the commitment. A more "sex-moralistic" scenario.
Other random thougts:
* They said the idea was to only look at results not how they were archieved and by using this instead of forcing to preconceived model of thinking the bigger neural nets became easier to train than the smaller ones coutrary to common experience. Isn't this like a good form of leadership. For "small neural nets" you give detailed instructions and tell what to think and do and for "smarter" (than the taskmaster) you just tell what needs to be done(=goal function)=research specialist management.
* The spark of life for lone brain cell:
Random fire and observe. Use what brings most traffic from firing. Can't "simulate" this far enough - perhaps I should go "play" - and after that wait for "sleep".
Oh that free booze - just a advertising trick to get you to read this far.