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Researchers Create Artificial Insect Eye
maxzilla writes "An artificial insect eye that could be used in ultra-thin cameras has been developed by scientists in the US.The dimpled eye, contains over 8,500 hexagonal lenses packed into an area the size of a pinhead. The dome-shaped structure, described in the journal Science, is similar to a bee's eye. The researchers, from the University of California, Berkeley, say the work may also shed light on how insects developed such complex, visual systems. Darpa is also funding this project with applications expected for digital cameras and high speed motion detectors."
So we are competing with nature now. Very soon the blind will have a better option at vision and the rest of us will be scrambling in the dark. That would be a funny sight.
There is nothing permanent except 'Change'- HERACLITUS,6TH CENTURY B.C
If you thought those fiber-optic based surveillance cams were bad, you'll hate these even more.
Yeah, this will find tons of apps in all sorts of useful places, but at a certain point, they'll be so cheap that you'll have to be afraid that people have hidden them somewhere, and that you are being watched.
This will be like camera phones, but squared and then cubed.
http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_
According to TFA, "At the moment, the artificial eye is not connected to any kind of imaging device.".
I understand that whoever made this thing is eager to show it around but shouldn't they actually wait until they have something to show ?
It's becoming the norm nowadays to announce stuff that's only half done... I don't know if it's to satisfy investors or what but it sounds quite silly.
"look, we have this great insectile artificial eye !"
"impressive, what does it see ?"
"we don't know"
Well, duh.
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
The question, I want to ask is, is it still in research phase or professional services will start becoming available, when and how much it might cost?
The problem is all these are misleading. Articles about wiring cameras to the eye nerves, artificial eyes and so on are coming down the pipe for years now. I remember not less than 4 years ago articles about artificial eyes that can help blind people.
In most cases, the misleading sytarts right at the source, where for PR reasons the achievement is blown out of proportion for PR reasons, to justify the spent resources and time, and back them when they request more funds for continuing their research.
Frequently also the media tag on catchy "breaking news" titles to make their articles more interesting.
A recent example is for example the computerised machine guns that disarms rockets that get close to a tank.. That was "marketed" as a magical energy shield around tanks.. Comment withheld..
Why is it that 99% of those articles try to be done with the boring facts as fast as possible and dive into the exciting world of "this may/can/will be used for [INSERT SOMETHING FROM A MOVIE OR SOMETHING THAT SOUNDS REALLY IMPORTANT]" speculation.
So if a new sort of "no unpopped kernels" popcorns was disovered, we'll have to read how this will lead to us flying to distant galaxies and finding the purpose of existence.
Ok so there's the Evolutionists, and the ID:ers, but other than Douglas Adams and myself, who else believes in the lesser known _Un-Intelligent (But Ambitious!) Designer_?
And that would explain the disappearance of the dinosaurs too. Ooops, fucked it up. Sowwy. We'll have to try again. Let's try Humans this time. Yes... Yes.. Excellent physical design, but brains too unevolved. Let Humans consume the Earth's resources disparately and divide their wealth unevenly until they realize the error of their ways. That should teach 'em! Next up, Vulcans.
See? Makes everything fit together neatly!
Sorry for feeding the troll, but :
The biggest difference between having faith in some deity or having faith in selection/randomness/ifinite time/etc... is that in case of the second, you can also try to disect the subtle mechanics of it and try to understand it, and then try to apply the knowledge you acquired. It makes you able to develop better medecine, or to be able to predict what will happen next according to the models you developped studying science (or in case of archeoly : try to guess what happened 'between' before the archeological evidence shows up). Which is hard to do with a deity, because you'll have to catch it first before being able to disect it, because as you're not a deity yourself you're not supposed to be able to understand it, and you aren't supposed to be able to predict what's is someone else head.
Evolution is a way to say "Let's try to understand how it works", ID is a way to say "Fuck, I give up. It's too hard to understand. It must have been done by [insert your favorite deity's name here]".
On the other hand, religious faith has generated some nice and interesting pieces of art and litterature, although it also managed to generate a lot of holy wars.
Second, EVOLUTION IS NOT PURELY RANDOM. Most moderne life form have (thru evlotion) acquired means to 're-use' what has been done before (example: by recombining and reshuffling functionnal parts) and evolve and adapt faster than just waiting until it happens by randomness.
(NOTE: I *do* work in a genetic lab. A *do* know what I'm speaking about)
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
No, it was the Flying Spaghetti Monstor, silly!