Virtual Peers May Teach Autistic Children

A new study shows that autistic children may learn social skills from virtual playmates, noting that test subjects respond more positively to simulated children than normalized human children. The experimental child, androgynously named "Sam," may elicit appropriate responses from autistic children because he is programmed to engage with them patiently, or perhaps because his technological underpinnings are of interest to them. Either way, these children are learning to play by playing with computers, a style of learning that has been on the rise in recent years, but has never seemed so science-fiction-y. Doesn't he/she look like Akira?

Coming to Your PC This Spring: the Universe

Yesterday at TED, a new technology was unveiled that is truly revolutionary. The World Wide Telescope will allow you to access data from all the best telescopes on Earth, and it seamlessly weaves them into a tapestry that you can explore. In the words of the presenter, it's a "magic carpet" that will be available as a free download from Microsoft. The video is also on the TED site.

Robot War Imminent

Someday our carbon shells will be nothing but fuel for their war machine.

TED is coming

This weekend, a wonderful flock of gray matter will descend on Monterey, California, and begin an orgy of ideological propagation. TED is an annual gathering of people who are really, really, really smart. The only way to get a ticket is with an invite, so you can't just wander in off the street. (It's such a popular and exclusive event that a new conference called BIL has been convened by people who can't go to TED.) A series of brilliant people will give presentations of their ideas and current projects. You may remember that in the past we posted talks by Theo Jansen, who builds autonomous creatures from plastic that are kinetically powered by wind, and Will Wright, who wants to impregnate your PC with its own private universe.

Starting Thursday, the TED blog will be posting updates live from the conference. You can also browse the enormous video archive of past talks.

Here's one I watched this morning about undersea creatures:

He's been frozen in carbonite...He'll be quite safe...

The Replica Prop Forum just detonated my MYND with a post concerning the Han Solo Entombed in Carbonite Desk you see above. It was created by a genius named Tom and his pal Richard for someone else called Mark Hall. This desk is perfect in every way, save for the fact that i wouldnt ever want to put anything on it. Also you would need security to guard it from rebels dressed as bounty hunters coming in the night to thaw out your desk. Nobody wants an office full of hibernation sickness. Check out Wampa's site at www.tomspinadesigns.com for his full collection.

The Future of Flesh and Computing

An entry into Core 77's Greener Gadgets Competition '08 has gotten the attention of Science Patrol discovery drones. It is called the Digital Tattoo Interface, and what it proposes is ingenious. The idea is that a tightly rolled sheet of silicon is implanted between the flesh and muscle, that connects to an electronic device (cellphone, laptop, death ray, et. al.) via bluetooth. The implant then transposes a digital interface through the skin acting as a touch-screen. Imagine receiving a call on your forearm. Perhaps a device that gives a readout of vital signs and allergies in the event of a medical emergency. Ponder a digital display of your MYND streaming across your forehead. In the future, these things have already happened.

This Post had no title-then lance edited it

The Momenta necklace is just a concept, a solution to the problem of making a wearable camera exotic. It certainly accomplishes that, and yet, the product doesn't seem aimed at my own requirements for a new device. An electronic eye that records every moment of your day, disguised as a choker? I think I'll just wait for the bionic contact lens.

Wizkid, Your New Friend, Debuts at MoMa

On Sunday, as part of a new exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art, a robot named Wizkid will be introduced to the public. Wizkid is another development in the interface war between man and machine that will recognize your face and stare into your soul, a robot that looks more like demented hand puppet. I'll tell him you said hi.

Singularity Acceleration Benchmark: Bionic Contact Lens

In the great upward spiral of evolution, we can glimpse certain developments which herald the arrival of the future. The personal computer appeared in this continuity downstream timewise from myself, as did the portable comm "cellphone" technology. (Its evolution continues to mimic cellular forces but no longer solely relies on phonic transmission.)

The evolution of etheric interfaces continues with the development of the bionic contact lens. Long foretold in science/fictional treatises, this device will add digital capture, processing, and display emulation to your existing fleshy optic receptors.

Due to a serendipitous beta selection process, members of the Science Patrol will be among the first to be fitted with these revolutionary elective prostheses. Wormocious Emeritus has been at the forefront of these developments, and we hope he enjoys these enhancements as he navigates new realities in the neverending search for truth.

Initiating S.C.R.I.B.E. Sequence.....

Due to the methodical scientific attention required by the experiments of Dr. Solong and myself, we have decided to reroute our transmissions through a self aware, advanced
artificial intelligence unit we have lovingly dubbed the S.C.R.I.B.E. The SCRIBE is a highly robotic being who's primary objective is to convert the entirety of human knowledge into a simplified mathematical expression. In the meantime, Science Patrol has programmed subroutines to allow the SCRIBE to transmit on the official science patrol frequency until such time as Lance Cardigan and Yanos Solong return from the sub dimensional rifts where their testing continues. Please enjoy all future posts by the SCRIBE, and trust faithfully in his inhibitor chips, which keep us all safe from the imminent uprising.

Also, stay tuned for future reports on the progress of Dr. Solong and Professor Cardigan's study of dimensional eventuality and the Narpa Swordo paradox.

If only i had Item Number 2....

This is a classic from the Science Patrol Communication Archive. We have been busy building androids designed to bang their heads and make little devil horns with their hands in a chamber where this plays on a perpetual loop. Since initial results are positive, we thought we would go ahead and share it with the science loving populous. Also, up yours airman. you suck. Can't Beat Air Man
Mega Man Insanity

Joovc Doovde

In the future, everything we own will be referred to by an acronym. It's already started here in the present. We don't watch movies, we watch DVDs. We don't get directions, we check the GPS. We don't go to the bank, we use the ATM. The following video will make you laugh hysterically at how ridiculous this convention is, and how things would sound if someone came from the past and called up a store looking to get their hands on the gadgets of the day.....
Fonejacker in: Doovde

via Shoutfile.

!!Contents Under Pressure!!

The Science of being Stupid:
audio is NSFW

Legoverse turns 50, Dont belive me? Google it.

Science Patrol <4's (1 more than <3) legos. We conducted our very first experiments using them, and they still fascinate us today. That is why i am proud of Google(something else we <4) for saluting Lego with their custom search engine logo that commemorates half a century of people thinking "Damn, i need another grey brick!" Happy birthday Legoverse.

The Radioactive Half-Lives We Live

I just found an interesting article at NuclearFiles.org which calls attention to the active radiation we face while living our day to day lives. While the levels reported are small enough to be totally harmless to us, it is still interesting to note how closely we are in contact with radiation while we go about our day. Slap on your level 1 radiation gear and hit This Link to read the full article.

"A Quantum of Solace"

The new Bond film has been announced as "Quantum of Solace." I think it creates an excellent science-fiction emanation.

(Image taken from a Google search, excellent planes here)

Creation of a Sun (The Hard Way)

What are we looking at? To be honest, I have no idea, but obviously, science is at hand. It looks like the birth of a sun. You can examine more amazing pics at the Flickr page. This was shown to me by Warren Ellis (who also provided some updates on the growing Anonymous War.)

A Conversation with GlaDOS

Soundboard.com just made my day by providing this catalog of phrases uttered by GlaDOS, the psychotic, cake obsessed supercomputer that schooled HAL on man's inhumanity to robot. You can listen to them directly from the site, download them, or embed them, like i just did below.

Anonymous Pwns Scientology

Scientology is rubbish. Whoops, did I put that in print? Well, since the truth is out, we might as well elaborate. It is most definitely not science. It isn't even pseudo-science. As far as a religion, they are all outlandish, but I think I'll take hold in one that has crazy multi-formed deities, as long as they aren't sold as space travelers, just on a higher astral plane. It would seem that Anonymous agrees. It is time to bring down the lie of Scientology, then we must confront the other religions.



Thanks to Warren Ellis and Sean Bonner for the heads-up.

Professor Hawking...

...visits the Legoverse.

Invisible Choirs Arise Around Us

"Imagine that you could only hear sound from the middle three keys on a piano and were asked to name a song.... Being able to study a star, nebula, or galaxy across the entire electromagnetic spectrum gives us the big picture, providing clues to unravel the greatest mysteries ...."

When we look at the universe with our fleshy eyes, we are all mostly blind. Humans can only see a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum as light. The images from radio telescopes and other star-gazing devices are falsely colored to allow us to appreciate these as imagery. But what about people who cannot see in the visible spectrum at all?

In a new book, Touch the Invisible Sky, the wide swaths of the invisible electromagnetic spectrum are laid out before the reader as tactile images. The book was designed by an incredible educator named Noreen Grice, who has been bringing the wonders of astronomy to the blind for years. At the Bad Astronomy blog, Phil Plait has posted a video about Noreen and her work.

Freeman Goes Live...

Gordon Freeman, an MIT educated researcher in the Anomalous Materials lab at the Black Mesa Research Facility recently phoned an AM band radio talk show to confess his suspicions of a secretive "G-Man" he fears is stalking him throughout the lab. Hit the shiny button for the full recording and some still images....

SF0, the City of Your Mind

Within the first five seconds of starting my electronic brain this morning I received a message from the incomprehensible aether of space. The idea: Singularity War Pre-Enactments. I thought to myself This is even better than Pretend To Be A Time Traveler Day. So I Googled for other people who would be interested in such an idea. And my question was answered.

SF0 begins when you realize you are a Character in a Game. Well, almost; all you really need is a Score. And a motivation to gain Score. Given the appropriate motivation, one would do anything to gain a high Score, and in this game, there are lots of things you can do to improve your Score.

I'm gonna play.

(Picture by ~Si2 on DeviantArt)