Brent Kearney

From the TED conference, Juan Enriquez gave an interesting talk in February that cast the current U.S. financial crisis in light of an impending, massive technological revolution. The theme was rebooting: the economy needs a reboot, and it needs to come in the form of technological leadership. In turn, intensely disruptive technology will soon reboot humanity itself.

Although massive cutbacks are the trend of the day, given the “flames of the crisis”, Enriquez noted that venture-backed start-up companies make up 0.02% of U.S. GDP investment, but provide 17.8% of it’s output. So we must continue to invest in research and development, which spins-off these start-up companies. It will save the economy and help define the future.

In his talk, Enriquez goes over numerous examples of game-changing technological developments, including advancements in cellular engineering, tissue regrowth, and robotics. If you are not interested in the economic angle, the Singularity Hub posted an edited version that has just the technological half of the talk. However, the full version is worth watching (18 min):

I wish that the Canadian government realized the value of basic research. It’s 2009 budget cut research funding by $158 million, in order to help fund "shovel-ready" infrastructure projects. While the new buildings will be welcome, cutting research funding is incredibly short-sighted!

I came across this documentary, Technocalyps, (like apocalypse, get it?) the other day, and although I’ve only watched the first third of it, I can say that it’s pretty cool. I didn’t learn much, but I’ve been getting into the subject for awhile now. It’s a good documentary to pass to someone who isn’t up to date on what’s going on in artificial intelligence, cybernetics, bioengineering, etc.. There some kooky sounding people in the film, but what else is new? I loved all of the imagery from old horror movies and from Burning Man.

Today I sent the link to my pal Rob, who, in pursuit of his Eyeborg Project, is becoming somewhat transhuman himself. He will be the world’s first transhuman documentary maker, and apparently, a working prototype is imminent. He’s in Belgium to speak about the project at the Digital News Affairs conference, and as it turns out, this transhumanism film was made by Frank Theys, of Belgium. Weird coincidence. Anyways, Rob is getting a lot of press for his project, and I was delighted today when his story came across my radar via the KurzweilAI.net news feed (in my sidebar). Check out the clip:

One recurring theme that futurists talk about in discussions of transhumanism, including Bruce Sterling in the TechnoCalyps film, is that there won’t be one big sudden change in society, where we will wake up one day and there will be a race of super-intelligent cyborgs that look like RoboCop roaming the Earth, and people will be lining up to join them. It will be a gradual process — an electronic eye here, an artificial organ there — people will continue to integrate technology into their bodies as needed or as desired.

The technology is still very young, but what most people fail to realize is that it is improving at a very fast rate, and that rate is itself increasing. Today’s technology will seem as crude to us in the near future as medieval medicine does to us now. There will come a time when the integration of technology with our bodies won’t just be for replacing missing parts — it will be a true enhancement, to extend and improve our health, and our abilities.

Pioneers like my soon-to-be-cyborg friend Rob and his colleagues are a driving force for pushing technology out of the lab and into practice. As the pace and breadth of research accelerates, more people with this kind of courage and initiative will be required to bring talent together and apply their skills to solving real-world problems. Cheers to them!

This cookie recipe has evolved over the past year or so, after a friend sent me this one (thanks Court!). I think that Pandora has finally perfected it. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• ½ cup coconut oil*
• ¼ cup brown rice syrup, agave nector or other sweetener
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla

∗Applesauce can be substituted for the coconut oil, and you can blend water with a banana instead of eggs.

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• ¼ cup hemp flour or hemp protein
• ¼ cup ground flaxseed
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon

• 1 ½ cups Rogers Porridge Oats (or just rolled oats)
• ½ cup chopped nuts and/or seeds, and/or dried fruit∗
• ½ cup chocolate chips or raisins

∗Coarsely chopped almonds or pecans, dried apricot or cranberries, sunflower or pumpkin seeds are all good!

Preheat oven to 385°F. Cream coconut oil & sweetener, beat in eggs & vanilla (I put them all in a food processor). In a separate bowl combine flour, flax, hemp, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, stirring until combined. Mix in oats, nuts, and chocolate chips. Shape cookies onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, and bake for 12 minutes.

This recipe is suited for baking at an elevation of 1500m above sea level. For lower elevation, you should add more baking powder, decrease the temperature, and decrease the amount of liquids (see High-altitude baking for an explanation). Although, they are pretty dense cookies and don’t expand much while baking anyways.

Enjoy!