Well 2005 is over and still no singularity.

Wait... what was that. Oh, hang on, it was just our cat. Never mind.

Nothing happened. We're all still human and there's no titanium clad overlords in my neighbourhood anyway. Although that iPod is looking rather smug.

Androids in Japan

Japan is kicking some serious butt in the Robotics area, particularly in the humanoid direction. This report
outlines an interesting humanoid robot named "Repliee Q1" at Osaka University in Japan.

They are using an air compressor to control the movement of the android. All it can do currently is sit.

This is how it starts.

Fastest Computers

Recent press info about Japan planning a faster computer than the current IBM "Blue Gene" machine. The Japanese one is planned to run at about 73 times that speed.

The fastest machines are purported to be: Japan currently has the Earth Simulator, at a speed of 35.9 teraflops, which is fourth fastest after two versions of IBM's Blue Gene and NASA's has the "Columbia" system. A top 500 list of the fastest supercomputers, is released at the "International Supercomputing Conference" in Germany.

Moore Slogs Ahead

Meanwhile, Intel says they are starting immediately on a new 300mm wafer fab in Arizona, capable of getting down to a 45nm feature size. For those not following this too closely, 65nm is the current (Q2 2005) high water mark, that all fabs are running towards.

There is a finish line looming on this though, in that we're approaching the point where electrons are too big relative to transistor features, and something else has to come along. This has long been touted as quantum computing. But lately I hear more about bio-transistors. A few labs have something working there. Last I heard was out in Calgary, Canada where someone was doing basic biological cells for transistor functions, probably still just in a petri dish.

Also hearing about 'nano-wires' of various types... but the problem is getting them to grow precisely where you want them. Subltle shifts in position mean the potential semiconductor ends up 'wrong' and you lose the device.

There will be some big breakthroughs in non silicon, non III-IV materials semiconductors soon. Then a bottle of liquid which is your computer won't be far off, simply put a spoon full of sugar in to keep it going.

Teaching Robots

For a long time, the conventional approach to teachng robots has been a fundamentally wrong one. Often described as a 'dictionary' approach, the assumption was that you could pre-load a robot or AI with a bunch of terms, and their definitions in a 'look-up table' structure, and then associate those items with the sensory signature of each item and presto, you've got a robot or AI that understands what "give me the heavest ripe apple" should mean.

Fundamentally, though, this meant that other than handing you objects as a stationary, screwed-down, demo platform, you would never get anywhere near a serviceable, adaptable and useful 'product'. Recently, there seems to be an understanding that the appropriate solution will involve teaching in the same way humans (and other animals) learn. Vocabulary must be learned from in-context repetitive instruction. (e.g. Deb Roy at MIT media Lab). Trial and failure approaches are going to be the only ones that work in the foreseable future. At some point, perhaps, a virtual environment may allow for rapid trial-and-error training, but that process of building up linkages in the neural net approach is going to be fundamental to machine intelligence. Then again, the term "neural net" has been co-opted to mean some specific and boringly mundane things these days. Let's instead refer to learning in this way as a "biological associations network building"

HEY! That spells band - honest, I didn't pick the words to spell a snappy acronym.. although most acronyms do come about that way.

There was recently some discussion on this topic on Canada's "Quirks and Quarks" a science radio show on public broadcaster CBC. (See more at: ( CBC Q & Q Site )