In an incredible piece of information from the amazing world of animals, Chaser the Border Collie has been studied at the University of Woffard (not Woofard) where they discovered that he understands the names of several hundred objects and can even understand the words for acquiring them. The Collie is one of the masters of language, but is said to have the vocabulary prowess of a typical human being during early development. Now if only we could teach him to "speak." 
Chaser has been taught the names of several objects including typical nouns of several objects and then the words for what to do with them. John Pilley and Alliston Reid gave Chaser extensive training on words and their meanings and now the border Collie can not only pick these objects out in a lineup, but can understand more complex commands that make "sit" "stay" and "roll over" look like child's play. The researchers were looking to understand what the limits of dog training could be when it came to words and commands. What they discovered was astounding. Try as they might, they couldn't find any limit to how many words a dog could learn given sufficient training. By the end, they had taught Chaser over 1,022 words and he showed no signs of slowing down. Eventually, the test was concluded only because they ran out of time.
It's no question that dogs are incredibly intelligent animals. In addition to being able to understand basic shapes and objects, they apparently can understand. They would even combine the preset names and commands together to see if they could figure out what he would do. After extensive training they found that Chaser not only understood the objects, but also more complex and abstract concepts behind them. The true weight of Chaser's intelligence was astounding both to Pilley and Alliston, but left many questions still unanswered. How far could an animal's intelligence be taken? If given the proper stimuli, how complex could the commands get? Could seeing eye dogs and other service animals one day be able to be communicated with and even communicate back in their own way? And if so, what would they say?
While it's difficult to train a dog to do something such as express their feelings, a service animal might be able to use their training to communicate ideas about concrete objects and ideas. "I see three people and one chair in this room," certainly doesn't seem to be beyond the understanding of a sufficiently (and extensively) trained dog given the circumstances surrounding this experiment. Of course I wouldn't then also expect the same dog to be able to say something along the lines of, "I don't know about that carpet. It doesn't seem to go well with the color scheme you have in here." If for no other reason than dogs are colorblind.
In the beginning, dogs were thought to be dumb but trainable animals. And as we continued to study them we discovered that their capacity for language was practically without horizon. So how long before we truly understand just how far the canine consciousness can parallel our own?
Astounding as it sounds, DARPA has announced plans to develop a flying car to be used by the military to quickly move through the air without having to deal with roadside bombs or ambushes. And this incredible vehicle isn't just any flying car. It is in fact, a Humvee. Remember Terrafugia the ones who first brought us the flying car? Well now they're back, and they say it's time to get started working on a new model to help fight in the battlefield of the future. 
Terrafugia's incredible development is funded by $41 million from the defense department. The vehicle will be able to withstand machine gun fire, take to the air vertically or horizontally, and then land taking only a moment to retract the wings and propellers before driving down the road. The vehicle will be the first truly all terrain vehicle as it can not only fly, but drive at speeds comparable to an ordinary humvee. The vehicle, developers suggest, would be able to immediately avoid one of the most dangerous threats facing soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan today: roadside bombs. Just last October a roadside bomb detonated and killed eleven soldiers and two NATO troops as it was moving to rescue a captive. The loss of life in cases like this is always tragic.
Elsewhere, some interested individuals are suggesting if such a device were to ever end up becoming popular there would likely be civilian models as well or at least comparable models for ambulances, police, and private citizens. And the medical evacuation of troops is among the chief examples of how a vehicle that can not only drive on the ground but also fly through the air would be useful. Such a device would be capable of lifting up wounded casualties and taking them to a nearby medical installation or even allow for supplies to be delivered via air drop to troops entrenched in an area and out of reach of helicopters.
Currently one of the limitations of aerial vehicles is the difficulty with refueling. Just as was the case with the Terrafugia, this vehicle is expected to be able to function primarily on ordinary gasoline, and while it likely will be a gas guzzler, will be able to drive more discretely than landed helicopters. The idea of an aerial vehicle driving into a town and then flying to the next one over unexpectedly will no doubt give a significant tactical advantage to its operators. But as with so many other projects, this one will need extensive testing and development before it will be seen on roads or in the air.
It's always been said that flying cars would be one of the signs that the future had indeed arrived. But as we check in on the year 2010 to see how technology has progressed, we realize that not only will the introduction of flying cars become possible on our own streets, but they will soon be used by the military as well.
In the Cold War, fears of nuclear devastation all over the globe prompted the building of hundreds of backyard fallout shelters. But then as the government realized it would have to be keeping vast areas of its infrastructure both safe and organized, it drafted plans to design and build massive vaults to evade the ensuing destruction of everything we know of in our civilization. But now as the cold war seems like a distant memory it only stands to reason that these bunkers would stop being built. So why has the building of these facilities not slowed down? What is this disaster these various agencies are planning for?
As the official story is largely secret, the answer to this question has been a breeding ground for conjecture and speculation. Why anyone would invest billions on bunkers when world war III seems so unlikely in this globally entangled world of economies, trade embargoes, and currency trading is simply at this point a mystery. In fact, several of these bunkers have even been supplemented by the 4.5 million seed sample storage vault in the event of a global catastrophe that compromises the world's food supply. The massive seed bank will store these seeds for possibly hundreds of thousands of years. And that's only one of the more public steps the Norwegian government is taking to ensure life has a chance to survive on our planet.
Many people have speculated that the real cause of all this preparation is likely the oncoming cataclysm that will be brought about on December 21st, 2012. As this exact date is often used as a cornerstone to all apocalyptic preparation it seems to be the single most often cited cause of global preparation. And the movie 2012 is only one of several media outlets over anxiety of the date. But is the highly speculative future apocalypse date the only reason world governments are finding it necessary to prepare for an uncertain future? Or could there possibly be another reason on top of all of this?
Global politics seems fairly static with very little happening over the course of several years when compared to the vast changes that took place in World Wars I and II. But if the cables leaked by Internet site Wikileaks gives us any indication, it's that as the US learns more about global politics and decides to learn as much as possible about the world around it, things are nowhere near as stable as they seem. In fact, the image many politicians and diplomats have outlined might be compared to a sort of Sword of Damoclese hanging over the heads of every man woman and child on this planet. Of course in this case the sword itself isn't as much a sword as the looming and ever present threat of war and possibly even nuclear war. Given this image of the world it's slightly more understandable why world governments would find it necessary to prepare for the future when that future is at times less than certain.
Those who had to suffer through the swine flu last year and earlier this year will be delighted to hear that while the experience was likely incredibly intense and draining, experts worldwide are now saying research suggests those who overcame the intense virus that started the 2010 pandemic scare may actually have super immune systems thanks to the way the human body fights off the swine flu.
Researchers are suggesting that research conducted on the Swine Flu may soon lead to the development of a super-vaccine that could eventually wholesale prevent all forms of flu in humans. With seemingly yearly scares over various flu vaccines and the diseases themselves, a universal flu vaccine and immune response from the body could result in an extraordinary immunity to future diseases including the once feared H5N1 bird flu. Of course further research is being conducted at Oxford University in an attempt to glean the benefits of the disease without having to go through the debilitating and sometimes even deadly Swine Flu.
Tests began in 2008 for a universal flu vaccine, and with the various strains of the disease claiming half a million lives worldwide every year and causing others to lose days or even weeks of work time and keep them isolated from friends and loved ones. And yet it seems that those who had the swine flu will (at least for a period) not have to worry about several strains of swine flu.
It doesn't mean you'll never get sick, but it means you're far less likely to get infected with several different strains of the flu including the 1918 Spanish flu which killed millions and the 1976 outbreak strain of flu. Whether or not the swine flu vaccine provides any similar benefits is yet to be studied, though experts have suggested this new immunity boost works is by recovering from the illness itself.
Of course this isn't unheard of in medical circles. Many diseases have run their course and as a result allowed for a stronger immune system. In addition to the swine flu, Chicken Pox is often said to be a coming of age disease because once someone gets it they are more immune to it later in life.
In the past, the CDC had to use predictions to decide which vaccines were stockpiled and this inevitably led to shortages and fears of shortages occasionally over the years. Ultimately, if the vaccines were universal they would not have to worry about running the risk of appropriating resources toward the wrong vaccine. And ultimately fewer people would have to take shots for the vaccine or risk wasting their time with the wrong one.
But in the mean time, it would seem those who suffered from the swine flu will be able to fight off diseases in the future more effectively than ever. And with the flu season in full swing, that's good news to a lot of those with swine flu memories.
In May of last year one of the greatest drops ever seen by those involved in the US stock exchange took place and the average person had a very different perception of just what went on when it did. Thinking a massive panic had ensued due to some little known tidbit of knowledge resulting in the stock plunge, after the recovery in the following days we all sighed a breath of relief. But then it turns out the market is not actually run by people. According to economists and the New York Times, 75% of all trade volume is done rapidly by computers with no humans involved. And the next stock market collapse might just be one computer glitch away.
In 2006, the London Stock Exchange had 40% of its market under the influence of so called "Algo" or Algorithmic trading (also known as High Frequency trading). By 2007 the majority of all trading going on in the stock exchange had become by automatic machines. And today only a fraction of all trading on the stock exchange is done by something other than an automated machine. The fact that the foundation of a large part of the economy happens automatically with no oversight due to supercomputers based both in and around the stock exchange as well as the rest of the US has some people concerned about transparency and a great deal more worried about the actions of a single entity wishing the world harm or to swindle others out of millions.
A single hacker, according to some experts, could take advantage of the problems inherent in the system and then destroy the lives of many people financially. But there's another side to this that seems just as disturbing. Right now the exclusive purpose of these computers is to interface with one another in order to make those who own the computers money. With little human intervention in place, these various machines are essentially communicating and becoming one large machine. And that's what runs no less than 75% of the stock market on any given day. With computers deciding the fates of billions of dollars, a sufficiently powerful computer could in theory even honestly just find a way to beat the system and take up the greater part of the economy with only a few dollars at the beginning. Of course that's an extreme scenario and seems fairly unlikely with the checks and balances in place. Right?
Given enough time, a machine could generate millions of dollars by a combination of luck, a little bit of insight, and a lot of processing power. And if that same computer were owned by someone who then manipulated the market, they could theoretically then have a bounty of resources to make their next move.
Of course at the moment this is mostly just the stuff of science fiction. But it's unnerving to think that in a world where the world's governments are now taking active steps to fight against economic instability, computers are actually the ones in charge of the economy. And rather than a simple problem of transparency, the investors themselves don't actually know what's going on in the market for the most part. And now it's all becoming part of a vast and incredible machine who knows all that happens to its financial market.
Imagine standing on a platform raised on a building over a hundred stories tall and looking down to see traffic running beneath you. Standing on glass might make you nervous, but thanks to the efforts of scientists working at Cal Tech, we could all be looking at a whole new world where glass is one of the strongest materials known to man. And if this incredibly tough material can be made transparent, there's no end to what it could do for our world.
Incredibly strong windows able to take more of a beating than steel would mean floors and support structures could be strong enough to ensure the most overwhelming attacks while still letting people see through them. The material would most likely be used in vehicles designed to protect high profile public officials and certain aircraft at least, and possibly even find its way into maximum security defense installations as well. The only problem is, unlike more traditional glass and plastics used to make windows, this material uses very expensive bonding materials like palladium to hold the materials together.
By bonding palladium, silver, and other materials in with the process, these windows can be made to withstand things like bullets, bombs, sledgehammers, and even vehicular collisions. And that's not all. Scientists are now more confident than ever that this is only the beginning when it comes to incredibly strong glass. The rest could come with a far less expensive material to develop it. As it stands today, both silver and palladium are already increasing in price with increased industrial demand. And as that demand increases and the world stock supplies dwindle, some experts are suggesting these precious metals will run into a brick wall when it becomes too expensive to make their use feasible due to scarcity.
But in the mean time, these materials could still be able to be used to develop windows on everything from spacecraft to glass panes for office buildings. Only don't expect it to come cheap if you want this ultra bullet proof glass standing between you and your greatest fears. And whether that's a terrorist bomber or a free fall from a hundred stories or even an oncoming mac truck, that will be up to what seems most useful to engineers and developers.
But how common will these windows become? At the moment it's hard to tell. With how expensive the materials involved will be, there's a real possibility that it won't be seen everywhere. We won't simply evolve past a world of broken glass. But the powerful protection afforded by this scientific material might be yet another material used in the space program when exploring the surface of the red planet.
And in a time where fear runs rampant in the world, there's nothing more secure than being able to look out your window and knowing nothing can make its way in.
Scientists have pointed out that as the limitations of the integrated circuit limit the ability of an artificially intelligent machine, the projected progress outlined by Moores Law will ultimately finally reach the edge of its limitations. But as new developments in quantum computers come forth each passing year, the AI of tomorrow may use quantum computers already in development to function. And as such, what can we make of Moore's Law which suggests a human digital brain could reach our desktops by the year 2029?
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of artificial intelligence is that Moore's Law has not, as so many have predicted, slowed down. Rather, in 2008 the progress of transistors in computers has -in fact- sped up. In 1990 the release of the 486 computer carried with it approximately one million transistors and was capable of playing tic tac toe extremely well, but only capable of playing chess at a beginner level. It has been estimated that the human brain's cerebral cortex carries within it twenty billion neurons, and the entire brain houses somewhere around fifty billion. If this analysis is to be believed, then the human brain is essentially equivalent in processing power to twenty-five Quad-Core Itanium Tukwila computer processors (developed in 2008). Earlier this year a new type of transistor was developed that operated similarly to a human brain's. If we were to take the processing power of the most advanced processors and put them together with these new neuron-like transistors would we ultimately create a facsimile of the human brain? Unfortunately, not yet. Such a device would only have an equivalent processing power to a human brain and would not necessarily be able to process information in a comparable way.
But then we take into account the potential learning capabilities of social machines such as Kismet, which has a certain degree of interactive intelligence and even expressive features, and the powers of perception and reaction such as the TOPIO robot, which can play ping-pong, and somehow find a way for these machines to become creative using mathematical algorithms and suddenly the possibility of true Artificial Intelligence no longer becomes an issue left to the imagination of science fiction. Instead, such a system would be able to interact with its environment in a way that would be difficult to distinguish from human interaction. Additionally, such a system would almost certainly be able to then begin designing a new system of thinking that made programming as well as some forms of human problem solving a thing of the past. It would then also at this point begin designing a more efficient means of improving itself. At this point such a machine is at the threshold of reaching a singularity. The future AI systems such a machine would design would be capable of designing better systems, and so on.
Current projections suggest we may have a realistic human brain in computer format by the year 2029, and this brain could be manufactured to help humanity at this level by not only conveying information, but developing and processing it. And by that point will it be ethical to reprogram them or turn them off?
It's easy when dealing with this issue to let fear be the primary guiding judge of whether or not to explore this new horizon of technology. But if humans have developed the capability of creating life, are we not by this point capable of transcending such basic emotions as fear of the unknown? And what could we learn about ourselves if we created an entirely artificial yet wholly conscious entity?
