This article was linked to on slashdot recently.

Nov. 6, 2008 — The largest truck in the world is about to become the largest robotic vehicle in the world. Computer scientists from Carnegie Mellon University have teamed up with engineers from Caterpillar to automate the 700-ton trucks, which are made to haul loads up to 240 tons from mines.

That’s nearly two million pounds of metal, fuel and stone powered by a 3,550-horsepower, 24-valve engine moving at up to 42 miles per hour, with software and a robot at the wheel.

Autonomous vehicle technology is pretty much in its infancy,” said Tony Stentz, a professor at CMU involved in the project. Stentz expects that over the next five to 10 years, the technology will expand to areas beyond mining, eventually finding its way into consumer cars and trucks.

Catepillar’s soon-to-be-automated hauling trucks will be the largest but not the first. Caterpillar’s rival, Japan-based Komatsu, already runs automated trucks at the Gaby mine in Chile. Rio Tinto, a British/Australian mining company, recently announced plans to fully automate its Pilbara iron ore mines in Australia, including its Komatsu trucks, by this November.”

Does this article cause anyone else to flashbacks from every futuristic real time strategy game you’ve ever played? Now, they just need an automated constructor that builds military bases from the resources that the drones mine. Then, our automated army will be prepared to push forward, colonize the universe, and defeat the Zerg.

On a more realistic note…

It’ll be interesting to see which jobs can become automated over the next few decades. You might be able to tag down a driverless taxi. So far, we’ve yet to make a driverless vehicle that does well on complicated courses or in traffic. But, we are getting closer every year. In the DARPA competition, every year the cars have done significantly better than the previous year.

Automation isn’t going to end with cars. You may have already heard of Serendipity, a computer program that writes classical music. Our brains are material based. Theoretically, it should be possible to create robots that can accomplish every task that humans fulfill.

If you haven’t seen Gattaca, it’s a near-future world where nearly everyone is genetically engineered. Those few who are not genetically engineered are social outcasts. Genetic testing is in depth, quick, cheap, and easy to do. As a result, everything is based on genes. Potential employers and even romantic partners will collect a dna sample from your hair, spit, fingernails, etc. Then they will pay a small fee to run the sample through a machine, and it will print a summary. This summary will include information about genetic defects like your chances of having heart failure; it even provides information about iq and physical fitness.

This type of genetic screening is already starting to be available. For under a $1000.00, you can buy a genetic testing kit. In fact, both 23andMe and deCODEme, let you can buy multiple kits. These tests work by both telling you which health problems are common among people with with a similar genotype, and by looking for specific genetic defects. There are no testing restrictions, so you could test that hot girl or guy you’ve started dating. While the testing isn’t as in depth as the ones in Gattaca, they do screen for quite a few genetic defects.

The price will continue to drop, and the testing will become more in depth. In a few decades, genetic testing will be very popular. People will test themselves, their children, and anyone they are curious about.

The Large Hadron Collider will either affirm or obliterate some of the most important theories in physics. The downside? It also might destroy the earth.

The video below does a good job of explaining the importance of Higgs Particles. The LHC will either confirm or debunk the existence of Higgs Particles. In order to explain gravity, the Standard Model depends on the existence of Higgs Particles.



The Standard Model is currently the closest thing we have to a scientifically proven theory that explains everything. The widely debated String Theory depends on the Standard Model’s premise that everything can be explained by particles. Among other things, String Theory has the add on that all of these particles are the result of strings.

Some physicists think that the collisions in the LHC will cause miniature black holes. However, the theories that predict these miniature black holes depend on extra dimensions that might not exist. If these theories are correct and the black holes are created, most believe that they will not be sustained and will immediately evaporate.

However, extremely unlikely is much different than impossible. I trust that the physics community pushing this is much more knowledgeable than me, and would not carry out the experiment if they thought the earth would be destroyed. But, it is still a little disconcerting. If we are still alive in about three months, we will know that the LHC didn’t create an earth-consuming blackhole.

This post was inspired by one of Kelly’s comments. His blog, Psycho Carnival, takes a humorous look at the insanity of society, and the topics covered are often related to scifi.

Podclusters are an idea that Blake Riley and I came up with. As far as I know, this is an original idea. Although, it seems simple enough that it’s possible someone has already thought of it. If you’ve heard of something similar somewhere else, please let me know.

Private space travel has begun, and within a couple of generations it will probably be affordable. I think the first large colonies will be podclusters.

A podcluster is a community of small spaceships(pods) that can attach to each other. Once one pod attaches to another, a hallway is formed between the pods. This hallway is separated from living spaces, allowing the owner of the pod to choose to have their living space locked or open depending on what’s convenient. It would be a little like going through a hallway in a hotel. This would make also make it easy for someone to travel through a pod to get to the next pod.

If a pod wanted to leave a cluster, it could do so easily. First it would send a signal telling the adjacent pods to seal and detach. After the adjacent pods sealed, it would seal, detach, and leave.

Podclusters would result in people having more freedom than they’ve ever had before. People would be able to choose their community. Good communities would be encouraged, because few pods would choose to join communities with bad reputations. In addition to being able to choose their community, people would able to optimize their environment to their needs. Pods would naturally lend themselves to being optimized by residents, because they would be small, enclosed and mostly self sustaining.

Why do I think podclusters are likely?

Mass production of spaceships is inevitable, as soon as space travel becomes cheap. Living in space would be cheaper than living on any of the nearby planets. This is because getting on and off a planet would requires lots of time and resources. It would be much harder to create a cheap way of getting into space on another planet, then it would be to create such a system on earth.

Space stations will also exist, but I think podclusters will be more popular. Space stations would require more time and money to set up. More important, podclusters would be better at catering to peoples needs. It would be easier to join a podcluster, pods would tend to be more optimized for the individuals wants and needs than buying a room, and podclusters would give people more freedom and require less commitment.

Podclusters would also be more adaptable than space stations. It would be easier for them to relocate and restructure. There are many situations where this would be desirable. If there were a threat in the environment like a large asteroid, it would be less of a problem for a podcluster. The pods would just need to detach from eachother until the threat passed, and then they could reattach. Podclusters would have an easier time relocating to advantageous areas. If it was discovered that an area has a desirable resource or even just a better view, a few pods could detach and move there. This would start the beginning of a new community. A space station would have a much harder time making such a move. What if all of the space stations residents did not agree with the move?

Pod clusters seem especially likely since communication and robotics are going to keep improving. More and more work is not going to require a physical presence. Despite people not needing to be located near fellow employees, being in community would still be advantageous. It would be safer since their would be more eyes and nearby hands if something goes wrong. Large communities would also be much better off for trading purposes. Smaller communities would have to pay more, and importing goods would be the most expensive for loners. Large communities would have frequent and relatively cheap imports. While small podcludsters would have difficulties, they would still be better off than small space stations. Because of the reasons mentioned above, and because they could easy join up with a large cluster if it was ever needed. Podclusters would usually be the best at fitting the mold regardless of the communities size.

If it happens, remember that you heard it here!

This blogger creates graphical programs that simulate cellular processes.

Have a look!

planetary gear

This is a startling example of the trend towards merging software and biology. It might be a ways off, but eventually we will be able to create entire organisms. If you created a sentient organism, would deleting it be murder?

Creating software based organisms could lead to incredible insights on evolution. If a method for reproduction was created that leads to diversity(like meiosis), then organisms could evolve. An environment could be created where only the most intelligent programs survive and have offspring. With the ability to create an environment that doesn’t need to abide by the same rules, evolution could be unimaginably faster.

Robotics, virtual reality, material construction, and medicine are a few of many additional areas that will benefit from this kind of research.

*update*

I emailed the images creator. Below is my email and his helpful reply.

“I wrote a post linking to your web page here: xxxx
I’m confused about how to describe the image. What would a planetary gear do? Are your designs generally for nanobots?

Any help will be appreciated

thanks,”

———————-

“Hi,

Thanks for the link!

The gear was first designed by Eric Drexler and Ralph Merkle; I just did a computer simulation. You can think of it as a torque converter that changes the mechanical advantage from the input and out shafts. It is also a speed reducer. I try to focus on things that can be built in the laboratory now (DNA or carbon nanotube stuff) or this year, instead of way in the future, but of course I dig the far out nano-bots and stuff.

You could definitely use a torque converter in a nanorobot.

Tom”

Thanks for the informative reply!