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emergent collective action patterns

Posted on October 14th, 2007 by eightprime.
Categories: blog, images, robot, nano, web, science.

Today’s episode of Schlock Mercenary, by Howard Tayler is particularly awesome.

Tagon’s Toughs have been on my screen for several years now (with nary a day missed) but this is the first definite synchromystic occurrence between me and the strip.

It would be rude to give away the punchline - but check it out.

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killing anything they can get their jaws on

Posted on September 13th, 2006 by eightprime.
Categories: blog, images, nano, biology, science.

This article on the use of swarm-based computational models to solve intractable optimization problems made the ants seem pretty beneign.
Tiny, mannered coprocessors sniffing out trails of synthetic pheromones with precision engineered carbon nanotubes. It’s really very civilized.

Real ant behaviour is generally brutal and efficient. In comparison with their algorythmic progeny, incarnate wetware components of swarm based computational systems have strict caloric parameters.

These are the simple necessities of daily life. Particularly if you are a tropical type ant subject to indignities.

The tiny parasitic fly visible above the leaf is attempting to dart down and lay an egg in the ant’s body. If the fly is successful, the egg hatches into a larva that will consume the ant’s internal organs.

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The Future is coming! The Future is coming

Posted on March 18th, 2006 by eightprime.
Categories: blog, robot, words, nano.

“One day you could find yourself sitting in a bar next to a humanoid robot, who is taking a shot of vodka to give himself the energy to go to work”

This sort of thing gets one thinking about the very fine line that now exists between the living and the machine. Nanobiotechnology is where that line blurs.

Our program aggressively pushes the boundaries of technological capabilities and scientific understanding at the interface between the organic and inorganic systems.

-w.

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neighbourhood nanotech

Posted on January 25th, 2004 by eightprime.
Categories: blog, nano.

Teeny Tiny Things

Poking around looking at what’s going on in nanotechnology in my neighbourhood I ended up at D-Wave Systems.

D-wave is a conglomerate of atomic engineers and advanced systems scientists and similarly arcane tinkerers. The company goal is to develop quantum computing technology.

A quantum computer would solve problems by dipping into the energetic substrate of the plenum and accessing paralell universes. This would expand somewhat on the capacities of today’s silicon machines.

Run by fantastic overachiever Dr. Geordie Rose, D-wave systems figures that quantum computing will be necessary if we are to have any hope of comprehending the potential of nanotechnology.

D-wave systems: building the impossible in pursuit of the unimaginable.

-w.

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nanopee

Posted on November 19th, 2003 by eightprime.
Categories: blog, nano.

Golden Nano-showers

A combination of nanoparticles, electricity and the primary chemical compound of mammal urine has some researchers at Hong Kong University all worked up:

“The researchers’ mixture consists of nanoparticles coated with urea and suspended in silicone oil. The keys to the strength of the mixture’s solid phase are the smallness of the particles and the urea coating. The principal behind the change is the electrical force,

–Ping Sheng

-w.

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nanobook

Posted on October 3rd, 2003 by eightprime.
Categories: blog, words, nano.

I’ll be hornswoggled! The Foresight institute has the full text ofEngines of Creation by K. Eric Drexler online.

Happy mind boggling.

-w.

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