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Title
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Source/Author
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Substance & significance
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Blood Simple
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New Scientist News
Thu, 12 Apr 2001
By Nicola Jones
http://www.newscientist.com/dailynews/news.jsp?id=ns9999630
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South Africa has become the first country in the world to license a
human blood substitute for use in surgery. The product is harvested from
the blood of cows and promises to be a clean, and in theory plentiful,
supply for a country desperately in need of HIV-free blood.
SIGNIFICANCE: Short term this could alleviate the shortages of
blood the world over. Reducing the threat of disease transmission from
transfusion is also likely. Long Term This is one of the components
necessary for the development of a cyberdroid race. *
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Russians create "artificial human brain"
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WWW.ANANOVA.COM
Sunday 15th April 2001
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_250302.html?menu=news.latestheadlines
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Russian scientists claim to have developed the first artificial brain
with the same intellectual potential as a human. The neuro-computer is
based on the workings of the human brain cell and can out perform
previous brain models.
It uses pioneering findings in neurophysiology and neuromorphology to
produce a truly thinking machine.
SIGNIFICANCE: Short term this could provide new Operation System
configurations, allowing for greater complexity. Long term This is
one of the components necessary for the development of a cyberdroid
race. *
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Easy Writer
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New Scientist News
Thu, 12 Apr 2001
http://www.newscientist.com/dailynews/news.jsp?id=ns9999595
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Software that turns everyday language into computer code could make
us all programmers. Now a new system that takes the drudgery - and some
of the potential for slip-ups - out of programming is about to be
launched. Its inventor hopes it will one day turn us all into
programmers. Bob Brennan, a software engineer at Cambridge-based
start-up Synapse Solutions, has developed a piece of software that
allows you to write a program by keying in what you want it to do in
everyday language. SIGNIFICANCE: the potential effects for programmers
and institutions which teach them is devastating. Learning all the
programming languages, which the programmers do now, may be obsolete in
a generation. Programming itself could move from the extremely skilled
realm to more of an unskilled labor pool. Long term This is one of
the components necessary for the development of a cyberdroid race. *
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The Robot With the Mind of an Eel
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Washington Post
17th, April, 2001, page A01
By Guy Gugliotta
htttp://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24800-2001 Apr16.html
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Scientists start to fuse tissue and technology in machines. Multiply
tests of various animal derived nervous system are being integrated with
microprocessors. SIGNIFICANCE: Short the development of
microprocessors that could reroute electrical signal around stroke
damage. The development of animal/computer hybrids for detection of
unexploded ordinance or landmines. Middle range cyborgs, the
development of replacement limbs and permanent integration of artificial
parts, regulated by the body itself. Long Term This is one of the
components necessary for the development of a cyberdroid race. *
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* When this scan hit is taken into consideration with the advances in
computerization, programming, the advances in metallurgy, synthetic polymers,
the Russian artificial brain, the human blood substitute, the artificial skin
under development in Japan, organic/computer integration, the artificial heart
underdevelopment in the US, the machine which derives its energy from
"eating" plants/organics, and the work in cloning organs, and the
fact a robot has now walked, this all points to the possibility of a
cyberdroid race. Whether itll all come together is an open question.
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