Ongoing Research Excerpts from DARPA’s Strategic Plan
Filed under: Alien Intelligence, Aliens, Animal Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, Biology, Computers, Conspiracies, Future Weapons, Human Intelligence, Intelligence, Mind Control, Robots, Science, Science Fiction, Star Wars, Technology, The Future
DARPA (The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) recently released a 50+ page strategic plan highlighting some of the most advance research projects it is currently undertaking. On page 9, section 2.6, DARPA outlines a “short list” of ongoing research. We list the highlights here.
- High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System – You heard it here. These are small high power laser weapons, i.e. weapons that shoot energy beams at the speed of light. That’s fast.
- High Productivity Computing Systems – a.k.a. Super computers a.k.a. SKYNET from the Terminator mythos.
- Machine Learning – Cognitive machines. Hmmm. Again, we’ll reference SKYNET and Terminator.
- Neuroscience – In specific, projects that’ll create brain-machine interfaces. Is this putting us one step closer to The Matrix?
- Real-Time Accurate Language Translation – Tower of Babel my ass.
- Space – , here we come.
Scary, but real, stuff. You can find the full report here.
Which one of these research projects would you most like to see come to fruition?
‘Red Batter’: Mystery Substance in J.J. Abram’s Star Trek in Reality
Filed under: Alien Intelligence, Aliens, Biology, Black Holes, Interstellar Politics, Movies, Quantum Physics, Science, Science Fiction, Scientific, Star Trek, Star Wars, Strange Matter, Technology, The Future, Wormholes
**** Caution. Possible SPOILER ALERT ****
J.J. Abram’s Star Trek features a Hitchcockian macguffin like few we’ve ever seen before. It’s a mysterious substance referred to as ‘red batter’ by the film’s villain, Romulan Captain Nero. Now, there is some debate right now over whether Nero called it ‘red batter’ OR ‘red matter’, but for the sake of giving this amazing substance more identity, we’re calling it ‘red batter’.
‘Red batter’ has the ability to reduce itself and matter around it into a singularity at a rapid, exponential rate. As a bomb explodes on impact, ‘red batter’ gravitationally sucks in everything around it on impact. The end result is that most awesome of interstellar objects, the fearsome black hole.
In J.J. Abram’s Star Trek, Captain Nero uses the ‘red batter’ (or ‘red matter’) to create a black hole in the center of Spock’s home world Vulcan. This black hole devours the planet in a matter of minutes in a sequence that is, in our opinion, much more terrifying than Star War’s Death Star’s planet destroying laser beam could ever be.
Besides creating black holes, the ‘red batter’ can also affect time travel. If you’ve seen the new Star Trek, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
Could such a matter exist in reality? Perhaps. A recent study, which you can read more about here, suggests that all particles are miniature black holes. IF this is the case, than it is probable that there is a catalyst which would enable these miniature black holes, which are everything, to coalesce together at an exponential rate to create a rapidly growing black hole that devours everything in its path.
Could the Large Hadron Collider be a catalyst for such a reaction? If so, what sort of defenses have we put in place?
And did Captain Nero say ‘red batter’ or ‘red batter’? Personally, we think ‘red batter has a nicer ring to it. What do you think?
Prayers for NASA Mars Rover SPIRIT
Filed under: Artificial Intelligence, Mars, Robot Psychology, Robots, Science, Technology
A group of robots held a candlelight vigil on Monday night for their comrade Mars Rover SPIRIT. The adventurous robot is currently contemplating its death while stuck in the soil of Mars.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab manager John Callas said in a statement to the press that “Spirit is in a very difficult situation.”
The problem started after SPIRIT rolled into some loose dirt while driving in reverse. Besides being stuck in the soil, SPIRIT has lived longer than NASA ever imagined, and its age is starting to show as its gone through a series of malfunctions. However, the robot community is holding onto hope that the tough Martian rover will pull another trick out of it’s hat and push on with its exploration of the Red Planet.
Read more about SPIRIT’s dangerous predicament here.
Real Life Star Trek: DARPA Rewards VULCAN Engine Contracts
Filed under: Future Weapons, Outer Space, Science, Science Fiction, Technology, The Future
Right before the release of J.J. Abrams Star Trek reboot, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency kicks off their VULCAN Engine Program by rewarding four contractors with funding to begin first phase development of the proposed super engine system.
When we hear the word Vulcan, our thoughts wander to the Star Trek character Spock, his home planet, and his people. The VULCAN Engine Program is appropriately named since it is a “propulsion system demonstration effort to design, build, and ground-test an engine capable of accelerating a full-scale hypersonic vehicle from rest to Mach 4+.”
This could be our first steps towards a “warp drive” propulsion system like the one that propels the Enterprise across vast distances in space.
Read the DARPA News Release here (via DARPA’s news room.)
DIY Star: How to Make a Star
You can make a star. The process is called inertial confinement fusion, and its taking crazy personal science experiments to a whole new level. If you attempt this in your garage or home, please wear protective glasses. You also might want to consider a helmet.
Recipe verbatim from the Lawrence Livermore National Ignition Facility website:
- Take a hollow, spherical plastic capsule about two millimeters in diameter (about the size of a small pea)
- Fill it with 150 micrograms (less than one-millionth of a pound) of a mixture of deuterium and tritium, the two heavy isotopes of hydrogen.
- Take a laser that for about 20 billionths of a second can generate 500 trillion watts – the equivalent of five million million 100-watt light bulbs.
- Focus all that laser power onto the surface of the capsule.
- Wait ten billionths of a second.
- Result: one miniature star.
In this process the capsule and its deuterium-tritium (D-T) fuel will be compressed to a density 100 times that of solid lead, and heated to more than 100 million degrees Celsius – hotter than the center of the sun. These conditions are just those required to initiate thermonuclear fusion, the energy source of stars.
By following our recipe, we would make a miniature star that lasts for a tiny fraction of a second. During its brief lifetime, it will produce energy the way the stars and the sun do, by nuclear fusion. Our little star will produce ten to 100 times more energy than we used to ignite it.
That ought to do it. Please don’t use your homemade star for any destructive purposes.