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Summer 2009

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13 www.hplusmagazine.com 13 www.hplusmagazine.com 13 13 Can You Bring Me My Slippers? SurfdaddY OrCa Oh Rosie, R osie, the Jetsons' maid robot, is a sweet, nurturing cartoon robot. not only does she bring george his slippers, she washes his clothes, teaches his son to dribble a basketball, and sings while vacuuming the rug. The stanford artificial intelligence Robot (sTaiR) looks more like tubular shelving on a segway than a robotic maid. it finds objects with its stereoscopic camera eyes and grabs them with a robotic arm. perhaps not unlike an early model of Rosie, sTaiR can interpret relatively ambiguous vocal commands, navigate around unfamiliar environments and objects, and solve problems. "sTaiR, please fetch the stapler from the lab," says a researcher in a recent video. "i will go get the stapler for you," replies sTaiR. avoiding obstacles, sTaiR wheels into the next room and scans it looking for the stapler. grabbing the stapler, it returns to the researcher. "here is your stapler," says sTaiR, "have a nice day." h+ contributor Ben goertzel, an organizer of this year's second conference on artificial general intelligence, characterizes general intelligence as "the ability to solve a variety of complex problems in a variety of complex environments." sTaiR shows the evolutionary transition that is occurring in artificial intelligence today — from the narrow ai of expert systems to more generalized intelligence. as the sTaiR video demonstrates, the multitalented sTaiR walks, talks, sees, hears, and solves problems in an obstacle-laden lab environment. andrew ng, the assistant professor of computer science at stanford who led the development of sTaiR, is optimistic that the many disciplines of ai are now mature enough to be integrated "to fulfill the grand ai dream." and no, this is not just a robotic maid to fetch staplers or slippers, but rather computers that are as intelligent as people. ResouRces stanford artificial intelligence laboratory http://stair.stanford.edu computerworld http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewarticleBasic&articleid=332273 sTaiR Fetches a stapler Video http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/stair-fetches-a-stapler/14005507 "The Jetsons" – Rosie the Robot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Vyvnzhp2um Stephen euin COBB Live Long and Heavy e ating foods containing heavier isotopes of common elements, such as hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen or oxygen, increases the stability of proteins. Research indicates this might protect against the damage caused by free radicals and so reduce the rate at which a human being ages. The experiments, conducted by Russian biochemist mikhail shchepinov were first reported in the medical journal Rejuvenation Research (edited by gerontologist Dr. aubrey de grey) and then featured in new scientist's november 29, 2008 issue. according to shchepinov, dozens of experiments have proved that proteins, fatty acids and Dna can be influenced to resist oxidative damage with the isotope effect. like regular water, heavy water's molecules are composed of three atoms arranged like a boomerang with oxygen located in the elbow. But it differs in that the two atoms attached to the central oxygen atom are deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen that has double hydrogen's mass. ice cubes made of heavy water will sink in ordinary water. Retrotope, a company created to research the isotope effect and to develop it into life-extending products, has been feeding various amounts of heavy water to fruit flies. large amounts proved deadly, while smaller quantities increased lifespans up to 30 percent. Dr. de grey is on Retrotope's scientific advisory Board and Dr. shchepinov is its co- founder and chief science officer. Photo by Andrew Y. Ng

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