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FRAGMENT FROM NATURE spends this and next weekend looking at the biology of culture, a challenging but important subject. Only recently have scientists started to tackle seriously this topic, previously thought unscientific and probably bogus. But careful thinking combined with animal survey across taxa of behavior suggest it is not only real, but widespread in nature. Even microbes have social culture and communication. View in LinkedIn

UPLOAD. “In the new techno-thriller “Upload,” a young computer scientist with a sketchy past and distrust of society decides to take the ultimate leap forward by scanning his brain and uploading his memories, personality and consciousness into a simulated world of his own making.” https://lnkd.in/dFVg79g View in LinkedIn

IMPACT ON LANGUAGE. “How should we expect biology and culture to interact to shape language and the language faculty? One possibility is that the rate of language change far exceeds that of biological evolution, preventing genetic assimilation of linguistic features into the language faculty.” https://lnkd.in/dCmU6-w View in LinkedIn

EXPANDED LINE. “Sony To Create Robot That Can Form Emotional Bond With People. It’s not surprisingly that Sony would want to get back in the game after it had made great strides a decade ago with AIBO dogs, which some users have gone as far as to hold funerals for.” http://futurism.com/sony-to-create-robot-that-can-form-emotional-bond-with-people/ View in LinkedIn

EMOTIONAL ROBOT. "Pepper, a humanoid robot that can feel emotion and look after its owner, has sold out a minute after going on sale. “He's an emotional robot, not a functional robot for domestic use with dish washer or vacuum cleaner functionalities." To care for elders and children. (2015). https://lnkd.in/dUEkeFH View in LinkedIn

JAPAN'S ROBOT REVOLUTION. "Opening Japan’s official Robot Revolution Initiative Council on May 15, Abe called on the nation’s corporate sector to “spread the use of robotics from large-scale factories to every corner of our economy and society. Backed by 200 companies and universities and chaired by Mitsubishi Electric’s Tamotsu Nomakuchi, the council aims to expand robotics throughout Japanese industry, with a goal of growing sales from 600 billion yen ($4.9 billion) a year to 2.4 trillion yen by 2020." http://thediplomat.com/2015/07/japans-robot-revolution/ View in LinkedIn

“MIND CLONE is a digital copy of your mind outside of your body. I think Mind Clone will look like an avatar on the screen, talking, instead of a robot version. Mind Clones are 10-20 years away.” Am I talking about a law of physics here? Am I talking about defying gravity here? No. Am I talking about going faster than light? No. All I am doing here is talking about writing some good code.” https://lnkd.in/davFNXB View in LinkedIn

NEW CHERRY 2000. “Bina-48 was created five years ago as a digital replica uploaded with Bina Aspen’s thoughts, memories and feelings – all of which were broken down into computer code to create a digital version of her consciousness. Created by Hanson Robotics, Bina-48 can engage in conversation, answer questions and even have “spontaneous” thoughts that are derived from multimedia data in a “mindfile” created by the real Bina.” https://lnkd.in/davFNXB View in LinkedIn

MIND CLONE PROTOTYPE. "Entrepreneur Martine Rothblatt has created a new robotic head that she hopes, one day in the future, humans will be able to upload their minds into. Bina-48 is named after Rothblatt’s real-life wife, Bina Aspen, and serves as a proof-of-concept for the futuristic idea. The robot version is designed to carry on a conversation, with scientists hoping that these mind clones could give human owners a sort of artificial afterlife." https://lnkd.in/davFNXB View in LinkedIn