China's 'Gold Farmers' Play a Grim Game

I listened to this on the way to work the other day. Very interesting that people can make a living playing games and selling the virtual treasure that comes with it. There is controversy with it as those people playing the game for fun face inflation from these gold farmers. Just one more career that exists entirely online!

Listen to it here from NPR:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10165824

"Morning Edition -May 14, 2007 · Playing online games for 12 hours is a fulltime job for thousands of Chinese workers. They're accumulating virtual money — or "gold" — which they can sell for real cash. But it's a dull and labor-intensive job with limited payoffs. "

Chipping In: Brain chip for memory repair closes in on live tests

Catching up on my Scientific American subscription had me reading this article from Feb. '07 this morning. It talks about BCI's (Brain-Computer Interfaces). A group is studying them in rats. It does say that we have modeled some portions of the brain so accurately, that the silicon replicas give 95% of the same outputs, given a set a of inputs, as the actual brain does (similar things have been stated in Kurzweil's last book). Right now there are a number of real BCIs being commercialized (www.cyberkineticsinc.com) and many more being studied. This is the closest to a two-way BCI that I've heard of though. Most either have the brain controlling something (like a robotic arm to grab or manipulate something, or a computer cursor), or exterior influences manipulating the brain (such as cochlear implants). But these guys are working on an implanted BCI that would augment your memory. Very Fascinating. The full article is only available online, but here is the teaser they make available:

January 14, 2007

NEUROTECH
Chipping In
Brain chip for memory repair closes in on live tests
By Anna Griffith

Supplementing the human brain with computer power has been a staple of science fiction. But in fact, researchers have taken several steps in melding minds with machines, and this spring a team from the University of Southern California may replace damaged brain tissue in rats with a neural prosthesis.

For the past few years, researchers have demonstrated the ability to translate another creature's thoughts into action. In 2000 neurologist Miguel Nicolelis of Duke University wired a monkey with electrodes so that its thoughts could control a robotic arm. Brain-machine interfaces developed by Niels Birbaumer, a neuroscientist at the University of Tübingen in Germany, already help some paralyzed patients move a computer cursor with their brain waves to select letters for writing a message....continued at Scientific American Digital

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=16D0349A-E7F2-99DF-3AE455BC30B67DB3&sc=I100322

Calling In The Virtual G-Men

Interesting blurb about how law enforcement is going to need to advance to handle "virtual crimes".

APRIL 16, 2007
Up Front
Edited by Michael Arndt

WEB WATCH
Calling In The Virtual G-Men

"The seedier side of Second Life—the online world where users spend real money to shop as well as gamble and misbehave—is coming under federal scrutiny. Linden Lab, the company behind the virtual world, recently invited the FBI to visit its online casinos and clear up what's allowed under last year's Internet gambling bill. On Second Life, residents bet with Linden dollars, which are not real currency, Linden Lab argues. But virtual profits can be converted to hard cash, through PayPal. Is it offshore gambling? Depends on the scale. "The FBI needs to distinguish the professional gamblers from casual gamblers in Second Life," says Edward Castronova, a telecom prof at Indiana University and a virtual-economy expert."

By Aili McConnon

http://www.businessweek.com/@@6pT2kWQQ0hw0sRUA/premium/content/07_16/c4030011.htm

ROBOTICS: Worming Its Way Into Our Hearts

Interesting to think how close this is. They haven't begun human trials, but just the idea of robotics in our hearts is exciting. Although this is tethered to a human for surgical purposes, the idea of a small robot crawling though your veins to fix things is just the beginning. Remove the tether to a human, make it wireless, give it some AI, and you've got a full-time doctor helping you out. Baby steps...

MAY 7, 2007
Developments to Watch
Edited by Neil Gross

"Robots are getting more adept at procedures that can tax accomplished surgeons. The latest example is Heart-Lander, a tiny, 10mm-long robot that crawls like an inchworm across the heart.

Developed by Cameron Riviere and colleagues at Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute and Johns Hopkins University, the bot is connected by a tether to a joystick operated by a human surgeon. It's inserted through an entry point below the patient's rib cage, a minimally invasive procedure that doesn't require cracking open the chest. The bot then crawls to the desired location on the heart, unperturbed by the organ's rhythmic beating. Once in position, it can burn away diseased tissue, help place a needle to inject drugs, or attach electrodes used to stimulate heart muscle—all the while relaying visual and other sensory data back to the medical team.

The device has already been tested in open-heart surgery on pigs. The researchers have formed a company, HeartLander Surgical, to commercialize the breakthrough."

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_19/c4033088.htm