Four short links: 24 June 2016
Science Fiction Economics, Behavioural Economics, Neural Recording, and Sensitive Alexa
- Bladerunner Futurism — Dr Floyd’s PicturePhone call in “2001: A Space Odyssey” cost $1.70 for a 90-second call. (This is substantially cheaper than the $9-a-minute that the PicturePhone cost when the system first launched.) By comparison, Deckard’s 30-second call to Rachael costs $1.25.
- AI in Apple and Google — One way to see the whole development of computing over the past 50 years is as removing questions that a computer needed to ask, and adding new questions that it could ask. […] Apple has been making computers that ask you fewer questions since 1984. […] Since buying PA Semi in 2008 (if not earlier), Apple has approached the design of the SOCs in its devices as a fundamental core competence and competitive advantage […]. It’s not clear whether Apple looks at AI in the same way.
- The 2016 Behavioural Economics Guide — large, comprehensive, and useful guide for designers and product managers.
- Physical Principles for Scalable Neural Recording — Simultaneously measuring the activities of all neurons in a mammalian brain at millisecond resolution is a challenge beyond the limits of existing techniques in neuroscience. Entirely new approaches may be required, motivating an analysis of the fundamental physical constraints on the problem. We outline the physical principles governing brain activity mapping using optical, electrical, magnetic resonance, and molecular modalities of neural recording. Focusing on the mouse brain, we analyze the scalability of each method, concentrating on the limitations imposed by spatiotemporal resolution, energy dissipation, and volume displacement. We also study the physics of powering and communicating with microscale devices embedded in brain tissue.
- Alexa Learning Emotions — we’ve been swearing at our computers for years. Now they’ll know.
