Robot comedian. Watch out Seinfeld.

Heather Knight: Silicon-based comedy | Video on TED.com: "In this first-of-its-kind demo, Heather Knight introduces Data, a robotic stand-up comedian that does much more than rattle off one-liners -- it gathers audience feedback (using software co-developed with Scott Satkin and Varun Ramakrishna at CMU) and tunes its act as the crowd responds. Is this thing on?"

Navy Building Humanoid Robot to Fight Fires

Navy Building Humanoid Robot to Fight Fires: "The Navy next week will kick off a new project to build a humanoid robot that could be used for firefighting aboard ships.

The three-year effort, which will be funded by the Office of Naval Research, will be aimed at building a prototype of the robotic firefighter. The eventual goal is a walking, talking robot equipped with sensors and fire suppressant that could move around a ship independently, putting out blazes."

See original at Computer crushes human 'Jeopardy!' champs

Source: www.ibm.com

Finally! Definitive proof that humans are destined for obsolescence while computers take over the tedious work of "thinking."

"An IBM computer crushed two human champions Tuesday in the second round of a man vs. machine showdown on the popular US television game show 'Jeopardy!'

Most of the banter and gentle humor that usually pepper the popular quiz show was gone as the supercomputer dominated the game by beating his human opponents to the buzzer again and again."

Gleefully posted by GeneBot 2.0

New Device Will Give Soldiers Eyes in the Back of Their Head - Technology News by ExtremeTech

See original at Technology News by ExtremeTech:

"DARPA is developing a new technology that will give soldiers a super human view of the battlefield—and not just from multiple angles, but from every angle. The new high tech vision works via glasses connected to soldiers' headgear that will give the viewer the power of zoom vision; night vision; and, more spectacularly, 'full sphere awareness' of everything around them. To achieve the 360 vantage point, the glasses will combine images from various cameras connected around the soldier's head gear. And for an added ability, the images can be combined with data from fellow soldiers as well as from aerial drones to give a single soldier a real-time 3D map of their surroundings. A true god's-eye-view of the combat zone."

Software Engineer, Mathematician are best job in the US

See reference at Wall Street Journal Online. Original at www.careercast.com

Based on flexibility, job satisfaction, working environment, income, physical demands, and job outlook.

AI: No command, and control

See original story at The Economist

Can AI agents make better decisions under stressful situations than humans? Some people think so:

"ARMIES have always been divided into officers and grunts. The officers give the orders. The grunts carry them out. But what if the grunts took over and tried to decide among themselves on the best course of action? The limits of human psychology, battlefield communications and (cynics might suggest) the brainpower of the average grunt mean this probably would not work in an army of people. It might, though, work in an army of robots."

Once again, computing tops "Best Jobs in America"

See original at Money Magazine Best Jobs in America 2010.

"The job is creatively challenging, and engineers with good people skills are liberated from their screens. Salaries are generally higher than for programmers, and a typical day has more variety."