Category Archives: Singularity

Jide's Remix OS is all about offering Android apps with a desktop interface, with a bonus of relatively cheap mobile hardware. And while the company has been expanding its reach into more retail products, the latest project it's showing off is probably its most ambitious yet. The "Singularity" system allows users to plug their phone into a monitor, connect a mouse and keyboard, and run the familiar Remix desktop interface while the phone is still operating in its standard Android mode.

If all this sounds familiar, it should: Microsoft has been marketing something similar with Windows Continuum, Canonical briefly tried out the form factor with Ubuntu Phone, and various Android manufacturers have tried a few different flavors of the same idea - see the Motorola Atrix and its laptop dock. But Remix might have at least a ghost of a chance of getting this sort of thing to the mainstream tech audience, since it's loading all this desktop Special Sauce into an Android ROM that can be loaded onto existing phone hardware (so long as that hardware can handle video-out and some fairly high memory and processor load). Jide says that they're currently "targeting" the Nexus 5X and 6P for ROMs, and that the phone experience will be "as close to stock Android as possible."

Android Police's resident mech-head Ryan says that's a Poker 3 mechanical keyboard... which also means it's kind of useless, since it's unplugged and has no wireless capability. GOTCHA, Jide marketing.

At the moment there's no release window for Singularity, and technical data is thin on the ground, so it seems likely that this project could fall into relative obscurity like so many similar implementations. But we can dream: Jide has carved out a niche for itself in the unlikely Android desktop market, so if anyone can make it happen, it's them.

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Remix tries its hand at the mobile-desktop hybrid OS with Singularity - Android Police

Jide, the company behind the Android-based Remix OS for PCs, is developing another version made for Android smartphones, but with a twist.Remix Singularity will work like a stock version of Android when used on a smartphone, but if you connect it to a PC monitor or big-screen TV, it will turn into a version of the PC-based Remix OS.

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The idea is that Android phone owners will only need one device, their smartphone, to handle both their mobile phone needs as well as their hardcore PC needs. When a phone with Remix Singularity is hooked up to a bigger screen, the OS will have features familiar to PC OS owners, such as file windows, a start menu, and a task bar. If you have a large TV, hooking your phone up to it will turn it into something like an Android TV device.

In concept,Remix Singularity is similar to what Microsoft created with its Continuum mode in Windows 10 Mobile. It also appears to work very much like the Samsung DeX add-on that is rumored to be made available for owners of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy G8 phone later this spring.

TheRemix Singularity ROM will be free to download, according to what Jidesco-founder David Ko told The Verge in an interview today. He thinks its solution for offering a PC experience with a smartphone will succeed where others have failed, due to its low cost and its ability to run all Android apps. He also claims that the company is looking forOEMs that will be able to offer phones that will support Remix Singularity out of the box.

While all that sounds good on the surface, downloading ROMs for Android phones is still an activity thats limited for only hardcore users. Theres also the fact that the Google Play Store will need to be sideloaded forRemix Singularity to access the huge library of Android apps. Again, that kind of effort, while easy for many people, still takes some effort for most people that are not well versed in using ROMs.

Jide plans to launchRemix Singularity sometime in the second half of 2017. In the meantime, what do you think of the companys idea? Would you like to turn your Android smartphone into your one device that you use everywhere, including at your home or work office? Let us know your opinions on this matter in the comments!

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Jide's Remix Singularity OS will turn your Android phone into a PC - Android Authority (blog)

Imagine if every Android smartphone could transform into a PC just by connecting a display, keyboard, and mouse. Its what Microsoft has been trying with Windows 10 and Continuum, and its the dream of Beijing-based startup Jide Technologies, which today announces a new version of its Android-based software, Remix OS, that will live on smartphones but be capable of powering Android-based PCs.

The feature is called Remix Singularity and the new operating system is Remix OS on Mobile (or ROM), and is scheduled for release in the second half of 2017. Speaking exclusively to The Verge, Jide co-founder David Ko explains the key concept. When running on a smartphone, ROM will be as close to stock Android as possible, says Ko. But imagine when you get back to your office or study, you connect your phone and it turns into a PC mode, just like a laptop or desktop.

Remix OS makes Android look and feel like a desktop operating system

The PC mode in question is Remix OS itself, which Jide has been working on for about three years and has had more than 4 million downloads in that time. It skins Android so the operating systems runs like a desktop environment, with features like floating windows, a start menu, and a task bar all controllable with a keyboard and mouse. You get all the usual apps, everything from Clash of Clans to Microsoft Word and Google Docs, but they are accessible in something that looks more like Windows than Android. Or, you can plug your phone into just a display and have it function like an Android-powered TV.

The big question is: why would anyone want this? Plenty of companies have tried to offer phones that double up as PCs, but none have been successful. Canonical tried it with their Convergence feature on Ubuntu; Asus tried it with their PadFone range back in the days of Android Ice Cream Sandwich; and (as previously mentioned) Microsoft is doing something more advanced with Windows 10 and Continuum. In each case, the final product has failed to take off (in fairness, Microsofts latest attempt hasnt really got going yet), because of a combination of underpowered hardware and missing software. So, why does Jide think Remix Singularity will be any different?

Ko says the companys approach has two big advantages: cost and the Android ecosystem itself. Like previous versions of Remix OS, ROM will be free to download, and will have access to all the regular Android apps (once youve side-loaded the Play Store more on that later), which should increase its appeal to users in developing markets where Android smartphones are the primary way to access the internet.

In the next five years, roughly five billion people will be coming online, says Ko. And when they come online, their number one choice will be the smartphone; an affordable smartphone, and that will be an Android. Ko says that if these users choose a ROM device, theyll get the benefit of a desktop computer thrown in for free, as and when they need it. If your phone can replace [your PC], its a huge saving, and has a big impact to productivity, says Ko. He imagines workers having a phone as their primary device, bringing it into the office with them, and connecting it to a large screen and keyboard in order to continue the work they started on their commute.

But as weve seen before, this setup isnt attractive in developed markets. Here, people have multiple computers and use cloud services to share files between them, which is easier than relying on an underpowered phone CPU to handle a Chrome browser groaning with tabs on your main display. Ko is right that factors like cost and familiarity with Android mean Remix OS on Mobile should have its own appeal, but its not clear if those will be big enough draws to reach a wide market.

One of the biggest challenges for Jide will simply be getting the software into consumers hands. The company is currently looking for OEM partners to sell phones that support Remix Singularity, and it does have experience in this area, having previously worked with Chinese companies to sell hardware like all-in-one PCs powered by Remix OS.

Making Remix OS on Mobile available to consumers will be Jides biggest challenge

Ko adds that users will also just be able to download ROM and install it themselves, but that seems like a big ask for the market Jide is targeting users coming online for the first time. And, theres another (minor) challenge here. Remix OS doesnt actually come with the Play Store preinstalled, meaning that to access the full Android ecosystem of apps, users have to side-load it themselves. Its not a big ask for the tech-savvy, but itll surely put off some users. Similarly, while Remix OS looks slick on the surface, its still prone to bugs and errors, and nobody likes an operating system that bellyflops into oblivion without warning.

These are some sizable caveats to weigh against Remix OS on Mobiles success, and theres always the nagging possibility that this is just another doomed attempt at making mobiles that double up as PCs. Will it go the distance? History says dont hold your breath, but Jide is hopeful.

With a scheduled release date of the second half of 2017, Remix Singularity is still very much a work in progress, but Ko says theres much to look forward to, and points to the development of Chrome OS to support Android apps as validation of the companys long-term plans. Jason Zheng, a marketing director at Jide, sums up the companys hopes. This is the culmination of the past three years of development, says Zheng. The freedom to not have to worry about carrying a laptop or tablet is a very powerful thing.

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Jide's new OS is like an Android version of Windows 10's Continuum - The Verge

Jon Fox

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Four thousand years BCE in the ancient Near East, a region we have come to describe as the cradle of civilisation, Sumerian scribes made replicas of their minds in mud and created the clay tablet - the world's first silicate chip.

Five thousand years later, silicon semiconductors, ferromagnetic films and floating gate transistors have amplified the recording power of clay a quintillion times. Trends in processing and storage technology suggest to futurists that before too long, human thought, as the Babylonian mythology Enma Eli described so presciently, "shall be bound" and "to a unity brought together".

The technological singularity - that moment when humanity is surpassed by intelligent machines and absorbed by them - was first described by the mathematician Stanislaw Ulam, as a defining moment when "the ever accelerating progress of technology" leads to a point "beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could not continue". For the engineer Ray Kurzweil, this event marks overcoming the limitations of biological brains.

There is a tendency to view one's own time as uniquely sophisticated, to conceive of the past as primitive. Yet with clay tablets, humans overcame the limitations of their brains 5,000 years ago. The first singularity took place in the Stone Age. It is only recently that we have grasped what it means for individual brains to extend into the world of culture, fuse with the thoughts of society through the properties of physical artefacts and technologies, and then reabsorb the experience of the collective by accessing these technologies.

And what we have learnt is that the evolution of human intelligence is a continuous process of alternating outsourcing and reintegration, an endless series of fusions and fissions among individuals and collectives. To make this organic-inorganic narrative clear, let's consider numbers.

In the western world, we have grown complacent about our Indian-Arabic number system. These numbers possess both a zero and a place-based value. One might assume that previous number systems were less able and that our decimal numerals are a late and highly evolved means of representing magnitude and relation. This is far from the case. The two earliest number systems were Egyptian and Sumerian. The ancient Egyptian numbers were also base ten, and each power of ten was represented by a different hieroglyph - from strokes (one), to cattle (ten), ropes (100), and lotus flowers (1,000). The Sumerians used base 60, written in cuneiform characters, one for units and one for powers of ten. A legacy of the sexagesimal base persists in our units of time - 60 seconds to the minute and 60 minutes to the hour. Cultures are swimming in unfamiliar number systems: base 27 among the Oksapmin people of New Guinea; base 20 among the Yoruba of West Africa; and base 12 among the Nimbi of Nigeria.

In all of these culturally evolved instances, numbers were inscribed upon suitable physical materials to encode matters of great value and where the constraints of time and space would necessitate outsourcing of arithmetical and mathematical ideas. Numbers have evolved as a means of achieving long-lasting consensus. By being placed in the "public domain" these numbers have achieved incredible exponential returns through the collective deliberation of generations. Whereas thoughts restricted to individual brains depend entirely upon the knowledge and ability of one brain, ideas in the world can be manipulated across time and space by countless minds, and achieve through collective consideration a significant non-linear increase in stored knowledge.

It is, therefore, the combined memory (stored solutions that span generations) and computational (worked on by many individuals) representational powers of the silicate chip, and its many subsequent Stone-Age cousins, that make their realisation in history as candidate singularities.

It is true there is something about our contemporary solid-state artefacts that suggests a form of independence or autonomy from humans which merits special consideration. Whereas silicate chips need to be modified by hand, silicon chips can be modified by current. And although silicate chips can be transmitted across vast distances, they do so slowly, unlike calculations in silicon that travel at near light speed. On the other hand, silicate chips have successfully stored information for more than 5,000 years, whereas digital media is considered resilient if it can store information for more than a decade.

The evolution of human intelligence has always been about overcoming the constraints of soft organic matter. The adaptability of cells and tissues, their ability to perpetuate through replication, comes at a cost of fragility, limited scale and the needs of the generalist. Specialist tasks can be better served by more restrictive materials. And collective performance can be facilitated by platforms that support the combined activity of populations.

Our earliest cognitive platform was the silicate chip of the Sumerians - clay tablets upon which humanity achieved its primal, introductory singularity.

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The roots of technological singularity can be traced backed to the Stone Age - Wired.co.uk

By Ian Paul

Contributor, PCWorld | Feb 17, 2017 8:28 AM PT

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Thehotly anticipated Ryzen processors are expected to start rolling out in early March, but AMD's still pushing its older FX-series chips folks looking to build a budget gaming PC. Newegg and AMD just revealed a FX processor promotion that bundles a 6- or 8-core chip with the real-time strategy game Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation, the poster child for cutting-edge DirectX 12 technology.

The Newegg deal includes six popular FX processors ranging in price from $110 to $185, including the FX-6300, FX-6350, FX-8300, FX-8320, FX-8350, and FX-8370. The FX-8350 comes in the standard model for $140, or theres a $160 version that comes with AMDs swanky Wraith cooler. The FX-6350 and FX-8370 are also available with Wraith.

This is the second major FX-series freebie revealed in recent months. In August, AMD bundled its processors with a copy of the then-newly releasedDeus Ex: Mankind Divided.

The Stardock expansion to the original Ashes of the Singularity debuted in November 2016. While the original game was pretty darn good, the single player campaign left a lot to be desired. Escalationfixed those concerns and added additional polish to technical and gameplay aspects alike, such as ginormous maps, a strategic zoom view, additional units, and more. If you're an RTS fan, you'll love the complete package.

The story behind the story: AMD no doubt has tons of FX processor stock it would like to get rid of with Ryzen right around the corner. However, this years lineup change isnt your typical one for AMD. Despite the addition of Ryzen, AMDs first Zen-based chips, A- and FX-series processors are sticking around. AMD hopes to broaden its lineup to better compete with Intel. As they are newer, Ryzen chips will be the premium CPUs, while A- and FX-series chips will be aimed at budget gamers and other computer buyers looking for a deal.

Ian is an independent writer based in Israel who has never met a tech subject he didn't like. He primarily covers Windows, PC and gaming hardware, video and music streaming services, social networks, and browsers. When he's not covering the news he's working on how-to tips for PC users, or tuning his eGPU setup.

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AMD bundles Ashes of the Singularity with FX processors ahead of Ryzen's launch - PCWorld

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Posted By: Paul Younger February 17, 2017

Stardocks massive RTSAshes of the Singularity was recently updated with theEscalationstandalone expansion late last year but now the two are being merged into one game.

This is great news for anyone who already owns Ashes of Singularity because they will find they now have access toAshes of the Singularity: Escalation. So why is this being done?

Stardock CEO Brad Wardellexplains that there were features planned for the original release, such as strategic zoom, that didnt make the cut for technical and gameplay reasons. However, the community wanted to see these features make it into the original game and felt they shouldnt have to pay the discounted price of the expansion to have access to them. Finally, and probably most importantly, having two version of thegame means the community is split. CEO Brad Wardell explains:

Hence, I have decided to merge Ashes of the Singularity and Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation into a single product: Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation. We will update the game to have a simplified rules option for those who do preferred the more streamlined game mechanics and unit types (anyone who has ever tried to get a LAN party going with an RTS knows what I mean) but going forward, Escalation is the only version of the game.

The base game will be discontinued. If you have a copy of it, you can still play it and we will still support it. But we wont be selling it anymore. Everyone who had Ashes of the Singularity now has Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation as well. And anyone who already upgraded to Escalation from Ashes now has an automatic season pass to the DLC for Escalation.

With more PC gamers owning a PC that can now handle the demands of Ashes of the Singularity, this a solid move by Stardock and one that should be welcomed by all players.

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Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation being merged with the original game - PC Invasion (blog)

Today, most of us carry the world in our pockets. Global navigation satellite systems (GNSS)what most people typically just call GPSarent simply about sending geo-located tweets from our favorite restaurants. Countless industries rely on high-precision navigation, from agriculture to construction. The brave new world of self-driving cars and Amazon booty delivered by drone is largely predicated on all those satellites orbiting the planet.

The accuracy of these systems is amazing. The signals broadcast from US Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites are accurate to within less than three feet 95 percent of the time, according to the official US government website GPS.gov. In reality, the signal is never quite that good. Local features such as buildings and trees can affect the signal, not to mention atmospheric interference. The typical smartphone is accurate within a 16-foot radius.

A consortium of European universities, institutes and companies thinks it can do better by integrating the worlds four main GNSS constellations. Its called TREASURE, squeezing all these words into the acronym: Training, REsearch and Applications network to Support the Ultimate Real time high accuracy EGNSS solution.

The TREASURE team plans to integrate signals from the USs GPS constellation, along with Russias Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), Chinas BeiDou Navigation Satellite System and Europes new Galileo navigation system.

This multi-GNSS would provide accuracy within just a few centimeters in real time.

Although accuracy is at the core of our vision, the improvement we are aiming for is not only to do with accuracywe are also especially concerned with robustness, explains project lead Marcio Aquino, from the Nottingham Geospatial Institute, by email. The big challenge today is to enable centimeter-level accuracy anywhere, anytime in the world.

It wont be easy. For example, GPS uses a different transmission system than Russias GLONASS. Signals from Galileo are similar to GPS but with slightly different carrier frequencies, according to Aquino. Not to mention that the various constellations use different time and geodetic reference systems.

One of the goals of the TREASURE project is to reduce atmospheric disturbances to the signals beamed from satellites back to Earth. Most of the problems occur in the upper layer of the atmosphere, known as the ionosphere, located about 50 to 375 miles above Earth. Thats where solar radiation from the sun ionizes atoms and molecules, creating a layer of electrons. Free electrons can interfere with satellite signals, especially during space weather events.

The atmosphere poses the greatest threat to the success of robust high-accuracy GNSS positioning, whatever individual constellation you consider, Aquino says. The ionosphere, in particular, may be so disturbed that it can render these services pretty useless, especially during periods of high solar activity and in parts of the globe that are more prone to suffer with these effects, such as equatorial and high-latitude regions.

Aquino explains that the ability to use the signals from the different GNSS constellations will make it much easier to monitor and measure disturbances, because of the greater number of signals probing the atmosphere. The same applies for local interference, he notes, where the more signals you have, the better your chances of modeling and countering the problem.

Interestingly, GPS satellites themselves carry special sensors that collect data about space weather. Los Alamos National Laboratory recently released more than 16 years of data in the journal Space Weather to researchers.

Carried on 23 of the 30 current GPS satellites, the sensors measure the energy and intensity of charged particles trapped in Earths magnetic field. The sensors take detailed measurements of the trapped particles, which form the Van Allen radiation belts, every six hours.

The measurements provide data on variations in the largest of the Van Allen radiation belts, including how it responds to solar storms. That information should help researchers develop models to forecast space weatheran important step in protecting the satellites themselves and the signals they emit back to Earth.

High-precision GPS for self-driving cars and unmanned drones is an obvious application of a multi-GNSS. However, a team of researchers at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) believe GPS alone isnt the answer to reliable navigation for autonomous systems. They have developed a navigation system that instead uses environmental signals such as cellular and WiFi.

They note that GPS signals dont do well in some environments, such as deep canyons. Signals can be intentionally jammed and even hacked. This has led manufacturers of autonomous systems like cars and drones to add cameras, lasers and other sensors for navigation.

By adding more and more sensors, researchers are throwing in everything but the kitchen sink to prepare autonomous vehicle navigation systems for the inevitable scenario that GPS signals become unavailable. We took a different approach, which is to exploit signals that are already out there in the environment, says Zak Kassas, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at UCRs Bourns College of Engineering, in a press release.

Using what they call signals of opportunity, the scientists are working toward building software-defined radios that can extract timing and positioning information from environmental signals. The project also includes developing navigation algorithms and testing the final system on autonomous vehicles and drones.

Self-driving cars and many other applications rely on a combination of different sensors where multi-GNSS is definitely a major player, Aquino notes. Our main goal, however, is to make multi-GNSS robust and accurate as a technology that can be relied upon as the backbone of these applications, and therefore provide the means for new multi-GNSS-based ideas to flourish.

A highly accurate multi-GNSS wouldnt just be a boon to navigation on Earth. Deep-space missions might also benefit from a more robust satellite navigation system, though thats beyond the scope of TREASURE.

NASA has already been working to improve the use of GPS signals above low Earth orbit, defined as between 100 and 1,200 miles. LEO, as its known, is where most space missions take place. The International Space Station, for example, cruises around the planet at about 250 miles. Meanwhile, GPS satellites fly in medium Earth orbit (MEO) at an altitude of about 12,500 miles.

However, GPS signals above LEO are much weaker. Several years ago, the space agency developed the Navigator GPS flight receiver, which significantly boosted the signals. In fact, last year NASAs Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission satellites (MMS) set a Guinness World Record for highest altitude fix of a GPS signal at 43,500 miles above Earth. MMS is studying the connections between the Earth and suns magnetic fields.

Now NASA is developing a new technology called NavCube. The nameand the technologymerges the Navigator GPS flight receiver with SpaceCube, NASAs fast flight computing platform. NASA believes the combined technology has the potential to improve navigation to areas of space near the moon.

In addition, the technology might also demonstrate X-ray communication in space. NASA scientists say it has the potential to transmit gigabits per second through the solar system.

GPS: Its more than just a cool feature on your smartphone. And the better it gets, the more we can explore the worldand beyond.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

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Europe's TREASURE Will Be the King of All GPSs - Singularity Hub

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Mega-sized RTS Ashes of the Singularity is now bigger, totally for free. Escalation, the stand-alone expansion that took it from reasonable but missing key features to one of the better RTS games on the market, is now part of the base game. Anyone who paid for the upgrade has been given the season pass for this years Escalation DLC.

Still want something new? Try the best strategy games weve played.

The news comes via a blog post by Stardock CEO Brad Wardell, explaining the decision.

Many people who bought Ashes of the Singularity paid $49.99. Thus, even a $20 discount to get the game they wanted in the first place seemed unfair to them, he explains. More seriously, it split the community.

Coming from the software side, having a standard and a Pro version of your product isn't a big deal. But in the gaming world, especially recently, it is a big problem and one that has proven impossible for us to bridge. For example, even if we solved the multiplayer community fragmentation, what about modding? What about community discussions on strategy and tactics? What about future expansions?

All this added up, plus the acknowledgement of it possibly causing some short-term pain, means the two are now one. It keeps the Escalation name, and more highly-rated Steam page, the originals simplified ruleset will be added as an option and everyone goes home happy.

Full blog post is worth a read if you want to know more about the whys and wherefors. Wardell also mentions that currently in the works is a naval units patch, and Episode 3 DLC that will add a new campaign along with multitude of maps, game modes and scenarios.

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Ashes of the Singularity merges with standalone expansion Escalation, no upgrade fee - PCGamesN

Go to any airport and youll see wearied travelers huddled around outlets leeching out precious electricity to feed their devices. They arent alone in their need for power. With more than 3 billion smartphones alone in circulation in 2016, more people are experiencing the frustration of a phone dying when youre using maps in an unfamiliar area or just watching the latest viral video.

In response, consumers are increasingly calling for bigger, longer-lasting batteries so that they spend less time looking for anywhere to plug in.

But those days may be coming to an end, thanks to new technology from Disney Research. The company has developed a method for wireless power transmission where the only thing you have to do to charge your phone is be in a specially-designed room.

This means airport outlet mobbing may soon be nothing but an unpleasant memory.

The new method, called quasistatic cavity resonance (QSCR, works by inducing electrical currents inside a room where the walls, floor and ceiling have been metalized. The electrical currents permeate the room with magnetic fields, enabling power to be transmitted to a devices receiving coils operating at the same resonant frequency.

In the demonstration of QSCR detailed in their paper, researchers built a 16-by-16-foot room with aluminum walls, ceiling and floor bolted to an aluminum frame. The metal floorwas covered with insulating carpet, and a capacitor-filled copper pole was placed in the center of the room. A spiral drive coil was used to stimulate the room.

They were able to safely transmit 1.9 kilowatts of power to a receiver at 90 percent efficiencythats equivalent to charging 320 phones at once.

As much as wireless charging sounds appealing, concerns about the health risks of electromagnetic fields abound. During their simulations, researchers tracked Specific Absorption Rate, which measures how much power is absorbed by biological tissue, and ensured the value stayed at or below an established threshold.

Though the research is still in early stages, researchers predict theyll eventually be able to reduce the need for fully-metalized rooms, perhaps by retrofitting existing structures with modular panels or conductive paint. Larger spaces could be accommodated by using multiple copper poles.

"This new innovative method will make it possible for electrical power to become as ubiquitous as WiFi," said Alanson Sample, associate lab director & principal research scientist at Disney Research.

Besides making our day-to-day lives easier, QSCR could accelerate the progress of electronic devices by reducing our dependence on batteries.

Many of us probably dont realize that the devices we are carrying around in our purses and pockets are basically big batteries with a chip and a screen attached to them. For an iPhone 7, for example, the battery alone takes up two-thirds of the length, over half the width, and a fifth of the total weight. Our phones are essentially designed around the battery, thus power is a major limiting factor for smartphone technology as a whole.

But what if our devices didnt need big batteries? How would that change their weight, their design, and their capabilities? Rather than being designed for the batterys sake, they could be designed for the engagement we want.

Augmented reality and virtual reality, for example, are power-hungry apps that would be much more feasible to use on our phones if power wasnt an issue (just ask Pokemon Go players). Imagine if you could have a phone for heavy duty data visualizations. Or how about having triple or quadruple the amount of storage space?

Beyond our phones, think of the other power-hungry devices like quadcopters or Google glass that suddenly could have new designs with continuous usage through wireless charging.

Solving the power problem, then, is just the first stepdeciding what to do with all that extra space will follow close behind.

Banner Image Credit: Shutterstock

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Just Stand Inside this Room and it Will Wirelessly Charge Your Phone - Singularity Hub

The following is an excerpt from Technology vs. Humanity: The Coming Clash Between Man and Machine as published by Fast Future Publishing Ltd.

Dr. Ray Kurzweil, currently Googles Director of Engineering, is a great influence on futurist thinking in general and on my own work, but also someone whose views I must often challenge in this book. Kurzweil predicts that computers will surpass the processing power of a single human brain by 2025, and that a single computer may match the power of all human brains combined by 2050.

Kurzweil suggests these developments will herald the advent of the so-called Singularity, the moment when computers finally trump and then surpass human brains in computing power. This is the moment when human intelligence may become increasingly nonbiological, when it may be possible for machines to independently, and quite likely recursively, go beyond their original programminga decisive moment in human history.

Ray Kurzweil told his audience at Singularity University in late 2015:

As we evolve, we become closer to God. Evolution is a spiritual process. There is beauty and love and creativity and intelligence in the worldit all comes from the neocortex. So were going to expand the brains neocortex and become more godlike.

I also believe the point of computers having the capacity of the human brain is not far off, butGod or no Godunlike Dr. Kurzweil, I do not think we should willingly give up our humanness in return for the possibility of attaining unlimited nonbiological intelligence. That strikes me as a very bad bargain, a downgrade rather than an upgrade, and in this book I will explain why I passionately believe we should not go down that road.

Right now, in 2016, computers simply do not have the power to deliver on Kurzweils vision. I believe the chips are still too big, networks still do not have the speed, and the electricity grid by and large cannot support machines that would need this much power. Obviously, these are temporary hurdles: Every day we hear announcements of major scientific breakthroughs and, in addition, numerous unpublicized advances are certain to be happening in secret in labs around the world.

We need to be ready for the Singularity: open yet critical, scientific yet humanistic, adventurous and curious yet armed with precaution, and entrepreneurial yet collectively-minded.

This is an excerpt from Technology vs. Humanity: The Coming Clash Between Man and Machine as published by Fast Future Publishing Ltd.

Photos via Getty Images / Sean Gallup

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Preparing for the Singularity - Inverse