Impressed and alarmed by advances in artificial intelligence, a group of computer scientists is debating whether there should be limits on research that might lead to loss of human control over computer-based systems that carry a growing share of society’s workload, from waging war to chatting with customers on the phone. From the NYT: Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man.
posted by flapjax at midnite on Jul 26, 2009 - 116 comments

foldit is a new computer game scientists have created that lets YOU help them make science!! [more inside]
posted by Koko on May 10, 2008 - 24 comments

Out of the Blue: "Can a thinking, remembering, decision-making, biologically accurate brain be built from a supercomputer?"
posted by homunculus on Mar 3, 2008 - 38 comments

Douglas Crockford, leading JavaScript Architect for Yahoo!, has been teaching a series of classes on JavaScript programming for other Yahoo! employees.
The JavaScript Programming Language [4 video clips: 1 (31 min) 2 (31 min) 3 (29min) 4 (20 min), presentation slides: zipped PPT]
An Inconvenient API: The Theory of the DOM [3 video clips: 1 (31 min) 2 (21 min) 3 (26 min), presentation slides: zipped PPT]
Advanced JavaScript [3 video clips: 1 (31 min) 2 (25 min) 3 (11 min), presentation slides: zipped PPT]
posted by ijoshua on May 10, 2007 - 27 comments

Jack Kilby , inventor of the monolithic integrated circuit (microchip) at Texas Instruments in 1958, died Monday. His vision lives on through the Kilby International Awards and Kilby Laureates "who symbolize the power of the individual creative mind to change the world, forever."
posted by tpl1212 on Jun 22, 2005 - 5 comments

Life in the future. In the year 2,000 "everything will be so easy that people will probably die from sheer boredom." Workweeks will be 24 hours and the home computer will be the new status symbol.
posted by caddis on Jan 12, 2005 - 46 comments

Prof. George W. Hart, of the Computer Science Department at SUNY Stony Brook, has an enviable web presence. His Encyclopedia of Polyhedra alone is worth the visit, his geometric sculptures make the nerd in me weep at their beauty, and his trilobite recipe looks mighty yummy.
posted by ewagoner on Dec 19, 2002 - 12 comments

Israelis (who else?) prepare to bring a new life into the world. One that will hopefully pass the Turing test.
posted by o2b on Aug 21, 2001 - 9 comments

Has the Turing test fallen? One of the holy grails of computer science is the Turing Test -- and these guys think they're near to passing it.
posted by Steven Den Beste on Mar 1, 2001 - 37 comments