Israel and the VCs ...

Today I read a post from Robert Scoble where he said that there is a trend: (he’s noticing that) “…the further away a tech area is from Silicon Valley the less respect that area will get”. [1] I agree with him, you have to research more if you want to know what’s going on in different places away from the valley. Another issue is coming up from that, if you are not in the famous valley, how can you reach the VCs??. If you want to try out some idea to work in latin America, you will find the lack of a real platform to lift up an idea and become a success company (as far as I know there are some tech areas in Colombia and Brazil), that have to change in order to decentralize this issue. I made a research today about the tech world in Israel and found out they have a lot of VCs there, good for geeks and the economy there. This website has like 90 VCs [2] located in Israel, in the list is Sequoia Capital one of the VCs that help Google. To put it more interesting this issue I will put it this way: Israel have 7.22 millions of people [3] and that website [2] has like 90 VCs, so let divide 7 millions into 90 VCs, we got that they have one VC per 77777.77 habitants (if I’m wrong let me know it) , I guess that’s a perfect environment for the start-ups, for science and the economy. Latin America should go that way!!

[1] http://scobleizer.com/2008/04/15/
israel-a-country-too-far-from-mike-arringtons-house/
[2] http://www.science.co.il/Venture-Capital-Funds.asp
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel

The decision to conquest the exoplanet Yecta (Fiction – chapter 1)

This post is the first one about how could be the conquest of new exoplanets, is complete science fiction (if its possible to call that), I made up everything. Why I am writing this type of post?, because I believe next century will be the space conquest.

We are a little more than half of the twenty-second century AD, to be more precise in 2157 (200 years after the start of the space’s conquest by the Soviets’ Sputnik in 1957). We have created a multi-civilization commission in order to organize the conquest of five habitable exoplanets for humans. These are called Yecta, Presina, Bacs, Trepid and Zapit, they were discovered in 2050, 2085, 2105, 2115 and 2130 respectively. The closest planet is at 300 light years which is Yecta with a mass twice the Earth and with 65% of its surface with water. It gravitates around a star that is half of our sun, but large enough to heat the planet, it’s located in the Retfer-508 galaxy. Yecta has a highly developed wildlife but there are not intelligent neither developed life than humans, what exist is an animal called Yectabulus which is the most intelligent and according to the research that has been done, it could develop in an intelligent and dominant creature if nothing or nobody intervene, but that is discarded, because humans are willing to colonize the planet and turn it into the second Earth. Why we want to go to another planet?, there are many answers, but the main ones are: we are without resources to feed and provide work for the more than 20 billion humans, problems with the climate and there is a latent fear of a global epidemic outbreak .

The coalition of all civilizations has reached the consensus that now we are one mega-civilization prepared to go to conquer planets, and make the step to immortality as a species and ensure that humanity will continue to grow. The coalition has already been working together in collect all technologies that every civilization has been developing over the last 100 years. It is amazing how some societies have develop very sophisticated technologies, such as in the computer field where the bits are represented at a sub-atomic level, and also being able to represent the data and make highly complex calculations through chemical concentrations (chemistry computing) that could be amorphous robots (gel type) with the ability to separate and become mini-robots and work independently, the Web and virtual reality have converged and have given us a new complex dimension; the robotic with artificial intelligence have achieved in build robots that continuously learn and make decisions and help us in a variety of tasks; nanotechnology; human hibernation; spacecraft flying at supersonic speeds doubling every minute.

It is 15:00 hours in the city of Brussels, the convention to define how is going to be this conquest that compete to all the humanity will begin.

The robotic age

The robotic age is coming, they already exist in some industries, for instance the automobile industry uses robots and there are many examples. The big issue comes when we think about robots with artificial intelligence (AI) and that’s a real fact. The question could be, are we ready to live with them?.

‘A draft of the proposals said: "In the 21st Century humanity will coexist with the first alien intelligence we have ever come into contact with - robots. …"It will be an event rich in ethical, social and economic problems."‘ [1] For that reason the South Korean government is taking the first step by writing an ethical code to prevent humans abusing robots, and vice versa (Korean Robot Ethics Charter).

Some facts about robotic right now: Japan has 28% of the world market, USA 22%, Germany 18%, Italy 11%, South Korea 3% and 10% others. There are three categories: (1) Home/Service; (2) Silver/Life Care and (3) Security/Military. Now in (1) we have robots for cleaning like vacuum cleaning, pets (robots like dogs) for education and entertainment, in the next decade (2010 – 2015) (1) robots will coexist with humans. About (2) now exists ChairBot, RideBot, Silverbor and Subar for example, next decade will have robots that could give assisting to senior citizens for instance. There are three main trend of robot-developing technologies in Korea, first are the Humanoid/Android the goal is create a robot like the Bicentennial Man; second are the network robots like R2D2 (star wars) that could help in many activities; and third are the Nano/High-precision like the ones that work in the automobile industry or laboratories, the next step are the cooperatives that could make intelligent works for instance in the automobile industry. [2]

So why Korea is doing all this research, because “Korea will be able to serve as a test bed country for robots, just as with the IT electronics market”. [2] Another interesting fact is: “It is estimated that every household in Korea will have one robot by 2020” [2], so we are talking about millions of robots to sell, very lucrative business!!. “Why Korea wants to establish the robot ethics charter...Korea is headed towards an aging society with low birth rates: one possible solution is the use of robots. Various intelligent service robots, including robots to assist senior citizens, have been developed: ’Silver Mate’ robots will soon be seen. Social demand for robots is forecasted to increase…The social demand has created a need to enhance partnership between people and robots, and a need to consider ethical issues in Korea”.[2]

[1]http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6425927.stm

[2]http://www.roboethics.org/icra07/contributions/slides/
Shim_icra%2007_ppt.pdf

Web and TV

The Web is already the platform for the TV, one good example is the BBC iPlayer, “With BBC iPlayer you can catch up with the programmes from the past seven days you've missed or want to watch again free of charge by playing them direct on the BBC iPlayer website or downloading them to your computer. As long as you are in the UK and connected..” [1] But this new service from the BBC is bringing an important issue about who should pay for extra network costs, this is really a hot issue because on-demand TV is the trend and the people are already using it (that’s the reason of a service). Something that is for sure is that internet service providers (ISPs) will have to upgrade their infrastructure if they want to still in the business because there are hidden costs for watching TV online. [2] One solution for the TV online is the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) and is already developing.. “Broadcasters and content providers consider P2P as a future-proof, universal, and ubiquitous two-way (interactive) distribution mechanism. Initially, P2P will complement the existing distribution mechanisms such as satellite, cable and terrestrial networks, but ultimately it may supersede them. The P2P-Next Project extends the notion of a conventional media distribution network. It introduces a concept of on-demand, personalised, and social network. “[3] That’s a perfect solution because TV online is there for millions of users.

Another type of TV is fastcompany.tv, they have a different service it’s a Web exclusive channel and all the videos are oriented for the Internet, Robert Scoble is doing an amazing job there. [4]

The Web is morphing and creating new fields, we are going to start to use it more and more and new stuff will come up in the future. But not only you can see all what you get from the Web in computers and devices, now you can see all that stuff in a normal TV that’s using Nintendo Wii the BCC iPlayer is working with that too. [5]

[1] http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/about_iplayer/
[2] http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/04/
hidden_costs_of_watching_tv_on.html
[3] http://www.p2p-next.org/
[4] http://www.fastcompany.tv/
[5] http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/04/
bbc_iplayer_on_wii.html

La decisión de conquistar el exoplaneta Yecta (Ficción - capítulo 1) / The decision to conquest the exoplanet Yecta (Fiction - chapter 1)

This post is in Spanish I will translate to English as soon as I can, because I want to be part of this world wide conversation (the default language is English). This post is the first one about how could be the conquest of new exoplanets, is complete science fiction (if its possible to call that), I made up everything. Why I am writing this type of post?, because I believe next century will be the space conquest.

Este post es el primero de una serie de escritos acerca de cómo podría ser la conquista de nuevos exoplanetas, es ciencia ficción (si es que se puede llamar así esto), todo es inventado. ¿Por qué escribo este tipo de post?, porque el próximo siglo va ser el de la conquista del espacio.

La decisión de conquistar el exoplaneta Yecta (capítulo 1)

Estamos un poco más de la mitad del siglo XXII DC, para ser exactos en el 2157 (200 años después del inicio de la conquista del espacio por el Sputnik de los soviéticos en 1957). Se ha creado una comisión multi-civilización para poder organizar la conquista de cinco exoplanetas habitables para los seres humanos. Estos exoplanetas se llaman Yecta, Presina, Bacs, Trepid y Zapit, fueron descubiertos en 2050, 2085, 2105, 2115 y 2130 respectivamente. El planeta más cercano se encuentra a 300 años luz que es Yecta con una masa el doble que la Tierra y con el 65% de su superficie con agua. Gravita alrededor de una estrella que es la mitad de nuestro Sol, pero suficientemente grande como para calentar al planeta, se encuentra en la galaxia Retfer-508. Yecta tiene una fauna y flora muy desarrollada sin embargo no existe vida más inteligente ni desarrollada que los humanos, lo que existe es un animal llamado Yectabulus que es el más inteligente según las investigaciones hechas y probablemente sino hay intervención de ninguna clase en el futuro podría llegar a dejar de ser un animal y convertirse en una especie inteligente y dominante en ese planeta, pero eso esta descartado, ya que los humanos están dispuestos a colonizar el planeta y convertirla en la segunda Tierra. ¿Por qué queremos ir a otro planeta?, hay varias respuestas pero las principales son: estamos sin recursos para alimentar y dar trabajo a los más de 20 mil millones de humanos, problemas con el clima y existe el miedo latente que brote alguna epidemia mundial.

La coalición de todas las civilizaciones ha llegado al consenso que ahora somos una sola mega-civilización los Terrícolas y estamos preparados para ir a conquistar planetas, así daremos el paso a la inmortalidad como especie y asegurarnos que la humanidad siga creciendo. La coalición ya ha estado trabajando en juntar y anidar todas las tecnologías que cada civilización ha ido desarrollando a lo largo de estos últimos 100 años. Es sorprendente como algunas sociedades han llegado a desarrollar tecnologías tan sofisticadas, como la computación donde las cadenas de bits son representadas a nivel sub-atómico, además de poder representar la data y hacer cálculos muy complejos a través de concentraciones químicas (computación química) que pueden ser robots amorfos (tipo gel) con la capacidad de separase y convertirse en robots más chicos y trabajar independientemente, la Web y la realidad virtual ha convergido y nos ha dado una nueva dimensión muy compleja; la robótica más la inteligencia artificial ha logrado la creación de robots que continuamente aprenden y toman decisiones y nos ayudan en diversas tareas; la nanotecnología que esta en todo lado; la hibernación humana; naves espaciales que vuelan a velocidades supersónicas duplicándose incrementalmente cada minuto.

Son las 15:00 horas en la ciudad de Bruselas y se va a dar inicio a la convención para definir como se va a realizar esta conquista que compete a toda la humanidad.

Cloud Computing and Information's Mines

“The World’s primary compute is or could be Google’s cloud, its a network made of hundreds of thousands, or by some estimates one million, cheap servers, each not much more powerful than the PCs we have in our homes.. A move towards clouds signals a fundamental shift in how we handle information. At the most basic level, it's the computing equivalent of the evolution in electricity a century ago when farms and businesses shut down their own generators and bought power instead from efficient industrial utilities.” [1]

As you can see we are in the path to change the way we interact with information, humankind is in constantly move (traveling around the world), we need to access to our information in every place, we have laptops, mobiles as devices to access information, but where do we store our files, calendar, apps, etc ??, it can be saved in the devices, but if I want to backup all my information, how and where do I put it ??. Its clearly that the answer is in the big cloud, almost like the matrix it can do all that stuff, so where do we go next??, that’s a very good question, I think that we are in an early stage about the cloud computing, people have to get use to have their information in the cloud and trust the way we do with electricity. The cloud will be there for hundreds of years, the next step is to manage the way we put our digital footprint on the net and be able to retrieve all that digital footprint the we as humankind left. Another thought that come to me about the cloud is the huge information that it has/have, every cloud could be seen as a mine, digging all those mines will be a very challenging task, in the future those clouds will have all our information recorded.

“Humanity emits the data, and a handful of companies—the likes of Google, Yahoo!..., or Amazon.com …—transform the info into insights, services, and, ultimately, revenue … Yahoo Research Chief Prabhakar Raghavan, "there are only five computers on earth." He lists Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, IBM, and Amazon. Few others, he says, can turn electricity into computing power with comparable efficiency. ”[1]

Very interesting the way those companies use the information to gain revenue, that’s that way this information economy works out, making profit from the services and the information that we put in the Internet. I can see many application that could be developed using web intelligence, is just amazing how we are getting more and more connected between us and the mass information that we generate every second.

[1] http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_52/b4064048925836.htm

The birth of a new science - The Web Science

For all of us that follow the Web environment, this news is great. What are the implications??, there are many, now we (human beings) will study something that we make every second, is our own material made by millions of persons with different thoughts, this is like a new mine (information mine) that we will going to dig up maybe for ever, is an endless resource, and the best thing is that we are the contributors of it. In the official web site said “The Web is the largest human information construct in history. The Web is transforming society. In order to...” [1] the answer is in our research.

“This is a multi-disciplinary effort to study the web and try to guide its future… Sir Tim explained that there were now more web pages than there are neurons in the human brain, yet the shape and growth of the web were still not properly understood” [2]

Is the beginning of a new science that will help a lot to understand us.

[1] http://webscience.org/

[2] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7299875.stm