Currently only 20% of e-waste, including
desktop computers, cell phones, laptops,
television sets, printers and a wide variety of
household electrical appliances, is formally
recycled.
If nothing changes, the United Nations
University, one of the authors of the report,
predicts e-waste could triple to nearly 120 million
tons by 2050.
The joint report, titled “A New Circular Vision
for Electronics – Time for a Global Reboot”, and
backed by seven UN agencies, points out that rapid
innovation and lowering costs have dramatically
increased access to electronic products and
digital technology, with many benefits.
There is 100 times more gold in a ton of
e-waste than a ton of gold ore, according to the
report.
Though e-waste has moved up the political
agenda, including the UN’s, it is still regarded as a
niche issue. International and globally harmonised
attempts, partly revolutionary, are required for
sustainable solutions.
Origins of the term Artificial Intelligence
- Wikipedia
The Dartmouth Summer Research Project on
Artificial Intelligence was the name of a 1956
summer workshop now considered by many
(though not all) to be the seminal event for artificial
intelligence as a field.
In the early 1950s, there were various
names for the field of “thinking machines” such
as cybernetics, automata theory, and complex
information processing. These indicate how
different the ideas were on what such machines
would be like.
In 1955, John McCarthy, then a young
Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Dartmouth
College, decided to organise a group to clarify
and develop ideas about thinking machines. He
picked the name ‘Artificial Intelligence’ for the new
field. He chose the name partly for its neutrality;
avoiding a focus on narrow automata theory, and
avoiding cybernetics which was heavily focused
on analogue feedback, as well as him potentially
having to accept the assertive Norbert Wiener as
a guru or having to argue with him.
On September 2, 1955, the project was
formally proposed by McCarthy, Marvin Minsky,
Nathaniel Rochester and Claude Shannon. The
proposal is credited with introducing the term
‘artificial intelligence’.
Autonomous Vehicles
(a) According to the District of Columbia (DC)
code, an autonomous vehicle may operate on
a public roadway, provided that the vehicle:
i. Has a manual override feature that allows a
driver to assume control of the autonomous
vehicle at any time;
ii. Has a driver seated in the control seat
of the vehicle while in operation who is
prepared to take control of the autonomous
vehicle at any moment; and
iii. Is capable of operating in compliance
with the District’s applicable traffic laws
and motor vehicle laws and traffic control
devices.
(b) The 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic,
subscribed to by over 70 countries worldwide,
establishes principles to govern traffic laws.
One of the fundamental principles of the
Convention has been the concept that a driver
is always fully in control and responsible for the
behaviour of a vehicle in traffic. The progress
of technology that assists and takes over the
functions of the driver is undermining this
principle, implying that much of the groundwork
must be rewritten.
The Future of Nanotechnology - Try Nano
The future of nanotechnology has been a subject
of many scientific and non-scientific speculations,
including sevteral doomsday visions in popular
culture that predict self-replicating nano particles
taking part in massive assaults on humanity and
the environment. An example of such a scenario is
laid out in Michael Crichton’s popular novel Prey,
where “grey goo” self-replicates and overwhelms
the world. Dire predictions have accompanied
many new technologies in their infancy (for
example robotics in the 1940s and 1950s). The
more futuristic visions of nanotechnology include
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