RE: Captain Kirk's Clone And The Eavesdropper

This relates to an enduring question I have, which is also somewhat related to longevity. If I were to create a younger duplicate of myself in order to live longer, which one would then be "me"? They would both think they were me, but which one actually would be? I know that I still would not want to die, even though there was another, younger "me" in existance. My dad makes the arguement, how about if you were to go to sleep, and then the copy is made, or a perfect software/hardware copy made, and the older one just never wakes up. IMO I would still be dead, there would just be a copy of me running around. I still don't want to die even with a copy running around. Now for the part that really gets me. If you were to replace each cell in my body with a mechanical duplicate that exactly replicates its function, only do it slowly, would I then perceive that I was no longer me? I think it's a more a matter of perception than existance in any particular place, or it may be that you would need time to integrate the new parts before getting more. If you just yank out the whole brain, maybe that wouldn't work. There is a book I read not too long ago that deals with this issue Tomorrow and Tomorrow. Hopefully we'll both live long enough to find out.

Imagine Captain Kirk being beamed back to the Starship Enterprise and two versions of the Star Trek hero arriving in the spacecraft's transporter room. It happened 40 years ago in an episode of the TV science fiction classic, and now scientists at the University of York and colleagues in Japan have managed something strikingly similar in the laboratory - though no starship commander was involved.

[Via ScienceDaily]

Technorati tags Cloning, Science Fiction, Quantum Physics

RE: Space-elevator tether climbs a mile high

A slim but superstrong cable reaches a mile into the sky, while robots scrabble up and down the line – one day, the cable will end in space

[Via New Scientist]

This is promising, only a few months after the contest, we're progressing very nicely. I think the goal will be reached well before 2018

Technorati tags Space, NASA, contest, Space elevator, Centennial Challenges

RE: New design for transistors powered by single electrons

Scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and NTT Corp. of Japan have demonstrated the first reproducible, controllable silicon transistors that are turned on and off by the motion of individual electrons. The experimental designs may have applications in low-power nanoelectronics.

[Via EurekAlert!]

RE: New material brings hydrogen fuel, cheaper petrochemicals closer to reality

A rubbery material that can purify hydrogen efficiently in its most usable form for fuel cells and oil refining has been developed by a chemical engineering group at The University of Texas, Austin.

[Via EurekAlert!]

RE: New technologies enhance quantum cryptography

A team of Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists, in collaboration with researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colo., and Albion College, in Albion, Mich., have achieved quantum key distribution (QKD) at telecommunications industry wavelengths in a 50-kilometer (31 mile) optical fiber. The work could accelerate the development of QKD cryptography for secure communications in optical fibers at distances beyond current technological limits.

[Via Flagged Items]