Οι 5 Μεγάλες Επιστημονικές Προκλήσεις για τα Επόμενα

100 Χρόνια. Στάθης Λειβαδάς,

Πάτρα, 2014

Η χαρτογράφηση του ανθρώπινου εγκέφαλου

The Obama administration is planning a decade-long scientific effort to examine the workings of the human brain and build a comprehensive map of its activity,

seeking to do for the brain what the Human Genome Project did for genetics.

George M. Church, a molecular biologist at Harvard, said he was helping to plan the project, the Brain Activity Map.

Global Future 2045 H ιστοσελίδα του Global Future 2045 είναι εδώ:

Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011

with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.

The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a

new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.

The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create

technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.

Κάποιοι από τους ομιλητές στο 2ο συνέδριο τού Global Future 2045 στις 15-16 Ιούνη του 2013

στην Νέα Υόρκη

Οι ενοποιημένες φυσικές δυνάμεις Properties of the Fundamental Forces The strong interaction is very strong, but very short-ranged. It

acts only over ranges of order 1-3 femtometers (1 fm=10-15 m) and is responsible for holding the nuclei of atoms together. It is basically attractive, but can be effectively repulsive in some circumstances.

The electromagnetic force causes electric and magnetic effects such as the repulsion between like electrical charges or the interaction of bar magnets. It is long-ranged, but much weaker than the strong force. It can be attractive or repulsive, and acts only between pieces of matter carrying electrical charge.

The weak force is responsible for radioactive decay and neutrino interactions. It has a very short range and, as its name indicates, it is very weak.

The gravitational force is weak, but very long ranged. Furthermore, it is always attractive, and acts between any two pieces of matter in the Universe since mass is its source.

Οι ενοποιημένες φυσικές δυνάμεις There is a speculation that at enormously

temperatures (the Planck Scale: time since the beginning estimated at 10-43 s) all four forces were unified into a single force. Then, as the temperature dropped, gravitation separated first and then the other 3 forces as described above separated.

Here is a video graphically illustrating the separation of the 4 basic forces at the early beginnings of the Universe.

Μια ματιά στην εξέλιξη των υπολογιστών ENIAC: First Electronic Computer

In 1946 John W.

Mauchly and J.

Presper Eckert

Jr. built ENIAC at

the University of

Pennsylvania.

It weighed 30

tons, contained

18,000 vacuum

tubes and could

do 100,000

calculations per

second.

Μια ματιά στην εξέλιξη των υπολογιστών To μοντέλο Ramac 305

In 1956, IBM launched the RAMAC 305 - the first computer with a hard disk drive (HDD). This weighed over a ton and consisted of fifty 24" discs, stacked together in a wardrobe-sized machine. Two independent access arms moved up and down to select a disk, and in and out to select a recording track, all under servo control. The total storage capacity of the RAMAC 305 was 5 million 7-bit characters, or about 4.4 MB.

Μια ματιά στην εξέλιξη των υπολογιστών

Floppy disks arrived in 1971, revolutionising data storage. Although smaller in capacity, they were extremely lightweight and portable. The earliest versions measured 8 inches in diameter. These were followed by 5¼-inch disks in the late 1970s and 3½-inch disks in the

mid-1980s. The growth of home computing in the 1980s led to smaller, cheaper, consumer-level disk drives.

The first of these was only 5 MB in size. By the end of the decade, however, capacities of 100 MB were common.

Μια ματιά στην εξέλιξη των υπολογιστών

Data storage continued to make exponential progress into the 1990s and beyond. Floppy disks were replaced by CD-ROMs, which in turn were replaced by DVD-ROMs, which in turn began to be superseded by the Blu-Ray format. Home PCs with 100 GB hard drives were common by

2005 and 1 terabyte (TB) hard drives were common by 2010. Micro-SD cards (pictured below) have shrunk this format to an even smaller size. As of 2010, it is possible to store 32 GB of data on a device measuring 11 x 15 mm, weighing 0.5 grams and costing under $100.

To put this in context: this is over 3 million times lighter and over 10,000 times cheaper than an equivalent device of 30 years ago.

Μια ματιά στην εξέλιξη των υπολογιστών So, what does the future hold? It is safe to assume that the exponential trends in capacity and price performance

will continue. These trends have been consistent for over half a century. Even if the limits of miniaturisation are reached with current technology, formats will become available that lead to new paradigms and even higher densities. Carbon nanotubes,

for example, would enable components to be arranged atom-by-atom.

Μια ματιά στην εξέλιξη των υπολογιστών Τhe memory capacity of the human brain has been estimated at between one and

ten terabytes, with a most likely value of 3 terabytes.* Consumer hard drives are already available at this size.

Well before the end of this decade, it is likely that micro-SD cards will exceed the storage capacity of the human brain.

By 2030, a micro-SD card (or equivalent device) will have the storage capacity of 20,000 human brains.

By 2043, a micro-SD card (or equivalent device) will have a storage capacity of more than 500 billion gigabytes - equal to the entire contents of the Internet in 2009.*

By 2050 - if trends continue - a device the size of a micro-SD card will have storage equivalent to three times the brain capacity of the entire human race!!

Μια ματιά στην εξέλιξη των υπολογιστών

In 2011, Intel unveiled a new microprocessor based on 22 nanometre process technology.* Codenamed Ivy Bridge, this is the first high-volume chip to use 3-D

transistors, and packs almost 3 billion of them onto a single circuit.

Μια ματιά στην εξέλιξη των υπολογιστών

Even smaller and denser chips based on a 14nm process are being planned for 2013, and the company's long-term roadmap includes sizes down to 4nm in the early 2020s - close to the size of individual atoms. This will present major design and engineering challenges, since transistors at these dimensions will be substantially affected by quantum tunnelling (a phenomenon where a particle

tunnels through a barrier). From the 2020s onwards, it is possible that carbon nanotubes or a similar

technology will reach the mass market, creating a new paradigm that allows Moore's Law to continue.* Chips constructed on an atom-by-atom basis would reach incredible densities.

Further into the future, chips may become integrated directly with the brain, combining AI/human intelligence and dramatically enhancing our cognitive and learning abilities. This could allow technologies once considered the stuff of science fiction to become a reality - such as full immersion VR, electronic telepathy and mind uploading.

Ultimately, Moore's Law could lead to a "technological singularity" – a point in time when machine intelligence is evolving so rapidly that humans are left far, far behind.

Μια ματιά στην εξέλιξη των υπολογιστών 1 petaFLOP that is, 1015 = 1 quadrillion (1 thousand million million) floating point

operations per second

Μια ματιά στην εξέλιξη των υπολογιστών For decades, the growth of supercomputer power has followed a

remarkably smooth and predictable trend, as seen in the previous graph. If this exponential trend continues, it is likely that complete simulations of the human brain and all of its neurons will be possible by 2025.

In the early 2030s, supercomputers could reach the zettaflop scale, meaning that weather forecasts will achieve 99% accuracy over a two week period. By the 2050s, supercomputers may be capable of simulating millions - even billions - of human brains simultaneously. In parallel with developments in artificial intelligence and brain-computer interfaces, this could enable the creation of virtual worlds similar in style to the sci-fi movie, The Matrix. It is even possible that we are living in such a

simulation at this very moment, without realising it.

Ο μελλοντικός αντιδραστήρας πλάσματος ITER στο Κανταράς της

ν. Γαλλίας ITER is based on the 'tokamak' concept of magnetic confinement, in

which the plasma is contained in a doughnut-shaped vacuum vessel. The fuel—a mixture of deuterium and tritium, two isotopes of hydrogen—is heated to temperatures in excess of 150 million°C, forming a hot plasma. Strong magnetic fields are used to keep the plasma away from the walls; these are produced by superconducting coils surrounding the vessel, and by an electrical current driven through the plasma.

Ο ITER στο Κανταράς της ν. Γαλλίας

The 48 elements of the ITER magnet system will generate a magnetic field some

200,000 times higher than that of our Earth.

Ο ITER στο Κανταράς της ν. Γαλλίας

The large stainless steel vacuum vessel provides an enclosed, vacuum environment for

the fusion reaction.

Ο ITER στο Κανταράς της ν. Γαλλίας

The temperatures inside the ITER Tokamak must reach 150 million° Celsius—or ten times the temperature at the core of the Sun—in order for the gas in the vacuum chamber to reach the plasma state and for the fusion reaction to occur. The hot plasma must then be sustained at these extreme temperatures in a

controlled way in order to extract energy.

Ταξίδι στον Άρη χρησιμοποιώντας την πυρηνική σύντηξη

University of Washington researchers and scientists at a Redmond-based space-propulsion company are building components of a fusion-powered rocket aimed to clear many of the hurdles that block deep space travel, including long times in transit, exorbitant costs and health risks.

Prof. J. Slough and his team have published papers calculating the potential for 30- and 90-day expeditions to Mars using a rocket powered by fusion, which would make the trip more practical and less costly.

Ταξίδι στον Άρη χρησιμοποιώντας την πυρηνική σύντηξη

Εδώ είναι ένα βίντεο με την σχηματική απεικόνιση πρόκλησης προώθησης του πύραυλου-φορέα μέσω σύντηξης του πλάσματος εντός της διαστημικής συσκευής.

O απώτερος στόχος: The 100-year starship

Οι στόχοι του 100-year starship: We exist to make the capability of human travel beyond our solar

system a reality within the next 100 years. We unreservedly dedicate ourselves to identifying and pushing the radical leaps in knowledge and technology needed to achieve interstellar flight, while pioneering and transforming breakthrough applications that enhance the quality of life for all on Earth. We actively seek to include the broadest swath of people and human experience in understanding, shaping and implementing

this global aspiration Η ιστοσελίδα του:

O απώτερος στόχος: Icarus Interstellar

Οι στόχοι του Icarus Interstellar: The mission of Icarus Interstellar is to realize

interstellar flight before the year 2100. We will accomplish this objective by researching and developing the science and the technologies that will make interstellar flight a reality, igniting the public’s interest, and engaging with all those prepared to invest in interstellar exploration.

Η ιστοσελίδα του:

O απώτερος στόχος: Icarus Interstellar

1) Project Icarus 2) Project Helius 3) Project Tin Tin A design study for an unmanned A practical investigation fusion-powered interstellar probe. of laser-initiated pulse propulsion Interstellar nanosat mission to Alpha Centauri