Nature trumps technology

"In a new study, researchers report that bumblebees were able to figure out the most efficient routes among several computer-controlled 'flowers,' quickly solving a complex problem that even stumps supercomputers. We already know bees are pretty good at facial recognition, and researchers have shown they can also be effective air-quality monitors."

In this study done at Queen Mary University of London, bees found the shortest distance between man-made flowers. This task seems extremely simple for a bee and even us, but it took supercomputers days to figure this out. It's pretty amazing how our latest technology cannot match a bee when it comes to this act. This task is called the "traveling salesman" and has been an ongoing problem in computer science. It can be applied to other practical uses such as finding the shortest route between cities while visiting each city only once. The thought that supercomputers are having trouble with a practical problem baffles the mind. No matter how advanced our technology is, or our computing power of the latest computers, bees can still do things that these super computers cannot.

To test bee problem-solving, researchers Lars Chittka and Mathieu Lihoreau tested bees’ response to computer-controlled artificial flowers. They wanted to see whether the bees would go after the flowers in the order in which they were discovered, or if they would figure out the shortest route among all the flowers even as new ones were added. The bees explored the locations of the flowers and quickly figured out the shortest paths among them, according to a Queen Mary news release.

Here is a link to the article:

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2010/10/bees-solve-complex-problems-faster-than-supercomputers.html

The Human Evolution

We are all cyborgs now..

This line is Amber Case's main point in her talk on TED.com. She says that as humans become more in tune with the technology we create to help us live our lives, we become more dependent on it. No we're not the cyborgs we see in popular films, not yet anyway. A cyborg is simply defined as "an organism to which exogenous components have been added for the purpose of adapting to new environments." By simply using a computer to complete a task or using a cell phone to communicate with others, for that time we are a cyborg. With the rise of communicative technology, we are becoming more connected in ways never dreamed of 20 years ago. The new environment we are adapting to is a brand new world without the bounds of time and space. Two people can be on opposite ends of the globe and talk to one another without any travelling necessary. This is the most connected we have been in history.

As we become a new type of button-clicking human beings, what it means to be human is inherently changing. Our dynamics are fully changing. We no longer have only our physical self to worry about, but also the maintenance of our digital self. It is just as important since our presence on the Internet will be seen by more people. There is a digital record of what we've been through, our entire electronic history is stored and is on display for the world to see. This is not true in the physical world so it adds a new dynamic to our lives. Self presentation management is active through social websites, blogs, etc.

"It's too bad that everyone who has a solution for everything is at home commenting on the Internet" With society multitasking so much, few stop and focus on tasks as they come.

Here is Amber Case's talk on TED.com http://www.ted.com/talks/amber_case_we_are_all_cyborgs_now.html