Machines ‘to match man by 2029′ ?

Can you say BIOMETRICS? Why are white people such control freaks? Fear of death? 

Machines will achieve human-level artificial intelligence by 2029, a leading US inventor has predicted.

Humanity is on the brink of advances that will see tiny robots implanted in people’s brains to make them more intelligent said engineer Ray Kurzweil.

He said machines and humans would eventually merge through devices implanted in the body to boost intelligence and health.

“It’s really part of our civilisation,” Mr Kurzweil said.

“But that’s not going to be an alien invasion of intelligent machines to displace us.”

Machines were already doing hundreds of things humans used to do, at human levels of intelligence or better, in many different areas, he said.

Man versus machine

“I’ve made the case that we will have both the hardware and the software to achieve human level artificial intelligence with the broad suppleness of human intelligence including our emotional intelligence by 2029,” he said.

“We’re already a human machine civilisation, we use our technology to expand our physical and mental horizons and this will be a further extension of that.”

Humans and machines would eventually merge, by means of devices embedded in people’s bodies to keep them healthy and improve their intelligence, predicted Mr Kurzweil.

“We’ll have intelligent nanobots go into our brains through the capillaries and interact directly with our biological neurons,” he told BBC News.

The nanobots, he said, would “make us smarter, remember things better and automatically go into full emergent virtual reality environments through the nervous system”.

Mr Kurzweil is one of 18 influential thinkers chosen to identify the great technological challenges facing humanity in the 21st century by the US National Academy of Engineering.

The experts include Google founder Larry Page and genome pioneer Dr Craig Venter.

The 14 challenges were announced at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston, which concludes on Monday.

Judge quits after cross dressing DUI bust

J.Edgar Hoover moment. Why do white men like to dress up as woman?  

A 63-year-old Massachusetts federal bankruptcy judge has resigned a week after he was arrested for driving under the influence in New Hampshire while reportedly wearing a woman’s dress, heels and stockings, and carrying a purse.

Judge Robert Somma, a Newbury resident, pleaded no contest to the drunken driving charge in New Hampshire and agreed to have his license suspended for 12 months, the Manchester Union Leader reported.

“He decided with the media coverage the way it had been, it was best to put this behind him,” Gary Wenta, circuit executive for Boston’s First Federal Circuit, told the Herald.

Wenta said Somma worked in private practice for years in Boston before he was appointed to the bench by President Bush in December 2004. He will remain on leave until he resigns on April 1, after roughly three years on the job.

“He’s a highly respected member of the bar and remains so,” Wenta said. “He was serving a 14-year appointment. This will leave him without a pension.”

The Union Leader reported yesteday that Somma crashed his Mercedes into the rear of a car stopped on Elm Street after leaving a bar in the city last week.

When cops arrived, the paper reported, Somma was wearing a cocktail dress, fishnet stockings, women’s heels and fumbled through a purse for his driver’s license.

Somma had a hard time keeping his balance, smelled of alcohol and slurred his speech, the paper reported, citing the Manchester police report. He failed a field sobriety test and took a breath test at the station that registered a blood-alcohol level of .12.

He told police he drank two gin and tonics at a Manchester bar. He said he came to New Hampshire because his wife was out of town and nobody knew him in the city, the paper reported.

A phone call placed to Somma’s home was not immediately returned yesterday. The Manchester Police Department also did not return a call for comment.

During his career, Somma has hosted numerous legal talks at the Boston Bar Association. He was called on frequently for legal workshops when bankruptcy laws recently changed to help lawyers maneuver through new regulations.

Seven killed at US drag car race

Stick to PS3’s instead. The need for speed, except you only get one life.

Seven people were killed when a car veered into a crowd at an illegal drag race in the United States.

The crash happened at about 0340 (0840 GMT) on Route 210 just outside Accokeek in Maryland – about 20 miles (32km) from Washington DC.

At least four people were injured, police said. Their conditions were not immediately known.

“It’s probably one of the worst scenes I’ve seen,” said Prince George’s County Police Cpl Clinton Copeland.

A white sedan went out of control and ploughed into the crowd of spectators on the roadside, although it was not clear if it was participating in the race, Cpl Copeland said.

It was followed by a tractor-trailer that may also have hit bystanders as it tried to avoid the crash, he said.

He said investigators had “more questions than answers”.

Witnesses told the Associated Press news agency that a crowd of about 50 people had just watched two cars speed past in the race, when another car, with no lights on, veered into spectators.

“There were just bodies everywhere; it was horrible,” Crystal Gaines, 27, told AP.

Her father was among the dead. “He wasn’t breathing, he wasn’t moving,” she said. “His body was in pieces.”

Victims’ bodies were scattered along a 183-metre (200-yard) stretch of road, police said.

The driver of the sedan did not appear to be seriously hurt, but a passenger was among the dead, police said.