Where Artificial Intelligence Is Now and What's Just Around the Corner

In recent years, I've seen several articles on the development of artificial intelligence (AI).  It seems to be developing along with the expansion of Moore's Law with more powerful microprocessors chips that are in almost all electronic devices we use on a daily basis.

This article is a real wake-up call on where AI stands today and where we are about to go with this technology.  Many of us have been using Apple's Siri on our iPhones for a few years and this is an interesting and useful tool.  Well, things are about to ratchet up a couple of notches.  We are now on the threshold of having something not too far off from the technology of HAL in Stanley Kubrick's epic "2001: A Space Odyssey."

My question is whether it is possible for AI to have any sense of good or evil.  For AI will this understanding be comprised of only the human sensation of pleasure or pain.  Will advanced AI have compassion for human beings as well as animals?  How about plants and micro organisms?  This could turn into a real can of worms, so to speak.

Maxwell's Demon

Have physicists really found the first photonic implementation of Maxwell's demon?  A recent paper published in Physical Review Letters seem to indicate so.  The extracted work could be used to charge a battery.

Astronaut Grafitti Inside Apollo 11 Command Module

The interior of the Apollo 11 Command Module was inspected and photographed by a team of artists, scientists, and curators at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum this month and now some of the findings are being made public.  This was part of an effort to 3-D scan and digitize over 138 million objects for public consumption online and through Virtual Reality (VR).

Are Electric Cars Really Green?