Explore Topics:
AIBiotechnologyRoboticsComputingFutureScienceSpaceEnergyTech
Gadgets

Singularity Surplus: Nowhere to Hide

7 in 10 American consumers say privacy concerns will keep them from buying Google Glass; a startup sells a DIY cyborg kit, syringe included; UW researchers show off scary-good age-progression software; rare genetic mutation makes siblings immune to viruses -- can we get in on that?

Cameron Scott
Apr 18, 2014

Share

tunnel-vision-Lg

Advances in exponential technology happen fast — too fast for Singularity Hub to cover them all. This weekly bulletin points to significant developments to keep readers in the know.

google-glass-for-the-masses

Who's Zoomin' Who?
Google Glass is available, at least for now, to the masses. But will average consumers ever warm to the eyeglass computers? They’re certainly not there yet, according to market research conducted by Toluna and reported in AdWeek. Seven in 10 Americans says they won’t wear Glass because of privacy concerns. Interestingly, consumers cited fears that they would be recorded by their own devices, reflecting some combination of misunderstanding of how Glass works and extreme skepticism about Google’s overall treatment of user privacy.

cyborg-hack

Scarification for Geeks
Tired of waiting for that password ring or bracelet? Go the next step and implant a chip in your hand. A December 2013 crowdfunding campaign to sell RFID- and NFC-enabled implantable chips was wildly successful and the company, aptly called Dangerous Things, is now selling the chips. The glass chip comes pre-loaded in a syringe, pain drugs sold separately. We have no idea how or even if this is legal; it certainly doesn't have FDA approval, but the agency couldn't tell us if it was investigating.

viral-immunity-influenza-F

Be Part of the Future

Sign up to receive top stories about groundbreaking technologies and visionary thinkers from SingularityHub.

100% Free. No Spam. Unsubscribe any time.

Can't Touch This
A brother and sister who suffer from a rare disorder affecting how proteins bond with sugars in the body are immune to most viruses, NIH researchers report in current issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. The siblings are very sick — sugar bonding is a part of many healthy bodily process — but they aren’t sick with a viral infection. Most viruses, including influenza and HIV, though not the adenoviruses that cause the common cold, need sugary envelopes to establish themselves in host cells. The rare genetic variant suggests a drug pathway that could also widely target viruses. Drugs called MOG inhibitors stymie, in limited fashion, the same bonding process. The drugs have shown promise as a treatment for HIV infection.

The Way You Look at 90
It’s the oldest software trick in the book to try to predict from a photo what someone will look like when they’re older. But a new age-progression program from researchers at the University of Washington does it really well, and it needs just a single childhood photo as a reference point. (Adult teeth seem to throw it off a bit.) Police could use the software to generate photos of long-missing children, to boost the chances of finding them. Of course, they could also use it to hone in on criminals who’ve been successfully hiding out for decades. Oh, also note that one of the researchers is also a Google employee; the research was funded by Google and Intel.

 Photos: Bruce Rolff / Shutterstock.com, Robert Scoble via Flickr, Dangerous Things, N/A (Wikimedia Commons)

Cameron received degrees in Comparative Literature from Princeton and Cornell universities. He has worked at Mother Jones, SFGate and IDG News Service and been published in California Lawyer and SF Weekly. He lives, predictably, in SF.

Related Articles

A long spiral staircase with railing

Scaling Up: How Increasing Inputs Has Made Artificial Intelligence More Capable

Veronika Samborska
Anthropic Unveils the Strongest Defense Against AI Jailbreaks Yet

Anthropic Unveils the Strongest Defense Against AI Jailbreaks Yet

Edd Gent
Forget Nvidia: DeepSeek AI Runs Near Instantaneously on These Weird Chips

Forget Nvidia: DeepSeek AI Runs Near Instantaneously on These Weird Chips

Jason Dorrier
A long spiral staircase with railing
Artificial Intelligence

Scaling Up: How Increasing Inputs Has Made Artificial Intelligence More Capable

Veronika Samborska
Anthropic Unveils the Strongest Defense Against AI Jailbreaks Yet
Artificial Intelligence

Anthropic Unveils the Strongest Defense Against AI Jailbreaks Yet

Edd Gent
Forget Nvidia: DeepSeek AI Runs Near Instantaneously on These Weird Chips
Computing

Forget Nvidia: DeepSeek AI Runs Near Instantaneously on These Weird Chips

Jason Dorrier

What we’re reading

Be Part of the Future

Sign up to receive top stories about groundbreaking technologies and visionary thinkers from SingularityHub.

100% Free. No Spam. Unsubscribe any time.

SingularityHub chronicles the technological frontier with coverage of the breakthroughs, players, and issues shaping the future.

Follow Us On Social

About

  • About Hub
  • About Singularity

Get in Touch

  • Contact Us
  • Pitch Us
  • Brand Partnerships

Legal

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
© 2025 Singularity