The Edge

Catalogue of Technology, Knowledge and Concepts by Best-Selling Author Ray Kurzweil

Kurzweil Network is a small format digest — featuring hand-picked, specially curated stories and resources. This website is also home to the permanent collection of writings and commentary by Ray Kurzweil. It follows progress in the science and technology landscape, with topics including biology, nanotech, materials science, electronics, computation, artificial intelligence, robotics, web, pattern recognition, virtual reality, and prosthetics + body augmentation.

Capability Boost: Trials Demonstrate Enhanced ViDAR/ScanEagle Package

This article from Jane’s International Defence Review discusses the use of Visual Detection and Ranging (ViDAR) technology on the ScanEagle unmanned aerial system (UAS) platform to provide detection capabilities comparable to radar using Electrooptical (EO) and Infra Red (IR) sensors.

Future of Logistics Systems in Defence

Logistics! Its not something we usually think about. Not many people understand the concept, or its impact on the progress of society. It is the lifeblood of economy – of any home, organisation, city or country.

AI-Based Virtual Tutors – The Future of Education?

“This blog post is about the UC Berkeley Virtual Tutor project and the speech recognition technologies that were tested as part of that effort. We share best practices for machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques in selecting models and engineering training data for speech and image recognition.

Why Would Prosthetic Arms Need to See or Connect to Cloud AI?

This summary of a lecture by Microsoft’s CTO discusses the integration of sensor technology and cloud based AI in low cost, 3D printed prosthetic arms.

North Korea’s Military Capability

This article is a Backgrounder document produced by the US Council on Foreign Relations outlining North Korea’s military capabilities with a particular focus on unconventional weapons. The article addresses the current state and source of origin of North Korea’s current arsenal of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, as well as their delivery platforms.

Neuro Embodied Design: How We’ll Become Cyborgs and Extend Human Potential

Humans will soon have new bodies that forever blur the line between the natural and synthetic worlds, says bionics designer Hugh Herr. In an unforgettable talk, he details "NeuroEmbodied Design," a methodology for creating cyborg function that he's developing at the MIT Media Lab, and shows us a future where we've augmented our bodies in a way that will redefine human potential -- and, maybe, turn us into superheroes. "During the twilight years of this century, I believe humans will be unrecognizable in morphology and dynamics from what we are today," Herr says. "Humanity will take flight and soar."

Queryable Earth: A Searchable database of Earth

What if you could search the surface of the Earth the same way you search the internet? Will Marshall and his team at Planet use the world's largest fleet of satellites to image the entire Earth every day. Now they're moving on to a new project: using AI to index all the objects on the planet over time -- which could make ships, trees, houses and everything else on Earth searchable, the same way you search Google. He shares a vision for how this database can become a living record of the immense physical changes happening across the globe. "You can't fix what you can't see," Marshall says. "We want to give people the tools to see change and take action."