Ancient Roman Nanotechnology Found in Goblet Chalice Stuns Experts

""A Roman goblet could be an 1,600-year-old example of nanotechnology, according to experts. The mysterious Lycurgus Cup is made of dichroic glass and appears green when lit from the front and turns bright red when a light is shone on it from behind.

The chalice, which is on display at The British Museum, London, uses similar techniques to modern nanotechnology - the manipulation of materials on an atomic and molecular scale - which scientists believe could be used for everything from diagnosing diseases to identifying bioharzards at airports.

Scientists only solved the mystery of the color-changing chalice in 1990, after being baffled by its behavior for decades, Smithsonian Magazine reported. 

After putting broken fragments of glass under a microscope, scientists found the Romans had impregnated it with particles of sliver and gold, which they ground down to tiny proportions - around 50 nanometres in diameter - a thousand times smaller than a grain of salt.

The precise amount of metals has lead experts to hail the Romans as 'nanotechnology pioneers' who really knew what they were doing. Archaeologist Ian Freestone, of University College London, who researched the cup and its unusual optical properties, called its construction an 'amazing feat'.

The cup appears to change color as when light hits it as the flecks of metals' electrons vibrate in ways that seem to change the color, depending on where the observer is looking at it. The chalice was used to hold drink on special occasions and experts believe that when it was filled, the behavior of the vibrating electrons changed, as well as it's color.

Gang Logan Liu, an engineer and nanotechnology expert at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign told the publication: 'The Romans knew how to make and use nano-particles for beautiful art.'

Of course scientists could not investigate the effects of the one-of-a-kind cup by filling it with liquid. Instead, they reportedly imprinted billions of little wells onto a piece of plastic the size of a postage stamp and sprayed them with gold and silver nano-particles to essentially re-create the special configuration of the cup.

The scientists then poured different liquids into the wells to note the effect they had. When they filled a well with water it turned the surface light blue, while pouring oil inside turned it bright red.""

http://humansarefree.com/2013/08/proof-of-nanotechnology-in-ancient-rome.html

Supercomputers Eventual Enslavement of Mankind? Artificial Intelligence Experts Sign Open Letter, Pledge to Protect Humans from Future Master Race Machines.

""AI experts around the globe are signing an open letter issued Sunday by the Future of Life Institute that pledges to safely and carefully coordinate progress in the field to ensure it does not grow beyond humanity's control. Signees include co-founders of Deep Mind, the British AI company purchased by Google in January 2014; MIT professors; and experts at some of technology's biggest corporations, including IBM's Watson supercomputer team and Microsoft Research.

"The potential benefits are huge, since everything that civilization has to offer is a product of human intelligence....We recommend expanded research aimed at ensuring that increasingly capable AI systems are robust and beneficial: our AI systems must do what we want them to do," the letter said in part. A research document attached to the open letter outlines potential pitfalls and recommends guidelines for continued AI development.

The letter comes after experts have issued warnings about the dangers of super-intelligent machines. Ethicists, for example, worry how a self-driving car might weigh the lives of cyclists versus passengers as it swerves to avoid a collision. Two years ago, a United Nations representative called for a moratorium on the testing, production and use of so-called autonomous weapons that can select targets and begin attacks without human intervention.

Famed physicist Stephen Hawking and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk have also voiced their concerns about allowing artificial intelligence to run amok. "One can imagine such technology outsmarting financial markets, out-inventing human researchers, out-manipulating human leaders, and developing weapons we cannot even understand," Hawking said in an article he co-wrote in May for The Independent. "Whereas the short-term impact of AI depends on who controls it, the long-term impact depends on whether it can be controlled at all.""

Original News Report:

http://www.cnet.com/news/artificial-intelligence-experts-sign-open-letter-to-protect-mankind-from-machines/