Not "Google Glass" as is but . . . some future version of that, would seem to be the ideal. HIGHLY directional microphone, lets you "look" at the speaker of interest to help #1 see facial expressions/body language, #2 discern that "voice" from among the background noise clutter, with interpreted output onto the display.

Something should be possible... if its done in "Wet" electronics (Brain-Body), with enough processing power and sensitivity, discernment should be somewhat possible in "Dry" electronics (IC's and discrete components.)

I keep thinking back to my early days in Ham Radio . . . as time passed and band conditions changed, signals faded and were occluded by background noise, but my human ears "locked on and tracked" the fading morse code. Such that, a passing observer, walking in fresh, might not "hear anything" in the din of noise . . . when I was just able to stay locked on and keep the conversation going a few minutes/seconds longer. How was I staying "locked on"?

Clearly, all I need to do is break out the CSI Miami DVD's and watch a few episodes, where they pull out a clear conversation from the background of a garbled audio conversation, and just repeat their procedure . . .

It'll take more than just directional audio input and decoding (recognition) software. (For those cases when you're trying to listen to ONE conversation in a room full of three or four going on) . . . "directionality" will help, but some pretty heavy duty "fast fourier transforms" (or something similar) might be needed to "track" the particular voices of interest. And laughter, non "voice" sounds like "gasps", tonal changes for surprise or interrogation . . . will make "tracking" problematic.

(Whether build by God, or 1.5 million years of evolution . . . the current design has a big head start.)

I know . . . all that's design postulation, and not the "I need it now" answer you were hoping for. Just thinking out loud.

I remember as a teenager, my mother telling about a miscarriage she had a few years after I was born (too young to remember). Apparently they did a D&C afterwards (to scrap residue off the walls). But, hospitals (at that time at least) must've listed some Abortions as D&C's.
(At the time of the conversation) its 13+ years later and someone had just stolen some hospital records and was harrasing recent D&C patients for "having Abortions" . . .
She was horror struck at what it must've been like, for those "want to be mothers", still suffering the tragedy of having lost a child unwillingly . . . to have some dipwad confront them and accuse them of having an Abortion.
Patient records should be sacrosanct for a reason.

I don't disagree. I'd just like to see all the numbers before I drink the Kool-Aid(tm). No matter how efficient the electric plant is, they still need to mine, and install, and have fleets of trucks to maintain . . . copper/wood/steel distribution systems. (I know, Gas doesn't just "appear" at my local Convenience store tank, they have refineries and fleets of trucks that pollute too, . . . I'm just saying without a FULL head to head TOTAL end to end comparison . . . its hard to separate propaganda from fact. And its in both industries interests to obscure those facts.)
Ignoring all that . . . (3 years ago when I checked) the pricebreak for my wallet, just wan't there yet, considering . . . initial vehicle cost, my mileage per year (and the type city/highway) and expected mileages per $ on electric and including expected rising gas prices, and expected maintenance and lifespans of the vehicles . . . Hybrid just wasn't there yet. (Considering the range, and my lifestyle in KY . . . "Electric only" is totally out of the question.)
And at the typical 15k miles per year, my life/driving is pretty typical for here.

I'd like to by Hybrid and save the planet. I'd even pay a "slight" premium over gas. But, the numbers just aren't there yet. (And I mean by $10k+ not there.)
If I lived in a large city and drove only locally 95% of the time (and could use a rental otherwise) . . . Maybe.
But living an average KY life . . . Hybrid just doesn't cut it for me, dollar-wise.

Looking at "Inductive charging" on Wikipedia . . . the "new improved" high frequency charging . . . is only 86% efficient compared to what direct would be.
Even if that's way off and its more like the 99% hoped for . . . use of heavy metals, disposal of old batteries, charging inefficiency, drive efficiency (and capacity) due to battery weight . . . I'm still waiting to see the final number to prove Electric is "really" better than Gasoline. Even "pollution" . . . that Electricity didn't just magically appear. Has anyone factored in the "pollution" at the generating site?
I don't have all those numbers . . . all I know is, even with a "government rebate" (which I'm helping pay for) . . . 3 years ago (~2010) "Electric" or "Hybrid" wasn't (lifetime of the car) a profitable deal compared to Gasoline for me.

I'm still waiting for the magic breakthrough.

Dad was a KY State Police for 25 years . . . (most) every time they used tear gas into a house . . . it caught the house on fire. He even got an award for it once. OK technically the award was for ending the hostage crisis with no loss of life, but even 20 years after retiring he felt really bad about half burning the guy's house down.
Yeah, this'll go in with Tazers as something that never should have been invented. (Less lethal = easier to abuse.) I don't want anyone "shooting" anything at me (or me in my car), unless I've done something so bad . . . it'd be better to kill me than let me go.

Most are reaching towards "mobility" . . .
I'd lean more towards "goal oriented". (Not necessarily full blown AI but . . . ) At least the Roomba "seeks out" dirt to suck up.
I'd kill for a washing machine that would gather, sort, wash, dry, and fold my close . . . of its own (seeming) desire. We can argue "how much of a goal" is meaningful but . . . the CNC machine follows commands. The Washing Machine (be it timers and cams or circuit boards) just follows a fixed program.
The Roomba not only seeks out dirt (or "coverage area"), but . . . it can adapt to changes (obstructions) in the environment, and while yes, it also "follows programming" it (at least anthropomorphically) appears to have a goal.

(In Kentucky for example . . .) Sheriff's (and Deputy's) and State Police (those organizations with fewer officers covering wider areas) frequently have cruisers assigned to officers, and they take them home. Larger more metropolitan police (having a larger workforce that shares cars 24x7) less so.
Some mid-sized areas (like 50k population Bowling Green) have "some" officers take cars home. Parking a car at an apartment building, can have a "calming" effect, even if the officer is probably asleep.
It varies widely.

No AI here (and no argument on your evaluation of editors either).

Excellent point. I keep saying we should ask "Am I choosing a language for the 1 hr project, or the 10 year project?"
If its the 1 hr project (lets say to port data from one proprietary DB format to another) . . . write it in anything, Java, C, Haskell, APL . . . I don't care. You need it quick, not efficient, then will throw it away.
But if we're going to be Mostly Running it for 20 years (and less so modifying it) . . . like say for an OS . . . then . . . efficiency beats all. (Doesn't eliminate expand-ability and maintainability . . . but beats them to first place consideration.)
And, under ideal circumstances . . . its gonna be hard to beat Assembler. (Slower to market . . . perhaps . . . but faster for you the next 20 years as you run it.)

Robots might be a step in the right direction but . . .

First . . . I (and I would think, almost everyone else) don't want "AI" . . . I want "Real Intelligence, just in a rapidly reproducible form".

And I'm afraid without the ability learn by feeling pleasure, pain, or loss . . . we'll only accomplish a "fast parrot", without a spark of "drive" necessary for true intelligence.

Of course, as soon as we accomplish true intelligence . . . I'll have to wonder if we've just ventured back into slavery, and won't have the time to ask the robot, because he'll be too busy debating the existence of God, or whether to use VI or Emacs, or which is better C or Java, and whether he should run his C or Java on a PC or a MAC.

I wasn't referring to the "lead up" questions, or the "base line" questions.
My point was (in response to the poster I first responded to) that . . . at one time . . . in KY . . . they read the ENTIRE list of questions before beginning, to try and insure they were getting a physical response to a lie, not to the core impact of the question itself.
I'm not trying to debate the merits of lie detectors in general. (We need "something" . . . but I'm not sure the "something' we need . . . exists, or ever will.)
No matter how passive or "non harmful" it is claimed to be, recurring-FMRI sounds like one of those things I'd like to avoid out of basic health paranoia. And (if useful for anything at all) lie detectors seem more useful for exclusionary than inclusionary purposes. (A trained spy is likely to beat it . . . but to eliminate focus on parents that might have "done something" to a missing child, . . . with no advance training, they might not be able to beat it. And passing that test, allows authorities to focus harder on "outside" suspects.)

I made that point once to a KY State Police polygraph operator (who I met because my father was a KSP officer) . . . the polygraph operator responded . . . "That's why we give/read a list of questions in advance . . . we want your reaction to the "lie" . . . not to the magnitude of the question."

But . . . that was 20 years ago . . . things may have changed.

Thanks for the clarification.

Then . . . "we're doing it wrong."
There should never exist a "Bitcoin Bank" . . . there should only exist "Bitcoin Exchanges" that never "hold" anything, they only (atomically) exchange the singular small amount of Bitcoin you wish to covert to/from Fiat/Physical currency (or in/out of a real bank checking account).

Since (as I understand it) transfers of Bitcoin value/wealth could happen peer to peer to buy or sell goods and services directly between the two involved parties, . . . I see no advantage to "giving all our Bitcoin" to a bank. . . if you had 1000 Bitcoins, and wanted to exchange 2 for US$CashInCheckingAcct, then (atomically) transfer ONLY 2 Bitcoin in and get CashOut immediately.

The poster far above is correct . . . if your "giving" all your Bitcoin to a bank to hold for you . . . its just like ISK in a volunteer-player run "bank" in EVE Online . . . you're doomed.

Yes, I may ask the local Citizens Federal Bank of Amerika to hold my millions in cash for me . . . but only because in the real world, I can't provide physical security of the stacks and stacks of bills. Its just not the same in Bitcoin. If I can protect only the "private key" . . . there is no need to have a "Bank" "protect the physical bits and bytes" of the Bitcoin value.

I don't see why we couldn't just have a transaction that said . . . . User1234 agrees (using his private key), AND ExchangeBroker agrees (using their private key), to take 2Bitcoin from User1234, and deposit 2BitcoinOfCashValue in User1234's Checking account 12345678, with ExchangeBroker receiving .1% exchange value as fee. . . .in one atomic transaction. Heck, Visa (or Paypal) should sign up to provide this as a per transaction service.
But at no point need they "hold" all my Bitcoin value.

And there are so many "unexplained" points . . . (If I with my rack of GPU Bitcoin generators running in my basement discover the next key . . . while you (with your rack of GPU Bitcoin generators running in your basement discover the SAME key) . . . who wins? The first to report and propagate it to the "world-wide database")?

It just all seems too . . . (can't quite find the word . . . "shystery", "unavoidably fradulent", "unwittingly / inherently dangerous") to me . . . I'll stick to stuffing cash in my mattress.

Thanks for the clarification though.

I never invested in / used Bitcoins, because its either "value generated out of nothing" or . . . "some giant scheme by the NSA to convince us to crack encryption keys for them". Paranoia=Off

But to my noob question . . . if one of the benefits of Bitcoin is that . . . there is a complete transaction list for every Bitcoin, distributed everywhere . . . then why should I care if my Bitcoin bank went out of business . . . doesn't every other Bitcoin holder in the universe already have the proof that I own . . . what I own?

If I can cough up the Private Key (excuse my poor understanding of the concepts here) to match the records "everyone else" already has . . . how did the bank "take" anything from me?

For that matter . . . why are there even banks?
Bitcoin always sounded like "everyone has a copy of everyone else's balanced checkbook" . . . so, why can't I just continue to use my private key to make purchases?

Only my personal experience but as for "power cycling" . . . I follow one basic rule.

If you turn it off every night (when you go home from work) . . . it'll work fine, and last five years . . . then you're in the danger zone.
If you LEAVE IT ON for weeks at a time and NEVER turn it off . . . it'll work fine, and last five years . . . then you're in the danger zone.
What you NEVER want to do is . . . run it for a year (like at a factory plant) then turn it off for a week vacation. You're toast. (In my limited experience of 28 years) . . . if you turn it off that week . . . there is a 75% chance . . . it'll never turn on again.

I don't know if the "grease" settles, or the metal binds . . . I just know if its been on a year . . . don't turn it off for more than an hour or two if you want it to continue to work.