May 18, 2024
How ‘mind-uploading’ stands to shake the core of humanity
Posted by Paul Battista in category: life extension
We’re closer than ever to being able to upload our minds and become “digitally immortal.” But should we?
Search results for 'Humanity'
May 1, 2024
Nick Bostrom: Superintelligence, Posthumanity, and AI Utopia | Robinson’s Podcast #205
Posted by Dan Breeden in category: robotics/AI
Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7Nick Bostrom is a Swedish philosopher who was most recently Professor at Oxford University, where he served as the founding Di…
Apr 25, 2024
Scientist claims to have ‘evidence’ from ‘Second Law of Infodynamics’ that humanity lives in a simulation
Posted by Paul Battista in categories: energy, physics, space
A scientist at the University of Portsmouth claims to have ‘evidence’ that humanity exists with a simulation. In the 1999 movie The Matrix, the plot centers around the fact that we live in a digital simulation, and scientist Melvin Vopson claims that fact may match the fiction of the popular blockbuster.
Vopson has written extensively on the topic of the possibility that the known universe is a digital facsimile. He has provided articles for The Conversation and authored a book, Reality Reloaded, on the theme.
But while many of the theories posited about the universe being a simulation are in the realm of the abstract, Vopson now claims to have evidence that support his theory. “In physics, there are laws that govern everything that happens in the universe, for example how objects move, how energy flows, and so on. Everything is based on the laws of physics,” the scientist said in 2022, reports Popular Mechanics.
Apr 21, 2024
Marshall Brain: We’re approaching humanity’s make or break period
Posted by Chris Smedley in categories: ethics, robotics/AI
Marshal Brain’s 2003 book Manna was quite ahead of its time in foreseeing that eventually, one way or another, we will have to confront and address the phenomenon of technological unemployment. In addition, Marshall is a passionate brainiac with a jovial personality, impressive background and a unique perspective. And so I was very happy to meet him in person for an exclusive interview. [Special thanks to David Wood without whose introduction this interview may not have happened!]
During our 82 min conversation with Marshall Brain we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: his books The Second Intelligent Species and Manna; AI as the end game for humanity; using cockroaches as a metaphor; logic and ethics; simulating the human brain; the importance of language and visual processing for the creating of AI; marrying off Siri to Watson; technological unemployment, social welfare and perpetual vacation; capitalism, socialism and the need for systemic change …
As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation or become a patron on Patreon.
Apr 14, 2024
Elon Musk ‘guesses’ AI will be brighter than people by the end of 2026, but there’s a 20% chance it might end humanity anyway
Posted by Dan Breeden in categories: Elon Musk, robotics/AI
Generative AI is quite impressive and has been the common denominator (in most cases) when tapping into new opportunities and unlocking new heights in the tech landscape. Microsoft has significantly benefited from the technology and is currently ranking as the world’s most valuable company, ahead of Apple with over $3 trillion in market capitalization. Market analysts attribute part of this success to its early investment and adoption of AI across its products and services.
Still, AI encounters its fair share of setbacks coupled with controversies and rumors. Perhaps one of the main challenges facing the technology is the lack of elaborate measures and guardrails to prevent it from spiraling out of control.
While relevant parties continue to try to establish control over the technology, billionaire Elon Musk predicts AI will be more intelligent than humans by the end of 2026 (via Business Insider). Musk shared these sentiments in an interview with Norges Bank CEO Nicolai Tangen on X (formerly Twitter).
Mar 31, 2024
Frontiers: The Internet comprises a decentralized global system that serves humanity’s collective effort to generate
Posted by Dan Breeden in categories: biotech/medical, education, internet, nanotechnology, Ray Kurzweil, robotics/AI, supercomputing
Process, and store data, most of which is handled by the rapidly expanding cloud. A stable, secure, real-time system may allow for interfacing the cloud with the human brain. One promising strategy for enabling such a system, denoted here as a “human brain/cloud interface” (“B/CI”), would be based on technologies referred to here as “neuralnanorobotics.” Future neuralnanorobotics technologies are anticipated to facilitate accurate diagnoses and eventual cures for the ∼400 conditions that affect the human brain. Neuralnanorobotics may also enable a B/CI with controlled connectivity between neural activity and external data storage and processing, via the direct monitoring of the brain’s ∼86 × 109 neurons and ∼2 × 1014 synapses. Subsequent to navigating the human vasculature, three species of neuralnanorobots (endoneurobots, gliabots, and synaptobots) could traverse the blood–brain barrier (BBB), enter the brain parenchyma, ingress into individual human brain cells, and autoposition themselves at the axon initial segments of neurons (endoneurobots), within glial cells (gliabots), and in intimate proximity to synapses (synaptobots). They would then wirelessly transmit up to ∼6 × 1016 bits per second of synaptically processed and encoded human–brain electrical information via auxiliary nanorobotic fiber optics (30 cm3) with the capacity to handle up to 1018 bits/sec and provide rapid data transfer to a cloud based supercomputer for real-time brain-state monitoring and data extraction. A neuralnanorobotically enabled human B/CI might serve as a personalized conduit, allowing persons to obtain direct, instantaneous access to virtually any facet of cumulative human knowledge. Other anticipated applications include myriad opportunities to improve education, intelligence, entertainment, traveling, and other interactive experiences. A specialized application might be the capacity to engage in fully immersive experiential/sensory experiences, including what is referred to here as “transparent shadowing” (TS). Through TS, individuals might experience episodic segments of the lives of other willing participants (locally or remote) to, hopefully, encourage and inspire improved understanding and tolerance among all members of the human family.
“We’ll have nanobots that… connect our neocortex to a synthetic neocortex in the cloud… Our thinking will be a… biological and non-biological hybrid.”
— Ray Kurzweil, TED 2014
Mar 28, 2024
Rise of the Cyborgs: Merging Humanity with Technology
Posted by Dan Breeden in category: cyborgs
In recent years, technology’s allure has drawn in an increasing number of individuals, promising a faster and easier life. Now, some pioneers are venturing a step further, merging their bodies with technology to enhance their capabilities and extend their sensory perception, giving rise to real-life cyborgs.
Absolute Documentaries brings you the best of entertaining and fascinating documentaries for free. Whether you’re into true crime, stories from around the world, family and social life, science or psychology, we’ve got you covered with must-see full-length documentaries every week.
Continue reading “Rise of the Cyborgs: Merging Humanity with Technology” »
Try free for 7 days, and get a 60% discount if you join the Speakly annual subscription: https://speakly.app.link/sciencephile…
Sciencephile Merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/sci…
Continue reading “The 5 Possible Fates of Humanity Explained” »
Mar 1, 2024
Elon Musk sues OpenAI for abandoning its mission to benefit humanity
Posted by Gemechu Taye in categories: Elon Musk, health, information science, law, robotics/AI
Elon Musk claims OpenAI is using GPT-4 to ‘maximize profits’ instead of ‘for the benefit of humanity.’
The lawsuit claims that the GPT-4 model OpenAI released in March 2023 isn’t just capable of reasoning but is also actually “better at reasoning than average humans,” having scored in the 90th percentile on the Uniform Bar Examination for lawyers. The company is rumored to be developing a more advanced model, known as “Q Star,” that has a stronger claim to being true artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Altman was fired (and subsequently rehired five days later) by OpenAI in 2023 over vague claims that his communication with the board was “hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities.” The lawsuit filed by Musk alleges that in the days following this event, Altman, Brockman, and Microsoft “exploited Microsoft’s significant leverage over OpenAI” to replace board members with handpicked alternatives that were better approved of by Microsoft.
Continue reading “Elon Musk sues OpenAI for abandoning its mission to benefit humanity” »
Mar 1, 2024
A vision of chipped humanity: Brain chip implants like Neuralink raise questions about the future of humanity
Posted by Dan Breeden in categories: biotech/medical, cybercrime/malcode, cyborgs, Elon Musk, finance, health, law, robotics/AI, transhumanism
Interestingly enough, although Elon Musk’s Neuralink received a great deal of media attention, early in 2023, Synchron published results from its first-in-human study of four patients with severe paralysis who received its first-generation Stentrode neuroprosthesis implant. The implant allowed participants to create digital switches that controlled daily tasks like sending texts and emails, partaking in online banking, and communicating care needs. The study’s findings were published in a paper in JAMA Neurology in January 2023. Then, before September, the first six US patients had the Synchron BCI implanted. The study’s findings are expected by late 2024.
Let’s return to Upgrade. “One part The Six Million Dollar Man, one part Death Wish revenge fantasy” was how critics described the movie. While Death Wish is a 1974 American vigilante action-thriller movie that is partially based on Brian Garfield’s 1972 novel of the same name, the American sci-fi television series The Six Million Dollar Man from the 1970s, based on Martin Caidin’s 1972 novel Cyborg, could be considered a landmark in the context of human-AI symbiosis, although in fantasy’s domain. Oscar Goldman’s opening line in The Six Million Dollar Man was, “Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to make the world’s first bionic man… Better than he was before. Better—stronger—faster.” The term “cyborg” is a portmanteau of the words “cybernetic” and “organism,” which was coined in 1960 by two scientists, Manfred Clynes and Nathan S Kline.
At the moment, “cyborg” doesn’t seem to be a narrative of a distant future, though. Rather, it’s very much a story of today. We are just inches away from becoming cyborgs, perhaps, thanks to the brain chip implants, although Elon Musk perceives that “we are already a cyborg to some degree,” and he may be right. Cyborgs, however, pose a threat, while the dystopian idea of being ruled by Big Brother also haunts. Around the world, chip implants have already sparked heated discussions on a variety of topics, including privacy, the law, technology, medicine, security, politics, and religion. USA Today published a piece headlined “You will get chipped—eventually” as early as August 2017. And an article published in The Atlantic in September 2018 discussed how (not only brain chips but) microchip implants, in general, are evolving from a tech-geek curiosity to a legitimate health utility and that there may not be as many reasons to say “no.” But numerous concerns about privacy and cybersecurity would keep us haunted. It would be extremely difficult for policymakers to formulate laws pertaining to such sensitive yet quickly developing technology.
