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Lifeboat News #142

#142

Lifeboat News

This issue published on 05/01/14. Copyright 2014 Lifeboat Foundation. All Rights Reserved.

YouTube Channel

The Lifeboat Foundation has launched our YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/lifeboathq
 
We are initially launching it with Asteroids, Biotech/Medical, Cybercrime/Malcode, Cryptocurrency, Drones, Educational, Existential Risks, Futurism, Life Extension, Nanotechnology, Neuroscience, Nuclear, Particle Accelerator, Particle Physics, Robotics/AI, Space Settlement, Sustainability, and Transparency and Privacy videos.
 
Important videos on this channel include:
 
"Blue Beauty: Our Beautiful Earth" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKv3xRB8zIE
 
"The Doomsday Curve" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKmlljhVC_4
 
"Existential Risks - An Educational Video for the Lifeboat Foundation by Dr. Kim Solez" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCTKsan7FT0

Lifeboat Foundation Essays

An interesting activity that is relevant to Lifeboat concerns has been provided for us by the Foundational Questions Institute, styled FQXi. They recently ran an essay contest on the topic, "How should humanity steer the future?". This contest was announced to Lifeboat members. Fifteen of the 155 posted essays are written by Lifeboat members, and some are written by top scientists. The contest is closed to submissions, but we can still participate.
 
Members of the public are invited to read and rate essays on the FQXi website. Public ratings will not decide the winners, but they may guide official judges. Essay quality varies, and the best might make a real contribution, so FQXi could use help in finding which are best. Their diversity is also interesting, and might show us paths we could take, and perhaps paths to avoid.
 
Lifeboat members who submitted essays include James Blodgett, Frank Boehm, Angelika Domschke, James Dunn, Preston Estep, Bob Freeman, Giorgio Gaviraghi, Jacob Haqq-Misra, Orenda Urbano Hernández, Alexander Hoekstra, Ted Howard, Valkyrie Ice, Randal A. Koene, Alexander MacRae, Federico Pistono, Walter Putnam, and Tihamer Toth-Fejel.
 
The essays are posted at http://fqxi.org/community/forum/category/31422
 
Vote today!

Blog

M. A. Greenstein joins our blog team with the post "R U Ready to be Uploaded?" at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/04/r-u-re...uploaded
 
Recent interesting blog posts include:
 
"Affirmation / ES Technical Note on LHC Collider Safety (p-p/MBH)" by Tom Kerwick at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/05/conclu...r-safety
 
"Bionic Athletes With Exoskeletons, Robotic Limbs, and Brain-Control Devices to Compete in 2016 Cybathlon" by Seb at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/04/bionic...ybathlon
 
"Could Mind-reading Technology Become Harmful?" by Harry J. Bentham at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/04/could-...-harmful
 
"The Realistic Cost Of The Next Space Race" by Benjamin T. Solomon at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/05/the-re...ace-race
 
"This Is What A Holographic iPhone Might Look Like" by Seb at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/05/this-i...ook-like
 
"What to make of the film 'Transcendence'? Show it in classrooms" by Steve Fuller at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/05/what-t...assrooms

Growing Membership

Recent donations/pledges we have received since our last newsletter:
 
Michael Dickey: $85, Sergio M.L. Tarrero: $85, Philippe Van Nedervelde: $85, Kenneth P. Weiss: $85, J. Broadbent: $25, Matthew L. McGuirl: $25, Anonymous: $10, Rebecca R. Cooper: $10, Thomas Dolphin: $10, Alexander Macrae: $10, Aaron Mayzes: $10, Philip Morehead: $10, and Roland Schiefer: $10.
 
Our Join Us page at https://lifeboat.com/ex/join.us now allows you to pay for your membership anywhere from monthly to every ten years.