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Aug 7, 2015

Ban Killer Robots before They Become Weapons of Mass Destruction

Posted by in categories: computing, Elon Musk, robotics/AI

Technology » Forum Email Print Ban Killer Robots before They Become Weapons of Mass Destruction By Peter Asaro | August 7, 2015 Vladislav Ociacia/Thinkstock SA Forum is an invited essay from experts on topical issues in science and technology. Last week the Future of Life Institute released a letter signed by some 1,500 artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and technology researchers. Among them were celebrities of science and the technology industry—Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak—along with public intellectuals such as Noam Chomsky and Daniel Dennett. The letter called for an international ban on offensive autonomous weapons, which could target and fire weapons without meaningful human control.

This week is the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, together killing over 200,000 people, mostly civilians. It took 10 years before the physicist Albert Einstein and philosopher Bertrand Russell, along with nine other prominent scientists and intellectuals, issued a letter calling for global action to address the threat to humanity posed by nuclear weapons. They were motivated by the atomic devastation in Japan but also by the escalating arms race of the Cold War that was rapidly and vastly increasing the number, destructive capability, and efficient delivery of nuclear arms, draining vast resources and putting humanity at risk of total destruction. They also note in their letter that those who knew the most about the effects of such weapons were the most concerned and pessimistic about their continued development and use.

The Future of Life Institute letter is significant for the same reason: It is signed by a large group of those who know the most about AI and robotics, with some 1,500 signatures at its release on July 28 and more than 17,000 today. Signatories include many current and former presidents, fellows and members of the American Association of Artificial Intelligence, the Association of Computing Machinery and the IEEE Robotics & Automation Society; editors of leading AI and robotics journals; and key players in leading artificial-intelligence companies such as Google DeepMind and IBM’s Watson team. As Max Tegmark, Massachusetts Institute of Technology physics professor and a founder of the Future of Life Institute, told Motherboard, “This is the AI experts who are building the technology who are speaking up and saying they don’t want anything to do with this.”

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Aug 7, 2015

The Vampire Effect: Promising Rejuvenation Trial Requires Young Blood

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

A human rejuvenation trial is set to go ahead in October, in which victims
of Alzheimer’s disease will be given a transfusion of young blood.

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Aug 7, 2015

‘Internet of Things’ allows new terrorism threats, experts say — By Ryo Asayama | Nikkei Asian Review

Posted by in category: security

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“Increased Internet connectivity among cars, appliances, major infrastructure and everyday devices has opened the door to new threats of digital terrorism, say experts at the international digital security conference Black Hat.”

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Aug 6, 2015

Japanese Court: Bitcoin Cannot be Owned

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, economics, government, internet

Responding to this nugget from Engadget:

Tokyo District CourtTokyo’s district court has ruled that it’s not possible for people to own bitcoin, and therefore they cannot sue for compensation in the wake of Mt. Gox’s collapse.

The ruling comes days after the head of the world’s largest bitcoin exchange was arrested on charges of fraud. Judge Masumi Kurachi felt that bitcoins do not possess “tangible qualities” to constitute owned property. Mt. Gox held thousands of individual accounts, and so there’s plenty of angry customers looking for compensation.

Continue reading “Japanese Court: Bitcoin Cannot be Owned” »

Aug 6, 2015

Scientists identify cell pathway that could help regeneration of hair and skin in burn victims

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Study uncovers a role for a protein that works as a master regulator of regeneration in the skin.

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Aug 6, 2015

Why a Presidential Candidate Is Driving a Giant Coffin Called the Immortality Bus Across America

Posted by in categories: life extension, transhumanism

My new Huff Post Op-Ed on the Immortality Bus and transhumanism: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zoltan-istvan/why-a-presidenti…28826.html And if you haven’t donated something to the Indiegogo campaign for the bus, please consider doing so, as there’s only four days left and we’re currently short $9000. Anyone from any country can donate. Please also share the campaign. Thanks! https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/immortality-bus-with-pres…406#/story


On my tour called the “Immortality Bus,” I’m hoping to share with others that we should support a society and culture that is strongly pro-science and pro-longevity. My team and I plan to have embedded journalists aboard the bus, documenting our trip and enlivening the conversation.

Unfortunately, many people in America and around the world — especially those who believe in afterlives — are neutral or even oppose stopping biological death and aging with science. They feel it challenges what is natural in the human species. Transhumanists call these people “deathists,” those who believe and accept that death is a desirable fate.

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Aug 6, 2015

Hierarchies of Evidence — Pseudoscience v. Evidence Based Medicine

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

via The Spudd.

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Aug 6, 2015

In Tech, the Smartphone is the Center | a16z

Posted by in categories: hardware, innovation, internet, software

Aug 6, 2015

Think 80 Years Is A Long Time? Take a Look At This

Posted by in category: life extension

It can be all too easy to drift through life on automatic, forever putting things off, but statistics and data can give a physicality to things we barely notice or consider most of the time. These diagrams might just give you an entirely new perspective on your life.

Read the full article at The Longevity Reporter: http://www.longevityreporter.org/blog/2015/7/16/think-80-yea…hink-again.

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Aug 6, 2015

Why Are Tech Billionaires Investing In Aging Research?

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, economics, life extension

Peter Thiel, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Bill Maris, Mark Zuckerberg…investment in biotech by leading figures in the world of technology is reaching new heights, with the regenerative medicine market projected to reach $20 billion by 2025 and the overall anti-aging market $345.8 billion by 2018.

These forecasts combined with a recent biotech boom mean that the economic reasons for investing are becoming clear and rising demand is virtually inevitable as the proportion of older individuals continues to grow to unparalleled levels. Bill Gates may have labelled anti-aging efforts as ‘egocentric’, but the investment doesn’t appear to be due to economic reasons alone; there is also a strong humanitarian and aspirational aspect that links some of these individuals together — the desire to utilise technology to create a better society.

‘With all being from a scientific background, Page, Brin and Maris particularly are clear in their belief that science holds the key to radically improving both the human condition and the world we live in — the pinnacle of this being radically prolonging human lifespan. In a recent Bloomberg interview Maris points out we live in an era where science can make all the tools available for any audacious vision out there…To these tech billionaires, evolution is meant to be transcended, and the resources put into organ regeneration, drugs that control ageing, or reprogramming DNA reflects their conviction that people have the right to lead better lives.’

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