A moon may once have been consumed by Venus, after existing alongside the planet for up to 1.7 billion years
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How AI plotted an interstellar journey to Alpha Centauri
A nonprofit organization called the Fermi Explorer Mission announced today that it intends to launch a spacecraft to our nearest star system by the end of 2029.
It’s a hugely ambitious mission—if all goes well, the spacecraft could take up to 80,000 years to arrive at Alpha Centauri, which is 4.4 light-years away. And the spacecraft will follow a novel trajectory discovered by an AI system developed by Physical Superintelligence (PSI), an AI physics research lab. PSI is launching today with $58 million in funding led by Breakthrough Energy, a climate-focused investment group founded by Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates.
NASA scientists grew corn seeds in space and found that microgravity changed how the seedlings’ roots and shoots grew
Long before astronauts ever plant a seed on the Moon or Mars, NASA has been testing a much simpler question here on Earth’s doorstep: what happens when a corn seed germinates with no gravity to tell it which way to grow? Back in the early 1990s, researchers flew dry corn kernels aboard the space shuttle, let them sprout in orbit, and compared them against identical seedlings grown under normal gravity on the ground.
Ernst & Young to award $100 million in bonuses for employees who show people skills
Ernst & Young has seen the future, and it involves people doing what AI can’t.
EY, one of the “Big Four” management consulting firms, said Monday it plans to award $100 million in bonuses to workers who demonstrate human skills, such as leadership, judgment, business acumen, collaboration and an ability to adapt.
Although EY said it will also reward “technology adoption,” the company emphasized the importance of nurturing human skills for its success.
Arthur C. Clarke’s 3 Laws: When the Future Looks Like Magic
Sixty years ago, a man sat in front of a camera and described the world we live in today.
Satellites. Instant global communication. Machines that think, which we now just call #AI.
Arthur C. Clarke got much of it right, and he was not guessing.
What interests me more than his predictions is what sits underneath them. Three short sentences about how the future actually arrives. Not laws of physics. Laws of psychology. They explain why the most credentialed person in the room is so often the one most confidently wrong about what comes next.
You have probably heard one of the three quoted, usually by someone who has no idea whose line it is. The other two are the ones worth arguing about.
I wrote up all three, plus three rare retro-futurist interviews where you can watch him do the work live.
So the next time somebody tells you that something is impossible, the useful question is not whether they are right. It is what Clarke would say.