Lifeboat Foundation

A new database aims to make it easier than ever to access and search through the world’s massive trove of research papers.

Each year, millions of scientific and academic papers get published across thousands of journals. The majority of those papers lie behind paywalls, costing $9 to $30 (or more) to read. Finding them can be difficult: Tools like Google Scholar allow you to search for paper titles and keywords, but more specialized queries are difficult.

The General Index was designed to reduce those obstacles without breaking the law. Developed by the technologist Carl Malamud and his nonprofit foundation Public Resource, the free-to-use index contains words and phrases from more than 107 million research papers, comprising 8.5 terabytes when compressed.

Intel senior vice president Keyvan Esfarjani and Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger at the groundbreaking of two new chip fabrication plants in Chandler, Arizona, on Friday, Sept. 24 2021.

Intel Corporation.

The world’s smallest and most-efficient chips are usually referred to as 5 nanometer, a nomenclature that once referred to the width of transistors on the chip. They power cutting-edge data processing and the latest generation of Apple iPhones. TSMC and Samsung make all of these 5-nanometer chips at fabs in Asia.

Have you ever seen the popular movie called The Matrix? In it, the main character Neo realizes that he and everyone else he had ever known had been living in a computer-simulated reality. But even after taking the red pill and waking up from his virtual world, how can he be so sure that this new reality is the real one? Could it be that this new reality of his is also a simulation? In fact, how can anyone tell the difference between simulated reality and a non-simulated one? The short answer is, we cannot. Today we are looking at the simulation hypothesis which suggests that we all might be living in a simulation designed by an advanced civilization with computing power far superior to ours.

The simulation hypothesis was popularized by Nick Bostrum, a philosopher at the University of Oxford, in 2003. He proposed that members of an advanced civilization with enormous computing power may run simulations of their ancestors. Perhaps to learn about their culture and history. If this is the case he reasoned, then they may have run many simulations making a vast majority of minds simulated rather than original. So, there is a high chance that you and everyone you know might be just a simulation. Do not buy it? There is more!

Continue reading “The Simulation Hypothesis | Is Anything ‘Real’” »

A new method for quantum computing algorithms achieved an unprecedented efficiency that’s 2,500% more effective! And it could change everything.

Circa 2015 what if we didn’t need computers we only needed our minds upgraded? Quantum cognition talks about a theory of an upgraded mind.

What type of probability theory best describes the way humans make judgments under uncertainty and decisions under conflict? Although rational models of cognition have become prominent and have achieved much success, they adhere to the laws of classical probability theory despite the fact that human reasoning does not always conform to these laws. For this reason we have seen the recent emergence of models based on an alternative probabilistic framework drawn from quantum theory. These quantum models show promise in addressing cognitive phenomena that have proven recalcitrant to modeling by means of classical probability theory. This review compares and contrasts probabilistic models based on Bayesian or classical versus quantum principles, and highlights the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.

This follows on from an earlier talk I posted by John Cleese (of Monty Python fame) on creativity in business. Mr. Cleese has many great talks on that as he did a tour for his book on creativity. Here Peter Thiel deals with a variety of topics like innovation, trends in business, the stagnation of most technology sectors (no, tech doesn’t just mean computers and consumer gadgets… that a narrow industry is now referred to as the “tech sector” should worry people), many topics… See more.

Speaking with Wired magazine editor David Rowan in London at an event on 25 September, Thiel said that “uniqueness”, “secrets”, and a monopoly on the marketplace were the key to successful startups.

Continue reading “Peter Thiel: Successful Businesses are Based on Secrets” »

THIS IS THE NEW CHANNEL — All of my work will now be here, so please subscribe!

Join [THE FACILITY] right now for members-only live streams, behind-the-scenes posts, and office hours with me: https://www.patreon.com/kylehill.

Continue reading “PLANET-SIZED Computers — Technological Endpoints of Civilization” »

Physicists have created a modem for the quantum internet of the future, giving powerful quantum computers a way to share information.

Short for circuit layer operations per second.

IBM has announced the creation of what could become the new performance metric for quantum computers: Circuit Layer Operations per Second (CLOPS). The aim is to allow customers and providers of quantum systems to easily understand performance differences between products.