Uploading your mind is not a pathway to immortality. Instead, it will create a possibly hostile digital doppelgänger.
Category: computing – Page 484
How Taiwan’s tiny chips are quietly shaping US geopolitics
Taiwan’s dominance of the semiconductor manufacturing market has made it a vital geopolitical interest for the US.
Taiwan dominates the world’s supply of computer chips — no wonder the US is worried.
One aspect of Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan that has been largely overlooked is her meeting with Mark Lui, chairman of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC). Pelosi’s trip coincided with US efforts to convince TSMC — the world’s largest chip manufacturer, on which the US is heavily dependent — to establish a manufacturing base in the US and to stop making advanced chips for Chinese companies.
US support for Taiwan has historically been based on Washington’s opposition to communist rule in Beijing, and Taiwan’s resistance to absorption by China. But in recent years, Taiwan’s autonomy has become a vital geopolitical interest for the US because of the island’s dominance of the semiconductor manufacturing market.
Semiconductors — also known as computer chips or just chips — are integral to all the networked devices that have become embedded into our lives. They also have advanced military applications.
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The dark matter hypothesis isn’t perfect, but the alternatives are worse
But the dark matter hypothesis isn’t perfect. Computer simulations of the growth of galaxies suggest that dark-matter-dominated galaxies should have incredibly high densities in their centers. Observations of real galaxies do show higher densities in their cores, but not nearly enough as those simulations predicted. Also, simulations of dark matter evolving in the universe predict that every galaxy should have hundreds of smaller satellites, while observations consistently come up short.
Given that the dark matter hypothesis isn’t perfect — and that we have no direct evidence for the existence of any candidate particles — it’s worth exploring other options.
One such option was introduced back in the 1970s alongside the original dark matter idea, when astronomer Vera Rubin first discovered the problem of stars moving too quickly inside galaxies. But instead of adding a new ingredient to the universe, the alternative changes the recipe by altering how gravity works at galactic scales. The original idea is called MOND, for “modified Newtonian dynamics,” but the name also applies to the general family of theories descended from that original concept.
The future of brain-computer interfaces | Bryan Johnson and Lex Fridman
Great talk on BMIs, the future of life and intelligence:
Lex Fridman Podcast full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YbcB6b4A2U
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Bryan Johnson is the founder and CEO of Kernel, OS Fund, and previously Braintree.
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30 Free Circuit Simulators Lightly Reviewed
We live in a time where great software is available with the click of a mouse, often for free or — at least — low cost. But there’s a problem: how do you select from so many alternatives? We were interested in [Lee Teschler]’s review earlier this year of 30 free circuit simulators. If you are selecting one or don’t like the one you are currently using, it is well worth the time to review.
There are several on the list that you’ve probably heard of before like GNUCap and LTspice. There are also some lesser-known products. Some of those are just trial or student versions of paid products. Some are branded versions of commercial products (like Tina) or were made free after selling for higher price tags (like MicroCap 12).
Old favorites like Falstad (which is apparently known as Circuit Sims) and TinkerCAD made the list. Many of the trial versions were very limited. For example, DCAClab only provides an NPN bipolar transistor model. Proteus doesn’t let you save or print unless you pay. While the list includes TI’s Tina, it doesn’t seem to mention that TI also provides a free version of PSpice which is a very popular professional product.
Computer Science Proof Unveils Unexpected Form of Entanglement
Another version of the PCP theorem, not yet proved, specifically deals with the quantum case. Computer scientists suspect that the quantum PCP conjecture is true, and proving it would change our understanding of the complexity of quantum problems. It’s considered arguably the most important open problem in quantum computational complexity theory. But so far, it’s remained unreachable.
Nine years ago, two researchers identified an intermediate goal to help us get there. They came up with a simpler hypothesis, known as the “no low-energy trivial state” (NLTS) conjecture, which would have to be true if the quantum PCP conjecture is true. Proving it wouldn’t necessarily make it any easier to prove the quantum PCP conjecture, but it would resolve some of its most intriguing questions.
Then in June of 2022, in a paper posted to the scientific preprint site arxiv.org, three computer scientists proved the NLTS conjecture. The result has striking implications for computer science and quantum physics.
Dual-plasmid editing system improves DNA digital storage potential
DNA-based information is a new interdisciplinary field linking information technology and biotechnology. The field hopes to meet the enormous need for long-term data storage by using DNA as an information storage medium. Despite DNA’s promise of strong stability, high storage density and low maintenance cost, however, researchers face problems accurately rewriting digital information encoded in DNA sequences.
Generally, DNA data storage technology has two modes, i.e., the “in vitro hard disk mode” and the “in vivo CD mode.” The primary advantage of the in vivo mode is its low-cost, reliable replication of chromosomal DNA by cell replication. Due to this characteristic, it can be used for rapid and low-cost data copy dissemination. Since encoded DNA sequences for some information contain a large number of repeats and the appearance of homopolymers, however, such information can only be “written” and “read,” but cannot be accurately “rewritten.”
To solve the rewriting problem, Prof. Liu Kai from the Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Prof. LI Jingjing from the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry (CIAC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Prof. Chen Dong from Zhejiang University led a research team that recently developed a dual-plasmid editing system for accurately processing digital information in a microbial vector. Their findings were published in Science Advances.
Data Centers Face Cooling Problem While Temperatures Rise
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The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) states that there’s a 93 percent chance that one year between now and 2026 will be the hottest on record. Not only will these record high temperatures have an impact on our environment and lives, but they are also expected to change the way in which we safeguard technology. For example, how do you cool data centers while the outside temperature keeps getting higher and higher?
This problem has been discussed previously before due to several failings of data centers around the world caused by cooling failures. That weather shift will have an impact on all human-made infrastructure—including the data centers that keep our planet’s collective knowledge online. According to wired.com, 45 percent of US data centers have experienced an extreme weather event that threatened their ability to operate.
Researchers discover major roadblock in alleviating network congestion
When users want to send data over the internet faster than the network can handle, congestion can occur—the same way traffic congestion snarls the morning commute into a big city.
Computers and devices that transmit data over the internet break the data down into smaller packets and use a special algorithm to decide how fast to send those packets. These congestion control algorithms seek to fully discover and utilize available network capacity while sharing it fairly with other users who may be sharing the same network. These algorithms try to minimize delay caused by data waiting in queues in the network.
Over the past decade, researchers in industry and academia have developed several algorithms that attempt to achieve high rates while controlling delays. Some of these, such as the BBR algorithm developed by Google, are now widely used by many websites and applications.
