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Archive for the ‘computing’ category: Page 670

Oct 9, 2016

Two billionaires want to help break humanity out of a giant computer simulation

Posted by in category: computing

RED PILL!!!!


The hypothesis that we might all be living in a computer simulation has gotten so popular among Silicon Valley’s tech elites that two billionaires are now apparently pouring money into breaking us out of the simulation.

That’s according to a new profile in the New Yorker about Y Combinator’s Sam Altman. The story delves into Altman’s life and successes at the helm of the famous boot-camp and investment fund for tech startups, and doesn’t shy away from the quirkier aspects of Altman’s character.

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Oct 7, 2016

Synapse-like memristor-based electronic device detects brain spikes in real time

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, cyborgs, robotics/AI

Neural Nanonics here we come: “Could lead to future autonomous, fully implantable neuroprosthetic devices”


Memristor chip (credit: University of Southampton)

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Oct 7, 2016

Scientists just developed the world’s smallest transistor

Posted by in category: computing

Scientists have succeeded in creating the world’s smallest transistor, producing a switch with a working 1-nanometre gate. If you want to know how incredibly tiny that is, a human hair is around 80,000 to 100,000 nanometres wide.

Unlike regular transistors, the researchers’ new prototype isn’t made out of silicon – and the smaller size means we can still improve performance in integrated circuits by populating them with greater amounts of incredibly small components.

And it could help us keep Moore’s Law alive too.

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Oct 6, 2016

The quantum clock is ticking on encryption – and your data is under threat

Posted by in categories: computing, encryption, quantum physics, security

Quantum computers pose a major threat to the security of our data. So what can be done to keep it safe?

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Oct 6, 2016

Field of quantum computing is undergoing a rapid shake-up

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

Click to play the video.

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Oct 6, 2016

Tech billionaires convinced we live in the Matrix are secretly funding scientists to help break us out of it

Posted by in categories: computing, robotics/AI

Some of the world’s richest and most powerful people are convinced that we are living in a computer simulation. And now they’re trying to do something about it.

At least two of Silicon Valley’s tech billionaires are pouring money into efforts to break humans out of the simulation that they believe that it is living in, according to a new report.

Philosophers have long been concerned about how we can know that our world isn’t just a very believable simulation of a real one. But concern about that has become ever more active in recent years, as computers and artificial intelligence have advanced.

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Oct 6, 2016

When her best friend died, she used artificial intelligence to keep talking to him

Posted by in categories: computing, robotics/AI

When the engineers had at last finished their work, Eugenia Kuyda opened a console on her laptop and began to type.

“Roman,” she wrote. “This is your digital monument.”

It had been three months since Roman Mazurenko, Kuyda’s closest friend, had died. Kuyda had spent that time gathering up his old text messages, setting aside the ones that felt too personal, and feeding the rest into a neural network built by developers at her artificial intelligence startup. She had struggled with whether she was doing the right thing by bringing him back this way. At times it had even given her nightmares. But ever since Mazurenko’s death, Kuyda had wanted one more chance to speak with him.

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Oct 5, 2016

Now You Can Use Your Head (and the Rest of Your Body) to Securely Transfer Data

Posted by in categories: computing, privacy, security

In Brief.

  • Data can be sent at rates of 50 bps on laptop touchpads and 25 bps with fingerprint sensors using on-body transmission.
  • New developments in biometrics are allowing for even greater privacy and security in our networked society.

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Oct 5, 2016

At the bleeding edge of AI: Quantum grocery picking and transfer learning

Posted by in categories: business, computing, quantum physics, robotics/AI

Digitising Business —

At the bleeding edge of AI: Quantum grocery picking and transfer learning.

Computer vision, neural nets, and deep learning are hot topics at UK R&D centres.

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Oct 5, 2016

Nobel Physics Prize winners: All you need to know about mugs, donuts and quantum computing

Posted by in categories: computing, mathematics, quantum physics

Stockholm: The Nobel Physics prize was the second of the awards to be given away, on Tuesday, to a Birtish trio — scientists David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz for revealing the secrets of exotic matter.

Thouless, 82, is professor emeritus at the University of Washington in Seattle. Haldane, 65, is a professor at Princeton University, and Kosterlitz, born in 1942, teaches at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The laureates will share the eight million Swedish kronor (around $931,000 or 834,000 euros) prize sum. Thouless won one-half of the prize, while Haldane and Hosterlitz share the other half.

“This year’s laureates opened the door on an unknown world where matter can assume strange states. They have used advanced mathematical methods to study unusual phases, or states, of matter, such as superconductors, superfluids or thin magnetic films. Thanks to their pioneering work, the hunt is now on for new and exotic phases of matter,” said the Nobel jury.

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