Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: computing – Page 68

A recent study published in Communications Psychology reveals that individuals with higher psychopathic traits show reduced sensitivity to pain, which affects their ability to learn from painful consequences. The researchers found that people with elevated psychopathic traits tend to revert quickly to initial beliefs after experiencing pain. This new insight could help us understand why individuals with these traits often struggle to adapt their behavior despite negative consequences.

People with psychopathic traits frequently ignore the negative consequences of their actions, likely due to differences in how they process punishment. Past studies have indicated that psychopathy is associated with both an insensitivity to punishment and an excessive drive toward reward, but this study aimed to explore the computational learning processes specifically related to pain. Pain can serve as a powerful teaching signal, so understanding how reduced pain sensitivity influences learning in people with psychopathic traits could shed light on the mechanisms behind their often harmful decision-making.

“One of the hallmarks of psychopathy is aggressive, exploitative behavior with little regard for the wellbeing of others,” said study author Dimana Atanassova, a postdoctoral researcher at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour at Radboud University.

Read more | >

Intel is planning to launch its next-gen Arc Battlemage desktop GPUs next month, competing in the mid-range segment against Intel & AMD.

Intel Expected To Reveal Decisive Information Around Arc Battlemage “Desktop” GPUs Next Month, Setting The Tone For Next-Gen GPU Markets

Although Intel’s first-gen Arc Desktop GPUs saw little success in the gaming segment, the next-gen is now planned for an unveiling next month.

Read more | >

The interface superconductor underwent a transition under a magnetic field and became more robust, the scientists said in the paper This suggests it has transformed into a “triplet superconductor.” — a type of superconductor that is more resistant to magnetic fields than conventional superconductors.

They conducted the research in conjunction with the National Institute of Standards and Technology. In earlier work, they demonstrated that thin films of gold and niobium naturally suppress decoherence — the loss of quantum properties due to external environmental interference.

Given its robust quantum qualities and its ability to suppress decoherence, this new superconducting material promises to be ideal for use in quantum computers, the scientists said. Minimizing decoherence within the system is a key challenge, which necessitates extreme measures to isolate the quantum computer from external influences, such as shifts in temperature or electromagnetic interference, as well as the use of error-correcting algorithms to ensure calculations remain accurate.

Read more | >

A new technique enables data storage in synthetic polymers, allowing direct bit access without full sequence decoding, significantly increasing storage density and stability, demonstrated by encoding a university address in ASCII within a polymer.

The need for data storage is growing, with many types of data requiring long-term preservation. Synthetic polymers present an efficient alternative to traditional storage media, as they can store information using less space and energy. However, conventional retrieval methods, like mass spectrometry, limit the length—and therefore the storage capacity—of individual polymer chains. Now, as reported in Angewandte Chemie, researchers have developed a new approach that overcomes this limitation, enabling direct access to specific data bits without having to read the entire chain.

Advantages of polymer storage over DNA.

Read more | >

A breakthrough discovery in indium selenide could revolutionize memory storage technology by enabling crystalline-to-glass transitions with minimal energy.

Researchers found that this transformation can occur through mechanical shocks induced by continuous electric current, bypassing the energy-intensive melting and quenching process. This new approach reduces energy consumption by a billion times, potentially enabling more efficient data storage devices.

Revolutionary discovery in memory storage materials.

Read more | >

The SPINNING project, under the leadership of the Fraunhofer Institute, is pioneering a quantum computer using diamond-based spin photons, promising lower cooling requirements, longer operating times, and lower error rates compared to conventional quantum systems.

This innovative approach leverages the unique properties of diamonds to create stable qubits, aiming for high scalability and fidelity in quantum computing. Recent achievements include the successful demonstration of qubit entanglement over long distances, significantly outperforming traditional quantum computers in error rate and coherence time.

The SPINNING project: innovating with diamond-based technology.

Read more | >

After thousands of years as a highly valuable commodity, silk continues to surprise. Now it may help usher in a whole new direction for microelectronics and computing.

While silk protein has been deployed in designer electronics, its use is currently limited in part because silk fibers are a messy tangle of spaghetti-like strands.

Now, a research team led by scientists at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has tamed the tangle. They report in the journal Science Advances (“Two-dimensional silk”) that they have achieved a uniform two-dimensional (2D) layer of silk protein fragments, or “fibroins,” on graphene, a carbon-based material useful for its excellent electrical conductivity.

Read more | >