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This raises the question of whether AI — defined as algorithms that mimic human intelligence — can deliver on its potential, and when. The answer is crucial because AI could become the ultimate industry disrupter, threatening tens of millions of jobs in Asia as business processes are automated. In addition, AI is the subject of intense rivalry between the US and China.


Unicorns abound but enthusiasm has dimmed. Will AI fulfil its potential?

A bit of transhuman fiction. It doesn’t take long.


What would it be like to live forever? Writer Richard Dooling explores this question in this fictional piece from Esquire.

Originally published May 1999. Published on KurzweilAI.net May 22, 2001.

1994

March 30: Today I turn forty. I am officially protected by the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. If I had an employer, I could now sue him if he discriminated against me because of my, ulp, age. Until now, I’ve half believed in one of Vladimir Nabokov’s elegant syllogisms: Other men die, but I am not other men; therefore, I’ll not die. Nabokov died in 1977. Every time I look in the bathroom mirror, I see Death, the Eternal Footman (looking quite proud), standing in the shadows behind me, holding my coat, snickering. I live with my family in my hometown of Omaha. My selfish genes have managed an immortality of sorts by getting themselves into four delightful children, who are still too young to turn on me. My wife and I have enjoyed nine years of marriage, what Robert Louis Stevenson called “a friendship recognized by the police.” I’m Catholic, so as mortality looms on the far side of the middle-age horizon, I seek consolation in my Christian faith and one of its central tenets: belief in the immortality of my soul. But the lawyer in me also highlights the usual caveats and provisos. According to the Scriptures, my quality of life after death may depend on my ability to love my fellow man. This is a big problem. I forgot to mention that in addition to being a practicing Catholic, I’m also a practicing misanthrope. As I see it, my only chance of avoiding eternal damnation is to stay alive until I learn to love other people. Or until some future pope issues an encyclical providing spiritual guidance for misanthropic Catholics. November 16: My second novel, White Man’s Grave, is a finalist for the National Book Award. For at least a day or two, I wonder if I might be able to achieve immortality by writing great literature. My wife and I fly to the awards ceremony in New York City, where William Gaddis wins the National Book Award in Fiction for A Frolic of His Own.

(Bloomberg) — Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. is seeking almost $656,000 in new funding from California in the midst of the billionaire’s battle over whether Tesla Inc. should be reopening its plant in the state.

SpaceX’s request for funds to train existing workers and hire new ones will go before the state’s Employment Training Panel on May 15, one week after the county that’s home to Tesla’s factory sought to block the facility from resuming operations. The company sued the next day, and its chief executive officer threatened to move Tesla’s headquarters, future programs and potentially its manufacturing out of the state.

Musk, 48, appears to be prevailing in the stand-off. He tweeted Monday that Tesla was restarting production in spite of Alameda County’s order and said that if anyone is arrested, he wanted to be the only one.

The U.S. Navy is teaming up with DARPA to develop autonomous, robotic ships that are completely human free. The NOMARS (No Mariners Required Ship) concept, if successful, would be a huge leap over current unmanned surface vessel development efforts. The result could be a warship able to do the tedious, dangerous, and dirty jobs all by itself, keeping human-crewed ships safe from harm—and boredom.

The Navy, struggling to grow the fleet on a flat defense budget, is making a big push into unmanned surface vessels, or USVs. The Navy plans to build ten Large Unmanned Surface Vehicle ships, 200 to 300 foot long vessels displacing 2,000 tons, in five years. LUSV would act as a scout, sailing ahead of the fleet to detect threats early, or floating magazine, carrying a large load of missiles. LUSV would ideally be autonomous, or optionally manned with a small crew.

Maria became the very first COVID-19 patient to use Stem Cell Neurotherapy for COVID-19. In about 5 days, she will began to feel the healing effects of generating new lung cells which will eliminate her breathing problems.

We repurposed some tools from the Stem Cell Therapy for Cancer/Brain Tumor. Those tools are T-Cells, B-Cells, and Natural Killer Cells. Instead of programming those cancer killing cells to attack cancer cells, we have programmed them to seek out, identify, attack, and destroy all the Coronavirus cells in the entire body.

Stem Cell Neurotherapy sends therapeutic messages, e.g., “your stem cells are transforming into new cells for the lungs, liver, and kidneys” to the DNA inside the nucleus of stem cells. Inside the nucleus, the DNA receives the message and transmits it to the RNA, which translates the message into genetic code.

The genes inside the stem cells transmit the coded message to the proteins, which are converted by the mitochondria into ATP, which provides the energy for the coded message to transform the stem cells into a new set of lung cells, as well as new cells for the kidneys and liver.

These new cells in the lungs, kidneys, and liver will replace the cells that were infected by the COVID-19 virus. This results in the elimination of the coughing, fever, headaches, diarrhea, and breathing problems.

Even giant economic powerhouses have not been spared, with California—one of the wealthiest states in the United States thanks to its booming tech sector—having obliterated all its job growth over the last decade in just two months.

But now a renewable energy think-tank says directing those stimulus dollars to renewable energy investments could not only help tackle global climate emergency but spur massive economic gains post-Covid-19 for decades to come.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) —an organization dedicated to promoting global adoption of renewable energy and facilitating sustainable use—says that it will cost the global economy $95 trillion to help return things to normal.

The economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic has governments struggling with how to restart a global economy that has come to a grinding halt. Some short term needs have to be addressed as soon as possible — avoiding starvation, extending unemployment benefits, and arranging for emergency healthcare for those infected. But even as the world faces such daunting tasks, decisions made today will have enormous consequences for the future. While the emergency today is great, a much bigger emergency waits just around the corner as the Earth continues to overheat.

Governments in thrall to fossil fuel interests, such as the United States, see the virus as a chance to roll back advances in renewable energy. After all, the oil and gas industries provide for 10,000,000 jobs around the world. Surely those jobs must be protected, right?

Talk of a universal basic income (UBI), or regular cash payments with minimal or no requirements for receiving the money, has been brought to the forefront as social distancing and economic concerns have put millions of people out of work.


Amid the COVID-19 pandemic Pope Francis says it might be time for some sort of universal basic income.

“This may be the time to consider a universal basic wage” to “acknowledge and dignify the noble, essential tasks” and to “achieve the ideal … of no worker without rights,” Pope Francis said in a letter to the World Meeting of Popular Movements, an organization representing global grassroots organizations, published on Sunday via the Vatican.

The Pope acknowledged that for many workers, the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns are making it difficult, if not impossible, for people to earn money.