Menu

Blog

Archive for the ‘existential risks’ category: Page 31

Oct 25, 2022

NASA proved it can deflect an asteroid. But spotting them is tricky

Posted by in categories: asteroid/comet impacts, existential risks

The bad news is NASA estimates that it tracks only about 40 percent of the asteroids large enough that they could cause calamity if they were to hit Earth. To save us, the space agency needs fair warning — years, not months or weeks — to muster the defenses in space needed to safeguard the planet.

“As we say, we can’t do anything about them unless we know about them, and when they might be a concern for us,” Lindley Johnson, NASA’s Planetary Defense Officer, said in an interview.

Oct 23, 2022

DART Asteroid Impact Aftermath: Hubble Spots Unexpected Twin Tails in “Stunning Surprise”

Posted by in categories: asteroid/comet impacts, existential risks, government

Unexpected Aftermath of First-of-Its-Kind Test Intrigues Astronomers

NASA

Established in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government that succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). It is responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. Its vision is “To discover and expand knowledge for the benefit of humanity.” Its core values are “safety, integrity, teamwork, excellence, and inclusion.”

Oct 19, 2022

The Danger of Artificial Intelligence May Be Nuclear War Story

Posted by in categories: existential risks, robotics/AI

Artificial Intelligence has the potential to cause nuclear war-like catastrophic events, a new study says.

Oct 19, 2022

What’s next after NASA’s asteroid crash? A New Study on the Environmental Impact of Bitcoin & more

Posted by in categories: asteroid/comet impacts, bitcoin, existential risks, mathematics, quantum physics, sustainability

Try out my quantum mechanics course (and many others on math and science) on https://brilliant.org/sabine. You can get started for free, and the first 200 will get 20% off the annual premium subscription.

Welcome everybody to our first episode of Science News without the gobbledygook. Today we’ll talk about this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics, trouble with the new data from the Webb telescope, what’s next after NASA’s collision with an asteroid, new studies about the environmental impact of Bitcoin and exposure to smoke from wildfires, a test run of a new electric airplane, and dogs that can smell mathematics.

Continue reading “What’s next after NASA’s asteroid crash? A New Study on the Environmental Impact of Bitcoin & more” »

Oct 18, 2022

Elon Musk Warns Russia Can Utterly Destroy US, Europe With Nuclear Missiles In Under 30 Minutes And Vice Versa: ‘We Are At The Highest Risk In 60 Years’

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, existential risks, military, nuclear weapons

After floating a peace plan to end the Ukraine war Elon Musk has of late been talking about the possibility of a looming nuclear war. Reasonable…

Oct 14, 2022

Asteroid Doomsday Cancelled

Posted by in categories: cosmology, existential risks

See how NASA’s DART mission may help us save life on Earth by showing us how to avert a future doomsday from an asteroid striking Earth.

Worm-hole generators by the pound mass: https://greengregs.com/

Continue reading “Asteroid Doomsday Cancelled” »

Oct 13, 2022

Elon Musk denies blocking Starlink over Crimea due to fear of nuclear war

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, existential risks, internet, satellites

“All bets are off if the nukes start flying,” Musk recently tweeted.

Elon Musk reportedly rejected a request from within Ukraine to extend SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet coverage to Crimea, according to a newsletter from political analyst Ian Bremmer.

However, Musk has taken to Twitter after those reports were published and has cast doubt on their veracity by claiming that “nobody should trust Bremmer”.

Continue reading “Elon Musk denies blocking Starlink over Crimea due to fear of nuclear war” »

Oct 13, 2022

Ancient Martian life may have created the conditions for its own extinction

Posted by in categories: biological, existential risks

MR1805/iStock.

The study was published in Nature Astronomy, and it details how simple microbes that fed on hydrogen and excreted methane were likely abundant on Mars roughly 3.7 billion years ago. This was at approximately the same time that the earliest life was forming in Earth’s oceans.

Oct 13, 2022

Largest asteroid ever to hit Earth was twice as big as the rock that killed off the dinosaurs

Posted by in categories: asteroid/comet impacts, existential risks

New research suggests that the asteroid responsible for forming Earth’s largest impact crater was even bigger than researchers had previously estimated.

Oct 11, 2022

#16 David Chalmers PHD — THE SIMULATION HYPOTHESIS AND VIRTUAL WORLDS

Posted by in categories: alien life, existential risks, neuroscience, physics, robotics/AI, virtual reality

How likely is it that we live in a simulation? Are virtual worlds real?

In this first episode of the 2nd Series we delve into the fascinating topic of virtual reality simulations and the extraordinary possibility that our universe is itself a simulation. For thousands of years some mystical traditions have maintained that the physical world and our separated ‘selves’ are an illusion, and now, only with the development of our own computer simulations and virtual worlds have scientists and philosophers begun to assess the statistical probabilities that our shared reality could in fact be some kind of representation rather than a physical place.
As we become more open to these possibilities, other difficult questions start to come into focus. How can we create a common language to talk about matter and energy, that bridges the simulated and simulating worlds. Who could have created such a simulation? Could it be an artificial intelligence rather than a biological or conscious being? Do we have ethical obligations to the virtual beings we interact with in our virtual worlds and to what extent are those beings and worlds ‘real’? The list is long and mind bending.

Continue reading “#16 David Chalmers PHD — THE SIMULATION HYPOTHESIS AND VIRTUAL WORLDS” »

Page 31 of 142First2829303132333435Last