Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: futurism – Page 189

The notoriously pessimistic AI researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky is back with a new prediction about the future of humankind.

“If you put me to a wall,” he told The Guardian in a fascinating new interview, “and forced me to put probabilities on things, I have a sense that our current remaining timeline looks more like five years than 50 years. Could be two years, could be 10.”

If you’re wondering what “remaining timeline” means in this context, The Guardian’s Tom Lamont interpreted it as the “machine-wrought end of all things,” a “Terminator-like apocalypse,” or a “Matrix hellscape.”

Read more | >

Doug Philippone, a venture capitalist, has explained to a media house the importance of lizard-like robots for the future of US Armed Forces like the United States Navy.

Wall climbing robots are used for non-destructive testing inspections of tanks, boilers, pressure vessels, piping, and more, explains Gecko Robotics. These robots utilize specially designed sensor payloads to inspect wall thickness, pitting, and numerous forms of degradation.

“Our robots collect 1,000x more information with continuous data capture at speeds an average of 10x faster than previous methods,” Gecko’s website boasts. “Using specially-designed sensor payloads, the robots can inspect wall thickness, pitting, and many other forms of degradation,” they added.

Continue reading “Lizard-like robots could help ‘prevent catastrophes’ in US Navy, says expert” | >

An often-overlooked water plant that can double its biomass in two days, capture nitrogen from the air—making it a valuable green fertilizer—and be fed to poultry and livestock could serve as life-saving food for humans in the event of a catastrophe or disaster, a new study led by Penn State researchers suggests.

Native to the eastern U.S., the plant, azolla caroliniana Willd—commonly known as Carolina azolla—also could ease in the near future, according to findings recently published in Food Science & Nutrition. The researchers found that the Carolina strain of azolla is more digestible and nutritious for humans than azolla varieties that grow in the wild and also are cultivated in Asia and Africa for livestock feed.

The study, which was led by Daniel Winstead, a research assistant in the labs of Michael Jacobson, professor of ecosystem science and management, and Francesco Di Gioia, assistant professor of vegetable crop science, is part of a larger interdisciplinary research project called Food Resilience in the Face of Catastrophic Global Events conducted in the College of Agricultural Sciences.

Read more | >

Non-personalized content and ads are influenced by things like the content you’re currently viewing and your location (ad serving is based on general location). Personalized content and ads can also include things like video recommendations, a customized YouTube homepage, and tailored ads based on past activity, like the videos you watch and the things you search for on YouTube. We also use cookies and data to tailor the experience to be age-appropriate, if relevant.

Select “More options” to see additional information, including details about managing your privacy settings. You can also visit g.co/privacytools at any time.

Read more | >

Astroscale’s ADRAS-J spacecraft, a demonstration satellite that could inform future space junk cleanup efforts, is now in orbit after a successful launch from New Zealand on Sunday. The satellite was sent to space atop an Electron rocket from Rocket Lab. Its mission, which was selected by Japan’s space agency (JAXA) for Phase I of the Commercial Removal of Debris Demonstration program, will see ADRAS-J rendezvous with an old Japanese rocket upper stage that’s been in orbit since 2009.

Read more | >