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Category: futurism – Page 228

Epic Expansion: The Case for Inflationary Cosmology

For decades, inflation has been the dominant cosmological scenario, but recently the theory has been subject to competition and critique. Two renowned pioneers of inflation — Alan Guth and Andrei Linde — join Brian Greene to make their strongest case for the inflationary theory.

This program is part of the Big Ideas series, supported by the John Templeton Foundation.

Participants:
Alan Guth.
Andrei Linde.

Moderator:
Brian Greene.

00:00 — Introduction.
05:58 — Participant introductions.
08:23 — Problems with the Big Bang.
28:07 — Realizing the Inflationary Paradigm.
42:13 — Observational Support for the Inflationary Theory.
56:37 — Eternal Inflation and the Measure Problem.
01:17:09-The Future of Cosmology.

This machine creates artificial vision for the blind

Second Sight’s Orion system bypasses the eyes to bring artificial vision directly to the brain. Working prototypes are being tested right now in six blind individuals.

#WhatTheFuture #ArtificialVision #MedicalTech.

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Most pristine trilobite fossils ever found shake up scientific understanding of the long extinct group

Researchers have described some of the best-preserved three-dimensional trilobite fossils ever discovered. The fossils, which are more than 500 million years old, were collected in the High Atlas of Morocco and are being referred to by scientists as “Pompeii” trilobites due to their remarkable preservation in ash.

The paper, “Rapid volcanic ash entombment reveals the 3D anatomy of Cambrian trilobites,” was published in the journal, Science.

The trilobites, from the Cambrian period, have been the subject of research by an international team of scientists, led by Prof Abderrazak El Albani, a geologist based at University of Poitiers and originally from Morocco. The team included Dr. Greg Edgecombe, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum.

Understanding ADHD, Anxiety & Panic Attacks: Insights from Dr. Gabor Maté

The commercialized approach of medicating children with ADHD to conform to societal expectations is problematic, and a holistic approach that addresses family stress and meets a child’s needs is more beneficial.

Questions to inspire discussion.

What is ADHD?
—ADHD is a condition characterized by difficulty paying attention, poor impulse control, and hyperactivity.

Experiencing without knowing? Empirical evidence for phenomenal consciousness without access

Can one have a phenomenal experience to which one does not have access? That is, can you experience something without knowing? The dissociation between phenomenal ℗ and access (A) consciousness is widely debated. A major challenge to the supporters of this dissociation is the apparent inability to experimentally demonstrate that P-without-A consciousness exists; once participants report having a P-experience, they already have access to it. Thus, all previous empirical support for this dissociation is indirect. Here, using a novel paradigm, we create a situation where participants (Experiment 1, N = 40) lack online access to the stimulus yet are nevertheless able to retrospectively form judgements on its phenomenal, qualitative aspects. We further show that their performance cannot be fully explained by unconscious processing or by a response to stimulus offset (Experiment 2, N = 40). This suggests that P and A consciousness are not only conceptually distinct, but might also be teased apart empirically. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: A critical question in the scientific quest towards solving the problem of consciousness focuses on the ability to isolate conscious experiences at their purity, without any accompanying cognitive processes. This challenge has been augmented by a highly influential — yet controversial — dissociation suggested by the philosopher Ned Block between Phenomenal consciousness, or the “what it is like” to have an experience, and Access consciousness, indexing the ability to report that one has that experience. Critically, these two types of consciousness most typically go together, making it highly difficult — if not impossible — to isolate Phenomenal consciousness. Our work shows that the dissociation between phenomenal and access consciousness is not merely conceptual, but can also be empirically demonstrated. It further opens the gate to future studies pinpointing the neural correlates of the two types of consciousness.

Keywords: Access consciousness; Cognition; Consciousness; Phenomenal consciousness; Qualia; Unconscious processing.

Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

World record 402 Tb/s transmission in a standard commercially available optical fiber

An international joint research team led by the Photonic Network Laboratory of Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) has demonstrated a record-breaking aggregate optical transmission bandwidth of 37.6 THz to enable a new data-rate record of 402 terabits per second in a standard commercially available optical fiber.

This record was achieved by constructing the first optical system covering all the transmission bands (OESCLU) of the low-loss window of standard optical fibers. The system combined various technologies, some developed for this demonstration, including six kinds of doped fiber and both discrete and distributed Raman amplification.

Novel optical gain equalizers also allowed access to new wavelength bands that are not yet utilized in deployed systems. The newly developed technology is expected to make a significant contribution to expanding the communication capacity of the optical communication infrastructure as future data services rapidly increase demand.

Japan hits jackpot, finds decades worth of EV battery metal deposits

Japan has found metal deposits useful for EVs.

Researchers probe seabed remotely:

Manganese, cobalt, and nickel are important constituents of lithium-ion batteries, and therefore are considered essential for advancing EV production.

The researchers estimate that the deposits, which are spread across an area of around 10,000 square meters, roughly contain approximately 610,000 tonnes of cobalt and 740,000 tonnes of nickel.

The site of the mineral discovery around Minami-Torishima island in Japan had been under observation since 2016. However, a detailed survey of the site started in April last year and continued till early June 2024.

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