Futurism – Lifeboat News: The Blog

Dec 28
2021

Microsoft patent reveals “Surface Trio” design

Microsoft is tinkering with the idea of a triple-panel Surface handheld, a “Surface Trio”, if you will. However, apart from offering an additional display, it differs in another significant way too.

Dec 28
2021

Renewable electricity growth increasing faster than ever

The world’s capacity to generate electricity from renewable sources such as wind, solar and hydro is on track to set a new record in 2021, with installations expected to keep accelerating in the following years.

Dec 27
2021

CPUs Could Use 85 Percent Fewer Transistors With New Adaptive Tech

A team of Viennese researchers has developed what likely amounts to the future of classical computing: Intelligent transistors. By tapping into the element Germanium, these transistors are much more efficient and can reduce the number of transistors required for the same computational work by a staggering 85%.

Dec 27
2021

Meta’s Bean Machine: The Hot Topic In Probabilistic Programming

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Probabilistic modelling

Four major steps are entailed in generating successful probabilistic modelling through the Bean Machine. The modelling is based on generative techniques, the data collected from Python dictionaries where it is associated with random variables. The learning step improves the model’s knowledge based on observations, and the results are stored for further analysis.

Through probabilistic modelling, engineers and data scientists can account for random events in future predictions while measuring different uncertainties. This method is preferred because it offers uncertainty estimation, expressivity, and interpretability facilities. Let’s discuss these.

Dec 27
2021

Language modelling at scale: Gopher, ethical considerations, and retrieval

We are publishing a detailed study of a 280-billion parameter transformer language model called Gopher, a study of ethical and social risks associated with large language models, and a paper investigating a new architecture with better training efficiency.

Dec 26
2021

When hiring, I evaluate people on their velocity to learn

I seek to recognize Einstein before everyone knows that they are an Einstein. There left us 1 spot at the codegen team (works on Codex 2.0) and the language team (works on GPT-4). https://grnh.se/68b9465f4us

Dec 26
2021

Meet Stella — the pup who knows how to use 29 human words

Dictionary for dogs.

“What a shock,” said no dog lover ever.

Dec 26
2021

The battery invented 120 years before its time

At the turn of the 20th Century, Thomas Edison invented a battery with the unusual quirk of producing hydrogen. Now, 120 years later, the battery is coming into its own.

Dec 26
2021

Antarctica was once a rainforest. Could it be again?

The coldest continent on Earth used to be as warm as Italy. Here’s how we know.

A polar expedition drilled into the seafloor and unearthed 90-million-year-old tree roots.

Dec 25
2021

Scientists accidentally discover a first-of-its-kind mineral from deep inside Earth

WHEN OLIVER TSCHAUNER AND COLLEAGUES dusted off a sample of volcano-ejected diamond found in a South African mine, they had no idea that they were holding the first-ever natural sample of a new high-pressure mineral from deep within Earth.

While minuscule, researchers predict that this mineral is responsible for the movement of crucial components like rare earth metals and radioactive isotopes through the Earth’s mantle. To figure this out, the team turned to X-ray beams and lasers.

Using x-rays and lasers, scientists have analyzed the second-ever high-pressure mineral extracted from the earth’s lower mantle.