My new article from Vice Motherboard on Direct Digital Democracy and a new branch of government:
When everyone has a mobile phone, why not use them to vote?
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Category: government – Page 229
Testing to Start for Computer With Chips Inspired by the Human Brain
To solve some of the world’s toughest computing problems, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is getting a boost from the human brain.
The U.S. government lab will begin testing on Thursday a $1 million computer, the first of its kind, packed with 16 microprocessors that are designed to mimic the way the brain works.
The chip called TrueNorth, introduced by International Business Machines Corp. in 2014, is radically…
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NSA head secretly visited Israel last week
U.S. Navy Admiral Michael S. Rogers, who serves as Commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, Director of the National Security Agency, and Chief of the Central Security Service, secretly visited Israel last week, according to Israel-based Haaretz.
The visit’s purpose was to reinforce ties with Intelligence Corps Unit 8200 of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), particularly against cyber attacks by Iran and Hezbollah, according to Haaretz.
Israel has been the target of cyber attacks since the summer of 2014, but attacks have lately intensified. The U.S. too appears to have been victimized by Iran, with a federal court indicting a seven Iranians last week – said to be working for the Iranian government and the Revolutionary Guards – on charges of carrying out attacks against financial institutions and a dam in New York.
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DARPA Seeking Private Partners for In-Orbit Servicing Program
Looking for partners.
[Via Satellite 03-28-2016] The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is reviving its in-orbit servicing efforts through a new public-private partnership program called Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS). Under the RSGS vision, the partners would join a DARPA-developed modular toolkit, including hardware and software, to a privately developed spacecraft to create a commercially owned and operated Robotic Servicing Vehicle (RSV). DARPA would contribute the robotics technology, such as the previously developed Front End Robotic Enabling Near-Term Demonstration (FREND) robotic arm, expertise, and a government-provided launch. The commercial partner would contribute the satellite to carry the robotic payload, integration of the payload, and the mission operations center and staff.
DARPA seeks to develop and demonstrate the RSV on orbit within the next five years. The agency’s goals include demonstrating safe, reliable, useful and efficient operations in or near Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO), demonstrating on live GEO satellites in collaboration with commercial and U.S. government spacecraft operators, and supporting the development of a servicer spacecraft with sufficient propellant and payload robustness to enable dozens of missions over several years.
DARPA plans to kick off the public-private partnership via a program solicitation in the near future. Shortly thereafter, DARPA will host a proposers day to provide potential partners with further details about the RSGS program. The agency plans to share the solicitation along with the date and location of the proposers day on the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) website in the future.
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Space Innovation Congress
The is a Space Technology Conference and Exhibition, taking place in London on 7–8 April 2016. It is set to showcase the most cutting edge technologies and uses of Space Technology providing insight from over 50 speakers sharing their unparalleled industry knowledge and real-life experiences.
This year’s Space Innovation Congress will be highlighting the most innovative advancements in Space technology and will look at how these are being applied to many industry verticals from farming to banking, and the practical case studies that are coming out of these projects.
With user cases with dedicated tracks covering the entire Space exploration and Earth observation ecosystems: Satellites, Big data, Crop monitoring, Space debris, Maritime surveillance, Space weather and its impact on banking systems, Biomedical, Commercial space collaboration and Telecoms.
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Kuwait has become the first country to make DNA testing mandatory for all residents
In a controversial move, Kuwait has passed a law making it mandatory for all its 1.3 million citizens and 2.9 million foreign residents to have their DNA entered onto a national database.
Anyone who refuses to submit their DNA for testing risks one year in prison and a fine of up to US$33,000, and those who provide a fake sample can be jailed for seven years.
The decision came after an Islamic State-led suicide bombing in Kuwait City on 26 June, which killed 26 people and wounded 227 more. The government hopes that the new database, which is projected to cost around US$400 million, will make it quicker and easier to make arrests in the future.
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South Korea trumpets $860-million AI fund after AlphaGo ‘shock’
Nature News reports:
“Scrambling to respond to the success of Google DeepMind’s world-beating Go program AlphaGo, South Korea announced on 17 March that it would invest $863 million (1 trillion won) in artificial-intelligence (AI) research over the next five years [towards] founding of a high-profile, public–private research centre with participation from several Korean conglomerates, including Samsung, LG Electronics and Hyundai Motor, as well as the technology firm Naver, based near Seoul.”
President Geun-Hye emphasized that “artificial intelligence can be a blessing for human society” and called it “the fourth industrial revolution”
Historic win by Google DeepMind’s Go-playing program has South Korean government playing catch-up on artificial intelligence.
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Baidu to Test Drive Autonomous Cars in the U.S
Baidu Inc. will soon start testing autonomous cars in the U.S., part of the Chinese tech giant’s effort to introduce a commercially viable model by 2018.
The move, disclosed by Baidu’s chief scientist Andrew Ng in an interview late Tuesday, is a significant step for the company, which is trying to get ahead in the race to build autonomous cars and is now calling on the resources of its Silicon Valley tech center to advance the effort. At the same time, Baidu is advocating for better coordination with the U.S. government, which the company says is necessary to get self-driving cars on the road.
Central to the push is Mr. Ng, an artificial-intelligence scientist who conducted groundbreaking research at Stanford University and at Alphabet Inc.’s Google. He’s also a co-founder of online-learning company Coursera Inc.
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The 21st century Star Wars — By Dr Patricia Lewis | The World Today
“Modern life relies on satellite sytems but they are alarmingly vulnerable to attack as they orbit the Earth. Patricia Lewis explains why defending them from hostile forces is now a primary concern for states”