Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: habitats – Page 135

Another article highlighting the fears around Singularity. There are so many great things that will come from Singularity such as Cancer is wiped out, improved healthcare across the board and cheaper, etc. And, there are also downsides as Gates, Musk, etc. have warned folks especially around AI.

So, what are our options and obligations around Singularity? In reality, you will not be able to stop this evolution from happening. However, each person has a right to decide how much singularity is right for their own private use. As a business or a company, there are many things to consider such as Total Cost of Ownership v. ROI, tax codes or how government will view “humanoids” v. non-humanoids as it relates to CapEx and Taxes, etc. And, the company or business needs to ensure that there are appropriate safegaurds in place in order to protect their data, etc… Also, government has an obligation to the people in general in safegaurding our rights, security, and safety.

Another, question that will continue to be raised and will increase overtime is government and business obligations to the financial welfare of the people. And, this one will become more and more complex and interesting overtime. If AI was to truly displace millions of workers; how will the countries help feed, clothe, and house millions displaced people beyond what they have done in their own country’s past? Will the countries government place a special tax structure on companies and businesses to help fund the displaced workers and their families? Or, will it be a joint partnership with business and government? It does make one wonder.

Many experts believe the single greatest threat to our existence is the so-called “singularity” when computers are as smart as we are.

Continue reading “Why you should be scared of robots” | >

Have you ever wondered what is going to replace the likes of Siri, Cortana, and Alexa? You may be looking at their next logical stage – this holographic digital home assistant.

gatebox_holographic_assistant_1zoom in

Japanese startup vinclu Inc. is showing off a concept video for a holographic assistant called Gatebox. For its first incarnation, it projects a hologram named Azuma Hikari. Azuma will wake you in the morning, greet you when you get home from work, and communicate with your other smart devices in your home. Use her to turn on your TV, adjust your thermostat, play your music, etc. The possibilities are endless. If Amazon Echo had this kind of personality, it would have sold even better.

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I must admit; I got a little laughter from reading the beginning of this article. However, there is a potential longer term concern around jobs and an even larger concern around data (including IP) when it comes to AI. So, I truly hope folks are strategically planning, designing, and implementing appropriate safeguards around their AI architecture and systems; especially if we look at hacking, etc.

Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking have all done their part in warning the world of the true power of artificial intelligence. All three men were actually awarded the 2015 Luddite Award, which is given by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation.

Because of their honest assessment on the power of new technology, these three men have been called alarmists who spread horror. There were 10 total nominees to the prices, and all three received them after getting more 3,680 votes.

Luddite is a word from 19th century England, and it is used to describe someone who is opposed to advances in technology. This is hardly an appropriate denomination for any of these men. Bill Gates is almost single-handedly responsible for putting PC computers in homes, Elon Musk has made a revolution with electric vehicles. Volumes can be written on the impact Stephen Hawking has had on the world.

Continue reading “Bill Gates and Elon Musk Will Save the World from AI?” | >

I’m standing on the corner of 15th Street and Third Avenue in New York City, and I’m freezing. But my iPhone is on fire. After connecting to one of LinkNYC’s gigabit wireless hotspots, the futuristic payphone replacements that went live for beta testing this morning, I’m seeing download speeds of 280 Mbps and upload speeds of 317 Mbps (based on Speedtest’s benchmark). To put it in perspective, that’s around ten times the speed of the average American home internet connection (which now sits at 31 Mbps). And to top it all off, LinkNYC doesn’t cost you a thing.

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While I AM aware that this is unlikely to end up being the work of an alien civilization, I DO believe that sooner or later (given the mindbogglingly powerful, state of the art observational instruments coming online soon, or already online, I’d DEFINITELY go with SOONER, rather than later!) we will detect an alien civilization in a similar way.

A star that made headlines due to weird brightness dips—leading to speculations of aliens building structures around it—is even weirder than we thought.

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We love meat. We love cheese. And for thousands of years we have relied on animals to make them. Impossible Foods has found a better way. We use plants to make the best meats and cheeses you’ll ever eat.

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I know many; who do take a break/ sabbatical from the valley to spend time with family or reconnect with friends on the east coast, Midwest, or other places that they refer to as home. However, once your sabbatical is in the 6 month period; you cannot wait to come back because the energy and excitement is truly hard to find anywhere else.

Like most people, I look up to and admire the heroes of Silicon Valley (the real ones, not the ones from the TV show). They’ve given rise to services (e.g., Google, Facebook, Uber, LinkedIn, Airbnb) that we use every day and make the world a better place. They’ve created value, wealth, and opportunity at unprecedented historic levels.

I’ve also had the chance to meet some of the leading CEOs and entrepreneurs of the Valley and they are, by and large, good-natured, brilliant, and thoughtful people. They’re earnest and committed to building positive things. Some of them are donors to my organization, for which I’m immensely grateful. It’s clear that Silicon Valley is today more than ever the center of innovation and technological progress.

That said, there are a few things about it that are starting to make me nervous.

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Definitely something to ponder on.

‘We can eventually produce offspring that are as different from us as dogs are from grey wolves,’ said Seth Shostak in an opinion piece for Seti.

‘Everyone expects our progeny to establish colonies on the moon or Mars, but the better deal is to build huge, orbiting habitats in which you can live without a spacesuit.

Continue reading “Could this be humanity’s LAST century? Expert says ‘re-engineering our children’ will lead to the creation of a new species” | >

Although the recent article and announcement of Josiah Zayner (CA scientist) new do it yourself gene editing kit for $120 sent shock waves across industry as well as further raised the question “how do we best put controls in place to ensure ethics and prevent disaster or a crisis?”; this genie truly is out of the bottle. Because Josiah created this easily in his own kitchen, it can be replicated by many others in their own homes. What we have to decide is how to best mitigate it’s impact. Black markets & exotic animal, etc. collectors around the world will pay handsomely for this capability and raise the stakes of the most bizarre animals (deadly and non-deadly) to be created for their own profits and amusements.

BURLINGAME, Calif. — On the kitchen table of his cramped apartment, Josiah Zayner is performing the feat that is transforming biology. In tiny vials, he’s cutting, pasting and stirring genes, as simply as mixing a vodka tonic. Next, he slides his new hybrid creations, living in petri dishes, onto a refrigerator shelf next to the vegetables. And he’s packaging and selling his DIY gene-editing technique for $120 so that everyone else can do it, too.

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