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Quantum computing is the key to consciousness

With the rapid development of chatbots and other AI systems, questions about whether they will ever gain true understanding, become conscious, or even develop a feeling agency have become more pressing. When it comes to making sense of these qualities in humans, our ability for counterfactual thinking is key. The existence of alternative worlds where things happen differently, however, is not just an exercise in imagination – it’s a key prediction of quantum mechanics. Perhaps our brains are able to ponder how things could have been because in essence they are quantum computers, accessing information from alternative worlds, argues Tim Palmer.

Ask a chatbot “How many prime numbers are there?” and it will surely tell you that there are an infinite number. Ask the chatbot “How do we know?” and it will reply that there are many ways to show this, the original going back to the mathematician Euclid of ancient Greece. Ask the chatbot to describe Euclid’s proof and it will answer correctly [ii]. [ii.

Of course, the chatbot has got all this information from the internet. Additional software in the computer can check that each of the steps in Euclid’s proof is valid and hence can confirm that the proof is a good one. But the computer doesn’t understand the proof. Understanding is a kind of Aha! moment, when you see why the proof works, and why it wouldn’t work if a minor element in it was different (for example the proof in the footnotes doesn’t work if any number but 1 is added when creating the number Q). Chatbots don’t have Aha! moments, but we do. Why?

Hubble’s orbit has fallen by 333 miles since 1990, affecting its images

So low that Starlink satellites have started photobombing its images.

Starlink and other broadband satellite constellations will threaten astronomical viewing in the upcoming years. Today, a team of astronomers has demonstrated that the satellite issue can’t be solved even by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Today, a team of astronomers has demonstrated that the satellite issue can’t be solved even by the Hubble Space Telescope.

With the deployment of Starlink and other communication satellite constellations, an increasing understanding of their detrimental impact on astronomy has emerged. The expanding number of internet satellites in Earth orbit has been noted as challenging astronomical studies using ground-based observatories by the international astronomy community. These worries are currently affecting Hubble.

Why lifelong learning is the international passport to success

What is it with this thin sheet of paper that makes it so precious? It’s not only the proof of acquired knowledge but plays into the reputation game of where you were trained. Being a graduate from Harvard Law School carries that extra glitz, doesn’t it? Yet take a closer look, and the diploma is the perfect ending to the modern tragedy of education.

Why? Because universities and curricula are designed along the three unities of French classical tragedy: time, action, and place. Students meet at the university campus (unity of place) for classes (unity of action) during their 20s (unity of time). This classical model has traditionally produced prestigious universities, but it is now challenged by the digitalisation of society – which allows everybody who is connected to the internet to access learning – and by the need to acquire skills in step with a fast-changing world. Universities must realise that learning in your 20s won’t be enough. If technological diffusion and implementation develop faster, workers will have to constantly refresh their skills.

The university model needs to evolve. It must equip students with the right skills and knowledge to compete in a world ‘where value will be derived largely from human interaction and the ability to invent and interpret things that machines cannot’, as the English futurist Richard Watson puts it. By teaching foundational knowledge and up-to-date skills, universities will provide students with the future-proof skills of lifelong learning, not just get them ‘job-ready’.

3 Signs The UNIVERSE IS ACTUALLY A GIANT BRAIN

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From the smallest atom to the largest galaxy, everything in the universe obeys the laws of physics, where our brains are made of the same atoms and molecules as the rest of the universe. So could we take this theory further and ask whether consciousness could be part of the underlying fabric of the universe. Humans have also managed to extend this to the internet where there is an eerie pattern between the universe the brain and the internet where experts have been asking the question whether the internet could one day develop its own consciousness. Maybe in the distant future all three will unite into one giant mind. Humans have always been fascinated with the thought that the universe somehow reflects us and whether the universe could be a giant brain. Let’s delve deeper into the trinity that is the universe, the brain and the internet.

Credits:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/universe-grows-like-a-giant-brain/

Your Brain, the Internet and the Universe Have Something Fascinating in Common

Music From AudioBlocks.com, Pond5.com.

Novel technology can process real-time data from 30 million connected cars

The Connected Car Data Initiative aims to reduce traffic congestion & CO2 emissions.

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) is planning to commercialize its Connected Car Data Initiative to reduce traffic congestion & CO2 emissions. The initiative was developed by its subsidiary firm named NTT Data, which is a global digital and IT services provider based in Japan.

As a trusted global innovator, NTT DATA is leading the way for our retail and automotive clients to unlock the full potential of connected car data.


Metamorworks/iStock.

The technology provides the ability to monitor and analyze data from millions of cars connected to the internet. The setup can be ready as early as the end of 2023.

Digital Molecular Assemblers: What synthetic media/generative AI actually represents, and where I think it’s going

Yuli Ban is talking about the prediction and emergence of generative AIs, the extent to which those can disrupt humanities reliance on creativity and productivity. He mentions ‘the dead internet theory’ that postulates that most content is autogenerated, obfuscating the actual people using the internet and reducing their actual exposure.

I think we already see this in social media, internet forums and other areas where fake content and profiles are detected. and this can spread to youtube and short form video platforms, telemarketing and scams. as well as use by political groups and states.

Yuli also mentions the long term implications — peaking human population and the notion of Transhumanism where humans merge with an infinitely more capable AI which assumes control. he mentions how biology is a quality many would like to preserve, to varying degrees.

OpenAI debuts Whisper API for speech-to-text transcription and translation

To coincide with the rollout of the ChatGPT API, OpenAI today launched the Whisper API, a hosted version of the open source Whisper speech-to-text model that the company released in September.

Priced at $0.006 per minute, Whisper is an automatic speech recognition system that OpenAI claims enables “robust” transcription in multiple languages as well as translation from those languages into English. It takes files in a variety of formats, including M4A, MP3, MP4, MPEG, MPGA, WAV and WEBM.

Countless organizations have developed highly capable speech recognition systems, which sit at the core of software and services from tech giants like Google, Amazon and Meta. But what makes Whisper different is that it was trained on 680,000 hours of multilingual and “multitask” data collected from the web, according to OpenAI president and chairman Greg Brockman, which lead to improved recognition of unique accents, background noise and technical jargon.

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