Lifeboat Foundation

“Interstellar Travel and Post-Humans” by Martin Rees is one of the chapters of the book “The Next Step: Exponential Life”.

Astronomers like myself are professionally engaged in thinking about huge expanses of space and time. We view our home planet in a cosmic context. We wonder whether there is life elsewhere in the cosmos. But, more significantly, we are mindful of the immense future that lies ahead—the post-human future where our remote descendants may transcend human limitations—here on Earth but (more probably) far beyond. This is my theme in the present chapter.

The stupendous timespans of the evolutionary past are now part of common culture. But the even longer time-horizons that stretch ahead—though familiar to every astronomer —have not permeated our culture to the same extent. Our Sun is less than half way through its life. It formed 4.5 billion years ago, but it has got six billion more before the fuel runs out. It will then flare up, engulfing the inner planets and vaporizing any life that might still remain on Earth. But even after the Sun’s demise, the expanding universe will continue—perhaps forever—destined to become ever colder, ever emptier.

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Waymo One is Alphabet’s Lyft/Uber competitor that’s live in Phoenix and currently undergoing testing in San Francisco. Waymo today announced a future EV for its US ride-hailing service that will be “rider-first” and have no steering wheel.

What a challenge COVID-19 has had on our global supply chains, exposing vulnerabilities in production capacity, shipping logistics and in particular last mile enablements. According to a recent report of Technavio, the last mile delivery market will grow to USD $14.96B from 2021 to 2025, with a CAGR of 15.06%. Also according to tier one market research firm, Gartner Group, by 2023, 50% of leading global enterprises will have invested in real-time transportation visibility solutions.

Last mile delivery is defined as the transportation of goods and services from a distribution hub to the final customer destination, within a reasonable time at an affordable rate and in mint condition. Supply chain focus on the last mile has significantly become top of mind given the COVID-19 global pandemic, as organizations have had to refresh/rethink their conveyance systems and develop new creative strategies to build more proficient conveyance intelligence.

In times of unprecedented challenges, especially in the past two years, companies are accelerating their investments in robotics, trade channel expansion, laser precision targeted product and supply chains, and last mile intelligence systems.

With the future of transportation for cars all set to be electric, all eyes are now on how the bigger haul vehicles will make their transition. While the biggest hurdle to overcome still remains the range of these vehicles, with automation also making progress, the designs of these trucks are also set for a change.

With their Atlantis, designers Dolzhenko and Voronezhstev imagine a future where these semi-trucks have reached Level 5 automation, where vehicles are completely autonomous and require no human intervention at all. In contrast, even as it is labeled ‘Full Self Driving’, Tesla is inching closer to a Level 3 automation 0, even as it aims to achieve a Level 4 someday.

In 2050, artificial intelligence is everywhere. So much so that humanity relies on it to satisfy its every need and every desire — even the most secret and wicked…

In a quiet residential area, four domestic robots suddenly decide to take their masters hostage in their own home. Locked together, a not-quite-so-blended family, an intrusive neighbour and her enterprising sex-robot are now forced to put up with each other in an increasingly hysterical atmosphere! While, outside, the Yonyx, the latest generation of androids, are trying to take over. As the threat draws closer, the humans look elsewhere, get jealous, and rip into each other under the bewildered eyes of their indoor robots. Maybe it’s the robots who’ve got a soul — or not!

Continue reading “‘Bigbug’ Trailer: Jean-Pierre Jeunet Makes Netflix Debut with Raunchy Robot Comedy” »

It’s a major initiative, led by Russia’s Ministry of Science and Higher Education, which aims to boost higher education and research programs. The academic leadership program wants the country’s higher education centers to become more attractive to foreign students and scientists. Priority 2030 opened for business this summer, and after several months, over one hundred Russian universities were chosen as participants. All of them would get at least 100 million rubles ($1.4 million) annually for the development of their projects. Dozens of participants also applied for special grants, which provide the opportunity to receive up to 1 billion rubles ($13.6 million) annually.

There is a wide range of areas where artificial intelligence technology may be of use. All of these areas require qualified staff, and educating them is becoming a priority for Russian universities.

Machine is so far able to identify eight common crimes such as fraud, gambling, dangerous driving and ‘picking quarrels’, researchers say.

In news that definitely doesn’t sound like a dystopian nightmare, researchers in China have developed a machine that can charge people with crimes using artificial intelligence.

The scientists claim the technology can decide on charges with more than 97 per cent accuracy, based on verbal descriptions of the case. The machine was built as a time-saving device and tested by the Shanghai Pudong People’s Procuratorate, the country’s busiest district prosecution office.

Trained using more than 17,000 cases dating from 2015 to 2020, it can run on a desktop computer and decides whether to press a charge by analysing hundreds of “traits” obtained from a human-generated case description, South China Morning Post reports.

Emerging technologies including AI, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), 5G, and blockchain (and related digital currencies) have all progressed on their own merits and timeline. Each has found a degree of application, though clearly AI has progressed the furthest. Each technology is maturing while overcoming challenges ranging from blockchain’s energy consumption to VR’s propensity for inducing nausea. They will likely converge in readiness over the next several years, underpinned by the now ubiquitous cloud computing for elasticity and scale. And in that convergence, the sum will be far greater than the parts. The catalyst for this convergence will be the metaverse — a connected network of always-on 3D virtual worlds.

The metaverse concept has wide-sweeping potential. On one level, it could be a 3D social media channel with messaging targeted perfectly to every user by AI. That’s the Meta (previously Facebook) vision. It also has the potential to be an all-encompassing platform for information, entertainment, and work.

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