Lifeboat Foundation

Computer researchers are betting they can take on the house after designing a new artificial intelligence program that has beat professional poker players.

Researchers from University of Alberta, Czech Technical University and Charles University in Prague developed the “DeepStack” program as a way to build artificial intelligence capable of playing a complex kind of poker. Creating an AI program that can win against a human player in a no-limit poker game has long been a goal of researchers due to the complexity of the game.

Michael Bowling, a professor in the Department of Computing Science in the University of Alberta, explained that computers have been able to win at “perfect” games such as chess or Go, in which all the information is available to both players, but that “imperfect” games like poker have been much harder to program for.

Continue reading “Poker-playing AI beats pros using ‘intuition,’ study finds” »

American space power stagnated under U.S. Air Force stewardship a long time ago. [1] Congress observed this situation nearly 25 years ago, as the epigraphs above indicate. However, nothing substantive was done to fix the problem.

This article recommends the creation of a U.S. Space Corps in the Department of the Air Force as an initial step to set American space power on a path to reach its full potential.

Ultimately, America’s national security interests in space will best be served when Congress creates an independent Space Corps, just as it created independent services for land, sea and air, uniting them under the Department of Defense.

Continue reading “America Needs a Space Corps” »

The cover features an AI interstellar probe, beautifully illustrated by concept artist Efflam Mercier. Here is the download link:

http://i4is.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Principium_16_Feb_2017.pdf

This issue covers the following topics:

Continue reading “Our free interstellar magazine ‘Principium’ N°16 is out now!” »

In a paper prepared for NASA, Bezos says his Blue Origin space company could land a delivery vehicle on the moon by 2020.

Once focused primarily on flying tourists into space, Virgin senses an opportunity as the size and cost of satellites have been greatly reduced.

The responses are quite deathist and not favorable, but such is pushing #transhumanism and anti-aging science forward: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/24/magazine/the-2-12-17-issue.html?_r=0

Em uma primeira experiência mundial, os cientistas conseguiram desenvolver um embrião artificial funcional, a partir do zero, usando dois tipos de células-tronco para construir a vida em uma placa de Petri.

As células-tronco foram cultivadas fora do corpo em uma bolha de gel, e foram capazes de se transformar em vários estágio inicial órgãos internos — assim como em um embrião regular. Os pesquisadores agora estão esperando a técnica vai resolver alguns grandes mistérios sobre os primórdios da vida.

SCIENTISTS are calling for robots to be made with real human flesh.

But it’s all in aid of helping those in need of tendon replacements, like musicians or athletes.

Denmark’s wind turbines produced enough electricity to power the entire country last month.

The Scandinavian nation generated 97 gigawatt-hours (GWh) on 22 February, thanks to particularly windy weather, which is enough to power 10 million average EU households for the day.

Wind Europe spokesman Oliver Joy said the “impressive” feat was another boon for wind energy.

Continue reading “Denmark runs entirely on wind energy for a day” »