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Nov 18, 2017

UN panel agrees to move ahead with debate on ‘killer robots’

Posted by in categories: government, robotics/AI

A U.N. panel agreed Friday to move ahead with talks to define and possibly set limits on weapons that can kill without human involvement, as human rights groups said governments are moving too slowly to keep up with advances in artificial intelligence that could put computers in control one day.

Advocacy groups warned about the threats posed by such ‘killer robots’ and aired a chilling video illustrating their possible uses on the sidelines of the first formal U.N. meeting of government experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems this week.

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Nov 18, 2017

Hopping ‘R2D2’ bot to blast off to the lunar surface in 2019

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, space travel

The MX-1E spacecraft is slated to fly before the end of the year aboard a Rocket Lab Electron booster, which launches from New Zealand and will attempt to win the $20M Google Lunar XPRIZE

The firm is is developing a fleet of low-cost robotic spacecraft that can be assembled like Legos to handle increasingly complex missions.

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Nov 18, 2017

15,000 Scientists Just Gave a Catastrophic Warning About The Fate of Humanity

Posted by in category: futurism

Is this accurate?


A new, dire “warning to humanity” about the dangers to all of us has been written by 15,000 scientists from around the world.

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Nov 18, 2017

US Missile Defenses Need Better Sensors, and Soon

Posted by in categories: electronics, security

Gaps in coverage leave interceptors less-equipped to defeat the threats of tomorrow.

No missile defense is better than the sensors that tell the interceptors where to go and what to kill. The Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, or GMD, draws upon considerably more sensors for homeland defense than when operations began in 2004, but shortfalls remain. The North Korean and other missile threats are not diminishing, and it’s time to get this right.

In a forthcoming report, we recommend that the Defense Department and Missile Defense Agency take several steps to improve the sensor backbone of America’s homeland missile defenses, including fielding a space layer, filling radar gaps, adding omnidirectional focus, and improving command and control. Unfortunately, the budget for missile defense sensors has fallen considerably over the past decade, exactly the wrong trend for our changing security environment.

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Nov 18, 2017

German Regulators Ban Smartwatches for Kids, Urge Parents to Destroy Them

Posted by in category: futurism

There is almost no privacy anymore.


Saying the technology more closely resembles a “spying device” than a toy, Germany regulators have banned the sale of smartwatches designed for kids, urging the parents who were dumb enough to buy them in the first place to destroy them.

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Nov 18, 2017

Introducing SENS

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

The SENS Research Foundation is taking a repair based approach to aging to prevent the diseases and ill health of old age. Visit http://www.sens.org/ to learn more about their work.

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Nov 18, 2017

Neuroscience Is Helping Us Build a Machine With Consciousness

Posted by in category: neuroscience

I always wondered if this was possible.


In a paper published, Science describes a team of neuroscientists striving to grasp the computational aspect of consciousness, and port it to a machine.

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Nov 18, 2017

AI could be the perfect tool for exploring the Universe

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, satellites

Yes I agree.very good resource for this job!


In our efforts to understand the Universe, we’re getting greedy, making more observations than we know what to do with. Satellites beam down hundreds of terabytes of information each year, and one telescope under construction in Chile will produce 15 terabytes of pictures of space every night. It’s impossible for humans to sift through it all. As astronomer Carlo Enrico Petrillo told The Verge: “Looking at images of galaxies is the most romantic part of our job. The problem is staying focused.” That’s why Petrillo trained an AI program to do the looking for him. Petrillo and his colleagues…

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Nov 18, 2017

Two Teams Have Simultaneously Unearthed Evidence of an Exotic New Particle

Posted by in category: particle physics

Very interesting!!


A few months ago, physicists observed a new subatomic particle—essentially an awkwardly-named, crazy cousin of the proton. Its mere existence has energized teams of particle physicists to dream up new ways about how matter forms, arranges itself, and exists.

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Nov 18, 2017

Antibiotic overuse is a ticking time bomb for Asia

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, economics, health

Globally, antimicrobial resistance or AMR is becoming a core political, social and economic problem. The implications could never be more real than in Asia where, if no immediate action is taken, by 2050 about five million people are projected to die every year of conditions linked to bacterial infections resistant to antibiotics. This figure will be more than estimated cancer fatalities.


Katinka De Balogh says governments, individuals and health care professionals must all act to curb misuse before antibiotic-resistant bacteria creates a public health calamity.

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