Page 10117
Mar 19, 2017
Typing sentences by simply thinking is possible with new technology
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: biotech/medical, computing, neuroscience
JUDY WOODRUFF: For decades, researchers have worked to create a better and more direct connection between a human brain and a computer to improve the lives of people who are paralyzed or have severe limb weakness from diseases like ALS.
Those advances have been notable, but now the work is yielding groundbreaking results.
Special correspondent Cat Wise has the story.
Continue reading “Typing sentences by simply thinking is possible with new technology” »
Mar 19, 2017
Study tips
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: biotech/medical, education, government
Mar 19, 2017
Google DeepMind has built an AI machine that could learn as quickly as humans before long
Posted by Simon Waslander in categories: entertainment, robotics/AI
How deepmind’s memory trick helps AI learn faster.
While AI systems can match many human capabilities, they take 10 times longer to learn. Now, by copying the way the brain works, Google DeepMind has built a machine that is closing the gap. “Our experiments show that neural episodic control requires an order of magnitude fewer interactions with the environment,” they say.
Intelligent machines have humans in their sights. Deep-learning machines already have superhuman skills when it comes to tasks such as face recognition, video-game playing, and even the ancient Chinese game of Go. So it’s easy to think that humans are already outgunned.
Mar 19, 2017
The rise of the useless class
Posted by Simon Waslander in categories: economics, information science, robotics/AI
Historian Yuval Noah Harari makes a bracing prediction: just as mass industrialization created the working class, the AI revolution will create a new unworking class.
The most important question in 21st-century economics may well be: What should we do with all the superfluous people, once we have highly intelligent non-conscious algorithms that can do almost everything better than humans?
This is not an entirely new question. People have long feared that mechanization might cause mass unemployment. This never happened, because as old professions became obsolete, new professions evolved, and there was always something humans could do better than machines. Yet this is not a law of nature, and nothing guarantees it will continue to be like that in the future. The idea that humans will always have a unique ability beyond the reach of non-conscious algorithms is just wishful thinking. The current scientific answer to this pipe dream can be summarized in three simple principles:
Mar 19, 2017
Let’s Use Schrödinger’s Cat To Learn About Quantum Entanglement
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in category: quantum physics
Support me on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/minutephysics
Previous video on No Cloning: https://youtu.be/owPC60Ue0BE
How to teleport Schrödinger’s cat: this video presents the full quantum teleportation procedure, in which an arbitrary qubit (spin, etc) is teleported from Alice to Bob by way of a pair of particles entangled in a bell (EPR) state and the transmission of information via a classical channel.
Continue reading “Let’s Use Schrödinger’s Cat To Learn About Quantum Entanglement” »
Mar 19, 2017
ESight makes high-tech glasses that let blind people see
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in category: biotech/medical
Mar 19, 2017
Why String Theory Could Be the Key to Uncovering the ‘Theory of Everything’
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: cosmology, quantum physics
A central goal that modern physicists share is finding a single theory that can explain the entire Universe and unite the forces of nature.
The standard model, for example, leaves dark matter, dark energy, and even gravity out of the picture — meaning that it really only accounts for a very small percentage of what makes up the Universe.
Continue reading “Why String Theory Could Be the Key to Uncovering the ‘Theory of Everything’” »
Mar 19, 2017
Studies: One Dose of “Psilocybin” from Magic Mushrooms Relieves Depression and Anxiety in 80% of Cancer Patients
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience
New studies from NYU and John Hopkins University show the effectiveness of psilocybin in treating depression and anxiety of cancer patients.
Mar 19, 2017
Scientists Just Found an Unexpected Property in a Solid Metal: It ‘Remembers’ Its Liquid State
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in category: materials
Researchers have probed samples of metal bismuth, and found a completely unexpected property — under certain conditions, the solid metal can retain a type of ‘structural memory’ of its liquid state.
The fact that scientists have found a new property of metals is exciting enough. But this also means solid bismuth can go from being repelled by a magnetic field (diamagnetic) to being attracted to a magnetic field (ferromagnetic), which could lead to a whole new way of creating materials with unique properties.
The phases of matter we learn about in high school, such as liquid, gas, and solid, are all defined by the way molecules in matter are arranged depending on external conditions. For example, liquid water freezes and contracts together, expanding into ice, or relaxes and boils into steam.