Lifeboat News: The Blog – Safeguarding Humanity

His 2020 Campaign Message: The Robots Are Coming

Posted by Derick Lee in business, economics, employment, robotics/AI | 1 Comment on His 2020 Campaign Message: The Robots Are Coming

Feb 11
2018

That candidate is Andrew Yang, a well-connected New York businessman who is mounting a longer-than-long-shot bid for the White House. Mr. Yang, a former tech executive who started the nonprofit organization Venture for America, believes that automation and advanced artificial intelligence will soon make millions of jobs obsolete — yours, mine, those of our accountants and radiologists and grocery store cashiers.

He says America needs to take radical steps to prevent Great Depression-level unemployment and a total societal meltdown, including handing out trillions of dollars in cash.

Andrew Yang, a former tech executive, is mounting a longer-than-long-shot bid for the White House by warning of economic calamity ahead.

Movie Of February 2018: Annihilation

Posted by Müslüm Yildiz in entertainment, robotics/AI

Feb 10
2018

Alex Garland continues to cultivate his reputation as one of the most exciting and challenging voices in modern science fiction cinema.

Annihilation is an upcoming science fantasy action horror film written for the screen and directed by Alex Garland based on the novel of the same name by Jeff VanderMeer. The film stars Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny, and Oscar Isaac.

Having previously written screenplays for cult classics like 28 Days Later and Dredd, Garland’s Ex Machina is arguably the definitive film about artificial intelligence (and killer robots) of the 21st century. And that was only his directorial debut.

Job One for Quantum Computers: Boost Artificial Intelligence

Posted by Genevieve Klien in quantum physics, robotics/AI

Feb 10
2018

The fusion of quantum computing and machine learning has become a booming research area. Can it possibly live up to its high expectations?

Astrophysicists settle cosmic debate on magnetism of planets and stars

Posted by Genevieve Klien in space

Feb 10
2018

The universe is highly magnetic, with everything from stars to planets to galaxies producing their own magnetic fields. Astrophysicists have long puzzled over these surprisingly strong and long-lived fields, with theories and simulations seeking a mechanism that explains their generation.

TAE Technologies Gen 5 reactor targets tripling confinement with 10 times the power by 2020

Posted by Genevieve Klien in nuclear energy, sustainability

Feb 10
2018

TAE Technologies, Inc. (formerly Tri Alpha Energy), the world’s largest and most advanced private fusion company, has announced that its proprietary beam-driven field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasma generator, “Norman,” surpassed a new technical milestone, bringing the company closer to the reality of commercial fusion power. This latest achievement marks a significant step in the company’s mission to create a global energy revolution with clean, safe, sustainable fusion energy.

Norman, the $100MM National Laboratory-scale device named for company founder Dr. Norman Rostoker, was unveiled in May 2017 and quickly reached first plasma in June 2017. After over 4,000 experiments to date, Norman has now exceeded the capabilities and performance of the company’s previous FRC plasma generator, C-2U, and sets a new company record for plasma temperature.

This electronic skin can heal itself — and then make more skin

Posted by Genevieve Klien in futurism

Feb 10
2018

No-waste e-skin.

TAE Technologies pushes plasma machine to a new high on the nuclear fusion frontier

Posted by Klaus Baldauf in climatology, nuclear energy, sustainability

Feb 10
2018

TAE Technologies, the California-based fusion company backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, said its latest and greatest plasma generator has exceeded the headline-grabbing performance of its previous machine.

“This announcement is an important milestone on our quest to deliver world-changing, clean fusion energy to help combat climate change and improve the quality of life for people globally,” Michl Binderbauer, the company’s president and chief technology officer, said in a news release. “This achievement further validates the robustness of TAE’s underlying science and unique pathway.”

Sound waves may be able to trigger earlier tsunami warnings

Posted by Genevieve Klien in futurism

Feb 10
2018

When an earthquake sets off a tsunami, it releases speedy sound waves that could give us early warning. But they still can’t predict the size of the tsunami.

What does China’s monkey breakthrough mean for human cloning?

Posted by Genevieve Klien in biotech/medical, ethics

Feb 10
2018

The creation of monkey clones is a big breakthrough, but making a copy of an adult is still not possible and the ethics of cloning remain unchanged.

How Artificial Intelligence can Bring on a Second Industrial Revolution

Posted by Müslüm Yildiz in robotics/AI

Feb 10
2018

Over the next 20 years, he says, our penchant for making things smarter and smarter will have a profound impact on nearly everything we do. Kelly explores three trends in artificial intelligence we need to understand in order to embrace it and steer its development. “The most popular AI product 20 years from now that everyone uses has not been invented yet,” Kelly says. “That means that you’re not late.”