Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Blog – Page 1068

The U.S. High Speed Rail Association (USHSR) published a map outlining its proposal for a new 17,000-mile national high-speed rail network across the United States, which it claims will “cut our carbon footprint by epic proportions.”

Under the plan, which the USHSR proposes to build in four stages, it would be possible to travel between Seattle, Washington; San Diego, California; Miami, Florida; and Boston, Massachusetts, entirely on 220-mile-per-hour high-speed rail lines.

The past few years have seen a renaissance in high-speed rail interest across the United States, following decades of little activity. A number of lines are either proposed or under construction. Integrated high-speed rail networks already exist across much of Western Europe, Japan, and China, which, according to Statista, had a 25,000-mile-long network in 2021.

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Read & tell me what you think 🙂

There is a rift between near and long-term perspectives on AI safety – one that has stirred controversy. Longtermists argue that we need to prioritise the well-being of people far into the future, perhaps at the expense of people alive today. But their critics have accused the Longtermists of obsessing on Terminator-style scenarios in concert with Big Tech to distract regulators from more pressing issues like data privacy. In this essay, Mark Bailey and Susan Schneider argue that we shouldn’t be fighting about the Terminator, we should be focusing on the harm to the mind itself – to our very freedom to think.

There has been a growing debate between near and long-term perspectives on AI safety – one that has stirred controversy. “Longtermists” have been accused of being co-opted by Big Tech and fixating on science fiction-like Terminator-style scenarios to distract regulators from the real, more near-term, issues, such as algorithmic bias and data privacy.

Longtermism is an ethical theory that requires us to consider the effects of today’s decisions on all of humanity’s potential futures. It can lead to extremes, as it concludes that one should sacrifice the present wellbeing of humanity for the good of humanity’s potential futures. Many Longtermists believe humans will ultimately lose control of AI, as it will become “superintelligent”, outthinking humans in every domain – social acumen, mathematical abilities, strategic thinking, and more.

Continue reading “The real long-term dangers of AI” | >

Since the Apollo missions over half a century ago, scientists have suspected that the lunar surface is riddled with an extensive network of tunnels.

But despite our best efforts, they’ve been unable to once and for all confirm their existence — until now.

Scientists at the University of Trento in Italy have used cutting-edge data analysis tools to examine radar reflections to provide the “first direct evidence of an accessible lava tube under the surface of the Moon,” according to University of Trento professor Lorenzo Bruzzone, coauthor of a new paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

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I have recently read the report from Sharad Agarwal, and here are my outcomes by adding some examples:

Transhumanism is the concept of transcending humanity’s fundamental limitations through advances in science and technology. This intellectual movement advocates for enhancing human physical, cognitive, and ethical capabilities, foreseeing a future where technological advancements will profoundly modify and improve human biology.

Consider transhumanism to be a kind of upgrade to your smartphone. Transhumanism, like updating our phones with the latest software to improve their capabilities and fix problems, seeks to use technological breakthroughs to increase human capacities. This could include strengthening our physical capacities to make us stronger or more resilient, improving our cognitive capabilities to improve memory or intelligence, or even fine-tuning moral judgments. Transhumanism, like phone upgrades, aspires to maximize efficiency and effectiveness by elevating the human condition beyond its inherent bounds.

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Gerard Johnstone and Akela Cooper’s 2022 sci-fi horror M3GAN (streaming now on Peacock) follows the tragic childhood of Cady, a young girl whose parents are killed in a car accident. In the aftermath, Cady goes to live with her Aunt Gemma, a roboticist who has invented the Model 3 Generative Android, M3GAN for short.

M3GAN is a child-sized anthropomorphic robot with human level intelligence, designed to be the perfect friend. M3GAN’s primary directive is to keep Cady safe and happy, and it’s a job she executes with deadly seriousness. In the real world, scientists in China recently crafted a less deadly but equally spine-tingling intelligent robot controlled not by a person or by programming, but by a spheroid blob of human brain tissue.

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Author: Kiyana Rahimian.

“Pick all the cells with traffic lights”… Often, when opening a website, users have to verify that they’re not automated software by completing a test where they select certain parts of a picture. Such tests are types of Automated Turing tests. The Turing test, developed by Alan Turing, helps determine if technology can replicate human intelligence. As of now, even though engineering has sought to replicate brain-like functions through developing artificial intelligence (AI), there’s been no success in replicating human brain functions. Although the human brain processes basic information, like numbers, at slower rates than machines, they are better able to process complex information. Intuitive reasoning gives human brains the means to perform considerably better with little, diverse, and/or incomplete information.8 Compared to silicon-based computers, human brains are better at data storage and are way more energy efficient.

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In this study, we explore the accelerated expansion of the universe within the framework of modified f(Q) gravity. The investigation focus on the role of bulk viscosity in understanding the universe’s accelerated expansion. Specifically, a bulk viscous matter-dominated cosmological model is considered, with the bulk viscosity coefficient expressed as $$\zeta = \zeta _0 \rho H^{-1} + \zeta _1 H $$ ζ = ζ 0 ρ H — 1 + ζ 1 H. We consider the power law f(Q) function $$f(Q)=\alpha Q^n $$ f (Q ) = α Q n, where $$\alpha $$ α and n are arbitrary constants and derive the analytical solutions for the field equations corresponding to a flat FLRW metric. Subsequently, we used the combined Cosmic Chronometers (CC)+Pantheon+SH0ES sample to estimate the free parameters of the obtained analytic solution.

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Summary: A recent study suggests that consciousness evolved not for individual survival, but for social purposes, helping humans communicate ideas and emotions. Researchers argue that intuition heavily influences our understanding of consciousness, complicating scientific explanations.

The study emphasizes that while subjective awareness lacks causal influence, it remains crucial in social contexts. This perspective challenges traditional views, suggesting that consciousness benefits the species as a whole through social interactions.

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