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Jan 22, 2017
Singularity CGI
Posted by Eric Klien in categories: media & arts, robotics/AI, singularity
Carrie Fisher just died but she will likely come back to life because the Singularity is Near and is bringing Singularity CGI with it!
Bringing the dead back to life
In the latest Star Wars movie, Rogue One, five characters were brought back as they would have looked between episodes 3 and 4 of Star Wars. They were Princess Leia, Grand Moff Tarkin, Dr. Cornelius Evazan (who said “I have the death sentence on twelve systems” in episode 4), General Dodonna, and Mon Mothma. General Dodonna and Mon Mothma were brought back with the traditional method of using actors who looked similar to the original actors. The other three were brought back with CGI (computer-generated imagery), more specifically CGI enhanced with motion capture.
(He looks better because he had more screen time so they spent more money on him.)
Jan 22, 2017
Scientists Have Made a New Kind of Invisibility Cloak
Posted by Shane Hinshaw in category: materials
In Brief
- “Cloaking” or invisibility technology is a kind of scientific Holy Grail; but actually concealing objects in direct light is notoriously difficult.
- A team of researchers has now found a way to achieve potential perfect invisibility by bending light—but only in “diffusive” atmospheres.
Concealing objects in direct light is already a difficult feat. While there is ongoing research into invisibility cloaks of some form or other, researchers at the Public University of Navarre (NUP/UPNA) and the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) are taking a not-so-straightforward approach. In particular, they are interested in developing a cloaking mechanism that works by bending light.
The team, whose work is published in the journal Physical Review A, has worked on simulations of an invisibility technology that conceals objects in diffusive atmospheres. This kind of invisibility, based on their study, can be achieved by surrounding an object with a special material that’s capable of bending light around it.
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Jan 22, 2017
A 20th Century Bullring Reimagined as a 21st Century Drone Station
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in category: drones
Bullfights arouse strong feelings on both sides. Their aficionados see them as a place of near reverence, where animal and man engage in an athletic dance summoning the shadows of mankind’s struggles for both dominance over and stewardship of his natural counterparts. Opponents of the sport decry its violence and bloodshed, the unnecessary cruelty of what they see as a prolonged infliction of torture upon one of our planet’s fellow creatures. In 2012, Catalonia, the region of Spain that contains Barcelona, agreed more with the latter characterization than the former and banned the sport.
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One Overall Winning Submission Receives: Story turned into visualization | Invitation to present story at Mad Scientist Conference in Washington DC |
Jan 22, 2017
Google’s AI software is learning to make AI software
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in category: robotics/AI
Jan 22, 2017
‘Miniature’, Modular Nuclear Power Plants Could Be Rolled Out in the US
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: habitats, nuclear energy, transportation
The future of nuclear power might look very different than we thought, with a US-based company presenting plans for miniature, modular nuclear power plants that are so small, they can fit on the back of a truck.
NuScale Power, the company behind the power plants, says each modular device is completely self-contained, and capable of producing 50-megawatts of electricity — enough to power thousands of homes.
The power plants stand 29.7 metres tall, so aren’t really that ‘miniature’, except relative to an acutal nuclear power plant. They also haven’t been tested as yet, so we need to reserve our excitment for when we can actually see these things in action.
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Jan 22, 2017
Should We Cure Aging?
Posted by Montie Adkins in categories: biotech/medical, life extension
Aging fosters sickness and disability, increases human suffering, and makes us more likely to die. Previously, I argued that curing aging must be a top priority for society, yet there are also a number of possible objections to this endeavor. Most of these are unfounded myths that can be disproved while others raise relevant social, philosophical and ethical issues. This essay draws on my own lectures, and publications (Sethe and de Magalhaes, 2013), on this subject and attempts to answer the most commonly raised questions and concerns about the work of gerontologists and a possible cure for aging.
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Jan 22, 2017
Learn How This Family Grows 6,000 Lbs Of Food on Just 1/10th Acre – Urban Homestead
Posted by Montie Adkins in category: food
There 7.68 billion acres of arable land. if everyone did this and lived one one tenth of an acre then that’s room for 76 billion people just on the arable land where there is actually 36 billion acres of land on the planet.
If farming were turned into vertical farming building with ten floors a piece at 1/10th and acre per level that’s 760 billion. At 100 floors that’d be 7.6 trillion. I would need to review an Isaac Arthur video about the maximum occupancy of the planet, there may be heat problems with trillions of people on the planet.
