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Somewhere, in the deepest reaches of the cosmos, far from the safe confines of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, lies a monster. Slowly, inevitably, it is pulling. Over the course of billions of years, it draws us and everything near us closer to it. The only force that acts over such immense distance scales and through cosmic periods of time is gravity, so whatever it is, it’s massive and unrelenting.
We call it the Great Attractor, and until recently, its true nature has been a complete mystery. Note that it’s still a mystery, just not a complete one.
The Great Attractor was first discovered in the 1970s when astronomers made detailed maps of the Cosmic Microwave Background (the light left over from the early universe), and noticed that it was slightly (and “slightly” here means less than one one-hundredth of a degree Fahrenheit) warmer on one side of the Milky Way than the other — implying that the galaxy was moving through space at the brisk clip of about 370 miles per second (600 km/s).
Even though astronomers could measure the rapid velocity, they couldn’t explain its origin.
Jul 31, 2016
Futurist-linked groups talking at the Mont Order
Posted by Harry J. Bentham in categories: counterterrorism, futurism, governance, government, policy, terrorism
The following is a selection of points of interest to futurism and forecasts of the political future from the recent Mont Order Conference of July 2016:
STATEMENT 1: NEW SECRET WIKI CREATED
The Mont Order’s secret wiki created via PBworks holds information on the origin and literature of the Mont Order as well as our current structure, ranks and members. Members will be invited via email and will be able to contribute pages or post comments and questions on this literature. The public will not have access to it.
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Jul 31, 2016
What it’s like to counter-protest Christians as an atheist demonstrator at both political conventions
Posted by Zoltan Istvan in categories: geopolitics, transhumanism
My new story for The Daily Dot. Also, cool future tech to help the nonreligious get the message out:
Of the thousands of protesters at the Republican and Democratic conventions, one of the most noticeable groups were the born-again Christians. But this year—perhaps for the first time at national conventions—they were met with resistance from organized atheist and transhumanist protesters clashing against them.
With approximately a dozen atheists and transhumanists, my group of supporters engaged the Christians and campaigned in front of them. Sometimes wearing Transhumanist Party t-shirts and holding posters, we argued with them, blocked press from getting good pictures of them, and generally promoted to the public the power of reason over faith.
Jul 31, 2016
Elon Musk’s OpenAI Project Has Identified 4 Big Problems for AI
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: Elon Musk, robotics/AI
Jul 31, 2016
Nat Geo’s ‘Mars’: “If Mankind Has Two Planets… Then Our Odds Of Extinction Will Drop To Nearly Zero” — TCA
Posted by Sean Brazell in categories: education, existential risks, space
National Geographic’s scripted/unscripted hybrid series Mars gives viewers both a real and dramatized quest to colonize the planet. The combination present-day documentary and scripted look at the future is what director Everard Gout described as a process in which “one hand fits in the other in terms of the knowledge and in terms of the emotion.” “It’s electrical” he added, “because you have that level of truthfulness on the documentary side but you also have an equal amount of beauty and truthfulness on the scripted side. It’s a very visceral experience.”
Jul 31, 2016
Robot Lays Bricks 4 Times Faster Than A Human
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: futurism, robotics/AI
Jul 30, 2016
Space Standoff: The next Cold War is already playing out right above our heads
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: military, robotics/AI, space
The next generation of military space-bots are already in orbit as Russia, the US, and China each struggle for dominance in space.
Jul 30, 2016
Chip-enhanced political candidates coming soon
Posted by Zoltan Istvan in categories: biotech/medical, computing, cyborgs, geopolitics, internet, mobile phones, terrorism, transhumanism
My new OpEd article for the San Francisco Chronicle on chip implants and transhumanism: http://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Chip-en…694149.php They also did a 2-minute video of my presidential campaign: http://bit.ly/2aERJxc
The implant can do all sorts of things, like unlock my electronic house door, act as my password on my computer, and even send a text message when people with the right phone and app come near me. Keys, credit cards, ID cards, medical records and passwords — these are all things that can be replaced by a tiny chip in the hand. If having technology in your bodies sounds wacky, consider the millions of people around the world who have artificial hips or dentures, or deaf people who use cochlear implants to hear sounds. […] former Vice President Dick Cheney famously asked to have the Wi-Fi on his heart valve turned off, just in case terrorists tried to hack it. A company in Sylmar (Los Angeles County) called Second Sight already has FDA approval for bionic eyes.