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Today’s Sputnik moment is China’s rapid growth as an economic and technological superpower. In 2017 alone, China has outpaced the United States in renewable energy efforts and has become the standard-bearer in combating climate change and advocacy for globalization. Similarly, China is rapidly moving towards taking the lead in technology from the United States and is looking at quantum computing and artificial intelligence as areas for growth to do so.

The Verge recently published an article citing Alphabet chief executive officer Eric Schmidt’s perspective that the United States is falling behind when it comes to research and development in artificial intelligence, particularly compared to the rapid pace of innovation that China has set in the field. Schmidt, who is also the chair of the Defense Innovation Advisory Board, gave those remarks as part of a discussion at The Artificial Intelligence and Global Security Summit held by The Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a nonprofit think tank dedicated to research and analysis on how the United States can make informed policy-making decisions on national security and defense.

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Our CEO, Liz Parrish was invited at this event for a keynote interview with Charles Goddard, the editorial director for The Economist Asia Pacific Intelligence Unit. They discussed the complexity of regulations, the extraordinarily long time it takes for drug development from bench to bedside, the current funding environment surrounding biotech, and the pace of medical innovations. During the keynote, Liz emphasized that BioViva’s main aim is to make advanced gene and cell therapies available to all patients in need. To further this cause BioViva supports innovative and adaptive clinical trials, new models for preclinical testing, and accelerating the time to develop advanced gene and cell therapy. Finally, Liz highlighted the importance of testing gene and cell therapy in humans as quickly as possible, because animal models are not accurate.

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Of all the concerns and objections we have seen, saying that an indefinite lifespan would deprive us of motivation in life is by far the most bizarre.


Of all the concerns and objections I’ve bumped into as a rejuvenation advocate, saying that an indefinite lifespan would deprive us of motivation in life is by far the most bizarre. I’d have a hard time believing this concern is so widespread that it needs discussing, but for completeness’ sake, let’s do it anyway.

The argument in a nutshell

It’s very simple: if aging was completely defeated, then there wouldn’t be a definite upper limit to the duration of our lives. Depending on your luck and our ability to minimise risks from other causes of death, in principle, you might live to the end of time, if that’s a thing. And this, according to some, would make you lose your motivation to be alive. No death, no reason to live, they say.

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Las Vegas’ newest tourist attraction has nothing to do with casinos, neon lights or Cirque du Soleil. It’s a driverless shuttle that will make a half-mile loop all day long on city streets in the downtown Fremont East district, starting Wednesday.

AAA of Northern California, Nevada & Utah is sponsoring the yearlong pilot program along with two French companies: Keolis, a global transportation company that already runs Las Vegas’ public bus system, and Navya, which manufactures the driverless shuttle. The goal is twofold: to expose the public to the futuristic technology and gain insights on how people view it.

“Las Vegas prides itself on being first, getting out there and trying out new things,” said city spokesman Jace Radke.

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The user, “devops199”, triggered the flaw apparently by accident. When they realised what they had done, they attempted to undo the damage by deleting the code which had transferred ownership of the funds. Rather than returning the money, however, that simply locked all the funds in those multisignature wallets permanently, with no way to access them.

“This means that currently no funds can be moved out of the multi-sig wallets,” Parity says in a security advisory.

Effectively, a user accidentally stole hundreds of wallets simultaneously, and then set them on fire in a panic while trying to give them back.

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A colonel who runs a research directorate says the Nehreta did well in recent exercises at proving grounds outside Moscow.

The Russian military will field a new armed tank-like robot that “outperformed” manned platforms in recent exercises at the Alabino proving grounds outside Moscow.

That’s what Col. Oleg Pomazuev told the Russian news site “Military Review” in late October. Pomazuev runs the Department of Innovation Research at the Russian military’s Main Directorate of Research Activities, or GUNID.

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Tiny human brains connected to the minds of rats have sparked a major ethical debate among researchers.

Two papers being presented at a renowned US neuroscience conference this week claim to have hooked human brain tissue to the minds of rats and mice.

Ethicists have questioned whether the move could one day give the animals a consciousness, meaning they will be entitled to ‘respect’ in future.

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Flying Ubers are coming to LA: Ride-sharing company links with NASA to bring 200mph electric aircraft to the city in 2020 and a flight will cost you the same as a car journey…


Uber’s Chief Product Officer, Jeff Holden, announced the plans at the global Web Summit in Lisbon today.

Mr Holden said: ‘Technology will allow LA residents to literally fly over the city’s historically bad traffic, giving them time back to use in far more productive ways.

‘At scale, we expect UberAIR will perform tens of thousands of flights each day across the city — at those levels, all the time savings will have a noticeable positive impact on the region’s economy.’

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