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RED PILL!!!!

The hypothesis that we might all be living in a computer simulation has gotten so popular among Silicon Valley’s tech elites that two billionaires are now apparently pouring money into breaking us out of the simulation.

That’s according to a new profile in the New Yorker about Y Combinator’s Sam Altman. The story delves into Altman’s life and successes at the helm of the famous boot-camp and investment fund for tech startups, and doesn’t shy away from the quirkier aspects of Altman’s character.

In the piece, Altman discusses his theories about being controlled by technology and delves into the simulation hypothesis, which is the idea that human beings are unwittingly just the characters in someone else’s computer simulation.

Continue reading “Two billionaires want to help break humanity out of a giant computer simulation” | >

Research funding for AI risk soars:

GiveWell’s main guy Holden Karnofsky decided he was fully on board with the issue of AI risk, and the Open Philanthropy Project has given around $7.5 million total to the issue to date.

The latest funder to make AI a chief concern is the Open Philanthropy Project, anchored by the wealth of Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna, which this year bumped up artificial intelligence risk to near the top of its priority list. This has led to its biggest grant to the field yet, $5.5 million toward the launch of the Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence, led by UC Berkeley prof and AI pioneer Stuart Russell.

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Last week the U.S. corporation Monsanto, which holds a leading position in the global market of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), reached a licensing agreement with the Broad Institute, Cambridge, USA, on the commercial use of the innovative genome-editing technology CRISPR/Cas9 for agriculture applications. This news has led some experts to believe that Monsanto will now completely switch from producing ‘traditional’ GMOs to ‘genetically edited’ organisms, which are supposedly ‘safer and practically identical’ to their natural alternatives.

Let’s have a closer look at this technology which makes GMO supporters feel so enthusiastic and has been positioned by them as the universal panacea solving all of mankind’s problems. We will also delve deeper into some of the darker aspects of CRISPR/Cas9; the points that biotechnology lobbyists prefer not to discuss.

crispr

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Follow along with the Exponential Medicine 2016 livestream, presented by Guidewell. Join Singularity University as we explore the convergence of health and technology to catalyze the future of medicine.

Join us on Twitter @ExponentialMed and with #xmed.

Connect with Singularity University:
Website: http://singularityu.org

Singularity HUB: http://singularityhub.com

Continue reading “Singularity University Live Stream of Exponential Medicine 2016” | >

Interstellar travel is the term used for hypothetical manned or unmanned travel between stars. Interstellar travel will be much more difficult than interplanetary spaceflight; the distances between the planets in the Solar System are less than 30 astronomical units (AU)—whereas the distances between stars are typically hundreds of thousands of AU, and usually expressed in light-years. Because of the vastness of those distances, interstellar travel would require a high percentage of the speed of light, or huge travel time, lasting from decades to millennia or longer.

I Don’t Not Own Any Of This Content. Hope You Enjoy.

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Wondering why this can’t happen here

German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt in a Tesla S at the 2014 AMI Auto Show (Photo: Jens Schlueter/Getty Images)

Diesel and gasoline-powered vehicles officially are an endangered species in Germany, and possibly all of the EU. This after Germany’s Bunderat has passed a resolution to ban the internal combustion engine starting in 2030, Germany’s Spiegel Magazin writes. Higher taxes may hasten the ICE’s departure.

An across-the-aisle Bunderat resolution calls on the EU Commission in Brussels to pass directives assuring that “latest in 2030, only zero-emission passenger vehicles will be approved” for use on EU roads. Germany’s Bundesrat is a legislative body representing the sixteen states of Germany. On its own, the resolution has no legislative effect. EU type approval is regulated on the EU level. However, German regulations traditionally have shaped EU and UNECE regulations.

Continue reading “Germany’s Bundesrat Resolves End Of Internal Combustion Engine” | >