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WILLIAMSBURG, Va.: The Pentagon’s top weapons buyer, Frank Kendall, warned today that the US might hobble itself in future warfare by insisting on human control of thinking weapons if our adversaries just let their robots pull the trigger. Kendall even worries that Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work is being too optimistic when Work says humans and machines working together will beat robots without oversight.

These are unnerving ideas — and top Army leaders swiftly responded with concern that robots would shoot civilians if you take the human out of the loop. This is what Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Paul Selva calls the Terminator Conundrum: “When do we want to cross that line as humans? And who wants to cross it first? Those are really hard ethical questions.” They are also a fundamental question of combat effectiveness.

“Even in a more conventional conflict, we’re quite careful about not killing innocent civilians,” said Kendall. “I don’t expect our adversaries to all behave that way, and the advantage you have if you don’t worry about that as much, is you make decisions more quickly” — which can spell the difference between victory and defeat.

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Researchers have developed a wireless device small enough to be implanted in individual nerves, and capable of detecting the electrical activity of nerves and muscles deep within the body, according to DARPA, which funded the work.

The millimeter-scale sensor and external ultrasonic transceiver that powers the implant and communicates with it is called a “neural dust” system. The team, led by the University of California, Berkeley’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, completed the first in vivo tests of this technology in rodents and reported them in the journal Neuron.

The sensor can be implanted into either a nerve or muscle, and consists of a piezoelectric crystal, a single custom transistor, and a pair of recording electrodes. The system reported both electroneurogram (ENG) recordings from the sciatic nerve and electromyographic (EMG) recordings from the gastrocnemius muscle, according to the journal article.

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Scientists have just found a way to make use of plasma, the fourth state of matter, to improve bone development. Using cold fusion, researchers were able to initiate increased bone growth.

It is a bit ironic that plasma is the least known state of matter, when in fact it is the most abundant in the universe. It is found in our Sun and all other stars, lightning, in our TVs, fluorescent light, and neon signs, and (purportedly) even in our favorite fictional weapon in the Star Wars universe, the lightsaber.

Plasma can be classified according to the degree of ionization, temperature, etc, but whatever form it may take, plasma has been used in various fields, such as in spacecraft propulsion, agriculture, and quite recently, in medicine.

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Recent findings indicating the possible discovery of a previously unknown subatomic particle may be evidence of a fifth fundamental force of nature, according to a paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters by theoretical physicists at the University of California, Irvine.

“If true, it’s revolutionary,” said Jonathan Feng, professor of physics & astronomy. “For decades, we’ve known of four fundamental forces: gravitation, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces. If confirmed by further experiments, this discovery of a possible fifth force would completely change our understanding of the universe, with consequences for the unification of forces and dark matter.”

The UCI researchers came upon a mid-2015 study by experimental nuclear physicists at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences who were searching for “dark photons,” particles that would signify unseen dark matter, which physicists say makes up about 85 percent of the universe’s mass. The Hungarians’ work uncovered a radioactive decay anomaly that points to the existence of a light particle just 30 times heavier than an electron.

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Leading AI scientist Ben Goertzel says, “In the future, an AI will tutor your children and take care of your grandma. It won’t be Terminator robots marching down the street.” Watch Episode 2 of “Future First” with Popular Science.

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My exclusive interview with Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson on some hard science & tech issues, including transhumanism, longevity, AI, and gene editing. This is also my first story for Futurism. For the record, I am trying, along with millions of others, to get Gary Johnson into the Presidentia l debates! No matter who you plan to vote for, it would be good for America to have him in the debates so a third voice is heard:

Libertarian Presidentia l candidate Gary Johnson wants humans to live a lot longer and isn’t worried about AI becoming the Terminator. Here, Futurist Zoltan Istvan gains an exclusive interview with Johnson, who is polling double digits nationally and hopes to be in the Presidentia l debates with Trump and Clinton in October.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author. They do not necessarily represent the views of Futurism or its affiliates.

I recently sat down with Libertarian Presidentia l candidate Gary Johnson at his home in New Mexico and watched an episode of Orphan Black, the hit sci-fi show. Between his CNN Town Hall meetings and endless speeches on the campaign trail, you’re probably asking: How did Gary get the time to watch a television show? It’s a good question, but the former Governor made the time, because he’s interested in the future and willing to explore how it might unfold.

Continue reading “Gary Johnson Wants Driverless Secret Service Cars and a US-Led Gene Editing Revolution” | >

Ford says it’s going to deliver self-driving cars by 2021 – and these will ship in volume, and will also lack steering wheels, brake or gas pedals, offering full Level 4 self-driving features which don’t require a human driver at all, the company announced at a press conference in Palo Alto today.

The car maker says that it has held off making any announcements about when to deliver self-driving vehicles until now because it isn’t in a race to make announcements. But it did say it is making self-driving vehicle deployment a priority, because of the advantages it offers in terms of customer experience and passenger safety.

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Absolutely, undeniably awesome.

We got about a minute of footage last week, and now the full trailer for the movie adaptation of Ted Chiang’s “Story Of Your Life” is here. And it is tense.

Whereas before, the footage ended with Amy Adams’ Dr. Banks getting her first look inside one of the weird alien monoliths that have appeared, the trailer goes much further. We see her actually communicating with the aliens, while the rest of the world goes appropriately batshit. There’s a lot less action in this sci-fi movie than there is drama, and it all looks great.

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