Lifeboat Foundation

Work at your computer in a zero stress position. Get past the pain and back to work.

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GDF 11 has been publicised as another fountain of youth molecule, but with contradictory findings, does it live up to the hype, or could it be potentially harmful? It could be a bit of both.

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Tech giant, Intel has pledged $50 million (£33 million) to quantum computing research, which could ultimately give us a supercomputer unlike any machine we have known so far.

In an open letter, CEO Brian Krzanich announced a 10-year partnership with Delft University of Technology and TNO, the Dutch Organisation for Applied Research.

Describing the “exciting possibilities” about the research he said: “Quantum computing is one of the more promising areas of long-term research we’ve been exploring in our labs, with some of the smartest engineers in the world.

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PRIMER-V2 robot rides a bike just like a man. It maintains balance with a built-in gyroscope, through which he holds the balance and steers in a straight line.

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“Beyond implementation of quantum communication technologies, nanotube-based single photon sources could enable transformative quantum technologies including ultra-sensitive absorption measurements, sub-diffraction imaging, and linear quantum computing. The material has potential for photonic, plasmonic, optoelectronic, and quantum information science applications…”

In optical communication, critical information ranging from a credit card number to national security data is transmitted in streams of laser pulses. However, the information transmitted in this manner can be stolen by splitting out a few photons (the quantum of light) of the laser pulse. This type of eavesdropping could be prevented by encoding bits of information on quantum mechanical states (e.g. polarization state) of single photons. The ability to generate single photons on demand holds the key to realization of such a communication scheme.

By demonstrating that incorporation of pristine single-walled carbon nanotubes into a silicon dioxide (SiO2) matrix could lead to creation of solitary oxygen dopant state capable of fluctuation-free, room-temperature single photon emission, Los Alamos researchers revealed a new path toward on-demand single photon generation. Nature Nanotechnology published their findings.

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The media is all-abuzz with tales of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The provocative two-letter symbol conjures up images of invading autonomous robot drones and Terminator-like machines wreaking havoc on mankind. Then there’s the pervading presence of deep learning and big data, also referred to as artificial intelligence. This might leave some of us wondering, is artificial intelligence one or all of these things?

In that sense, AI leaves a bit of an ambiguous trail – there does not seem to be a clear definition, even amongst scientists and researchers in the field. There are certainly many different branches of AI. I asked Dr. Roger Schank, Professor Emeritus at Northwestern University, for a more clear definition; he told me that artificial intelligence is not big data and deep learning algorithms, at least not in the pure sense of the definition.

Roger emphasizes that intelligence has everything to do with the intersection of learning and interaction and memory. “I will tell you the number one thing people do, it’s pretty obvious – they talk to each other. Guess how hard that is? That is phenomenally hard, that is the subsection of AI called natural language processing, the part that I worked on my whole life, and I understand how far away we are from that.”

Take a “simple” AI concept, such as how to create a computer that plays chess, to better understand the challenge. There are, more or less, two approaches to creating an intelligent machine that can play chess like a champion. The first approach requires programming the computer to predict thousands of moves ahead of time, while the second approach involves building a computer system that tries to imitate a grand master. In the historical pursuit of how to create an artificially intelligent entity, a vast majority of scientists chose the first option of programming based on prediction.

Continue reading “Finding Artificial Intelligence Through Storytelling — An Interview with Dr. Roger Schank” »

I invite you all to like my new Facebook community page meant to be a place to discuss extrasolar planet-related issues as they relate to my seminal book on the subject: “Distant Wanderers: The Search for Planets Beyond the Solar System.” https://www.facebook.com/pages/Distant-Wanderers-The-Search-…294?ref=hl

Distant Wanderers: The Search for Planets Beyond the Solar System, my first book, was published in October 2001.

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Citizens of the Thai capital Bangkok witnessed a huge fireball descending on the horizon this morning, and thanks to the dashcams in their cars, we can admire the celestial visitor from several different angles.

The meteor entered Earth’s atmosphere around 8.45am local time, and burnt up in a huge fireball after striking down from the sky. The meteor was big and bright, but definitely smaller than the infamous Chelyabinsk meteor which exploded over Russia in 2013, damaging 7,200 buildings in six cities in the southern Ural region. There are no reports of any damage from Bangkok so far.

We put together a short video about the Bangkok shooting star, for you viewing pleasure:

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IFA is the world’s leading trade show for consumer electronics and home appliances. It takes place from September 4 to 9, 2015 in Berlin.

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