Lifeboat Foundation

Written By: David J. Hill — Singularity Hub

While computers scientists find new ways to supercharge computers, a team of plant scientists have demonstrated that they can supercharge a plant.

Hoping to speed up plant photosynthesis, researchers from the US and UK have successfully upgraded a carbon-fixing enzyme vital to photosynthesis in a tobacco plant with two enzymes from cyanobacteria, which function at a faster rate. If photosynthesis can be performed more efficiently, plants would grow larger and crops could have higher yields, possibly as high as 60% according to computer models.

Continue reading “Plant Engineered to Supercharge Photosynthesis with Hopes of Increasing Crop Yields” »

The audio in this archive file was compiled from a 1984 meeting of futurists, transhumanists & progressives. The main topic of the meeting was the most appropriate ways to engage or advance these philosophies within government. For example, one significant point of discussion centered around whether running for office was an effective way to drive change.

The excerpts in this archive file collect many of futurist FM 2030’s thoughts over the course of the discussion.

About FM 2030: FM 2030 was at various points in his life, an Iranian Olympic basketball player, a diplomat, a university teacher, and a corporate consultant. He developed his views on transhumanism in the 1960s and evolved them over the next thirty-something years. He was placed in cryonic suspension July 8th, 2000.

Written By: Steven Kotler — Singularity Hub

Big Brother is feeling you—literally.

A few months back, I wrote about Ellie, the world’s first AI-psychologist. Developed by DARPA and researchers at USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies, Ellie is a diagnostic tool capable of reading 60 non-verbal cues a second—everything from eye-gaze to face tilt to voice tone—in the hopes of identifying the early warning signs of depressions and (part of the long term goal) stemming the rising tide of soldier suicide.

Continue reading “Big Brother Is Feeling You: The Global Impact Of AI-Driven Mental Health Care” »

FUTURISM UPDATE (November 06, 2014)

THE ATLANTIC: The Military Is Building Brain Chips to Treat PTSD http://lnkd.in/dYbe4q7

WASHINGTON POST: Verizon, AT&T tracking their users with ‘supercookies’ http://lnkd.in/dCcqG7T

LOS ANGELES TIMES: Virgin Galactic pilot defied the odds to survive crash http://lnkd.in/daPd5Yi

Continue reading “FUTURISM UPDATE (November 06, 2014)” »

Written By: Jason Dorrier — Singularity Hub

Many of the world’s cities are hundreds, even thousands of years old. They evolved from the bottom up as populations changed and demanded change. A new road here, new building there. The result is striking and wild—a kind of physical history.

But what if you could start New York or London from scratch?

Continue reading “Futuristic Chinese Megastructure Would Include Soaring Towers, Massive Skyways, Urban Farms” »

The Exponential Nature of Ebola

Otto E. Rossler

Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, University of Tubingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 8, 72076 Tubingen, Germany

Inscribed on the UN Building:
Human beings are members of a whole,
In creation of one essence and soul;
If one member is afflicted with pain,
Other members uneasy will remain;
If you have no sympathy for human pain,
The name of human you cannot retain.
(Saadi, 1210–1292)

Continue reading “The Exponential Nature of Ebola” »

This new analogical model explains (graphically represents) the behavior of horizontal light paths in the equivalence principle, and by implication in gravitation. It entails global constancy of the speed of light c in gravitation.

(I thank Frank Kuske and Ali Sanayei for a discussion yesterday in the lecture hall.)

FUTURISM UPDATE (November 05, 2014)

BBC: Virgin Galactic crash: Pilots’ actions analysed. SpaceShipTwo broke apart just seconds after igniting its rocket engine for a test outing above California on Friday. http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29895140

MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: “Dark Web” Version of Facebook Shows a New Way to Secure the Web. A new way to access Facebook securely and anonymously via the “dark Web” could provide a model for other sites. http://lnkd.in/dKgNqPS

LOS ANGELES TIMES: Virgin Galactic crash: Copilot who died unlocked lever early, NTSB says http://lnkd.in/dRAeMHf

Continue reading “FUTURISM UPDATE (November 05, 2014)” »

Gaia Vince — BBC Future

In Ancient Greek mythology, the Earth Goddess Gaia had nine titan sons, who attempted to control not just the Earth, but the entire Universe. I’d like to introduce another. It’s a new creature who emerged only in recent decades. But it’s a creature who is already as influential over life on the planet as the phytoplankton or forests that regulate global temperature, the weather and the air we breathe.

That new creature is us, or more precisely, what humanity is becoming. The entirety of our species, Homo sapiens, is evolving into a superorganism; I’ll call this new life force Homo omnis, or ‘Homni’.

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