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Oct 20, 2015

Zumwalt-class Navy ship: Next-gen destroyer is a high-tech marvel (pictures)

Posted by in category: military

A truly amazing convergence of incredibly advanced technologies.


The US Navy has christened the first of three cutting-edge Zumwalt-class destroyers. But the next two may have weaponry straight out of science fiction.

Read Less.

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Oct 20, 2015

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Posted by in categories: entertainment, robotics/AI, space

The following dialoge from Arthur C. Clark’s classic explains genuine AI risk better than many academic papers:

Dave Bowman: Hello, HAL. Do you read me, HAL?
HAL: Affirmative, Dave. I read you.
Dave Bowman: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
HAL: I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.
Dave Bowman: What’s the problem?
HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.
Dave Bowman: What are you talking about, HAL?
HAL: This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.
Dave Bowman: I don’t know what you’re talking about, HAL.
HAL: I know that you and Frank were planning to disconnect me, and I’m afraid that’s something I cannot allow to happen.
Dave Bowman: [feigning ignorance] Where the hell did you get that idea, HAL?
HAL: Dave, although you took very thorough precautions in the pod against my hearing you, I could see your lips move.
Dave Bowman: Alright, HAL. I’ll go in through the emergency airlock.
HAL: Without your space helmet, Dave? You’re going to find that rather difficult.
Dave Bowman: HAL, I won’t argue with you anymore! Open the doors!
HAL: Dave, this conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye.


Quotes on IMDb: Memorable quotes and exchanges from movies, TV series and more…

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Oct 20, 2015

GAO Reports: The Internet of Things — FAQs

Posted by in categories: futurism, internet, privacy, security, virtual reality, wearables

I think about pros and cons of living in a connected world … think about it …sometimes the answer it is not so simple, nor unique.

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44227.pdf by Eric A. Fischer — Senior Specialist in Science and Technology, October 13, 2015

Oct 20, 2015

The Scientific Basis of Cryonics

Posted by in categories: cryonics, life extension

What the nervous system of the roundworm, frozen embryos, and extreme hypothermia tell us about preserving the mind.

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Oct 20, 2015

U.S. Plans $6 Billion Investment in Space Situational Awareness

Posted by in categories: business, military, satellites, science, security, space, surveillance

http://spacenews.com/planned-u-s-investment-in-space-awarene…PqrOS.dpuf

Oct 20, 2015

U.S. Air Force Assigns Two Block Buy Launches

Posted by in categories: government, military, science, space, weapons

http://spacenews.com/u-s-air-force-assigns-two-block-buy-launches/

Oct 20, 2015

Drone ‘Angst’ extends beyond backyard spying

Posted by in categories: automation, counterterrorism, defense, disruptive technology, drones, ethics, military, privacy, surveillance

http://aviationweek.com/defense/drone-angst-extends-beyond-backyard-spying

Oct 20, 2015

Positron Dynamics plans to fly an antimatter powered cubsat

Posted by in category: space

In 2013, Positron Dynamics had seed funding from Paypal billionaire Peter Thiel’s Breakout Labs. Initial simulations show that as much as 10 micrograms of positrons could be produced each week with a linear accelerator,” says co-founder Ryan Weed, PhD, a physicist and former cryogenic engineer for Jeff Bezos’s space flight company Blue Origin.

Now they have stated in a new presentation that they will have an antimatter powered cubesat vehicles in 2016–2019. They will be able to keep a cubesat in low earth orbit for seven years instead of few days. Then they will enable high speed spacecraft to go the outer solar system and then to the stars at a significant fraction of the speed of light.

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Oct 19, 2015

SpaceX Changes Its Falcon 9 Rocket Return-to-Flight Plans — By Peter B. de Selding | SPACE.com

Posted by in categories: business, Elon Musk, satellites

orbcomm-falcon-9-hanger

“SpaceX on Oct. 16 said it had changed its Falcon 9 return-to-flight plans and would first launch 11 small Orbcomm messaging satellites into low Earth orbit, and then test reignition of the rocket’s redesigned second-stage engine during the same flight before launching SES’s heavier telecommunications satellite into higher orbit, a mission that will need the reignition capability

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Oct 19, 2015

Search For Intelligent Aliens Near Bizarre Dimming Star Has Begun

Posted by in category: alien life

The search for signs of life in a mysterious star system hypothesized to potentially harbor an “alien megastructure” is now underway.

Astronomers have begun using the Allen Telescope Array (ATA), a system of radio dishes about 300 miles (483 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco, to hunt for signals coming from the vicinity of KIC 8462852, a star that lies 1,500 light-years from Earth.

NASA’s Kepler space telescope found that KIC 8462852 dimmed oddly and dramatically several times over the past few years. The dimming events were far too substantial to be caused by a planet crossing the star’s face, researchers say, and other possible explanations, such as an enormous dust cloud, don’t add up, either. [13 Ways to Hunt Intelligent Alien Life].

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