Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Artificial intelligence researchers at Google DeepMind are celebrating after reaching a major breakthrough that’s been pursued for more than 20 years: The team taught a computer program the ancient game of Go, which has long been considered the most challenging game for an an artificial intelligence to learn. Not only can the team’s program play Go, it’s actually very good at it.

The computer program AlphaGo was developed by Google DeepMind specifically with the task of beating professional human players in the ancient game. The group challenged the three-time European Go Champion Fan Hui to a series of matches, and for the first time ever, the software was able to beat a professional player in all five of the games played on a full-sized board. The team announced the breakthrough in a Nature article published today.

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The legal death of Marvin Minsky was publicly reported on Monday, January 25, 2016. There has been speculation on the part of numerous individuals and publications that he may have been cryopreserved by Alcor. This notice is Alcor’s formal response to inquiries on this issue.

In a public ceremony at the Extro-3 conference in 1997, nanotechnology pioneer Eric Drexler presented Prof. Minsky with a bracelet given to all new Alcor members. This bracelet provides emergency contact information and basic instructions. Minsky has spoken publicy many times about his advocacy of overcoming aging and the inevitability of death and about cryonics (human cryopreservation) as a last resort. He was also among the 67 signatories of the Scientists Open Letter on Cryonics and a member of Alcor’s Scientific Advisory Board. This much is public knowledge. None of this necessarily means that Prof. Minsky had cryopreservation arrangements at the time of legal death. Alcor neither confirms nor denies whether Prof. Minsky had such arrangements.

Alcor’s official response may puzzle some readers, so we would like to point out the privacy options that have been and currently are available to our members. When a member signs up for cryopreservation by Alcor, they have four options:

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Cyber attacks on our power grids — As I have highlighted in my Jan 10th Pulse positing “Quantum Computing – things that need to be considered for our future Quantum Computing” we mush get our funding and special projects under way to prevent a possible Quantum hack by overseas hackers. Russia and China are both ramping up their infrastructures to be Quantum to protect their citizens and we must do the same.

Israel’s Electric Authority has revealed its systems have been the target of a “severe cyberattack” which, while under control, is yet to be fully repelled.

“We had to paralyze numerous computers of the Israeli electricity authorities”, he said.

Minister of National Infrastructure says: ‘We are handling the situation and I hope that soon, this very serious event will be over ‘.

Steinitz, meanwhile, told information security conference attendees that the attack against the Electricity Authority is a reminder of “the sensitivity of infrastructure to cyber-attacks, and the importance of preparing ourselves in order to defend ourselves against such attacks”.

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A lot of folks who know me well; knows that I donate my time and expertise to help with the various cancer foundations such as the National Esophageal Cancer Foundation. Esophageal Cancer is one form of cancer not often caught in time due to its symptoms. However, researchers have developed a 3D Stent that is simply amazing and is bringing a lot of hope for so many. Technology and medicine together is an amazing team.

I cannot wait to share this with the foundation’s president; she lost her husband only 2 years ago to this deadly cancer, I lost a cousin, and 2 years ago doctor’s removed a lesion from my esophagus. I cannot express enough to folks (especially younger folks; this is truly a silent killer and it hits all ages (20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s). And, once you ever have a lesion or cancer; you must be diligent in your follow ups no matter what.

fauPretty much everyone I know, myself included, has lost someone to cancer, many of them far too young. Finding a cure for cancer is the lofty, ultimate goal for medical researchers, and people like to fantasize about the day when the headline suddenly appears in the paper: “Cure for Cancer Found!” No more deaths from the disease, no more painful, drawn-out treatments – just a shot or a pill that can eliminate cancer as easily as clearing up an ear infection.

In reality, will it happen like that? It probably won’t be that easy – cancer is a complicated beast, and there are so many different forms with their own unique complexities that a universal, one-off cure is a difficult proposition. However, a lot of promising recent developments do point to a near future in which treatment is much more effective and deaths much more rare. And a lot of those developments involve 3D printing.

Continue reading “3D Printed Stent May Soon Give Hope to Esophageal Cancer Patients” | >

When engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, say they are going to make you sweat, it is all in the name of science. Specifically, it is for a flexible sensor system that can measure metabolites and electrolytes in sweat, calibrate the data based upon skin temperature and sync the results in real time to a smartphone.

While health monitors have exploded onto the consumer electronics scene over the past decade, researchers say this device, reported in the Jan. 28 issue of the journal Nature (“Fully integrated wearable sensor arrays for multiplexed in situ perspiration analysis”), is the first fully integrated electronic system that can provide continuous, non-invasive monitoring of multiple biochemicals in sweat.

wristband sweat sensor

The new sensor developed at UC Berkeley can be made into “smart” wristbands or headbands that provide continuous, real-time analysis of the chemicals in sweat.

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