Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog – Page 11909

This article is amusing on killer robots and how governments should address the threat of killer robots on a national level. On a national level if (in my case the US) we were invaded or a whole army of robots landed on the shores of Florida, NY, or CA; then yes Congress would need to approve war, etc. Which is what this article highlights. However, attacking robots will most likely not be the result of an invasion from another country; attacking robot/s will be the result of criminals; etc. that hacked/or reprogrammed the robotics.

Cartels, terrorists, etc. will pay well to have self driving cars, humanoid robots, etc. re-engineered and re-programmed for their own benefits and become a weapon against individuals and the population.

The United Nations’ effort to ban killer robots will fail, but there are three important steps the United States can take to help slow the rise of lethal autonomous weapons systems, one of the most prominent voices in the robotics debate said this week.

Pentagon officials insist they don’t want to allow an autonomous weapon to kill people without a human in the loop, but greater levels of autonomy and artificial intelligence are making their way into more and more pieces of military technology, like in recognizing targets, piloting drones, and driving supply trucks. Defense Department leaders advocate for robotic intelligence and autonomy as thread-reducing (and cost-saving) measures key to securing the United States’ technological advantage over adversaries over the coming decades (the so-called ‘third offset’ strategy). Defense Secretary Ash Carter, Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work and former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel have talked up the importance of artificial intelligence to the military’s future plans.

Continue reading “Three Steps the U.S. Can Take to Stop Killer Robots” | >

I do believe that there will be some level of expansion of social services to help employees to be retrained for the new positions that are coming as well as assist lower skill workers to be retrained. However, the larger question is who should pay. Some people are saying tech should assist governments in retooling since the AI technology created the situation; others say it’s a governments issue only, etc. It will be interesting to say the least how the retraining program and other services are covered.

A leading artificial intelligence (AI) expert believes that societies may have to consider issuing a basic income to all citizens, in order to combat the threat to jobs posed by increased automation in the workplace.

Dr Moshe Vardi, a computer science professor at Rice University in Texas, believes that a basic income may be needed in the future as advances in automation and AI put human workers out of jobs.

In an interview with The Huffington Post, Dr Vardi said: “Our current economic system requires people to either have wealth or to work to make a living, with the assumption that the economy creates jobs for all those who need them.”

Continue reading “Basic income may be needed to combat robot-induced unemployment, leading AI expert says” | >

How could AI disrupt the music and commercial media industries?

1Artificial intelligence may be set to disrupt the world of live music. Using data driven algorithms, AI would be able to calculate when and where artists should play, as well as streamline the currently deeply flawed means through which fans discover concerts happening in their area.

____________________________________________

Guest Post by Cortney Harding on Medium

Continue reading “Will Robots Disrupt Live Music? How Artificial Intelligence, Algorithms Could Boost Ticket Sales” | >

You know what they say about rules…

If you thought regular black holes were about as weird and mysterious as space gets, think again, because for the first time, physicists have successfully simulated what would happen to black holes in a five-dimensional world, and the way they behave could threaten our fundamental understanding of how the Universe works.

The simulation has suggested that if our Universe is made up of five or more dimensions — something that scientists have struggled to confirm or disprove — Einstein’s general theory of relativity, the foundation of modern physics, would be wrong.

In other words, five-dimensional black holes would contain gravity so intense, the laws of physics as we know them would fall apart.

Continue reading “A 5-dimensional black hole could break the laws of physics as we know them” | >

In December, a shuttle resupply mission successfully reached the International Space Station. Among the cargo were two Microsoft HoloLens devices for use as a part of NASA’s Sidekick project. The goal of Sidekick is to enable station crews with assistance when and where they need it. According to NASA, this new capability could reduce crew training requirements and increase the efficiency at which astronauts can work in space.

We were thrilled to see some early pictures today of astronaut Scott Kelly with HoloLens at the International Space Station!

Scott Kelly using Microsoft HoloLens at the international space station.

Read more

We don’t live in a world that’s pinning the survival of humanity of Matthew McConaughey’s shoulders, but if it turns out the plot of the 2014 film Interstellar is true, then we live in a world with at least five dimensions. And that would mean that a ring-shaped black hole would, as scientists recently demonstrated, “break down” Einstein’s general theory of relativity. (And to think, the man was just coming off a phenomenal week.)

In a study published in Physical Review Letters, researchers from the UK simulated a black hole in a “5-D” universe shaped like a thin ring (which were first posited by theoretical physicists in 2002). In this universe, the black hole would bulge strangely, with stringy connections that become thinner as time passes. Eventually, those strings pinch off like budding bacteria or water drops off a stream and form miniature black holes of their own.

This is wicked weird stuff, but we haven’t even touched on the most bizarre part. A black hole like this leads to what physicists call a “naked singularity,” where the equations that support general relativity — a foundational block of modern physics — stop making sense.

Read more

Inside a nondescript building at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, NASA engineers are assembling the most powerful space telescope ever created. Once completed, the James Webb Space Telescope will be the largest space observatory in the known universe, with 100 times the seeing power of its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope.

In October 2018, the Webb will be launched into deep space with an ambitious mission. “Sometimes as analytical astronomers we shy away from saying, ‘We’re searching for life,’” says the deputy project scientist Dr. Amber Straughn. “But, that’s what we’re doing.” Atlantic senior editor Ross Andersen speaks with the NASA team seeking to answer some of our most fundamental questions: Where did we come from? Are there other life-sustaining planets out there? Are we alone in the universe?

Read more