Lifeboat News: The Blog – Safeguarding Humanity

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Jan 5
2017

Researchers Build FIRST Reprogrammable Quantum Computer!

Nice advancement this week in QC.

Researchers may have finally created the first fully reprogrammable quantum computer in the world. This changes the entire spectrum of the technology, as quantum computers so far could only run one type of equation.

This marks the beginning of reprogrammable quantum computers. Several teams and companies like IBM are still in the race towards quantum computing, which so far can only run one type of equation. This seems ironic as they can theoretically run more operations than there are atoms in the universe. But this stops now.

According to Futurism, a team from the University of Maryland may have developed the first fully programmable quantum computer.

Jan 5
2017

Quantum Stress Tensor Fluctuations and Primordial Gravity Waves [CL]

We examine the effect of the stress tensor of a quantum matter field, such as the electromagnetic field, on the spectrum of primordial gravity waves expected in inflationary cosmology. We find that the net effect is a small reduction in the power spectrum, especially at higher frequencies, but which has a different form from that described by the usual spectral index. Thus this effect has a characteristic signature, and is in principle observable. The net effect is a sum of two contributions, one of which is due to quantum fluctuations of the matter field stress tensor. The other is a quantum correction to the graviton field due to coupling to the expectation value of this stress tensor. Both contributions are sensitive to initial conditions in the very early universe, so this effect has the potential to act as a probe of these initial conditions.

Read this paper on arXiv…

J. Hsiang, L. Ford, K. Ng, et. al. Thu, 5 Jan 17 31/58.

Jan 5
2017

Japanese company replaces office workers with artificial intelligence

A future in which human workers are replaced by machines is about to become a reality at an insurance firm in Japan, where more than 30 employees are being laid off and replaced with an artificial intelligence system that can calculate payouts to policyholders.

Insurance firm Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance is making 34 employees redundant and replacing them with IBM’s Watson Explorer AI.

Jan 5
2017

Mini factory made drugs on demand

Continuous-flow system went from synthesis to dosage forms in hours.

Stu Borman

Drug manufacturers typically produce drugs in batches in large factories. But a new trend is developing in the pharmaceutical industry to reduce infrastructure costs by using small continuous-flow systems to make drug doses on demand.