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Mar 19, 2023

A Trendy New Chemical Theory for Where the Aliens Are Hiding

Posted by in categories: alien life, chemistry

There’s a theory that’s in vogue in astrochemistry called “Assembly Theory.” It posits that highly complex molecules—many acids, for example—could only come from living beings. The molecules are either part of living beings, or they’re things that intelligent living beings manufacture.

If Assembly Theory holds up, we could use it to search for aliens—by scanning distant planets and moons for complex molecules that should be evidence of living beings. That’s the latest idea from Assembly Theory’s originator, University of Glasgow chemist Leroy Cronin. “This is a radical new approach,” Cronin told The Daily Beast.

But not every expert agrees it would work—at least not anytime soon. To take chemical readings of faraway planets, scientists rely on spectroscopy. This is the process of interpreting a planet’s color palette to assess the possible mix of molecules in its atmosphere, land, and oceans.

Mar 19, 2023

Consciousness Began When the Gods Stopped Speaking

Posted by in categories: education, law enforcement, neuroscience, singularity

Julian Jaynes was living out of a couple of suitcases in a Princeton dorm in the early 1970s. He must have been an odd sight there among the undergraduates, some of whom knew him as a lecturer who taught psychology, holding forth in a deep baritone voice. He was in his early 50s, a fairly heavy drinker, untenured, and apparently uninterested in tenure. His position was marginal. “I don’t think the university was paying him on a regular basis,” recalls Roy Baumeister, then a student at Princeton and today a professor of psychology at Florida State University. But among the youthful inhabitants of the dorm, Jaynes was working on his masterpiece, and had been for years.

From the age of 6, Jaynes had been transfixed by the singularity of conscious experience. Gazing at a yellow forsythia flower, he’d wondered how he could be sure that others saw the same yellow as he did. As a young man, serving three years in a Pennsylvania prison for declining to support the war effort, he watched a worm in the grass of the prison yard one spring, wondering what separated the unthinking earth from the worm and the worm from himself. It was the kind of question that dogged him for the rest of his life, and the book he was working on would grip a generation beginning to ask themselves similar questions.

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, when it finally came out in 1976, did not look like a best-seller. But sell it did. It was reviewed in science magazines and psychology journals, Time, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. It was nominated for a National Book Award in 1978. New editions continued to come out, as Jaynes went on the lecture circuit. Jaynes died of a stroke in 1997; his book lived on. In 2000, another new edition hit the shelves. It continues to sell today.

Mar 19, 2023

CICERO : The AI Diplomat Conquering the Game of Diplomacy (Meta AI)

Posted by in categories: entertainment, robotics/AI

In this video, we explore the groundbreaking AI model CICERO developed by Meta AI. CICERO has achieved human-level performance in the complex natural language strategy game Diplomacy by combining strategic reasoning and natural language processing. Join us as we delve into the inner workings of this AI diplomat and discover how it outwits humans in the game of Diplomacy.

https://ai.facebook.com/research/cicero/
https://ai.facebook.com/blog/cicero-ai-negotiates-persuades-…th-people/

Continue reading “CICERO : The AI Diplomat Conquering the Game of Diplomacy (Meta AI)” »

Mar 19, 2023

5 jaw-dropping things GPT-4 can do that ChatGPT couldn’t

Posted by in categories: internet, robotics/AI

In the first day after it was unveiled, GPT-4 stunned many users in early tests and a company demo with its ability to draft lawsuits, pass standardized exams and build a working website from a hand-drawn sketch.

On Tuesday, OpenAI announced the next-generation version of the artificial intelligence technology that underpins its viral chatbot tool, ChatGPT. The more powerful GPT-4 promises to blow previous iterations out of the water, potentially changing the way we use the internet to work, play and create. But it could also add to challenging questions around how AI tools can upend professions, enable students to cheat, and shift our relationship with technology.

Continue reading “5 jaw-dropping things GPT-4 can do that ChatGPT couldn’t” »

Mar 19, 2023

Beyond text: GPT has evolved, and AI is now flexing new powers

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

If you thought the last 20 years of progress were impressive, then strap in. GPT-4 is here, just months after ChatGPT. It’s smarter, more accurate, and harder to fool. It now has an uncanny ability to interpret visuals, and maybe a thirst for power.

Mar 19, 2023

Sam Altman invested $180 million into a company trying to delay death

Posted by in categories: life extension, robotics/AI

Can anti-aging breakthroughs add 10 healthy years to the human life span? The CEO of OpenAI is paying to find out.

Mar 19, 2023

Dr Katcher’s E5 Lifespan Experiment Final Result | 22% Lifespan Extension

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, life extension

So, 22% increase. Roughly like a 120 person, which means if this literally translates to people it means a maximizing of our current lifespan. The rest is just a rundown of Aubrey’s experiment.


Dr Katcher’s lifespan experiment has come to an end as the last remaining rat, Sima, has died. She was 1,464 days old which is a record for Sprague-Dawley rats. We also talk about the exciting Robust Mouse Rejuvenation project at the LEV Foundation.

Continue reading “Dr Katcher’s E5 Lifespan Experiment Final Result | 22% Lifespan Extension” »

Mar 19, 2023

How much fuel is left in this 20-year-old Mars orbiter?

Posted by in categories: energy, space

Designing, building, and launching a spacecraft is hugely expensive. That’s why NASA missions to Mars are designed with the hope that they’ll last as long as possible — like the famous Opportunity rover which was supposed to last for 90 days and managed to keep going for 15 years. The longer a mission can keep running, the more data it can collect, and the more we can learn from it.

That’s true for the orbiters which travel around Mars as well as the rovers which explore its surface, like the Mars Odyssey spacecraft which was launched in 2001 and has been in orbit around Mars for more than 20 years. But the orbiter can’t keep going forever as it will eventually run out of fuel, so figuring out exactly how much fuel is left is important — but it also turned out to be more complicated than the NASA engineers were expecting.

Odyssey started out with nearly 500 pounds of hydrazine fuel, though last year it looked as if the spacecraft was running much lower on fuel than had been predicted.

Mar 19, 2023

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe makes its 15th close flyby of the sun this St. Patrick’s Day

Posted by in category: space

NASA’s sun-touching Parker Solar Probe spacecraft will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day (March 17) by making another close approach to our star. While people all over Earth enjoy a cold beer, the spacecraft will brave blisteringly hot temperatures as high as 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,400 degrees Celsius) as it makes its 15th close approach to the sun, or perihelion.

According to NASA’s Parker Solar Probe website, (opens in new tab) the exact time of the close approach will be 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030 GMT) when the spacecraft comes to within around 5.3 million miles (8.5 million km) of the sun’s surface, the photosphere.

Mar 19, 2023

SpaceX now eyeing April for Starship’s 1st orbital launch, Elon Musk says

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, space travel

SpaceX’s huge new Starship vehicle could launch on its first-ever orbital test flight a little over a month from now, if all goes according to plan.

SpaceX is now tentatively eyeing mid-to late April for that epic mission, which will lift off from the company’s Starbase facility in South Texas.