Lifeboat Foundation

In 1960, visionary physicist Freeman Dyson proposed that an advanced alien civilization would someday quit fooling around with kindergarten-level stuff like wind turbines and nuclear reactors and finally go big, completely enclosing their home star to capture as much solar energy as they possibly could. They would then go on to use that enormous amount of energy to mine bitcoin, make funny videos on social media, delve into the deepest mysteries of the Universe, and enjoy the bounties of their energy-rich civilization.

But what if the alien civilization was… us? What if we decided to build a Dyson sphere around our sun? Could we do it? How much energy would it cost us to rearrange our solar system, and how long would it take to get our investment back? Before we put too much thought into whether humanity is capable of this amazing feat, even theoretically, we should decide if it’s worth the effort. Can we actually achieve a net gain in energy by building a Dyson sphere?

A killer plant fungus infected a human and caused flu-like symptoms in what researchers say is a world-first case.

Chondrostereum purpureum causes silver leaf disease in flora, most commonly in species of rose.

Spread by airborne spores, it is named such because it gradually turns leaves silver — and is often fatal.

Continue reading “Killer plant fungus Chondrostereum purpureum infects man in India in ‘world-first case’” »

Squids and octopuses are masters of camouflage, blending into their environment to evade predators or surprise prey. Some aspects of how these cephalopods become reversibly transparent are still “unclear,” largely because researchers can’t culture cephalopod skin cells in the lab.

Today, however, researchers report that they have replicated the tunable transparency of some squid skin cells in mammalian cells, which can be cultured. The work could not only shed light on basic squid biology, but also lead to better ways to image many cell types.

The researchers will present their results at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS Spring 2023 is a hybrid meeting being held virtually and in-person March 26–30, and features more than 10,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics.

The non-profit said powerful AI systems should only be developed “once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable.” It cited potential risks to humanity and society, including the spread of misinformation and widespread automation of jobs.

The letter urged AI companies to create and implement a set of shared safety protocols for AI development, which would be overseen by independent experts.

Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak, Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque, researchers at Alphabet’s AI lab DeepMind, and notable AI professors have also signed the letter. At the time of publication, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had not added his signature.

In my latest interview, I answer some questions on the fascinating topic of synthetic telepathy. Recently, the concept of synthetic telepathy has gained increasing attention from both the scientific community and the general public. The ability to communicate with others using only our thoughts may sound like something straight out of science fiction, but recent advancements in neuroscience and technology have brought us closer to making this a reality.

#SyntheticTelepathy #neurotechnology #braincomputerinterface #BCI #cybernetics #brainhacking #mindcontrol #nanocybernetics

In recent years, the concept of synthetic telepathy has gained increasing attention from both the scientific community and the general public. The ability to communicate with others using only our thoughts may sound like something straight out of science fiction, but recent advancements in neuroscience and technology have brought us closer to making this a reality. Join us for an exclusive interview with futurist and evolutionary cyberneticist Alex M. Vikoulov, as he shares his expertise on the fascinating topic of synthetic telepathy. Speaking with news reporter Blanca Elena Reyes, Vikoulov will delve into the workings of this cutting-edge technology and discuss its potential applications for the future.

Continue reading “Synthetic Telepathy: The Revolutionary Technology Redefining Communication” »

OAKLAND, California, March 28 (Reuters) — Artificial intelligence chip startup Cerebras Systems on Tuesday said it released open source ChatGPT-like models for the research and business community to use for free in an effort to foster more collaboration.

Silicon Valley-based Cerebras released seven models all trained on its AI supercomputer called Andromeda, including smaller 111 million parameter language models to a larger 13 billion parameter model.

“There is a big movement to close what has been open sourced in AI…it’s not surprising as there’s now huge money in it,” said Andrew Feldman, founder and CEO of Cerebras. “The excitement in the community, the progress we’ve made, has been in large part because it’s been so open.”

Energy production in nature is the responsibility of mitochondria and chloroplasts, and is crucial for fabricating sustainable, synthetic cells in the lab. Mitochondria are “the powerhouses of the cell,” but are also one of the most complex intracellular components to replicate artificially.

In Biophysics Reviews, by AIP Publishing, researchers from Sogang University in South Korea and the Harbin Institute of Technology in China identified the most promising advancements and greatest challenges of artificial mitochondria and chloroplasts.

“If scientists can create artificial mitochondria and chloroplasts, we could potentially develop synthetic cells that can generate energy and synthesize molecules autonomously. This would pave the way for the creation of entirely new organisms or biomaterials,” author Kwanwoo Shin said.

In this weeks episode of The Futurists, cognitive scientist and AI researcher Ben Goertzel joins the hosts to talk the likely path to Artificial General Intelligence. Goertzel is the founder of SingularityNet, Chairman at OpenCog Foundation, and previously as the Chief Scientist at Hanson Robotics he helped create Sophia the robot. Goertzel is on a different level, get ready to step up. Follow @bengoertzel.

ABOUT SHOW
Subscribe and listen to TheFuturists.com Podcast where hosts Brett King and Robert TerceK interview the worlds foremost super-forecasters, thought leaders, technologists, entrepreneurs and futurists building the world of tomorrow. Together we will explore how our world will radically change as AI, bioscience, energy, food and agriculture, computing, the metaverse, the space industry, crypto, resource management, supply chain and climate will reshape our world over the next 100 years. Join us on The Futurists and we will see you in the future!

Continue reading “The Futurists Podcast — Cognitive AGI& Robotics with Ben Goertzel” »

The transformative changes brought by deep learning and artificial intelligence are accompanied by immense costs. For example, OpenAI’s ChatGPT algorithm costs at least $100,000 every day to operate. This could be reduced with accelerators, or computer hardware designed to efficiently perform the specific operations of deep learning. However, such a device is only viable if it can be integrated with mainstream silicon-based computing hardware on the material level.

This was preventing the implementation of one highly promising deep learning accelerator—arrays of electrochemical random-access memory, or ECRAM—until a research team at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign achieved the first material-level integration of ECRAMs onto silicon transistors. The researchers, led by graduate student Jinsong Cui and professor Qing Cao of the Department of Materials Science & Engineering, recently reported an ECRAM device designed and fabricated with materials that can be deposited directly onto silicon during fabrication in Nature Electronics, realizing the first practical ECRAM-based deep learning accelerator.

“Other ECRAM devices have been made with the many difficult-to-obtain properties needed for deep learning accelerators, but ours is the first to achieve all these properties and be integrated with silicon without compatibility issues,” Cao said. “This was the last major barrier to the technology’s widespread use.”