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Search Results for: Humanity – Page 25

Making science serve humanity: Jennifer Doudna, PhD, says CRISPR gene-editing technology should be accessible to all

The path that led Jennifer Doudna, PhD, and her colleagues to the development of CRISPR, the gene-editing tool that has revolutionized science and earned her a Nobel Prize, started with their deep curiosity and drive to understand how the most basic building blocks of life function.

When Doudna first decided to investigate precisely what systems bacteria use to adapt their immune systems to fight off viral infections, she had little expectation that the findings would ultimately provide the key to technology that could be used to safely alter genetic code.

“All of us [on the research team] realized that what had started as a fundamental research question was morphing into a very different kind of project; namely, one with enormous technical potential and also risks and opportunities that we had not appreciated when we started the work,” Doudna explained during a conversation with J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD, chair of the AAMC Board of Directors and executive vice president of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, at the opening plenary of Learn Serve Lead 2021: The Virtual Experience, on Monday, Nov. 8.

Yuval Noah Harari on The Future of Humanity

Dr. Yuval Noah Harari, macro-historian, Professor, best-selling author of “Sapiens” and “Homo Deus,” and one of the world’s most innovative and exciting thinkers, has a few hypotheses of his own on the future of humanity.

He examines what might happen to the world when old myths are coupled with new godlike technologies, such as artificial intelligence and genetic engineering.

Harari tackles into today’s most urgent issues as we move into the uncharted territory of the future.

According to Harari, we are probably one of the last generation of homo sapiens. Within a century earth will be dominated from entities that are not even human, intelligent species that are barely biological. Harari suggests the possibility that humans are algorithms, and as such Homo sapiens may not be dominant in a universe where big data becomes a paradigm.
Robots and AI will most likely replace us in our jobs once they become intelligent enough.

Although he is hopeful that AI might help us solve many problems, such as healthcare, climate change, poverty, overpopulation etc, he cautions about the possibility of an AI arms race.

Furthermore Dr. Yuval Noah Harari suggests this technology will also allow us to upgrade our brains and nervous systems. For example, humans will be able to connect their minds directly to the internet via brain implants.

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How Neuralink Will Change Humanity Forever

Elon Musk said: In the future, you will be able to save and replay memories by Neuralink This is sounding increasingly like a Black Mirror episode.

Elon Musk says you will even be able to store your memories as a backup, and then download them into a robot body. It sounds like science fiction but Neuralink believes it could make that happen one day with a chip.

It is a brain-machine interface or BMI – a device that connects your brain to a computer. But before chasing these futuristic goals, the startup is focusing on one thing: ending human suffering.

What Would Happen If Humanity Became a Type V Civilization?

Spoiler: We are still a ‘Type Zero’ civilization.

The Kardashev scale was extended to accommodate type IV and V civilization. Energy output in type V civilization would be tremendous. Possible wormholes, time travel, and teleportation. Breaking the second law of thermodynamics would be the easiest way to progress. Maxwell’s demon thought experiment presents this hypothesis.

Eric G Meyer — Founder & Director — Generation Atomic — Advanced Nuclear Power Advocacy For Humanity

Advanced Nuclear Power Advocacy For Humanity — Eric G. Meyer, Founder & Director, Generation Atomic

Eric G. Meyer is the Founder and Director of Generation Atomic (https://generationatomic.org/), a nuclear advocacy non-profit which he founded after hearing about the promise of advanced nuclear reactors, and he decided to devote his life to saving and expanding the use of atomic energy.

Eric worked as an organizer on several political, union, and issue campaigns while in graduate school for applied public policy, taking time off to attend the climate talks in Paris and sing opera about atomic energy.

Eric began his full time nuclear work in May of 2016 with Environmental Progress by organizing marches, rallies, and trainings in California, New York, and Illinois, before leaving to found Generation Atomic in late 2016.

In only a short period of time, Generation Atomic has made significant progress in the world of nuclear advocacy. Over the last year they’ve held several advocacy trainings at conferences, Marched for Science, talked to over tens of thousands voters, and carried the banner for nuclear energy at the climate talks in Morocco, Germany, and Poland.

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Neuralink Co-Founder Predicts That Humanity Will Get “Wrecked”

“We are going to get so wrecked,” he added.

The kind of value systems that humans have used to structure societies over history — regardless of their success in bringing about meaningful change — may soon no longer be relevant.

“Idk, I think the broader point is just that machines might end up having a lot more flexibility on how they organize themselves than we do,” Hodak pondered in a follow-up tweet. “It takes generations to upgrade cognitive technology in human societies.”