Lifeboat Foundation

Everyone is now scrambling to integrate AI with as many facets of human life as possible. Neural nets and machine learning can offer greatly improved processing speeds, yet these aspects still rely on digital pathways that may never fully mimic the biological structure of the human brain. The next step in AI improvement would be to combine the best of both the digital world and the biological world. Some scientists are already experimenting with this possibility, as a new article published in the academic journal Frontiers of Science is deep diving into the realm of biocomputers and organoid intelligence (OI).

All AI applications today rely on computing power provided by powerful CPUs or GPUs. OI, on the other hand, is seeking to bring “unprecedented advances in computing speed, processing power, data efficiency and storage capabilities” by harnessing the complexity of lab-grown cell-cultures repurposed from adult skin cells that consist of 3D clusters of neurons and other brain cells.

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter photographed China’s Zhurong rover in the same location for five months, indicating the rover has not yet awoken from hibernation.

From physics to mind: the journey of cognition seen through the lens of embryonic development // Prof. Michael Levin (Tufts University)

Life Perceives is a symposium bringing together scientists and artists for an open exploration of how “perception” can be understood as a phenomenon that does not only belong to humans, or even the so-called “higher organisms”, but exists across the entire spectrum of life in a myriad of forms.

Continue reading “From physics to mind — Prof. Michael Levin” »

Tiny insects known as sharpshooters excrete by catapulting urine drops at incredible accelerations. Their excretion is the first example of superpropulsion discovered in a biological system.

Saad Bhamla was in his backyard when he noticed something he had never seen before: an insect urinating. Although nearly impossible to see, the insect formed an almost perfectly round droplet on its tail and then launched it away so quickly that it seemed to disappear. The tiny insect relieved itself repeatedly for hours.

Continue reading “Physics of Superpropulsion: Super-Fast Sharpshooter Insect Urination Using a ‘Butt Flicker’” »

Trying to make computers more like human brains isn’t a new phenomenon. However, a team of researchers from Johns Hopkins University argues that there could be many benefits in taking this concept a bit more literally by using actual neurons, though there are some hurdles to jump first before we get there.

In a recent paper, the team laid out a roadmap of what’s needed before we can create biocomputers powered by human brain cells (not taken from human brains, though). Further, according to one of the researchers, there are some clear benefits the proposed “organoid intelligence” would have over current computers.

“We have always tried to make our computers more brain-like,” Thomas Hartung, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University’s Environmental Health and Engineering department and one of the paper’s authors, told Ars. “At least theoretically, the brain is essentially unmatched as a computer.”

If you’re a massless particle, you must always move at light speed. If you have mass, you must go slower. So why aren’t any neutrinos slow?

We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Tech Tonic news every morning.

In a new season of Tech Tonic, FT tech journalists Madhumita Murgia and John Thornhill investigate the race to build a quantum computer, the impact they could have on security, innovation and business, and the confounding physics of the quantum world.

Tesla seems to be catching up to Boston Dynamics.

At Tesla Investor Day 2023, Tesla CEO Elon Musk demos the Optimus Robot walking for the first time.

Continue reading “Watch Tesla Reveal Walking Optimus Robot (Investor Day 2023)” »

The Commerce Department opened up its application process for companies vying for a share of chip funding to boost US competitiveness with China.

The Biden administration launched its massive effort to outcompete China in semiconductor manufacturing Tuesday, offering $39 billion in funding incentives for companies seeking to build manufacturing plants in the US.

Authorized by the CHIPS and Science Act last year, the Commerce Department opened the application process Tuesday for companies jockeying for a share of the funding.

Continue reading “President Joe Biden’s $39 billion semiconductor project is open for business” »