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I’m excited to share my latest article with Aporia Magazine, where I’m writing a series of stories on transhumanism. My latest article, on AI and religion, is now out.

Written by Zoltan Istvan.

A consensus of 350 top AI experts believes that by 2060 engineers could create a superintelligence to rival the human mind. This machine intelligence might create complex symphonies, direct blockbuster movies and run market-beating companies. But would it be sophisticated enough to understand spirituality, practice a religion or commune with a higher power?

In conferences and forums around the world, theologians and scientists are trying to answer these questions. Some are even debating whether the superintelligence should be converted to a specific religious perspective when it arrives – and then maybe even saved.

Continue reading “How will religions deal with an omnipotent AI?” | >

NASA’s Perseverance rover has found a diverse menagerie of organic molecules in a Martian crater, a new study reports.

Organic compounds are molecules composed of carbon, and often include other elements such as hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur. Previously, scientists had detected several types of organic molecules of Martian origin — in meteorites blasted off Mars by cosmic impacts that landed on Earth, and in Gale Crater on the Red Planet, which NASA’s Curiosity rover has been exploring since 2012.

Read more | >

The Emerald Ash Borer Network says that once the beetles reach their adult stage, the metallic green bugs will eat up foliage on ash trees – their only food source. But it’s the larvae that eat up the inner bark of ash trees and prevent nutrients and water from circulating.

Once that happens, Littleton officials said the tree that’s been attacked becomes structurally unsound and will die within just a few years.

It’s believed that the insects were introduced to the U.S. from Asia after tagging along on solid wood packing material, the network said. They were first discovered in the U.S. near Detroit in 2002, and have since expanded to at least 35 states as well as at least five Canadian provinces. Ash trees will typically lose most of their canopy within two years of an infestation and die within three to four years, the National Invasive Species Information Center says.

Read more | >

CIPhotos/iStock.

Standard immunotherapy procedures also employ intravenous injections loaded with NK cells to treat cancer but several limitations with this approach prevent it from delivering satisfying results. For instance, many NK cells lose their viability during the therapy and often fail to target the tumors, according to the researchers.

Read more | >

A new study conducted by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis has explored the composition of gut bacteria in individuals in the earliest stage of Alzheimer’s disease. The research, which is published in Science Translational Medicine, not only identifies potential indicators of heightened dementia risk, but also offers prospects for developing microbiome-altering preventive treatments to combat cognitive decline.

Longevity. Technology: Previously, science has noted differences in the gut microbiomes of individuals with symptomatic Alzheimer’s compared with their healthy counterparts. However, the current study delves deeper, focusing on the gut microbiomes of individuals in the crucial pre-symptomatic phase. During this phase, individuals accumulate amyloid beta and tau proteins in their brains without exhibiting neurodegeneration or cognitive decline, which can persist for over two decades. Earlier diagnosis would enable people to access support and resources, plan for the future and well as onboarding treatments that could slow the progression of the disease. An idea of future numbers of patients would also allow health care infrastructure to be better prepared.

The researchers evaluated participants who volunteered at the Charles F and Joanne Knight Alzheimer Disease Research Center at Washington University, specifically selecting cognitively normal individuals. These participants provided samples of stool, blood, and cerebrospinal fluid, recorded their dietary habits, and underwent PET and MRI brain scans.

Read more | >

TUESDAY, July 6, 2023 (HealthDay News) — The widely used immunotherapy drug nivolumab (Opdivo) is safer and more effective in treating adults and children with advanced Hodgkin lymphoma than the targeted therapy now used as standard care is, new clinical trial results show.

Nivolumab outperformed the drug brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris), extending progression-free survival by 94% at one year compared to 86%, said lead researcher Dr. Alex Herrera, a hematologist-oncologist at City of Hope in Duarte, Calif.

Nivolumab also produced significantly fewer side effects than brentuximab vedotin, which was the first novel therapy developed for Hodgkin lymphoma, Herrera said in a presentation Sunday at the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago.

Read more | >

Join top executives in San Francisco on July 11–12 and learn how business leaders are getting ahead of the generative AI revolution. Learn More

Online furniture retailer Wayfair is embracing the power of generative AI with a thoughtful, measured approach that involves a council of stakeholders and a core thesis to help accelerate business productivity.

In a session at today’s VentureBeat Transform 2023, Wilko Schulz-Mahlendorf, head of pricing and marketing science at Wayfair, offered insights into how the company is using generative AI today and what its strategy is to integrate more AI in the future.

Read more | >

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The first 200 of you will get 20% off Brilliant’s annual premium subscription.

The paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ade8450
How computing with Different Colours of Light works: https://youtu.be/mt8I71VUazw.

00:00 — Photonic Chips.
06:38 — Backpropagation Problem.
07:38 — Training NN with Light.
12:27 — Challenges of Photonic Chips.
13:46 — Investments in Photonics.

This video was sponsored by Brilliant.

Continue reading “Breakthrough in Photonics: Training Neural Networks at the Speed of Light!” | >