Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog – Page 3,399

Summary: The revolutionary field of bio-computing is making waves as DishBrain, a neural system combining 800,000 living brain cells, learns to play Pong. Recognizing the pressing need for ethical guidelines in this emerging domain, the pioneers behind DishBrain have joined forces with bioethicists in a study.

The research explores the moral considerations around biological computing systems and their potential consciousness. Beyond its innovation, the technology offers vast environmental benefits, potentially transforming the energy-consuming IT industry.

Read more | >

A shadowy form of light within a universe of hypothetical particles is getting some serious consideration as a means of discovering the identity of dark matter.

According to a comprehensive new analysis under quantum chromodynamics, the dark photon is a much better fit for the observed results of particle collider experiments than the standard model of particle physics, by quite a wide margin.

In fact, a team of researchers led by physicist Nicholas Hunt-Smith of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics and the University of Adelaide in Australia calculated a confidence level of 6.5 sigma, suggesting the odds that dark photons don’t explain the observations are in the ballpark of one in a billion.

Read more | >

Human writing and drawing dates back at least 30,000 years and incorporates traditional techniques such as carving, engraving, and printing/writing with ink, as well as more novel methods such as electron lithography. Now a team of German physicists has figured out a unique method for writing in water and other fluid substrates, according to a recent paper published in the journal Small.

According to the authors, most classical writing methods involve the same basic approach, in which a line is carved out or ink deposited. On a solid substrate, strong intermolecular forces help the written figures hold their shape, but that’s not the case for surfaces submerged in fluids. Prior research has used scanning probe lithography to “write’ on self-assembled monolayers submerged in fluids, or to bring structures at the micron scale using two-photon polymerization. ” There are now even commercial scuba diver slates available for underwater writing on a substrate,” they wrote.

All of these methods still rely on a substrate, however. The German team wanted to devise a means of literally writing into a fluid. Such a method would need to be robust enough to counter the rapid dispersion of drawn lines, and they would need a very tiny pen that didn’t stir up lots of turbulence as it moved through the fluid medium. (The smaller the object moving through a fluid, the fewer vortices, or eddies, it will create.)

Read more | >

The Department of Defense has teamed up with Google to build an AI-powered microscope that can help doctors identify cancer.

The tool is called an Augmented Reality Microscope, and it will usually cost health systems between $90,000 to $100,000.

Experts believe the ARM will help support doctors in smaller labs as they battle with workforce shortages and mounting caseloads.

The pair ran the case through the special microscope, and Zafar was right. In seconds, the AI flagged the exact part of the tumor that Zafar believed was more aggressive. After the machine backed him up, Zafar said his colleague was convinced.

“He had a smile on his face, and he agreed with that,” Zafar told CNBC in an interview. “This is the beauty of this technology, it’s kind of an arbitrator of sorts.”

The AI-powered tool is called an Augmented Reality Microscope, or ARM, and Google and the Department of Defense have been quietly working on it for years. The technology is still in its early days and is not actively being used to help diagnose patients yet, but initial research is promising, and officials say it could prove to be a useful tool for pathologists without easy access to a second opinion.

Continue reading “Google and the Department of Defense are building an AI-powered microscope to help doctors spot cancer” | >

Dr. James Tabor is a retired Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte where he taught Christian origins and ancient Judaism for thirty-three years, serving as Chair of the Department for a decade. His Ph.D. is from the University of Chicago (1981). He previously taught at the University of Notre Dame and at the College of William and Mary.

Dr. Tabor now devotes himself full-time to research, archaeological field work, and publishing. Over the past three decades he has combined his work on ancient texts with extensive field work in archaeology in Israel and Jordan. Since 2008 he has been co-director, along with Shimon Gibson, of the acclaimed Mt. Zion excavation in Jerusalem and been involved in a half dozen other archaeological projects in the Holy Land over the past thirty years.

Dr. Tabor has worked at several sites in Israel and Jordan including Qumran, site of the Dead Sea Scrolls (1991, 1996), Wadi el-Yabis in Jordan (1992, 1996), Masada (1994), and Sepphoris (1996, 1999, 2000). In 2000 he teamed up with Dr. Shimon Gibson to excavate a newly discovered cave at Suba, west of Jerusalem that dates back to the Iron Age but was used for ritual rites in the early Roman period (2000−2006). Tabor and Gibson were also the principals involved in the discovery a 1st century Jewish burial shroud in a looted tomb at Akeldama. Their latest project is an ongoing excavation in Jerusalem on Mt Zion (Southwestern Hill) just outside Mt Zion Gate along the Turkish city wall (2006−2022).

Read more | >

The future of war is cyberpunk and starship troopers.

Wars in the future may involve vast interplanetary conflicts or civil wars sprawling over an entire world or more, but what will those wars look like?

Start listening with a 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit http://www.audible.com/isaac or text “isaac” to 500–500.
Visit our Website: http://www.isaacarthur.net.
Join Nebula: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur.
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/IsaacArthur.
Support us on Subscribestar: https://www.subscribestar.com/isaac-arthur.
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1583992725237264/
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/IsaacArthur/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Isaac_A_Arthur on Twitter and RT our future content.
SFIA Discord Server: https://discord.gg/53GAShE

Listen or Download the audio of this episode from Soundcloud: Episode’s Audio-only version: https://soundcloud.com/isaac-arthur-148927746/planetary-civil-war.

Episode’s Narration-only version: https://soundcloud.com/isaac-arthur-148927746/planetary-civi…tion-only.

Continue reading “Planetary Civil War” | >