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ALGORITHMS TURN PHOTO SHAPSHOTS INTO 3D VIDEO AND OR IMMERSIVE SPACE. This has been termed “Neural Radiance Fields.” Now Google Maps wants to turn Google Maps into a gigantic 3D space. Three videos below demonstrate the method. 1) A simple demonstration, 2) Google’s immersive maps, and 3) Using this principle to make dark, grainy photographs clear and immersive.

This technique is different from “time of flight” cameras which make a 3D snapshot based on the time light takes to travel to and from objects, but combined with this technology, and with a constellation of microsatellites as large as cell phones, a new version of “Google Earth” with live, continual imaging of the whole planet could eventually be envisioned.

2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUP5Fry24ao.

3)

While Earth and Venus are approximately the same size, and both lose heat at about the same rate, the internal mechanisms that drive Earth’s geologic processes differ from its neighbor. It is these Venusian geologic processes that a team of researchers led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the California Institute of Technology hopes to learn more about as they discuss both the cooling mechanisms of Venus and the potential processes behind it.

The geologic processes that occur on Earth are primarily due to our planet having tectonic plates that are in constant motion from the heat escaping the core of the planet, which then rises through the mantle to the lithosphere, or the rigid outer rocky layer, that surrounds it. Once this heat is lost to space, the uppermost region of the mantle cools, while the ongoing mantle convection moves and shifts the currently known 15 to 20 tectonic plates that make up the lithosphere. These tectonic processes are a big reason why the Earth’s surface is constantly being reshaped. Venus, on the other hand, does not possess tectonic plates, so scientists have been puzzled as to how the planet loses heat and reshapes its surface.

“For so long, we’ve been locked into this idea that Venus’ lithosphere is stagnant and thick, but our view is now evolving,” said Dr. Suzanne Smrekar, who is a senior research scientist at NASA JPL, and lead author of the study.

Why do some people love Impressionist paintings like Claude Monet’s “Water Lilies” (1906) while others can’t understand the hype? The question of aesthetic taste has stumped scholars for centuries. Now, neuroscientists at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) say they have come closer to decoding how the brain decides which artworks it deems good or attractive.

In a study published in the scientific journal Nature Communications, CalTech Professor John O’Doherty and other researchers propose that the mind creates an opinion of an artwork after dissecting it into discrete elements. Basic features, such as color and texture, and complex qualities, like style, are ranked and weighed individually to make a judgment.

Connect with top gaming leaders in Los Angeles at GamesBeat Summit 2023 this May 22–23. Register here.

While AI has been a part of game development for years, generative AI’s ability to create assets for games instantly is a relatively new component. This new technology has the capacity to serve as a tool for game developers, especially those with smaller teams — and, according to the creators of Story Machine, it already is.

Generative AI is not without its critics, but Story Machine contends that its intended to work as a creative aid and help for developers, not a replacement. It’s targeted, not at large game studios, but indie developers who don’t have the programming or artistic aptitude to build all of the assets for the games themselves.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is unarguably the most exciting field in robotics. And humanoid robots, robots resembling the human body in shape, are one of the most popular forms of AI. However, a lot of work, finances, and research are put into making these humanoid robots.

The field is already crowded with a number of companies with interesting projects, such as Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot and Tesla’s much-hyped Optimus prototype designed to be “general purpose.”

This week, an AI Robotics startup, Figure, has unveiled Figure 1, the world’s first commercially viable general-purpose humanoid robot. The company says this humanoid will have the ability to think, learn, and interact with its environment.

“People on metformin have 30% lower rates of almost every kind of cancer. It delays cognitive decline. Even people with diabetes who are obese and have more disease to start with but are on metformin have lower mortality rates than people without diabetes who aren’t on the drug.”

What he says is born out in numerous studies. Overall, this safe, super-cheap, decades-old drug not only treats diabetes, but it also seems to delay and compress the years of chronic illness associated with the final stage of life and extend what geroscientists call the “healthspan.”

Metformin is just one of many medications, including other old ones and some brand new inventions, that academic researchers and biotech startups are exploring to slow, stop, or perhaps even reverse aging.

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From the smallest atom to the largest galaxy, everything in the universe obeys the laws of physics, where our brains are made of the same atoms and molecules as the rest of the universe. So could we take this theory further and ask whether consciousness could be part of the underlying fabric of the universe. Humans have also managed to extend this to the internet where there is an eerie pattern between the universe the brain and the internet where experts have been asking the question whether the internet could one day develop its own consciousness. Maybe in the distant future all three will unite into one giant mind. Humans have always been fascinated with the thought that the universe somehow reflects us and whether the universe could be a giant brain. Let’s delve deeper into the trinity that is the universe, the brain and the internet.