Lifeboat Foundation

Summary: Study reveals how motor memories are formed and how they remain persistent. The findings may help illuminate the root cause of motor disorders like Parkinson’s disease.

Source: Stanford.

Why is it that someone who hasn’t ridden a bicycle in decades can likely jump on and ride away without a wobble, but could probably not recall more than a name or two from their 3rd grade class?

Can the sum of knowledge and experience we’ve accumulated over a lifetime live on after we die? The concept of “mind-uploading” is a modern version of an age-old human dream. Transhumanism hopes to not only enhance human capacities but even transcend human limitations such as bodily death.

The main character of Oscar Wilde’s famous novel The Picture of Dorian Gray wishes for eternal youth. And his wish is fulfilled: Dorian Gray remains young and exquisitely beautiful, whereas his portrait grows old, bearing the burden of aging, human shortcomings and imperfections. As we know, the story ended badly for Dorian.

In our time, scientific discoveries and new technologies promise to bring us closer to his dream. And no deal with the Devil is needed for doing so: once we understand how to manipulate the building blocks of life as well as the material foundations of our consciousness, emotions and character traits, so the story goes, we will be able to broaden human nature and overcome its inherent limitations such as aging, suffering and cognitive, emotional and moral shortcomings.

Tianwen-1 is a historic victory for both the CNSA and space exploration.

Upon successful orbital insertion and landing, Tianwen-1 became a historic victory for the CNSA and space exploration. Before Tianwen-1, the only two successful missions to send an orbiter and lander to Mars were NASA’s Viking 1 and 2 missions in 1975. Prior to that, the Soviet Union had attempted this feat with their Mars 2 and 3 missions in 1971 and Mars 6 in 1973.

Mars 2 was an outright failure, with the lander being destroyed and the orbiter sending back no data. On Mars 3, the orbiter obtained approximately eight months of data, and while the lander touched down safely, it only returned 20 seconds of data. On Mars 6, the orbiter produced data from an occultation experiment, but the lander failed on the descent.

How do you teach an autonomous drone to fly itself? Practice, practice, practice. Now Microsoft is offering a way to put a drone’s control software through its paces millions of times before the first takeoff.

The cloud-based simulation platform, Project AirSim, is being made available in limited preview starting today, in conjunction with this week’s Farnborough International Airshow in Britain.

Continue reading “Microsoft’s Project AirSim is pushing drone simulation software to new heights” »

H+DAO Interview:

“Transhumanism is a philosophy, worldview, and a movement,” Dr. Natasha Vita-More states in the book “Transhumanism: What is it?” Essentially, it’s the idea of being able to move beyond being human, and finding solutions to living longer, healthier lives.

Natasha holds a Ph.D. from the University of Plymouth. As a long-term figure in the transhumanist movement, she spends much of her time speaking and lecturing around the world. Her areas of expertise include topics such as trans-humanity and human evolution, artificial intelligence, and what it means to be human in an AI-driven world.

Military dogs will don augmented reality goggles to test their ability to keep soldiers safe by allowing them to direct the dogs from afar.

The Neuro-Network.

𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐲 𝐒𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐎𝐜𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐖𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐬

𝘼 𝙣𝙚𝙬 𝙢𝙤𝙙𝙚𝙡 𝙤𝙛 𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙨 𝙞𝙣𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙘𝙧𝙞𝙗𝙚𝙨 𝙣𝙚𝙪𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙖𝙨 𝙬𝙖𝙫𝙚𝙨.

Continue reading “Study Suggests Brain Processes Information like Ocean Waves” »

Live now, on the Space Renaissance YouTube channel.

We are stepping at the gates of a new era in space exploration, one which will finally incorporate the inner solar system to society’s daily life and economics. The first step is the Moon, and the asteroids will probably follow. The surface of those bodies presents special challenges for human and technological activities as well as resource exploitation. These challenges, which include regolith, extreme thermal amplitude, high energy radiation and surface mineral mixing among others, open the door to new operational approaches. COLMENA is the pathfinder of one such avenue: using swarms of micro-rovers for scientific exploration, resource prospection or, eventually, mining The first COLMENA mission will deploy 5 microrovers (56 grams each) on the Moon surface by the end of this year, flying on board a private spacecraft. In the talk I will briefly explain the context, technical characteristics and objectives of the mission, as well as its future.

Continue reading “COLMENA, a new concept on lunar exploration” »

Below the surface of US coastal cities and towns, the salt line is rising in aquifers used for fresh water. The cause is climate change.

As sea levels rise, saltwater will intrude into groundwater. For more than 600 million who draw on aquifers, it means a freshwater crisis.