Lifeboat Foundation

To better automate reasoning, machines should ideally be able to systematically revise the view they have obtained about the world. Timotheus Kampik’s dissertation work presents mathematical reasoning approaches that strike a balance between retaining consistency with previously drawn conclusions and rejecting them in face of overwhelming new evidence.

When reasoning and when making decisions, humans are continuously revising what their view of the world is, by rejecting what they have previously considered true or desirable, and replacing it with an updated and ideally more useful perspective. Enabling machines to do so in a similar manner, but with logical precision, is a long-running line of artificial intelligence research.

In his dissertation, Timotheus advances this line of research by devising reasoning approaches that balance retaining previously drawn conclusions for the sake of ensuring consistency and revising them to accommodate new compelling evidence. To this end, he applies well-known mathematical principles from economic theory to formal argumentation, an approach to logic-based automated reasoning.

A new NASA climate simulation suggests that extremely large volcanic eruptions called “flood basalt eruptions” might significantly warm Earth’s climate and devastate the ozone layer that shields life from the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation.

It’s not often that a failed clinical trial leads to a scientific breakthrough.

When patients in the UK started showing adverse side effects during a cancer immunotherapy trial, researchers at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) Center for Cancer Immunotherapy and University of Liverpool went back through the data and worked with patient samples to see what went wrong.

Their findings, published recently in Nature, provide critical clues to why many immunotherapies trigger dangerous side effects—and point to a better strategy for treating patients with solid tumors.

Researchers from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have demonstrated the feasibility of terrestrial microwave power beaming by transmitting 1.6 kilowatts (kW) over a distance of 1 kilometre (km) – the most significant advance for this technology in nearly 50 years.

Circa 2021

With SpaceX continuing the testing phase for Starship and enthusiasm spreading for an actual crewed flight to Mars, an interesting magnetic thrust rocket concept conceived by physicist Fatima Ebrahimi at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) might make the mission much more cost effective.

Continue reading “Physicist designs magnetic thrust engine that could rocket us to the Red Planet” »

Recent Study on the effects of Dark Energy suggests expansion of the universe could in fact slow down and eventually reverse itself to eventually result in a “Big Crunch” billions of years from now. Such a theory had been proposed in the past but was previously rejected due to observed accelerating expansion attributed to Dark Energy.

The universe may stop expanding in just 100 million years if dark energy decays over time, a new study suggests.

This year, the Alcor Life Extension Foundation is celebrating its 50th year. To mark the occasion, we are holding a conference on June 3–5, 2022, at the Scottsdale Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The conference itself will be Alcor’s first major in-person gathering in seven years, so we’re going to “go big.” We expect members, prospective members, and others interested in life extension and the far future to turn out enthusiastically. We hope not only that our attendees will enjoy hearing from and interacting with you, but also that you may find the experience enjoyable. There is no organization quite like Alcor, after all, and very few opportunities to explore cryonics and its implications for society now and in the far future.

Ex-NASA astronaut says we must fix Earth’s big problems before we colonize other planets.

He tells Inverse that humans should seek to colonize distant planets. But before that happens, he acknowledges the tremendous amount of work that needs to be done on Earth first.

“We need to spread human presence throughout the Solar System and beyond, but we need to do it as ambassadors of a thriving planet,” Garan says. “We can’t do it as refugees escaping environmental disaster.”

Continue reading “Ex-NASA astronaut calls on humanity to populate the Solar System and beyond” »