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Dec 13, 2021

Is There a Thing, or a Relationship between Things, at the Bottom of Things?

Posted by in category: quantum physics

The wildly inventive physicist John Wheeler was an early explorer of this notion. In a 1989 paper, “Information, Physics, Quantum: The Search for Links,” Wheeler takes a stab at “the age-old question: How come existence?” The answer, he speculates, might come from a fusion of physics and information theory. The former traffics in “its,” or physical things, and the latter in “bits,” defined as answers to yes-or-no questions.

Wheeler proposes that “every physical quantity, every it, derives its ultimate significance from bits, binary yes-or-no indications, a conclusion which we epitomize in the phrase, it from bit.” Noting the crucial role of measurement in the outcome of quantum experiments, Wheeler suggests that we live in a “participatory universe,” in which we bring the world into existence, and vice versa.

Picking up on Wheeler’s ideas, physicist Carlo Rovelli argues in a 1996 paper, “Relational Quantum Mechanics,” that quantum mechanics undermines “naive realism,” the notion that science discovers a reality that exists independently of our observation of it. He proposes what he calls a “relational” interpretation of quantum mechanics, which says things only exist in relation to other things. Rovelli notes that Galileo and Kant, among others, anticipated the relational perspective.

Dec 13, 2021

Elon Musk Named Time Magazine Person Of The Year

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, space travel, sustainability

Time magazine on Monday named Tesla chief and space entrepreneur Elon Musk as its person of the year, citing his embodiment of the technological shifts but also troubling trends reshaping people’s lives.

Musk — who overtook Amazon founder Jeff Bezos this year to become the world’s wealthiest person — wields impact on Earth with his Tesla electric car company and beyond our planet with his SpaceX rockets.

“Musk’s rise coincides with broader trends of which he and his fellow technology magnates are part cause and part effect,” Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal wrote.

Dec 13, 2021

New AI Research Could Enable Ocean Monitoring and Exploration

Posted by in categories: drones, robotics/AI

Further exploration of the unknown worlds of the deep sea may soon be possible, along with low-energy monitoring. Engineers at Caltech, ETH Zurich, and Harvard are developing an AI that will allow autonomous drones to navigate using the ocean’s currents rather than struggling to move through them.

According to one of the authors of a recent paper published in Nature Communications 0, John O. Dabiri, communications with robots exploring at depths of 20,000 feet is near impossible. They are difficult to control via joystick, and researchers are unable to feed them data about local ocean currents. So it becomes necessary for ocean-borne drones to be able to make their own decisions and move by themselves.

Dec 13, 2021

US tech investors believe they’re close to a cure for old age

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

Contrary to what you may think, getting old is not inevitable. And by getting old, I mean the bad parts: weakened muscles, fading memory, aching joints … or perhaps a disease such as cancer or diabetes makes an unwelcome appearance.

James Peyer, 35, is out to prove that age is, instead, like polio or tuberculosis. Those and other infectious diseases once were the biggest killers, until we developed effective vaccines or treatments.

Why, asked Peyer, co-founder of the New York longevity start-up Cambrian Biopharma, should age be any different? “Of our 100,000-year-plus history as a species, it’s been for only about 75 years that these diseases of ageing have been the primary predators of humankind.” He added: “We are rapidly zeroing in on our biggest.

Dec 13, 2021

China’s Next Advance in Electric Vehicles Is a Used-Car Market

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

Work to drum up interest in pre-owned options are slowly starting to deliver an impact.

Dec 13, 2021

China’s ‘Unhackable’ Quantum Satellite System Promises To Defend World’s Largest Power Grid Against Cyber Attacks

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, energy, quantum physics

China has developed what it calls a Quantum Satellite System in a bid to combat any adversary intrusion into its power infrastructure. The country boasts the world’s largest national power grid.

Dec 13, 2021

Elon Musk responds to a video of Humanoid Robot declaring that real Androids are coming

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, robotics/AI

Elon Musk warns that real androids are coming. Musk is one of the world wealthiest men and a tech entrepreneur. Some fear an impending catastrophe as a result of robots produced with artificial intelligence. Others speculate he is developing Neuralink to offer humans a fighting chance. Musk response video comes from Cornwall-based Engineered Arts.

Dec 13, 2021

The FAA Will Award Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson with Astronauts Wings

Posted by in category: space

The FAA had a change of heart and decided to give away its very last Astronaut Wings to Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson.

Dec 13, 2021

Upcoming Advances in Material Science

Posted by in categories: materials, science

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Dec 13, 2021

Elon Musk named Time Person of the Year

Posted by in categories: cryptocurrencies, Elon Musk, space travel, sustainability

Elon Musk is Time’s Person of the Year.

The magazine said that he had been chosen for his work in space as well as on electric cars, as well as his plans to take humanity to Mars and his interest in cryptocurrency. It also noted in its announcement that Mr Musk “also likes to live-tweet his poops”, thought to be a first for a Time “Person of the Year”.

“For creating solutions to an existential crisis, for embodying the possibilities and the perils of the age of tech titans, for driving society’s most daring and disruptive transformations, Elon Musk is TIME’s 2021 Person of the Year,” the magazine wrote in its announcement.