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Researchers have cooled indium atoms to a temperature close to 1 mK, making indium the first group-III atom to be made ultracold.

At temperatures near to absolute zero, atoms move slower than a three-toed sloth, allowing physicists to gain unprecedented experimental control over these systems. New phases of matter can form when atoms become ultracold and quirky quantum properties can emerge, yet much of the periodic table remains unexplored in the ultracold regime. Now, Travis Nicholson of the National University of Singapore and colleagues have successfully cooled indium to close to 1 mK [1]. Indium is the first “main group-III” atom—a specific group of transition metals on the periodic table—to be cooled to such a low temperature. The demonstration opens the door to studying systems with properties previously unexplored by ultracold physicists.

For their experiments, Nicholson and colleagues used a magneto-optical trap—a standard tool for trapping and cooling atoms. But because this was the first attempt at making indium atoms ultracold, the team had to make their own version of the apparatus rather than using one designed to cool other atoms. “The systems used for this research are highly customized to specific atoms,” Nicholson says. So every part of the setup from designing the laser systems to picking the screws had to be “hashed out by us.” With their custom setup, the group loaded 500,000,000 indium atoms into the trap using a laser beam and then cooled them.

Abstract: Superintelligence, the next phase beyond today’s narrow AI and tomorrow’s AGI, almost intrinsically evades our attempts at detailed comprehension. Yet very different perspectives on superintelligence exist today and have concrete influence on thinking about matters ranging from AGI architectures to technology regulation.
One paradigm considers superintelligences as resembling modern deep reinforcement learning systems, obsessively concerned with optimizing particular goal functions. Another considers superintelligences as open-ended, complex evolving systems, ongoingly balancing drives.
toward individuation and radical self-transcendence in a paraconsistent way. In this talk I will argue that the open-ended conception of superintelligence is both more desirable and more realistic, and will discuss how concrete work being done today on projects like OpenCog Hyperon, SingularityNET and Hypercycle potentially paves the way for a path through beneficial decentralized integrative AGI and on to open-ended superintelligence and ultimately the Singularity.

Bio: In May 2007, Goertzel spoke at a Google tech talk about his approach to creating artificial general intelligence. He defines intelligence as the ability to detect patterns in the world and in the agent itself, measurable in terms of emergent behavior of “achieving complex goals in complex environments”. A “baby-like” artificial intelligence is initialized, then trained as an agent in a simulated or virtual world such as Second Life to produce a more powerful intelligence. Knowledge is represented in a network whose nodes and links carry probabilistic truth values as well as “attention values”, with the attention values resembling the weights in a neural network. Several algorithms operate on this network, the central one being a combination of a probabilistic inference engine and a custom version of evolutionary programming.

This talk is part of the ‘Stepping Into the Future‘conference. http://www.scifuture.org/open-ended-vs-closed-minded-concept…elligence/

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Early experiences with the new Tesla Model Y with 4,680 cells and a structural battery pack are showing some impressive potential for faster charging and better energy density.

When Tesla delivered its first made-in-Texas Model Y vehicles, we noted that it was strange that Tesla didn’t reveal any details – like specs and pricing – about the new version of the electric SUV.

We learned a little more over the next few weeks. The new Texas-built Model Y Standard starts at $59,990, has a range of 279 miles, goes 0–60 mph acceleration in five seconds, and is equipped with a few new features, including a magnetic center console armrest and a parcel shelf. But we are more interested in the impact of the new battery cell and structural battery pack.

The way she uses dots and strokes looks a bit like ones and zeroes.


Artificial intelligence is playing a huge role in the development of all kinds of technologies. It can be combined with deep learning techniques to do amazing things that have the potential to improve all our lives. Things like learning how to safely control nuclear fusion (opens in new tab), or making delicious pizzas (opens in new tab).

One of the many questions surrounding AI is its use in art. There’s no denying AI can have some amazing abilities when it comes to producing images. Nvidia’s GuaGan2 that can take words and turn them into photorealistic pictures (opens in new tab) is one example of this. Or Ubisoft’s ZooBuilder AI (opens in new tab), which is a prototype for animating animals.

Tesla’s battery research arm based in Canada published a paper earlier this month that provides details of a battery design that could serve us for 100 years, Electrek reported.

As the world looks to reduce carbon emissions, electric transportation is one of the ways that is being touted to achieve emission targets that countries have set themselves. To ensure this can be sustainable, countries need to switch to renewable sources of power, while electric vehicle makers need to ensure that the cars themselves do not become a cause of concern.

The artist used the Viper’s massive 10-cylinder mill, which has been given a deep scrub so that it looks practically brand new, as the pit’s base. He then attached pistons and connecting rods to the engine block for use as legs and support. In images of the table Cobb posted to Facebook you’ll notice that there’s no surface, but that’s likely just to show off its fire pit capabilities. We imagine a simple glass top could be used to turn it into a fully functional coffee table.

While the table-pit’s design is likely to stop you in your tracks, even more jaw-dropping are its fire-breathing capabilities. Cobb equipped each cylinder of the engine with its owner burner and igniter, so that a flame spits out of each. He also rigged up a pretty cool ignition system to turn the fire pit on. You simply turn a key installed in the engine block to turn on the igniters and feed each of them gas from an attached tank by stepping on the pedal from an actual Viper. It’s really not much different from getting the actual supercar’s engine roaring. Of course, it should go without saying that you’ll only want to use the fire pit function outside. If you’re eyeing this as a coffee table, though, its suitable for indoor use.