Lifeboat Foundation

Throughout the history of human civilization, energy has been holding an imperative role in humanity’s progress¹. Especially in the past few centuries, innovations in the harnessing of power have catalyzed humanity’s rapid growth². Energy remains a key driver of human development³, with each revolution in industry and agriculture highlighting human’s reliance on it. Revolution in the eighteenth century was a turning point. The development of steam engines powered by fossil fuels led to significant technological progress⁴. Electricity has then opened new possibilities for the future⁵. Humanity has grown at a compound annual rate of 2.43% from 1965 to 2020, demonstrating our continued increasing demand for and consumption of energy^6,7. However, the pace at which human being can progress as a civilization in the future remains uncertain.

While mankind was establishing its identity in the universe, insatiable human curiosity over the realm of civilization peaked in the 1960s⁸, which led to deeper cogitation of the concept of civilization. Providing that some of the extraterrestrial civilizations are highly likely million years more advanced than mankind, Soviet astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev proposed a scale to classifies a civilization’s technological development based on its energy consumption⁹, which was later known as the Kardashev Scale. The scale initially categorized civilizations into three types. Type 1 is known as the planetary civilization, which features the capability of harnessing and utilizing all forms of energies that can be reached on the host planet, such as wind, solar, and geothermal power; Type 2 and 3, known as the stellar and galactic civilizations, respectively, are capable of extracting and utilizing all energy created by their respective systems⁹. Yet, such a scale proved lackluster in the quantitative presentation of the civilization types. Subsequently, Carl Sagan furthered the Kardashev Scale with data extrapolation, and proposed a continuous function quantifying the Kardashev Scale in index K¹⁰

$$K=\frac{.

(Suggested reading: “The Non-things”, Byung-Chul Han).

The idea that human connection will be crucial in the age of superintelligence is not uncommon among some experts and futurists. Superintelligence refers to a hypothetical form of artificial intelligence that surpasses human intelligence across all domains. Some individuals, including scientists and technologists, have expressed concerns about the potential impact of superintelligence on humanity.

Some argument that if superintelligence were to become a reality, it could bring about profound changes to society and the way we live. In such a scenario, human traits and values like compassion, empathy, and emotional connections could become even more critical to preserve our uniqueness and counterbalance the overwhelming capabilities of superintelligent machines. The idea is that our ability to connect with each other emotionally and maintain a sense of community, compassion, and mutual understanding could provide a counterpoint to the cold and logical calculations of superintelligent AI. This human element might serve as a safeguard against potential negative consequences or misuse of superintelligence.

Soundtrack: https://melodysheep.bandcamp.com/album/the-human-future-original-soundtrack Patreon: http://patreon.com/melodysheep Change is coming. Humanity is entering a turbulent new era, unprecedented in both Earth and Human history. To survive the coming centuries and fulfill our potential as a species, we will have to overcome the biggest challenges we have ever faced, from extreme climate change, to rogue A.I., to the inevitable death of the sun itself.

The headlines make our chances look bleak. But when you look at our history and our tenacity, it’s clear that humanity is uniquely empowered to rise to the challenges we face.

Continue reading “THE HUMAN FUTURE: A Case for Optimism” »

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Faith Popcorn founded her futurist marketing consultancy in 1974. She’s been called “The Trend Oracle” by the NY Times and “The Nostradamus of Marketing” by Fortune. Faith is a trusted advisor to the CEOs of Fortune 200 companies and has predicted a variety of trends such as Cocooning and its impact on the COVID culture, Social Media, and The Metaverse. She has been invited to speak all over the planet and is the best-selling author of four books. Finally, in her own words, Faith is a jew educated at a Christian School, a Caucasian who grew up among Asians, a 6^th generation New Yorker and the adopted mother of 2 girls from China.

During our 2-hour conversation with Faith Popcorn, we cover a variety of interesting topics such as why she is the Cassandra of our era; her unique background and upbringing; the origins of her Faith Popcorn name; futurism, misogyny and gender equality; her mission to bring a vision of what’s coming; saving the planet and the trends to pay attention to; her client cases like Campbell Soup, Kodak, Coke, Pepsi, Tyson Foods and others; male vs female leaders; Futurism vs Applied Futurism; why the future is vegan; why the biggest shifts are in humanity, not in technology; trend recognition, utilization, and creation; AI and the singularity.

Elon Musk delves into the groundbreaking potential of Neuralink, a revolutionary venture aimed at interfacing with the human brain to tackle an array of brain-related disorders. Musk envisions a future where Neuralink’s advancements lead to the resolution of conditions like autism, schizophrenia, memory loss, and even spinal cord injuries.

Elon Musk discusses the transformative power of Neuralink, highlighting its role in restoring motor control after spinal cord injuries, revitalizing brain function post-stroke, and combating genetically or trauma-induced brain diseases. Musk’s compelling insights reveal how interfacing with neurons at an intricate level can pave the way for repairing and enhancing brain circuits using cutting-edge technology.

Continue reading “Elon Musk on Neuralink: Solving Brain Diseases & Reducing the Risk of AI” »

The dome is varnished matte black and shaped somewhere between an oversized eco-chic lampshade and a fifth grader’s diorama of a volcano—all pudgy curves and asymmetric slopes. Underneath sits a small table, almost a stool, made of the same amorphous material. The table is fitted with a brass fixture loosely reminiscent of a guitar but (so the adjacent panel tells me) is actually a replica of the 17th-century microscope designed by Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek—a nod to the father of microscopy.

From a speaker concealed in the dome, a voice intones:

In the midst of a global pandemic, on the eve of an irreversible climate emergency, and in the early, thrilling decades of a biotech revolution, the human race began to question its relationship to the natural world. For many years, scientists believed life to be a competition, one that humanity must win… But as biologists learned more about living systems, it became undeniable that interdependence was key to understanding life on Earth.

Elon Musk donated $10 million to a project whose research includes a projection that declining fertility rates could mean “humanity is four-fifths over.”

This is my latest thought 💭 post about humans and machines and why SymbioticAI (not control AI) is the way forward for humanity in the era of super intelligent machines.

Maybe interesting 🤔.

A recently published research paper from scientists at Anthropic demonstrates a method for determining how much “influence” individual instances of training data have on the generation of outputs by large language models.

Continue reading “Anthropic cracks open the black box to see how AI comes up with the stuff it says” »

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe marks five successful years in space, achieving milestones like touching the Sun and collecting more than double the expected data. The mission’s continuing journey promises to deepen our understanding of space weather and the Sun’s effects on Earth. Credit: NASA GSFC/CIL/Brian Monroe.

NASA

Established in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government that succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). It is responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. Its vision is “To discover and expand knowledge for the benefit of humanity.” Its core values are “safety, integrity, teamwork, excellence, and inclusion.” NASA conducts research, develops technology and launches missions to explore and study Earth, the solar system, and the universe beyond. It also works to advance the state of knowledge in a wide range of scientific fields, including Earth and space science, planetary science, astrophysics, and heliophysics, and it collaborates with private companies and international partners to achieve its goals.