Lifeboat Foundation

For a humble, microscopic worm with only 302 neurons, C. elegans has had a lot of firsts. It was the first multicellular animal to have its whole genome sequenced. It was also the spark that lit the connectome fire—the revolutionary idea that mapping the entirety of connections among neurons will unveil secrets of our minds, memory, and consciousness. And if the connectomists are to be believed, a map of individual brains may be the blueprint that will one day hurtle AI into human-level intelligence, or reconstruct an entire human mind in digital form.

More than 30 years ago, a pioneering group of scientists painstakingly traced and reconstructed the roundworm’s neural wiring by hand. The “heroic” effort, unaided by modern computers and brain-mapping algorithms, resulted in the first connectome in 1986.

Yet the “mind of the worm” map had significant lapses. For one, it only focused on one sex, the hermaphrodite—a “female” equivalent that can self-fertilize. This makes it hard to tell which connections are universal for the species, and which are dependent on sex and reproduction. For another, because the effort relied entirely on human beings who get tired, bored, and mess up, the map wasn’t entirely accurate. Even with multiple rounds of subsequent refinements, errors could linger, which would royally screw up any interpretation of results using these maps.

Conventional computers need orders of magnitude more energy than the “computer” in our heads. Neural networks made of superconducting nanowires might come much closer to the real thing.

New “living drugs”—made from a patient’s own cells—can cure once incurable cancers. But can we afford them?

They say rock songs could be used to share WiFi passwords or short messages.

Aired on Gadget Lab Podcast: buddy Elon Musk because it’s always fun to talk about Elon Musk and this time the man wants to put a computer in your brain this past Tuesda.

Law enforcement needs to be innovative and act now in order to keep face with near future criminal threats, warns ‘Do criminals dream of electric sheep’ paper.

The race is on to create new ways to protect data and communications from the threat posed by super-powerful quantum computers.

Space engineers have long considered lunar soil as locally available material for building outposts on the Moon, and now ESA researchers are considering it as a means to store energy. The Discovery & Preparation study by the agency and Azimut Space aims to determine how the lunar regolith can soak up solar energy during the day, then use it to generate electricity during the 14-day night and protect equipment against freezing.

An introduction to by Johannon Ben Zion candidate for President of the US Transhumanist Party.

US Transhumanist Party candidate for President, Johannon Ben Zion has a futurist new deal for America. This concept stoked my interest when I was listening to the debate between all of the US Transhumanist Party candidates. I wanted more information on this concept and Johannon Ben Zion was kind enough to forward this information to me.

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