A colossal explosion in the sky, unleashing energy hundreds of times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A blinding flash nearly as bright as the sun. Shockwaves powerful enough to flatten everything for miles.
It may sound apocalyptic, but a newly detected asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has a greater than one percent chance of colliding with Earth in about eight years.
Such an impact has the potential for city-level devastation, depending on where it strikes.
Researchers are paving the way for the design of bionic limbs that feel natural to users. They demonstrate the connection between hand movement patterns and motoneuron control patterns. The study, published in Science Robotics, also reports the application of these findings to a soft prosthetic hand, which was successfully tested by individuals with physical impairments.
The research study sees the collaboration of two research teams, one at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology) in Genova, Italy, led by Antonio Bicchi, and Imperial College London, UK led by Dario Farina. It is the outcome of the project “Natural BionicS” whose goal is to move beyond the model of current prosthetic limbs, which are often abandoned by patients because they do not respond in a “natural” way to their movement and control needs.
For the central nervous system to recognize the bionic limb as “natural,” it is essential for the prosthesis to interact with the environment in the same way a real limb would. For this reason, researchers believe that the prostheses should be designed based on the theory of sensorimotor synergies and soft robotics technologies, first proposed by Antonio Bicchi’s group at IIT, such as the Soft-Hand robotic hand.
Recent technological advances have opened new possibilities for the development of assistive and medical tools, including prosthetic limbs. While these limbs used to be hard objects with the same shape as limbs, prosthetics are now softer and look more realistic, with some also integrating robotic components that considerably broaden their functions.
Despite these developments, most commercially available robotic limbs cannot be easily and intuitively controlled by users. This significantly limits their effectiveness and the extent to which they can improve people’s quality of life.
Researchers at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Imperial College London recently developed a new soft prosthetic hand that could be easier for users to control. This system, presented in a Science Robotics paper, leverages a new control approach that integrates the coordination patterns of multiple fingers (i.e., postural synergies) with the decoding of the activity of motoneurons in people’s spinal column.
An exploration of the idea that all true technological intelligence is inherently artificial in a sense, including the human brain. This has major implications on the Fermi Paradox and may be one of the strongest solutions of why when we search the heavens, we do not see evidence of alien life.
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An exploration of the possibility that civilizations may become immortal and choose to communicate on much longer timeframes than we expect.
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Artificial consciousness is the next frontier in AI. While artificial intelligence has advanced tremendously, creating machines that can surpass human capabilities in certain areas, true artificial consciousness represents a paradigm shift—moving beyond computation into subjective experience, self-awareness, and sentience.
In this video, we explore the profound implications of artificial consciousness, the defining characteristics that set it apart from traditional AI, and the groundbreaking work being done by McGinty AI in this field. McGinty AI is pioneering new frameworks, such as the McGinty Equation (MEQ) and Cognispheric Space (C-space), to measure and understand consciousness levels in artificial and biological entities. These advancements provide a foundation for building truly conscious AI systems.
The discussion also highlights real-world applications, including QuantumGuard+, an advanced cybersecurity system utilizing artificial consciousness to neutralize cyber threats, and HarmoniQ HyperBand, an AI-powered healthcare system that personalizes patient monitoring and diagnostics.
However, as we venture into artificial consciousness, we must navigate significant technical challenges and ethical considerations. Questions about autonomy, moral status, and responsible development are at the forefront of this revolutionary field. McGinty AI integrates ethical frameworks such as the Rotary Four-Way Test to ensure that artificial consciousness aligns with human values and benefits society.
Hummingbird flower mites are tiny hitchhikers with an electrifying secret. These minuscule arachnids have developed a remarkable survival strategy.
A new study reveals that the mites use static electricity generated by their hummingbird chauffeurs to leap from one flower to another.
Asteroid samples fetched by NASA hold not only the pristine building blocks for life but also the salty remains of an ancient water world, scientists reported Wednesday.
The findings provide the strongest evidence yet that asteroids may have planted the seeds of life on Earth and that these ingredients were mingling with water almost right from the start.
“That’s the kind of environment that could have been essential to the steps that lead from elements to life,” said the Smithsonian Institution’s Tim McCoy, one of the lead study authors.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has a vision for the future — and some advice for the generations that will have to navigate it.
In a recently released interview on Cleo Abram’s “Huge Conversations,” recorded on January 7, Huang said he expected massive leaps in what he called “human robotics” within the next half decade and a broadening in the applications of artificial intelligence.
Multiple companies across both the US and China, among other countries, are working to launch and scale the production of humanoid robots for use in manufacturing and consumer applications.
The field of quantum computing is advancing relentlessly: equipped with a performance that far exceeds that of our conventional PCs, the high-tech computers of the future will solve highly complex problems that have so far defeated even the largest supercomputers. And indeed, Chinese researchers have now made another breakthrough in the digital world of qubits – and with the Zuchongzhi 3.0, they have presented a quantum computer that even rivals Google’s Willow! But what can the new high-tech computer do? How does a quantum computer work anyway? And above all, how will the high-performance computers change our everyday lives?
