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Jan 11, 2019

A Democrat running for president in 2020 is testing a basic income proposal

Posted by in categories: economics, employment, geopolitics, robotics/AI

By giving $1,000 per month to a family.


  • Democrat Andrew Yang is running for president of the United States. His long-shot campaign is centered on providing a universal basic income for Americans.
  • Yang wants to help Americans who are losing jobs to automation, and he believes a basic income could create 4.5 million new jobs.
  • The core of Yang’s campaign is the Freedom Dividend, which would give out $1,000 per month to every American between the ages of 18 and 64.
  • Yang is testing the dividend this year in Goffstown, New Hampshire, where one family will receive $1,000 a month for a year. The family got the first payment on New Year’s Eve.

Presidential candidate Andrew Yang, a 43-year-old entrepreneur-turned-politician, is focusing his campaign on helping Americans who are losing jobs to automation.

Yang wants all Americans to benefit from a universal basic income, which would provide regular cash payments to people regardless of their employment status. Although he is a long-shot candidate, the Democrat said he believes so strongly in the need for a basic income that he is dedicated to running.

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Jan 11, 2019

The gluey tentacles of comb jellies may have revealed when nerve cells first evolved

Posted by in category: futurism

Studies of jelly embryos suggest a single ancient origin of the nervous system from secretory cells.

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Jan 11, 2019

Grabb-It Pays People To Place Ads In Car Windows

Posted by in category: futurism

This company wants to pay you to display ads on your car windows.

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Jan 11, 2019

Did IBM Just Break Blockchain?

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, computing, cryptocurrencies, quantum physics

Cryptocurrency is not infallible… yet.


With IBM’s announcement of Q System One, the world’s first commercially available quantum computing system, will the processing power sufficient to break blockchain become readily available?

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Jan 11, 2019

Watch BMW’s Self-Driving Motorcycle Go for a Spin at CES

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, transportation

The bike can now hug turns and deftly switch directions.

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Jan 11, 2019

Anticipation Is Growing for Undoing Aging 2019

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, business, life extension, policy, robotics/AI

As the new year begins, we approach one of the most awaited life extension events of 2019: the Undoing Aging conference.

Starting off with a success

The Undoing Aging conference series started off in 2018, with the first being held in Berlin, Germany, in mid-March. Especially when you consider that UA2018 was the inaugural event of the series, it was extremely successful; the three-day conference organized by SENS Research Foundation (SRF) and Forever Healthy Foundation (FHF) brought together many of the most illustrious experts in the fields of aging research, biotechnology, regenerative medicine, AI for drug discovery, advocacy and policy, and business and investment.

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Jan 11, 2019

Your Brain Hallucinates to Create Your Reality

Posted by in category: neuroscience

We’re all hallucinating all the time. When we agree about our hallucinations, we call it “reality.”

Watch the full TED Talk here: http://bit.ly/2LiHAXo

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Jan 11, 2019

​In 1983, Isaac Asimov predicted the world of 2019. Here’s what he got right

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, space

Isaac Asimov was one the world’s most celebrated and prolific science fiction writers, having written or edited more than 500 books over his four-decade career. The Russian-born writer was famous for penning hard science fiction in his books, such as that in I, Robot, Foundation and Nightfall. Naturally, his work contained many predictions about the future of society and technology.


We’re not living in space, but the Russian science-fiction author foresaw the rise of intelligent machines and the disruption of the digital age.

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Jan 11, 2019

Would living past 40 make you happier?

Posted by in category: life extension

LEAF writer Nicola Bagalà considers whether living past 40 is fundamentally different from living past 80.


Imagine this scene: you, a life extension supporter, are with a group of people talking about this and that, and, at one point, the opportunity to mention life extension presents itself. You expect people to react to it with “Yay! Longer life in good health! No more aging!” but reality doesn’t quite match up to your expectations; rather, all you get is the frustration of looking at how everyone nods approvingly when somebody puts on a great philosopher’s hat and asks rhetorically: “Would it really make us happier if we could live to 150?” Boy, is that ever irritating.

Actually, it isn’t really the specific question per se that is irritating—basically, whether living much longer than the current average would bring us more happiness—but rather that nobody ever asks whether living to 80 years old, for example, would make you any happier than you would be if you lived to only 40. If the first question is legitimate, the second one should be as well, and, by induction, you could work your way down to zero and ask whether being born makes you any happier than not being born. (Arguably, it doesn’t—babies inside the womb are generally quite peaceful and blessed looking, which is more than can be said of their mood once they pop out, but few people would agree that this is a good reason to abort each and every fetus.)

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Jan 11, 2019

Can China become a scientific superpower?

Posted by in category: government

Measured against that boom—one of the most impressive periods of scientific achievement in human history—China’s new hardware, grand as it often is, falls a bit short. It has been catching up, not forging ahead. It has not been a beacon for scientists elsewhere. And far from benefiting from a culture of free inquiry, Chinese science takes place under the beady eye of a Communist Party and government which want the fruits of science but are not always comfortable about the untrammelled flow of information and the spirit of doubt and critical scepticism from which they normally grow.


The hypothesis that scientific greatness requires freedom of thought is about to be tested.

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