Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog – Page 8435

If you are interested in mind uploading, then I have a research paper for you to consider. One of the serious issues with mind uploading is the computer substrate. Simulating the brain will require a new and incredible computing capability. New techniques and new hardware are going to be required to make it practical. Of course, there is currently zero demand for mind uploading hardware, so the market is not going to provide this capability. However, there is incredible market demand for cutting edge hardware for machine learning and artificial intelligence. And it turns out that one potential technique for artificial intelligence simulates the way that the brain works: neuromorphic computing. And there is a relatively new type of electronic component that seems to mimic some of the functions of a brain’s neuron: the memristor. Memristors are relatively new, having only been fabricated for the first time by HP in 2008. So I am trying to keep up with the latest developments in memristive technology.

Here are some excerpts from the paper:

“…Artificial Neural Network (ANN) algorithms offer fast computations by mimicking the neuronal network of brains. A weight matrix is used in neural networks (NNs) for parallel processing that makes computing faster…The memristor has attracted much attention because of its potential to have linear multilevel conductance states for vector-matrix multiplication (output = weight × input), corresponding to parallel processing…”

Here is a web link to the research paper:

Continue reading “Perspective: A review on memristive hardware for neuromorphic computation” | >

Canberra fires: Extraordinary images emerging from the fires in Canberra.

The Australian Capital is under threat tonight as a massive bushfire emerges amid soaring heat and high winds.

A huge wall of flames moving over hills toward the Australian capital of Canberra tonight.

Images posted to social media show the terrifying display of Mother Nature, as massive flames consume the hills near the city.

Read more | >

Today (11am PST / 2pm EST / 7pm GMT) — Carboncopies JOURNAL CLUB with Dr. Michael Cerullo presenting work by Hilary Putnam: “Minds and Machines”. Continuing our theme on consciousness and personal identity. The Journal Club is open, you are very welcome to join at http://call.carboncopies.org/

The livestream (see our Youtube channel) will also be recorded for later viewing.

Read more | >

Due to the groundbreaking work in superlongevity by Dr David Sinclair and Yuancheng Ryan Lu on the Information Theory of Aging and how epigenetic therapy can be used to reverse aging, I suddenly have a compelling interest in epigenetics. Here is a recent research article that I’d recommend on.

Epigenetics can be defined as ‘the structural adaptation of chromosomal regions so as to register, signal, or perpetuate altered activity states.’ Increased transcription of key regulatory, metabolic, and myogenic genes is an early response to exercise and is important in mediating subsequent adaptations in skeletal muscle. DNA hypomethylation and histone hyperacetylation are emerging as important crucial events for increased transcription. The complex interactions between multiple epigenetic modifications and their regulation by metabolic changes and signaling events during exercise, with implications for enhanced understanding of the acute and chronic adaptations to exercise, are questions for further investigation.

Read more | >

A book is made of wood. But it is not a tree. The dead cells have been repurposed to serve another need.

Now a team of scientists has repurposed living cells—scraped from frog embryos—and assembled them into entirely new life-forms. These millimeter-wide “xenobots” can move toward a target, perhaps pick up a payload (like a medicine that needs to be carried to a specific place inside a patient)—and heal themselves after being cut.

These are novel living machines. They’re neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal. It’s a new class of artifact: a living, programmable organism.

Credit: sam kriegman, UVM credit: douglas blackiston, tufts university

Continue reading “Xenobots — World’s First Living Robots created using Super Computer and Frog Cells” | >

The world’s first programming language based on classical Chinese is only about a month old, and volunteers have already written dozens of programs with it, such as one based on an ancient Chinese fortune-telling algorithm.

The new language’s developer, Lingdong Huang, previously designed an infinite computer-generated Chinese landscape painting. He also helped create the first and so far only AI-generated Chinese opera. He graduated with a degree in computer science and art from Carnegie Mellon University in December.

After coming up with the idea for the new language, wenyan-lang, roughly a year ago, Huang finished the core of the language during his last month at school. It includes a renderer that can display a program in a manner that resembles pages from ancient Chinese texts.

Read more | >

Researchers from Brown University have designed a new type of wing that could make small fixed-wing drones far more stable and efficient.

The new replaces the smooth contour found on the leading edges of most airplane wings with a thick flat plate and a sharp leading edge. Counterintuitive as it may seem, it turns out that the design has distinct aerodynamic advantages at the scale of small drones. In a paper published in Science Robotics, the researchers show that the new wing is far more stable than standard wings in the face of sudden gusts and other types of turbulence, which often wreak havoc on . The wing also provides an aerodynamically efficient flight that translates into better battery life and longer flight times.

“Small drones can be really useful in many applications, including flights in populated areas as they are inherently safer for humans, but there are problems operating aircraft at those small scales,” said Kenny Breuer, a professor in Brown’s School of Engineering and the study’s senior author. “They tend to be inefficient, which limits the battery-powered flight times of most drones to around 30 minutes or so. They also tend to get blown around by puffs of wind and turbulent air coming from obstacles such as buildings and trees. So we’ve been thinking about a that might combat those problems.”

Read more | >