Lifeboat Foundation

I did a new interview on #transhumanism for some journalism students at Germany’s Technical University of Dortmund. It’s in English:

Mechanical bodyparts are very common nowadays – a lot of humans have a hip replacement or a pacemaker. Technology helps saving our lives rather often. Some people want to take this a lot further – a philosophical and scientific movement called Transhumanism. Zoltan Istvan Gyurko is one of the most famous Transhumanists, he even ran for president in 2016. In this interview, he talks about his first experiences with Transhumanism, immortality and the future of humanity.

By Marie-Louise Timcke und Paul Klur

Continue reading “Humanity will be lost” »

So far, the only intervention that is known to increase lifespan in multiple species is caloric restriction (CR). Caloric restriction is known to increase lifespan in the majority of mouse strains tested[1]. The effects of CR have even been shown to influence how primates age and reduce the incidence of diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and brain atrophy[2].

Science has known about the effects of CR since the 1930s, when rat experiments first showed researchers this phenomenon[3]. However, despite the various health benefits of CR, how it delays aging has remained a mystery. A new study suggests that epigenetic drift may be the answer.

The new Nvidia Volta GPU computing platform is designed to accelerate AI for a broad range of enterprise and consumer applications, and will be adopted by Alibaba Cloud, Baidu, and Tencent in their data centres and cloud-service infrastructures, Nvidia said on Tuesday.

The new chip is claimed to be up to five times more powerful than the current Pascal-based chips deployed by the Chinese firms.

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 26 September, 2017, 2:04pm.

Continue reading “Maker of graphics cards to supply Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent with chips that run AI five times faster” »

Reaction Engines Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Reaction Engines, today announced that it has received a contract from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to conduct high-temperature airflow testing in the United States of a Reaction Engines precooler test article called HTX. The precooler heat exchanger is a key component of the company’s revolutionary SABRE air-breathing rocket engine and has the potential to enable other precooled propulsion systems. The primary HTX test objective is to validate precooler performance under the high-temperature airflow conditions expected during high-speed flights up to Mach 5.

“We have been greatly encouraged by the increasing interest in our technology’s potential and are thrilled to embark on our first U.S. government contract with DARPA for HTX,” said Dr. Adam Dissel, President of Reaction Engines Inc. “Full-temperature testing of the precooler will provide the most compelling near-term proof of the technology’s potential to accelerate the future for high-speed air-breathing systems.”

Continue reading “DARPA funds Reaction Engines hypersonic precooler tests” »

On July 18, 2017 Japan lost a national treasure. He was the 105-year-old Dr. Shigeaki Hinohara.

Dr. Hinohara made a lion’s contribution to healthcare in Japan, both as a practicing medical doctor and as a physician. He headed five foundations in addition to being the president of St Luke’s International Hospital in Tokyo. He was responsible for introducing Japan’s system of comprehensive annual medical check-ups, which have been credited with greatly contributing to the country’s longevity, reports the BBC.

Those are laudable achievements, but it is his longevity and the fact that he saw patients until a few months before his death that defies everything we have come to expect of old age.

Continue reading “A Japanese doctor who studied longevity — and lived to 105 — reveals the key to living a long life” »

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Electronics Resurgence Initiative’s will create six new programs over the next four years.

These are aimed at ensuring the predictions made by Moore’s law, which have governed the increases in microchip processing power, will continue to apply to chip development.

Continue reading “US military invests $900 million on next generation microchips for AI” »

Two separate teams of researchers have been working on ways to exploit these lava tubes.

They are found in many volcanic areas on Earth, including Lanzarote, Hawaii, Iceland, North Queensland in Australia, Sicily and the Galapagos islands.

Continue reading “Humans could soon live on the moon and Mars in LAVA tunnels” »

More than 35,000 people have fled the largest volcano on the Indonesian island of Bali, fearing it will erupt for the first time in more than half a century.

A natural disaster has been declared in parts of Bali as authorities imposed an exclusion zone around Mount Agung following increasing volcanic activity on Sunday.

Continue reading “Fears grow Bali’s volcano could erupt at any time” »