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Nov 15, 2017

Here’s How to Get to Conscious Machines, Neuroscientists Say

Posted by in categories: entertainment, robotics/AI

Like most cerebral movies, Ex Machina leaves the conclusion up to the viewer: was Ava actually conscious? In doing so, it also cleverly avoids a thorny question that has challenged most AI-centric movies to date: what is consciousness, and can machines have it?

Hollywood producers aren’t the only people stumped. As machine intelligence barrels forward at breakneck speed—not only exceeding human performance on games such as DOTA and Go, but doing so without the need for human expertise—the question has once more entered the scientific mainstream.

Are machines on the verge of consciousness?

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Nov 15, 2017

Integrated circuits printed directly onto fabric for the first time

Posted by in categories: electronics, wearables

A sample integrated circuit printed on fabric. (credit: Felice Torrisi)

Researchers at the University of Cambridge, working with colleagues in Italy and China, have incorporated washable, stretchable, and breathable integrated electronic circuits into fabric for the first time — opening up new possibilities for smart textiles and wearable textile electronic devices.

The circuits were made with cheap, safe, and environmentally friendly inks, and printed using conventional inkjet-printing techniques.

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Nov 15, 2017

Artificial Intelligence Is Putting Ultrasound on Your Phone

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, mobile phones, robotics/AI

Two-thirds of the world’s population doesn’t have access to medical imaging. A company called Butterfly Network is trying to change that.

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Nov 15, 2017

A New Futuristic Robot Lets Your Arms Lift Half a Ton

Posted by in categories: biological, climatology, cyborgs, Elon Musk, robotics/AI, space travel, sustainability

Have you ever lifted half a ton? With the Guardian GT, a set of robotic arms, you could do so with as little as two kilogram (five pounds) of force, allowing you to have superhuman strength.

Elon Musk recently made headlines asserting that, in order for us to both progress and survive as a species, we must merge with machines and become cyborgs. And, as climate change rages onwards and the biological difficulties of completing a human mission to Mars become ever more apparent, many are beginning to agree.

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Nov 15, 2017

South Korea is building a $35 billion city designed to eliminate the need for cars

Posted by in categories: business, transportation

By 2020, Songdo’s International Business District will span 100 million square feet. The South Korean city aims to prioritize pedestrians over cars.

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Nov 15, 2017

Regeneration of the entire human epidermis using transgenic stem cells

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

[p]Patients with junctional epidermolysis bullosa (JEB) carry mutations in genes that encode components of the basement membrane, which ensures the integrity between the epidermis and the dermis, such as laminin-332. These mutations cause blistering of the skin and chronic wounds. Following initial treatment of an adult patient with a limited affected region, Michele De Luca and colleagues reconstruct the full epidermis of a 7-year-old patient with autologous transgenic cells transduced with a virus vector carrying the non-mutated form of laminin-322.

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Nov 15, 2017

The First Human-Pig Hybrid Has Been Successfully Created In A Lab

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, cyborgs

Not sure what to think of this, opinions thoughts??


Written By Amanda Froelich Truth Theory

In a move that can only be considered controversial, the first pig-human hybrid has been successfully created in a lab. Researchers managed to grow human cells inside early-stage pig embryos, which led to the creation of the first pig-human hybrids ever made. The result is described as interspecies chimeras.

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Nov 15, 2017

Warning: N. Korea mapping specific plan for ‘devastating’ EMP

Posted by in categories: existential risks, government, mapping

Only a few weeks after a team of experts warned Congress that the nation faces an “existential threat” from North Korea from a possible electromagnetic pulse attack, a new report says the rogue nation is mapping a specific plan.

Paul Bedard at the Washington Examiner wrote in his “Washington Secrets” column that the White House “is being warned that North Korea is mapping plans for a ‘devastating’ attack on the United States with an atmospheric nuclear explosion that would disable the nation’s electric grid, potentially leading to the deaths of virtually all impacted.”

He said President Trump “is being urged to create a special commission to tackle the potential for an electromagnetic pulse attack, one similar to the iconic Manhattan Project.”

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Nov 15, 2017

NASA ‘nuclear engines’ could provide power to the first humans on Mars

Posted by in categories: nuclear energy, space, transportation

NASA is set to begin testing a radical ‘nuclear engine’ that could provide power for astronauts on the Martian surface.

Dubbed the ‘Kilopower’ it would use a uranium rector the size of a toilet roll to create heat.

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Nov 15, 2017

Artificially Cooling Earth With Volcano Eruptions Is Dangerous—the Lack of Regulation Is ‘Deeply Disconcerting’

Posted by in categories: engineering, sustainability

A controversial plan to cool down the planet by artificially simulating volcanic eruptions could have disastrous consequences for Earth—yet there are no laws or regulations to stop any country or private company from deploying such technology.

Solar geoengineering is one of the proposed ways to artificially reduce global temperatures. It is often seen as one of the most extreme options—but also potentially one of the most effective. It involves injecting aerosols into the atmosphere. When the gas combines with oxygen, droplets of sulfuric acid form. These droplets reflect sunlight away, cooling the planet in the process. All good in theory, but the consequences of solar geoengineering are largely unknown.

In a study published in Nature Communications, scientists led by Anthony Jones, from the University of Exeter, U.K., have now examined what would happen if solar geoengineering was used in the Northern Hemisphere to try to prevent global warming and the extreme weather that goes with it—in this case tropical cyclones.

Continue reading “Artificially Cooling Earth With Volcano Eruptions Is Dangerous—the Lack of Regulation Is ‘Deeply Disconcerting’” »