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Lifeboat News #231

#231

Lifeboat News

This issue published on 10/01/21. Copyright 2021 Lifeboat Foundation. All Rights Reserved.

AGI-21

AGI-21 will be held October 15–18 in San Francisco, California and will be held in cyberspace as well. As the AI field becomes increasingly commercialized and well accepted, maintaining and emphasizing a coherent focus on the AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) goals at the heart of the field remains more critical than ever.
 
Our Joscha Bach, Antonio Chella, Haris Dindo, Wlodzislaw Duch, Arthur Franz, Ben Goertzel, David Hanson, Marcus Hutter, Matthew Iklé, Randal Koene, Anton Kolonin, Gary Marcus, Alexey Potapov, Rafal Rzepka, Ricardo Sanz, Leslie Smith, Bas Steunebrink, Pei Wang, Nell Watson, Roman Yampolskiy, and Byoung-Tak Zhang will be speaking/participating.
 
Learn more at https://agi-conf.org/2021

Biostasis 2021 Conference

The Biostasis 2021 Conference will be held October 22–24 in Zurich Switzerland and will be held in cyberspace as well. This conference is focused on biostasis, cryobiology, and cryopreservation.
 
Our Roman Bauer, João Pedro de Magalhães, Emil Kendziorra, Max Marty, Nikki Olson, and Ramón Risco will be speaking.
 
Learn more at https://biostasis2021.com

Lifeboat Strategy

By James Blodgett
 
Our human future could be very good or very bad. We might settle the reachable universe, we might live forever, or we might go extinct. What we do right now might make the difference.
 
Studies have shown that the presence of a grandmother improves the prospects of survival of her grandchildren. I (and others) hypothesize that evolution has made humans long-lived compared to most animals because human elders help their descendants. (Real grandmothers usually appreciate this theory as a complement.) At a larger scale, improving the probability of survival of our relatives is part of our mission at Lifeboat. Our relatives are all of humanity, because all humans share most of our personal genes. Our mission is to improve the odds of both survival and flourishing of those genes, and also of something like our human type of consciousness, because we know firsthand that consciousness is valuable.
 
Given the resources of our solar system and our universe, we can project beyond survival and hope to improve the odds of increasing the number of our relatives by many orders of magnitude. The expected value (the probability times the value of achieving this) is not automatically high, because it won’t be easy. There are many plausible ways that humans could become extinct, and some of those risks might develop as a result of our strategy.
 
On the other hand, our best days may be ahead of us. Our job at Lifeboat is to facilitate the latter. Strategy suggests how to facilitate. The lesson this time is closer to philosophy than strategy, but that philosophy is an incentive for you, the reader, to develop your own versions of strategy. Vet them carefully, because there may be side effects that overwhelm the intended effects, and let competent others vet them. If your ideas pass vetting, try to pass them on and help them happen.

Blog

Ron Friedman joins our blog team with the post “Foundation — Why Asimov’s vision is more relevant than ever” at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/09/found...han-ever
 
Krys Hyff joins our blog team with the post “Blood collection by robot a Shanghai first” at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/09/blood...ai-first
 
Michael Walton McAnally joins our blog team with the post “The Metaverse, Web3, and the Inevitability of NFTs” at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/09/the-m...-of-nfts
 
Claudio Soprano joins our blog team with the post “Tiny Balls Turn Into Artificial Cells Able to Mimic Life Functions” at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/09/tiny-...unctions
 
Recent interesting blog posts include:
 
“Advanced Civilizations Could be Using Dyson Spheres to Collect Unimaginable Energy From Black Holes” by Jose Ruben Rodriguez Fuentes at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/08/advan...ck-holes
 
“Aged skeletal stem cells interfere with healing and promote ‘inflamm-aging’” by Kevin Huang at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/08/aged-...mm-aging
 
“Air Force Directed Energy Report Argues Defensive Force Fields May Be ‘Just On The Horizon’” by Saúl Morales Rodriguéz at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/08/air-f...-horizon
 
“Artificial brain networks simulated with new quantum materials” by Dan Kummer at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/09/artif...aterials
 
“Artificial pancreas successfully tested on humans at Cambridge” by Jason Blain at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/08/artif...ambridge
 
“Beamed Energy Propulsion / Beamed Laser Energy Propulsion Documents” by Jeremy Dylan Batterson at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/08/beame...ocuments
 
“China unveils 600 km/h Transrapid train” by Jeremy Dylan Batterson at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/08/china...id-train
 
“China wants to build a mega spaceship that’s nearly a mile long” by Quinn Sena at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/09/china...ile-long
 
“Chinese Scientists Say Quantum Radar Could End Stealth Advantage” by Saúl Morales Rodriguéz at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/09/chine...dvantage
 
“COVID Virus May Prompt Body to Attack Itself” by Poopeh Morakkabati at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/09/covid...k-itself
 
“CRISPR gene editing: The key benefits (and risks) of modifying our natural world” by Jason Blain at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/08/crisp...al-world
 
“CRISPR just proved genes can self-heal in space for the first time ever” by Kelvin Dafiaghor at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/09/crisp...ime-ever
 
“Deforestation in Brazilian Amazon hits highest annual level in a decade” by Raphael Ramos at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/08/defor...a-decade
 
“Dr. Aubrey de Grey — Changing Priorities in Rejuvenation Technologies — Lifespan.io” by Montie Adkins at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/09/dr-au...espan-io
 
“Dust-sized supercapacitor packs the same voltage as a AAA battery” by Quinn Sena at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/08/dust-...-battery
 
“Eternal Change for No Energy: A Time Crystal Finally Made Real” by Quinn Sena at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/08/etern...ade-real
 
“The Genius of 3D Printed Rockets” by Alan Jurisson at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/08/the-g...-rockets
 
“How mRNA Vaccines Work — Simply Explained” by Jamal Simpson at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/08/how-m...xplained
 
“Israeli researchers say llama nanobodies could help stop COVID” by Omuterema Akhahenda at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/08/israe...op-covid
 
“IT’S HAPPENING! Elon Musk is Fearful about China And Here’s Why” by Kelvin Dafiaghor at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/09/its-h...eres-why
 
“Lasers beam high-speed internet between cities through open air” by Shailesh Prasad at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/09/laser...open-air
 
“Maana Electric’s TerraBox turns sand and electricity into solar panels” by Hiel Salming Gagarin at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/08/maana...r-panels
 
“Monkey brain mapped in 3D at micron resolution” by Future Timeline at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/08/monke...solution
 
“MRNA cancer therapy now in human trials after shrinking mouse tumours” by Jamal Simpson at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/09/mrna-...-tumours
 
“New record for 6G data transmission” by Future Timeline at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/08/new-r...smission
 
“New Research Could Usher in a New Age of Solid-State Batteries” by Jason Blain at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/09/new-r...atteries
 
“Periodic Table” by Myra Sehar at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/09/periodic-table
 
“Physicist Designs Plasma Thruster That Could Make Space Travel 10 Times Faster” by Alberto Lao at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/09/physi...s-faster
 
“Researchers use stem cells to make insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells” by Dan Kummer at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/08/resea...ta-cells
 
“The science and technology of growing young” by Future Timeline at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/08/the-s...ng-young
 
“Scientists claim they discovered the ‘gate of consciousness’” by Dan Kummer at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/08/scien...iousness
 
“Scientists Have Unlocked the Secrets of the Ancient ‘Antikythera Mechanism’” by Johnathan Doetry at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/08/scien...echanism
 
“Scientists Just Created a New ‘Glass’ That’s Tougher Than Diamond” by Omuterema Akhahenda at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/08/scien...-diamond
 
“Silicon Valley’s quest to live forever could benefit humanity as a whole — here’s why” by Derick Lee at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/09/silic...eres-why
 
“Someone Is Secretly Working on ‘Privately Owned’ Space Station” by Chima Wisdom Anayo at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/08/someo...-station
 
“SpaceX INSANE Plan To Travel The Entire Solar System!” by Jose Ruben Rodriguez Fuentes at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/10/space...r-system
 
“SpaceX Launching Satellite to Display Billboard Ads in Space” by Genevieve Klien at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/08/space...in-space
 
“Synthetic Bacteria Can Produce Muscle Fibers Stronger Than Kevlar” by Shane Hinshaw at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/09/synth...n-kevlar
 
“This wildly reinvented wind turbine generates five times more energy than its competitors” by Genevieve Klien at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/09/this-...petitors
 
“U.S. Firm Claims Its Nuke-Powered Diamond Battery Lasts 28,000 Years” by Shane Hinshaw at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/08/u-s-f...00-years
 
“Virtual reality boosts brain rhythms crucial for neuroplasticity, learning and memory” by Raphael Ramos at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/08/virtu...d-memory
 
“What NASA Saw at Jupiter In Its Riskiest Space Mission” by Alberto Lao at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/08/what-...-mission

Growing Membership

We now have over 4,700 donors!
 
Recent donations/pledges we have received since our last newsletter:
 
Dave Davies: $200, Mike Ritter: $85, Kenneth P. Weiss: $85, Aaron Mayzes: $30, Bill Barbour: $25, Alexia Idoura: $25, Matthew L. McGuirl: $25, Richard Kane: $15, Anonymous: $10, Concrete Driveways Launceston: $10, Rebecca R. Cooper: $10, Susan Cutforth: $10, Anthony L. Haynor: $10, Tommy Ledbetter: $10, Alexander Macrae: $10, NewYorkSEO.Pro: $10, Craig Olschansky: $10, Patrik Sandin: $10, Roland Schiefer: $10, David Shumaker: $10, Evgeniy Tkachuk: $10, Mac-Klean: $5, DoubleTheBitcoin: $3, B and R Tree Services: $2, Coastal Skin & Laser: $2, Dion Seminara Architecture: $2, Learn To Drive Driving School: $2, Open2view: $2, Pro Safety and Training: $2, Wallace International: $2, Worth Real Estate: $2, Avnet Law: $1, Best Boxed Mattress: $1, Boost Likes: $1, Calgary Carpet Cleaners: $1, ComfyHome Heating Cooling: $1, Compresores Online: $1, Dumpster Rental Chattanooga TN: $1, Dumpster Rental Virginia Beach VA: $1, Esarco: Despacho de Arquitectura E Ingeniería: $1, Fremont Plumbers: $1, Grow Green Wellness: $1, Licencia de Conducir México: $1, New Concept Design: $1, Omaha Lawn Care Company: $1, Oz Air Online: $1, Placerville Tree Service: $1, Print72 UK: $1, San Francisco Concrete: $1, Columbus GA Tree Service: $1, and Speedy Dumpster Rental Raleigh NC: $1.