Lifeboat Foundation

Synopsis: How can we think rigorously about the far future, and use this to guide near-term projects? In this talk I will outline my “grand futures” project of mapping the limits of what advanced civilizations can achieve – in terms of survival, expanding in space, computation, mastery over matter and energy, and so on – and how this may interact with different theories about what truly has value.

For some fun background reading, see ‘What is the upper limit of value?‘which Anders Sandberg co-authored with David Manheim.

Continue reading “Anders Sandberg — Grand Futures — Thinking Truly Long Term” »

Computers could transmit highly confidential data even without internet, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth by using their speakers to transmit ultrasonic noise that vibrates nearby smartphones.

Some of us, when we hear the word quantum (plural quanta, from the German word Quanten), might think of health supplements, a sports car, or even the television show Quantum Leap. More recently, in Marvel Studios movies such as Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, and Avengers: Endgame, “the quantum realm” is presented where time flows differently from our ordinary reality and the Avengers may use the subatomic world “to go back in time”, a world that “is smaller than a single atom” (Woodward, 2019, para.20)

We might have also seen or known the meaning of words such as quantum mechanics, quantum computing, and quantum entanglement, but what is a quantum and how does it relate to our ordinary realm?

A quantum is a word that refers to “how much”; it is a specific amount. For example, if the speed of your car happens to be quantized in increments of 10 mph, then as you accelerate your car from 10 mph, the speed will jump to 20 mph, without passing through any speed between 10 mph and 20 mph. A speed of 12 mph or 19 mph is excluded because the speed of your car can only exist in those increments of 10 mph.

Oxford quantum physicist Nikita Gourianov tore into the quantum computing industry this week, comparing the “fanfare” around the tech to a financial bubble in a searing commentary piece for the Financial Times.

In other words, he wrote, it’s far more hype than substance.

It’s a scathing, but also perhaps insightful, analysis of a burgeoning field that, at the very least, still has a lot to prove.

A multinational group of scientists has made progress in the use of antiferromagnetic materials in memory storage devices.

Antiferromagnets are materials with an internal magnetic field induced by electron spin but virtually no external magnetic field. Since there is no external (or “long-range”) magnetic field, the data units, or bits, may be packed more densely inside the material, making them potentially useful for data storage.

The ferromagnets commonly utilized in typical magnetic memory devices are the opposite. These devices do have long-range magnetic fields produced by the bits that prevent them from being packed too tightly together since otherwise they would interact.

At Hot Chips, CEO Pat Gelsinger said Intel has everything it needs to put a trillion transistors in a package by 2030.

face_with_colon_three femtosecond logic gate on computer.

Rochester and Erlangen team uses lasers to control real and virtual charge.

You need to wait till 2023 to get them though.

Lenovo has unveiled its T1 Glasses at its Tech Life 2022 event and promises to place a full HD video-watching experience right inside your pockets, a company press release.

Mobile computing devices have exploded in the past few years as gaming has become more intense, and various video streaming platforms have gathered steam. The computing power of smartphones and tablets has increased manifold. Whether you want to ambush other people in an online shooting game or sit back and watch a documentary in high-definition, a device in your pocket can help you do that with ease.

Continue reading “No VR or AR: A new pocket-size eyeglass will be just big screen experience in your eyes” »

Computational theories of the mind seem to be ideally suited to explain rationality. But how can computations be subverted by meaning, emotion and love?

Joscha.