Lifeboat Foundation

November 2019 is a landmark month in the history of the future. That’s when humanoid robots that are indistinguishable from people start running amok in Los Angeles. Well, at least they do in the seminal sci-fi film “Blade Runner.” Thirty-seven years after its release, we don’t have murderous androids running around. But we do have androids like Hanson Robotics’ Sophia, and they could soon start working in jobs traditionally performed by people.

Russian start-up Promobot recently unveiled what it calls the world’s first autonomous android. It closely resembles a real person and can serve in a business capacity. Robo-C can be made to look like anyone, so it’s like an android clone. It comes with an artificial intelligence system that has more than 100,000 speech modules, according to the company. It can operate at home, acting as a companion robot and reading out the news or managing smart appliances — basically, an anthropomorphic smart speaker. It can also perform workplace tasks such as answering customer questions in places like offices, airports, banks and museums, while accepting payments and performing other functions.

Continue reading “Insanely humanlike androids have entered the workplace and soon may take your job” »

This is an article from 2014, but it’s interesting — especially for why phishing emails are so lame. Money quote:

‘The answer is that the implausibility is a useful tool for the scammers. An entirely believable email would get millions of people falling for the bait – most of whom would catch on later when the scammers started requesting private banking details. This way, the fraudsters can avoid wasting their time on no-hopers, knowing that any replies they do receive are … See More.

Maybe your bank wants you to update your password; maybe a new Facebook friend wants to show you a funny web page. Maybe a Nigerian lawyer wants to pass on a legacy from a long-lost relative.

Continue reading “The psychology of phishing: why do we fall for terrible email scams?” »

When we came out of the financial crisis of 2008, cloud computing kicked into high gear and started to become a pervasive, transformational technology. The current COVID-19 crisis could provide a similar inflection point for AI applications. While the implications of AI continue to be debated on the world stage, the rapid onset of a global health crisis and concomitant recession will accelerate its impact.

Times of crisis bring rapid change. Efforts to harness AI technologies to discover new drugs – either vaccine or treatment – have kicked into hyperdrive. Startups are racing to find solutions and established companies are forming partnerships with academia to find a cure. Other companies are researching existing drugs for their potential applicability. AI is proving a useful tool for dramatically reducing the time needed to identify potential drug candidates, possibly saving years of research. AI uses already put into action are screening for COVID-19 symptoms, decision support for CT scans, and automating hospital operations. A variety of healthcare functions have started to be performed by robots, from diagnosis to temperature monitoring.

Whatever the new normal becomes in the aftermath of the current crisis, it’s apparent that AI will be an even larger part of the technology landscape going forward — and not only for healthcare.

Sarcos Robotics, a startup developing robots for industrial and defense applications, today nabbed $40 million in equity financing, bringing its total venture capital raised to nearly $100 million. The company plans to use the capital to commercialize its first full-body, self-powered product — the Guardian XO — ahead of an anticipated 2021 ship date.

According to a 2020 Grand View Research report, the exoskeleton market could be worth $4.2 billion by 2027. The firm sees adoption growing steeply in health care, where exoskeletons could address the increased prevalence of spinal cord injuries in industries like security, disaster recovery, infrastructure inspection and maintenance, maritime, oil and gas, and mining. The National SCI Statistical Center reported 17,730 new spinal cord injuries in 2019 in the U.S. alone.

Sarcos spun out from the University of Utah in 1983 and for years operated as a bioengineering research institution. By 2000, the lab had expanded into segments like animated film props, prostheses, and human-computer interfaces. A DARPA grant to develop a military exoskeleton steered Sarcos toward defense applications. After DARPA accepted Sarcos’ proposal in 2006, the company began developing prototypes and contracted with the U.S. Navy to pilot salvage robots.

Top European banks are providing cash, liquidity and technical knowledge to international oil companies for extracting oil from the Amazon leaving a trail of death and destruction in the wake of profiteering.

Reliable Robotics, a startup developing autonomous flight technologies, this week emerged from stealth with $33.5 million in venture capital funding. Cofounder and CEO Robert Rose says the funds will be used to scale production of the company’s products and bring on new engineering talent.

Aviation companies pursuing autonomous transportation include Uber, Boeing, and Honeywell. According to management consulting firm Oliver Wyman, replacing single-pilot operations with autonomous planes could save airlines as much as $60 billion annually. Pandemic headwinds have only reinvigorated the search for cost-cutting opportunities, as Statista estimates airlines will lose at least $314 billion in revenue in 2020.

Looking to expedite their path to market, companies like Xwing, Airbus, and Elroy Air have explored retrofitting existing aircraft rather than developing hardware from scratch. Reliable Robotics, which was founded in 2017 by Rose and VP of engineering Juerg Frefel, aims to develop a platform that imbues any fixed-wing plane with autonomous capabilities.

Corrinne Graham (Economic financial analyst, Space Renaissance USA) interviewed Gregg Maryniak, about his history, motivation and aims to inspire young generations to find their way to the outer space. Gregg is the co-founder, together with Peter Diamandis, of the X-Prize Foundation. The X-Prize is recognized, by the space community, as the initiative that triggered the New Space revolution, by demonstrating that the low cost access to space was feasible and mature. He was the Executive Director of the Space Studies Institute, founded by Gerard O’Neill in Chicago, US. He’s on the Board of Directors of the Singularity University and keeps on restlessly working to inspire and motivate youngs, students and public opinion at large, explaining why human expansion into space is needed and very urgent, in order not to miss our “launch window”. During the conversation, we acknowledged that we agree on many points, all of them primary relevant to the survival and continued progress of civilization. Namely the common appreciation for the O’Neill’s model, that gives priority and preference to artificial rotating structures – the “space colonies” – since they assure 1G artificial gravity. Also, we are 100% in tune about the extreme urgency of kicking-off civilian expansion into outer space, and the subsequent need to make people to understand it. The big risk – said Gregg — is to miss our launch window, the period in which social and economic conditions are favorable to begin really moving into space. When I asked him whether he thinks that humanity is doing everything that is to be done, and if we are in time, on our evolutionary road to space, his answer was a clear “NO”. So we understood that we also agree on the most urgent technology advances to be raised as priority: the enabling technologies, necessary to bring untrained civilians to travel, live and work in space. Namely low acceleration vehicles, protection against cosmic radiations, artificial gravity, green environments and artificial ecosystems in space habitats. Gregg is a great achievement indeed, in our SR Academy Mentorship Programme. After this first meeting, we’ll try to hold other ones, properly announced on social networks, with the target to bring the above discussion to large public opinion. Stay in tune! https://spacerenaissance.space/gregg-maryniak-interviewed-by…programme/

CHECK THE SPACE RENAISSANCE ACADEMY MENTORSHIP PROGRAM! https://spacerenaissance.space/the-space-renaissance-academy…programme/ Students: choose some theme(s) for your graduation theses or Ph.D https://spacerenaissance.space/themes-for-graduate-works/ Mentors: choose your favorite disciplines on which you can provide mentorship https://spacerenaissance.space/mentorship-disciplines/

An international leader in quantum computing, architect of the U.S. National Quantum Initiative, and member of the National Academy of Sciences, Chris Monroe will join longtime long-distance collaborators at Duke to build practical quantum computers for use in fields from finance to pharmaceuticals.

My hero my love.

Elon Musk’s financial upswing shows no signs of slowing.