Lifeboat Foundation

Listen to the first pop song composed entirely by an AI!

Self Driving Cars and Ethics. It’s a topic that has been debated in blogs, op-eds, academic research papers, and youtube videos. Everyone wants to know, if a self-driving car has to choose between sacrificing its occupant, or terminating a car full of nobel prize winners, who will it pick? Will it be programmed to sacrifice for the greater good, or protect itself — and its occupants — at all costs? But in the swirl of hypothetical discussion around jaywalking Grandmas, buses full of school-children, Kantian Ethics and cost-maps, one crucial question is being forgotten:

What about the Squirrels?

Continue reading “Life or Death: Will Robo-Cars Swerve for Squirrels?” »

“Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s conceptual virtual reality installation CARNE y ARENA (Virtually present, Physically invisible) explores the human condition of immigrants and refugees.”

Read more

When you listen to music, multiple areas of your brain become engaged and active. But when you actually play an instrument, that activity becomes more like a full-body brain workout. What’s going on? Anita Collins explains the fireworks that go off in musicians’ brains when they play, and examines some of the long-term positive effects of this mental workout.

Did you know that every time musicians pick up their instruments, there are fireworks going off all over their brain? On the outside, they may look calm and focused, reading the music and making the precise and practiced movements required. But inside their brains, there’s a party going on. How do we know this?

Continue reading “What is Going on Inside the Brain When We Listen to Music?” »

Why are we often so wrong about how the future and future technology will reshape society and our personal lives? In this new video from the Galactic Public Archives, Futurist Gray Scott tells us why he thinks it is important to look at all aspects of the future.

Follow us on social media:
Twitter / Facebook / Instagram

Continue reading “Futurist Gray Scott: We Can’t Ignore Our Psychological Future” »

Intelligent Machines

Machine-learning algorithm watches dance dance revolution, then creates dances of its own.

A machine learns to choreograph by studying a famous 1990s music video game.

Continue reading “The first machine to study the Dance Dance Revolution video game now choreographs its own dances” »

Credit: Hashem Al-Ghaili
Research papers are here:
http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v14/n2/full/nn.2726.html

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4211412/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2776393/

Continue reading “Here is what music does to your body” »

Awe is so powerful it alters your sense of self, connects you with humanity and boosts your mind and body. And there’s a surprising way to get more of it.

By Jo Marchant

HAVE you ever been stopped in your tracks by a stunning view, or gobsmacked by the vastness of the night sky? Have you been transported by soaring music, a grand scientific theory or a charismatic person? If so, you will understand US novelist John Steinbeck’s response to California’s giant redwood trees, which can soar more than a hundred metres towards the sky. “[They] leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always,” he wrote. “From them comes silence and awe.”

Continue reading “Awesome awe: The emotion that gives us superpowers” »

In our last film, we explored how the introduction of autonomous, self-driving cars is likely to kill a lot of jobs. Many millions of jobs, in fact. But is it short sighted to view self-driving vehicles as economic murderers? Is it possible that we got it totally wrong, and automated vehicles won’t be Grim Reapers — but rather the biggest job creators since the internet?

In this video series, the Galactic Public Archives takes bite-sized looks at a variety of terms, technologies, and ideas that are likely to be prominent in the future. Terms are regularly changing and being redefined with the passing of time. With constant breakthroughs and the development of new technology and other resources, we seek to define what these things are and how they will impact our future.

Follow us on social media:
Twitter / Facebook / Instagram