Page 10829
Oct 3, 2016
Can we build AI without losing control over it?
Posted by Elmar Arunov in category: robotics/AI
Scared of superintelligent AI? You should be, says neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris — and not just in some theoretical way. We’re going to build superhuman machines, says Harris, but we haven’t yet grappled with the problems associated with creating something that may treat us the way we treat ants.
Oct 2, 2016
A Global Monopoly Just Took Over The Internet, And No One Even Noticed
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: government, internet
Hmmmm.
By: Claire Bernish / (The Free Thought Project) On Saturday, the United States ceded oversight of one of the Internet’s most basic and fundamental functions — the so-called “root zone,” which governs new domain names and addresses — handing it over to a small non-profit group by allowing a 47-year contract to expire.
For decades, the U.S. Commerce Department held a contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) — whose executives and board of directors must now report to an Internet “stakeholder community,” loosely comprised of academics, activists, engineers, government officials, and corporate interests.
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Oct 2, 2016
What does your skin say about you? Apparently, it says what you say
Posted by Karen Hurst in category: futurism
Plain wild.
Your skin can say a lot about you — from your age to the last time you saw the sun. Now, an Israeli startup called VocalZoom wants to examine skin to make much more complicated analyses: comprehending what we say.
When we talk, the skin on our faces make subtle vibrations, too slight to be noticed with the human eye. While experimenting with an instrument known as an interferometer, VocalZoom CEO Tal Bakish and his team noticed it could detect peculiar measurements. “When it measures the face, we found out that the vibrations were caused only by the speaker’s voice and were not affected at all by any background voice,” he told Digital Trends. “At this point we realized that we have a disruptive technology to extract the voice of speaker in any noisy condition.”
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Oct 2, 2016
When Taking Robots Global, One Size Does Not Fit All
Posted by Karen Hurst in category: robotics/AI
Even robots can get lost in translation. PCMag talks to Dr. Selma Sabanovic about the challenges of taking them global.
Oct 2, 2016
Low-Cost Gene Editing Could Breed a New Form of Bioterrorism
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, terrorism
Oct 2, 2016
Virtual reality helps net last Auschwitz criminals
Posted by Karen Hurst in category: virtual reality
3D model allows German investigators to ‘walk through’ death camp and ‘see’ what Nazi suspects would have known about the killings.
Oct 2, 2016
Swiss manufacturer Küng brings the sauna tradition to the living room
Posted by Karen Hurst in category: futurism
https://youtube.com/watch?v=xgnuGhLdXx8
A sauna in the living room; I want one.
London Design Festival 2016: Swiss company Küng has designed a series of saunas that can be installed in the living room to take advantage of limited living space.
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Oct 2, 2016
Split-Ring Resonators Add to SIW Bandpass Filter
Posted by Karen Hurst in category: materials
Nice read.
When square CSRR cells were cascaded (Fig. 12), a compact SIW circuit was achieved with bandpass response, with low return and insertion losses from 7.2 to 10.0 GHz. This compact bandpass filter has dimensions of 34 × 18 mm2 and is formed from three cascaded CSRR cells. It was simulated from 4 to 10 GHz with simulated results of −33.1-dB minimum return loss and 0.3-DB insertion loss at 8.8 GHz (Fig. 13).
The miniature CSRR-loaded SIW bandpass filter shows reasonable insertion and return losses from 7.2 to 9.8 GHz. This technology, of fabricating CSRR cells with SIW transmission lines on low-loss microwave substrate materials, shows great promise for the creation of compact bandpass filters at microwave frequencies.
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Oct 2, 2016
Scientists Make Neurons Directly From Human Skin
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience
Nice.
Researchers have come up with a way for making functional neurons directly from human skin cells, including those taken from patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s Reading Room Asa Abeliovich The new method may offer a critical short cut for generating neurons for replacement therapies of the future, according to research published in the August 5th …“Scientists Make Neurons Directly From Human Skin”