Menu

Blog

Page 10831

Oct 1, 2016

How would sex work in space?

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, sex, space travel

Elon Musk doesn’t want to simply send humans to Mars. The SpaceX CEO has bigger ambitions. He wants us to be an “interplanetary species,” which means creating a self-sustaining civilization on Mars, which means living and dying on Mars — which at some point might mean sex and pregnancy on Mars.

So how would that work?

Given that Musk hasn’t figured out how to keep people alive on the trip to the Red Planet, it’s unlikely he has details on how people will make more people once they’re there. We don’t have any data on how human bodies will work on Mars specifically, but we have enough information to know that sex in space could be a real hassle.

Continue reading “How would sex work in space?” »

Oct 1, 2016

3D printing grows up: scientists are using the tech to make an earthmoving machine

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, transportation

Scientists at the US Oak Ridge National Laboratory are assembling the world’s first 3D-printed hydraulic excavator, a prototype which they say will explore the feasibility of printing with metal alloys.

3D-printing, or additive manufacturing (AM), mostly uses plastics of some sort to create objects layer by layer. Plastics are cheap, light, and easy to melt, lending themselves to the process. Metals, on the other hand, are heavy, costly, and melt at much higher temperatures – making them a challenging material for 3D printing.

But metals are what is needed if truly useful machines like cars or tractors are to be 3D-printed.

Read more

Oct 1, 2016

Controversial AI has been trained to kill humans in a Doom deathmatch

Posted by in categories: computing, robotics/AI

A competition pitting artificial intelligence (AI) against human players in the classic video game Doom has demonstrated just how advanced AI learning techniques have become – but it’s also caused considerable controversy.

While several teams submitted AI agents for the deathmatch, two students in the US have caught most of the flak, after they published a paper online detailing how their AI bot learned to kill human players in deathmatch scenarios.

Continue reading “Controversial AI has been trained to kill humans in a Doom deathmatch” »

Oct 1, 2016

This device pulls clean drinking water out of thin air

Posted by in categories: education, sustainability

When kids learn about the planet’s water cycle, they’re taught a simple concept: our atmosphere is filled with water vapour that has evaporated from the bodies of liquid water we see around us. When the vapour’s temperature gets low enough, it gets turned back into water.

The presence of that vapour becomes especially apparent in the summer when droplets collect on glasses of ice water and air conditioning units drip onto unsuspecting passersby.

An Israeli company called Water-Gen does not think of that condensation as a byproduct; instead, it has built machines specifically designed to create and harvest as much condensation as possible.

Continue reading “This device pulls clean drinking water out of thin air” »

Oct 1, 2016

HBO’s Westworld Creators Talk AI, Sentience, And Surveillance

Posted by in categories: entertainment, robotics/AI, surveillance

Lisa Joy and Jonah Nolan explore dark sides of AI and humanity in series that reboots the 1973 film about a robotic theme park gone haywire.

Read more

Oct 1, 2016

How to Steal an AI

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Researchers show how they can reverse engineer and reconstruct someone else’s machine learning engine—using machine learning.

Read more

Oct 1, 2016

IBM announces AI-powered decision-making

Posted by in categories: business, robotics/AI

Project DataWorks predictive model (credit: IBM)

IBM today announced today Watson -based “Project DataWorks,” the first cloud-based data and analytics platform to integrate all types of data and enable AI-powered decision-making.

Project DataWorks is designed to make it simple for business leaders and data professionals to collect, organize, govern, and secure data, and become a “cognitive business.”

Read more

Sep 30, 2016

DARPA Ramps Up Defenses Against Russia’s Electro-Attacks on the Battlefield

Posted by in category: military

Posts about DARPA Ramps Up Defenses Against Russia’s Electro-Attacks on the Battlefield written by Nwo Report.

Read more

Sep 30, 2016

NVIDIA Brings Artificial Intelligence Technology To The Street

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, transportation

Nividia’s AI Smart Drive — nice concept and practical.


NVIDIA is using artificial intelligence to teach a conventional car how to drive intuitively without lane markers and other visual cues.

Continue reading “NVIDIA Brings Artificial Intelligence Technology To The Street” »

Sep 30, 2016

New Quantum-Powered AI Exoskeleton Lets One Person Do the Work of Four

Posted by in categories: computing, cyborgs, quantum physics, robotics/AI, wearables

As the saying goes, “If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself,” and it seems that you’ll soon be able to get a lot more done using artificially intelligent, high-tech exoskeleton Kindred. It’s the product of a startup created by quantum computing company D-Wave’s founder Geordie Rose, and according to the venture capital firm funding Kindred, the device “uses AI-driven robotics so that one human worker can do the work of four.”

Based on a patent application, the wearable system is envisioned as a 1.2-meter tall humanoid that may be covered with synthetic skin. It will include a head-mounted display and an exo-suit of sensors and actuators that carries out everyday tasks.

Essentially, it looks something like Spider-Man’s Doctor Octopus on the outside, but on the inside, Kindred utilizes quantum computation, a way of information processing and storage that is much faster and more powerful than that used by conventional computers. Data “learned” by the suit can be taught to other robots, allowing those robots to then perform the tasks autonomously.

Continue reading “New Quantum-Powered AI Exoskeleton Lets One Person Do the Work of Four” »