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Jun 21, 2015
What are our rights and duties towards alien life? — Lizzie Wade | AEON
Posted by Seb in categories: alien life, ethics, law, policy
“The ethics of encountering non-sentient alien life in our solar systems boils down to a core dilemma, says Waller. ‘Is it about conservation and preservation? Or is it about our needs, wants, and desires?’ On Earth, natural-resource grabs have a history of bringing out the worst in us as a species…There’s plenty of reason to believe other planets will be chock-full of resources we’d like to exploit, even if the life forms are microbial – perhaps especially if they’re microbial.” Read more
Jun 21, 2015
Are Any of These Fictional Space Habitats Actually Possible?
Posted by Sean Brazell in categories: futurism, space
Humanity’s future in space very much in the planning stages. Will we float among the stars in crazy spaceships? Will we set up small camps that sprawl into townships that grow into cities, or is an orbital mothership more human friendly? The question is, could any of these really be possible? Or do they deserve to be forever enshrined as sci-fi fever dreams?
I am currently in Europe, talking about humanity’s future via science, technology, and design. Onward transhumanist vision!
Jun 20, 2015
The “dreams” of Google’s AI are equal parts amazing and disturbing
Posted by Scott Davis in category: robotics/AI
“American sci-fi novelist Philip K. Dick once famously asked, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? While he was on the right track, the answer appears to be, no, they don’t. They dream of dog-headed knights atop horses, of camel-birds and pig-snails, and of Dali-esque mutated landscapes.”
Jun 20, 2015
Tissue scaffold technology could help rebuild large organs
Posted by Sean Brazell in category: biotech/medical
If even HALF of all the studies released over the last few years turn out to be complete frauds, it would even still be just as mind blowing to consider the speed at which our species is ascending towards a fundamentally new, self directing, purposeful evolution into something truly magnificent (and/or terrifying, depending on your point of view; OR if you just happen to be Stephen Hawking).
Which is why, as far as I am concerned, it is an HONOR to be alive, aware, and at large in this most pivotal Age of Man.
Jun 20, 2015
What Happens When We Upload Our Minds? — Maddie Stone | Motherboard
Posted by Seb in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, neuroscience
“In a sense, all four pillars of the mind-uploading roadmap—mapping the brain’s structure and function, creating the software and hardware to emulate it—are now areas of active research. If we take Koene’s optimistic view, within a decade, we may have the technological capacity to fully map and emulate a very simple brain—say, that of a Drosophila fruit fly, which contains roughly 100 thousand neurons. ”
Jun 19, 2015
A computational algorithm for fact-checking
Posted by Sean Brazell in category: information science
These charts map the “truth scores” of statements related to geography, history and entertainment. Correct statements appear along the diagonal, with color intensity indicating the strength of the score (credit: Giovanni Ciampaglia)
