Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: habitats

I must admit; I got a little laughter from reading the beginning of this article. However, there is a potential longer term concern around jobs and an even larger concern around data (including IP) when it comes to AI. So, I truly hope folks are strategically planning, designing, and implementing appropriate safeguards around their AI architecture and systems; especially if we look at hacking, etc.

Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking have all done their part in warning the world of the true power of artificial intelligence. All three men were actually awarded the 2015 Luddite Award, which is given by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation.

Because of their honest assessment on the power of new technology, these three men have been called alarmists who spread horror. There were 10 total nominees to the prices, and all three received them after getting more 3,680 votes.

Luddite is a word from 19th century England, and it is used to describe someone who is opposed to advances in technology. This is hardly an appropriate denomination for any of these men. Bill Gates is almost single-handedly responsible for putting PC computers in homes, Elon Musk has made a revolution with electric vehicles. Volumes can be written on the impact Stephen Hawking has had on the world.

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I’m standing on the corner of 15th Street and Third Avenue in New York City, and I’m freezing. But my iPhone is on fire. After connecting to one of LinkNYC’s gigabit wireless hotspots, the futuristic payphone replacements that went live for beta testing this morning, I’m seeing download speeds of 280 Mbps and upload speeds of 317 Mbps (based on Speedtest’s benchmark). To put it in perspective, that’s around ten times the speed of the average American home internet connection (which now sits at 31 Mbps). And to top it all off, LinkNYC doesn’t cost you a thing.

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While I AM aware that this is unlikely to end up being the work of an alien civilization, I DO believe that sooner or later (given the mindbogglingly powerful, state of the art observational instruments coming online soon, or already online, I’d DEFINITELY go with SOONER, rather than later!) we will detect an alien civilization in a similar way.

A star that made headlines due to weird brightness dips—leading to speculations of aliens building structures around it—is even weirder than we thought.

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I know many; who do take a break/ sabbatical from the valley to spend time with family or reconnect with friends on the east coast, Midwest, or other places that they refer to as home. However, once your sabbatical is in the 6 month period; you cannot wait to come back because the energy and excitement is truly hard to find anywhere else.

Like most people, I look up to and admire the heroes of Silicon Valley (the real ones, not the ones from the TV show). They’ve given rise to services (e.g., Google, Facebook, Uber, LinkedIn, Airbnb) that we use every day and make the world a better place. They’ve created value, wealth, and opportunity at unprecedented historic levels.

I’ve also had the chance to meet some of the leading CEOs and entrepreneurs of the Valley and they are, by and large, good-natured, brilliant, and thoughtful people. They’re earnest and committed to building positive things. Some of them are donors to my organization, for which I’m immensely grateful. It’s clear that Silicon Valley is today more than ever the center of innovation and technological progress.

That said, there are a few things about it that are starting to make me nervous.

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Definitely something to ponder on.

‘We can eventually produce offspring that are as different from us as dogs are from grey wolves,’ said Seth Shostak in an opinion piece for Seti.

‘Everyone expects our progeny to establish colonies on the moon or Mars, but the better deal is to build huge, orbiting habitats in which you can live without a spacesuit.

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Although the recent article and announcement of Josiah Zayner (CA scientist) new do it yourself gene editing kit for $120 sent shock waves across industry as well as further raised the question “how do we best put controls in place to ensure ethics and prevent disaster or a crisis?”; this genie truly is out of the bottle. Because Josiah created this easily in his own kitchen, it can be replicated by many others in their own homes. What we have to decide is how to best mitigate it’s impact. Black markets & exotic animal, etc. collectors around the world will pay handsomely for this capability and raise the stakes of the most bizarre animals (deadly and non-deadly) to be created for their own profits and amusements.

BURLINGAME, Calif. — On the kitchen table of his cramped apartment, Josiah Zayner is performing the feat that is transforming biology. In tiny vials, he’s cutting, pasting and stirring genes, as simply as mixing a vodka tonic. Next, he slides his new hybrid creations, living in petri dishes, onto a refrigerator shelf next to the vegetables. And he’s packaging and selling his DIY gene-editing technique for $120 so that everyone else can do it, too.

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Since a gas leak erupted outside LA on October 23rd, over 83,000 metric tons of methane have escaped to the atmosphere, prompting public officials to evacuate the neighboring community of Porter Ranch. But as a disturbing new analysis shows, a much broader swath of LA is now drowning in methane.

The Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET) is a Cambridge-based nonprofit that’s been shedding light on leaky natural gas infrastructure for years. Last week, HEET sent Boston University Professor Nathan Phillips and Bob Ackley of Gas Safety out to LA to measure pollution in the air surrounding Porter Ranch.

Armed with a laser gas analyzer that can sniff out airborne methane with parts-per-billion precision, Phillips and Ackley drove around the LA area measuring methane concentrations for a period of five days. Every time their analyzer detected elevated gas levels, it plotted the numbers to Google Earth. The red bars on their maps indicate where they drove, with higher bars corresponding to higher methane concentrations.

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Yesterday, Tesla Motors released software update 7.1 for the Model S and Model X, an update that allows the electric cars to park themselves while you stand by and watch in awe. Today, CEO Elon Musk made a bold prediction: In 2018, this feature will work anywhere that cars can drive.

Called Summon, the functionality is part of Tesla’s Autopilot self-driving technology. Autopilot was introduced with version 7.0 of Tesla’s software in October 2015, and lets drivers take their hands off the wheel in certain conditions.

Summon, which is currently in beta (it’s not enabled by default, so you have to turn it on at Controls = Settings = Driver Asssistance = Autopilot), takes that functionality a step further, once you arrive home and exit your Model S or Model X.

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The real question is what are these? Is it old debris or something else?

Vietnamese military seized three bizarre metal objects that fell from the sky for military investigation. Initial findings showed they are made from Russia and could be part of a failed satellite launch. Similar objects were also found in Turkey and Spain in November 2015.(Photo : World News Times | YouTube)

The Vietnamese military seized three metal balls that fell from the sky on Saturday. The mysterious objects landed in northern Vietnam where witnesses from the Tan Dong and Bao Dap communities heard thunder-like sounds and saw “flying objects” in the sky before the metal balls crash-landed.

The two smaller metal balls weighed 250 grams (about 0.55 pounds) and 6 kilograms (roughly 13 pounds) respectively. Both fell in the Yen Bai province where the smaller one hit a roof of a house while the bigger one landed in a garden of resident Tran Thi Loi.

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