Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: neuroscience

I believe it is wonderful to think about cognitive computing. However, as a fellow CIO & CTO, I would suggest a key priority has to be focused on Cyber Security until it is resolved; or in a better position to proactively blocker would be intruders. Without a solid Cyber Security plan and model in place and operational; your cognitive computing capabilities will be worth nothing in the end once hackers are helping themselves to your IP and other information as well as your AI machines.

The news comes from the recent IBM Institute for Business Value study, “Redefining Competition: Insights from the Global C-suite Study — The CEO perspective.” Researchers interviewed more than 5,000 C-level executives worldwide about their perspectives on a variety of technology issues, including the importance of mobile solutions, cloud Relevant Products/Services computing, and the Internet of Things.

Torchbearers and Market Followers.

Cognitive computing, which involves developing computing resources that are capable of mimicking the way human brains work to tackle increasingly complex problems, emerged as one of the most important issues likely to confront business executives in the near future.

Read more

Wow

WASHINGTON – A mysterious brain disorder can be confused with early Alzheimer’s disease although it isn’t robbing patients of their memories but of the words to talk about them.

It’s called primary progressive aphasia, and researchers said Sunday they’re finding better ways to diagnose the little-known syndrome. That will help people whose thoughts are lucid but who are verbally locked in to get the right kind of care.

“I’m using a speech device to talk to you,” Robert Voogt of Virginia Beach, Virginia, said by playing a recording from a phone-sized assistive device at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. “I have trouble speaking, but I can understand you.”

Read more

Very good read; and hints at something that I have been highlighting for a while around AI, NextGen transformation and adoption, etc. One very large brick wall that I highlighted in my latest posts around 5 areas that need to be address for AI to be adopted more broadly is Cyber Security.

If we do not get Cyber Security address soon around hackers, cloud, etc. AI (including robotics), brain interfaces, etc. will be either rejected or very limited in its adoption. It is just that simple.

What are CISO’s (Chief Information Security Officers) worrying about in 2016?

According to the recent 2016 Security Pressures report from Trustwave, theft of information from a successful breach or cyber-attack ranks as the top worrying outcome for nearly two-thirds of respondents.

With the Identity Theft Resource Center placing the number of records exposed from data breaches in 2015 somewhere around 170 million, it’s no surprise.

Read more

MindMaze technology explores the potential of brain machine interfacing with virtual reality, and it just got a huge financial boost.

Switzerland-based VR company, MindMaze received a major investment from Hinduja Group, who has valued the company at over $1 billion. This is a ten-fold increase since its previous valuation in 2012 where it was pegged at $10 million.

In a recent report published by the Economic Times, the investment is only “less than a third” of the company and makes MindMaze one of two “unicorns” in the AR and VR industry. MindMaze now joins Magic Leap in this category, which was values at over $4 billion.

Read more

Minduploading.org is a collection of pages and articles designed to explore the concepts underlying mind uploading. The articles are intended to be a readable introduction to the basic technical and philosophical topics covering mind uploading and substrate-independent minds. The focus is on careful definitions of the common terms and what the implications are if mind uploading becomes possible.

Mind uploading is an ongoing area of active research, bringing together ideas from neuroscience, computer science, engineering, and philosophy. This site refers to a number of participants and researchers who are helping to make mind uploading possible.

Realistically, mind uploading likely lies many decades in the future, but the short-term offers the possibility of advanced neural prostheses that may benefit us.

Read more

As much as this article wants to promote that by 2020 that we will have terminator style robots acting as an in home nurse with patients (at least in the US) will be very hard to see. Most elderly as well as young children need more of human or personable interaction in their lives. I do highly suggest researchers (especially those that have studied children in orphanages where limited human interaction was available) to share your own insights of what happens to children who are without human contact at long periods as well as the elderly. I believe folks will rethink somethings and be more pragmatic in what these robots can and can do.

Published on Feb 3, 2016

A new generation of humanoid robots are coming in the 2020s, says innovation and industry expert Alec Ross. They will care for our aging populations and revolutionize manufacturing. Ross’ book is “The Industries of the Future The Industries of the Future.

Read more

Again, I see too many gaps that will need to be address before AI can eliminate 70% of today’s jobs. Below, are the top 5 gaps that I have seen so far with AI in taking over many government, business, and corporate positions.

1) Emotion/ Empathy Gap — AI has not been designed with the sophistication to provide personable care such as you see with caregivers, medical specialists, etc.
2) Demographic Gap — until we have a more broader mix of the population engaged in AI’s design & development; AI will not meet the needs for critical mass adoption; only a subset of the population will find will connection in serving most of their needs.
3) Ehtics & Morale Code Gap — AI still cannot understand at a full cognitive level ethics & empathy to a degree that is required.
4) Trust and Compliance Gap — companies need to feel that their IP & privacy is protected; until this is corrected, AI will not be able to replace an entire back office and front office set of operations.
5) Security & Safety Gap — More safeguards are needed around AI to deal with hackers to ensure that information managed by AI is safe as well as ensure public saftey from any AI that becomes disruptive or hijacked to cause injury or worse to the public

Until these gaps are addressed; it will be very hard to eliminate many of today’s government, office/ business positions. The greater job loss will be in the lower skill areas like standard landscaping, some housekeeping, some less personable store clerk, some help desk/ call center operations, and some lite admin admin roles.

The U.S. economy added 2.7 million jobs in 2015, capping the best two-year stretch of employment growth since the late ‘90’s, pushing the unemployment rate down to five percent.

But to listen to the doomsayers, it’s just a matter of time before the rapid advance of technology makes most of today’s workers obsolete – with ever-smarter machines replacing teachers, drivers, travel agents, interpreters and a slew of other occupations.

Read more

Very huge step forward for brain sensory mapping.

Data from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have provided eye-popping pictures of the way the brain is wired, and allowed neuroscientists and laypeople alike to view intricate anatomical and functional connections between regions of the brain. But what if a new tool could be applied to MRI and other data, to listen to the way the brain works and how it is forged with connections?

An emerging effort to “sonify” imaging data is taking root at UT Dallas’ Center for Vital Longevity, in the lab of Dr. Gagan Wig. The approach, now funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), allows data to be represented by sounds from which a trained listener might be able to discern patterns of brain connectivity not readily seen in available visualization strategies.

Wig, an assistant professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, is working with his UT Dallas colleagues Dr. Roger Malina, Arts and Technology Distinguished Chair, Scot Gresham-Lancaster, assistant professor in the sound design program in the School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication, and a mix of scientists, computer programmers and artists to translate data to sight and sound.

Read more