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Archive for the ‘existential risks’ category: Page 67

Jul 29, 2019

A huge asteroid flew very close to Earth last week. How did we miss it?

Posted by in categories: asteroid/comet impacts, existential risks

The asteroid managed to get within just 73,000 kilometers of our planet without anyone noticing. The miss lends a new sense of urgency to preparations for a potential collision one day.

The news: On Thursday July 25 an asteroid dubbed “Asteroid 2019 OK”, measuring 57 to 130 meters wide (187 to 427 feet), got uncomfortably close to Earth, according to NASA’s near-Earth objects database. It was less than one-fifth of the distance to the moon away, making it a very close call in space terms. If it had landed on a populated area it could have caused major damage, although this outcome is statistically quite unlikely.

Should we worry? It’s hard not to feel concerned that a “city-killer” sized asteroid wasn’t detected further ahead of time. It was announced just hours before it passed by Earth, after being detected just a few days beforehand by teams in the US and Brazil. Its relatively small size, unusual orbit, and fast speed all conspired to make it tough to spot, researchers told the Washington Post.

Jul 25, 2019

Seabed mining is coming — bringing mineral riches and fears of epic extinctions

Posted by in categories: business, existential risks, sustainability, transportation

Now, it seems this nascent industry’s time has come. A growing demand for batteries to power electric cars and to store wind and solar energy has driven up the cost of many rare-earth metals and bolstered the business case for sea-bed mining. What’s more, the industry’s long-awaited regulations — in the form of a mining code — are due to be finalized by 2020, putting in place a process whereby contractors can apply for 30-year licences to mine assigned ‘claim areas’ in parts of the international sea bed such as the CCZ. Already, miners are exploring the potential wealth of these claim areas, but no commercial extraction will begin until the regulations are in place. Investments in this industry are now growing.


Plans are advancing to harvest precious ores from the ocean floor, but scientists say that companies have not tested them enough to avoid devastating damage.

Jul 19, 2019

The Bee Is Declared The Most Important Living Being On The Planet

Posted by in category: existential risks

The Earthwatch Institute concluded in the last debate of the Royal Geographical Society of London, that bees are the most important living being on the planet, however, scientists have also made an announcement: Bees have already entered into extinction risk.

Jul 17, 2019

Humans are causing larger species to go extinct faster

Posted by in categories: existential risks, habitats

Via environment — world economic forum


Larger animals are at greater risk of extinction as relentless human pressure on their habitats takes its toll.

Jul 15, 2019

Insect Extinction

Posted by in category: existential risks

The world’s insects are disappearing. If we don’t stop it, this disappearance will set off a catastrophic chain of events. #YEARSproject

Jul 11, 2019

The Chrysalis Conjecture: Solution to the Fermi Paradox?

Posted by in categories: biological, existential risks, physics

It appears that the physics of information holds the key to the solution of the Fermi Paradox — indications are that we most likely live in a “Syntellect Chrysalis” (or our “second womb”) instead of a “cosmic jungle.”

Within the next few decades, we’ll transcend our biology by leaving today’s organic Chrysalis behind, by leaving our second womb, by leaving our cradle, if speaking in tropes.

This particular version of “human universe” is what we “see” from within our dimensional cocoon, it’s a construct of our minds but by no means represents objective reality “out there” including our most advanced models such as M-theory that are only approximations at best.

Jul 9, 2019

British submarine which stays underwater for 25 years makes us wonder

Posted by in category: existential risks

What will the crew do until 2039 if there IS a nuclear war?

Jul 7, 2019

Fermi Paradox: First Contact with Alien Syntellects in Extra Dimensions is More Than a Possibility

Posted by in categories: alien life, existential risks, physics

I used to think that we live in some sort of a “cosmic jungle”, so the Zoo Hypothesis (like Star Trek Prime Directive) should be the correct explanation to the Fermi Paradox, right? I wouldn’t completely rule out this hypothesis insofar as a theorist Michio Kaku allegorically compares our earthly civilization to an “anthill” next to the “ten-lane superhighway” of a galactic-type civilization. Over time, however, I’ve come to realize that the physics of information holds the key to the solution of the Fermi Paradox — indications are we most likely live in a “syntellect chrysalis” instead of a “cosmic jungle.”

Just like a tiny mustard seed in the soil, we’ll get to grow out of the soil, see “the light of the day” and network by roots and pollen with others, at the cosmic level of emergent complexity — as a civilizational superorganism endowed with its own advanced extradimensional consciousness. So, one day our Syntellect, might “wake up” as some kind of a newborn baby of the intergalactic family (or multiversal family, for that matter – that remains to be seen) within the newly perceived reality framework. Call it the Chrysalis Conjecture, if you’d like.*.

Jul 5, 2019

Dr. Steffanie Strathdee PhD. — UCSD Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics (IPATH) — ideaXme — Ira Pastor

Posted by in categories: aging, bioengineering, biotech/medical, counterterrorism, defense, disruptive technology, existential risks, genetics, health, life extension

Jun 19, 2019

Using CRISPR to resurrect the woolly mammoth

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, existential risks, genetics

De-extinction, bringing extinct species back from the dead, is now on the table thanks to the revolutionary gene-editing technology CRISPR.

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