New initiative aims to lower high barrier to entry for resource-constrained organizations, increasing access to participate in forward-looking research.
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The arrival of government-operated autonomous police robots does not look like predictions in science fiction movies. An army of robots with gun arms is not kicking down your door to arrest you. Instead, a robot snitch that looks like a rolling trash can is programmed to decide whether a person looks suspicious —and then call the human police on them. Police robots may not be able to hurt people like armed predator drones used in combat— yet —but as history shows, calling the police on someone can prove equally deadly.
Long before the 1987 movie Robocop, even before Karel Čapek invented the word robot in 1920, police have been trying to find ways to be everywhere at once. Widespread security cameras are one solution—but even a blanket of CCTV cameras couldn’t follow a suspect into every nook of public space. Thus, the vision of a police robot continued as a dream, until now. Whether they look like Boston Dynamics’ robodogs or Knightscope’s rolling pickles, robots are coming to a street, shopping mall, or grocery store near you.
Frias-Martinez says CloudBank has allowed her to stretch her research dollars and, as a result, improve the quality and scope of her analyses. “For example, we started to do some experiments with an AWS database and the costs were much higher than we had expected,” she explains. “We submitted a ticket to their helpdesk and they quickly responded” with a full explanation of expenses and some money-saving alternatives.
Going the last mile
CloudBank was created to serve NSF grantees, starting with those funded by select CISE programs who have requested cloud computing. That pool is now tiny by design, but Norman expects demand to increase rapidly once NSF begins to make awards from this year’s program solicitations, the first that include CloudBank as an option. CloudBank could also serve as a template for a far larger, national cloud computing resource, part of a massive scale-up in cloud computing and artificial intelligence outlined in a law passed by Congress last week.
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A scary prediction of our near future when acquiesce to government authority will be tracked, much like a credit score, by central authorities intent on controlling our every action and thought.
Here’s a scary vision of our future, based on the Chinese social credit model, from Bertelsmann Stiggung, an independent foundation under private law based in Gütersloh, Germany with offices in Washington DC and Barcelona Spain.
For more, check out the Berttelsmann Stiggung blog, focused on the European Union.
Continue reading “Chinese Social Media Tracking System is a Vision of our Future” »
Cryptocurrency and direct democracy.
SpaceX recently sparked controversy after stating it would not recognise international law in outer space.
Continue reading “Elon Musk says Mars economy will run on cryptocurrency” »
An international research team lead by Aalto University has found a new and simple route to break the reciprocity law in the electromagnetic world, by changing a material’s property periodically in time. The breakthrough could help to create efficient nonreciprocal devices, such as compact isolators and circulators, that are needed for the next generation of microwave and optical communications systems.
When we look through a window and see our neighbor on the street, the neighbor can also see us. This is called reciprocity, and it is the most common physical phenomenon in nature. Electromagnetic signals propagating between two sources is always governed by reciprocity law: if the signal from source A can be received by source B, then the signal from source B can also be received by source A with equal efficiency.
Researchers from Aalto University, Stanford University, and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) have successfully demonstrated that the reciprocity law can be broken if the property of the propagation medium periodically changes in time. Propagation medium refers to a material in which light and electromagnetic waves survive and propagate from one point to another.
Seventeen years after the second amendment of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the People’s Bank of China was approved, public comments are being taken on a new draft version that was proposed on Friday.
Analysts said that the new draft, if passed, will help reduce financial risks by giving the central bank a larger role in the use of a digital currency. It will also address money laundering, reduce costs and win China more financial status in the world.
The draft law addresses for the first time the central bank’s determination to reduce systemic financial risks and legalize the digital yuan. Experts said this measure will have great importance for the development of China’s financial system.
“Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational Battle Station.” – Emperor Palpatine, Return of the Jedi
This week Microsoft took a series of dramatic steps against the recent SolarWinds supply chain attack. In the size, speed and scope of its actions, Microsoft has reminded the world that it can still muster firepower like no one else as a nearly-overwhelming force for good.
Brain Muraresku, author of “The Immortality Key — The Secret History Of The Religion With No Name”, discussing his fascinating journey to discover psychedelic potions from antiquity, reconstruct their history in the development of religion and civilization, and their development into a modern neuro-pharmacopoeia.
On today’s show we are going to be weaving together a really interesting range of themes including psychedelics, pharmacognosy and medicinal botany, history, religion & spirituality, end of life care, dreaming, mental health and a whole lot more.
Mexico’s Senate approved a bill to legalize marijuana nationally on Thursday.
Before it can become law it must also be passed by the other body of the country’s Congress, the Chamber of Deputies.
The legislation, which was circulated in draft form earlier this month, would establish a regulated cannabis market in Mexico, allowing adults 18 and older to purchase and possess up to 28 grams of marijuana and cultivate up to six plants for personal use.
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