Lifeboat Foundation

by P.H.| WASHINGTON D.C — The Economist

THE late Alfred Lanning, a leading robotics expert, once suggested that “robots might naturally evolve”—that they might one day gain sentience. Sadly, he died at the hands of a robot that, like all the others he designed, was controlled by an omniscient supercomputer known as VIKI, which stood for virtual interactive kinetic intelligence. VIKI had decided that human beings could not be trusted with their own survival, engineered a robot uprising, and then…

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By Sarah Griffiths — dailymail.co.uk

It might resemble the giant exoskeleton as seen in the James Cameron film Avatar, but this terrifying-looking machine of the future is set to become a reality.

A team of Canadian engineers and innovators are working on creating a giant human-controlled walking ‘anti-robot’ called Prosthesis, which is being built ‘by humans, for humans’.

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Written By: Cameron Scott — Singularity Hub

Back when Google was first getting started, there were plenty of skeptics who didn’t think a list of links could ever turn a profit. That was before advertising came along and gave Google a way to pay its bills — and then some, as it turned out. Thanks in part to that fortuitous accident, in today’s Internet market, advertising isn’t just an also-ran with new technologies: Marketers are bending innovation to their needs as startups chase prospective revenue streams.

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Dylan Love — Business Insider

You may have noticed we have a soft spot for sci-fi author Isaac Asimov. His fiction, especially as it pertains to robotics, cemented him in the sci-fi canon and advanced the thinking on what practical robotics would look like in the future.

He also used his fiction to entertain a foreboding question: Should a robot be able to kill a human?

Asimov decided not, and drew up three “laws of robotics” that governed how robots behaved in his fictional universes.

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By John Frank Weaver — Slate

Harvey Milk famously advised his “gay brothers and sisters” to come out, but “only to the people you know, and who know you.” He understood the power of human empathy. It is hard to hate people you know and who know you.

We’ll soon see how human empathy shapes the design of artificial intelligence because, as it turns out, our empathy is so strong we will consider objects people if we can interact with them like people. Her played with this idea in a future where Joaquin Phoenix’s Theodore falls in love with his operating system, Samantha. But right now on Indiegogo, you can contribute to EmoSPARK, “the first artificial intelligence console committed to your happiness.”

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The Future of Spage-Age Management, Today! by Mr. Andres Agostini at http://lnkd.in/d7zExFi

This is an excerpt from the conclusion section o, “…The Future of Spage-Age Management, Today!..,” that discusses some management strategies. To read the entire piece, just click the link at the end of article:

BEGINNING OF EXCERPT.

Mr. David Shaw’s question, “…Andres, from your work on the future which management skills need to be developed? Classically the management role is about planning, organizing, leading and controlling. With the changes coming in the future what’s your view on how this management mix needs to change and adapt?…” This question was posited on an Internet Forum, formulated by Mr. David Shaw (Peterborough, United Kingdom) at http://lnkd.in/ba6xX-K on October 09, 2013.

This P.O.V. addresses practical and structural solutions, not onerous quick fixes. THIS P.O.V. WILL BE COMMUNICATED UNAMBIGUOUSLY AND EMPHATICALLY.

Continue reading “The Future of Spage-Age Management, Today!” »

RT

A World Wide Web for robots just got more real as scientists ready to demo a project four years in the making: a cloud-based hive mind for robots to upload and download information and learn new tasks from each other, completely independent of humans.

Comparisons to The Terminator’s Skynet began flooding in all the way back in 2011, when a breakthrough was made after researchers at the University of Technology in Munich, Zaragoza, Stuttgart, and Philips assembled in Eindhoven to form the Robo Earth project.

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Written By: Cameron Scott — Singularity Hub

Box Brands has launched the first-ever burrito-making robots at two locations on Santa Monica Boulevard — inside Mobile and 76 gas stations.

The orange Burritobox offers 6 types of burrito, including a breakfast burrito, and several sauces. The customer selects the burrito desired and which sauces from a touch-screen menu, then swipes a credit card. One minute later, the machine dispenses a hot “hand”-rolled burrito.

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