Lifeboat Foundation

The reason I have been motivated to do this is simple. If we don’t get a ban in place, there will be an arms race. And the end point of this race will look much like the dystopian future painted by Hollywood movies like The Terminator.

Even before this end point, such weapons will likely fall into the hands of terrorists and rogue nations. These people will have no qualms about removing any safeguards. Or using them against us.

And it won’t simply be robots fighting robots. Conflicts today are asymmetric. It will mostly be robots against humans. So unlike what some robot experts might claim, many of those humans will be innocent civilians.

Continue reading “Why the United Nations Must Move Forward With a Killer Robots Ban” »

Uber “respectfully disagrees” with the California DMV that its self-driving cars are illegal.

Social changes unleashed by new technologies could undermine core human values unless we engage with science, warns author.

According to her profile, “She is a comforting character that is great to those living alone. She will always do all she can just for the owner.” How thoughtful and sweet. Except she comes with a $2,600 price tag (and her US version will be sold for $3,000). So, caring for her “owner” is the least she can do, right?

The hologram bot is based on a Japanese anime character, but she isn’t going to be the only character for Gatebox. From the looks of the website, the company is going to make other characters available, presumably also from anime.

Continue reading “This Is the Holographic AI Servant of Your Dreams…or Maybe Your Nightmares” »

A ‘living bandage’ made from stem cells, which could revolutionise the treatment and prognosis of a common sporting knee injury, has been trialled in humans for the first time by scientists at the Universities of Liverpool and Bristol.

Meniscal tears are suffered by over one million people a year in the US and Europe alone and are particularly common in contact sports like football and rugby. 90% or more of tears occur in the white zone of meniscus which lacks a blood supply, making them difficult to repair. Many professional sports players opt to have the torn tissue removed altogether, risking osteoarthritis in later life.

The Cell Bandage has been developed by spin-out company Azellon, and is designed to enable the meniscal tear to repair itself by encouraging cell growth in the affected tissue.

Continue reading “Stem cell ‘living bandage’ for knee injuries trialed in humans” »

Earlier this year, after 100 years of searching for them, an international team of researchers detected the presence of gravitational waves for the first time, thanks to the collision of two massive black holes, providing proof for Einstein’s general theory of relativity.

Needless to say, it was a big deal, but two important questions remained: where did the two colliding black holes that created these gravitational ripples in space-time come from, and how did they get so massive?

Black holes form when a star runs out of fuel and collapses in on itself.

Continue reading “Strange Magnetic Stars Could Spawn Some of the Universe’s Most Massive Black Holes” »

好きなキャラクターと一緒に暮らせる世界初のバーチャルホームロボットです。

Commentary: These envelope-pushing phones will move everyone forward, but it will be years before they’re fully embraced.

LG Display is reportedly readying out-foldable OLED panels to go into mass production in 2018. According to Korean news website etnews, the company will work with, and supply to, Apple, Google and Microsoft, as it competes with Samsung in the foldable display market.