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Jun 5, 2023

Intelligence Officials Say U.S. Has Retrieved Craft of Non-Human Origin

Posted by in category: government

A former intelligence official turned whistleblower has given Congress and the Intelligence Community Inspector General extensive classified information about deeply covert programs that he says possess retrieved intact and partially intact craft of non-human origin.

The information, he says, has been illegally withheld from Congress, and he filed a complaint alleging that he suffered illegal retaliation for his confidential disclosures, reported here for the first time.

Other intelligence officials, both active and retired, with knowledge of these programs through their work in various agencies, have independently provided similar, corroborating information, both on and off the record.

Jun 5, 2023

Quantum computers are better at guessing, new study demonstrates

Posted by in categories: computing, entertainment, information science, quantum physics

Daniel Lidar, the Viterbi Professor of Engineering at USC and Director of the USC Center for Quantum Information Science & Technology, and Dr. Bibek Pokharel, a Research Scientist at IBM Quantum, have achieved a quantum speedup advantage in the context of a “bitstring guessing game.” They managed strings up to 26 bits long, significantly larger than previously possible, by effectively suppressing errors typically seen at this scale. (A bit is a binary number that is either zero or one). Their paper is published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Quantum computers promise to solve certain problems with an advantage that increases as the problems increase in complexity. However, they are also highly prone to errors, or noise. The challenge, says Lidar, is “to obtain an advantage in the real world where today’s quantum computers are still ‘noisy.’” This noise-prone condition of current is termed the “NISQ” (Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum) era, a term adapted from the RISC architecture used to describe classical computing devices. Thus, any present demonstration of quantum speed advantage necessitates noise reduction.

The more unknown variables a problem has, the harder it usually is for a to solve. Scholars can evaluate a computer’s performance by playing a type of game with it to see how quickly an algorithm can guess hidden information. For instance, imagine a version of the TV game Jeopardy, where contestants take turns guessing a secret word of known length, one whole word at a time. The host reveals only one correct letter for each guessed word before changing the secret word randomly.

Jun 5, 2023

Human factors affect bees’ communication, researchers find

Posted by in categories: chemistry, climatology, habitats, neuroscience, sustainability

Human influences have the potential to reduce the effectivity of communication in bees, adding further stress to struggling colonies, according to new analysis.

Scientists at the University of Bristol studying honeybees, bumblebees and stingless bees found that variations in communication strategies are explained by differences in the habitats that bees inhabit and differences in the social lifestyle such colony size and nesting habits.

The findings, published today in PNAS, reveal that anthropogenic changes, such as habitat conversion, climate change and the use of agrochemicals, are altering the world bees occupy, and it is becoming increasingly clearer that this affects communication both directly and indirectly; for example, by affecting food source availability, social interactions among nestmates and their cognitive functions.

Jun 5, 2023

GoatFury’s FutureScape

Posted by in categories: futurism, robotics/AI

Interested in thinking about how AI and accelerating technological change is changing our way of life? I talk about stuff like that every day:

http://goatfury.substack.com.

Join me to stand against the ever-shorter attention spans that modern social media encourages. Let’s think together.

Continue reading “GoatFury’s FutureScape” »

Jun 5, 2023

Webb Space Telescope detects universe’s most distant complex organic molecules

Posted by in categories: chemistry, space

Researchers have detected complex organic molecules in a galaxy more than 12 billion light-years away from Earth—the most distant galaxy in which these molecules are now known to exist. Thanks to the capabilities of the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope and careful analyses from the research team, a new study lends critical insight into the complex chemical interactions that occur in the first galaxies in the early universe.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign astronomy and physics professor Joaquin Vieira and graduate student Kedar Phadke collaborated with researchers at Texas A&M University and an international team of scientists to differentiate between infrared signals generated by some of the more massive and larger dust grains in the galaxy and those of the newly observed hydrocarbon molecules.

The study findings are published in the journal Nature.

Jun 5, 2023

Midjourney Niji 5: A Journey Through 20 Anime Styles (With Prompts & Images)

Posted by in category: futurism

Utilizing the power of midjourney niji 5 to explore the rich diversity of anime: from action-packed adventures to heartwarming love stories and beyond.

Jun 5, 2023

Conversations About AI — Part 3: Will Personal Assistants Kill Search?

Posted by in categories: internet, robotics/AI

Will the emergence of AI personal assistants end ‘search’ and other ways we access the Internet? Bill Gates believes so.

Jun 5, 2023

NASA Finds Organic Molecules in 12 Billion-Year-Old Galaxy, and a Mystery

Posted by in category: space

The James Webb Space Telescope spotted complex organic molecules in a galaxy that existed only 1.5 billion years after the birth of the universe.

Jun 5, 2023

SpaceX launches 22 second-generation Starlink satellites into orbit

Posted by in categories: internet, satellites

Read more about SpaceX launches 22 second-generation Starlink satellites into orbit on Devdiscourse.

Jun 5, 2023

Cactus Materials, a semiconductor manufacturer led by former Intel manager, opens up in Tempe

Posted by in categories: business, computing, sustainability, transportation

Cactus Materials touted the emerging talent pool at local universities and the emerging ecosystem of the semiconductor industry as reasons to do business in Arizona.

The White House has designated Phoenix as a workforce hub to help meet the demand for qualified and diverse talent in semiconductors, renewable energy and electric vehicles.

Over the next five years, Cactus Materials said it intends to make further upgrades at its facility and invest up to $300 million. The company had previously been awarded grants from NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy and has applied for funding earmarked for the semiconductor sector through the CHIPS and Science Act.