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Sep 8, 2018
DARPA Plans To Spend $2 Billion Developing New AI Technologies
Posted by Derick Lee in categories: innovation, robotics/AI
The United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has announced that it plans to spend $2 billion on developing new artificial intelligence (AI) technologies as part of a campaign called “AI Next”. The money will be used to fund new and existing research programs at DARPA.
The US Department of Defense’s innovation agency is focusing on pushing beyond second-wave machine learning techniques towards contextual reasoning capabilities.
Renowned researchers, educators and makers, pioneering bridge building methods, development and inspiration for Interstellar Flight.
Sep 7, 2018
SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk teases major Neuralink update “in a few months”
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: Elon Musk, robotics/AI
In a several-hour live interview on September 6–7, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk managed to slip in a few words about Neuralink, a side-project company formed by Musk for the purpose of bridging the gap between potential superhuman AI and the human brain itself.
Although the eccentric CEO/CTO wouldn’t say much more, he did tease a potentially revolutionary update from the fully-stealthed startup “in a few months”.
Sep 7, 2018
DARPA’s New Brain Chip Enables Telepathic Control of Drone Swarms
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: computing, drones, military, neuroscience
The US military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has created a brain-computer interface that enables a person to control everything from a swarm of drones to an advanced fighter jet using nothing but their thoughts and a special brain chip.
Life imitates art, in defense tech no less than in society. In the 1982 techno-thriller film “Firefox,” Clint Eastwood steals a fictional Soviet fighter jet called the “MiG-31 Firefox,” a Mach 6-capable stealth fighter he piloted with his thoughts. But now in 2018, the US military has gone even further: you can control a whole group of drones or fighter jets with your thoughts.
Continue reading “DARPA’s New Brain Chip Enables Telepathic Control of Drone Swarms” »
Sep 7, 2018
Experiment obtains entanglement of six light waves with a single laser
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: particle physics, quantum physics
Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger (1887−1961), one of the giants of contemporary science, considered entanglement the most interesting property in quantum mechanics. In his view, it was this phenomenon that truly distinguished the quantum world from the classical world. Entanglement occurs when groups of particles or waves are created or interact in such a way that the quantum state of each particle or wave cannot be described independently of the others, however far apart they are. Experiments performed at the University of São Paulo’s Physics Institute (IF-USP) in Brazil have succeeded in entangling six light waves generated by a simple laser light source known as an optical parametric oscillator.
Articles about these experiments have been published in Physical Review Letters and Physical Review A. The experiments are highlighted in a special news feature posted online.
“Our platform is capable of generating a massive entanglement of many optical modes with different but well-defined frequencies, as if connecting the nodes of a large network. The quantum states thus produced can be controlled by a single parameter: the power of the external laser that pumps the system,” said Marcelo Martinelli, one of the coordinators of the experiments. Martinelli is a professor at IF-USP and the principal investigator for the project.
Sep 7, 2018
Quantum cryptography: A foolproof method of preserving data security
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: economics, encryption, quantum physics, security, sustainability
Investment in clean energy is rising as improved economics and energy storage, better regulation, and concerns about air pollution drive the creation of innovative new solutions.
Sep 7, 2018
Japan preps first test for its awesome ‘space elevator’
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in category: space travel
Japan is preparing to carry out the first test in space for a so-called “space elevator” that could one day transport people and cargo to orbiting stations way above Earth. Several organizations are looking into the feasibility of the project, with one group aiming for an ambitious-sounding 2050 launch.
Sep 7, 2018
Interstellar travel BREAKTHROUGH: New material to ‘speed spacecraft to 134,000,000 mph’
Posted by Chiara Chiesa in categories: materials, space travel
A NEW material capable of propelling spacecraft to 20% of the speed of light has been engineered, fuelling hopes of imminent interstellar travel.
Sep 7, 2018
Discovering the ancient origin of cystic fibrosis, the most common genetic disease in Caucasians
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: biotech/medical, genetics
Cystic fibrosis is the most common genetic disease among Caucasians. Now scientists believe they have discovered the origin of this often lethal genetic mutation and how it spread throughout Europe.