Researchers Say Humanity Will Be Officially Screwed If Artificial Intelligence Keeps Learning To Teach Itself

#ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Based on some of the advancements in artificial intelligence that have been unveiled in recent years, it seems like there are way too many people out there who’ve watched an episode of Black Mirror and thought, “Hey, that’s a great idea,” as you’re kind of missing the point if you use a show that’s devoted to highlighting the potential pitfalls of our crippling reliance on technology as a good source of inspiration.

I’m sure most of the people who’ve devoted their lives to figuring out how to harness the power of artificial intelligence have good intentions, but the same could be said for the researchers who brought Jurassic Park to life (and we all know how well that worked out for them). There’s no denying that it’s wild to live in a world where we can “talk” with people after they’ve died and even have a computer predict when you’re going to die, but as the aforementioned movie taught us, it’s easy to get so preoccupied with whether or not you can do something to take a second to ask yourself if you should. 

Natural and artificial intelligence

DEPOSITPHOTOS ENHANCED BY COGWORLD

Whenever Boston Dynamics releases a video showcasing a new skill one of its robots has learned, there’s always an avalanche of people who respond by joking about the “robot overlords” that will eventually bring humanity to its knees. However, there’s plenty of evidence that suggests that outcome isn’t a laughing matter, as some people who more know about A.I. than I ever will believe that dystopian future is a very real possibility.

Now, we have even more proof courtesy of researchers at the Max-Planck Institute for Humans and Machines, who recently published a paper in The Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research with a fun little title containing the words “Superintelligence Cannot Be Contained,” which is totally, definitely not a cause for concern whatsoever.

The authors of the paper took a closer look at the “Three Laws of Robotics” author Isaac Asimov famously said could prevent an I, Robot scenario from unfolding, which appear to be about as foolproof in the real world as they were in that work of fiction.

Shutterstock

While some experts have posited you can control A.I. by limiting its access to the internet or writing algorithms in an attempt to control its behavior, the chance of those strategies actually working becomes increasingly unlikely as humans willingly push the limits of what artificial intelligence can do, with researcher Iyad Rahwan saying:

“The ability of modern computers to adapt using sophisticated machine learning algorithms makes it even more difficult to make assumptions about the eventual behavior of a superintelligent AI.”

Oh well. At least society had a good run.

• [Business Insider]

ALL RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://brobible.com/ }

28-01-2021 om 22:49 geschreven door peter  

That's according to the founding documents of Way of the Future, a group intended to "develop and promote the realization of a Godhead based on artificial intelligence and through understanding and worship of the Godhead contribute to the betterment of society", according documents published by Wired. Mr Levandowski is the group's CEO and president, and it isn't clear how many members it has or what it is actually doing.

A range of scientific experts and technology billionaires, including Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk, have warned that our relaxed attitude towards artificial intelligence could mean we're at risk of being killed by it. Mr Musk has likened artificial intelligence to "summoning the demon", suggesting that while we might think we could control such a force we ultimately couldn't – and has founded an organisation called OpenAI focused specifically on stopping such a thing from happening.

Wired, which revealed the strange new church as part of a long profile on Mr Levandowski, pointed out that his interest in self-driving cars and our robot god are far from separate from each other. The engineer is among the foremost experts on self-driving cars in the world – and those vehicles give artificial intelligence its most powerful embodiment, as well as being a look at how AI will change the world.

{ https://www.independent.co.uk/ }

27-01-2021 om 23:24 geschreven door peter  

Microsoft Granted Patent to Reanimate Dead People as 3D ‘Chatbots’

Literally straight out of a Black Mirror episode.

26-01-2021 om 22:51 geschreven door peter  

Relativity Space may have the biggest metal 3D printers in the world, and they're cranking out parts to reinvent the rocket industry here—and on Mars.

FOR A FACTORY where robots toil around the clock to build a rocket with almost no human labor, the sound of grunts echoing across the parking lot make for a jarring contrast.

“That’s Keanu Reeves’ stunt gym,” says Tim Ellis, the chief executive and cofounder of Relativity Space, a startup that wants to combine 3D printing and artificial intelligence to do for the rocket what Henry Ford did for the automobile. As we walk among the robots occupying Relativity’s factory, he points out the just-completed upper stage of the company’s rocket, which will soon be shipped to Mississippi for its first tests. Across the way, he says, gesturing to the outside world, is a recording studio run by Snoop Dogg.

Neither of those A-listers have paid a visit to Relativity’s rocket factory, but the presence of these unlikely neighbors seems to underscore the company’s main talking point: It can make rockets anywhere. In an ideal cosmos, though, its neighbors will be even more alien than Snoop Dogg. Relativity wants to not just build rockets, but to build them on Mars. How exactly? The answer, says Ellis, is robots—lots of them.

Roll up the loading bay doors at Relativity’s Los Angeles headquarters and you’ll find four of the largest metal 3D printers in the world, churning out rocket parts day and night. The latest model of the company’s proprietary printer, dubbed Stargate, stands 30 feet tall and has two massive robotic arms that protrude like tentacles from the machine. The Stargate printers will manufacture about 95 percent, by mass, of Relativity’s first rocket, named Terran-1. The only parts that won’t be printed are the electronics, cables, and a handful of moving parts and rubber gaskets.

To make a rocket 3D-printable, Ellis’s team had to totally rethink the way rockets are designed. As a result, Terran-1 will have 100 times fewer parts than a comparable rocket. Its Aeon engine, for instance, consists of just 100 parts, whereas a typical liquid-fueled rocket would have thousands. By consolidating parts and optimizing them for 3D printing, Ellis says Relativity will be able to go from raw materials to the launch pad in just 60 days—in theory, anyway. Relativity hasn’t yet assembled a full Terran-1 and doesn’t expect the rocket to fly until 2021 at the earliest.

“A full-scale test will be the biggest milestone for them to prove this new technology,” says Shagun Sachdeva, a senior analyst at Northern Sky Research, a space consultancy. Then the company can start to address the other questions about its approach, such as whether there’s a need for a new rocket to pop into existence every 60 days.

Relativity thinks it will find its niche. Fully assembled, Terran-1 will stand about 100 feet tall, and be capable of delivering satellites weighing up to 2,800 pounds to low Earth orbit. That puts it above small satellite launchers like Rocket Lab’s Electron but well under the payload capacity of massive rockets like SpaceX’s Falcon 9. Ellis says it will be particularly well-suited to carrying medium-sized satellites.

Relativity isn’t the only rocket company using 3D printing—SpaceX, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, and others also use it to print select parts. But Ellis thinks the space industry needs to think bigger. In the long term, Ellis sees 3D-printed rockets as the key to transporting critical infrastructure to and from the surface of Mars. These rockets could, for example, be used to loft science experiments into orbit around Mars or return samples to Earth.

Ellis, 29, and his cofounder, 26-year-old Jordan Noone, have been building rockets since college, where they worked on the University of Southern California’s prestigious rocketry team before taking jobs at Blue Origin and SpaceX. At Blue Origin, Ellis helped set up the company’s additive manufacturing program. While there, he began to envision a robotic rocket factory that barely needs a human’s hand.

First, though, he needed to get some giant 3D printers. At the heart of Relativity’s robotic rocket factory is Stargate, which Ellis claims is the largest metal 3D printer in the world. The first version of Stargate is about 15 feet tall and consists of three robotic arms. The arms are used to weld metal, monitor the printer’s progress, and correct for defects.

To print a large component, such as a fuel tank or rocket body, the printer feeds miles of a thin, custom-made aluminum alloy wire along the length of an arm to its tip, where a plasma arc melts the metal. The arm then deposits the molten metal in thin layers, orchestrating its movements according to patterns programmed in the machine’s software. Meanwhile, the printer head at the tip of the arm blows out a non-oxidizing gas to create a sort of “clean room” at the deposition site.

• https://media.wired.com/clips/5da0c946cdc4580008379b31/master/pass/screenrecording_science_inline1.mp4

Relativity now has a new version of Stargate that can, in a single go, print even bigger components, like the rocket’s fairing or fuel chambers. It stands twice as tall and has only two arms, which can each perform more tasks than their predecessors. Ellis said its next Stargate will double in size yet again, which will eventually allow the company to produce larger rockets.

The Stargate printers work well when you need to print large parts quickly, but for parts that require more precision, such as the rocket’s engine, Relativity uses the same commercially available metal 3D printers that other aerospace companies use. These printers use a different printing technique, in which a laser welds together layers of ultra-fine stainless steel dust.

Ellis says the real secret to Relativity’s rockets is the artificial intelligence that tells the printer what to do. Before a print, Relativity runs a simulation of what the print should look like. As the arms deposit metal, a suite of sensors captures visual, environmental, and even audio data. Relativity’s software then compares the two to improve the printing process. “The defect rate has gone down significantly because we’ve been able to train the printer,” Ellis says.

With every new part, the machine learning algorithm gets better, until it will eventually be able to correct 3D prints on its own. In the future, the 3D printer will recognize its own mistakes, cutting and adding metal until it produces a flawless part. Ellis sees this as the key to taking automated manufacturing to other worlds.

Stargate in Septermber 2018.

“To print stuff on Mars you need a system that can adapt to very uncertain conditions,” Ellis says. “So we're building an algorithm framework that we think will actually be transferable to printing on other planets.”

Not everyone is convinced that Relativity’s approach to rocket manufacturing is the way forward, at least for Earthly concerns. Max Haot, the CEO of Launcher Space, a startup that also uses 3D printing, says “everyone is leveraging 3D printing as fast as they can” in the aerospace industry, in particular for engine components. “The question is whether 3D printing aluminum tanks is worth it when compared to the traditional tank manufacturing methods,” Haot says. “We don't think so, but let's see where they take it.”

Relativity has already inked deals worth several hundred million dollars with several major satellite operators, including Telesat LEO and Momentus. But Arjun Sethi, a partner at Tribe Capital, which invested in Relativity, sees more than launch services in its future. He compared it to Amazon Web Services in the way it could provide critical infrastructure to smaller space companies.

Sachdeva, of Northern Sky Research, thinks Relativity’s expertise in aerospace 3D printing could have lasting value beyond its rockets. “Even if we don't get to the point of full rocket manufacturing on Mars, Relativity may be able to manufacture other components in orbit,” Sachdeva says. “That’s a pretty big development for the industry as a whole.”

• https://media.wired.com/clips/5da0c8d5a351410008cb5aeb/master/pass/Science_inline2_AEON1_Stennis_4k.mp4

Still, rockets are its first goal. So far it’s been testing its 3D-printed engine, pressure tanks, and turbopumps. But there’s plenty more to do.

Once they have a complete rocket, Ellis and his team will be ready to ship it to Launch Complex-16 at Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, where Relativity holds a long-term launchpad lease, alongside SpaceX, Blue Origin, and the United Launch Alliance. The first flight of an entirely 3D printed rocket will be a major moment in space exploration, but for Relativity it will be just the start of its long journey to Mars.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://www.wired.com/ }

23-01-2021 om 20:05 geschreven door peter  

The Experimental Engine That Could Get Us Anywhere in the World in 2 Hours

 BY CAROLINE DELBERT

CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES’ INSTITUTE OF MECHANICS/HANDOUT

• An adapted scramjet called a "sodramjet" could reach Mach 16 flight by leveraging sonic booms.

• The experimental engine is Chinese, but based on American ideas dating back 40 years or more.

• Turning sonic booms into combustion addresses a key, "fatal" flaw in scramjet designs.

---

A Chinese-made "sodramjet" engine has reached nine times the speed of sound in a wind tunnel test. The engine could power an aircraft to reach anywhere in the world within two hours, the makers say.

Scientists say the sodramjet (short for “standing oblique detonation ramjet engine”) could be the first real hope for hypersonic flight—many times the speed of sound, and something that would bring both global travel and space travel much closer to home.

"With reusable trans-atmospheric planes, we can take off horizontally from an airport runway, accelerate into orbit around the Earth, then reenter into the atmosphere, and finally land at an airport," the scientists, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Mechanics, write in a new study published in the Chinese Journal of Aeronautics. "In this way, space access will become reliable, routine and affordable."

READ THESE

• 

Why The Concorde Is Such a Badass Plane

• 

Will Rocket Planes Reach the Stars?

The idea is a decades-old theoretical variation on a scramjet, itself a variation on the ramjet, building on generations of work on high-speed flight.

Many commercial aircraft today have turbofans or, for smaller jets, turboprops. These have descended from the idea of the turbojet, and on the family tree of jet propulsion, the turbojet and ramjet are something like cousins.

This content is imported from {embed-name}. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

The same way that, say, researchers continue to work on stellarators along with tokamaks and salt-cooled along with lightwater reactors, research on the lower profile idea of the ramjet has continued since the interwar period. Because of their design, turbojets, turbofans, and turboprops work better in the zone we’ve decided is right for passenger flight. For the most part, that’s subsonic flight within Earth’s atmosphere.

The sodramjet is the latest bleeding edge of a completely different use case. The ramjet led to the scramjet, which was designed to go as much as 15 times the speed of sound. Like the fastest combustion and even rocket cars, the secret is in dropping a great deal of weight from the craft—the scramjet scoops up oxygen from the air instead of in condensed form from a tank.

But that means a more fragile cycle of combustion that, it turns out, can be woofed out by the very sonic boom the engine creates. The scramjet just never reached its full potential.

South China Morning Post (SCMP) reports that the sodramjet follows decades of work on scramjets that began in the United States. But in China, development of scramjet concepts has continued, too. Even so, lead researcher Jiang Zonglin grew frustrated with scramjets and decided to go his own way, based on a theory published by NASA in 1980:

“Jiang and colleagues said they were fed up with scramjets’ fatal design weakness. The scramjet could barely generate any thrust at the speed of Mach 7 or beyond. The fuel consumption was so high that no commercial aviation company could possibly foot the bill. And the pilots—not to mention passengers—could suffer heart attacks if they were required to restart the engine from time to time during a flight.”

Concept demonstration model of the sodramjet engine and its installation in a wind tunnel.

ZONGLIN JIANG, ET. AL./CHINESE JOURNAL OF AERONAUTICS

The key difference in the sodramjet is that the new design uses the sonic boom to add combustion, not blow it out.

MORE STUFF YOU'LL LOVE

• 

This Fusion Drive Could Boost Interstellar Travel

• 

The EmDrive Just Won't Die

“Turning the shock wave from their enemy to their friend helped them sustain and stabilise combustion at hypersonic speed,” SCMP reports. “The faster the engine flew, the more efficiently the hydrogen fuel burned. The new engine was also much smaller and lighter than previous models.”

Nothing is certain about this design, which can’t even be tested in a full-speed wind tunnel yet—one simply doesn’t exist. A lot remains to be seen, studied, and proven.

The sodramjet, however, seems to be a hypersonic contender at the beginning of an era where this technology will be critical to travel and exploration.

{ https://www.popularmechanics.com/ }

21-01-2021 om 17:31 geschreven door peter  

Autonomous robot swarm swims like a school of fish

These underwater robots operate as a collective artificial intelligence.

 by Tibi Puiu

Researchers have devised a swarm of small fish-inspired robots that can synchronize their movements by themselves, without any human input. The autonomous robots essentially mimic the behavior of a school of fish in nature, exhibiting a realistic, complex three-dimensional collective behavior.

Each robo-fish (called a ‘Bluebot’) is equipped with cameras and sensors that enable it to track its neighbors and get a sense of direction. This is a step beyond the typical multi-robot communication system, in which individual bots have to communicate with each other via radio and constantly transmit their GPS data.

The team of engineers at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering even mimicked a fish’s locomotion, opting for flapping fins instead of propellers. The fins actually improve the submersibles’ efficiency and maneuverability compared to conventional underwater drones.

“It’s definitely useful for future applications, for example, a search mission in the open ocean where you want to find people in distress and rescue them quickly,” Florian Berlinger, the lead author of a paper about the research that appeared in Science Robotics on Wednesday, told AFP.

Berlinger added that other applications for these cute underwater bots include environmental monitoring or the inspection of infrastructure.

Each robot measures just 10 centimeters (4 inches) in length and the casing is 3D printed. Their design was partly inspired by the blue tang fish, native to the coral reefs of the Indo-Pacific (Dora from Finding Nemo is a blue tang fish).

During a test, a swarm of Bluebots was inserted in a water tank with a light source and no other external input from the researchers. When one of the bots was the first to detect the light, its movements signaled to the others to gather around. The robots could operate similarly in a search-and-rescue mission, the researchers said.

Berlinger hopes to alter the design in the future so that the robo-fish don’t require LEDs to track the direction of the swarm. This way they could be used outside the lab for conservation projects, such as for coral reefs. Ultimately, this remarkable fit of engineering may also one day reveal hidden insights about collective intelligence in nature.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

18-01-2021 om 22:51 geschreven door peter  

16-01-2021 om 16:25 geschreven door peter  

The urban forest of the future: how to turn our cities into Treetopias

We are and will continue to plant more street trees, urban groves and informal clusters of trees in our parks and green spaces. Treetopia has begun.

 by Alan Simson

 

The 21st century is the urban century. It has been forecast that urban areas across the world will have expanded by more than 2.5 billion people by 2050.

The scale and speed of urbanisation has created significant environmental and health problems for urban dwellers. These problems are often made worse by a lack of contact with the natural world.

With research group the Tree Urbanistas, I have been considering and debating how to solve these problems. By 2119, it is only through re-establishing contact with the natural world, particularly trees, that cities will be able to function, be viable and able to support their populations.

Future cities

The creation of urban forests will make cities worth living in, able to function and support their populations: Treetopias.

This re-design will include the planting of many more urban trees and other vegetation – and making use of new, more creative methods. Although we didn’t fully realise it at the time, the 1986 Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna, a building that incorporated 200 trees in its design, was the start of more creative urban forestry thinking.

This has been carried on in Stefano Boeri’s Bosco Verticale apartments in downtown Milan, which incorporates over 800 trees as part of the building. Similar structures are being developed around the world, such as in Nanjing in China and Utrecht in The Netherlands.

The urban forest needs to be designed as a first principle, part of the critical infrastructure of the whole city, not just as a cosmetic afterthought. We know for example that in 2015, urban forest in the UK saved the NHS over £1 billion by helping to reduce the impact of air pollutants. In 2119, we may well look back on this present time as the equivalent of the Victorian slum.

Trees can create places which can greatly improve our health and well-being. Our urban forest can give us the spaces and places to help manage our mental health and improve our physical health. Research has indicated for example that increasing the canopy cover of a neighbourhood by 10% and creating safe, walkable places can reduce obesity by as much as 18%.

The Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna, designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser. 

photosounds/Shutterstock

Cities built on trees

As rural areas become less productive as a result of climate change, cities – which previously consumed goods and services from a large hinterland – will have to become internally productive. Trees will be at the centre of that, contributing to the city energy balance through cooling, regulating and cleaning our air and water flows, and ensuring that our previously neglected urban soils function healthily.

Urban forests could also provide timber for building. We have a history of productive woodlands in the UK, yet alternative construction materials and a growth in an urban population with less knowledge of forest management means that the urban forest is rarely viewed as productive. We are now recognising the potential productivity of the urban forest, as campaigns to stimulate homegrown timber markets and achieve more efficient management efficiencies are proving to be successful.

Furthermore, economic growth is still deemed to be the prime symbol of the effectiveness of a city, but we need to be equally aware of other invisible values. This will open up new approaches to governance. Governance needs to embrace all forms of value in a balanced way and facilitate a new vision, considering how trees can help create liveable cities.

New opportunities

As the urban population rises, we need to get better at understanding the breadth and diversity of the values held about our urban forest. Individual people can hold several distinct values at once, as urban forests may contribute to their wellbeing in different ways.

The current guardians of our urban forest, mainly local authority tree officers, spend much of their time managing risks rather than maximising the opportunities of trees. They often receive complaints about trees and tree management, and it can sometimes be difficult to remember that people do care about trees. We need to develop viable partnerships between tree managers, community members and businesses to support trees in our cities.

Although the canopy cover of cities worldwide is currently falling, this is not the case in Europe, where it is increasing. Many European countries are acknowledging the fact that we have over-designed our towns and cities to accommodate the car, and now it is time to reclaim the public realm for our people – either pedestrians on foot or on bicycles.

Creative developments like the Hundertwasserhaus are not the only answer to creating Treetopia. We are and will continue to plant more street trees, urban groves and informal clusters of trees in our parks and green spaces. Treetopia has begun.

---

• Alan Simson, Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urban Forestry, Leeds Beckett University
• This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

15-01-2021 om 22:52 geschreven door peter  

• A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

• A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

• A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

Fans of Isaac Asimov will recognize his Three Laws of Robotics, first presented in his 1942 short story “Runaround” and popularized in the 1950 collection “I, Robot.” While they’re generally recognized as rules for robot interactions with humans, the third could apply to robot-to-robot encounters as well. Although “protect” implies aggression or physical contact, it could also pertain to ‘intelligent’ contact. But what about one robot attacking another emotionally, as humans do to each other so frequently? We may soon find out as a new robot developed at Columbia University has learned to predict another robot’s future actions in a way that some are calling “empathy.” Would today’s version of “I, Robot” need to be changed to “I Feel Your Pain, Robot”?

“Our initial results are very exciting. Our findings begin to demonstrate how robots can see the world from another robot’s perspective.”

Are you OK?

Or from in another robot’s steel shoes? That description of robot empathy comes from Boyuan Chen in a Columbia University press release describing his new study, published in the journal Scientific Reports. He and co-authors Carl Vondrick and Hod Lipson built a small robot and programmed it to seek and move towards any green circle it could see in a cage or simulated room it was placed in. Sometimes the robot had a clear view; other times it was blocked by a red box and forced to move around to look for it or another circle. A second robot was placed in a position to observe the actions of the first and predict its moves. After two hours, the observing robot, with just a few visual frames of viewing, was able to predict which green circle the other would pick and the path it would take.

“The ability of the observer to put itself in its partner’s shoes, so to speak, and understand, without being guided, whether its partner could or could not see the green circle from its vantage point, is perhaps a primitive form of empathy.”

Is there anything I can do?

If you’re worried about robots becoming empathetic to other robots, it gets scarier. The authors suggest this is an early step down the path of robots acquiring a “Theory of Mind” where, like human toddlers, they first understand the needs and perspectives of other robots, then develop social interactions as playful and cooperative as hide-and-seek and other games, or as sinister (and human-like) as lying and deception. Ultimately, Hod Lipson predicts robots could develop a “mind’s eye” allowing them to think visually like humans. He doesn’t necessarily see this a good thing.

“We recognize that robots aren’t going to remain passive instruction-following machines for long. Like other forms of advanced AI, we hope that policymakers can help keep this kind of technology in check, so that we can all benefit.”

Unfortunately, we can’t ask Isaac Asimov for Three More Laws of Robotics for Robots. Then again, if robots are capable of becoming emotional, will three be enough?

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

12-01-2021 om 21:25 geschreven door peter  

Liquid glass discovered as new state of matter

By Michael Irving

Or at least, that’s how it usually goes. In the new study, the researchers discovered a form of glass where the atoms exhibit a complex behavior that’s never been seen in bulk glass before. Essentially, the atoms can move but aren’t able to rotate.

The team made this discovery in a model system of colloidal suspensions. These mixtures are made up of large solid particles suspended in a fluid, making it easier for scientists to observe the physical behavior of atoms or molecules. Normally these particles are spheres, but for this experiment the team used elliptical ones so they could tell which direction they were pointing.

A diagram showing the positions and orientation of the team's elliptical particles in the liquid glass state

Research groups of Professor Andreas Zumbusch and Professor Matthias Fuchs

The researchers tested different concentrations of particles in the fluid, tracking how well they could move and rotate. Eventually they found that at higher concentrations, the particles blocked each other from rotating, but they could still move, forming a liquid glass state.

“At certain particle densities orientational motion froze whereas translational motion persisted, resulting in glassy states where the particles clustered to form local structures with similar orientation,” says Andreas Zumbusch, lead author of the study.

The team says that the observed behavior comes from two competing glass transitions interacting with each other. Liquid glass has been predicted for decades, and the new observation suggests that similar processes could be at work in other glass-forming systems.

“This is incredibly interesting from a theoretical vantage point,” says Matthias Fuchs, senior author of the study. “Our experiments provide the kind of evidence for the interplay between critical fluctuations and glassy arrest that the scientific community has been after for quite some time.”

• The research was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Source: 

• University of Konstanz

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://newatlas.com/ }

07-01-2021 om 00:17 geschreven door peter  

{ https://futurism.com/ }

06-01-2021 om 14:50 geschreven door peter  

RYAN SPRAGUE

Boston Dynamics, one of the leading global mobile robot developers, has recently released a video showing their highly popular robot lineup in action. In tackling some of the toughest robotics challenges, the company wanted to show the public just exactly what they’ve been up to lately. In the video below, Atlas, their humanoid robot, Spot, the dog-shaped robot, and Handle, the box-juggling robot, took center stage as The Countours “Do You Love Me” began to play. The dance that happened next needs to be seen to be believed. 

BACKGROUND

Initially founded in 1992 after breaking off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston Dynamics’ goal is to “combine the principles of dynamic control and balance with sophisticated mechanical designs, cutting-edge electronics, and next-generation software for high-performance robots equipped with perception, navigation, and intelligence.” 

Their first major success came with its dog-like quadrupedal robots developed for DARPA, the Defense Department’s research and development organization. This would evolve into the commercialized version of the Spot robot, which is currently on the market. 

In 2018, Boston Dynamics showcased the Spot robot attempting to do “The Running Man” dance to the popular song, “Uptown Funk.” The new video shows how far the company has come with all of the mobility issues they may have had in the past and how much the robots have evolved. 

ANALYSIS

The purpose of showing off the “dancing robots” is two-fold for Boston Dynamics. 

The first highlights the organic quality of stable motion that humans often associate with natural movement but implemented in robots with legs. Unlike wheeled or track robots, these robots can navigate and overcome the challenges of obstacles and rugged terrain with this dynamic mobility. 

The second reason for showing off the smooth, perfectly choreographed dance chops of the robots is to bring fun to autonomous robots’ evolution. Many videos of these robots have left people feeling uncomfortable due to their rigid movements and focused tenacity at completing tasks.

Boston Dynamics wanted to go into the New Year with some light-hearted fun in an attempt to show how much their robots have evolved. On their official Twitter account, they stated that “Our whole crew got together to celebrate the start of what we hope will be a happier year.”  

OUTLOOK

Currently, the “Dancing Robots” video has racked up over 20 million views on YouTube, showing no signs of slowing down. And neither do the robots or their creators. Boston Dynamics plans on posting more videos of the robots dancing. And while Spot is the only robot currently on the market, the prototypes of both Atlas and Handle are well on their way to becoming the next dance sensations.

With one of the most unusual and tumultuous years behind us, these three robots indeed show that anything is possible as we move forward. That is, of course, before the Terminator-like invasion begins to the soundtrack Dirty Dancing.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://thedebrief.org/ }

04-01-2021 om 17:30 geschreven door peter  

South Korea's Artificial Sun Is More Hotter Than Actual Sun

The Sun is the main source of energy to our earth, due to which human beings, including plants and animals, can get food. Apart from this, all the planets of the solar system revolve around the sun, so the sun is considered to be the main source of energy. 

Electricity is produced through solar panels from the strong sunlight, although it is difficult to reach the same amount of sunlight in every country. This is the reason that many countries are preparing to make the artificial sun to generate more energy and in this list, After china now South Korea's name has also been included. So let's know how South Korea will get energy through the artificial sun.

The Artificial Sun of South Korea

The sun which gives energy to our solar system has a very hot and scorching temperature, so no machine or human being can reach the sun. However, today humans and science have made so much progress that some countries are moving towards creating the artificial sun. 

According to the news, after China, now South Korea has also succeeded in making its own artificial sun. This artificial sun can shine for 20 seconds at temperatures above 100 million degrees Celsius.

Let us tell you that this artificial sun made by South Korea has also set a world record for the longest glow in the artificial sun ever created. Not only this, the sun made by South Korea shines at a much higher temperature than the real sun and with the help of this a lot of energy can be obtained in a short time. Let us tell you that the average temperature of the centre of the real sun is up to 15 million degrees Celsius.

For the past several years, scientists in South Korea were working on making artificial suns, for this, they used a superconducting fusion device called Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) and succeeded in producing artificial suns.

For this fusion, scientists collected plasma from hydrogen, which is made of hot iron and its temperature reaches 100 million degrees. Let me tell you that this iron is necessary to maintain the high temperature of the artificial sun.

This artificial sun, created by scientists from South Korea, has set a world record by artificially shining to 100 million degrees for 20 seconds. This success in science was achieved on 24 November 2020 by the Korean Institute of Fusion Energy in a joint investigation with Seoul National University (SNU) and Columbia University of America.

You'd be surprised to know that the 2020 Fusion surpassed the previous year's plasma operation, as the previous artificial sun radiated for only 8 seconds while the artificial sun radiated for a full 20 seconds this year. 

Let us tell you that earlier the Korean Institute of Fusion Energy (KFE) of South Korea succeeded in reaching the temperature of 100 million degrees for the first time through KSTAR fusion in 2018 but at that time the artificial sun radiates only for 1.5 seconds. 

The report, released by scientists from South Korea, states that the goal of this institute is to shine the artificial sun for 300 seconds by 2025 through a fusion ignition.

China's Artificial Sun

This is not the first time that a country has succeeded in shining the artificial sun at high temperatures, even before China has been able to create an artificial sun and bring it to higher temperatures. 

China succeeded in shining its artificial sun at 150 million degrees Celsius. Although the report of China's artificial sun shining appeared only in the local newspapers, there has been no such claim by China at the international level.

Benefits of an Artificial Sun

As we know that the sun is the best and easiest source of energy for other planets including the earth, from which electricity, water can be generated and lives get food. 

In such a situation, every country wants to manufacture artificial sun for its profit so that it can meet the maximum consumption of electricity. In today's time, electricity has become very essential for every work, ongoing work in the company and factories can't be completed without electricity.

Due to the high consumption of electricity, the pollution level on the earth is constantly increasing, which all countries are relying on solar energy to reduce. However, it is very difficult for us to capture all the solar energy around the world.

Because the temperature and geographical conditions of each country are different. In such a situation, it has become an easy way to create an artificial sun and get solar energy from its light and do not harm nature.

This is the reason that different countries around the world are working on the technique of making the artificial sun and raising its temperature for maximum time. If any country succeeds in acquiring the technique of maintaining simulated sun temperatures for a long time, it can emerge as the new superpower of the world.

Now it will be interesting to see which country after China and South Korea is successful in making the artificial sun and shining it for a longer time. Creating an artificial sun and obtaining solar energy from it will be a new achievement for science and Humankind.

ALL RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://www.untoldscience.com/ }

03-01-2021 om 17:05 geschreven door peter  

JUPE

VICTOR TANGERMANN 

Startup Jupe is selling prefabricated portable she

lters that were designed by ex-Tesla and SpaceX designers, Business Insider reports.

The off-the-grid shelters offer 111 square feet of living space and cost $17,500 per pod.

“Jupe is an off-grid escape from the city, whether to the middle of a sprawling desert, a windswept cliff by the sea or your own backyard,” the startup’s official website reads. “Units are easy to assemble anywhere and WiFi-enabled, providing equal connection to the natural and digital world.”

“Experiencing the natural wonders of the world shouldn’t mean being forced to disconnect while staying in a less-than-inspirational living space,” CEO Jeff Wilson said in a press release. “During these times when most of us are craving a true escape, Jupe provides an experience perfectly suited for socially distanced travel.”

Monolith Excitement

According to Jupe’s site, the aluminum-reinforced pods can fit a Queen-sized bed, end tables, a desk and chair — and an “average-sized monolith,” for some reason.

“We turned to ideas that inspired and excited us,” Wilson said. “Remember that monolith from ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’? It last sent signals to Jupiter from the moon. It seems that a few of those blueprints were bounced back to Earth. We intercepted them and created Jupe.”

If you’re wiling to spend a little more, you can deck out your Jupe with smart speakers, a locking safe, and even solar panels for the full off-the-grid experience.

Jupes can be pre-ordered for a refundable $99 deposit.

• READ MORE: These tiny $17,500 prefab ‘urban escape pods’ from former Tesla and SpaceX designers are now available to preorder [Business Insider]
  
• More on pods: Young People Are Choosing to Live in “Pods” Instead of Apartments

RELATED PHOTOS AND VIDEO, selected and posted by peter2011

Jupe is made of interconnected aluminium masts that provide support for the geometric shape that’s designed to be reminiscent of an “interstellar shuttle.”

Sam Gezari

Jupe urban escape pod.

The sides are made of fire-resistant canvas, while the floor is wood tiling.

Sam Gezari

Jupe urban escape pod.

---

Jupe designers said that the structure was designed as “a work of art rather than a simple dwelling.”

Sam Gezari

Jupe urban escape pod.

---

Though it’s only 111 square feet inside, Jupe feels surprisingly roomy, with 11 foot-tall ceilings. There’s enough room for a queen-size bed, a desk, chair, and ottoman.

Sam Gezari

Jupe urban escape pod.

---

The floor also opens up into storage cubes, totaling more than 38 cubic feet of storage space.

Sam Gezari

Jupe urban escape pod.

---

The front window can open into a large panorama to take in views.

Jeff Wilson

Jupe urban escape pod.

---

Each unit comes with solar panels, a 200 Ah battery system, and WiFi router, with the option to add on dimmable LED lighting and a Sonos speaker with Alexa.

Sam Gezari

Jupe urban escape pod.

---

The Jupe can be flat-packed down onto the base frame for easy transportation.

Sam Gezari

Jupe urban escape pod.

---

It can be reassembled anywhere, even off the grid, thanks to solar power and batteries.

Sam Gezari

Jupe urban escape pod.

{ https://futurism.com/the-byte }

27-12-2020 om 17:07 geschreven door peter  

France, China developing biologically engineered supersoldiers: report

Just two weeks after it was announced China was developing biologically enhanced super soldiers, France has joined the fray in creating terminator troops that can be “bred to kill” according to a new report.

Last week, France gave the go-ahead for augmented soldiers, and some fear the super troopers could be the new norm in the recent future.

The French seek to improve “physical, cognitive, perceptive and psychological capacities,” and could allow for location tracking or connectivity with weapons systems and other soldiers. Among the ministry’s research were drugs to keep troops awake for long periods of time and combat stress, and even surgery to improve hearing.

The new species of augmented soldiers, dubbed “homo robocopus” could also have altered DNA to give them enhanced speed and strength as well as robotics.

Michael Clarke, visiting professor in war studies at Kings College London (KCL), told the Sun participating could be “using DNA as a farmer would in a herd of cattle.” 

 “We’ve reached the point now where we could potentially manipulate people’s DNA to breed into them extra strength, endurance and other things just as we do with animals,” Clarke said. “Just as we’ve done with standard cattle to give them more back, we can do that now very precisely with humans.”

Clarke added that the bio-race is being fueled internationally due to fears of China’s program.

“What they’re all thinking about is what might come up in 30 years’ time, given another 10 years development and experimentation,” Clarke told the paper. “The Chinese in 30 years’ time might have a cohort of people who are 20 years old who’ve got particular characteristics they might have tried to breed into them by manipulating DNA.”

Due to DNA manipulation, future soldiers could also be immune to disease and feelings. 

A recent report by the International Society for Military Ethics in Europe obtained by the Sun, reveals a dystopic arena full of bionic men capable of fighting “all the time.”

“Enhanced soldiers would be reduced to bionic men, who run fast, do not need sleep, eat and drink very little, and can fight all the time,” the report states. “A new species is born: Homo robocopus.” 

Sir Lawrence Freedman, Professor of war studies at KCL, told the Sun robotics are of more importance: “There are people going back into combat in ways they wouldn’t have been able to before because prosthetics have been improved. You can use Google glasses, there’s lots of things you can now do with a modern soldier that makes them much more effective than they were in the past. If you want people to act just according to orders going in to great danger, the other trend you can see that is pretty active at the moment is drones, autonomous vehicles and so on.”

While France claims it will abide by humanitarian law, French armed forces minister Florence Parly warned, “we have to be clear, not everyone has the same scruples as us and we have to prepare ourselves for such a future,” she said.

Here is some of the tech in progress to create “homo robocopus,” according to the Sun.

• Brain microchips — France has been given the all-clear to develop microchips to enhance soldier brain power.
• Bionic eyes — Being developed in Hong Kong, this gives users infrared and night vision.
• Super hearing — The US’s Tactical Communication and Protective System are smart earbuds which boost soldiers’ hearing to be near superhuman.
• Health implant — DARPA, the Pentagon’s research arm, is developing cyborg implants to monitor combat efficiency.
• Enhanced limbs — A Devcom report revealed plans to equip US soldiers with enhanced limbs for increased strength.
• Exoskeleton legs — The US Army has tested an exoskeleton which can be attached to soldier’s legs and can increase their productivity by up to 27 times.
• Synthetic blood — Respirocyte is a theoretical red blood cell that could help soldiers not get out of breath and stay underwater for hours.
• Pain immunity — DARPA’s Persistence in Combat initiative would allow soldiers to have their pain suppressed for 30 days.

 RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://nypost.com/ }

24-12-2020 om 01:51 geschreven door peter  

Robot workspace to get human touch remotely

Assemble, stitch, fasten, box, seal, ship. Wait, what can get done if assemblers, stitchers, and the others are staying at home?

24-12-2020 om 00:29 geschreven door peter  

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

23-12-2020 om 23:54 geschreven door peter  

Is this the dawn of Skynet-style machines? Robot that can 'imagine itself' and became self-aware is built by scientists

• Initially, the machine behaved like a 'babbling infant', moving randomly

• It grasped objects with 100 per cent accuracy after 35 hours training

• Experts believe the advance is a giant step towards self-aware machines

By JOE PINKSTONE FOR MAILONLINE 

A robot able to 'imagine' itself has been created in a step towards the self-aware robots envisioned in the Terminator movies. 

Skynet and other sci-fi machines are able to learn and decipher from scratch but real-world robots have yet to master this art. 

Now, scientists have managed to create a machine that can learn without prior programming via 'deep learning'. 

After an initial 24 hours of behaving like a 'babbling infant' it was able to grasp objects from specific locations and drop them with 100 per cent accuracy thanks to 35 hours of training. 

Even when relying entirely on its internal self model - the machine's 'imagination' - the robot was able to complete the pick-and-place task with a 44 per cent success rate. 

Intelligent? After 35 hours of training, the 'self model' helped the robot grasp objects from specific locations and drop them in a receptacle with 100 per cent accuracy

The device consists of a jointed artificial arm and grasping 'hand' similar to those used in numerous production plants. 

What makes this robot different to thousands of others is that it knows that is what it is. 

US scientists gave it the ability to 'imagine itself' using a process of self-simulation. 

Professor Hod Lipson, director of the Creative Machines Lab at the University of Columbia, New York - where the research was conducted, said: 'If we want robots to become independent, to adapt quickly to scenarios unforeseen by their creators, then it's essential that they learn to simulate themselves. 

'While our robot's ability to imagine itself is still crude compared to humans, we believe that this ability is on the path to machine self-awareness.' 

At the start of the study, the robot had no idea what shape it was, whether a spider, a snake or an arm. 

To begin with, it behaved like a 'babbling infant', moving randomly while attempting various tasks. 

Within about a day of intensive 'deep learning', the robot built up an internal picture of its structure and abilities.  

PhD student Robert Kwiatkowski, another member of the team, said: 'That's like trying to pick up a glass of water with your eyes closed, a process difficult even for humans.' 

Risk factor: Eerily, the scientists say they are aware of the potential dangers involved in giving robots the gift of self-awareness

Other tasks included writing text on a board using a marker. 

To test whether the robot could detect damage to itself, the scientists replaced part of its body with a deformed version. The machine was able to recognise the change and work around it, with little loss of performance. 

Self-aware robots may shed new light on the age-old mystery of consciousness, said Pressor Lipson. He added: 'Philosophers, psychologists, and cognitive scientists have been pondering the nature of self-awareness for millennia, but have made relatively little progress. 

'We still cloak our lack of understanding with subjective terms like 'canvas of reality', but robots now force us to translate these vague notions into concrete algorithms and mechanisms.' 

Self-aware robots and computers running amok or threatening the human race have been a rich source of material for sci-fi novels and films. 

The scientists say they are aware of the potential dangers involved in giving robots the gift of self-awareness. 

Writing in the journal Science Robotics, they warn: 'Self-awareness will lead to more resilient and adaptive systems, but also implies some loss of control. It's a powerful technology, but it should be handled with care.' 

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

14-12-2020 om 00:30 geschreven door peter  

MIT ENGINEERS BUILT AN AI THAT DESIGN ITS OWN ROBOTS

MIT

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://futurism.com/the-byte }

14-12-2020 om 00:19 geschreven door peter  

By: Nidhi Goyal 

{ https://www.industrytap.com/ }

07-12-2020 om 22:00 geschreven door peter