• READ MORE: UFO-like flying vehicle that could be the next Uber 

By LUKE ANDREWS AT CES IN LAS VEGAS FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

It looks like something straight out of Star Wars.

But this new electric flying vehicle is the latest in a line of aerodynamic EVs set to take over the skies over the next decade.

The stylish $300,000 Manta M4 offers space for one passenger and takes off from land and sea, but can only land in water.

The Manta M4 travels up to 65 miles per hour and weighs as much as a small jet ski.

The vehicle is steered using a joystick, allowing riders to soar up to 500 feet above the ground — about the height of two Statue of Liberty, or half the height of the Empire State Building.

Riders are protected by a glass hood, which will protect against wind speed and keep users safe from the craft's three propellers. 

The craft gets 30 minutes of power with an electric battery or three hours using one of its hydrogen fuel cells.

Revealed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, founder David Simchon told DailyMail.com how his vehicle would surely be the next pleasure craft of the skies.

Only a model of the vehicle was shown, but the company, called SimTechLabs, says the full product will be unveiled at a boat show in Florida next month when it hits the market for the first time.

Pictured above is a model of the Manta M4, which will debut at a boat show in Florida next month

The device uses three propellers to take off from land or water, and can fly at 65mph for up to 30 minutes using its electric battery

Simchon said that users will not need a license due to the craft’s lightweight design that is at under 300lbs, meaning it is considered ultra-light, a point where the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) does not require users to have a license.

However, owners without a pilot's license will have to follow the FAA's regulations and airspace restrictions.

Manta M4 has a thermal onboard system to detect and warn of birds and other dangers in the air and a system emitting ultrasonic sounds to scare away sharks that may be lurking in the water beneath.

The base features a 360-degree camera, allowing riders to capture breathtaking views of the world below while they fly — or check the water below for any signs of rocks or sharks.

It also features eight ultrasonic sensors, 16 sonar disruptions sensors and four thermal cameras to capture scenes of its surroundings and avoid oncoming obstacles. 

In a worst-case scenario of the craft losing power, it has three parachutes that will deploy to ensure a safe landing.

It is the second craft to be launched by SimTech labs after it launched a flying aircraft called the Icarus Project in 2024.

Flying aircraft and taxis — some autonomously operated — are expected to be routinely whizzing around US skies within the next few years, according to the FAA.

And it’s the same in the UK, where the Government says it expects them to be ‘routinely’ in operation by 2028.

Manta M4 has a thermal onboard system to detect and warn of birds and other dangers in the air and a system emitting ultrasonic sounds to scare away sharks that may be lurking in the water beneath

Developer SimTechLabs prices the craft at $300,000 for one. Ten are set to go on sale

The former head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Sergio Cecutta and who resigned in 2023, said at the time that one of his major achievements was fast-tracking progress to get electric airtaxis into the skies.

Another UFO-like craft was also revealed at CES — called the ‘Invo Moon’ — that could carry up to three passengers through US skies. 

And Toyota debuted its Joby aircraft which is expected to go on sale later this Year.

RELATED VIDEO

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

10-01-2025 om 21:22 geschreven door peter  

10 OF THE COOLEST HIGH-TECH FEATURES EVER UTILIZED BY FIGHTER JETS

BY DANIEL FEININGER

Don Farrall/Getty Images

Humans have always looked skyward in envy of birds, bees, and anything else that can take flight. Soaring up above the Earth has long been a task that occupied human minds, from the ancient Greek tale of Icarus launching himself into the winds (and then falling back down) to Leonardo da Vinci's 15th century flying machine designs.

When the Wright brothers managed to lift off the ground over a century ago, they ignited an impassioned sprint toward increasingly substantive innovations and technologies in aerospace. Exponential growth in the realm of aerial flight would eventually transform every aspect of the human experience. From shipping goods and delivering mail to launching a truly global tourism industry, human flight connects the world in ways that people just a few generations ago may have never thought possible. 

Flight also changed the landscape of warfare. Observational spy balloons and aerial signaling have been used throughout human history. They formed a core intelligence gathering function in the American Civil War, but would soon be replaced by later airplane propulsion breakthroughs. The first fighter jet to participate in aerial combat was the German Messerschmitt Me 262, which attacked a British reconnaissance plane over Munich in 1944. The aircraft wasn't as impactful as the Germans would have hoped, but the gauntlet was laid down -- jet engines were here to stay and tertiary systems quickly made them even more powerful weapons of war.

Read more: 

• 10 Terrifying War Drones That Give Us Chills

1. The Sweepback Wing And Variable Geometry Designs

The first airplanes to take to the skies features straight wing geometry. The Wright brothers' fliers utilized fixed, rectangular wing designs that straddled the aircraft in a perpendicular fashion, connecting the wing on either side in the center. Wing design has changed a lot in the years since, however.

Many airplanes today feature a sweepback to their wings, from passenger airliners to fighter jets. They are consistently featured in fighters, however, because the design provides solid crossover between speed and maneuverability. A swept design is crucial for reducing aerodynamic drag, allowing an aircraft to travel faster and more efficiently when it crosses speed thresholds like the sound barrier. Its design was the result of decades of wind tunnel testing and at least partially inspired by the way birds and bats tuck back their wings while in flight to increase speed. 

Most fighter jets today utilize wing geometry that sees them extend out (and back) at an angle rather than straight to achieve this improved efficiency. However, not all jets deliver this form factor. Some feature forward sweep in their wings, and others offer variable shape. The Mirage G was one of the first fighter jet to allow for adjustments while in flight, just like the creatures of the sky that we were emulating.

2. In-Air Refueling

The process of in-air refueling has been around for a very long time -- almost as long as manned flight itself, actually. The first instance of in-air refueling took place in 1923, but it has come a long way in the century since its introduction. The first flights to test this method of prolonging time in the air were essentially test runs to explore how this process could work. They utilized a hose to transfer gasoline from one aircraft to another. In August of 1923, two pilots broke a variety of records with an endurance flight lasting 37 hours and 15 minutes, featuring 16 successful refueling operations mid-flight.

Today, the task of refueling while airborne is a commonplace feat of jet propulsion. Dedicated refueling vessels are a staple of the military's aerial fleet, with icons such as the S-3B Viking, originally designed to hunt Soviet submarines, serving for many years in this role. Whether taking off from land or sea-based carriers, extending the range of a fighter jet to expand its capacity to support ground forces or perhaps even engage in multiple dogfights over contested landscapes is a critical capability among modern fighter jets.

3. Vertical/Short Takeoff And Landing (V/STOL)

The ability to take off from a standstill remains one of the coolest technologies ever imbued in a non-helicopter craft. After all, the Harrier jet is an icon for one reason -- its ability to hover in place and perform Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) operations. Popularized perhaps most vividly in pop culture as a feature of the 1994 Arnold Schwarzenegger film "True Lies," the Harrier is a feat of tremendous engineering.

The wing design of a normal aircraft is carefully crafted to ensure a gliding effect of air traveling above and below its curvature, creating lift in the process. So an airplane that isn't cutting through the air should be one that plummets back down to Earth. This isn't so for the Harrier, however, as it features nozzled engines that can produce vertical lift themselves, rather than relying on air speed to generate it. The result is an aircraft that can perform the same feats of flight that are otherwise reserved for the mighty helicopter. 

Other aircraft like the OV-10 Bronco provided American forces with a reconnaissance plane that could take off on exceedingly short runways (STOL) -- including dirt paths and other non-standard surfaces during the Vietnam War. The Soviet Antonov AN-2 biplane is another tool that delivered similar Short Takeoff and Landing chops for use as an agricultural services aircraft.

4. Tailhooks And The Aircraft Catapult

The aircraft catapult is another tool that has essentially been around since the dawn of human flight. The Wright brothers utilized launch equipment to get their aircraft off the ground and later flight capable vehicles would also rely on this assistance measure to support take off, too. However, the aircraft catapult gained new significance when the world went to war for a second time. 

A naval variant of the British Spitfire fighter planes -- known as Seafires -- were outfitted with tailhooks to operate from sea-based positions and engage enemy planes over Malta, Italy, and North Africa. Launching aircraft from aquatic positions wasn't particularly difficult given the existing catapult technology, but landing on them has always proved a greater challenge. The use of tailhooks in coordination with catapult systems delivered much-needed consistency.

Today, this pair of systems has become the primary means of enabling ocean takeoffs that rely on a return to this mobile, sea-based landing strip. The tailhook and aircraft catapult allow fighter jets to operate from virtually anywhere in the world and reduce range requirements down to fractions of what they might be otherwise. This means that fighter jets can stay in the air longer in support of whatever mission they are tasked with because their takeoff and landing site is located within the theater of battle as well.

5. Situational Awareness Tools

Understanding the battlefield has been critical for as long as humans have gone to war with one another. Intelligence gathering operations have become increasingly sophisticated through the years, and nowhere is this more apparent than in aerial combat. 

Fighter jets engage their enemies in a unique snippet of our three dimensional plane. Height is a critical resource in ground combat, sure, but it gains new meaning when translated onto the skies. Fighter jets require an array of situational awareness tools that help them defend against incoming attacks -– which sometimes originate from beyond their sight horizon or a thousand feet above their heads -– and acquire targets, across land, sea, and air. 

The F-4 Phantom II is an excellent example of technically adept flying machine technology. The Phantom, first built in 1958, allowed its pilots to identify and target enemy aircraft from beyond its pilot's line of sight. Radar and missile upgrades helped the aircraft's crew deliver lethal force from a distance that wasn't immediately defensible. The fighter jet was credited with downing over 100 MiG fighters during the Vietnam War, and later variants helped suppress Iraqi opposition during the Gulf War.

The modern F-35 Lightning II operates with some of the most advanced targeting systems ever conceived. It features a helmet mounted display that brings all the information a pilot needs right into their field of vision, no matter where they're looking. The Electro-Optical Targeting System delivers air-to-air threat detection over tremendous range and helps to home in on precise ground targeting needs. The fighter jet also engages in seamless data sharing with other friendlies in the sky, allowing for heightened team cohesion.

6. Raw Firepower

Any good fighter jet will need to be outfitted with an array of offensive weapons. From machine gun installations to nuclear-capable payloads, fighter jets have supported all manner of extreme weapons systems through the years. 

One of the first fighter planes to lean full force into tremendous offensive load was the P-47 Thunderbolt. Although not a jet aircraft, this early workhorse exhibited immense capability when it came to downing enemy fighters over Europe and the Pacific. The P-47 carried eight .50 caliber machine guns and could also haul along 2,500 pounds of bombing munitions, packing a huge punch in both dogfighting and ground bombardment scenarios.

The trend of stacking as much firepower as possible into the armaments of a fighter jet has continued in the years since World War II concluded. The Thunderbolt's modern equivalent is the F-15EX Eagle II, sometimes called the Air Force's Missile Truck. It may just be the most heavily armed fighter to ever take to the skies. Taking its frame from the F-15, formerly a pure aerial fighter platform, the F-15EX Eagle II now offers 23 total weapon stations, a significant boost over its previous iteration's 17.

7. Speed And The Supercruise Capability

Fast means lethal, and aircraft have been chasing improvements in speed for as long as humans have been flying. There are numerous hurdles to navigate when seeking to create additional speed in the air, however. For one thing, fighter jets have become capable of moving at speeds that surpass standard human piloting capabilities. A phenomenon known as gravity-induced loss of consciousness takes place at a variety of different thresholds depending on who the operator is. 

The average person may experience a blackout when moving at about 5Gs, while trained pilots (augmented with specialized equipment) can extend this range up to about 9Gs, given the right circumstances. Time at extreme speed and particularly the pace of acceleration also play a role in impairment and total blackout. Naturally, a pilot that loses consciousness is one threatened with the loss of their aircraft, and worse. Flight support systems like autopilot tools, onboard oxygen, and other technologies help pilots maintain control of the aircraft even when the physical toll becomes extreme.

The other barrier to intense speed is one that affects even everyday drivers on their local roadways -- fuel economy. Afterburners, in particular, are a tool that can increase speed tremendously, but they burn fuel at a much faster rate as well. Engaging afterburners also ramps up the heat production of a fighter jet, making it more susceptible to enemy detection. However, technology such as Supercruise in the F-22 Raptor allows a pilot to ramp up speed without relying on afterburners, eliminating this detection issue and improving fuel usage.

8. Onboard Countermeasures

Countermeasures are perhaps some of the lowest technically demanding features of a fighter jet. Even so, the use of low-tech defensive tools like chaff and flares can create a resoundingly spectacular display. Perhaps one of the most arresting visuals in the prequel "Star Wars" movies is seen during a space battle between Obi-Wan Kenobi and the menacing Jango Fett set in an asteroid field over the brilliant orange of Geonosis. The encounter features prominent usage of countermeasures by Obi Wan as he struggles to defend against the bounty hunter's missile attack.

In real aerial combat, the same discharge of physical countermeasures to scramble missiles and frazzle radar tracking tools can be seen today. Modern countermeasures not only feature a physical shielding options, but also come in the form of infrared defensive weapons and electronic countermeasures that can scramble an aggressor's capability to target or attack a jet. These IR countermeasures  target the heat of a missile in flight, and then blast it with an infrared beam to incapacitate its tracking function. This makes the tool reusable and far less reliant on timing, luck, and slick maneuvering.

9. Thrust Vectoring

Flying a fighter jet isn't like piloting a regular aircraft. These aircraft are controlled by immensely sensitive flight tools and have features that simply don't factor into the build of something like a passenger or cargo jet. Thrust vectoring, for instance, isn't required of a larger, transportation-focused jet engine, but make for a tremendously improved fighter jet. 

Thrust vectoring allows for nuanced control of the engine exhaust direction, helping a pilot launch themselves into turns and other maneuvers with greater agility. This makes a fighter jet swifter in the turn and can help edge a battle in their favor. Thrust vectoring isn't a feature confined to the military realm, but it's far less common through sheer necessity in civilian aircraft.

Certain variants of the Russian MiG-29 feature thrust vectoring, making them just one of a few aircraft in the world that can perform a full Pugachev's Cobra maneuver, which requires a sudden shift in thrust direction to maintain flight. A Pugachev's Cobra involves violently pulling up on the nose of the aircraft to essentially stall it at a fully vertical orientation, with the angle of attack reaching an astounding 120 degrees. This rapidly halts the jet's forward speed before the pilot sinks the nose back down to its previous positioning. 

The result is a capacity to let an enemy fighter completely pass the jet by, placing the MiG in prime attacking position behind its adversary. Thrust vectoring and other maneuverability features of the MiG-29 are responsible for the aircraft's ability to perform this astounding feat.

10. Stealth Technologies

Stealth technologies are a core component in any fighter jet's ability to perform its duties. Part of the design specifics of a modern fighter involve hiding the vessel as much as possible. This includes shielding its aerial signature from radar systems on the ground, as well as making the aircraft harder to see in the air both visually and by the onboard identification systems of other planes.

Stealth inclusions come in a wide range of variations, but many are focused on unique skins for aircraft, as well as the angular shape of the vessel itself. Modern design language has sought to minimize flat surfaces and rounded edges. These features are easier to hit with sensor equipment, with the resulting ping bouncing more or less straight back to the receiver. Angular faces scatter the radar signal, making it harder to identify an aircraft in the first place, and equally difficult to actually find one that's been noticed. 

Aircraft like the F-117 Nighthawk relied on aggressive angles to mitigate detection while the F-35 has been spotted in shiny outer colorations to achieve its stealth capabilities.

Want the latest in tech and auto trends? Subscribe to our free newsletter for the latest headlines, expert guides, and how-to tips, one email at a time.

RELATED VIDEOS

{ https://www.slashgear.com/ }

06-01-2025 om 21:07 geschreven door peter  

UFO-like electric flying vehicle which gives passengers 360 degree views could be the next Uber

By JIM NORTON FOR THE DAILY MAIL

Shaped like a flying saucer, it looks more like a UFO than your next Uber.

But this sci-fi style vehicle is in fact the latest in line of electric aircraft set to take to the skies over the next decade.

The fully autonomous ‘Invo Moon’ offers up to three passengers a 360-degree panorama above and below as it travels at speeds of up to 250mph.

Crucially, it has been designed to be near silent, using a flight system hidden inside its shell rather than relying on noisy exposed propellers like many of its competitors.

The £280,000 aircraft - which is the same size and weight of a small family car - will be able to move in any direction, similar to a handheld drone.

Inventor Leo Kayali, a former Tesla engineer, told the Daily Mail the design was inspired by the drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci over five centuries ago.

The aim is to have it certified by the US aviation authority by 2027 and to launch in ‘all major cities including London’ by the end of the decade.

He said future owners could even have it running as an Uber while they weren’t using it and ‘make money while sitting at home’.

UFO-like electric flying vehicle that could be your next Uber, based on Da Vinci drawings from the 1480s

The fully autonomous ‘Invo Moon’ offers up to three passengers a 360-degree panorama above and below as it travels at speeds of up to 250mph

The government last year announced it expected flying taxis to be ‘routinely’ whizzing around British skies by 2028 - and potentially operating without a pilot by 2030.

Ministers set out ambitious plans to overhaul current regulations and infrastructure, with the technology expected to boost the UK by £45bn by the end of the decade.

The Invo Moon - which is 16ft in diameter and weighs 2,500lb and - can be pre-ordered for £2,000 and will ultimately cost around £280,000 on delivery.

However Mr Kayali believes the vehicles - which he said should be cheap to build when mass produced - could be sold for under £50,000 in the future.

While most electric flying vehicles rely on exposed propellors, the Invo Moon keeps everything within the aluminium frame.

The vehicle uses a complex new aerodynamic design in which a dozen motors, all containing spinning spheres, are positioned in a circle around the side of the vehicle.

Using these motors in groups of four at a time, it can move in any direction 360 degrees, meaning it has no front or back. To land, it extends three retractable legs.

Mr Kayali said this means there is very little vibration, so the machine will emit no more than 45 decibels as it travels - about as noisy as the patter of light rain.

The £280,000 aircraft - which is the same size and weight of a small family car - will be able to move in any direction. Pictured: Cover of the 1956 Sci-Fi movie, Earth vs the Flying Saucers

Inventor Leo Kayali, a former Tesla engineer, told the Daily Mail the design was inspired by the drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci over five centuries ago

Most other eVTOLs run at about 85 decibels, equivalent to the sound of a blender, and also create a lot of unnecessary excess wind, he said.

Inside the cabin, there are three rotating and fully reclinable heated seats which offer views out the top and the bottom through the plexiglass windows.

The “luxury” vehicle will also feature mood lighting, an ice machine, and smart TVs.

It has a range up to 300 miles, and takes no more than 30 minutes to charge from 20 per cent to 80 per cent, Mr Kayali claims.

While the design might seem futuristic, it is in fact based on concepts first invented by Da Vinci in the 1480s.

The exterior is inspired by the Italian artist’s ‘Armoured Car’ drawings, while the internal flying mechanism is a new interpretation of his ‘aerial screw’ design, considered a precursor of the helicopter.

The driving itself is autonomous and has been designed to follow a three-lane system similar to a motorway - but rising vertically.

The speed limit increases as each level goes up - from 100mph to 250mph - and it can only land once it is back in the slowest lane.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

06-01-2025 om 18:26 geschreven door peter  

This CERN Scientist Claims to Have Captured a Mysterious Entity Inside the Particle Collider

Deep inside CERN’s underground labs, the Super Proton Synchrotron has found something incredible. This undercover, four-dimensional force messes with the paths of zooming particles. Hidden in the depths of phase space, this unknown force, called the 4D ghost, throws the delicate dance of particles into chaos.

Scientists at CERN in Switzerland and Goethe University in Germany discovered a mysterious “ghost” that influences how particles move in the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). This “ghost” is a 3D shape that changes over time, so it’s best understood in 4D. The idea behind it is similar to why coffee spills when you walk or why your friends fly high on a trampoline bounce.

The SPS is a huge circular machine almost four miles wide, built in the 1970s. That might seem old, but it’s still super important at CERN.

In 2019, it got an upgrade called a “beam dump,” which works like a safety ramp for the powerful beams inside the SPS. When scientists spotted a glitch, or “ghost in the machine,” they knew it was crucial to figure out what was happening for future experiments.

A ghost happens because of resonance. This is when energy creates waves, and those waves mix together, forming spots where energy builds up. For example, when you walk with coffee, every step makes waves in the cup.

These waves meet and cause the coffee to spill. On a trampoline, when one person times their jump with another’s, it boosts their jump much higher. In the SPS (a type of particle accelerator), “spilling harmonic coffee” means losing important photons, which leads to beam degradation.

Physicist Giuliano Franchetti from the GSI in Germany explains the challenge: “Particles often don’t follow the path we plan for them. They deviate, get lost, and this leads to what we call beam degradation.”

This degradation complicates scientists’ efforts to maintain the precise conditions required for their experiments. Resonance, the underlying cause, occurs when oscillations synchronize—like how planets influence each other’s orbits through gravity or how a tuning fork vibrates in response to another. By unraveling this “four-dimensional ghost,” scientists aim to better predict and control these deviations, enabling more precise and successful particle physics experiments.

In new research published in the journal Nature Physics, Physicist Giuliano Franchetti along with Frank Schmidt and Hannes Bartosik, explains, “In accelerator physics, an understanding of resonances and nonlinear dynamics is crucial for avoiding the loss of beam particles.”

Beam degradation is a big issue, especially as proton beams become more powerful and energetic. In complex systems, harmonics can interfere with experiments involving particle interactions, like in nuclear fusion research using tokamaks. This interference creates problem areas where energy streams lose critical heat, making it harder to achieve productive nuclear fusion.

n the SPS (Super Proton Synchrotron), particles have only two directions of movement, which seems simple. However, like light traveling in a fiber optic cable, these particles follow a general path but can also “bounce” within it, due to the beam’s slight thickness. While SPS isn’t thick like a donut, it’s still a real-world structure, unlike a perfect geometric circle you’d see in a drawing.

The “bounce” is affected by human and real-world factors, making it less perfect. The SPS, while a top-tier facility, still relies on imperfect technology. The magnets powering it can have small fluctuations in magnetism, which may cause a resonance effect. To understand this, researchers measured data from around the SPS ring and built a mathematical model called a Poincaré section.

A Poincaré section works by focusing on one part of a system (like a “fixed line” mentioned in their study) and tracking how other parts intersect with it over time. This creates a map, almost like an MRI scan but for a changing system. In this case, they also added time as the fourth dimension, making the results resemble a looping, animated shape.

The researchers discovered that these fixed lines can predict where particles might cluster. By studying and modeling this, they hope to help other scientists reduce the effects of these harmonic lines. This could make particle accelerators more efficient, prevent costly errors caused by magnet-related issues, and improve the quality of the data produced.

Dr. Astrid Stuckelberger is a Swiss Scientist who claims CERN is working on a secret ‘Nuclear Program’ & there is a Portal underneath CERN from where Beings coming in & out; Physicists who work there told her that there are 17 different dimensions of reality or more.

Read also:

• Forget Life After Death: These Women Claim To Remember A Spiritual Realm Where Souls Prepare To Enter Human Bodies Through A Vortex
• This Boy Claims He Lived in an Atlantis Colony in Egypt 12,000 Years Ago, Founded by Beings from Other Worlds
• This Woman Claims to Have Seen a Spiritual Realm Close That Is Very Close To Our World, She Talked With Angels Through Vibrations

Dr. Stuckelberger is a scientist and expert in international health. She holds a PhD and teaches at the University of Geneva and Lausanne. With over 20 years of experience, she’s a leading Swiss researcher who has worked with the WHO, UN, and EU on various health programs. That’s what her LinkedIn profile says. She has done numerous interviews which add credibility to her profile. (Click here to read the full article)

Two years ago, Dr. Stuckelberger interviewed Maria Zeee on Zeee Media. This interview was published on Rumble where she discussed many strange things, one of which was about CERN’s terrifying experiments. (Source)

Dr. Stuckelberger claimed that CERN is dealing with “Radio Nuclear research” and there are lots of Physicists, who are doing very strange experimentation. She said Physicists from the CERN who her “There are beings from portals, coming in and out.”

She said, “Yes. And they were saying, I mean, I met them at a dinner and there were two of them. And both said that, yes. They have, you know, secondhand proof that the people who, you know, they’re dealing with the boson of Higgs and the subatomic. So they have apparently in the bottom of the CERN, this portal, this door, where they are dealing with all the subatomic dimensions.”

Dr. Stuckelberger further said,

“They [Physicists] say there are 17 different dimensions of reality. That’s what those physicists and some others say.

There are more dimensions. We know the time-space, the tri-dimensional x, y, and z in a graphic. But then you have more dimensions, and they are playing with that. They’re using that. And they were a group, and they had a being.

They did not tell me more about who came that doesn’t resemble a human. And then they had another one. And they have proof because they left a scarf.

And now when you look at what is going on in the CERN, there is a fight from some of the military agencies, intel. They say that there is a fight on time. They’re trying to change time. I’m just saying that because as a scientist, you can not say something so important, because if you can deal with the little, the smallest energies on earth, you can imagine that you can go through other realms of dimensions.”

{ https://howandwhys.com/ }

04-01-2025 om 20:28 geschreven door peter  

'Godfather of AI' shortens odds that new technology will wipe out human race over the next 30 years

By FRANCINE WOLFISZ

The British-Canadian computer scientist dubbed the 'Godfather of AI' has shortened the odds of artificial intelligence (AI) wiping out humans over the next 30 years, warning the technology could one day 'take control'.

Professor Geoffrey Hinton said we need to be 'very careful' and 'very thoughtful' about the development of AI which he says is 'potentially very dangerous'.

He had previously said there was a 10 per cent chance of the technology causing the extinction of the human race - but now predicts that figure to be '10 per cent to 20 per cent', because of the rapid pace at which AI is developing. 

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Professor Hinton said: 'You see, we've never had to deal with things more intelligent than ourselves before.' 

He continued: 'And how many examples do you know of a more intelligent thing being controlled by a less intelligent thing? There are very few examples. 

'There’s a mother and baby. Evolution put a lot of work into allowing the baby to control the mother, but that’s about the only example I know of.'

Professor Hinton, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics this year, warned AI is changing 'much faster' than he expected and there has not been enough time to complete the research he believes is required.

While his work has laid the foundations for machine learning, technology that allows computers to mimic human intelligence, his recent efforts have centred on advocating for safer AI.

Professor Geoffrey Hinton has shortened the odds of artificial intelligence (AI) wiping out humans over the next 30 years, warning the technology could one day 'take control'

Last year he made headlines after resigning from his job at Google, citing concerns 'bad actors' would use the technology to harm others.

Reflecting on where he thought the development of AI would have reached when he first started this work, he said: 'I didn't think it would be where we would be now. I thought at some point in the future we would get here.

'Because the situation we're in now is that most of the experts in the field think that sometime, within probably the next 20 years, we're going to develop AIs that are smarter than people.

'And that's a very scary thought.'

He added: 'I like to think of it as, imagine yourself and a three-year-old - we'll be the three-year-olds, and they'll be the grown-ups.'

Prof Hinton said he thinks the impact AI could have on the world will be similar to the industrial revolution.

'In the industrial revolution, human strength ceased to be that relevant because machines were just stronger, and if you wanted to dig a ditch, you dug it with a machine.

'What we've got now is something that's replacing human intelligence, and just ordinary human intelligence will not be at the cutting edge anymore. It will be machines,' he said.

Hinton had previously said there was a 10 per cent chance of the technology causing the extinction of the human race - but now predicts that figure to be '10 per cent to 20 per cent'

Read More

• Top researchers finally quantify chances of AI causing human extinction, survey reveals 

Asked what he thinks life might be like in 10 or 20 years from now, Prof Hinton said: 'It will depend very much on what our political systems do with this technology.

'So my big worry at present is that we're in a situation now where we need to be very careful and very thoughtful about developing a potentially very dangerous technology.

'It's going to have lots of wonderful effects in healthcare, and in almost every industry it's going to make things more efficient, but we need to be very careful about the development of it.

'We need regulations to stop people using it for bad things, and we don't appear to have those kinds of political systems in place at present.'

Prof Hinton said he fears AI will be bad for society if lots of people lost their jobs and all the benefit goes to rich people.

'If you have a big gap between rich and poor, it's very bad for society,' he said.

'These things are more intelligent than us. So there was never any chance in the industrial revolution that machines would take over from people just because they were stronger. We were still in control because we had the intelligence.

'Now there's the threat that these things can take control. So that's one big difference,' he added.

Hinton is considered one of three leading pioneer 'Godfathers' of AI, alongside Yann LeCun and Yoshua Bengio, after the three won the Turing Award for their work in thge field.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

31-12-2024 om 17:24 geschreven door peter  

Revealed: The best inventions of 2024 - from Tesla's futuristic Robotaxi to Huawei's tri-fold smartphone-PART I

• READ MORE: Google reveals 'mind boggling' quantum computer chip   

By WILIAM HUNTER

From the steam engine in 1712 to the first ever iPhone in 2007, each year sees the birth of ever more incredible inventions. 

And after a year of mind-boggling tech, it's clear that 2024 has been no exception to the rule.

The last 12 months have seen brilliant minds from around the world creating some mind-blowing and potentially world-changing breakthroughs.

With 2024 almost at its end, MailOnline has taken a look back at some of this year's coolest gadgets and most exciting innovations.

From an AI for designing proteins to a real-life pair of Wallace and Gromit's 'techno trousers', these inventions are a glimpse of how we all might be living in the future.

And when it comes to big breakthroughs, this year has been a resounding success for billionaire Elon Musk.

This year, Musk has overseen the debut of Telsa's futuristic Robotaxi and the successful launch and landing of SpaceX's Superheavy rocket.

So, what do you think has been this year's best creation?

With 2024 soon coming to a close, MailOnline has taken a look back at some of the year's coolest gadgets and groundbreaking inventions 

Huawei released one of the most impressive phones of the year with its tri-folding smartphone the Mate XT Ultimate Design

Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design

While Apple's iPhone 16 range might have stolen the spotlight, 2024 has really been the year of the folding phone.

Some of the biggest manufacturers have launched their own folding designs - but no company did it better than Huawei with its triple folding Mate XT Ultimate Design.

Unveiled in September, this striking smartphone is the world's first Z-shaped folding phone.

The device uses two hinges to extend from a 6.4-inch OLED display to a huge 10.2-inch tablet-like screen.

That means it can go from a phone the size of the Google Pixel 9 to a tablet almost as large as the Apple's 10th generation iPad. 

Thanks to the Z-shaped design, the Mate XT can also be used while only partially unfolded with a mid-sized 7.9-inch display – which is just a little smaller than a fully opened Pixel 9 Pro Fold.

Speaking at the launch event, Huawei executive director Richard Yu said: 'We have never stopped innovating, and never given up in the pursuit of making it possible.

'That's how we were able to develop the world's first commercial triple foldable phone.'

The Mate XT Ultimate Design uses two hinges to fold in a Z-shape, allowing it to expand from the size of a smartphone to that of a tablet

The only downside is the absolutely eye-watering price tag of £2,577 ($3,370) for the top-of-the-line model with 1TB of storage.

LG Signature OLED T 

If it was based on looks alone, the transparent TV from LG and Samsung would possibly be the year's most futuristic device.

Designed to look like a blank sheet of glass when not in use, this 77-inch screen could well be the next big jump in TV tech.

Unveiled at CES this year, Samsung bills the device as 'the world's first 4k, wireless, transparent OLED TV.'

When it's turned on, users have the option to either keep the screen see-through, like a window with a movie projected onto it, or turn it opaque so that the room beyond is no longer visible.

That nifty transformation is made possible thanks to a black 'contrast screen' which rises up behind the transparent pane.

And, thanks to LG's wireless transmission box, the TV has no cables to mess around with and can be placed anywhere in the room.

LG's futuristic transparent TV was unveiled earlier this year. When it's turned on users have the option to either keep the screen see-through, like a window with a movie projected onto it, or turn it opaque so that the room beyond is no longer visible.

The transmission box remains plugged in at the wall and beams audio and visual data to the screen via a 60GHz wireless antenna.

Speaking at the TV's launch, LG's Frank Lee said: 'The TV no longer has to dominate the room. This heightens the relationship between the TV and the space it inhabits.'

We don't have an exact release date for the OLED T yet, but LG has said this will be available at some point soon.

LG hasn't set a price point but if the $87,000 (£69,000) price tag on its 65-inch wireless 8K OLED TV is anything to go by, it could easily be over $100,000 (£79,000).

Apple Vision Pro 

While some companies have been trying to revolutionise screens, this year, Apple tried to do away with them altogether.

Launched in the UK in January, the Apple Vision Pro is possibly the most sophisticated mixed-reality headset on the market. 

These futuristic goggles allow users to overlay virtual information on the real world or, with a twist of a dial, immerse themselves in an entirely virtual world.

Launched in January, the Apple Vision Pro is currently one of the most advanced virtual reality headsets on the market and boasts extremely impressive body and eye-tracking technology 

Billed as the world's first 'spatial computing' device, the Vision Pro was a huge departure from Apple's usual products and its first venture into virtual reality.

Upon release, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that these were 'the most advanced consumer electronics device ever created.' 

The headset boasts stunning resolution with 3660x3200 pixels per eye - the equivalent of two 4K TVs.

But what makes the Vision Pro truly special is its unique control system.

While other headsets like the Meta Quest 3 require users to hold onto cumbersome controllers, Apple's offering is controlled through body and eye tracking.

Simply by looking around and reaching out with their hands, users are able to interact seamlessly with a virtual world.

Unfortunately for Apple, the Vision Pro didn't get quite the reception it had hoped for as sales remained relatively low.

However, this might have less to do with the product's design and more to do with its shocking $3,500 price (£3,499).  

While the Vision Pro's sales might have ultimately been disappointing, it was still a very innovative and unusual step forward for Apple 

BeamO 

This handheld device is no larger than a television remote but has the potential to change the way we look after our health.

BeamO, which was also unveiled at CES this year, gives families the ability to carry out a full doctor's check-up from the comfort of home.

Created by the French health giant Withings, this 'multiscope' can gather data normally only collected in a GP checkup.

The portable device is stacked with censors to check everything from temperature and blood flow to heart and lung health.

By lightly gripping the device, for example, it can measure users' blood oxygen, and heart rate, and carry out an ECG simultaneously.

The smartphone-sized device can also use light waves to interpret blood flow patterns and gather acoustic information from the chest and back.

Withings says that it will alert users of any possible fevers or infections and give them an early warning of any cardiovascular issues like arterial fibrillation.

Founder Eric Carreel said: 'BeamO is a transformative multiscope device. Once, body temperature was the only health scan routinely taken at home.

'BeamO will revolutionize the measurement of the core vitals carried out during medical visits from the comfort of one's own home.'

Currently pending regulatory approval, BeamO will launch first in the US for $249.95 (£195) from 2025.

AirXeed

Not every invention needs to come from a massive corporation with millions of pounds of investment.

In fact, one of 2024's most exciting inventions comes from two young students.

All around the world, scientists launch weather balloons containing small devices called radiosondes to measure air pressure, temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction.

These measurements are vital to helping scientists predict weather patterns, but these single-use devices create tonnes of harmful plastic waste.

The AirXeed, this year's winner of the James Dyson Award for sustainability, solves this issue by making radiosondes reusable.

AirXeed was this year's winner of the James Dyson Award for sustainability. These maple leaf-inspired gadgets are reusable instrument arrays for weather balloons which can safely steer themselves to the ground to help scientists reduce their plastic waste 

Taking inspiration from maple seeds, inventors Shane Kyi Hla Win and Danial Sufiyan Bin Shaifu from Singapore created a device that can control its drift back to Earth.

By adjusting its stability, AirXeed can steer itself on the wind back towards a collection zone where scientists can collect it and use it again.

This lets researchers make potentially lifesaving predictions about upcoming weather events, without harming the planet.

Alphafold 3 

In 2022, Google Deep Mind unveiled AlphaFold 2, an AI capable of predicting the structure of nearly every known protein. 

This incredible breakthrough was impressive enough to earn DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis a share of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry on account of his 'revolutionary' discovery. 

But if that wasn't impressive enough, this year the company has released the sequel: AlphaFold 3.

While AlphaFold 2 predicted the structure of proteins, AlphaFold 3 is able to predict how they interact.

AlphaFold 3 is a hugely significant invention which can predict the interactions between proteins with 'unprecedented accuracy'. In this image, you can see a comparison between AlphaFold's simulation of an interaction with DNA (colour) and the real scenario (grey)

Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, was awarded a share of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his role in the creation of AlphaFold 

In a paper published by Nature in May, DeepMind showed how the algorithm could predict the interaction of all of life's molecules with 'unprecedented' accuracy.

That breakthrough could allow scientists to predict how drugs will interact with the body before they are created, potentially accelerating the discovery of new medicines.

Writing in a blog post, DeepMind said: 'This leap could unlock more transformative science, from developing biorenewable materials and more resilient crops, to accelerating drug design and genomics research.'

Yet what truly sets this apart as one of the year's best inventions is the decision by Google DeepMind to make the software open-source.

This means that researchers all around the world will be able to use a version AlphaFold 3 at no cost; in a move which could lead to an explosion of new discoveries.

MO/GO robotic trousers

All the way back in 1993 Ardman Studios released the Oscar-winning animation Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers.

In this classic animation, Wallace creates a pair of robotic 'techno-trousers' which can walk for their wearer. 

The MO/GO robotic trousers were invented by outdoor clothing company Arc'teryx and Google spinout Skip. They give hikers a mechanical boost while coming uphill and reduce the impact of walking back down 

Now, outdoor clothing company Arc'teryx and Google spinout Skip have made the first pair of techno trousers a reality.

The MO/GO robotic trousers are a strength-boosting exoskeleton built into a pair of hiking trousers which can boost a walker's power uphill and take away the impact while coming down.

The trousers feature a lightweight electric motor at the knee, powering a set of carbon struts which clip into braces hidden in each leg.

Skip claims that the trousers can make the wearer feel up to 13 kg (30lbs) lighter and provide a 40 per cent boost to leg muscles in ascents.

In addition to being extremely cool, these modern-day techno trousers could be a game-changer for people who otherwise wouldn't be able to enjoy hiking.

Skip says that the goal is to help people with injuries or disabilities access parts of the outdoors that wouldn't otherwise be accessible.

The trousers even feature an adjustable assistance level so people who need less help can still enjoy the challenge of a good hike.

However, before you get too excited it's worth knowing that the MO/GO 'starter pack' will set you back $5,000 (£3,940) and won't arrive until at least 2026 if you order today.

Fans of Wallace and Gromit might notice a striking similarity to the 'techno trousers' from the 1993 animation, The Wrong Trousers 

Arc'teryx says these mechanised trousers could help people with injuries or disabilities stay active and access the outdoors when they might otherwise not be able to 

Tesla Robotaxi 

Of course, it would be impossible to make a list of the year's best inventions without mentioning something created by Elon Musk.

This year, Musk revealed one of his most ambitious creations to date as the Tesla CEO showcased a new range of self-driving vehicles. 

Launched at the 'We, Robot' event in October, the futuristic vehicle features no steering, wheel, pedals, or rear window and only has enough room inside for two passengers.

While you might mistake it for a prop from the science-fiction blockbuster I, Robot, Musk says that these autonomous cars will soon be a reality. 

According to Musk, the all-electric vehicle should cost less than $30,000 (£23,000) to buy and only 20 cents (15p) per mile to drive.

In another sci-fi touch, the Robotaxi won't even feature a charging port for its batteries.

Instead, the car will drive itself over an inductive charging station built into the ground, allowing it to receive power wirelessly without human assistance.

This year Elon Musk unveiled the long-awaited self-driving Robotaxi, which should hit the road sometime in 2027 

Tesla's futuristic Robotaxi will have no steering wheel, pedals, or rear window. The two passengers will simply sit back and allow the car to drive itself 

According to Musk, these vehicles could fundamentally change the way we think about car ownership.

Instead of simply parking your car when you're not using it, owners would be able to turn the Robotaxi loose to earn money picking up strangers.

In the future, Musk claims that individuals might own entire fleets of Robotaxis and 'take care of them like a shepherd tends to their flock.'

Speaking at the event, Musk said: 'The vast majority of the time, cars are just doing nothing. But if they're autonomous, they could be used five times more, maybe 10 times more.'

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

27-12-2024 om 23:44 geschreven door peter  

Revealed: The best inventions of 2024 - from Tesla's futuristic Robotaxi to Huawei's tri-fold smartphone - PART II

• READ MORE: Google reveals 'mind boggling' quantum computer chip   

By WILIAM HUNTER

From the steam engine in 1712 to the first ever iPhone in 2007, each year sees the birth of ever more incredible inventions. 

And after a year of mind-boggling tech, it's clear that 2024 has been no exception to the rule.

The last 12 months have seen brilliant minds from around the world creating some mind-blowing and potentially world-changing breakthroughs.

With 2024 almost at its end, MailOnline has taken a look back at some of this year's coolest gadgets and most exciting innovations.

From an AI for designing proteins to a real-life pair of Wallace and Gromit's 'techno trousers', these inventions are a glimpse of how we all might be living in the future.

And when it comes to big breakthroughs, this year has been a resounding success for billionaire Elon Musk.

This year, Musk has overseen the debut of Telsa's futuristic Robotaxi and the successful launch and landing of SpaceX's Superheavy rocket.

So, what do you think has been this year's best creation?

With 2024 soon coming to a close, MailOnline has taken a look back at some of the year's coolest gadgets and groundbreaking inventions 

SpaceX Super Heavy 

Self-driving cars aren't the only thing that one of Musk's companies has created this year.

Most impressively of all, SpaceX successfully launched and landed its 71-metre-tall (242 ft) Super Heavy booster.

In October, SpaceX used this 3,000-tonne rocket to blast a 400-foot-tall Starship spacecraft into orbit.

In one of the most exciting spaceflight breakthroughs of the year, SpaceX successfully launched and landed the 71-metre-tall (242 ft) Super Heavy booster (pictured), potentially opening the way to future Mars missions 

However, in possibly one of the biggest spaceflight breakthroughs this year, the Super Heavy booster then managed to land safely back on the very same launch pad.

After five minutes of burn the booster detached from Starship, righted itself and gently hovered back into the waiting 'Mechazilla' arms of the landing platform.

This was the fifth test of SpaceX's Starship spacecraft and the first time that a launch of this powerful new rocket has been a complete success.

What makes this so exciting is that the Super Heavy booster is both reusable and powerful enough to potentially carry humans to Mars.

By landing back in the arms of the landing platform the booster removes the need for landing gear, saving weight for even more fuel.

Super Heavy's 33 'Raptor' engines produce a staggering 16.6 million lbs (74.3 meganewtons) of force.

That is 700 times the kick of the most common commercial passenger planes and twice as much power as the Saturn V rocket which first took humans to the surface of the Moon.

Likewise, by landing on the platform the time between launches is significantly reduced which could pave the way for the near-continuous launches needed to establish a viable human settlement on a distant planet such as Mars.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

27-12-2024 om 23:43 geschreven door peter  

This Oxford Professor Claims Universe Is a Simulation and Warns Against Escaping the Cosmic Matrix

Professor Nick Bostrom at Oxford University says the universe and everything in it might be a simulation. He doesn’t think we should try to break free from the Matrix. He says we are likely not alone in the cosmos but is instead encompassed within a ‘Cosmic Host.’

Philosopher Nick Bostrom served as the founding Director of the Future of Humanity Institute from 2005 until its closure in April 2024. With a background in theoretical physics, computational neuroscience, logic, and artificial intelligence, along with philosophy. He is one of the most-cited philosophers in the world, and has been referred to as “the Swedish superbrain”.

Ever since Nick Bostrom suggested that the universe might be a simulation, sparking widespread debate about reality. Public figures like Elon Musk have added to the discussion, saying it’s likely our world is just a digital code. Recent studies have refined this idea, claiming there’s about a 50-50 chance we’re living in a simulation.

Some people believe the idea that we might live in a simulation because even well-known figures like Neil deGrasse Tyson have talked about it. However, not everyone agrees. Physicist Frank Wilczek says the universe is too complicated to be a simulation. He argues that creating all this complexity would take a lot of energy and time, and it doesn’t make sense for an intelligent creator to go to so much trouble. Another physicist, Sabine Hossenfelder, thinks the idea isn’t scientific. She says because we can’t test or prove it wrong, it’s not something worth spending time on.

In 2003, Nick Bostrom shocked people with his paper, “Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?” In it, he suggested that our reality might actually be a computer simulation. If you’ve watched “The Matrix,” this idea might sound familiar. In the movie, a hacker joins a group fighting against AI machines that have trapped humans in a fake reality (“the Matrix”) to keep them calm while they use their bodies for energy.

But Bostrom revealed in 2019 he hadn’t seen the 1999 movie when he wrote his paper. A strange coincidence, maybe? He thinks that writing the simulation argument came naturally from two things: his interest in observation selection theory, which he wrote about for his Ph.D., and his curiosity about how advancing technology might affect the future. (Source)

“So, when you have those two ideas,” he told Vulture, “the simulation argument is really just the next step.”

Andriy Onufriyenko//Getty Images

At first glance, Bostrom’s simulation argument isn’t as extreme as the futuristic world shown in The Matrix. It doesn’t involve things like oracles, martial arts, or slow-motion bullets — it just proposes that one of three statements about the future must be true:

-Humanity will very likely go extinct before reaching a “posthuman” stage.
-Humanity will reach the “posthuman” stage, but “is extremely unlikely” to run a significant number of simulations of its history.
-We are “almost certainly” living in a computer simulation of a “posthuman” civilization’s history right now.

Nick Bostrom’s Ideas on Posthumans

To understand the simulation argument, Bostrom gives us a few ideas to think about. He starts by talking about how a very advanced society, called “posthumans,” could create artificial human minds. Posthumans are super beings who have improved their mental and physical abilities beyond what we consider normal. They might live longer than us and have better control over their emotions, like not being afraid of things without reason.

It’s not hard to imagine that such an advanced society could build huge computer systems. Bostrom talks about how these computers could be used to create copies of human minds. He also considers how posthumans might choose to place these minds into a very realistic, artificial world. The important thing to remember is that these artificial minds should not know that they are inside a simulation.

When we think about how far humans have come with video games, it’s easy to imagine that one day we could have huge, Earth-sized computer simulations. When Pong was first released in the 1970s, it was just a simple game with a few pixels that looked like 2D table tennis. Now, fifty years later, we can wear virtual reality headsets to explore 3D worlds and interact with characters that feel real.

In the future, a posthuman civilization might create a much bigger, more detailed world. In this world, the characters could believe they are truly aware and independent. The environment could be so realistic that it would be impossible to tell it apart from our own world. (Source)

Bostrom believes that ‘ancestor simulations’ would be of particular interest to posthumans. This is like us using computer power to generate an accurate simulation of Ancient Rome or the Mongolian Empire. But in this situation, we are the ancestors being simulated. And somewhere out there, our technologically advanced descendants are watching how we go about everyday life.

“We can conclude that the computing power available to a posthuman civilization is sufficient to run a huge number of ancestor simulations even if it allocates only a minute fraction of its resources to that purpose” (Bostrom, 2003). So, what next? Well, if we accept that one day humans will reach a posthuman stage capable of running ancestor simulations, how do you know you aren’t living in such a simulation yourself?

Sean Gladwell Getty Images

If our reality is, well, real, it seems we still have a ways to go before we reach the “posthuman” stage (if we reach it — see Statement #1). But that hasn’t stopped everyone from Neil deGrasse Tyson to Elon Musk from mulling over Bostrom’s theory.

Some tech billionaires are even reportedly paying scientists to try to break us free of the simulation on the off-chance that we are already in it — and Bostrom thinks those folks need to slow their roll.

Read also:

• Forget Life After Death: These Women Claim To Remember A Spiritual Realm Where Souls Prepare To Enter Human Bodies Through A Vortex
• This Scientist Claims: ‘Nothing You See Is Real’—Neurons and Brains Don’t Exist Unless We Perceive Them
• This Man Who Worked For Google Says Humans Will Go Back In Time In 5 Years & Reach Singularity Within 21 Years
• This Woman Claims to Have Seen a Spiritual Realm Close That Is Very Close To Our World, She Talked With Angels Through Vibrations

“It’s kind of unwise to try to break out of the hypothetical simulation,” he told Vulture. “The chances of success are negligible. If it doesn’t work, it’s a waste of money, and if it does, it might be a calamity. It at least seems like the kind of thing that you would first want to think about for a while, whether it would be prudent to try to do that before embarking on it.”

Hear that, Silicon Valley? The Matrix isn’t going anywhere, so maybe take a beat before you try to force-feed humanity the red pill. (Source)

Human civilization is most likely not alone in the cosmos but is instead encompassed within a cosmic host, suggests Nick Bostrom. The“cosmic host” refers to an entity or set of entities whose preferences and concordats dominate at the largest scale, i.e. that of the cosmos.

For example, the cosmic host might conceivably consist of galactic-scale civilizations, simulators, superintelligences, and/or divine being or beings.

Bostrom discusses the idea that even if there is a higher power, simulator, or cosmic being (like God or an advanced civilization), they might not directly control or intervene in all parts of the universe.

Meaning: If intelligent life is rare, there could be parts of the universe no one from this “cosmic host” (advanced beings) can physically access. If we live in a simulated world, the simulator (who created it) can probably access every part of it. But, they might choose not to interfere if their goal is to let things play out naturally. (Source)

Bostrom concludes:

• This Cosmic host may support cosmic norms that we have moral (as well as prudential) reasons to respect.
• The host may want our civilization to build or develop into a good cosmic citizen: a superintelligence that respects cosmic norms, is modest, lawful, cooperative, and contributes positively to other host members and the order of the cosmopolis.
• The host may favor paths that lead to this outcome with high certainty, meaning a high probability that superintelligence is developed and becomes a good cosmic citizen.
• The cosmic normative structure might pertain not only to the ultimate outcome but also to the path taken to get there—including local outcomes along the way, as well as attitudes and modes of analysis.

{ https://howandwhys.com/ }

12-12-2024 om 23:28 geschreven door peter  

Researchers Create Smallest Walking Robot Yet

A team of researchers at Cornell University has created a new class of magnetically controlled microscopic robots (microbots) that operate at the visible-light diffraction limit. Termed diffractive robots, these microbots can interact with waves of visible light and still move independently, so that they can maneuver to specific locations to take images and measure forces at the scale of some of the body’s smallest structures.

A diffractive robot.

Image credit: Smart et al., doi: 10.1126/science.adr2177.

Diffractive robotics connects, for the first time, untethered robots with imaging techniques that depend on visible light diffraction — the bending of a light wave when it passes through an opening or around something.

The imaging technique requires an opening of a size comparable to the light’s wavelength.

For the optics to work, robots must be on that scale, and for the robots to reach targets to image, they have to be able to move on their own.

Itai Cohen, professor of physics, in his lab in the Physical Sciences Building.

Controlled by magnets making a pinching motion, the robots can inch-worm forward on a solid surface. They can also ‘swim’ through fluids using the same motion.

The combination of maneuverability, flexibility and sub-diffractive optical technology create a significant advance in the field of robotics.

“A walking robot that’s small enough to interact with and shape light effectively takes a microscope’s lens and puts it directly into the microworld,” said Cornell University’s Professor Paul McEuen.

“It can perform up-close imaging in ways that a regular microscope never could.”

“These robots are between 2 and 5 microns. They’re tiny. And we can get them to do whatever we want by controlling the magnetic fields driving their motions.”

A magnified view of the tiny crab robot, standing on the edge of a coin.

Credit: Northwestern University

“I’m really excited by this convergence of microrobotics and microoptics,” said Cornell University’s Dr. Francesco Monticone.

“The miniaturization of robotics has finally reached a point where these actuating mechanical systems can interact with and actively shape light at the scale of just a few wavelengths — a million times smaller than a meter.”

To magnetically drive robots at this scale, the team patterned the bots with hundreds of nanometer-scale magnets that have an equal volume of material but two different shapes — long and thin, or short and stubby.

Itai Cohen, center, professor of Physics and Design Tech, works with Melody Lim, left, and Zexi Liang, right, at Cohen’s lab in the Physical Sciences Building.

“The long, thin ones need a larger magnetic field to flip them from pointing one way to pointing the other, while the short, stubby ones need a smaller field,” said Cornell University’s Professor Itai Cohen.

“That means you can apply a big magnetic field to get them all aligned, but if you apply a smaller magnetic field, you only flip the short, stubby ones.”

To create the robots, the authors combined this principle with very thin films.

“One of the main optical engineering challenges was figuring out the most suitable approach for three tasks — tuning light, focusing, and super-resolution imaging — for this specific platform, because “different approaches have different performance trade-offs depending on how the microrobot can move and change shape,” Dr. Monticone said.

“There’s a benefit to being able to mechanically move the diffracting elements in order to enhance imaging,” Professor Cohen said.

The robot itself can be used as a diffraction grading, or a diffractive lens can be added. In this way, the robots can act as a local extension of the microscope lens looking down from above.

The robots measure forces by using the same magnet-driven pinching motion that enables them to walk to push against structures.

“These robots are very compliant springs. So as something pushes against them, the robot can squeeze,” Professor Cohen said.

“That changes the diffraction pattern, and we can measure that quite nicely.”

Force-measurement and optical abilities can be applied in basic research, as in explorations of the structure of DNA; or they might be deployed in a clinical setting.

“Looking to the future, I can imagine swarms of diffractive microbots performing super-resolution microscopy and other sensing tasks while walking across the surface of a sample,” Professor Monticone said.

“I think we are really just scratching the surface of what is possible with this new paradigm marrying robotic and optical engineering at the microscale.”

• The study was published in the journal Science.
• Conrad L. Smart et al. 2024. Magnetically programmed diffractive robotics. Science 386 (6725): 1031-1037; doi: 10.1126/science.adr2177

{ https://www.sci.news/ }

05-12-2024 om 18:47 geschreven door peter  

Are we living in a simulation? Scientist claims we all chose at BIRTH to become characters in an advanced AI world

• READ MORE: These everyday clues seem to suggest we're living in a simulation

By JONATHAN CHADWICK FOR MAILONLINE 

In classic blockbuster film 'The Matrix', humans are enslaved by AI because it wants our body heat to power its computers. 

While this sounds straight from the annuls of sci-fi, a physics professor says we may be living in a Matrix-style simulation. 

Melvin Vopson, an associate professor in physics at the University of Portsmouth, thinks a series of daily clues suggest this world is not what it seems.

Now, he has tackled the hypothetical and philosophical question: If we are living in a virtual simulation, what is the purpose of it? 

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, he outlines three theories, including that we all chose at birth to become characters in an advanced AI world. 

'All these scenarios operate under the control of a master AI, created of course by a future iteration of our civilization,' Professor Vopson told MailOnline. 

'It is possible that no one is awake anymore and we are trapped in the simulated reality, controlled by the AI.' 

The so-called 'simulation theory' is popular with other figures including Elon Musk, who said the odds that we're living in a 'base reality' – the real universe as opposed to a simulated one – are 'one in billions'. 

A physicist thinks we could be living in a simulation - and now he explains his leading theories as to why

In classic blockbuster film The Matrix, humans are enslaved by AI because they want our body heat to power their computers. Pictured, Keanu Reeves as Neo waking up in the real world

Professor Vopson – whose research focuses on experimental and theoretical studies of applied and fundamental physics – stresses that these three scenarios are speculation and not something backed by scientific research.

But some of his research at the University of Portsmouth have indeed indicated that the entire universe is a simulated construct or a giant computer.

The first theory is that we opted to enter the simulation at birth purely as a form of entertainment – to keep our minds amused and occupied.

The real world that we've chosen to leave behind is not very interesting, the theory goes, so humans created a much more interesting, albeit fabricated, approximation of life - the ultimate VR game.

And with its plethora of celebrity gossip, sports events, political scandal and more, the ongoing soap opera of modern existence is anything but boring. 

'We created the simulation as a place of entertainment where we can choose to enter (at birth) and experience a whole new life with all the components of it,' Professor Vopson told MailOnline. 

As for how we had the capacity at birth to make the decision to enter the simulation, it's possible our consciousness would have made the choice before our new human was born.  

The second theory is that the simulation can help humans as a whole 'learn something' that could provide a solution to a real-world problem. 

According to this so-called guinea pig theory, we may all be involuntary stuck inside the simulation for the greater good – the long-term benefit of humankind. 

'Imagine that our society has a complex issue to solve – environmental, economic, energy crisis, wars,' Professor Vopson told MailOnline. 

'If we had the ability, the best way to solve it would be to run a simulation (or multiple parallel simulations) and see what solutions the simulated version of us come up with. 

'If any of the simulations crack the problem, then we can adopt it in the base reality as a viable solution.' 

Lastly, the 'near-immortality' or 'Narnia' theory suggests that time in the real world moves much faster compared with time in the simulation. 

For example, a single minute in the real world could last up to 100 years in the simulation, while one lifetime in the real world could be akin to 4.2 billion years, or over 52 million lives of lives in the simulation, assuming an average life of 80 years.

By opting to live in the simulation, we could experience multiple lives back-to-back, essentially achieving immortality.

'A hundred life experiences could be just 100 minutes in the real life in the base reality,' said Professor Vopson.  

Melvin Vopson, an associate professor in physics at the University of Portsmouth, has already outlined the clues that suggest we live in a simulated reality  

At a 2016 conference, Elon Musk said the odds that we're living in a 'base reality' - the real universe as opposed to a simulated one - are 'one in billions' (file photo)

'This is exactly how the time dilation works when we dream. 

'In the dream, the events that we experience can appear to last minutes, hours or days, but in the real conscious state the dream lasted in fact fractions of seconds.'

Professor Vopson has already outlined clues that suggest we live in a simulated reality. 

The fact there's limits to how fast light and sound can travel suggest they may be governed by the speed of a computer processor, for example.

And the laws of physics that govern the universe are also akin to computer code, he says.

He has also speculated that the proof that the so-called simulation hypothesis is correct is written in the Bible. 

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

02-12-2024 om 23:59 geschreven door peter  

“We are facing an almost guaranteed event with potential to cause an existential catastrophe,” Dr. Yampolskiy said in a statement issued by publisher Taylor & Francis. “No wonder many consider this to be the most important problem humanity has ever faced. The outcome could be prosperity or extinction, and the fate of the universe hangs in the balance.”

Dr. Yampolskiy, an expert in AI safety, has highlighted the dangers of uncontrollable AI for over a decade, emphasizing the existential threat it could present to humanity. In a 2018 paper, Dr. Yampolskiy and co-author Michaël Trazzi said “Achilles heels” or “artificial stupidity” should be introduced to prevent AI systems from becoming dangerous. For example, AI should be prevented from being able to access and modify its own source code. 

Last summer, in an article for Nautilus, Dr. Yampolskiy and public policy attorney Tam Hunt described building AI superintelligence as being “riskier than Russian roulette.” 

“Once AI is able to improve itself, it will quickly become much smarter than us on almost every aspect of intelligence, then a thousand times smarter, then a million, then a billion … What does it mean to be a billion times more intelligent than a human?” Dr. Yampolskiy and Hunt wrote. “We would quickly become like ants at its feet. Imagining humans can control superintelligent AI is a little like imagining that an ant can control the outcome of an NFL football game being played around it.” 

In his latest book, Dr. Yampolskiy delves into the myriad ways AI could dramatically reshape society, often veering away from human benefit. The core of his argument is that without incontrovertible proof of controllability, the development of AI should be approached with extreme caution if not halted altogether.

Despite the widespread recognition of AI’s transformative potential, Dr. Yampolskiy points out that the AI “control problem,” also known as AI’s “hard problem,” remains a nebulous, under-researched issue. 

“Why do so many researchers assume that AI control problem is solvable? To the best of our knowledge, there is no evidence for that, no proof,” Dr. Yampolskiy states, emphasizing the gravity and immediacy of the challenge at hand. “Before embarking on a quest to build a controlled AI, it is important to show that the problem is solvable.” 

One of the most alarming aspects highlighted in Dr. Yampolskiy’s research is the inherent uncontrollability of AI superintelligence. 

AI superintelligence refers to a theoretical scenario where an AI system’s intelligence surpasses that of even the brightest human minds. 

Researchers disagree about how likely present-day human intelligence can be surpassed by technology, arguing that AI will always lack human cognitive abilities, including possessing true human consciousness.  

However, other scientists, including Dr. Yampolskiy, believe that the advancement of AI superintelligence “is an almost guaranteed event” following the development of artificial general intelligence. 

Dr. Yampolskiy says systems with AI superintelligence will be able to evolve their ability to learn, adapt, and act semi-autonomously. Consequently, this would decrease our capacity to control or fully understand the AI system’s actions. Ultimately, it would create a paradox where the advancement of AI autonomy corresponds with a decrease in human safety and control.

After a “comprehensive literature review,” Dr. Yampolskiy concludes that AI superintelligent systems “can never be fully controllable.” Thus, AI superintelligence will always present a degree of risk, regardless of any benefit they can provide. 

Dr. Yampolskiy points out several obstacles to creating “safe” AI, including the infinite potential decisions and failures a system with AI superintelligence can make, resulting in endless and unpredictable safety issues. 

Another concern is that AI superintelligence may not be able to articulate the reasoning behind its decisions, compounded by human limitations in grasping the advanced concepts it utilizes. Dr. Yampolskiy emphasizes that, at the very least, AI systems must be capable of detailing their decision-making processes to guarantee they are free from bias.

“If we grow accustomed to accepting AI’s answers without an explanation, essentially treating it as an Oracle system, we would not be able to tell if it begins providing wrong or manipulative answers,” Dr. Yampolsky explained. 

Concerns over AI bias have taken center stage recently when it was revealed that Google’s AI-powered image generator and chatbot, Gemini, had difficulty producing images depicting white people. 

Scores of people on social media posted pictures demonstrating that when asked to depict traditionally white historical figures, such as “America’s founding fathers,” Gemini would instead generate images exclusively featuring people of color. In one example, when prompted to visualize a 1943 German soldier, the AI chatbot created images of a black man and an Asian woman dressed in Nazi Waffen SS uniforms.

Google has since taken down Gemini’s image generator feature. 

“We’re aware that Gemini is offering inaccuracies in some historical image generation depictions,” Google said in a statement. “We’re working to improve these kinds of depictions immediately. Gemini’s AI image generation does generate a wide range of people. And that’s generally a good thing because people around the world use it. But it’s missing the mark here.”

According to Dr. Yampolskiy, the recent Gemini debacle is a relatively harmless and mild preview of what can go wrong with AI left unchecked. More alarming, he argues it is fundamentally impossible to truly control systems with AI superintelligence.  

“Less intelligent agents (people) can’t permanently control more intelligent agents (ASIs). This is not because we may fail to find a safe design for superintelligence in the vast space of all possible designs, it is because no such design is possible, it doesn’t exist,” Dr. Yampolskiy argued. “Superintelligence is not rebelling, it is uncontrollable to begin with.” 

“Humanity is facing a choice, do we become like babies, taken care of but not in control, or do we reject having a helpful guardian but remain in charge and free.”

Dr. Yampolskiy says there are some ways to minimize the risks. These include making AI modifiable with ‘undo’ options and being limited to using transparent and understandable in human terms. 

Additionally, “nothing should be taken off the table” when it comes to limiting or partially banning the development of certain types of AI technology that have the potential to be uncontrollable. 

Dr. Yampolskiy’s work has garnered support from notable figures in the tech world, including Elon Musk. A vocal critic of unrestricted AI development, Musk was one of over 33,000 industry experts last year who signed an open letter calling for an immediate pause on “the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.”

Despite the ominous impact AI could have on humanity, Dr. Yampolskiy says the concerns raised by his latest research should serve as a catalyst for increased AI safety and security research. 

“We may not ever get to 100% safe AI, but we can make AI safer in proportion to our efforts, which is a lot better than doing nothing.” urged Dr. Yampolskiy. “We need to use this opportunity wisely.”

• Tim McMillan is a retired law enforcement executive, investigative reporter and co-founder of The Debrief. His writing typically focuses on defense, national security, the Intelligence Community and topics related to psychology. You can follow Tim on Twitter: @LtTimMcMillan.  Tim can be reached by email: tim@thedebrief.org or through encrypted email: LtTimMcMillan@protonmail.com 

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/tech/ }

24-11-2024 om 21:49 geschreven door peter  

• READ MORE: First image released of 'cylindrical' UFO shot down by US fighter jet

By JONATHAN CHADWICK FOR MAILONLINE 

Augmented reality (AR) has already been used in everything from gaming to retail and tourism. 

But the technology has been given its most important role yet, in the new Striker II fighter pilot helmet.

The 4.4lbs (2kg) device has been developed by British defence firm BAE Systems, and presents 'mission-critical' data in front of a pilot's eyes, giving them 'unparalleled situational awareness' as they patrol the air.

From hundreds of miles away, it can discern between another RAF fighter pilot and a hostile enemy aircraft – such as a Chinese spy drone. 

In a real life defence setting, the technology could help fighter pilots shoot down such a threat, helping to protect British skies. 

The RAF has paid £40 million to fit its personnel with the Striker II helmet, of which fewer than 100 currently exist. 

BAE Systems calls it 'the world's most advanced helmet-mounted display' that 'immediately calculates the pilot's exact head position and angle'. 

At BAE Systems' offices in Rochester, Kent, MailOnline's Jonathan Chadwick was given exclusive access to try Striker II during a simulated flight from RAF Valley in Anglesey, Wales. 

Augmented reality (AR) has already been used in everything from gaming to retail and tourism. But the technology has been given its most important role yet in the new Striker II fighter pilot helmet

At BAE Systems' offices in Rochester, Kent, MailOnline's Jonathan Chadwick was given exclusive access to try Striker II during a simulated flight from RAF Valley in Anglesey, Wales 

Nigel Kidd, director of head mounted displays at BAE Systems, worked on the original Striker helmet, developed in the late 1990s. 

This new iteration presents 'more information in a crisper format' including coloured symbols – beyond the typical monochrome green – and integrated night vision, all in a 40-degree field of view. 

'First and foremost, Striker II is a helmet – it keeps pilots safe,' Kidd told me as I step into the flight simulator, modelled on a cockpit of a Typhoon aircraft. 

'But it's not just a helmet – it's a very high performance augmented reality display system.' 

While Kidd wouldn't reveal the exact price of manufacturing Striker II, he admitted each individual helmet 'has a high price'.

'The average person would probably buy a small home for what this would cost,' he told MailOnline.  

Striker II, which is tethered to the inside of the cockpit, is made of carbon fibre and weighs around 4.4lbs (2kg), so it feels quite heavy as I place it over my head.

I can't imagine wearing it for several hours, especially during a high speed flights – although I'm informed it's light compared to other fighter helmets. 

A simulator shows the Typhoon aircraft stationed at RAF Valley prior to take-off. This system is used for pilot training 

BAE Systems was awarded £40 million to develop Striker II for RAF pilots - although the firm wouldn't reveal the cost of each individual helmet. There are currently fewer than 100 in existence

Pictured is the view while wearing the helmet, with speed displayed on the left and altitude on the right. Note the coloured shapes, which denote objects in the air and on the ground 

Striker II: Key features

Inside BAE’s Striker II fighter pilot helmet

Integrated Night Vision

Striker II features a high-performance, digital night vision camera in the helmet, creating a 24/7 capable HMD with no need for heavy, obtrusive night vision goggles. 

Colour symbology

Striker II offers the use of daylight readable color symbology with a binocular 40⁰ field of view. 

Picture-in-picture technology

Striker II supports picture-in-picture technology that displays imagery in a small offset window separate from that of the main display. 

3D audio and active noise reduction

3D audio gives the pilot 360-degree directional audio, so they hear a threat relevant to their position while also seeing it in color symbology. 

Using optical sensors embedded in the aircraft, Striker II immediately calculates the position and angle of the pilot's head. 

This means no matter where the pilot is looking – left, right, up or down – the display is always presented right in front of their eyes. 

I pull the visor down and see a collection of green lines, numbers and symbols, including a target crosshair in the centre and long horizon line through the middle. 

As I take off from RAF Valley, a stack of changing numbers on the left shows my speed, while another stack on the right shows altitude.

But apart from the green markings, there's also a load of shapes in a variety of additional colours – red, blue and yellow. 

These shapes indicate relevant objects in the air and on the ground, which are constantly being detected by a vast network of devices, including drones and radar towers, with signals fed back to my aircraft. 

On the display, different colours correspond to the nature of the object – so threats are presented in red, while 'friendlies' are blue and unknowns are yellow. 

Amazingly, when I move my head and focus on one of these coloured shapes, a small pop-up video clip appears, showing more about what the object actually is. 

Striker II comes embedded with digital night vision (pictured), meaning pilots no longer need to strap night vision goggles in front of the helmet when flying in the small hours 

Using optical sensors embedded in the aircraft, Striker II immediately calculates the pilot's exact head position and angle

For example, I see a short clip that plays on a loop of 'friendly' trucks moving along the ground – a clip which in real life would've likely been filmed by a nearby drone. 

What's amazing is the AR display is being projected onto the visor and then reflected into my eyeballs. 

If I were to stick my smartphone in between my face and the visor, all my camera app would show would be a blank visor – because the reflection is going into my eyes, not my phone's camera lens!

It's probably as close as the RAF will ever get to fitting their pilots with eye implants.  

Striker II also comes embedded with digital night vision, meaning pilots no longer need to strap night vision goggles in front of the helmet as they did with Striker I. 

This was an experience Kidd describes as like a 'sack of potatoes hanging off the front of your head' – making neck ache a real possibility. 

I had expected Striker II's AR display to be a distracting rather than helpful, by presenting the pilot with a barrage of information that could divert attention from the flight path. 

Striker II supports picture-in-picture technology that displays imagery in a small offset window separate from that of the main display

Inside the simulator cockpit, the pilot is presented with additional metrics including a map of the flight path 

RAF pilots will be wearing Striker II while operating Typhoon (pictured), the aircraft manufactured by German firm Eurofighter 

Read More

• First image released of 'cylindrical' UFO shot down by US fighter jet over Alaska in 2023 

But in actual fact, Striker II shows a pilot only the most important metrics that they'll need to operate the plane. 

This is augmented reality in its purest form – helpful yet subtle and unobtrusive. 

Overall, a main benefit of this technology is it means pilots are spending more time with their head up and looking out of the cockpit, not down at the controls. 

This gives them 'a vital advantage' when it comes to split-second decision-making, according to BAE Systems.  

Last year, the firm was awarded £40 million to develop Striker II for RAF pilots who operate Typhoon, the aircraft manufactured by German firm Eurofighter. 

Striker II is still undergoing flight trials with the RAF before it will be used by frontline Typhoon pilots. 

Kidd told me the helmet is also being made available to other Typhoon users in Europe – namely Spain, Italy and Germany – but he admitted 'there is interest from other nations'. 

The Eurofighter Typhoon frontline fleet delivers air security over the UK and its allies 24/7, 365 days a year.

VIDEOS

Why US F-35 Pilots Take 2 Days to Fit Their $400,000 Most Advanced Helmet

F-35 Pilot Wears $400,000 Super Advanced Helmet for the First Time

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

11-11-2024 om 23:41 geschreven door peter  

Rise of the killer robots: Experts reveal just how close we are to a Terminator-style takeover

• READ MORE: Elon Musk forecasts a '10 to 20 per cent chance' of global disaster

By Jonathan Chadwick For Mailonline 

It's been exactly 40 years since The Terminator hit the big screen, shocking cinemagoers with its terrifying depiction of a post-apocalyptic future. 

In James Cameron's epic sci-fi blockbuster, billions of people are killed when self-aware machines trigger a global nuclear war around the start of the 21st century. 

Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as the eponymous robotic assassin sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 to eliminate the threat of a human resistance. 

Famously, the Terminator, which looks just like an adult human, 'absolutely will not stop … until you are dead', as one character puts it. 

While this sounds like pure sci-fi, academic and industry figures – including Elon Musk – fear that humanity will indeed be annihilated by AI. 

But when exactly will this happen? And will humanity's demise mirror the apocalypse depicted in the Hollywood film?

MailOnline spoke to experts to find out just how close we are to a Terminator-style takeover. 

In James Cameron's epic sci-fi blockbuster - which arrived in US cinemas on Friday, October 26, 1984 - Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as the eponymous robotic assassin 

In the classic film, the Terminator's objective is simple – to kill Sarah Connor, an LA resident who will give birth to John, who will lead a rebellion against the machines. 

Terminator is equipped with weapons and an impenetrable metal exoskeleton, plus advanced vision and superhuman limbs that can crush or strangle us with ease.

Natalie Cramp, partner at data firm JMAN Group, said a real-life equivalent of the Terminator in the real world is possible, but thankfully it likely won't be during our lifetime.

'Anything is possible in the future, but we are a long way from robotics getting to the level where Terminator-like machines have the capacity to overthrow humanity,' she told MailOnline.

According to the expert, humanoid-style robots such as the Terminator aren't the most likely pathway for robotics and AI to advance right now. 

Rather, the more urgent threat in the industry are the machines that are already commonly in use, such as drones and autonomous cars. 

'There are so many hurdles to making a robot like that effectively work – not least how you power it and coordinate movements,' Cramp told MailOnline. 

'The main problem is that it isn't actually the most efficient form for a robot to take to be useful. 

The Terminator is equipped with weapons and an impenetrable metal exoskeleton, as well as massive superhuman limbs that can crush or strangle us with ease

'If we're speculating on what type of AI-devices could "go rogue" and harm us, it's likely to be everyday objects and infrastructure – a self-driving car that malfunctions or a power grid that goes down.' 

Mark Lee, a professor of artificial intelligence at the University of Birmingham, said a Terminator-style apocalypse would happen when 'any government is mad enough to hand over control of national defence to an AI'. 

'Thankfully I don’t think there’s a nation mad enough to consider this,' he told MailOnline. 

Professor Lee agreed that there are different kinds of AI are a more pressing concern, including the powerful algorithms behind them. 

'The immediate danger from AI for most people is the effect on society as we move to AI systems which make decisions on mundane things like job or mortgage applications,' he told MailOnline. 

'However, there is also considerable effort in military applications such as AI guided missile systems or drones. 

'We need to be careful here but the worry is that even if the western world agrees an ethical framework, others in the world might not.' 

The Terminator's objective is simple - to kill Sarah Connor, an LA resident who will give birth to John, who will lead a rebellion against the machines

Dr Tom Watts, a researcher on American foreign policy and international security at Royal Holloway University of London, said it's 'crucially important' human operators continue to exercise control over robots and AI.

'The entire international community, from superpowers such as China and the US to smaller countries, needs to find the political will to cooperate – and to manage the ethical and legal challenges posed by the military applications of AI during this time of geopolitical upheaval,' he writes in a new piece for The Conversation. 

'How nations navigate these challenges will determine whether we can avoid the dystopian future so vividly imagined in The Terminator – even if we don’t see time travelling cyborgs any time soon.' 

In 1991, a hugely successful sequel – Terminator 2: Judgment Day – was released, depicting a 'friendly' reprogrammed version of the eponymous bot.

The film's humanoid antagonist called T-1000 can run at the speed of a car and in one memorable scene liquifies himself to walk through metal bars. 

Scarily, researchers in Hong Kong are working towards making this a reality, having designed a small prototype that can change between liquid and solid stages. 

Overall, creating a walking, talking robot with lethal powers will be more of a  challenge than designing the software system that acts as its brain. 

Since its release, The Terminator has been recognised as one of the greatest science fiction movies of all time. 

At the box office, it made more than 12 times its modest budget of US$6.4 million, which is £4.9 million at today’s exchange rate. 

Dr Watts believes the film's greatest legacy has been to 'distort how we collectively think and speak about AI', which today poses an 'existential danger that often dominates public discussion'. 

Elon Musk is among the technology leaders who have helped keep a focus on the supposed existential risk of AI to humanity, often while referencing the film. 

A TIMELINE OF ELON MUSK'S COMMENTS ON AI

Musk has been a long-standing, and very vocal, condemner of AI technology and the precautions humans should take 

Elon Musk is one of the most prominent names and faces in developing technologies. 

The billionaire entrepreneur heads up SpaceX, Tesla and the Boring company. 

But while he is on the forefront of creating AI technologies, he is also acutely aware of its dangers. 

Here is a comprehensive timeline of all Musk's premonitions, thoughts and warnings about AI, so far.   

August 2014 - 'We need to be super careful with AI. Potentially more dangerous than nukes.' 

October 2014 - 'I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I were to guess like what our biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that. So we need to be very careful with the artificial intelligence.'

October 2014 - 'With artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon.' 

June 2016 - 'The benign situation with ultra-intelligent AI is that we would be so far below in intelligence we'd be like a pet, or a house cat.'

July 2017 - 'I think AI is something that is risky at the civilisation level, not merely at the individual risk level, and that's why it really demands a lot of safety research.' 

July 2017 - 'I have exposure to the very most cutting-edge AI and I think people should be really concerned about it.'

July 2017 - 'I keep sounding the alarm bell but until people see robots going down the street killing people, they don’t know how to react because it seems so ethereal.'

August 2017 -  'If you're not concerned about AI safety, you should be. Vastly more risk than North Korea.'

November 2017 - 'Maybe there's a five to 10 percent chance of success [of making AI safe].'

March 2018 - 'AI is much more dangerous than nukes. So why do we have no regulatory oversight?' 

April 2018 - '[AI is] a very important subject. It's going to affect our lives in ways we can't even imagine right now.'

April 2018 - '[We could create] an immortal dictator from which we would never escape.' 

November 2018 - 'Maybe AI will make me follow it, laugh like a demon & say who’s the pet now.'

September 2019 - 'If advanced AI (beyond basic bots) hasn’t been applied to manipulate social media, it won’t be long before it is.'

February 2020 - 'At Tesla, using AI to solve self-driving isn’t just icing on the cake, it the cake.'

July 2020 - 'We’re headed toward a situation where AI is vastly smarter than humans and I think that time frame is less than five years from now. But that doesn’t mean that everything goes to hell in five years. It just means that things get unstable or weird.' 

April 2021: 'A major part of real-world AI has to be solved to make unsupervised, generalized full self-driving work.'

February 2022: 'We have to solve a huge part of AI just to make cars drive themselves.' 

December 2022: 'The danger of training AI to be woke – in other words, lie – is deadly.' 

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

31-10-2024 om 23:19 geschreven door peter  

26-09-2024 om 01:45 geschreven door peter  

• Carpentopod made by Dutch expert has two motors that power 12 crab-like legs
• READ MORE: Fully functional wooden car looks like Baldrick's time machine 

By Jonathan Chadwick For Mailonline 

There are few things more annoying than sitting down on the sofa before realizing you left your drink on the table 10 feet away.

But instead of having to get up to retrieve it, what if the table could come to you?

That's a dream turned to reality by one expert in the Netherlands, who has built a 12-legged, remote-controlled walking table.

Like a cross between The Luggage from Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels and Theo Jansen's Strandbeest sculptures, Carpentopod has two motors that power 12 legs – six on either side.

Amazing footage shows the table making its way over to the user with a full bottle of beer perched on top, without spilling a drop.  

The remote-controlled Carpentopod has two motors that power 12 legs - six on either side. Amazing video shows it making its way over to the user with a full bottle of beer perched on top

The Luggage from Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels (pictured) is a trunk with legs - and has a nasty habit of biting people 

Carpentopod was built by Giliam de Carpentier, a programmer and carpenter based in Amsterdam, who detailed his creation in a lengthy blog.

He said Carpentopod is 'relatively practical and aesthetically pleasing to have' in the home, further describing it as a 'fusion of the robotic with the organic'.  

'Enjoying the fruits of my labor now that I finished my 12-legged "Carpentopod2 table project,' he said.  

'I choose its name by combining old Latin and Greek words – carpentum (being a carriage), and pod (for feet or legged).'

Carpentopod started off as a software design before de Carpentier employed his carpentry skills to bring it to life. 

Just like Theo Jansen's wind-powered Strandbeest sculptures, Carpentopod features a clever internal rotating mechanism that lifts up one leg when the leg directly opposite is on the ground. 

When it needs to change direction, legs on only one side of the table will move – much like rowers' oars in a boat. 

Carpentopod started off as a software design before Giliam de Carpentier employed his carpentry skills to bring it to life

Carpentopod blends into the surroundings - meaning guests could be taken by surprise once it starts moving

Read More

• Wood you believe it? Inventor builds a WOODEN version of Tesla's Cybertruck - and incredible video confirms it's fully functional 

'As each individual leg in the Carpentopod linkage is only a third of the walk cycle on the ground, the table itself therefore would require twelve legs to be stable at all times,' de Carpentier said. 

'Between the six legs on one end and the six on the other, I also left room for a hollow central "belly" to contain the electronics, motors and battery.' 

The programmer can move his table with a remote, but until then it blends into the surroundings – meaning guests could be taken by surprise once it starts approaching. 

He acknowledges its similarity with The Luggage from Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels – a trunk with legs that has a nasty habit of biting people. 

'To make this not look all angular, I designed the frame and belly to be curved, like an upside down treasure chest,' de Carpentier said.

Theo Jansen's inspiring Strandbeest sculptures (pictured) are able to move on their own, sometimes propelled by wind

'This probably contributed to some people commenting that it looks likes The Luggage from Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. 

'But I promise this similarity is purely coincidental and that a Carpentopod table is far less dangerous.' 

The device seems to have several prospective buyers already, with commentators calling it 'incredible' and 'inspiring'.

One person posted on de Carpentier's blog: 'Oh please, can I buy one? Amazing.' 

Another user said: 'I love every single bit about that.' 

They added: 'The amount of work with regard to the (lack of) usefullness makes it even more fantastic in my views.' 

Someone else posted: 'The clackety clack of its little legs… sublime', adding: 'This is certainly the best thing I've ever seen.' 

Although de Carpentier admitted 'many people have asked if they could get one', he said he's not currently 'making these on demand'. 

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

23-09-2024 om 22:40 geschreven door peter  

An extra-large glider UUV designed to carry out long-range and long-duration missions in undersea environments, DARPA’s Manta Ray is a formidable new system that inherently limits the need for human logistics on-site. The first images of the completed full-scale Manta Ray prototype were released by Northrop Grumman on April 8, 2024.

Designed with both an appearance and performance that mimic mantas, a species of devil ray well known for the massive size they often grow to reach, the next-generation UUV features a range of technologies that combine energy efficiency and increased payload capacity with optimum propulsion capabilities for undersea operations, offering freedom of operation for traditional sailing vessels and providing data that will advance undersea energy harvesting capabilities.

Manta Ray is designed to be dispatched in subsections to its deployment locations, where it is fully assembled on-site. In keeping with its intended assembly parameters, the Manta Ray prototype used in tests earlier this year was delivered by Northrop Grumman directly from its building site in Maryland to California, where it was quickly completed upon arrival.

The rapid delivery and assembly in advance of testing demonstrated Manta Ray’s ability to be deployed quickly while also conserving space at naval facilities.

Dr. Kyle Woerner, DARPA program manager for Manta Ray, said the full-scale tests allowed the DARPA team to gauge the new underwater vehicle’s capabilities while ensuring that the new UUV and its rapid assembly would allow for smooth operations from the moment each of its modular subsectional components is unboxed.

“The combination of cross-country modular transportation, in-field assembly, and subsequent deployment demonstrates a first-of-kind capability for an extra-large UUV,” Woerner said in a statement.

“Shipping the vehicle directly to its intended area of operation conserves energy that the vehicle would otherwise expend during transit,” Woerner said in a statement, adding that following its deployment, Manta Ray can utilize buoyancy-propelled gliding capabilities that allow it to conserve energy while moving through the water.

Additionally, Manta Ray possesses multiple bays capable of storing payloads of various sizes, which allows it to meet the demands of several different mission types.

Ultimately, Manta Ray’s goal is to aid in developing next-generation long-duration and extended-range UUVs suited for a variety of missions and capable of carrying payloads that will altogether provide unmatched capabilities for future U.S. Navy operations.

According to DARPA, full-scale tests involving the UUV’s energy harvesting system are currently underway with Manta Ray performer PacMar Technologies.

• Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. He can be reached by email at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow his work at micahhanks.com and on X: @MicahHanks.

VIDEOS

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/science/ }

08-09-2024 om 22:06 geschreven door peter  

This Former NASA Engineer Has Discovered a Way To Overcome Earth’s gravity

Dr. Charles Buhler has developed an engine that harnesses a new force outside of our current knowledge of physics to create thrust without propulsion. Dr. Buhler, a NASA engineer and the co-founder of Exodus Propulsion Technologies, has revealed that his company’s propellantless propulsion drive, which appears to defy the known laws of physics, has produced enough thrust to counteract Earth’s gravity.

Dr. Buhler, a NASA scientist, worked on safety projects for space missions like the Space Shuttle and Mars Exploration. Now, he’s developing a way to clean dust from astronauts and equipment using electricity for NASA’s Moon mission. But that’s not all – he might have discovered a way to make a machine move without fuel, which would change space travel forever.

Dr. Buhler’s idea is based on a new understanding of gravity, which is like a heavy object warping a rubber sheet. He thinks he’s found a way to move an object in a straight line on this curved sheet, essentially creating a shortcut through space. This could revolutionize space travel, making it faster and more efficient. While it sounds like  science fiction, Dr. Buhler’s work could be the key to unlocking new possibilities for space exploration.

Now, to overcome is invisible force, Dr. Buhler and his team claim to have generated 1G (as in Earth’s 1G of gravity) of thrust without any propellant. If it’s true, it would be revolutionary for humanity and would unleash a new era of space exploration.

In 2001, British Electrical Engineer Roger Shawyer first introduced the “impossible drive,” known as the EmDrive. It was called “impossible” because its creator purported that the drive was reactionless, meaning no propellant required—in other words, it defied the known laws of physics (specifically, the conservation of momentum).

Scientists were curious but also skeptical. They tested the EmDrive, for 20 years and finally decided it didn’t work as promised.

Dr.  Charles Buhler, who worked on a range of programs while at NASA, has since co-founded Exodus Propulsion Technologies, which in 2019 applied for a patent for a system that they claim can generate force using asymmetrical electrostatic pressure. According to the patent, the system generates a voltage difference across an electrically conductive surface.

“The applied voltage difference creates an electric field resulting in an electrostatic pressure force acting on at least one surface of an object. Asymmetries in the resulting electrostatic pressure force vectors result in a net resulting electrostatic pressure force acting on the object,” the patent reads, adding that the invention could be used as a thruster to propel spacecraft.

“The magnitude of the net resulting electrostatic pressure force is a function of the geometry of the electrically conductive surfaces, the applied voltage, and the dielectric constant of any material present in the gap between electrodes.”

According to Dr. Buhler, whose team has been looking for alternative explanations for the force generated, they were able to create a large enough force for the (very small) object to overcome Earth’s 1G of gravity (i.e. enough thrust to move the object off the ground in Earth’s gravity) using the method.

That may sound like peanuts – but in the near-vacuum of space, you do not need a lot of thrust to accelerate (depending, of course, on the mass of your payload). If you could maintain a constant 1G of acceleration, for example, not only could you enjoy a nice artificial gravity equivalent to that on Earth, but you could reach vast distances within a human lifespan (or at least, from the traveler’s perspective). But doing so would require an unimaginable amount of force beyond what we are capable of delivering with current propellants.

Dr. Buhler’s claim, were it to be proven true and not the result of another force the team has not accounted for, would be huge. During tests, the team claims to have found an even more puzzling result; the device was apparently sometimes able to maintain this thrust without a constant electrical input.

Dr. Buhler told The Debrief that they’ve created a drive powered by a “New Force” outside our current known laws of physics, giving the propellant-less drive enough boost to overcome gravity.

“The most important message to convey to the public is that a major discovery occurred,” Buhler told The Debrief. “This discovery of a New Force is fundamental in that electric fields alone can generate a sustainable force onto an object and allow center-of-mass translation of said object without expelling mass.”

He stressed that this work is unaffiliated with NASA and that he recently presented his findings at the Alternative Propulsion Energy Conference (APEC), which is a club of engineers and enthusiasts eager to find ways to overcome the limitations of gravity and physics—and not always with the most scientifically sound methods. (Source)

Dr. Buhler and his team presented their findings at a conference called the Alternative Propulsion Energy Conference (APEC). This conference is a meeting of experts and enthusiasts who explore unusual ideas for space travel, like anti-gravity

Dr. Buhler made it clear that his work is not connected to NASA or the US Government. He just wants to share his team’s discovery with others who are interested in new ideas for space travel.

Dr. Buhler presented his team’s research at a conference, focusing on their experiments from the last decade. He shared detailed  math and steps they took to develop a new type of propulsion drive that doesn’t use fuel.

Read also:

• This Mexican Scientist Claimed We Live in a Holographic Matrix, Disappears Mysteriously After It
• This Swiss Scientist Claims There is Portal Underneath CERN from where Beings Coming In & Out
• This Salt Lake City Tech CEO Found Dead After Eerie Calls: ‘It’s All a Game… We’re in the Matrix’

They made big breakthroughs, like increasing the force generated from 0.01% of gravity in 2016 to much more in later years. Their goal is to reach “unity,” where the device can lift itself against Earth’s gravity. They measure force in small units, but aim to exceed 1 gravity of thrust. The team carefully ruled out other explanations for the force they measured, leading to a patented invention in 2020.

“Our materials are composed of many types of charge carrier coatings that have to be supported on a dielectric film,” Buhler told The Debrief. “Our aim is to make it as lightweight as possible, but that is sometimes difficult since the films and their coatings have to have a high dielectric breakdown strength.”

After employing these new designs, the next series of tests produced even more encouraging results. The team once again confirmed the thrust, but the new approach resulted in an order of magnitude jump to one ten-thousandth of a gravity. This was still not enough to leave the planet, but it was enough to know they were on the right track.

As the team neared their goal, they tried new and improved designs. They kept measuring the thrust and ruled out other explanations for what they were seeing.

Then, in 2022, something amazing happened. The force generated by their device suddenly increased significantly. Looking at their data, we can see that between early 2022 and November 2023, the force jumped from tiny fractions of gravity to a full Earth gravity. This means their small device (about 30-40 grams) was producing enough force to lift itself against Earth’s gravity. This is a remarkable achievement!

After decades of research, Dr. Buhler says he and his team had shown unequivocally that a new, fundamental force was at work and that his devices were tapping into that force to produce thrust without emitting any mass or propellant.

“Essentially, what we’ve discovered is that systems that contain an asymmetry in either electrostatic pressure or some kind of electrostatic divergent field can give a system of a center of mass a non-zero force component,” Buhler explained. “So, what that basically means is that there’s some underlying physics that can essentially place force on an object should those two constraints be met.”

Dr. Buhler’s claims are exciting, but we’ve seen similar claims about propellant-less drives before that didn’t hold up to scrutiny.

For example, NASA’s Eagleworks team thought they had found a way to make the EmDrive work in 2016, but later studies showed it didn’t actually work. So, before we get too excited about Buhler’s claims, we need to see rigorous testing and verification from multiple sources. It’s possible that Buhler’s team discovered something new, but it’s unlikely. Let’s call it an “improbable engine” for now.

Whenever the topics of anti-gravity and thrusters come up, I always go and watch this video of Bob Lazar.

Bob Lazar is saying that the technology he worked on operates based on a completely different type of physics than what we’re familiar with. Normally, all our  vehicles—whether planes, jets, or rockets—move by pushing something out the back, creating an action that pushes the  vehicle forward. But the craft he worked on doesn’t work that way. Instead, it uses something called “field propulsion,” which bends space and time in front of it, causing the craft to move forward without any traditional thrust.

Do you think we already have this anti-gravity technology?

{ https://www.howandwhys.com/ }

02-09-2024 om 20:41 geschreven door peter  

Artikel door Dominique Dewitte

 

Iets meer dan een jaar geleden bracht het in San Francisco gevestigde OpenAI zijn chatbot ChatGPT op de markt, wat een goudkoorts veroorzaakte voor kunstmatige intelligentie en het eeuwenoude debat over de effecten van automatisering op het welzijn van mensen weer op gang bracht.

De angst voor verdringing door machines gaat terug tot de Industriële Revolutie in de 19e eeuw, toen groepen Engelse handwevers, bekend als Luddites, begonnen met het vernietigen van de elektrische weefgetouwen die hun levensonderhoud bedreigden. De beweging, die een hoogtepunt bereikte tussen 1811 en 1817, werd uiteindelijk onderdrukt door de regeringstroepen en de leiders werden geëxecuteerd of verbannen naar Australië.

Luddieten zaten ernaast

Maar de argumenten van de Luddieten vonden een onverwachte (en enigszins ironische) voorvechter in de beroemde econoom David Ricardo, die in zijn boek On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation uit 1817 betoogde dat “de mening van de arbeidersklasse dat het gebruik van machines vaak schadelijk is voor hun belangen, niet gebaseerd is op vooroordelen en fouten, maar in overeenstemming is met de juiste principes van de politieke economie”. De Britse econoom Nassau Senior adviseerde de wevers om “uit die productietak te stappen”.

Uiteindelijk deden ze precies dat: 250.000 banen op handweefgetouwen verdwenen tussen 1820 en 1860. Maar terwijl de mechanisatie uiteindelijk de menselijke arbeiders ten goede kwam – de bevolking en het reële inkomen per hoofd van de bevolking in het Verenigd Koninkrijk verveelvoudigden in dezelfde periode – had het een nadelige invloed op de paarden, wier aantallen sterk daalden toen treinen (en later gemotoriseerde voertuigen) het door paarden getrokken vervoer vervingen.

Meer waardevolle bezigheden

Sinds de Industriële Revolutie is het overheersende pro-machine argument dat door het verhogen van de arbeidsproductiviteit, automatisering het reële inkomen verhoogt, waardoor meer mensen van een hogere levensstandaard kunnen genieten zonder dat er banen verloren gaan. Bovendien heeft de bevrijding van vervelende ondergeschikte taken ons in staat gesteld onze energie te richten op meer waardevolle bezigheden.

De hedendaagse tegenhangers van de Luddieten benadrukken daarentegen de nadelen van automatisering, vooral het potentieel om bestaansmiddelen en gemeenschappen te vernietigen. Een rechtvaardige verdeling van inkomen en macht is volgens hen cruciaal om op lange termijn de vruchten te kunnen plukken van technologische vooruitgang. Technopessimisten zoals Martin Ford en Daniel Susskind hebben beweerd dat opkomende technologieën zoals AI te weinig nieuwe banen zullen creëren, wat zal leiden tot meer armoede en “technologische werkloosheid”.

Menselijk werk uitbreiden in plaats van vervangen

De opkomst van generatieve AI en de verwachte komst van kunstmatige algemene intelligentie – een AI die in staat is om elke cognitieve taak uit te voeren die mensen kunnen uitvoeren – hebben het debat tussen techno-optimisten en techno-sceptici op scherp gezet. In de gezondheidszorg bijvoorbeeld, een schijnbaar eindeloze bron van tech-hypes, belooft AI betere diagnoses, geavanceerde telegeneeskunde, effectievere medicijnen en minder administratieve rompslomp voor artsen en verpleegkundigen, waardoor er meer tijd overblijft voor patiëntenzorg.

Dit lijkt de heersende opvatting onder mainstream experts te weerspiegelen dat generatieve AI menselijk werk zal uitbreiden in plaats van vervangen. Door routinetaken te automatiseren, belooft het mensen vrij te maken voor creatiever werk. Om zeker te zijn, zal deze transformatie levenslang leren vereisen, waardoor voortdurende educatie een voorwaarde wordt, niet alleen om deel te nemen aan de arbeidsmarkt, maar ook om toegang te krijgen tot een groeiend aanbod van online diensten.

Een superintelligentie die op hol slaat

Met de komst van generatieve AI is de bezorgdheid verschoven van door automatisering veroorzaakt banenverlies naar het vooruitzicht van een superintelligentie die op hol slaat – een angst die teruggaat tot Mary Shelley’s roman Frankenstein uit 1818; of, De moderne Prometheus. In navolging van deze gevoelens merkte voormalig Google CEO Eric Schmidt onlangs op dat, hoewel de huidige AI-modellen “onder menselijke controle” blijven, er een reëel risico bestaat dat een AI het vermogen ontwikkelt tot “recursieve zelfverbetering”, autonomie verwerft en “zijn eigen doelen begint te stellen”. Uiteindelijk, waarschuwde hij, zou een “computercluster” zich kunnen ontwikkelen tot een “echt bovenmenselijke expert” die in staat is om zelfstandig te handelen.

Nu experts en wetenschappers zich steeds meer zorgen maken over het vermogen van AI om de wereld te vernietigen, gaan er steeds meer stemmen op om de ontwikkeling van AI af te stemmen op menselijke doelen en waarden. Er zijn twee manieren om dit te bereiken. De eerste is om de beschikbaarheid en verkoop van potentieel schadelijke AI-gebaseerde producten te beperken, zoals beleidsmakers in Europa en elders hebben geprobeerd door strenge regels op te leggen aan opkomende technologieën zoals autonome auto’s en gezichtsherkenning.

Regulering komt vaak te laat

Een duidelijk probleem met deze aanpak is dat het moeilijk is om een consensus te bereiken over wat schade is in een wereld waarin moreel relativisme de norm is. Omdat het steeds onduidelijker wordt wie de “eigenaar” is van inhoud die als schadelijk wordt beschouwd, is het vrijwel onmogelijk om verkopers of providers aansprakelijk te stellen. Bovendien komen pogingen om het gebruik van technologie te reguleren vaak te laat.

De tweede manier om AI te beteugelen is om de ontwikkeling van potentieel gevaarlijke producten volledig te beperken. Maar het inperken van de vraag is ingewikkelder dan het beperken van het aanbod, vooral in moderne samenlevingen waar concurrerende krachten – zowel commercieel als geopolitiek – het vertragen van technologische innovatie buitengewoon moeilijk maken.

Onrust bij OpenAI

De recente onrust bij OpenAI is hier een goed voorbeeld van. In november ontsloeg de raad van bestuur van het bedrijf CEO Sam Altman kortstondig, naar verluidt uit bezorgdheid dat AI op een dag zou kunnen leiden tot het uitsterven van de mensheid. Hoewel Altman slechts enkele dagen later weer werd aangesteld, onderstreepte het schandaal de snelheid waarmee ogenschijnlijk nuttige technologieën existentiële risico’s kunnen worden. Nu snelle commercialisering het blijkbaar wint van voorzichtigheid en concurrentie de ontwikkeling van steeds krachtigere hulpmiddelen versnelt, lijkt een door AI veroorzaakte apocalyps steeds aannemelijker.

Neo-Luddisme

De onontkoombare conclusie is dat het reguleren van AI alleen niet genoeg is. Maar door concepten als neo-Luddisme en herverdeling in het publieke debat te introduceren, kunnen we de politieke en intellectuele woordenschat ontwikkelen die nodig is om de bedreigingen van deze opkomende technologieën te beperken.

Een neo-Luddiet zou zich bijvoorbeeld kunnen afvragen: Waarom zijn welvarende samenlevingen, die al meer dan genoeg produceren voor hun burgers om comfortabel te leven, nog steeds gefocust op het maximaliseren van de groei van het bbp? Eén antwoord zou kunnen zijn dat er geen eerlijke verdeling van rijkdom en inkomen is die ervoor zorgt dat de voordelen van productiviteits- en efficiëntiewinsten breed worden gedeeld.

Een andere verklaring is dat technologie zelf niet intrinsiek goed of slecht is; het is een middel om een doel te bereiken. En in de huidige politieke economie is “technologische innovatie” vaak een eufemisme om de rijken en machtigen in staat te stellen kapitaal om te leiden van de industrie naar de financiële sector, waardoor ze de voordelen van automatisering monopoliseren en alle anderen immiseriseren.

• Robert Skidelsky, lid van het Britse Hogerhuis, is emeritus hoogleraar politieke economie aan Warwick University. Hij is de auteur van een bekroonde biografie van John Maynard Keynes en The Machine Age: Een idee, een geschiedenis, een waarschuwing (Allen Lane, 2023).
• © Project Syndicate, 2023.
• www.project-syndicate.org

{ https://www.msn.com/nl-be/ }

31-08-2024 om 17:54 geschreven door peter  

Time slips; a curious phenomena where individuals unexpectedly find themselves transported across time, be it minutes, days, or even years, without any intention or control over the experience. Those who experience time slips often report feeling as though they’ve been transported to a different point in time. 

Imagine walking down a familiar street when suddenly everything changes. The asphalt beneath your feet transforms into cobblestone, cars vanish, replaced by horse-drawn carriages. The air fills with the scent of coal smoke and horse manure. 

People in Victorian-era clothing hurry past, glancing at you suspiciously. Panic sets in as you realize you're no longer in your own time. Then, just as quickly, you're back in the present day. 

You’ve just experienced a time slip, and you’re not alone. 

Thousands of people worldwide have reported similar experiences, brief moments of traveling through time, witnessing scenes from the past or future, only to return to the present moment. 

But what exactly are these experiences? Are they vivid hallucinations, or could time slips be real, offering us glimpses into the true nature of time and reality? 

Some theories suggest that if a portal existed between our universe and a parallel one, time slips could theoretically occur. However, it’s crucial to note that there is no concrete evidence to support the idea that we live in a multiverse. 

In the video below, we’ll explore a few famous time slip stories and the scientific theories that might help explain these mysterious events.

  

{ https://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/ }

28-08-2024 om 22:59 geschreven door peter  

From sex robots to suicide booths: The weird and wonderful Futurama technologies that are now a REALITY - as the sci-fi cartoon returns to our screens

• Matt Groening's classic rebooted show gets another new series on Disney+ 
• READ MORE: When Black Mirror became real from killer robots to kids with chips

By Jonathan Chadwick For Mailonline 

It's been 25 years since Matt Groening's classic cartoon Futurama first aired, offering a hilarious portrayal of Earth in the 31st century. 

In the cult sci-fi series, New York delivery boy Fry is cryogenically frozen on New Year's Eve 1999 and wakes up 1,000 years later to a very different reality. 

As Fry discovers, the world is full of technological wonders, from self aware robots to high-speed transportation tubes and celebrities preserved in jars. 

Although many are still the stuff of fantasy, the last quarter of a century has seen a level of technological invention that the show's producers surely didn't anticipate. 

As a new series airs on Disney+, MailOnline takes a look at Futurama gadgetry that's now a realty, from sex robots to chip implants and even suicide booths.

From real-life sex robots to chip implants and even suicide booths, Futurama-inspired technology has become real since the show first aired in 1999

SUICIDE BOOTHS

In the very first episode of Futurama, Fry meets Bender, an alcoholic metalworking robot, while they're queuing up to enter a 'suicide booth' in New New York City. 

For 25 cents, the kiosk offers one of two death options – 'quick and painless' and 'slow and horrible', which involves getting stabbed with various sharp implements. 

When Futurama debuted in 1999, the concept of a suicide booth was clearly satire, but a quarter of a century later a real version actually exists. 

The Sarco Pod, developed by Australian euthanasia advocate Dr Philip Nitschke, looks like a cross between a one-man spaceship and a high-tech coffin.

Read More

• 'That's enough, stop the world I want to get off': People are left stunned at man, 58, who sleeps with a £2,000 blonde robot four times a week (and his wife is fine with it) 

The device reportedly cost more than $700,000 (£540,000) to develop, but will cost each user as little as $20 (£15). 

In July, the pod was due to be used for the first time, in Switzerland, where assisted suicide has been legal since 1942 unless it's done for 'selfish' reasons by the assister. 

But plans stalled after prosecutors warned anyone assisting someone to use the pod could face prison, accusing Nitschke of 'inducement and aiding and abetting suicide for selfish reasons'. 

An earlier suicide device called the Thanatron that delivered a killer dose of drugs intravenously, invented by controversial pathologist Jack Kevorkian, was first used in 1990. 

But the Sarco Pod is said to be the first booth that people can pay to enter and choose to end their lives. 

SEX ROBOTS

For many, Futurama introduced the concept of robosexuality – the sexual attraction between people and robots. 

In one episode, Bender has a steamy relationship with human Amy, while in another episode Fry hooks up with a robot modelled on actress Lucy Liu. 

While humanoids in the real world do not quite offer the capabilities as those seen in Futurama, 'sex bots' have filled the market in the last decade. 

Much more technologically sophisticated than traditional sex dolls, these lifelike devices pack remarkable features (aside from synthetic genitalia). 

In the 2001 episode 'I Dated a Robot', Fry hooks up with a robot modelled on actress Lucy Liu

Roxxxy, a life-size robotic girlfriend complete with artificial intelligence and flesh-like synthetic skin, was introduced at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in 2010

In 2017, Canadian robotics firm called Realbotix released Harmony 3.0, a £12,000 sex robot with a self-lubricating vagina that can be taken out and washed. 

The following year it unveiled a male equivalent called Henry with an impressive six pack that can woo ladies with jokes and romantic phrases. 

Other models include Roxxxy who has synthetic skin and AI abilities that let it learn the owner's likes and dislikes. 

Industry experts anticipate sex robots eventually becoming so sophisticated that they're indistinguishable from real lovers. 

LANGUAGE TRANSLATORS

In Futurama, Fry's distant relative and madcap scientist Professor Farnsworth comes up with elaborate inventions that often tread the line between pointless and ingenious.

One of these is the 'Universal Translator', a bright green device equipped with a microphone that's designed to change audio of any one language into another. 

Unfortunately, due to a technical malfunction it only translates into 'an incomprehensible dead language' (French), but more adept real life versions are now taking the tech world by storm. 

Pictured, Professor Farnsworth's 'Universal Translator' designed to translate audio of any language into another. But due to a technical malfunction it only translates into 'an incomprehensible dead language' (French)

Pixel Fold's Live Translate interpreter mode uses both the inner and outer screens simultaneously for face-to-face conversations in different languages

Hong Kong firm Timekettle offers a $700 device called X1 that uses AI to 'hear' one spoken language and translate it into another

Google's Pixel phones now include a tool called Live Translate, which turns a spoken language into the text of another, presented on the device's screen. 

Hong Kong firm Timekettle offers a $700 pocket-sized device called X1 that uses AI to 'hear' one spoken language and translate it into one of around 40 others. 

Similarly, Chinese company Vormor offers a high-tech 'pen' that not only translates voices but unfamiliar text thanks to an inbuilt scanner. 

Perfect for real-time communications between two people who don't speak the same language, these little devices could soon become more ubiquitous in offices, restaurants and airports in the years to come. 

DELIVERY SHIPS 

He's an eccentric boss delivering cargo beyond planet Earth in an elaborate spaceship. 

And if you're not sure if we're talking about Futurama's Professor Farnsworth or SpaceX's Elon Musk, you could be forgiven.

The iconic green ship owned by Professor Farnsworth's firm Planet Express delivers packages around the galaxy  

Elon Musk's company SpaceX has developed a spacecraft called Starship designed to transport crew and cargo to Earth's orbit, the moon and Mars. Pictured, a Starship prototype in Texas, August 2021 

Read More

BREAKING NEWS

•  Elon Musk's Starship returns to Earth after completing landmark test flight for the first time 

In the show, Professor Farnsworth's company Planet Express delivers packages around the galaxy in an iconic green rocket ship. 

Similarly, Musk's firm SpaceX is responsible for the most powerful rocket ever built on Earth – the Starship.

The multi-billion-dollar, stainless-steel, 165-foot vessel has been designed to transport crew and cargo to Earth's orbit and the moon.

It's due to land four astronauts on the moon as part of NASA's Artemis 3 mission in 2026 – the first manned trip to the lunar surface since 1972. 

Although the ambitious ship is still in its testing phases, Musk hopes Starship will eventually take humans to Mars – truly making us a 'multiplanetary species' worthy of Futurama. 

CHIP IMPLANTS 

As Fry finds out in the first episode, citizens are implanted with a small chip with a nasty-looking handheld puncture gun to assign them a permanent career. 

As one-eyed mutant Leela warns, it is against the law to refuse the chip implant or have it removed – punishable with being 'fired out of a cannon into the sun'. 

In Futurama, citizens are implanted with a small chip with a nasty-looking handheld puncture gun to assign them a permanent career. It is against the law to not have these career chip implanted, or to have it removed, and the punishment for such an act is to be 'fired out of a cannon, into the sun'. In the 2020s, implantable chips are all the rage among 'biohackers'

Arnie Szoke, 40, paid £350 to have a safety-pin sized chip placed into his hand by surgeons

In the 2020s, implantable chips are all the rage among a growing global community known as the 'biohackers' – although don't worry, you won't be penalized for not having one.

These chips have a multitude of uses, from paying for transport to opening doors with the wave of a hand and performing magic tricks. 

Among the most famous biohackers are British engineer Professor Kevin Warwick, who got his first chip a year before Futurama first aired.

Meanwhile, stunt performer Anastasia Synn in California holds the Guinness World Record for having the most implants – a grand total of 52.

Similar to the procedure on Futurama, biohackers tend to feel a sharp pain when they get their device inserted under the skin, similar to a body piercing. 

But some amateur hackers are performing implant operations without proper medical assistance, leading to complications such as nerve damage. 

FLYING CARS

In New New York, commuters travel in giant network of suction tubes, taking them from A to B in a matter of seconds. 

Unfortunately, it may be several more centuries before this incredible conveyance system arrives in the world's major cities.

But engineers are making great strides with another form of 31st century transport – the flying car. 

Pictured, the 'AirCar' craft, which can transform from a road vehicle into a plane in under three minutes and is officially certified to fly after passing safety tests in Slovakia

 

California firm Alef Aeronautics has a vertical take-off and landing vehicle that can take off from conventional roads 

In Futurama the Beta Romeo flying vehicle (pictured) can go from hovering above the ground to flying in space

Investors around the world are pumping millions of dollars into flying taxi projects, which are going through various stages of testing.

Alef Aeronautics based in California has built an electric car with a mesh-covered body that conceals eight propellers.

These propellers, which replace the traditional car motors, allow it to take off straight up into the air from a conventional road, without the need for any runway space.

Meanwhile, the 'AirCar' craft, which can transform from a road vehicle into a plane in under three minutes, is officially certified to fly after passing safety tests in Slovakia.

In just a few years the vehicles could make use of the vast untapped potential of airspace while completing journeys at a fraction of the time.

Of course, many 31st technologies portrayed in the show remain in the realm of fiction – at least for now. 

Futurama depicts the heads of many modern-day celebrities kept alive preserved in liquid, such as Leonard Nimoy and Pamela Anderson. 

In Futurama, heads in jars are kept alive by a unique form of 'powdered crystaline opal' that according to Professor Farnsworth has 'unique temporal properties'

New New Yorkers travel in giant network of suction tubes, taking them from A to B in a matter of seconds (pictured)

But will a liquid that can keep people alive without the rest of their bodies – not to mention for 1,000 years – ever exist? 

Dr Alexandra Morton-Hayward, a forensic anthropologist at the University of Oxford, said 'anything is possible' with such a timeframe. 

'I imagine you'd need a synthetic, oxygenated liquid that mimics our cerebrospinal fluid, which is clear and colourless, so at least you'd have a crystal-clear view of your poor disembodied mate,' she told MailOnline. 

'Without a gut for digestion, it'd also be important that the head be able to absorb all necessary nutrients from this fluid – perhaps with dissolvable, fish food-style pellets.'

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

26-08-2024 om 21:29 geschreven door peter