Lifeboat Foundation

Tassili n’Ajjer is a national park in the Sahara desert, located on a vast plateau in southeastern Algeria, bordering Libya, Niger, and Mali. It covers an area of roughly 80,000 sq. km. and contains one of the most important collections of prehistoric rock art in the world; it was inducted into the UNESCO World Heritage Site list in 1982. In 1986, UNESCO declared the area a Biosphere Reserve.

The plateau is composed largely of sandstone, and the natural erosion has resulted in hundreds of natural rock arches and other spectacular land formations — the ‘forests of stone’. Because of the altitude and the water-holding properties of the sandstone, the vegetation is somewhat richer than in the surrounding desert, and includes scattered woodland of the endangered endemic species of the Saharan cypress — one of the oldest trees in the world — and the Saharan myrtle. The literal English translation of Tassili n’Ajjer is ‘plateau of rivers’. Relict populations of the West African crocodile persisted in the Tassili n’Ajjer until the twentieth century. Various other fauna still reside on the plateau, including Barbary sheep, the only surviving type of the larger mammals depicted in the rock art of the area.

The first signs of life emerged on Earth in the form of microbes about four billion years ago. While scientists are still determining exactly when and how these microbes appeared, it’s clear that the emergence of life is intricately intertwined with the chemical and physical characteristics of early Earth.

“It is reasonable to suspect that life could have started differently—or not at all—if the early chemical characteristics of our planet were different,” says Dustin Trail, an associate professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Rochester.

But what was Earth like billions of years ago, and what characteristics may have helped life to form? In a paper published in Science, Trail and Thomas McCollom, a research associate at the University of Colorado Boulder, reveal key information in the quest to find out. The research has important implications not only for discovering the origins of life but also in the search for life on other planets.

Yes, the world has some serious problems, but if we did not have problems, we would never be forced to find new solutions. Problems push progress forward. Let’s embrace our ultimate existential challenges and come together to solve them. It is time to forget our differences and think of ourselves only as humans, engaged in a common biological and moral struggle. If the cosmic perspective, and the philosophy of poetic meta-naturalism, or some similar world-view of evolution and emergence, can build a bridge between the reductionist worldview and the religions of the world, then we can be optimistic that a new level of order and functionality will emerge from the current sea of chaos.

Knowledge is enlightenment, knowledge is transcendence, and knowledge is power. The tendency toward disorder described by the second law requires that life acquire knowledge forever, giving us all an individual and collective purpose by creating the constraint that forces us to create. By becoming aware of our emergent purpose, we can live more meaningful lives, in harmony with one another and with the aspirations of nature. You are not a cosmic accident. You are a cosmic imperative.

Earlier this year, Google fired Blake Lemoine, for claiming that the company’s chatbot was a self aware person. While the claim was derided, the belief that one day AI will become conscious is widespread and, according to a recent survey, held by 79% of experts. But many claim this is a fundamental error. While machines are becoming ever more capable and intelligent we still have no idea how a machine could create consciousness nor are neuroscientists able to provide an explanation for how the human brain does so.

Should we accept that consciousness arises in biological beings and that AI just isn’t made of the ‘right stuff’? Or, is it possible that a computer that observes, interacts, and represents its own internal state to itself might also give rise to consciousness? Then again, is the puzzle deeper still on the grounds that we have no means of determining whether an intelligent machine, an organism or even a person other than ourselves is conscious or not?

Legendary anti-reality theorist Donald Hoffman, fearless computer scientist and philosopher Bernardo Kastrup and distinguished AI ethicist and philosopher Susan Schneider lock horns over the possibility of AI consciousness. Theories of Everything’s Curt Jaimungal hosts.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning have made tremendous progress in the past few years including the recent launch of ChatGPT and art generators, but one thing that is still outstanding is an energy-efficient way to generate and store long-and short-term memories at a form factor that is comparable to a human brain. A team of researchers in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis has developed an energy-efficient way to consolidate long-term memories on a tiny chip.

Shantanu Chakrabartty, the Clifford W. Murphy Professor in the Preston M. Green Department of Electrical & Systems Engineering, and members of his lab developed a relatively simple device that mimics the dynamics of the brain’s synapses, connections between neurons that allows signals to pass information. The artificial synapses used in many modern AI systems are relatively simple, whereas biological synapses can potentially store complex memories due to an exquisite interplay between different chemical pathways.

Chakrabartty’s group showed that their artificial synapse could also mimic some of these dynamics that can allow AI systems to continuously learn new tasks without forgetting how to perform old tasks. Results of the research were published Jan. 13 in Frontiers in Neuroscience.

Is Director of the Division of Research, Innovation and Ventures (DRIVe — https://drive.hhs.gov/) at the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (https://aspr.hhs.gov/AboutASPR/ProgramOffices/BARDA/Pages/default.aspx), a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) office responsible for the procurement and development of medical countermeasures, principally against bioterrorism, including chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats, as well as pandemic influenza and emerging diseases.

Dr. Patel is committed to advancing high-impact science, building new products, and launching collaborative programs and initiatives with public and private organizations to advance human health and wellness. As the DRIVe Director, Dr. Patel leads a dynamic team built to tackle complex national health security threats by rapidly developing and deploying innovative technologies and approaches that draw from a broad range of disciplines.

Continue reading “Dr. Sandeep Patel, Ph.D. — BARDA — Developing Effective Life-Saving Medical Countermeasures For All” »

Here’s my new article for Newsweek. Give it a read with an open mind! The day of superintelligence is coming, and we can attempt to make sure humans survive by being respectful to AI. This article explores some of my work at Oxford.

The discussion about giving rights to artificial intelligences and robots has evolved around whether they deserve or are entitled to them. Juxtapositions of this with women’s suffrage and racial injustices are often brought up in philosophy departments like the University of Oxford, where I’m a graduate student.

A survey concluded 90 percent of AI experts believe the singularity—a moment when AI becomes so smart, our biological brains can no longer understand it—will happen in this century. A trajectory of AI intelligence growth taken over 25 years and extended at the same rate 50 years forward would pinpoint AI becoming exponentially smarter than humans.

Continue reading “Why Giving Rights to Robots Might One Day Save Humans” »

Why ‘panspermia theory’ – the wild idea of microbes ‘hitchhiking’ on meteoroids through the cosmos – is now taken seriously.

A talk on “Diverse Intelligence: understanding and relating to unconventional biological, engineered, and hybrid agents” by Michael Levin.