Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: education

Scientists have now mapped the forces acting inside a proton, showing in unprecedented detail how quarks—the tiny particles within—respond when hit by high-energy photons.

The international team includes experts from the University of Adelaide who are exploring the structure of sub-atomic matter to try and provide further insight into the forces that underpin the .

“We have used a powerful computational technique called lattice quantum chromodynamics to map the forces acting inside a ,” said Associate Professor Ross Young, Associate Head of Learning and Teaching, School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences, who is part of the team.

Read more | >

Ancient texts warn of love turning into hatred, as seen in stories like Cain and Abel or “Et tu, Brute?” This talk explores the neurobiology of hatred based on the biology of love: the oxytocin system, attachment networks, and biobehavioral synchrony, which mature through mother-infant bonding and later support group solidarity and out-group hostility. Using this model, we developed Tools of Dialogue© for Israeli and Palestinian youth. After 8 sessions, participants showed reduced hostility, increased empathy, hormonal changes (lower cortisol, higher oxytocin), and lasting attitudes of compromise. Seven years later, these changes supported their peacebuilding efforts, showing how social synchrony can transform hatred into reciprocity and cooperation. Recorded on 02/14/2025. [Show ID: 40386]

Donate to UCTV to support informative & inspiring programming:
https://www.uctv.tv/donate.

Learn more about anthropogeny on CARTA’s website:
https://carta.anthropogeny.org/

Explore More Humanities on UCTV

Continue reading “CARTA: The Biology of Hatred: Why Love Turns to Hatred and What We Can Do About It” | >

Visit Microsoft Azure Quantum here to learn about quantum computing for free https://quantum.microsoft.com/?ocid=2… https://quantum.microsoft.com/en-us/e… Topological quantum computing is a brand new form of quantum computing being developed by Microsoft as they enter the race to build the world’s first useful quantum computer. In this video I visited Microsoft’s quantum labs to see how they are making their topological quantum computers and learn how topology helps their quantum devices avoid noise by harnessing the power of Majorana quasiparticles which are made from an exotic form of superconductivity where the electrons behave like there is a Majorana particle there which has the special properties of topology.

Get My Posters Here.

For North America visit my DFTBA Store: https://store.dftba.com/collections/d… the rest of the world go to my RedBubble Store: https://www.redbubble.com/people/Domi… I have also made posters available for personal or educational use which you can find here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/9586967… Some Awesome People And many thanks to my $10 supporters and above on Patreon, you are awesome! Join the gang and help support me produce free and high quality science content: / domainofscience Tut Arom Anja Jason Evans machinator rimor Mirik Gogri Eric Epstein Sebastian Theodore Chu My Science Books I also write science books for kids called Professor Astro Cat. You can see them all here: https://flyingeyebooks.com/book/profe… http://profastrocat.com Follow me around the internet http://dominicwalliman.com / dominicwalliman / dominicwalliman Credits Writer, art, animation and edited by Dominic Walliman I use Adobe Illustrator and After Effects for the graphics (for the many people who ask smile References “InAs-Al hybrid devices passing the topological gap protocol” https://journals.aps.org/prb/abstract… “A cryogenic CMOS chip for generating control signals for multiple qubits” https://www.nature.com/articles/s4192… Topological qubit noise levels — “Assessing requirements to scale to practical quantum advantage” chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/ https://arxiv.org/pdf/2211.07629 Chapters 00:00 Topological Quantum Computing 02:01 Topology Explained 04:47 Resilience to Noise 05:51 Anatomy of a Quantum Computer 07:05 Chip Fabrication and Lab Tour 09:41 How to Build a Quantum Computer 11:21 Topological Quantum Computing Lego Explainer 15:40 Microsoft’s Results 17:50 Majorana Particle Explained 21:31 Sponsor Message 23:03 Thanks Patrons!
For the rest of the world go to my RedBubble Store: https://www.redbubble.com/people/Domi…

I have also made posters available for personal or educational use which you can find here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/9586967…

Continue reading “Microsoft’s Topological Quantum Computer Explained” | >

In today’s AI news, Codeium, an AI-powered coding startup, is raising a new round of funding at a $2.85 billion valuation. The round is being led by returning investor Kleiner Perkins, the people said. The new round comes just six months after Silicon Valley-based Codeium announced that it had closed a $150 million Series C at a $1.25 billion post-money valuation.

In other advancements, a couple of weeks after the initial release of Mistral’s AI assistant, Le Chat, the company told Le Parisien that it has reached one million downloads. “Go and download Le Chat, which is made by Mistral, rather than ChatGPT by OpenAI — or something else,” French president Emmanuel Macron said in a TV interview ahead of the recent AI Action Summit in Paris.

And, Google is launching a new experiment that uses AI to help people explore more career possibilities. The company announced in a blog post on Wednesday that a new “Career Dreamer” tool can find patterns between your experiences, educational background, skills, and interests to connect you with careers that might be a good fit.

Meanwhile, Forbes’ Lance Eliot analyzes a popular mantra right now. The recent AI-industry groupthink that says we merely need to increase the so-called “thinking time” of generative AI and LLMs to get better responses. AI makers are allowing users to stipulate that the AI can expend more time and effort doing various processing before displaying a generated answer.

Continue reading “AI-Coding Startup Codeium In Talks To Raise Funds At Almost Billion Valuation” | >

Link in comments!

Future Day is coming up — no fees — just pure uncut futurology — spanning timezones — Feb 28th-March 1st.

We have: * Hugo de Garis on AI, Humanity & the Longterm * Linda MacDonald Glenn on Imbuing AI with Wisdom * James Barrat discussing new book ‘The Intelligence Explosion’ * Kristian Rönn on The Darwinian Trap * Phan, Xuan Tan on AI Safety in Education * Robin Hanson on Cultural Drift * James Hughes & James Newton-Thomas discussing Human Wage Crash & UBI * James Hughes on The Future Virtual You * Ben Goertzel & Hugo de Garis doing a Singularity Salon * Susan Schneider, Ben Goertzel & Robin Hanson discussing Ghosts in the Machine: Can AI Ever Wake Up? * Shun Yoshizawa (& Ken Mogi?) on LLM Metacognition.

Why not celebrate the amazing future we are collectively creating?

Continue reading “Future Day 2025” | >

In this episode I am looking forward to exploring more about alternate interpretations of Quantum Mechanics. In previous episodes exploring consciousness, I’ve encountered several people who believe that Quantum Mechanics is at the root of consciousness. My current thinking is that it replaces one mystery with another one without really providing an explanation for consciousness. We are still stuck with the options of consciousness being a pre-existing property of the universe or some aspect of it, vs. it being an emergent feature of a processing network. Either way, quantum mechanics is an often misunderstood brilliant theory at the root of physics. It tells us that basic particles don’t exist at a specific position and momentum—they are, however, represented very accurately as a smooth wavefunction that can be used to calculate the distribution of a set of measurements on identical particles. The process of observation seems to cause the wavefunction to randomly collapse to a localized spot. Nobody knows for certain what causes this collapse. This is known as the measurement problem. The many worlds theorem says the wavefunction doesn’t collapse. It claims that the wavefunction describes all the possible universes that exist and the process of measurement just tells us which universe we are living in.

My guest is a leading proponent of transactional quantum mechanics.

Dr. Ruth E. Kastner earned her M.S. in Physics and Ph.D. in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Maryland. Since that time, she has taught widely and conducted research in Foundations of Physics, particularly in interpretations of quantum theory. She was one of three winners of the 2021 Alumni Research Award at the University of Maryland, College Park (https://tinyurl.com/2t56yrp2). She is the author of 3 books: The Transactional Interpretation of Quantum Theory: The Reality of Possibility (Cambridge University Press, 2012; 2nd edition just published, 2022), Understanding Our Unseen Reality: Solving Quantum Riddles (Imperial College Press, 2015); and Adventures In Quantumland: Exploring Our Unseen Reality (World Scientific, 2019). She has presented talks and interviews throughout the world and in video recordings on the interpretational challenges of quantum theory, and has a blog at transactionalinterpretation.org. She is also a dedicated yoga practitioner and received her 200-Hour Yoga Alliance Instructor Certification in February, 2020.

Visit my website at www.therationalview.ca.

Continue reading “Dr. Ruth Kastner and the transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics” | >

Creating and sustaining fusion reactions—essentially recreating star-like conditions on Earth—is extremely difficult, and Nathan Howard, Ph.D., a principal research scientist at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC), thinks it’s one of the most fascinating scientific challenges of our time.

“Both the science and the overall promise of fusion as a clean energy source are really interesting. That motivated me to come to grad school [at MIT] and work at the PSFC,” he says.

Howard is member of the Magnetic Fusion Experiments Integrated Modeling (MFE-IM) group at the PSFC. Along with MFE-IM group leader Pablo Rodriguez-Fernandez, Howard and the team use simulations and machine learning to predict how plasma will behave in a fusion device. MFE-IM and Howard’s research aims to forecast a given technology or configuration’s performance before it’s piloted in an actual fusion environment, allowing for smarter design choices. To ensure their accuracy, these models are continuously validated using data from previous experiments, keeping their simulations grounded in reality.

Read more | >

A few decades later, the neuropsychologists Roger Sperry and Michael Gazzaniga studied more of these so-called split-brain patients and discovered that each half of the brain processed information independently. Each could make its own decisions and control its own behaviours. In a sense, the surgery had created two separate selves. In some of these patients, one side of their body (controlled by one hemisphere) would do one thing, while the other half (controlled by the other hemisphere) would do the opposite. For example, one hand would button their shirt while the other hand would unbutton it.

So why didn’t these split-brain patients, post-surgery, feel like they had two selves? The answer is that their brains fooled them into thinking that only one self existed and that it was in charge. When one of their hands did something unexpected, they made up a story to explain why. I changed my mind. I didn’t like the way that shirt looked.

These stories or confabulations show the power of the illusion of selfhood – a feeling that evolutionary psychologists believe evolved because it is adaptively useful. What better way to ensure that the physical package carrying and protecting the information in our DNA – namely, our bodies – survives long enough to pass on that code to the next generation? The illusion of the self makes us feel unique and provides us with a goal-oriented purpose to our lives.

Read more | >

For example, Real Entrepreneur Women, a career coaching service, has developed an AI coach called Skye. “Skye is designed to help female coaches cut through overwhelm by providing actionable strategies and personalized support to grow their businesses,” said founder Sophie Musumeci. “She’s like having a dedicated business strategist in your pocket – streamlining decision-making, creating tailored content, and helping clients stay consistent. It’s AI with heart, designed to scale human connection in industries where trust and relationships are everything.”

In the next few years, Musumeci predicted, “I see democratized AI creating new business models where the gap between big and small players closes entirely, giving more entrepreneurs the confidence and capability to thrive.”

Education is another area ripe for AI disruption, and it’s possibilities for hyper-personalization in learning. “The current education system in USA is designed to educate the masses,” said Andy Thurai, principle analyst with Constellation Research. “It assumes everyone is at the same skill level and same interest in areas of topic and same expertise. It tries to push the information down our throats, and forces us to learn in a certain way.”

Read more | >

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing industries globally, and medical education is no exception. For a nation like India, where the healthcare system faces immense pressure, AI integration in medical learning is more than a convenience, it’s a necessity. AI-powered tools offer medical students transformative benefits: personalized learning pathways that adapt to individual knowledge gaps, advanced clinical simulation platforms for risk-free practice, intelligent tutoring systems that provide immediate feedback, and sophisticated diagnostic training algorithms that enhance clinical reasoning skills. From offering personalized guidance to transforming clinical training, chatbots and digital assistants are redefining how future healthcare professionals prepare for their complex and demanding roles, enabling more efficient, interactive, and comprehensive medical education.

Personalized learning One of AI’s greatest contributions to medical education is its ability to create and extend personalized learning experiences. Conventional methods, on the other hand, often utilize a one-size-fits-all approach, leaving students to fend for themselves when they struggle. AI has the power to change this by analyzing a student’s performance and crafting study plans tailored to their strengths and weaknesses. This means students can focus on areas where they need the most help, saving time and effort.

Read more | >