Lifeboat Foundation

Video on prosthetic Esper hand.

New York-based engineering startup Esper Bionics has developed a flexible prosthetic mind-controlled hand that learns how to suggest the best grip faster than similar prosthetics.
Esper Bionics’ robotic arm is designed to be lighter and learn faster than many of the prosthetics currently available for amputees. The more the wearer uses the hand, the better and quicker it is to suggest the right grip.

Continue reading “Esper Hand is a ‘human-like’ prosthetic arm that can be controlled by the mind” »

The meat of the future may be cultured directly from animal cells without slaughtering livestock. It’s not yet sold in the U.S., but NPR got a tour of a leading start-up and a taste of their chicken.

In the beginning, there was … well, maybe there was no beginning. Perhaps our universe has always existed — and a new theory of quantum gravity reveals how that could work.

“Reality has so many things that most people would associate with sci-fi or even fantasy,” said Bruno Bento, a physicist who studies the nature of time at the University of Liverpool in the U.K.

In his work, he employed a new theory of quantum gravity, called causal set theory, in which space and time are broken down into discrete chunks of space-time. At some level, there’s a fundamental unit of space-time, according to this theory.

A security source has told Sky News that Russia flew €140m in cash to Tehran in exchange for dozens of deadly “suicide drones”.

Moscow also included Western weapons it had captured in Ukraine in the shipment.

Continue reading “Ukraine War: Russia gave Iran cash and captured UK & US weapons for drones” »

A new particle accelerator has just begun operation. It is the most powerful accelerator of its kind on Earth and will allow physicists to study some of the rarest matter in the universe.

Is LaMDA at Google sentient? Is the current state of the art AI showing signs of having qualia? The phenomenal binding problem asks us to consider, ‘how can huge set of discrete neurons form a unified mind?’ Is topological binding a requirement for AI to be sentient?

Many thanks for tuning in!

Continue reading “AI, Sentience & the Binding Problem of Consciousness — is LaMDA sentient? — Andrés Gómez Emilsson” »

The scientific world has long acknowledged that proving mathematical theorems is an essential first step in developing artificial intelligence. To prove the truth or falsity of a conjecture, one must use symbolic thinking and sort through an unlimited number of alternatives. These tasks are beyond the capabilities of even the most sophisticated AI systems.

The state of the art in artificial intelligence today is to create machines that can “solve at once” or come up with a whole answer to a problem in a single go. However, this is not how most individuals approach difficult situations. Mathematical reasoning is significantly more challenging to formalize and measure.

Meta AI has made an important development at the intersection of artificial intelligence and mathematics. The neural theorem prover developed by the team has completed five times as many IMO problems as any other AI system before it, totaling ten. Concerning miniF2F, a popular mathematics test, the AI model outperforms the state of art by 20% and outperforms Metamath by 10%.

Imagine a robot that could find human beings after a natural disaster because it has a mosquito’s ability to sense human sweat. Shoji Takeuchi of the University of Tokyo has already made a robotic finger that includes living tissue – here he explores possible applications of combining biological material with artificial materials in robotic systems.

http://www.weforum.org/
The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. We believe that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to make positive change.

Continue reading “Bio-hybrid robotics built from living tissue | Shoji Takeuchi” »

The U.S. Space Force has a mini-fleet of two robotic X-37B space planes, which have been flying secret missions since 2010.

The most recent mission, called OTV-6, launched in May 2020 and is ongoing. As that name suggests, it’s the sixth flight for the robotic X-37B, which is also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV). The other five OTV missions launched in April 2010, March 2011, December 2012, May 2015 and September 2017.

We’ve assembled 10 surprising facts about the military space plane for you. Just click the arrows to launch to the next page and enjoy.

Continue reading “The US Space Force’s secretive X-37B space plane: 10 surprising facts” »