Lifeboat Foundation

So, here is a question that many AI experts are and have been asking themselves for a while; “as humans create robots and have other humans; what will the world look like when Humanoid Robots and other types of robots create their own?”

NASA is in the process of developing a humanoid robot that could help astronauts in risky and extremely hazardous expeditions in the future.

The six-feet tall, 131.5 kg heavy humanoid robot called R5 will work as a ready-to-assist machine in every dangerous task of the utmost importance during long-lasting journeys beyond the Earth, Astrowatch.net reported on Sunday. The robot was previously known as Valkyrie.

Continue reading “NASA to develop humanoid robot to help in deep space missions” »

Robotics store — could we eventually see a HomeDepot version of a Robotics Warehouse and More coming not too far in the future as a franchise across North America and Europe? Or, better yet, a Robotic Target for the latest clothing and accessories for your own personalized robot. In Japan, they actually have a fashion line for robots.

25 Jan, 2016 - The organization is led by President V. Scott Stoneburner. The mission of RobotStop is to create a more prosperous future through principled service and technological innovation. President V. Scott Stoneburner said, “We are extremely excited to launch RobotStop. We envision that robotics will soon be a booming market and our plan is to strategically position ourselves ahead of that exponential curve. As innovation and competition increases, prices have started to become more aligned to the consumer mass market.”

RobotStop, a global product retailer (www.robotstop.com), announced today that it has officially launched a new website and corporate identity. According to President V. Scott Stoneburner, RobotStop President and founder, the new website and brand are closely aligned with the company’s strategic vision for growth and expansion over the next decade, and beyond.

The RobotStop website offers a clean, modern design, easy-to-navigate functionality, and a content-rich site experience. The e-commerce function enables customers to quickly and easily order RobotStop LLC products from a broad range of categories, including Robots & Kits, UAVs & Drones, Wearable Technology, Virtual Reality, Hot New Robots, Miscellaneous Robot Products, Professional Robots etc.

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Sad day for AI & RIP Mr. Minsky — Early AI Pioneer.

His family said the cause was a cerebral hemorrhage.

Well before the advent of the microprocessor and the supercomputer, Professor Minsky, a revered computer science educator at M.I.T., laid the foundation for the field of artificial intelligence by demonstrating the possibilities of imparting common-sense reasoning to computers.

Continue reading “Marvin Minsky, Pioneer in Artificial Intelligence, Dies at 88” »

Davos: The True Fear Around Robots — Autonomous weapons, which are currently being developed by the US, UK, China, Israel, South Korea and Russia, will be capable of identifying targets, adjusting their behavior in response to that target, and ultimately firing — all without human intervention.

The issue of ‘killer robots’ one day posing a threat to humans has been discussed at the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

The discussion took place on 21 January during a panel organised by the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots (CSKR) and Time magazine, which asked the question: “What if robots go to war?”

Continue reading “Delegates at Davos held a meeting about the dangers of autonomous ‘killer robots’” »

Our economy will be severely impacted as millions of lorry drivers, cabbies and delivery people are put out of work. In this era of endless innovation, humanity’s century-long relationship with the automobile is about to be permanently disrupted. The reason has nothing to do with millennials, Uber or improvements in mass transport. Driving should and will be made illegal because we now have the technology to prevent deadly traffic accidents, one of the greatest causes of premature deaths.

More than 1.2 million people are killed in car accidents each year. Last year, more than 275,000 Chinese, 238,000 Indians and 36,000 Americans died in preventable traffic accidents. Since Ralph Nader first took on the car industry by publishing Unsafe at Any Speed in 1965, auto-mobile manufacturers have radically improved the safety and reliability of their vehicles. Seatbelts, airbags, anti-lock brakes, as well as tyre-pressure-monitoring, have all reduced traffic deaths. But, until now, makers were unable to deal with the single biggest cause of fatalities: human error. We now have the technology to save millions of lives, but does society have the willpower to mandate its use?

Google’s autonomous vehicles have logged 1.5 million kilometres on roads dominated by human-driven cars. Subjected to the same real-world conditions as us mere mortals, self-driving cars have been through rain, sleet and snow. These vehicles have driven the equivalent of circumnavigating the globe 40 times, without incident. In July, Google reported 14 minor road accidents in total — but in all of the cases blamed human error. According to the data, human-driver error is responsible for 94 per cent of all crashes.

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Researchers at the University of Colorado have created a unique, light-activated nanotherapy to destroy antibiotic resistant bacteria

The pursuit of longevity requires continued, effective antibiotics. Otherwise, you could be as fit as a fiddle at 100 and still be downed by a nasty, resistant strain.

While bacterial strains resistant to current drugs are rapidly rising across the globe, infecting 2 million people last year, researchers are turning to increasingly innovative ways to destroy these populations. Nanotechnology is one such, increasingly promising technology.

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Space is not a government program; it’s the rest of the Universe. Private space business is now a major factor, bent on finding investors interested in generating profits by making space more accessible to more people. Space business pays taxes to governments; it does not consume tax revenues. Further, space business can offer launch services to government agencies at highly competitive rates, thus saving taxpayer dollars. How can they do this, competing with government-funded boosters with a 50-year track record? Simple: governments have no incentive to cut costs. Traditional aerospace industry giants have a huge vested interest in boosters that were developed to military and NASA standards, among which economy was not even an issue. But innovative, competitive companies such as XCOR Aerospace and Mojave Aerospace, without such baggage (and overhead) can drive costs down dramatically. This is a proven principle: notice that we are no longer buying IBM PCs with 64 k of RAM for $5000 a unit.

Even more important in the long view, space is a literally astronomical reservoir of material and energy resources. The profit potential of even a single such resource, such as solar power collectors in space beaming microwave power to Earth, is in the trillions of dollars. What would it be worth to the world to reduce fossil fuel consumption by a factor of 20 or 100 while lowering energy costs? Can we afford to continue pretending that Earth is a closed system, doomed to eke out finite resources into a cold, dark future?

Can we afford space? Wrong question. Can businesses afford space? Yes. We get to reap the benefits of their innovative ideas and free competition without footing the bill.

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Further progress with telomeres by Maria Blasco which clearly demonstrates the link between telomeres and aging and why they are a primary “clock”.

“These findings suggest that it is the ability of different species to maintain telomeres rather than average telomere length per se that may be determinant of species longevity”

So if we maintain telomeres (either directly or by repairing the cause of that damage) as many biologically immortal creatures do could we expect to see life extension? So far in animals tested that answer is yes! Its not the only thing that needs to be addressed to combat aging but it looks like an important one.

Continue reading “F1000Research Article: Telomeres and telomerase as therapeutic targets to prevent and treat age-related diseases” »

“Should science and society welcome ‘the singularity’ – the idea of the hypothetical moment in time when artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence?

Panelists: Harry Shum (Microsoft Research EVP of Tech), Max Tegmark (Cosmologist, MIT) Stuart Russell (Prof. of Computer Science, UC Berkeley) and Ray Kurzweil (Futurist, Google Director of Engineering). Moderator: Margaret Boden (Prof. of Cognitive Science, Uni. of Sussex).”