Aug 25, 2015
Our brains didn’t evolve to deal with understanding exponential growth
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: neuroscience, singularity
Our brains didn’t evolve to deal with understanding exponential growth, it’s freaking terrifying.
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Aug 25, 2015
Dune, 50 years on: how a science fiction novel changed the world — By Hari Kunzru | The Guardian
Posted by Odette Bohr Dienel in categories: astronomy, media & arts, philosophy, science, space travel, sustainability, water
“It has sold millions of copies, is perhaps the greatest novel in the science-fiction canon and Star Wars wouldn’t have existed without it. Frank Herbert’s Dune should endure as a politically relevant fantasy from the Age of Aquarius.”
Aug 25, 2015
Edge Master Class 2015: Philip Tetlock: A Short Course in Superforecasting
Posted by Amnon H. Eden in category: futurism
Philip E. Tetlock presents findings from the Good Judgment Project:
In 1984, Tetlock began holding “forecasting tournaments” in which selected candidates were asked questions about the course of events. Accuracy rates have exceeded IARPA’s expectations.
To arrive at the edge of the world’s knowledge, seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them in a room together, and have them ask each other the questions they are asking themselves.
Aug 25, 2015
Giant ‘Battle Bot’ Could Get Makeover Ahead of Epic Duel
Posted by Sean Brazell in category: robotics/AI
Finally, there’s a crowdfunding campaign for people who want to watch giant robots fight to the death.
MegaBots Inc. — a Boston-based company that builds huge, human-operated, fighting robots — launched a Kickstarter campaign today (Aug. 19) to raise money to develop a huge, gun-toting robot, in preparation for an upcoming “duel” with a similar “battle bot” from Japan.
The campaign has already drawn in nearly $200,000 of the requested $500,000, and robot fans have until Sept. 18 to contribute funds. [See photos of MegaBots’ massive “battle bot”].
After a wide analysis of evidence, researchers have come up with a number of factors that appear to have the strongest influence on the development of Alzheimer’s disease.
Nearly 17,000 studies, released from 1968 to 2014, were scrutinized and 323 were chosen — covering 93 different risk factors. After collecting the data and grading factors according to their impact strength, researchers came up with a number that had a Grade 1 impact.
So what are they?
Aug 25, 2015
Stephen Hawking believes he knows how information escapes black holes
Posted by Sean Brazell in category: cosmology
Aug 25, 2015
Ceres’ Four-Mile Tall ‘Pyramid’ Is Closer Than Ever, Still Puzzling
Posted by Sean Brazell in category: space
The closer we get to Ceres, the largest object in our solar system’s asteroid belt, the stranger it becomes.
In June, NASA released a photo of Ceres, taken by the Dawn spacecraft from 2,700 miles away, that showed a several-mile high “pyramid” protruding from the dwarf planet’s otherwise generally smooth surface. And a new photo, taken last Wednesday from only 900 miles away, shows the mountain is four miles high and has a perimeter of previously unseen, reflective streaked slopes.
Aug 25, 2015
Vote or die? Meet the presidential candidate who wants to live forever
Posted by Zoltan Istvan in categories: geopolitics, life extension, transhumanism
A new article from The Daily Dot on transhumanism and my campaign:
The Daily Dot is the hometown newspaper of the World Wide Web, reporting on Reddit, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and more.
Aug 25, 2015
New Camera Chip Provides Superfine 3-D Resolution
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in category: computing
New imaging technology fits on a tiny chip and, from a distance, can form a high-resolution three-dimensional image of an object on the scale of micrometers.
