Lifeboat Foundation

Our ability to understand the mind and its relation to the body is highly dependent on the way we define consciousness and the lens through which we study it. We argue that looking at conscious experience from an information-theory perspective can help obtain a unified and parsimonious account of the mind. Today’s dominant models consider consciousness to be a specialized function of the brain characterized by a discrete neural event. Against this background, we consider subjective experience through information theory, presenting consciousness as the propagation of information from the past to the future. We examine through this perspective major characteristics of consciousness. We demonstrate that without any additional assumptions, temporal continuity in perception can explain the emergence of volition, subjectivity, higher order thoughts, and body boundaries. Finally, we discuss the broader implications for the mind-body question and the appeal of embodied cognition.

Keywords: body boundaries; consciousness; information theory; neural correlates of consciousness (NCC); perception; self; volition.

Copyright © 2022 Revach and Salti.

The Allen Institute for Immunology has released its first Human Immune Health Atlas, a comprehensive single-cell reference dataset that offers unprecedented insight into the landscape of healthy human immune cells from childhood through adulthood.

Comprehensive dataset maps the landscape of healthy immune cells across the human lifespan.

Stanford researchers mimic brain structure with ferroelectric material.

As a trailblazer in clean logistics, Hyzon continues to leverage hydrogen’s potential to fuel transportation innovations.

Hyzon Motors is making significant strides in revolutionizing the heavy-duty transportation industry with the production of its pioneering Class 8 200kW Fuel Cell Electric Truck. This milestone highlights the company’s dedication to advancing zero-emission technology and addressing sectors traditionally reliant on diesel.

The vehicle production results from a strategic partnership with North Carolina-based Fontaine Modification, which assembles the trucks by integrating Hyzon’s advanced fuel cell systems, battery packs, and hydrogen storage solutions into the chassis. This collaboration ensures each vehicle meets new standards in innovation and road-readiness.

Continue reading “Hyzon’s Fuel Cell Trucks Challenge The Diesel Norm” »

In the early days the internet was a free, egalitarian space for anyone to surf. Now, commercial interests rule – but users do still have some control.

Following a monthslong battle over CEO Anne Wojcicki’s plans to https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1804591/000134100424000072/sc13da1.htm” rel=“noopener”>take 23andMe private, all seven independent members of its board https://investors.23andme.com/news-releases/news-release-det...oard?_gl=1*1eip6nf*_ga*MTI2OTU3NjA4NC4xNzI2NjYwNzU5*_ga_G330GF3ZFF*MTcyNjY2MDc1OS4xLjEuMTcyNjY2MDgyNy4wLjAuMA…" rel="noopener">resigned en masse Tuesday.

The move is almost certainly the final nail in the coffin for the embattled company known for its mail-order DNA-testing kit. Since https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-04/2…on-merger” rel=“noopener”>going public via merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in 2021, 23andMe has never turned a profit. Its price on IPO day was $10; so far in 2024, it has yet to reach a $1 valuation. Following the resignation of all its independent directors Tuesday, the stock fell to its rock bottom: $0.30. (As of midday Wednesday, it’s back to $0.36.)

The board includes Sequoia Capital’s https://fortune.com/2024/07/25/seqouia-capital-roelof-botha-…e-nvidia/”>Roelof Botha as well as https://fortune.com/2023/02/28/why-youtube-betting-neal-moha…time-ceo/”>Neal Mohan, who took the helm as CEO of https://fortune.com/company/youtube/”>YouTube last year after Susan Wojcicki, Anne’s late sister, https://blog.youtube/inside-youtube/a-personal-update-from-susan/” rel=“noopener”>stepped down.

Even those of us who aren’t physicists have an intuitive understanding of classical physics — we can predict what will happen when we throw a ball, use a salad spinner, or ease up on the gas pedal.

But atomic and subatomic particles don’t follow these ordinary rules of reality. “It turns out that at really small scales there are a different set of rules called quantum physics,” said Travis Nicholson. “These rules are bizarre and interesting.” (Think Schrodinger’s cat and Einstein’s “spooky action at a distance.”)

Nicholson is an assistant professor with joint appointments in Physics and Electrical and Computer Engineering. The physicist in him likes doing experiments to advance our knowledge of quantum mechanics; the engineer in him likes figuring out how to harness that knowledge to build quantum computers that will be vastly more powerful than today’s computers.

The Dark Matter is built with incredibly complex technology. “Raxial Thrust” is a new term coined to describe the way the Dark Matter engine works. “Raxial” is a portmanteau of “radial” and “axial”. Typically, electric motors use one or the other. Radial motors have the magnetic coils of the electric motor perpendicular to the axis of its rotation. Axial motors are built with flux parallel to the rotation. Both have advantages and disadvantages.

Radial are typically easier to build and maintain, but axial are smaller and can create more power by weight and volume. Koenigsegg has figured out a way to do both in one motor. Since they do not have to show us the inside of their Dark Matter, we don’t exactly understand how they’ve done this, but clearly, it is effective in generating power and torque. Despite this, the motor does not actually revolve at a very high rate. The website shows a max RPM of 8,500.

Koenigsegg makes use of its own battery packs. It doesn’t build the cells from the ground up, but it creates the system that actually delivers the power to the car. For the Gemera, it has created batteries that have dielectric oil (an insulator that will prevent unwanted electrical reactions) funneled directly into them as a cooling system. Most batteries on EVs now use airflow systems directly attached to the battery to cool them, but Koenigsegg has gone for a liquid approach instead. If it’s effective, it may become a more widespread approach to battery cooling technology.

MIT physicists and colleagues have created a new material with unusual superconducting and metallic properties, thanks to wavy layers of atoms only billionths of a meter thick that repeat themselves over and over to create a macroscopic sample that can be manipulated by hand. The large size of the sample makes it much easier to explore its quantum behavior, or interactions at the atomic scale that give rise to its properties.