Ultra-cool dwarf stars may live up to their name.

Originally shared by Singularity Hub

Dwarf Planetary Systems Will Transform the Hunt for Alien Life http://suhub.co/2p9XIim

Big changes are coming. We’re not ready for them, we may not like them, and many of our most powerful institutions are actively but ineffectually resisting them, but the outcome could be wonderful.

(Warning: fixed-size font, unsuitable for people with visual impairment.)

Originally shared by Jennifer Ouellette

History gives us some perspective. The Day Before the Renaissance. The only antidote for 100-days mania and 24-hour news cycles is to shift focus from the urgent to the important. “An epochal change is coming, a transformational tsunami is on the horizon, and most of our leaders and many of us have our backs to it. We’re looking in the wrong direction. Indeed, many of those in positions of power and their supporters are so actively trying to cling to the past we can almost hear their fingernails clawing at the earth as they try to avoid accepting the inevitable and momentous changes to come.” http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/05/01/the-day-before-the-renaissance/

http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/05/01/the-day-before-the-renaissance/

Laura Gibbs will have opinions about this, I’m sure.

Originally shared by Singularity Hub

These 5 Big Tech Trends Are Changing the Way We Learn http://suhub.co/2qAojqa

The article (and, indeed, the ethicists who are quoted) quite rightly raise the phenomenon of “rights inflation” – the current tendency to classify anything that one considers morally desirable as a human right.

I don’t know that their approach is necessarily the best one, but I do commend the fact that they’re starting to think about these issues. As the lead researcher says, in the closing sentence of the piece: “It’s always too early to assess a technology until it’s suddenly too late.”

Originally shared by Singularity Hub

4 New Human Rights for When Our Brains Are Hooked Up to Computers

http://suhub.co/2pQ74EJ