This is a good summary, which isn’t just a retread of material I’ve seen before. In particular, I hadn’t previously heard that there’s a project to bring literacy to a billion people with the help of AI.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
The AI revolution is here, and the most obvious question to ask as 2016 draws to an end is: what’s next?
Conditional optimism – that’s me. Not “everything will be fine,” but “if we work together and make good choices, there’s a decent chance that everything will be fine.”
Originally shared by David Brin
Steven Pinker – the rascal who uses facts to defeat the addicts of defeatism – points out that 2016 was not as bad as it seemed:
“War deaths have risen since 2011 because of the Syrian civil war, but are a fraction of the levels of the 1950s through the early 1990s, when megadeath wars and genocides raged all over the world. Colombia’s peace deal marks the end of the last war in the Western Hemisphere, and the last remnant of the Cold War. Homicide rates in the world are falling, and the rate in United States is lower than at any time between 1966 and 2009. Outside of war zones, terrorist deaths are far lower than they were in the heyday of the Weathermen, IRA, and Red Brigades.”
He admits that: “Several awful things happened in the world’s democracies in 2016, and the election of a mercurial and ignorant president injects a troubling degree of uncertainty into international relations. But it’s vital to keep cool and identify specific dangers rather than being overcome by a vague apocalyptic gloom.”
He adds: “More generally, the worldwide, decades-long current toward racial tolerance is too strong to be undone by one man. Public opinion polls in almost every country show steady declines in racial and religious prejudice — and more importantly for the future, that younger cohorts are less prejudiced than older ones. As my own cohort of baby boomers (who helped elect Trump) dies off and is replaced by millennials (who rejected him in droves), the world will become more tolerant.”
He reiterates a distinction: “between complacent optimism, the feeling of a child waiting for presents, and conditional optimism, the feeling of a child who wants a treehouse and realizes that if he gets some wood and nails and persuades other kids to help him, he can build one. I am not complacently optimistic about the future; I am conditionally optimistic.”
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
Can we repurpose the capacities of smartphones to improve health diagnostics on a global scale?
Researchers sent out resumes to a number of top law firms for prestigious positions. Everything directly career-relevant on them was identical; the only differences were in some carefully planned indicators of gender and class in the candidates’ names, interests, and extracurricular activities.
What happened next will completely fail to surprise you.
Originally shared by Walter Roberson
We need to be ready for this.
We’re not.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
“Very real emerging technologies look certain to continue undermining media’s once static role of ‘captured’ content by transforming the familiar into a fluidly editable medium.”
Just watched Galaxy Quest for the first time. (Yes, I know. There are a lot of movies that “everyone” has seen that I haven’t seen. I’m not a big movie guy.)
I can see why people love it. Great actors, good script, the parody is affectionate and on point. On the other hand, massive feminism fail. And the guy with a Chinese name, playing a character with a Chinese name, was played by… Tony Shalhoub? Who did an amazing job, but why use Chinese names if you’re going to end up casting a Lebanese actor? (Yes, I spotted the “Kwan isn’t even my real name” joke. Hanging a lampshade on it doesn’t make it OK.)
Star Trek is notable for its contribution to diversity and representation in popular culture. Galaxy Quest is notable for its failure to match this, with the one token woman with no arc who ends up with her clothes half torn off (played by Sigourney freaking Weaver, of all people), and the one token black guy with almost no arc and no real contribution to the plot. Who at least doesn’t die, I suppose.
Otherwise, though, good film.
Insulation plus evaporation equals refrigeration.
Originally shared by Guy Kawasaki
No Electricity? A Low-Tech Refrigerator That Keeps Things Chilled http://bit.ly/2h9sffS
Quick, think of six things that could go wrong in this scenario.
Now pick one and write a story.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
Recently, the non-profit institute OpenAI unveiled a virtual world for AI to explore and play in. Dubbed Universe, the goals of the project are as vast as its name: to train a single AI to be proficient at any task a human can do with a computer.
This is potentially very important.
Originally shared by Greg Batmarx
A solar-powered plane that is to be flown to the edge of space has been officially unveiled. The SolarStratos plane is powered by 22 sq m (237 sq ft) of solar panels and will be flown to an altitude of 25,000 m (82,000 ft) to demonstrate and explore the potential of the technology.
Our goal is to demonstrate that current technology offers us the possibility to achieve above and beyond what fossil fuels offer says project founder and pilot Raphaël Domjan in a press release. Electric and solar vehicles are amongst the major challenges of the 21st century. Our aircraft can fly at an altitude of 25,000 m and this opens the door to the possibility of electric and solar commercial aviation, close to space.
The solar-electric plane is said to have an environmental footprint that is equivalent to that of an electric car and is aimed at offering an alternative to using large quantities of energy or helium as a means of reaching the stratosphere. It is 8.5-m (27.9-ft) long, has a wingspan of 24.8 m (81.4 ft) and weighs in at just 450 kg (992 lb).
The solar panel array charges a 20 kWh lithium-ion battery, which powers a 32-kW electric motor that in turn drives a 2.2-m (7.2-ft) propeller. SolarStratos says it is able to fly continuously for over 24 hours, which is more than enough to cover the expected two-and-a-half hours it will take to reach space, 15 minutes cruising at peak altitude and three hours to return to the Earth.
The project began in 2014, after Domjan had the idea during the solar-powered boat crossing of the Atlantic on his PlanetSolar round-the-world journey. Beyond the project’s demonstrative and exploratory tech goals, it is hoped that it will inspire people and to help uncover new scientific knowledge.
The SolarStratos plane and operational hangar were unveiled at an event in Payerne, Switzerland, to around 300 guests, including ambassadors, partners, government representatives and members of the media.
The project is currently in the development phase, but the first roll tests, touch-and-go landings and test flights are due to take place in January next year.
All being well, medium-altitude flights will follow later in the year and initial stratospheric flights in 2018. The mission itself is also scheduled for 2018.
