Robotics
Google’s new robot learned to accept orders by scraping the web
Will Knight | Wired
“The most surprising thing [the] The demonstration, which took place at Google’s robotics lab in Mountain View, California, showed that no human coder had programmed the robot to understand what to do at Xia’s command. His control software learned how to translate a spoken phrase into a sequence of physical actions using millions of pages of text scraped from the web.
in the future
The future can be happy if humans don’t disappear first.
Matt Reynolds | Wired
In a new book called Our debt to the future, philosopher William MacAskill argues … We are in a unique position in the 21st century to shape the long-term future, for better or worse. If we can avoid extinction and find a more ethical way of life, the trillions of people who are set to live in the coming centuries will have exciting times ahead of them. But to get there, we have to take the philosophical leap that we need to be concerned about the lives and well-being of future human beings.
BLOCKCHAIN
The Ethereum ‘merger’ is going to put every single Ether miner out of business.
Tim Lee Ars Technica
“Switching to a new method ‘proof-of-proof’ next month is expected to reduce Ethereum’s energy consumption by 1,000 times. But the switch to proof-of-concept is more than an energy-saving measure – it is a big change for the Ethereum network. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin said that the integration will take place in the coming years. He believes that it will lay the foundation for a series of improvements that will enable the network to handle much larger volumes of transactions.
Computer
This man has set a record for wearing a brain-computer interface
Emily Mullin | Wired
“Nathan Copeland is considered A cyborg himself. The 36-year-old man lived with a brain-computer interface for more than seven years and three months. As of today—August 17—this is the longest anyone has been planted like this. That Copeland’s implant is still working — and has not caused any major side effects or complications — is promising for the field. In development since the 1960s but still in testing, the devices are a sign that they are moving closer to commercial reality for patients with severe disabilities.
Long life
Epigenetic ‘clocks’ predict animals’ true biological age
Ingrid Wickelgren | Quanta
“But those were just the finishing touches to Horvath’s ambitious moon-watching project: a universal clock that could measure the biological age of any mammal. …Horvath and his colleagues completed a pan-mammal version of the clock earlier this year. Now he and other researchers hope to identify the molecular processes common to different organisms that make such a clock exist. Horvath believes that understanding why such clocks work could lead us to what he calls ‘the root cause of aging’.I“
Robotics
Q&A: Mark Raibert at the Boston Dynamics AI Institute
Evan Ackerman | IEEE Spectrum
“Last week, Hyundai Motor Group and Boston Dynamics announced an initial investment of more than $400 million to launch the new Boston Dynamics AI Institute. The institute was designed (and will be led) by Marc Raibert, founder of Boston Dynamics, with the concept of ‘solving the most important and difficult challenges facing the creation of advanced robots’. …and luckily, IEEE Spectrum He was able to speak with Mark Raibert himself to get a better understanding of what the facility is all about.
SPACE
The Rocket Lab is self-funding a mission to search for life in the clouds of Venus
Eric Berger | Ars Technica
“Assuming a May 2023 launch—with a January 2025 backup—the spacecraft will reach Venus in October 2023. …The goal is to search for organic chemicals in clouds and explore their habitats. A paper published this week describes the mission’s architecture as ‘the mission’s first opportunity to directly probe Venus cloud particles in four decades.’ Despite the mass and information speed limitations, and even the limited time in Venus’ atmosphere, scientific discovery is possible.I“
