Lifeboat Foundation

The military wants future super-soldiers to control robots with their thoughts.

I. Who Could Object?

“Tonight I would like to share with you an idea that I am extremely passionate about,” the young man said. His long black hair was swept back like a rock star’s, or a gangster’s. “Think about this,” he continued. “Throughout all human history, the way that we have expressed our intent, the way we have expressed our goals, the way we have expressed our desires, has been limited by our bodies.” When he inhaled, his rib cage expanded and filled out the fabric of his shirt. Gesturing toward his body, he said, “We are born into this world with this. Whatever nature or luck has given us.”

Continue reading “The Pentagon’s Push to Program Soldiers’ Brains” »

Black Hole Entropy and Soft Hair was completed in the days before the physicist’s death in March.

• Black holes and soft hair: why Stephen Hawking’s final work is important.

Heads up, hunting enthusiasts: The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is warning hunters in the state to be wary of bovine tuberculosis in deer, a disease that’s transmissible to humans, WSMH-News reported.

The “serious contagious disease” is caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium bovis, according to Purdue University. It’s spread “primarily through the exchange of respiratory secretions between infected and uninfected animals,” such as coughing or sneezing, according to the Michigan DNR.

Oklahoma Man Faces Charges For Shooting Deer Hours Before Hunting Season Starts

Continue reading “Michigan wildlife officials warn hunters of ‘serious contagious disease’ in deer” »

It’s often said that we know less about what is hiding in Earth’s oceans than we do about what lurks in the depths of space. While that might be hyperbole, a new discovery off the coast of Australia certainly lends weight to the argument.

Hidden some 2,000 meters beneath the waves off the east coast of Australia, researchers stumbled upon something they didn’t even know was there: a massive volcano graveyard that they are calling the “Lost World” of extinct underwater volcanos.

The 2018 FAA Reauthorization Act maintains a distinction between recreational and commercial activities, but the FAA is no longer constrained by law not to impose rules on the former: Section 336, which had previously carved out an exception for model aircraft, has been entirely repealed. In its place is a new Section 349, which covers what the FAA expects of recreational flyers.

The title of Section 349 betrays a very different attitude compared with the earlier Section 336. It reads: “Exception for Limited Recreational Operations of Unmanned Aircraft.” No more calling them model aircraft: Small models—including things sold as toys, even paper airplanes—are referred to as “Unmanned Aircraft.”

That seems a little ridiculous to me. In my view, the FAA is committing what philosophers sometimes call the fallacy of the beard: A paper airplane is clearly not something the FAA should worry about, whereas a large octocopter with whirring blades carrying a heavy camera is. But where do you draw the line? The FAA refuses to set a threshold under which it bows out, insisting that everything not carrying people and capable of flight is an “unmanned aircraft” requiring the agency’s oversight and regulation.

Continue reading “New FAA Rules for Drones Go Into Effect” »

The international collaborative n_TOF, in which a group of University of Seville researchers participated, has made use of the unique capacities of three of the world’s nuclear facilities to carry out a new experiment aimed at finding an explanation of the cosmological lithium problem. This problem is among the still unresolved questions of the current standard description of the Big Bang. The new experimental results, their theoretical interpretations and their implications have been published in Physical Review Letters.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force announced on Wednesday it is awarding three contracts collectively worth about $2 billion to Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems and United Launch Alliance to develop launch system prototypes.

The funding is for the development of competing launch system prototypes geared toward launching national security payloads. Each company will receive an initial award of $181 million.

The Launch Service Agreements are for the development of Blue Origin’s New Glenn, Northrop Grumman’s Omega and ULA’s Vulcan Centaur rockets. The awards are part of cost-sharing arrangements — known as Other Transaction Agreements — that the Air Force is signing with the three companies to ensure it has multiple competitors. The Air Force has committed through 2024 a total of $500 million in OTA funds for Blue Origin, $792 million for Northrop Grumman and $967 million for ULA. SpaceX previously received an LSA award but did not make the cut this time.

Continue reading “Air Force awards launch vehicle development contracts to Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman, ULA” »

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is impressive, but based on launch photos it can be hard to get a sense of the true scale of the craft. On Wednesday, CEO Elon Musk shared an image that shows himself alongside three figures, standing next to a freshly-landed Falcon 9. The image gives a clear indication of how the craft appears in real life.

Musk shared the image below with the caption “At Falcon LZ-1 Vandenberg on Sunday night with the Base Commander. Support of [United States Air Force] much appreciated.” The image was taken just after Sunday’s launch, which saw the SAOCOM 1A satellite sent up from the Vandenberg Air Force Base, before the first stage booster landed on the firm’s brand new west coast landing pad. The whole craft measures 229.6 feet tall, with a 12-foot diameter. The composite fairing, which houses the satellite entering orbit, measures 43 feet with a 17-foot diameter.

See more: Elon Musk Shares Incredible Photos From SpaceX’s Landmark Falcon 9 Launch.

Continue reading “Elon Musk Shares SpaceX Falcon 9 Image That Highlights Its True Size” »

Can the origin of life be explained with quantum mechanics? And if so, are there quantum algorithms that could encode life itself?

We’re a little closer to finding out the answers to those big questions thanks to new research carried out with an IBM supercomputer.

Encoding behaviours related to self-replication, mutation, interaction between individuals, and (inevitably) death, a newly created quantum algorithm has been used to show that quantum computers can indeed mimic some of the patterns of biology in the real world.

Continue reading “Scientists Just Created Quantum Artificial Life For The First Time Ever” »