Lifeboat Foundation

There’s an iconic scene in the original Star Wars movie where Luke Skywalker looks out over the desert landscape of Tatooine at the amazing spectacle of a double sunset.

Now, a new study out of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) suggests that such exotic exoplanet worlds orbiting multiple stars may exist in misaligned orbits, far out of the primary orbital plane.

The find has implications for planetary formation in complex multiple star systems. The study used ALMA (the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) in Chile to look at 19 protoplanetary disks around binary stars with longer period orbits, versus a dozen binary stars known to host exoplanets with periods less than 40 days found in the Kepler space telescope observations.

Nowadays, artificial neural networks have an impact on many areas of our day-to-day lives. They are used for a wide variety of complex tasks, such as driving cars, performing speech recognition (for example, Siri, Cortana, Alexa), suggesting shopping items and trends, or improving visual effects in movies (e.g., animated characters such as Thanos from the movie Infinity War by Marvel).

Traditionally, algorithms are handcrafted to solve complex tasks. This requires experts to spend a significant amount of time to identify the optimal strategies for various situations. Artificial neural networks — inspired by interconnected neurons in the brain — can automatically learn from data a close-to-optimal solution for the given objective. Often, the automated learning or “training” required to obtain these solutions is “supervised” through the use of supplementary information provided by an expert. Other approaches are “unsupervised” and can identify patterns in the data. The mathematical theory behind artificial neural networks has evolved over several decades, yet only recently have we developed our understanding of how to train them efficiently. The required calculations are very similar to those performed by standard video graphics cards (that contain a graphics processing unit or GPU) when rendering three-dimensional scenes in video games.

Replicating human interaction and behavior is what artificial intelligence has always been about. In recent times, the peak of technology has well and truly surpassed what was initially thought possible, with countless examples of the prolific nature of AI and other technologies solving problems around the world.

Think about this: Gary Kasparov stated that he would never lose a game of chess to a computer. For a long time, this seemed like a statement that would withstand all tests.

Roll on 1996, however, and IBM developed Deep Blue, a computer bot/program/application that beat the master Gary Kasparov at his own game.

Vin Diesel stars as Ray Garrison, a soldier recently killed in action and brought back to life as the superhero Bloodshot by the RST corporation. With an army of nanotechnology in his veins, he’s an unstoppable force –stronger than ever and able to heal instantly. But in controlling his body, the company has sway over his mind and memories, too. Now, Ray doesn’t know what’s real and what’s not – but he’s on a mission to find out.

In order to better solve complex challenges at the dawn of the third decade of the 21st century, Alphabet Inc. has tapped into relics dating to the 1980s: video games.

The parent company of Google reported this week that its DeepMind Technologies Artificial Intelligence unit has successfully learned how to play 57 Atari video games. And the computer system plays better than any human.

Continue reading “Alphabet’s DeepMind masters Atari games” »

As of right now, Cortical’s mini-brains have less processing power than a dragonfly brain. The company is looking to get its mouse-neuron-powered chips to be capable of playing a game of “Pong,” as CEO Hon Weng Chong told Fortune, following the footsteps of AI company DeepMind, which used the game to test the power of its AI algorithms back in 2013.

“What we are trying to do is show we can shape the behavior of these neurons,” Chong told Fortune.

READ MORE: A startup is building computer chips using human neurons [Fortune].

While many of us are still trying to figure out how to break up the monotony of self-isolation without spending countless hours in front of the television, perhaps some entertainment courtesy of Mother Nature herself might do the trick?

Aurora borealis (or Northern Lights) is one of nature’s most incredible phenomenons – and now you can livestream it directly into your living room.

Explore.org and Polar Bears International use footage from a camera located in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, which is situated underneath the aurora oval – thought to be one of the best places on earth to view the aurora borealis.

Gaming and data demands offset weakness in other areas. Those two categories could be a boon for industry peers, the “Mad Money” host said.

Science fiction has always been a medium for futuristic imagination and while different colored aliens and intergalactic travel are yet to be discovered, there is an array of technologies that are no longer figments of the imagination thanks to the world of science fiction. Some of the creative inventions that have appeared in family-favorite movies like “Back to the Future” and “Total Recall,” are now at the forefront of modern technology. Here are a few of our favorite technologies that went from science fiction to reality.

These modern-day technologies appeared in science fiction decades before their time.