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Archive for the ‘existential risks’ category: Page 37

Aug 31, 2022

Preventing an AI-related catastrophe

Posted by in categories: existential risks, robotics/AI

Why do we think that reducing risks from AI is one of the most pressing issues of our time? There are technical safety issues that we believe could, in the worst case, lead to an existential threat to humanity.

Aug 31, 2022

Rapid evolutionary response to a transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, evolution, existential risks

Circa 2016 This gives more exacting detail of the Tasmanian devils resistance to cancer.


A recently emerged infectious cancer has caused the near extinction of the Tasmanian devil, but some populations persist. Here, Epstein et al. provide evidence for possible resistance via rapid evolution in two genomic regions that contain cancer-related immune response genes.

Aug 30, 2022

Northrop Grumman’s RQ-4 RangeHawks Embark on New Mission

Posted by in categories: drones, existential risks, military, robotics/AI, surveillance

It will be reconfigured to meet testing needs.

The giant drone, RQ-4 RangeHawk, will soon be used to support the development of hypersonic missiles in the U.S., its manufacturer, Northrop Grumman, said in a press release.

Hypersonic missiles are the newest frontier in the weapons race, with countries like Russia and North Korea laying claims to have successfully demonstrated this technology. The U.S. hypersonic missile program has faced a few hiccups with repetitive test failures. Last month, the U.S. Air Force confirmed that its Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) had been successfully tested, almost after a year after similar claims from Russia.

Continue reading “Northrop Grumman’s RQ-4 RangeHawks Embark on New Mission” »

Aug 24, 2022

George Church, PhD: Rewriting Genomes to Eradicate Disease and Aging

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, existential risks, genetics, life extension, robotics/AI

All around smart guy Dr Goerge Church talking about genetic engineering technologies.


George Church, Ph.D. is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and of health sciences and technology at both Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Church played an instrumental role in the Human Genome Project and is widely recognized as one of the premier scientists in the fields of gene editing technology and synthetic biology.

Continue reading “George Church, PhD: Rewriting Genomes to Eradicate Disease and Aging” »

Aug 23, 2022

Can We Merge With Artificial General Intelligence? — The AGI Symbiosis

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, employment, existential risks, military, nuclear weapons, robotics/AI, singularity

Artificial General Intelligence — Short for AGI is a trending and recent topic of debate among AI researchers and computer scientists. A pressing issue for AI or artificial Intelligence is the AI alignment problem. The AI control problem could be the most important task for humanity to solve. There have been many suggestions from AI researchers to avoid the dangers of artificial general intelligence or a digital super-intellgience. It seems among the best solutions to this problem has been a merging scenario with AGI. Elon Musk has suggested we regulate artificial intelligence and we should proceed very carefully if humanity collectively decides that creating a digital super-intelligence is the right move. Elon Musk is the founder of many high tech companies, including Neuralink. Which develops implantable brain–machine interfaces. Elon Musk warns that AI is probably the biggest existential threat for humanity. AGI is probably even more dangerous than nuclear warheads and nobody would suggest we allow anyone to build nuclear weapons if they want. The pressing issue for a potential AGI development and eventually the creation of a digital super-intelligence is going to be increasingly relevant in the coming years. Dr. Ben Goertzel, CEO & Founder, of SingularityNET Foundation, is one of the world’s foremost experts in Artificial General Intelligence. According to him these reactions are probably going to look very silly to people a few decades from now, as they go about their lives which have been made tremendously easy and happy and fascinating compared to 2020 reality, via the wide rollout of advanced AGI systems to handle manufacturing service, and all the other practical jobs that humans now spend their time doing. Elon musk suggested, the merge scenario with A.I. is the one that seems like probably the best,” or as he put it on the Joe Rogan Experience. “If you can’t beat it, join it.

#AGI #AI #Artificialintelligence.

Continue reading “Can We Merge With Artificial General Intelligence? — The AGI Symbiosis” »

Aug 21, 2022

The Nadir Crater offshore West Africa: A candidate Cretaceous-Paleogene impact structure

Posted by in category: existential risks

Seismic data reveal a candidate impact crater offshore West Africa that formed close in time to the K-Pg extinction event.

Aug 20, 2022

A 600 foot-wide ‘Potentially Hazardous’ Asteroid Is Approaching Earth At 30,000 Mph

Posted by in categories: asteroid/comet impacts, existential risks

According to NASA’s database, a space rock will approach Earth in the following days at a speed of about 30,000 miles per hour.

Aug 20, 2022

What Happens When the Doomsday Clock Hits Midnight?

Posted by in categories: climatology, existential risks, military, nuclear energy, sustainability

The invasion that Russia has wrongfully started in Ukraine has led to more people talking about the threat of Nuclear war and World War 3. How does the Doomsday Clock relate to all this?

And Lifespan News: https://www.youtube.com/LifespanNews.

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Aug 19, 2022

1 in 6 Chance of Catastrophic Volcano Eruption Within a Hundred Years

Posted by in categories: climatology, existential risks

The world is ‘woefully underprepared’ for a massive volcanic eruption and the likely repercussions on global supply chains, climate and food, according to experts from the University of Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER), and the University of Birmingham.

Aug 19, 2022

What nuclear war looks like from space

Posted by in categories: existential risks, food

Nuclear winter visualizations made by Prof. Max Tegmark using state-of-the-art simulation data from these science papers:
* Lili Xia, Alan Robock, Kim Scherrer, Cheryl Harrison, Benjamin Bodirsky, Isabelle Weindl, Jonas Jägermeyr, Charles Bardeen, Owen Toon & Ryan Heneghan, 2022, published in Nature Food.
* Joshua Coupe, Charles Bardeen, Alan Robock & Owen Toon 2019, J. of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 124, 8522–8543
* Owen Toon, Charles Bardeen, Alan Robock, Lili Xia, Hans Kristensen, Matthew McKinzie, R. Peterson, Cheryl Harrison, Nicole Lovenduski & Richard P. Turco 2019, Sci. Adv. 5: eaay5478
* Alan Robock, Luke Oman & Georgiy L. Stenchikov 2007, J. Geophys. Research 112, D13107.

Special thanks to Chuck Bardeen for data and Meia Chita-Tegmark for editing!

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