Lifeboat Foundation

Our lifespans might feel like a long time by human standards, but to the Earth it’s the blink of an eye. Even the entirety of human history represents a tiny slither of the vast chronology for our planet. We often think about geological time when looking back into the past, but today we look ahead. What might happen on our planet in the next billion years?

Written and presented by Prof David Kipping, edited by Jorge Casas.

Continue reading “Earth Over The Next Billion Years” »

Boltzmann brain is another bizarre consequence of laws of physics. It’s a configuration of matter, similar to our brains; a statistical fluctuation risen out of thermal equilibrium, a conscious observer created by a sudden decrease in entropy, having false memories of a grand structure exactly like our universe.

Given enough time, every single possibility allowed by the physical laws in our most likely closed universe must eventually occur, including one with a fluctuated brain, sitting in the middle of nowhere, having the exact same thoughts that you are having right now.

Continue reading “Post Eternity Part 2: Boltzmann Brains” »

Soundtrack: https://melodysheep.bandcamp.com/album/the-human-future-original-soundtrack Patreon: http://patreon.com/melodysheep Change is coming. Humanity is entering a turbulent new era, unprecedented in both Earth and Human history. To survive the coming centuries and fulfill our potential as a species, we will have to overcome the biggest challenges we have ever faced, from extreme climate change, to rogue A.I., to the inevitable death of the sun itself.

The headlines make our chances look bleak. But when you look at our history and our tenacity, it’s clear that humanity is uniquely empowered to rise to the challenges we face.

Continue reading “THE HUMAN FUTURE: A Case for Optimism” »

Scientists found a way to translate brain waves into music, using a Pink Floyd song — here’s how the tech could be used for communication in the future.
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Continue reading “Scientists Recreate Pink Floyd Song Based on Brain Waves” »

Neuroscientists have worked for decades to decode what people are seeing, hearing or thinking from brain activity alone. In 2012 a team that included the new study’s senior author—cognitive neuroscientist Robert Knight of the University of California, Berkeley—became the first to successfully reconstruct audio recordings of words participants heard while wearing implanted electrodes. Others have since used similar techniques to reproduce recently viewed or imagined pictures from participants’ brain scans, including human faces and landscape photographs. But the recent PLOS Biology paper by Knight and his colleagues is the first to suggest that scientists can eavesdrop on the brain to synthesize music.

“These exciting findings build on previous work to reconstruct plain speech from brain activity,” says Shailee Jain, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the new study. “Now we’re able to really dig into the brain to unearth the sustenance of sound.”

Continue reading “Neuroscientists Re-create Pink Floyd Song from Listeners’ Brain Activity” »

Now that’s something. Funny this came up on my feed as I’m jamming to music on my phone to destress.

Breakthrough raises hopes that musicality of natural speech can be restored in patients with disabling neurological conditions.

Researchers in the field of information security at Horizon3 have made public the proof-of-concept (PoC) code for a major privilege escalation vulnerability (CVE-2023–26067) found in Lexmark printers. On a device that has not been patched, this vulnerability, which has a CVSS score of 8.0, might enable an attacker to get elevated access if the device is not updated.

Incorrect validation of user-supplied information is what led to the vulnerability in the system. This vulnerability might be exploited by the attacker by having the attacker make a specially crafted request to the printer. Once the vulnerability has been exploited, the attacker has the potential to get escalated rights on the device, which might give them the ability to execute arbitrary code, spill credentials, or obtain a reverse shell.

Configurations prone to vulnerability An initial Setup Wizard is shown on the display of the user’s Lexmark printer the very first time it is turned on by the user. This wizard walks the user through the process of configuring several system settings, such as the language, as well as giving them the opportunity to setup an administrative user. If the user makes the selection “Set Up Later,” the printer will provide “Guest” users access to all of the features and pages available through the web interface of the printer. If the user selects “Set up Now,” the printer will prevent them from accessing a significant portion of their accessible capability until they have authenticated themselves.

The AI tool allows people to create songs using the voices of various artists. What will this do to the music industry?

Months after an outburst over AI-engineered songs that used the voice of artists, it seems like the world’s largest record label – Universal Music Group (UMG) – is getting on board to ride the AI wave before it washes out the company.

In collaboration with Google, UMG will soon develop a tool allowing fans to create AI-generated music using musicians’ voices, reported Financial Times. The deal involves paying copyright holders their share in using their melody and allows the artists a choice to opt in.

“Frank Sinatra’s voice has been used on a version of the hip-hop song ”Gangsta’s Paradise,” while Johnny Cash’s has been deployed on the pop single ”Barbie Girl.” A YouTube user called PluggingAI offers songs imitating the voices of the deceased rappers Tupac and Notorious B.I.G.

”An artist’s voice is often the most valuable part of their livelihood and public persona, and to steal it, no matter the means, is wrong,” Universal Music general counsel Jeffrey Harleston told US lawmakers last month.

Discussions between Google and Universal Music are at an early stage, and no product launch is imminent, but the goal is to develop a tool for fans to create these tracks legitimately, and pay the owners of the copyrights for it, said people close to the situation. Artists would have the choice to opt in, the people said.

Continue reading “Google, record labels working on deal covering musical ‘deepfakes’” »