overview for Lugh

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UCLA engineers have developed a wearable, noninvasive brain-computer interface system that utilizes AI s a co-pilot to help infer user intent and complete tasks by moving a robotic arm. (neurosciencenews.com)

submitted 2 months ago by Lugh to c/futurology

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Deepseek's impact is that it has recalibrated global AI towards Open-Source. (www.ai-supremacy.com)

submitted 2 months ago by Lugh to c/futurology

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Could the secret to AI alignment be Meditative, Buddhist AIs? (self.futurology)

submitted 2 months ago by Lugh to c/futurology

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This is a paper which argues that the true path to a safe, dependable AI system is to take what we've learned from meditation and Buddhism and apply it to AI systems: "Robust alignment strategies need to focus on developing an intrinsic, self-reflective adaptability that is constitutively embedded within the system’s world model, rather than using brittle top-down rules", the authors write.

Contemplative Artificial Intelligence - PDF 37 pages

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A Protopian Vision for the Age of Intelligence (substack.com)

submitted 2 months ago by Lugh to c/futurology

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"The trade-off is profound: by socializing the infrastructure of abundance, we eliminate the need for centralized economic control and bureaucracy. "

This is an interesting essay, though I don't agree with it all. For a start, bureaucracies are not all bad. The countries with the highest standards of living all have well-oiled bureaucracies. But it's interesting to see how other people think.

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Personalized mRNA vaccines against pancreatic cancer have built up long-lasting killer T cells in a study. After 3.2 years, responders remained relapse-free significantly longer than non-responders. (www.nature.com)

submitted 2 months ago by Lugh to c/futurology

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Former OpenAI researcher says a $10,000 monthly UBI will be 'feasible' with AI-enabled growth (www.businessinsider.com)

submitted 2 months ago by Lugh to c/futurology

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Syn57 is the Most Stripped-Down Living Synthetic Bacteria Yet - After 100,000 genetic changes, the bacteria is radically different than any other life on Earth. (singularityhub.com)

submitted 2 months ago by Lugh to c/futurology

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Space Elevators may be decades away, but 'Skyhooks' - LEO orbiting tethers that boost things to higher orbits/deep space - could be built now, and an ESA scientist thinks we should. (self.futurology)

submitted 2 months ago by Lugh to c/futurology

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Rocket launches may dominate headlines, but the true bottleneck in space exploration lies not in reaching low Earth orbit (LEO), but in venturing beyond it. From LEO to the Moon or Mars, spacecraft still require costly kick stages or oversized boosters. A decades-old idea known as the skyhook could change that equation.

A skyhook is a rotating orbital tether: essentially, a long, strong cable that swings a spacecraft from one orbit to another, much like a sling. Unlike the space elevator concept, a skyhook looks much more buildable with current technology. By lowering the cost of Earth/Moon & interplanetary transport, skyhooks and related tether technologies could help make space travel beyond LEO economically feasible. The linked interview with Marcus Landgraf, from ESA, connects this to breaking resource limitations and enabling prosperity through space expansion.

How Close Are We To Building A Practical Skyhook? Youtube Interview with Dr. Marcus Landgraf, ESA Human and Robotic Exploration Programme)

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China has unveiled the world's most powerful floating wind turbine, a 17-megawatt giant capable of withstanding typhoons and powering 40,000 homes annually (www.sustainability-times.com)

submitted 2 months ago by Lugh to c/futurology

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Conditions are rapidly improving for the world's poorest people. Between 2015 and 2024, billions of people gained access to safe water and sanitation, though 1 in 4 still lack safe drinking water. (self.futurology)

submitted 2 months ago by Lugh to c/futurology

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"Between 2015 and 2024, humanity recorded one of the fastest expansions of basic welfare of all time: 961 million people gained safe drinking water, 1.2 billion gained safe sanitation, and 1.5 billion gained access to basic hygiene services, while the number of unserved fell by nearly 900 million. Coverage has risen to 74%, 58% and 80% respectively, while open defecation has dropped by 429 million people."

One of the most depressing of human biases is to hyperfocus on bad news, to the exclusion of positive things. 'If it bleeds, it leads, ' as the TV news shows say. Even in the social media age, where TV news is fading in importance, the same instincts predominate.

The results? People think the state of the world is much worse than it is. Not just that, they think they are powerless to change things for the better.

Meanwhile, groups of people like UNICEF and WHO, often dismissed as irrelevant do-gooders, go about making the world a better place. If the numbers given access to basic water and sanitation can jump this much in 9 years, then giving it to nearly 100% of people is in our future, and maybe sooner than we think.

1 in 4 people globally still lack access to safe drinking water – WHO, UNICEF

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Introducing Field Foundation Models (FFMs): A New Era of Embodied Intelligence (youtu.be)

submitted 2 months ago by Lugh to c/futurology_youtube

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Japanese researchers develop quantum computer-based robot posture optimization. (global.fujitsu)

submitted 2 months ago by Lugh to c/futurology

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CATL says its newest EV batteries have a range of 1,000 km (620 miles) and can charge to 600 km in ten minutes. in c/futurology

[–] Lugh 1 points 7 months ago

This requires the driver to charge using CATL's own 4C superchargers. Domestic, or most commercial charging won't happen as quickly. Still, this shows the direction of travel - EVs with long ranges that quickly charge. 4C superchargers don't seem to be available outside of China yet, but like everything else hi-tech, I'm sure it won't be long before China will be able to sell it to other countries.

China's experiments on the Tiangong space station back up its claims that it wants a human base on the Moon, and long-range manned missions to Mars and Jupiter. in c/futurology

[–] Lugh 7 points 7 months ago

This Astrum video does a good job of explaining things. In short, China's experimental work on its space station is all targeted at practical steps to help it build a Moon base, and have manned missions to the outer solar system.

In particular, they focus on 5 key areas. 1. Orbital Construction Technology, 2. Space Robotics & Automation, 3. Energy and Propulsion Innovation, 4. Life Support & Sustainability, 5. Generic Technology for Spacecraft.

They've already succeeded with key breakthroughs, including a system for producing oxygen that is far superior to the system on the ISS which needs a third of the ISS's energy to function.

America, partnered with Europe, is still pursuing its SLS/Orbital Gateway plans that look ever more doomed as time goes on. A wildcard are commercial space systems that could rapidly take-off. If not, by doggedly pursuing its plans, at some point China may pull into the lead in the space race.

AI is coming for music, too: New diffusion AI models that make songs from scratch are complicating our definitions of authorship and human creativity. in c/futurology

[–] Lugh 3 points 7 months ago (3 children)

I think it is true AI lacks true creativity, but the point is you don't need creativity for lots of commercial art.

Stock music, stock videos, video game environments, etc - the industries that made them have always employed creative humans, but they can be made by AI that doesn't have true creativity.

Scientists have used gene editing to produce artificial electrical synapses in mice, where they can be targeted to make the animals more sociable or reduce their risk of OCD-like symptoms. in c/futurology

[–] Lugh 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

This is a lab result on mice, so likely still years away from treatments available to humans.

Still, here's a thought to ponder. If gene editing treatments to make people smarter, kinder, and more sociable were widely available, do you think some people would feel threatened ?

Those traits and others correlate with political persuasions. People might argue that people being smarter, kinder, and more sociable are worse for society, in order to protect their political power base.

Free money for all: Germany's basic income experiment in c/futurology

[–] Lugh 1 points 7 months ago

Interesting there's no mention of unemployment via AI/robotics in DW's reporting of this issue.

AI firm Hugging Face works toward open-source humanoid robotics with Pollen Robotics purchase in c/futurology

[–] Lugh 4 points 7 months ago

There are dozens of open-source robotics projects around the world, including another humanoid robot called Tiangong. Hugging Face's actions are significant because of the prominent role it plays among AI developers. It functions as a version of GitHub, but just for AI - except now it may do the same for robotics too. It has always been committed to open-source (its own tools are open-source).

That open-source AI has kept pace, and in some cases bettered, investor-funded AI has taken many by surprise. Could the same happen in robotics development?