Lifeboat Foundation

First there was gunpowder. Then nuclear weapons. Next: artificially intelligent weapons.

Physicists at The Australian National University (ANU) have developed extremely powerful microscopic lasers that are even smaller than the wavelength of the light they produce. So called ‘nanolasers’ have a huge variety of medical, surgical, industrial and military uses, covering everything from hair removal to laser printers and night-time surveillance. According to lead researcher Professor Yuri Kivshar, the nanolasers developed by his team promise to be even more powerful than existing lasers, allowing them to be useful in smaller-scale devices. “They can also be integrated on a chip,” he said.

Researchers at the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor debuted the first part of a massive magnet they’ll use to build a fusion reactor.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=N8jpFvwE6F4

The PLAN’s Type 55 has been compared to American Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and Ticonderoga-class cruisers.

Does the United States have an answer to China’s new Type 55 destroyers? Does it need one?

Almost 60 feet tall and 14 feet in diameter when fully assembled, the magnet is a crucial component in the attempt by 35 nations to master nuclear fusion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQCzC2kIqJU

Japan says it has scrambled fighter aircraft to intercept Chinese military drones and accompanying surveillance aircraft on three consecutive days this week as its defense forces took part in a series of readiness exercises with regional allies.

One of the U.S. Defense Department’s two prototype robot warships just fired its first missile.

The military on Friday hailed the test-launch of an SM-6 missile from the Unmanned Surface Vessel Ranger, sailing off the California coast, as “game-changing.”

It’s one thing for an unmanned vessel to launch a missile, however. It’s quite another for the same vessel autonomously to find and fix targets.

Robotic exoskeletons have captivated us for years. They are major tropes in sci-fi movies and video games, and in real-life engineers have been working on them since the 1900s. San Francisco’s Roam Robotics has entered into this space, and Brent Rose tries his hand at stress testing their latest military leg brace.

Archival footage of GE robotic exoskeleton courtesy of miSci: Museum of Innovation & Science.

Continue reading “Stress Testing Real-Life Robot Legs” »

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War has been a part of the human experience since the beginning of civilization. But new technologies are changing the face of warfare in ways that we never really expected. From cyberwarfare to autonomous AI-piloted drones to space warfare, the future of war is weird. And terrifying.

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Continue reading “The Future of War | Answers With Joe” »