Archive for the ‘neuroscience’ category: Page 897
Oct 31, 2016
Would You Like to Be Uploaded to a Computer When You Die?
Posted by Shane Hinshaw in categories: biotech/medical, computing, cyborgs, life extension, neuroscience
Rattling around inside a hard drive doesn’t sound like an awful lot of fun — but then, neither does death.
Both eventualities are rather difficult to imagine, but we’ll all have to give them some thought sooner rather than later. Neuroscientist and neuroengineer Randal Koene thinks it’s only going to be another 10 years before we replace parts of the brain with prosthetics.
From there, it’s just a matter of replacing each region systematically, to end up with someone whose brain is immortal and electronic. Could the last person to die have already been born?
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Oct 30, 2016
Breaking into the Simulated Universe
Posted by Andreas Matt in categories: computing, Elon Musk, ethics, internet, neuroscience
I argued in my 2015 paper “Why it matters that you realize you’re in a Computer Simulation” that if our universe is indeed a computer simulation, then that particular discovery should be commonplace among the intelligent lifeforms throughout the universe. The simple calculus of it all being (a) if intelligence is in part equivalent to detecting the environment (b) the environment is a computer simulation © eventually nearly all intelligent lifeforms should discover that their environment is a computer simulation. I called this the Savvy Inevitability. In simple terms, if we’re really in a Matrix, we’re supposed to eventually figure that out.
Silicon Valley, tech culture, and most nerds the world over are familiar with the real world version of the question are we living in a Matrix? The paper that’s likely most frequently cited is Nick Bostrom’s Are you living in a Computer Simulation? Whether or not everyone agrees about certain simulation ideas, everyone does seem to have an opinion about them.
Recently, the Internet heated up over Elon Musk’s comments at a Vox event on hot tub musings of the simulation hypothesis. Even Bank of America published an analysis of the simulation hypothesis, and, according to Tad Friend in an October 10, 2016 article published in New Yorker, “two tech billionaires have gone so far as to secretly engage scientists to work on breaking us out of the simulation.”
Oct 30, 2016
Get Ready for Magic Leap: New Patent Brings VR Device One Step Closer to Reality
Posted by Elmar Arunov in categories: augmented reality, military, neuroscience, virtual reality
In Brief:
- Now with just under $800 million in funding, Florida startup Magic Leap has applied for a patent for its VR/AR headsets, bringing them one step closer to market.
- From healthcare to the military, VR/AR is being applied to industries far beyond its humble roots in gaming.
Florida-based startup Magic Leap has been getting considerable attention thanks in no small part to the awesome-looking augmented reality video demos it has released. Apart from these videos and the info we could glean from some interviews and Twitter posts, however, we haven’t yet been given a complete explanation of what the company has in store for consumers. What we do know is that it promises an AR experience unlike any other by delivering “neurologically true visual perception.” In short, the brain won’t be able to tell the difference between reality and virtual reality when you are using Magic Leap’s device.
Oct 30, 2016
Neuroscientists Discover an Ignition Switch for Consciousness
Posted by Elmar Arunov in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience
What’s the Latest?
When Francis Crick, the English scientist who helped discover the structure of DNA, died in 2004, he and a colleague were in the midst of researching the potential existence of an on-off switch for consciousness located somewhere deep within the brain. Crick’s hypothesis likened the proposed switch to an orchestra conductor “to bind all of our different external and internal perceptions together.” Researchers at George Washington University in Washington DC believe they may have found Crick’s conductor. As it happens, it’s located in the exact part of the brain Crick had initially guessed: the claustrum.
What’s the Big Idea?
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Oct 29, 2016
Scientists Bringing Dinosaurs Back to Life
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience
Why governments have been concerned around SynBio including CRISPR.
# Scientists # Dinosaurs – Scientists Bringing Dinosaurs Back to Life : The Jurassic Park film franchise is one of the most popular ever made but no one actually wants to bring dinosaurs back. Right? We’ve all seen the movies. The outcome is never a positive one. However, scientists continue to defy the realm of possibilities.
SCIENTISTS FIND FOSSILIZED BRAIN; DINOSAURS MAKE A COMEBACK
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Oct 29, 2016
This company wants to put a computer in your brain
Posted by Elmar Arunov in categories: computing, neuroscience
*BREAKING NEWS* This tech company is investing $100 million dollars to put computers inside our brains!
Oct 28, 2016
World’s Smallest Extracellular Needle-Electrodes Developed
Posted by Karen Hurst in category: neuroscience
A tiny needle of 5-μm-diameter may help solve the mysteries of the brain and facilitate the development of a brain-machine interface.
Oct 28, 2016
First IEEE Conference on Rebooting Computing Focuses on Neuromorphic and Quantum Designs
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: computing, neuroscience, quantum physics
I hope I get invited to speak. Would love to.
Researchers discuss how to make machines more like the human brain—and faster and more energy-efficient.
By MONICA ROZENFELD 28 October 2016
Oct 27, 2016
Scientists identify fossilized dinosaur brain tissue for first time ever
Posted by Shane Hinshaw in category: neuroscience
A brown pebble discovered on an English beach more a decade ago is actually the world’s first known example of a fossilized dinosaur brain, scientists have confirmed.
The remarkable find is thought to have come from a large plant-eater such as the Iguanodon, which walked the earth about 133 million years ago.
It is believed the creature must have died near water with its head buried in sediment in a swamp or boggy ground, allowing its brain to be “pickled” and preserved.
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