Lifeboat Foundation

Researchers experiment with gene deletion.

We are on the verge of something meaningful and incredible with emergent artificial intelligence, says Toni Lane Casserly. But which way will humanity steer it? As with any system, it’s up to us.

No other metric of the state of #transhumanism (or science) says more than a healthy technology stock market. Complain all you want, but the smart money knows what’s happening. And smart money begets innovation—and innovation improves lives. Also, Obama in his 2nd term was a poor ad seller for media—it’s because he was stable and offered few surprises. However Trump (and his dramatic actions) might save and transform the entire media industry, as press bash and explore him relentlessly (and make a fortune in ads doing so as liberals and conservatives eat it up and fight over it all). However, always remember, media companies, whether they’re liberal or conservative, do not exist to serve you and deliver news, but to sell ads to shareholders (like Facebook too which is also near an all time high in stock price) so they can get richer. Media companies that were once struggling are doing better now. I’m not taking sides on any of these issues…I’m just reminding you of a few simple truths on how the world works. Have a nice day!

The inner edge of the habitable zone is the dividing line between peaches and cream and all out hell. Venus has likely seen both. The study of exo-solar systems like Wolf 1061 is key to understanding our own Venus.

New observations of the nearby star Wolf 1061, some 14 light years distant in Ophiuchus — already known to harbor three super-earths — should help planetary scientists better understand what went wrong with our own Venus.

Turns out hellishly-hot Venus-like worlds are quite common and early in the history of any given planetary system, such close-in terrestrial mass planets might even sport liquid water. But as their host stars evolve, the perilous inner edge of these extrasolar planetary systems’ habitable zones move decidedly outward.

Continue reading “Planets Around Wolf 1061 Key To Understanding ‘Venus’” »

Here’s a Harpers review on a new book about #transhumanism coming out soon that discusses the movement, including some of my work. I saw this review in the print edition today (150,000 copies hitting the stands today and 2nd oldest mag in America).

George Saunders is the most humane American writer working today. He need not ask, as Sheila Heti did in the title of her novel, how a person should be. He knows. A person should be courageous and hopeful, generous and kind. A person should sacrifice herself for the good of those who are more vulnerable. A person should live in the knowledge that life is suffering, and that the most, or least, she can do is attempt to ameliorate the suffering of others. And — this is where it gets interesting — a story should be as compassionate as a person. “A story’s positive virtues are not different from the positive virtues of its writer,” Saunders noted in an essay called “My Writing Education.” “A story should be honest, direct, loving, restrained.”

A discussion about Simulation theory, quantum mechanics and Super Mario!

Futurists Keith Comito, Gray Scott, Luis Arana, and Zach Waldman talk about the simulation theory as part of the #FuturistSessions at the Soho House New York. Discussions include quantum mechanics, mathematical realism vs mathematical fictionalism, the Matrix, Pacman, and Mario!

Continue reading “The Futurist Sessions: Simulation Theory — ft. Keith Comito, Gray Scott, Luis Arana, and Zac Waldman” »

For nearly 100 years, scientists have dreamed of turning the lightest of all the elements, hydrogen, into a metal.

Now, in a stunning act of modern-day alchemy, scientists at Harvard University have finally succeeded in creating a tiny amount of what is the rarest, and possibly most valuable, material on the planet, they reported in the journal Science.

For metallic hydrogen could theoretically revolutionise technology, enabling the creation of super-fast computers, high-speed levitating trains and ultra-efficient vehicles and dramatically improving almost anything involving electricity.

Continue reading “Hydrogen turned into metal in stunning act of alchemy that could revolutionise technology and spaceflight” »

Orcs? 😁

The breakthrough could one day lead to farm-grown organ transplants.

They could be used for guided pollination… or for surveillance.