Lifeboat Foundation

In the era of information overload, it is difficult to find a study that presents in a nutshell the global situation as a whole along with potential future perspectives. This is exactly what the 2013–14 State of the Future, a new report by The Millennium Project, tries to do in a comprehensive and readable way. Launched at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, this report about the future of humanity is a distillation of the work of over 2,000 international experts contributing through the 50 Nodes of The Millennium Project around the world, from Argentina to Azerbaijan, from China to Colombia, from South Africa to South Korea, from the UK to the USA. It is “an informative publication that gives invaluable insights into the future for the United Nations, its Member States, and civil society” said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and “the most influential annual report on what we know about the future of humanity” notes Paul Werbos from the National Science Foundation.

Half of the report covers the 15 Global Challenges that were defined by The Millennium Project in 1998, after an international Delphi expert survey, and were used as additional input for the Millennium Development Goals in 2000. Since then, The Millennium Project has been assessing the yearly evolution of these challenges with quantitative indicators and comprehensive qualitative analysis. But why are these global challenges so important? Well, as my friend Peter Diamandis, CEO of the X Prize Foundation and co-founder of Singularity University, likes to say: “the greatest challenges are also the greatest opportunities”. Indeed, with every challenge there is a huge opportunity to improve the human condition, as well as create new businesses, jobs and economic activity.

Let’s consider quickly these 15 global challenges, not in any specific order, since they are all equally important and fundamental to the long-term development and survival of humanity:

1. How can sustainable development be achieved for all while addressing global climate change?

Continue reading “15 Global Challenges… and 15 Global Opportunities” »

Computers will soon be able to simulate the functioning of a human brain. In a near future, artificial superintelligence could become vastly more intellectually capable and versatile than humans. But could machines ever truly experience the whole range of human feelings and emotions, or are there technical limitations ?

In a few decades, intelligent and sentient humanoid robots will wander the streets alongside humans, work with humans, socialize with humans, and perhaps one day will be considered individuals in their own right. Research in artificial intelligence (AI) suggests that intelligent machines will eventually be able to see, hear, smell, sense, move, think, create and speak at least as well as humans. They will feel emotions of their own and probably one day also become self-aware.

There may not be any reason per se to want sentient robots to experience exactly all the emotions and feelings of a human being, but it may be interesting to explore the fundamental differences in the way humans and robots can sense, perceive and behave. Tiny genetic variations between people can result in major discrepancies in the way each of us thinks, feels and experience the world. If we appear so diverse despite the fact that all humans are in average 99.5% identical genetically, even across racial groups, how could we possibly expect sentient robots to feel the exact same way as biological humans ? There could be striking similarities between us and robots, but also drastic divergences on some levels. This is what we will investigate below.

Continue reading “Could a machine or an AI ever feel human-like emotions ?” »

Continue reading “RE: Does Advanced Technology Make the 2nd Amendment Redundant?” »

By Teppei Kasai and Yoshiyasu Shida — Reuters

(Reuters) — Japan’s SoftBank Corp said on Thursday it will start selling human-like robots for personal use by February, expanding into a sector seen key to addressing labour shortages in one of the world’s fastest ageing societies.

The robots, which the mobile phone and Internet conglomerate envisions serving as baby-sitters, nurses, emergency medical workers or even party companions, will sell for 198,000 yen ($1,900) and are capable of learning and expressing emotions, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son told a news conference.

A prototype will be deployed this week, serving customers at SoftBank mobile phone stores in Japan, he added. The sleek, waist-high robot, named Pepper, accompanied Son to the briefing, speaking to reporters in a high-pitched, boyish voice.

“People describe others as being robots because they have no emotions, no heart. For the first time in human history, we’re giving a robot a heart, emotions,” Son said.

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By Dante D’Orazio — The Verge

Eugene Goostman seems like a typical 13-year-old Ukrainian boy — at least, that’s what a third of judges at a Turing Test competition this Saturday thought. Goostman says that he likes hamburgers and candy and that his father is a gynecologist, but it’s all a lie. This boy is a program created by computer engineers led by Russian Vladimir Veselov and Ukrainian Eugene Demchenko.

That a third of judges were convinced that Goostman was a human is significant — at least 30 percent of judges must be swayed for a computer to pass the famous Turing Test. The test, created by legendary computer scientist Alan Turing in 1950, was designed to answer the question “Can machines think?” and is a well-known staple of artificial intelligence studies.

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Lifeboat Foundation Worldwide Ambassador White Swan Update and Published Amazon Author by Andres Agostini at www.amazon.com/author/agostini

In the black holes’ pull. Astronomers discover that magnetic fields in the vicinity of supermassive black holes can equal the force of gravity http://www.mpg.de/8256277/magnetic-fields_supermassive-black-holes

In the black holes’ pull Astronomers discover that magnetic fields in the vicinity of supermassive black holes http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140609021814&#4…of-gravity

At the heart of the antimatter mystery http://www.mpg.de/8242689/proton_magnetic_moment

“At the heart of the antimatter mystery” by @SciCzar on @LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140609022248&#4…er-mystery

Change of perspective in the electronic landscape http://www.mpg.de/8242301/bismuth_energy-distribution

Continue reading “Lifeboat Foundation Worldwide Ambassador White Swan Update and Published Amazon Author by Andres Agostini at www.amazon.com/author/agostini” »

Nanosats are go! Small satellites: iny satellites are changing the space business http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140607205338&#4…e-business

Harvard researchers find switch that causes mature liver cells to revert back to stem cell-like state http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140607210737&#4…like-state

Continue reading “Lifeboat Foundation Worldwide Ambassador White Swan Update and Published Amazon Author by Andres Agostini at www.amazon.com/author/agostini” »

I am preparing a 1-day The Gravity Modification Workshop (more details here) and expect to conduct this workshop in the August-September 2014 time frame. I would like to gauge interest so if you are interested in attending pleased complete this short QuickSurveys survey https://www.quicksurveys.com/s/p6K3J informing me of your interest. This survey ends June 22 2014.

Workshop details are as follows:

Title: The Gravity Modification Workshop

Presenter: Benjamin T Solomon

Continue reading “The Gravity Modification Workshop” »

Lifeboat Foundation Worldwide Ambassador White Swan Update and Published Amazon Author by Andres Agostini at www.amazon.com/author/agostini

The Black Bible to Extreme Omniscient Womb-to-Tomb Risk Management as per the White Swan Treatise Synthesis!: The White Swan’s Beyond Eureka and Sputnik Moments: How To Fundamentally Cope With Risks
ASIN: B00KTCVFVW http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KTCVFVW?tag=lifeboatfound-20

Continue reading “Lifeboat Foundation Worldwide Ambassador White Swan Update and Published Amazon Author by Andres Agostini at www.amazon.com/author/agostini” »