Lifeboat Foundation

I was on a panel at a recent conference when the moderator asked audience and panel members what they thought of UBI. The overwhelming consensus of the 500 or so people in the room appeared to be “we’re skeptical, but should experiment.” UBI sounds like a good or not-so-good idea to different constituents because we have so little understanding of either how we would do it, or how people would react. None of us really knows what we’re talking about when it comes to UBI, akin to being in a drunken bar argument before there were smartphones and Wikipedia. But there are a few basic principles and pieces of research that can help.

Liberals and conservatives alike love—and fear—the idea of giving free money to everyone. But we have to try it anyway.

Author: Joi Ito BY Joi Ito

Will Smith tries to put the moves on Sophia the robot.

The space agency held a news conference today at its Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, detailing the next mission to the Red Planet.

A lot of people worry about overpopulation, but maybe it’s population decline we should worry about instead?

- Norwegian version: Menneskeheten kan risikere å dø ut hvis vi ikke utvikler livsforlengende teknologier

In earlier times, population growth was limited by the fact that the majority of children died before they were old enough to have children themselves. Illness and lack of resources has probably contributed greatly to the high childhood mortality. Today our technology is better, and so we are able to utilize the Earth’s resources more efficiently, and now, luckily, most people survive childhood. This has led to a population explosion. The greater number of people has led to faster technological progress, which is making room for still more people, and so on — a virtuous circle that helps to give human beings a better standard of living.

Continue reading “Humankind could risk dying out if we don’t develop life extension technology” »

Yes, aging is the world’s biggest problem!

In this article I’ve compared aging to other potential world problems in terms of how many years of life each problem takes away from an average person.

Continue reading “Is Aging The World’s Biggest Problem?” »

I wrote this two years ago, so should be 28 years now smile

“So considering how far we’ve come already and how fast technology is improving and can be expected to improve in the future, I don’t think there’s any doubt that we’ll have the aging process under control in less than 30 years. Maybe 30 years is too cautious an estimate, even. Ray Kurzweil has said that already by 2030, life expectancy will increase by one year per year, and I actually won’t be very surprised if he’s right. But everyone in the world won’t get access to the technology as early as Kurzweil estimates, which is why nearly 30 years might still be closer to the truth for most people?”

- Norwegian version: Hvis du lever om 30 år, er det gode sjanser for at du også kan leve om 1000 år

Continue reading “If you’re alive in 30 years, chances are good you may also be alive in 1000 years” »

DARPA’s OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) program envisions future small-unit infantry forces using small unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) and/or small unmanned ground systems (UGSs) in swarms of 250 robots or more to accomplish diverse missions in complex urban environments. By leveraging and combining emerging technologies in swarm autonomy and human-swarm teaming, the program seeks to enable rapid development and deployment of breakthrough swarm capabilities.

To continue the rapid pace and further advance the technology development of OFFSET, DARPA is soliciting proposals for the second “swarm sprint.” Each of the five core “sprints” focuses on one of the key thrust areas: Swarm Tactics, Swarm Autonomy, Human-Swarm Team, Virtual Environment, and Physical Testbed. This second group of “Swarm Sprinters” will have the opportunity to work with one or both of the OFFSET Swarm Systems Integrator teams to develop and assess tactics as well as algorithms to enhance autonomy.

Inti de Ceukelaire, the ethical hacker from ‘Oilsjt’ in Belgium, is back again. De Ceukelaire has built a tool that can pretty reliably tell who you are after answering 15 questions on his new site ‘Oilsjt Analytica,’ a cheeky reference to Cambridge Analytica’s recent Facebook scandal.

I would say it was creepy, but the disclaimer on the website jokes that feeling away. Which also kind of makes me feel like a sucker for giving away data because someone makes light of it. Maybe it illuminates a deeper truth: We don’t care about our data as long as we’re entertained.

“Disclaimer: this website does not store any personal information. I mean, we could, but we say we don’t. So we don’t. We cannot be held responsible for any fake news related to this website.”

Continue reading “This site guesses exactly who you are based on just 15 questions” »

Scientists found that neurons in mammalian brains were capable of producing photons of light, or “Biophotons”!

The photons, strangely enough, appear within the visible spectrum. They range from near-infrared through violet, or between 200 and 1,300 nanometers.

Scientists have an exciting suspicion that our brain’s neurons might be able to communicate through light. They suspect that our brain might have optical communication channels, but they have no idea what could be communicated.

Continue reading “Scientists Discover Biophotons In The Brain That Could Hint Our Consciousness is Directly Linked to Light!” »