Menu

Blog

Page 9952

Aug 13, 2017

Here’s How To Fix The Big Problems With Elon Musk’s Mars Spaceship

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, space travel

This week electrovehicle and space transit magnate Elon Musk unveiled his master plan for the human race to become “a multi-planetary species”, starting with travel to Mars. But while I know it’s an act of remarkable hubris for me to even say this, I believe SpaceX’s plans for their Interplanetary Transport System have some pretty glaring flaws. The good news is they are flaws that are easily corrected by applying some decades-old solutions from the American and Soviet space-faring experience.

After going over the system architecture and basic spacecraft design, I think there are places where the system can be made to use less fuel, reduce manufacturing complexity, increase crew room, deliver more payload, and more.

Read more

Aug 12, 2017

The world’s best Dota 2 players just got destroyed by a killer AI from Elon Musk’s startup

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, robotics/AI

Tonight during Valve’s yearly Dota 2 tournament, a surprise segment introduced what could be the best new player in the world — a bot from Elon Musk-backed startup OpenAI. Engineers from the nonprofit say the bot learned enough to beat Dota 2 pros in just two weeks of real-time learning, though in that training period they say it amassed “lifetimes” of experience, likely using a neural network judging by the company’s prior efforts. Musk is hailing the achievement as the first time artificial intelligence has been able to beat pros in competitive e-sports.

Read more

Aug 12, 2017

What is Going on Inside the Brain When We Listen to Music?

Posted by in categories: media & arts, neuroscience

When you listen to music, multiple areas of your brain become engaged and active. But when you actually play an instrument, that activity becomes more like a full-body brain workout. What’s going on? Anita Collins explains the fireworks that go off in musicians’ brains when they play, and examines some of the long-term positive effects of this mental workout.

Did you know that every time musicians pick up their instruments, there are fireworks going off all over their brain? On the outside, they may look calm and focused, reading the music and making the precise and practiced movements required. But inside their brains, there’s a party going on. How do we know this?

Continue reading “What is Going on Inside the Brain When We Listen to Music?” »

Aug 12, 2017

3D printing takes-off

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, materials

In recent years 3D printing of aerospace components has made great strides with ever larger parts, faster production and synergy with other materials, including composites. AEROSPACE gets an update on the latest progress from Scott Sevcik, Head of Manufacturing Solutions at international 3D printing company Stratasys.

Scott Sevcik, Head of Manufacturing Solutions, Stratasys. (Stratasys)

Read more

Aug 12, 2017

Why It’s Taking Less and Less to Manufacture More of the Things We Want

Posted by in category: futurism

A wide range of fast-improving technologies are driving manufacturing productivity higher—which means we can now make many more things with less and less.

Read more

Aug 12, 2017

Defense Secretary James Mattis Envies Silicon Valley’s AI Ascent

Posted by in categories: drones, military, robotics/AI

Mattis, speaking in Mountain View, a stone’s throw from Google’s campus, hopes the tech industry will help the Pentagon catch up. He was visiting the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental, an organization within the DoD started by his predecessor Ashton Carter in 2015 to make it easier for smaller tech companies to partner with the Department of Defense and the military. DIUx has so far sunk $100 million into 45 contracts, including with companies developing small autonomous drones that could explore buildings during military raids, and a tooth-mounted headset and microphone.


The academic and commercial spheres are seeing rapid advances in AI technology. And the Pentagon wants in.

Read more

Aug 11, 2017

This indestructible helmet looks a lot like Boba Fett’s

Posted by in category: futurism

Aug 11, 2017

The current wave of artificial intelligence, driven by machine learning (ML) techniques, is all the rage, and for good reason

Posted by in categories: drones, internet, mobile phones, robotics/AI, security

With sufficient training on digitized writing, spoken words, images, video streams and other digital content, ML has become the basis of voice recognition, self-driving cars, and other previously only-imagined capabilities. As billions of phones, appliances, drones, traffic lights, security systems, environmental sensors, and other radio-connected devices sum into a rapidly growing Internet of Things (IoT), there now is a need to apply ML to the invisible realm of radio frequency (RF) signals, according to program manager Paul Tilghman of DARPA’s Microsystems Technology Office. To further that cause, DARPA today announced its new Radio Frequency Machine Learning Systems (RFMLS) program. Find out more: http://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2017-08-11a

Read more

Aug 11, 2017

New Nanochip technology that can reprogram cells to replace tissue or even whole organs

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

What I wonder here is if you could do this with uninjured cells, remaking the whole body with new cells.


The new technique, called tissue nanotransfection, is based on a tiny device that sits on the surface of the skin of a living body. An intense, focused electric field is then applied across the device, allowing it to deliver genes to the skin cells beneath it – turning them into different types of cells.

Continue reading “New Nanochip technology that can reprogram cells to replace tissue or even whole organs” »

Aug 11, 2017

The Game is Never Over

Posted by in category: entertainment

Folks, if you are in the NYC area we are at the Long Island Retro Gaming EXPO 2017 this weekend. We believe that reaching out to other technology progressive communities like gamers, etc. is important which is why we will be there this weekend. We talked about this at the DNA conference in Holland last year in the video here:

Read more