Lifeboat Foundation

Scientists in Portland, Ore., just succeeded in creating the first genetically modified human embryo in the United States, according to Technology Review. A team led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov of Oregon Health & Science University is reported to “have broken new ground both in the number of embryos experimented upon and by demonstrating that it is possible to safely and efficiently correct defective genes that cause inherited diseases.”

The U.S. team’s results follow two trials—one last year and one in April—by researchers in China who injected genetically modified cells into cancer patients. The research teams used CRISPR, a new gene-editing system derived from bacteria that enables scientists to edit the DNA of living organisms.

The era of human gene editing has begun.

Continue reading “The Era of Human Gene Editing Is Here—What Happens Next Is Critical” »

It’s been 55 years since satellite communications became the first commercial space frontier, and space tourism is looming as the next frontier. But what comes after that? Would you believe in-space mining and manufacturing?

Those are the opportunities that came to the fore on Saturday when members of the Association of Professional Futurists gathered at Seattle’s Museum of Flight.

Continue reading “Why asteroids loom as a future space frontier for mining and manufacturing” »

Many of you will likely already know who Professor George Church is and that he is an important and senior member of the research community engaged in treating the aging processes to prevent or reverse age-related diseases, not to mention all kinds of other applications for genetic engineering. For those who are not familiar with him a short bio follows.

George Church is a professor at Harvard & MIT, the co-author of over 425 papers, 95 patent publications and the book Regenesis. He developed the methods used for the first genome sequence back in 1994 and he was instrumental in reducing the costs since then using next generation sequencing and nanopores plus barcoding, DNA assembly from chips, genome editing, writing and re-coding.

He co-initiated the Genome projects in 1984 and 2005 to create and interpret the world’s only open-access personal precision medicine datasets. He was also involved in launching the BRAIN Initiative in 2011.

Analysis finds website can fulfill 99% of requests for scholarly papers.

When James Vlahos’ father was dying from terminal cancer, he decided to preserve as many memories as possible and code them into a chatbot (Dadbot) that could run on his cell phone.

In A Son’s Race to Give His Dying Father Artificial Immortality, James Vlahos recounts his efforts to turn the story of his father’s life — as told by his 80-year-old Dad in his final months after being diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer — into what Vlahos calls a Dadbot.

Continue reading “A Son Turned His Dying Father Into An Artificial Intelligence” »

Migraine is the most common neurological disorder, and much has been learned about its mechanisms in recent years. However, the origin of painful impulses.

After IBM’s Watson won on Jeopardy, the question was bound to come up: Will artificial intelligence replace doctors? Dr. Robert M. Wachter, MD, Chief of the Division of Hospital Medicine and Chair, Department of Medicine, at University of California, San Francisco, and author of New York Times bestseller The Digital Doctor, is answering this question at The Doctors Company’s 2016 Executive Advisory Board.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Uc99zH0GqfE

Ray Kurzweil, one of the world’s leading inventors, thinkers, and futurists, with a thirty-year track record of accurate predictions and called “the restless genius” by The Wall Street Journal and “the ultimate thinking machine” by Forbes magazine, spoke at the Nobel Week Dialogue in Gothenburg, Sweden.

In this talk, Kurzweil explores the history and trajectory of exponential advances in computing and Information Technology to project how he believes Artificial Intelligence (AI) may enhance our natural biological intelligence in the future.

Continue reading “Exponential Artificial Intelligence Can Immortalize Human” »

https://youtube.com/watch?v=QTUsHMq3Wvs

Jack Ma, founder of Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba and one of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs, says he worries about the scary Artificial Intelligence revolution. Artificial Intelligence could decimate middle-class jobs and might cause World War III, but it could also be the opportunities to build new companies and change the current status quo of Africa. He believes that AI will be smarter than human and in the future we will make robot more like human.

He spoke to young African at the University of Nairobi and encourage African Entrepreneurs “When I arrived, I found the internet speed in Kenya is faster than in United states, and you will build even better infrastructure and build the future of Africa because entrepreneurship is the best philanthropy to help the society.”

Continue reading “The Scary AI Revolution Will Decimate Jobs and Might Cause World War III: Jack Ma” »