Sander Olson has provided a new, original 2020 interview with Artificial General Intelligence expert and entrepreneur Ben Goertzel. Ben is the founder of SingularityNET. Question: Hanson Robotic’s Sophia robot has garnered considerable attention. Are there any other robots being developed by Hanson robotics using OpenCog software? Yeah — my colleagues at SingularityNET / Singularity Studio …
Terahertz radiation — the band of electromagnetic radiation between microwaves and visible light — has promising applications in security and medical diagnostics, but such devices will require the development of compact, low-power, high-quality terahertz lasers. In this week’s issue of Nature Photonics, researchers at MIT and Sandia National Laboratories describe a new way to build …
For decades, aircraft designers seeking to improve vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capabilities have endured a substantial set of interrelated challenges. Dozens of attempts have been made to increase top speed without sacrificing range, efficiency or the ability to do useful work, with each effort struggling or failing in one way or another. DARPA’s VTOL …
A guest article by Joseph Friedlander Neil Craig back in 2012 made a few posts on direct correlation of energy + economic growth that made the astonishing assertion, IIRC that simply building enough energy sources would generate very rapid economic growth. Alas, I can no longer email him to find out more details as he …
The United States has “not contained” the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the nation’s top military officer said Tuesday, contradicting President Obama’s remarks last month about the terror group. “We have not contained” ISIS, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told lawmakers at a House Armed Services Committee …
Early in 2016, DARPA will begin testing a 132-foot unmanned submarine-hunting ocean drone in San Diego. The Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUCV) will be a persistent sub hunter similar to an underwater Predator drone. The 132-foot-long, 140-ton ACTUV is being built by Leidos at the Vigor Shipyard [formerly Oregon Iron Works] in Clackamas, …
Three new weapons that could improve the ability of Navy surface ships to defend themselves against enemy missiles—solid state lasers (SSLs), the electromagnetic railgun (EMRG), and the hypervelocity projectile (HVP). Any one of these new weapon technologies, if successfully developed and deployed, might be regarded as a “game changer” for defending Navy surface ships against …
There are calls to start construction on as many as 500 new nuclear reactors domestically in China by 2050, and even more abroad, China could single-handedly more than double the number of reactors worldwide. China will need to build as many as 10-12 reactors a year, roughly double France’s record pace in the 1980s. Experts …
When Falcon Heavy lifts off later this year, it will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two. Thrust at liftoff is equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft operating simultaneously. Animation shows the Spacex heavy boosters returning SOURCES – Youtube Brian WangBrian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and …
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have developed a novel nanometer scale ruthenium oxide anchored nanocarbon graphene foam architecture that improves the performance of supercapacitors, a development that could mean faster acceleration in electric vehicles and longer battery life in portable electronics. The researchers found that supercapacitors, an energy storage device like batteries and …
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reports around 80 million tonnes of fish were caught “wild” in 2011-12 and global aquaculture production set another all-time high at more than 90 million tonnes, including nearly 24 million tonnes of edible plants like seaweeds. In total, the world harvested an extra 10 million tonnes of aquatic food …
