I covered the Shane Legg talk on Algorithmic Intelligence Quotient back in 2010. I am revisiting it with a video of the talk and a paper on it. It is important because Shane Legg works in Deepmind and it is how they guided improvement in their algorithms. Measuring universal intelligence: Towards an anytime intelligence test” …
1. Russia has agreed to build up to eight new nuclear power reactor units in Iran – four at Bushehr and four at another, yet to be determined site. Unit 1 at the Bushehr nuclear power plant is a VVER V-446 pressurised water reactor unit, which began commercial operation in September 2013. After years of …
The head of the Air Force Research Laboratory on Sept. 16 said the first test of a hypersonic aircraft could come within five years, and the technology could be applied to cruise missiles by the 2020s. Maj. Gen. Tom Masiello, commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory, said hypersonics is one of the most promising …
[Imperial College London] A structural ceramic that can withstand temperatures three times hotter than lava shows promise in hypersonic air travel, say researchers. Researchers in the UK and around the world are currently working on prototype technologies that could enable new types of aircraft to travel at hypersonic speeds – five times faster than the …
Gregory Benford describes [at Centauri Dreams] an evening he had with Paul Dirac, Stephen Hawking and Martin Rees. It is very interesting and discusses the great scientists attitude to science fiction and the value of it to them. It also discussed how Dirac made his greatest discovery. Paul Dirac won a Nobel in 1933 for …
Surviving in bad housing, without electricity and with unsafe cooking is Rich World Reality TV and is an entertaining challenge for a few weeks or months. However, it sucks badly for the everyday life of the worlds poorest billions. The unsafe cooking with indoor smoke and air pollution causes more cancer and disease. The lack …
Nomura Securities raised its GDP target to 7.5% from 7.4%. It’s not a major jump, but it is a move in the right direction. China investors have been waiting for any sign of momentum since 2012. “We do not believe a recovery is sustainable in the medium term and continue to expect growth to slow …
The Akira Project is a crowd-sourced, non-profit project meant to create a live action fan trailer of AKIRA, the renowned manga-turned-anime film from the late 1980′s; a stunning example of both mediums as art forms. While Hollywood has been working on a live-action Akira movie for a few years now fans wanted to take a …
The electrodes in a cochlear implant can be used to direct gene therapy and regrow neurons. The researchers behind the work are investigating whether electrode-triggered gene therapy could improve other machine-body connections—for example, the deep-brain stimulation probes that are used to treat Parkinson’s disease, or retinal prosthetics. More than 300,000 people worldwide have cochlear implants. …
Michael Watts and pals at MIT have designed and built the first photonic modulator that operates at an ultralow 1 femtoJoule power level. “We propose, demonstrate, and characterize the first modulator to achieve simultaneous high-speed (25 Gigabits per second), low voltage (0.5 peak-to-peak Voltage) and efficient 1 femtoJoule per bit error-free operation,” they say. The …
Volvo Car Group is starting a pilot project with self-driving cars on public roads in Sweden Volvo Cars will play a leading role in the world’s first large-scale autonomous driving pilot project in which 100 self-driving Volvo cars will use public roads in everyday driving conditions around the Swedish city of Gothenburg. The ground-breaking project …