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Imagine a future when earth’s inhabitants are not humans, but cyborgs—robotlike beings with both biological and mechanical components. With exosuits for added strength, cybernetic arms and legs, surgically-implanted earbuds for advanced hearing, bionic eyes for X-ray and infrared vision, and digitally-enhanced brains, these “superbots” think and act at lightning speed. Nanobots inside their bodies work continually to maintain and repair organs and tissues. Equally impressive are their “organic parts,” which have been genetically engineered for health.

Who would you trust more in a high-stress, high-stakes military excursion? A trained human soldier with the limitations of hunger, thirst, lack of sleep, and emotion—or a soulless, autonomous artificial intelligence system acting according to its programming? That’s a question militaries around the world—including the US military—are already facing as AI quickly advances into every industry. But the big question is this: who gets to do the programming? So what exactly is autonomous AI when it comes to the military? Well, according to a Christian Post article, the Congressional Research Service states these are: a special class of weapon systems...

The Detroit Board of Police Commissioners came out blasting facial recognition systems for being racist Thursday night. It is the latest fallout for the false arrest of a pregnant woman for a carjacking she had nothing to do with, leading to a current lawsuit. A vote to ban facial recognition for the Detroit police failed tonight, which would have kept the department from using it for a year. "This technology appears to be 'techno-racism,' it’s the new Jim Crow that’s falsely arresting innocent people here in Detroit," said Commissioner Willie Burton."This is the third incident here in the city of...

A major insurance company used keystroke technology on an employee’s work laptop to test whether she was working her designated hours — and it ended terribly for her. The Fair Work Commission (FWC) has rejected an unfair dismissal application brought by former Insurance Australia Group (IAG) consultant Suzie Cheikho, finding she was fired for a “valid reason of misconduct.” According to the commission’s published finding, Cheikho was responsible for creating insurance documents, meeting regulatory timelines, and monitoring “work from home compliance,” among other significant roles. Ironically, her own work-from-home performance marked the end of her 18-year career with the company....

The protest in London’s bustling Chinatown brought together a variety of activist groups to oppose a rise in anti-Asian hate crimes. So it was peculiar when a street brawl broke out among mostly ethnic Chinese demonstrators. Witnesses said the fight, in November 2021, started when men aligned with the event’s organizers, including a group called No Cold War, attacked activists supporting the democracy movement in Hong Kong. On the surface, No Cold War is a loose collective run mostly by American and British activists who say the West’s rhetoric against China has distracted from issues like climate change and racial...

Global cobalt demand soared with the advent of cell phones and laptop computers. It exploded with the arrival of electric vehicles and now is skyrocketing in tandem with government EV mandates and subsidies. Cobalt improves battery performance, extends driving range and reduces fire risks. Demand will reach stratospheric heights if governments remain obsessed with climate change and Net Zero. States and nations would have to switch to electric cars, trucks, buses and tractors; end coal and gas electricity generation; convert gas furnaces, water heaters and stoves to electricity; and provide alternative power for windless, sunless periods. Electricity generation would triple...

Gunpowder by Jack Kelly is the best history on the subject this writer has encountered. It is not a “how to” book, although the essentials of how to make black powder are covered in enough detail that one could do so. The book elaborates on the thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of persons who died while making black powder over the roughly 800 years of its primacy. “Gunpowder” starts with an examination of the long development of the “fire drug” in China, from about 1050 A.D. to 1230 A.D. During this 180-year period, Chinese “fire drug” producers learned to increase...

Ultrahigh Energy Storage in 2D High-κ Perovskites. Credit: Minoru Osada, Nagoya University Researchers have developed an advanced dielectric capacitor using nanosheet technology, providing unprecedented energy storage density and stability. This breakthrough could significantly enhance renewable energy usage and electric vehicle production. Groundbreaking Dielectric Capacitor Development A research group, led by Nagoya University in Japan, has innovatively applied nanosheet technology to create a dielectric capacitor. This development holds significant implications for advanced electronic and electrical power systems. Innovations in energy storage technology are vital for the effective use of renewable energy and the mass production of electric vehicles. The dielectric capacitor...

Robots presented at an AI forum said on Friday they expected to increase in number and help solve global problems, and would not steal humans' jobs or rebel against us. But, in the world's first human-robot press conference, they gave mixed responses on whether they should submit to stricter regulation. The nine humanoid robots gathered at the 'AI for Good' conference in Geneva, where organizers are seeking to make the case for Artificial Intelligence and the robots it is powering to help resolve some of the world's biggest challenges such as disease and hunger.

It looks like the efforts of both state and federal governments' to force electric vehicles (EVs) on consumers will be costly without providing any environmental advantages. Everyone knows that EVs are far more expensive to own than gasoline-powered vehicles. The premise that these higher costs will buy a cleaner and cooler environment is erroneous. In an effort to make EVs seem more economical, the federal government offers a $7500 tax credit to those who buy one. Even with this added incentive for purchasers, manufacturers are still taking big losses on every vehicle sold. Ford, for example, currently losses $58,000 on...

In 2024 Republicans cannot "out-fraud" the left, cannot "out-ballot-harvest" them, cannot "out-lawfare" them, cannot "out-media" them, cannot "out–contribution mule" them, cannot "out–Justice Department" them...but sure as hell can out-compute them — and that may do it. The left owns the election apparatus — voting equipment, ballot-manufacturing, vagrant habitats, election commissions, media intimidation of judges not to look at election fraud and driving out any lawyer who raises a valid case. Electioneering, by both sides, currently runs 1970s technology. Leftists make good use of obsolete relational tech; Republicans, not so much. In 2024, there is an opportunity to out-compute the left....

There's a simple application that can be installed to give that sound a boost. This application is called EasyEffects and is the successor to PulseEffects. EasyEffects supports the new PulseAudio replacement, Pipewire -- and includes all the right plugins you need to make your digital sounds come alive. ... With EasyEffects you can adjust things like: Blend Harmonics Scope EQ Balance Levels In many cases, all you have to do is add/remove different plugins until you get the exact sound you want. Many of the plugins allow you to fine-tune the sound, but I've found that some of them are...

One of the central mysteries of the pandemic is why countries worldwide simultaneously decided to jettison a century of experience managing respiratory-virus pandemics, usually with an approach akin to the focussed-protection model proposed by the Great Barrington Declaration, in favour of lockdowns and school closures. While the cause is undoubtedly multifactorial, one of the underappreciated enabling factors is the availability of technologies like Zoom, which made lockdown economically manageable for one crucial subset of the population – the laptop class. While video-conferencing technologies have been around for decades, it is only in recent years that they have matured to the...

Meta researchers first revealed their Codec-Avatars four years ago in 2019. These avatars were futuristic, photorealistic and three-dimensional. In 2022, researchers improved the technology and demonstrated Meta MUGSY, which allowed users to create these lifelike avatars by simply scanning their faces on an iPhone, as opposed to earlier when creating such an avatar requires over 100 cameras. Now, in 2023, the researchers at Meta have taken the Codec avatars another step forwards. They will reportedly soon be able to learn to speak like you and even sounds like you. As per a tweet shared by AI Breakfast, the new tech...

Domestic terrorist 'Unabomber' Ted Kaczynski 'died by suicide' in his federal prison cell, according to insiders familiar with the situation. Kaczynski was found dead in his cell at around 8 a.m. in a federal prison. He was 81 years old. While the formal cause of death has not been disclosed, sources say that he died by suicide, reports the New York Times. After shooting to infamy by executing 16 bombings over a 17-year reign of terror, Kaczynski was given when he was finally caught in 1996. Kaczynski was captured after a years-long manhunt tracked him to a primitive cabin in...

The United States lacks an effective tool to adequately combat widespread espionage and intellectual property theft being perpetrated by China’s communist regime, according to a U.S. Treasury Department official. Despite years of competition and ongoing IP theft, the United States has not developed the tools required to target and prevent the continued transfer of sensitive U.S. technologies to China, according to Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Paul Rosen.“We currently assess we don’t have an effective tool to target the money and sophistication with know-how that goes into these sensitive and most critical technologies into countries of concern,” Rosen said during...

Burglars may have gotten more than they bargained for when they targeted a home in Wisconsin last week. The two men snatched thousands of dollars worth of tools from the house in Milwaukee. They apparently also unwittingly grabbed a security camera that continued to transmit from their kitchen table. The security camera captured the moment two thieves early last Monday stole that camera along with tools from a home being rehabbed. The real estate broker saw the whole thing. "Somebody picked up the camera and said what is this? And then they bagged it, not knowing that it's still active,"...

Elon Musk offered a chilling prediction about the future of artificial intelligence (AI) during his recent interview with Tucker Carlson: “AI is more dangerous than, say, mismanaged aircraft design or production maintenance or bad car production, in the sense that it is, it has the potential — however small one may regard that probability, but it is non-trivial — it has the potential of civilization destruction.” Scientists and computer fantasists are confident — while others are mortally afraid — that, at some future time, AI will so far surpass human intelligence that it will genuinely become something like a god....

Stratasys, CollPlant to first produce breast implants using Stratasys’ P3 bioprinter and CollPlant’s bio-inks derived from collagen, designed to replace silicone implants by regenerating breast tissue without eliciting an immune response Israel-based Stratasys – a 3D printing manufacturer, and CollPlant – a regenerative and aesthetic medicine company, announced a joint development of plant-based technologies for tissue regeneration and organ manufacturing. The initial project of the Rehovot-based companies is to produce breast implants using Stratasys’ P3 bioprinter and CollPlant’s bio-inks derived from collagen. The implants are designed to replace silicone implants by regenerating breast tissue without eliciting an immune response.

INTELLIGENT AI robots are coming - and they will have the ability to perform religious ceremonies and could even turn against humans, experts have warned. As AI becomes more prominent in our day to day lives, it wasn’t going to be long before the worlds of religion and tech merged. The thought of robot Gods and ChatGPT sermons terrifies some people - and rightly so, according to experts. Wesley Wildman, Professor of Philosophy, Theology, and Ethics, and of Computing and Data Sciences at Boston University, told The Sun that he believes AI will soon be able to perform religious duties...