Earth Day at 50: A Look to the Past Offers Hope for the Planet’s Future – Singularity Hub

Fifty years ago, on April 22, 1970, millions of people took to the streets in cities and towns across the United States, giving voice to an emerging consciousness of humanitys impact on Earth. Protesters shut down 5th Avenue in New York City, students in Boston staged a die-in at Logan airport, and demonstrators in Chicago called for an end to the internal combustion engine.

CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite hosted a half-hour Earth Day special, calling for the public to heed the unanimous voice of the scientists warning that halfway measures and business as usual cannot possibly pull us back from the edge of the precipice.

Today, Cronkites words are eerily familiar. Warnings of impending ecological crises are now commonplace. But are we prepared to heed the warnings? In 1970, the answer was yes. The same might just be true, once again, in 2020.

In 1970, the world was reaching the end of a post-war economic boom, associated with a rapid expansion of industry and manufacturing. Better living through chemistry, was radically changing the daily lives of many of the worlds inhabitants. Pesticides like DDT had saved thousands from malaria and other insect-borne diseases, while chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) had expanded safe and reliable refrigeration around the world.

But dark clouds loomed on the horizon. As the air, water, and land became increasingly choked with industrial wastes, Rachel Carsons 1962 book Silent Spring sounded a clear warning about the poisonous effects of DDT and other synthetic compounds across the food chain.

Increasing ecological awareness was fueled by the social unrest of the civil rights and anti-war movements. The youth of the day created a counter-culture that openly questioned their parents notions of progress.

The first Earth Day helped catalyze more than two decades of sweeping legislative changes, first at national levels, and then through multilateral institutions seeking to tackle global environmental problems.

The 1987 Montreal Protocol and 1992 Rio Earth Summit produced framework agreements to limit the accumulation of ozone-destroying CFCs, protect global biodiversity, and mitigate human impacts on the climate system. These agreements sought to balance economic growth with ecological and social justice.

Within a few years of the Rio Earth Summit, other powerful forces of globalization began to emerge. In 1995, the World Trade Organization was created, ushering in a new economic order that has exerted a profound impact on planet Earth and its inhabitants.

Since the mid-1990s, rapid expansion of trade in the new digital economy has stimulated development in some of the worlds poorest countries, lifting millions out of poverty, but also greatly increasing income inequality. At the same time, globalization has expanded the ecological footprint of the worlds wealthiest countries over supply chains stretching across the planet.

Today, 25 years into our new globalized era, we must reckon with the unintended consequences of progress, much as we did in 1970. Between 1945 and 1970, and again from 1995 to 2020, our societies have transformed through geopolitical shifts, economic expansion, and technological developments.

While the specifics are different, there can be no doubt that both periods left a strong imprint on planet Earth. But are we ready to tackle the profound challenge of redefining our relationship with Earth?

Ignorance is no longer an excuse for inaction; a half century of science has provided clear evidence of the ongoing deterioration of Earths biophysical systems. What we lack is determination and courage in the face of powerful oppositional forces.

Much as Carson did in the 1960s, we still struggle against vested economic and political interests intent on maintaining the status quo. We must also recognize that the problems are now embedded deeply into the fabric of societies; tackling climate change, for example, requires nothing short of re-imagining the global energy sector.

We face a daunting task, but there are signs of hope, particularly as we see a resurgence of youth movements willing to challenge our notions of progress. The first Earth Day protesters were overwhelmingly young; they didnt have a Greta Thunberg, but they did strike from school. And just as their message caught the attention of Walter Cronkite, at least some adults are listening now.

What will it take to move us from listening to action?

Perhaps the current COVID-19 pandemic could provide a trigger. Our relentless drive to move goods and people across the planet has been hijacked by a microscopic bundle of protein and RNA, inflicting significant human suffering and damage on the global economy.

The pandemic is, no doubt, a global health catastrophe. But the disruption of the status quo also presents an opportunity to question our core values and to re-examine our relationships with each other and with Earths natural systems. For COVID-19, as with our most complex environmental challenges, any viable solutions will require co-operation rather than isolation across borders.

The pandemic also demonstrates how societies can mobilize rapidly in the face of existential threats. While our current emergency response to COVID-19 has been reactive, rather than proactive, perhaps it need not have been entirely sowhy did we not learn from SARS, MERS, H1N1 and other global respiratory virus outbreaks?

Must we also wait for more dire impacts of climate change before taking action? Now is the time to mitigate environmental threats through proactive measures, developing the societal tools to maximize human well-being in a rapidly changing world.

The economic pain inflicted by COVID-19 should not limit our ability to take bold action. The environmental triumphs of the 1970s and 1980s occurred against a backdrop of significant economic uncertainty after the post-war boom.

When the current crisis passes, as it surely will, we must seize the opportunity to re-imagine, and to create, a different kind of future, much as the original Earth Day protesters did on April 22, 1970.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Image credit: NASA

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Earth Day at 50: A Look to the Past Offers Hope for the Planet's Future - Singularity Hub

What happened before the Big Bang? – Space.com

In the beginning, there was an infinitely dense, tiny ball of matter. Then, it all went bang, giving rise to the atoms, molecules, stars and galaxies we see today.

Or at least, that's what we've been told by physicists for the past several decades.

But new theoretical physics research has recently revealed a possible window into the very early universe, showing that it may not be "very early" after all. Instead it may be just the latest iteration of a bang-bounce cycle that has been going on for well, at least once, and possibly forever.

Of course, before physicists decide to toss out the Big Bang in favor of a bang-bounce cycle, these theoretical predictions will need to survive an onslaught of observation tests.

Scientists have a really good picture of the very early universe, something we know and love as the Big Bang theory. In this model, a long time ago the universe was far smaller, far hotter and far denser than it is today. In that early inferno 13.8 billion years ago, all the elements that make us what we are were formed in the span of about a dozen minutes.

Even earlier, this thinking goes, at some point our entire universe all the stars, all the galaxies, all the everything was the size of a peach and had a temperature of over a quadrillion degrees.

Amazingly, this fantastical story holds up to all current observations. Astronomers have done everything from observing the leftover electromagnetic radiation from the young universe to measuring the abundance of the lightest elements and found that they all line up with what the Big Bang predicts. As far as we can tell, this is an accurate portrait of our early universe.

But as good as it is, we know that the Big Bang picture is not complete there's a puzzle piece missing, and that piece is the earliest moments of the universe itself.

That's a pretty big piece.

Related: From Big Bang to present: Snapshots of our universe through time

The problem is that the physics that we use to understand the early universe (a wonderfully complicated mishmash of general relativity and high-energy particle physics) can take us only so far before breaking down. As we try to push deeper and deeper into the first moments of our cosmos, the math gets harder and harder to solve, all the way to the point where it just quits.

The main sign that we have terrain yet to be explored is the presence of a "singularity," or a point of infinite density, at the beginning of the Big Bang. Taken at face value, this tells us that at one point, the universe was crammed into an infinitely tiny, infinitely dense point. This is obviously absurd, and what it really tells us is that we need new physics to solve this problem our current toolkit just isn't good enough.

Related: 8 ways you can see Einstein's theory of relativity in real life

To save the day we need some new physics, something that is capable of handling gravity and the other forces, combined, at ultrahigh energies. And that's exactly what string theory claims to be: a model of physics that is capable of handling gravity and the other forces, combined, at ultrahigh energies. Which means that string theory claims it can explain the earliest moments of the universe.

One of the earliest string theory notions is the "ekpyrotic" universe, which comes from the Greek word for "conflagration," or fire. In this scenario, what we know as the Big Bang was sparked by something else happening before it the Big Bang was not a beginning, but one part of a larger process.

Extending the ekpyrotic concept has led to a theory, again motivated by string theory, called cyclic cosmology. I suppose that, technically, the idea of the universe continually repeating itself is thousands of years old and predates physics, but string theory gave the idea firm mathematical grounding. The cyclic universe goes about exactly as you might imagine, continually bouncing between big bangs and big crunches, potentially for eternity back in time and for eternity into the future.

As cool as this sounds, early versions of the cyclic model had difficulty matching observations which is a major deal when you're trying to do science and not just telling stories around the campfire.

The main hurdle was agreeing with our observations of the cosmic microwave background, the fossil light leftover from when the universe was only 380,000 years old. While we can't see directly past that wall of light, if you start theoretically tinkering with the physics of the infant cosmos, you affect that afterglow light pattern.

And so, it seemed that a cyclic universe was a neat but incorrect idea.

But the ekpyrotic torch has been kept lit over the years, and a paper published in January to the arXiv database has explored the wrinkles in the mathematics and uncovered some previously missed opportunities. The physicists, Robert Brandenberger and Ziwei Wang of McGill University in Canada, found that in the moment of the "bounce," when our universe shrinks to an incredibly small point and returns to a Big Bang state, it's possible to line everything up to get the proper observationally tested result.

In other words, the complicated (and, admittedly, poorly understood) physics of this critical epoch may indeed allow for a radically revised view of our time and place in the cosmos.

But to fully test this model, we'll have to wait for a new generation of cosmology experiments, so let's wait to break out the ekpyrotic champagne.

Paul M. Sutteris an astrophysicist atSUNYStony Brook and the Flatiron Institute, host ofAsk a SpacemanandSpace Radio, and author ofYour Place in the Universe.

Originally published on Live Science.

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What happened before the Big Bang? - Space.com

What creative introverts can teach us about the joys of social distancing – The Hindu

The lockdown has not rattled me. I have always had a self-imposed quarantine, says poet-novelist Vinod Kumar Shukla, over the phone, discussing his choice of lifestyle that requires minimum social interaction. Not a recluse in the true sense of the word, Sahitya Akademi Award winner (1999) for Hindi literature, 83-year-old Shukla, is content without meeting people for days together. He lives with his family in his home in Raipur in Chhattisgarh.

Winner of Mathrubhumi Book of The Year Award 2020, Shukla sent his acceptance speech, a warm recollection of a time when he had visited the University of Calicut two decades ago for a seminar on Hindi. The letter was read out at the event in Thiruvananthapuram, in February this year. However, he kept away.

I have my own method of social interaction. Writing for me is talking with people. Reading is about knowing them. I dont need to meet people. I find all of them in the books I read and write, says Shukla, who first stepped out of his village Rajnandgaon (in former Madhya Pradesh) when he was 18, to make a rail journey.

Though I have travelled a lot, even outside India, it has only been for literature. Even going to my neighbours house is like making a pilgrimage. According to me, remaining local will make you global. As a writer, I learn everything sitting at my desk. I watch my wife, observe her and I know about womankind, he adds. Shukla writes daily and reads for seven to eight hours a day and, to him, the lockdown has made no difference.

I dont find this forced isolation of the lockdown strange, says writer and former bureaucrat NS Madhavan who signed off from Twitter last August to concentrate on his writing. I took a sabbatical from social life and it has paid off. I find the constant buzz in my head has gone. Yet, Madhavan adds that he loves to travel as it gives him the material for his writing.

Ceramic artist Priya Sundaravalli chose a sequestered life, away from the city, in Auroville, Puducherry 18 years ago on her return from the US. The lockdown has not made a big difference to her way of life, which is one of little social interaction. Priya says shes not one to catch up with friends very often. Virtual connectivity is adequate.

Surprisingly, as a teenager, Priya did not have this temperament. She recalls being a part of cooking parties and sleepovers in the US, but also remembers a niggling sense of inadequacy; of something missing. I am trying to find wholesomeness in my days, she says, explaining that the milestones of her day are routine things like drawing kolam, making a good breakfast and such.

Being close to the wilderness, places untouched by human beings, gives her joy and was a reason to relocate to Auroville, a commune that leads a secluded lifestyle.

Priya spends large parts of her day at the potters wheel in her studio. When you get into the zone of creativity, you experience a singularity with the creative process. Time, space, tiredness and physical needs drop off.

What doctors say

Kochi-based jazz musician Salim Nair too spends long hours in his home office, developing software and making music. I am uncomfortable with large crowds and become acutely aware of how I must handle people when I meet them, says Salim. When he relocated, eight years ago, to Kochi from the US, he was very conscious of the fact that he needed seclusion and built his house accordingly. I like to observe people rather than mingle with them, says Salim, who lives off the virtual online community he has built in the past 10 years.

Does isolation fire his creativity? I find my productivity increased if theres another person actively working with me, but it depends on the person, says Salim. In the lockdown, he has been streaming live from his FB page SalimNairband. Not dictated by deadlines, he follows his pace.

One of the countrys leading abstractionists, Achuthan Kudallur says he cannot paint when there is another individual around. Seclusion and solitude are important for his creativity. Having recovered from a recent fall, which meant bed rest, he has adjusted to the lockdown, calling his state a quarantine within a quarantine. Kudallur savours the quietness of his home in Neelankarai and its proximity to the sea. I love the sea and my solitude. The current upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has robbed him of the mood to paint. But when inspiration strikes, he says, his art will reflect the colours and structures of the pandemic.

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What creative introverts can teach us about the joys of social distancing - The Hindu

‘Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045’ Preview: Will the new series step up to franchise standards or crash and burn – MEAWW

Netflix is all set to release a brand new addition to the iconic 'Ghost in the Shell' franchise. 'Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045' is a new 3D CGI animated series that continues the story of the franchise with new technologies and world-ending threats.Directed by Shinji Aramaki and franchise veteran Kenji Kamiyama, 'SAC_2045' looks like it might just be a worthy addition to the franchise. It features the return of beloved franchise characters Major Motoko Kusanagi (Atsuko Tanaka), Akio Ohtsuka as Batou, Kichi Yamadera as Togusa, Yutaka Nakano as Ishikawa, Toru Ohkawa as Saito and more.

It is set in 2045 and draws inspiration from Ray Kurzweil's 'The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology', which predicts that human and machine intelligence would merge into a Singularity by that year. It looks like the show will present an interesting perspective on the future of the human race, a theme that's been predominant in the franchise as a whole. The series will also be introducing some interesting new villains, the so-called "post-humans" who threaten the delicate global balance.

In terms of story and philosophical themes, 'SAC_2045' does sound like it might be exactly what fans of the franchise want. However, there's also the artwork to be taken into account.

This isn't the first time 'Ghost in the Shell' has played around with 3D animation but Netflix does have a pretty shaky track record with CG-animated shows (we're looking at you 'Saint Seiya'). That said, we've seen the art for the show in trailers and it looks like it does work pretty well for the series.There's a lot of expectations riding on 'SAC_2045'. Whether it can live up to them or not is something we'll have to wait and see.

Here's the official synopsis for the new ONA series: "In 2045, the world has been thrown into a state of systematic 'sustainable war', but the threat of human extinction at the hands of AI hasn't yet pervaded the public consciousness. Former members of Public Security Section 9, including full-body cyborg Major Motoko Kusanagi, are working as hired mercenaries when mysterious beings known as 'post-humans' begin to emerge. The worlds superpowers are trying to come to grips with the threat, and so Section 9 is reorganized."

'Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045' will drop on Netflix on April 23.

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'Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045' Preview: Will the new series step up to franchise standards or crash and burn - MEAWW

Reducing Global Supply Chain Reliance on China Won’t Be Easy – BRINK

Economy April 22, 2020 Manisha Mirchandani Director of Strategy at Atlantic 57

A man walking around in a factory. The outbreak of the coronavirus in Wuhan in January highlighted the pitfalls of China as the dominant global manufacturer of record.

Photo: Loic Venance / AFP via Getty Images

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The global spread of COVID-19 has sparked a clarion call to diversify supply chains away from China. But its singularity as a manufacturing location will make it hard to find alternatives.

The outbreak of the coronavirus in Wuhan in January highlighted the pitfalls of China as the dominant global manufacturer of record. A delay in orders from Chinese factories was inevitable, given the scale of dependency on Wuhan alone. According to Dun & Bradstreet, a business intelligence company, 51,000 companies have one or more direct suppliers in Wuhan, while 5 million companies have one or more tier-two suppliers in the region. The data suggests that its not just Southeast Asia that is dependent on Chinese suppliers the problem appears to be much more widespread.

Another survey by the Institute for Supply Management captures the magnitude of the outbreak for global manufacturers: More than half (57%) of companies are experiencing longer lead times for tier-1 China-sourced components, while 44% are simply unprepared to address continued supply disruptions from China. A case in point the technology giant Apple was one of the first major global companies to inform investors that it would miss Q1 revenue projections, in part due to delays in production by its China-based assembly plants. Of late, Apple had begun to move some production activities to Vietnam and India, but the company remains reliant on Chinese assembly plants to power its inventory.

The spread of the coronavirus has made one thing clear across the technology, automotive, electronics, pharmaceutical, medical equipment and consumer goods sectors, nearly all supply chains lead back to China as the preeminent global provider of intermediate materials and components. Recognizing the risk that a dependency on China poses to national industries, some governments are offering manufacturers incentives to exit China and ease the pain of diversification. Japan is putting $2.2 billion of its COVID-19 economic stimulus package into supporting its manufacturers shift production outside of China. Theres also mounting public pressure in some countries, such as the United States, to move essential production of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment out of China and closer to home.

Indeed, the pandemic might accelerate pre-existing plans to reduce supply chain dependency on China. Alongside rising labor costs, the ratcheting of trade tensions between China and the U.S. had already pushed brands to re-evaluate their single-source strategies. More than 80% of fashion brands said they already planned to reduce sourcing from China, according to a July 2019 U.S. Fashion Industry Association report. Ensuring more resilience in supply chains is also likely to be a future expectation of investors, who will now be looking at the ability of companies to hedge risk in the event of continued outbreaks or other Black Swan events. The chairman of Wistron Corp, an iPhone assembler, told analysts that the company would locate 50% of its capacity outside of China by 2021. Simply put, the coronavirus has accelerated trends that have been evident for some time pertaining to Chinas manufacturing stature.

But the reality is that a major manufacturing shift away from China is easier said than done. Even those companies that have diversified production are finding it hard to break free of Chinas pervasive influence. Anticipating a rise in tariffs from the U.S.-China trade war, video game producer Nintendo had shifted the manufacturing of its blockbuster gaming console to Vietnam in 2019. Still, there is a shortage of Switch consoles in stores today due to a lack of essential components flowing to the companys Vietnamese factories, as COVID-19 paused production by Chinese suppliers of component parts.

The global technology and consumer electronics sectors are especially reliant on Chinas infrastructure and specialized labor pool, neither of which will be easy to replicate. The Chinese government is already mobilizing resources to convince producers of Chinas unique merits as a manufacturing location. Zhengzhou, within Henan Province, has appointed officials to support Apples partner Foxconn in mitigating the disruptions caused by the coronavirus, while the Ministry of Finance is increasing credit support to the manufacturing sector. Further, the Chinese government is likely to channel stimulus efforts to develop the countrys high-tech manufacturing infrastructure, moving away from its low-value manufacturing base and accelerating its vision for a technology-driven services economy.

To this end, manufacturers are cognizant of the potential of China as a major consumer market for iPhones today and for advanced technologies such as robotics, autonomous vehicles and smart devices tomorrow. A flash poll by the Beijing-based U.S. Chamber of Commerce conducted in March shows that U.S. businesses are still bullish on Chinese consumers, despite the impact of the virus. The consumer sector had the most businesses reporting that they intend to maintain planned investments (46%), followed by the technology industry (43%).

As manufacturers examine their supply chains for a post-COVID 19 world, the imperative for greater supply chain resilience versus the attractiveness of China as a manufacturing location and tech-forward consumer market is the defining tension that they will need to navigate. The outcome is unlikely to be a clean break from China for most. Lower-value sectors, such as apparel, are most likely to expedite diversification. Indeed, many garment manufacturers have already diversified from China to the likes of Vietnam, Cambodia and Ethiopia on the basis of rising labor costs. It will be the higher-value technology and consumer electronics sectors where the countrys manufacturing prowess and consumer potential is the most pronounced that will find it hardest to turn away from Chinas distinctive allure.

URL: https://www.brinknews.com/coronavirus-global-supply-chain-reliance-china-manufacturers-economic-recession-risk/

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Reducing Global Supply Chain Reliance on China Won't Be Easy - BRINK

I Focus On The Way Technology Is Changing What It Means To Be Human: Author Ken Liu On The Hidden Girl And Other Stories – CBS Local Sports

(CBS Local)Ken Liu is known around the world as one of the best short story writers in literature.

The award-winning author is back with a new book from Simon & Schuster called The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, which is a collection of sixteen of his best short stories from the last five years about science fiction, fantasy, and what it means to be human.

I have published 150 short stories by this point and I have one previous collection called The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories. This is the second one and it combines some of my newer stories and the overall themes of how do we remain human in the face of cataclysmic change, said Liu in an interview with CBS Locals DJ Sixsmith. When I wrote these stories, I wasnt thinking of pandemics. What I try to focus on is the way technology is changing and defining what it means to be human and how do we react to that.

FULL INTERVIEW:

One of the topics that Liu honed in on is how technology has changed what it means to know something.

We think that we know something, but all we know how to do is look it up, said Liu. I was a practicing lawyer for many years and you cant actually draft anything from scratch anymore. You take a form and you modify it. I wanted to explore this idea of the externalization of our knowledge and our sense of identity. The way we put so much of it out into the digital world. A lot of the stories explore this concept of singularity, which is the idea that we become digital beings. What does that mean and how do you remain human in a world like that.

Lius book is available now wherever books are sold.

Watch all of DJ Sixsmiths interviews from The Sit-Down series here.

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I Focus On The Way Technology Is Changing What It Means To Be Human: Author Ken Liu On The Hidden Girl And Other Stories - CBS Local Sports

This guy’s mum found his OnlyFans. Her epic reaction is a masterclass in parenting – PinkNews

A gay guy's mother stumbled onto his OnlyFans, but her reaction isn't quite what you'd first expect. (Twitter)

Picture it: Youve just uploaded a new nude to your OnlyFans page that you charge $9.99 per month for. Youre proud of it.

Thats when your iPhone flashes and a ding echoes across the room. Its your mother.

Shes just stumbled onto your account.

Its a scene thats the stuff of nightmares, but for one gay guy, a situation that would have made anyone else implode into a singularity of pure embarrassment turned out to be the biggest plot twist in human history.

Yup. All of human history, we tell you, probably.

It starts off exactly how youd expect, said Chris, based in Orlando, Florida, on Twitter, after his mothers co-worker exposed him for having an OnlyFans account.

She saw my photos on her sons phone, he explained, and my mum confronted me.

Christopher Michael, the text from the mum begins, likely causing him to shudder at the use of his full name.

Why did Ms Jamie tell me she saw your nudes on her sons Twitter? Are you seriously posting your nudes for money?

A stunned Chris then explains that he has an OnlyFans account and may or may not post pictures to promote it.

All hypothetical talk here, by there way.

Chris is then inundated with grey message bubbles from his enraged mother, who demands a response from him, who wonders why his mum is insisting of having this awkward conversation over text.

We all then basically got whiplash as the conversation took a sudden left turn as the mum continues.

You can go ahead and call me if youd like and try to explain it but I honestly dont care, she said, I was just pretending to care because Ms Jamie was in my office still.

Chase the bag boo.

Also I will be updating my Mothers Day list and Birthday list and Christmas list for now on.

Apparently, Chris was left so stunned by this that all he could fathom as a reply was:

Understandable, to be fair.

After posting the bewildering exchange on Twitter, Chris was faced by users doubting that the person was his mum, but he curved back with the receipts.

Were petitioning for her to become Mother of the Universe for, at the very least, the next seven billion years. That seems apt, no?

In other words, shes not a regular mum, shes a cool mum. Facts are facts.

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This guy's mum found his OnlyFans. Her epic reaction is a masterclass in parenting - PinkNews

The Origins of Life The Visible Universe Might Be Barren, New Research Revealed – Dual Dove

The way life emerged on Earth mimics the way the Universe was created. You can call it the Big Bang of life. Just like the Big Bang was the explosion of a singularity the size of a peach, the same way a non-living entity exploded into life.

And just like the entire physics collapses when confronted with the question about what happened before the Big Bang, the same thing happens when science has to answer what happens before the first form of DNA appeared.

Since RNA is considered the only molecule capable of doing what DNA can (to copy and store information and to start and accelerate chemical reactions), science presumes there was an RNA world before the DNA world.

Abiogenesis is the word describing the origins of life. It is the process through which inert matter became the first form of life. But it cant be pinned down. There is no comprehensive way for not-living matter to become something else. But scientists still engage in this fight with the Universe refusing to reveal itself and its means.

Tomonori Totani, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Tokyo, gave abiogenesis one more try. In his research, he modeled a microscopic world of all the existing in the Universe to find if the lifeless matter would change its definition and burst into life It didnt.

Abiogenesis was once more defied. But still, it is the only rational way life would be born since before there was life, life didnt exist. So, the only logical thing there is, is that life origin is something that never lived previously.

This is where science, philosophy, and religion cant be separated. Just like life, and just like the Big Bang, they are the expansion of an incomprehensible singularity.

Professor Totani tried to make his microscopic world to replicate the process through which RNA multiplicated until it became DNA. But RNA didnt prove to be capable of doing so. I hoped to find at least one realistic path of abiogenesis, to explain abiogenesis by words of science, said Totani.

A meta interpretation of his results points to the conclusion that as infinite as the Universe might be, chances that dead matter would turn into life someplace other than Earth are infinitely small, if not impossible.

Most likely, Earth is the only planet harboring life in the observable Universe. I predict that future observations or explorations of extraterrestrial life will yield no positive results, apocalyptically predicted Totani.

Tanya is an expert in reddit and health subjects. She finds good stories where no one ever thinks to look.

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The Origins of Life The Visible Universe Might Be Barren, New Research Revealed - Dual Dove

We The Women | Opinion – Harvard Crimson

Every night back on campus, usually after dark, when I find myself departing some study spot on the river to walk back to my house in the Quad, I invariably hear someone say: Are you sure you want to walk back alone? You know, as a woman

I would never suggest that there arent real risks to women, but more relevantly to anyone, who chooses to walk across our campus at nighttime. I have heard stories of friends getting mugged or harassed, and have even experienced moments myself of feeling slightly frightened or concerned while making that nightly trek.

But, I do feel confident in saying that reducing or equating this concern to my womanhood is entirely unproductive. More times than I care to count I have been told about some experience that I must understand because I, myself, am a woman. Whether they are tales of catcalling or fearing for ones safety after dark or feeling threatened by a male colleague, I have noticed that people can be quick to generalize the female experience. But, what does that mean then for those of us women who may not have experienced some of those events that are repeatedly treated as a rite of passage?

I cant recount a specific instance of being catcalled, for example. Its entirely possible it has happened, especially considering the volume at which I listen to my music when I stroll down city streets, but I can honestly say I have never felt objectified by a passerby. And, besides the occasional volunteers asking for signatures for a petition on the sidewalk, no one had ever propositioned me or approached inappropriately. Even when working over my gap year, I never had to brush off sexual comments or innuendos from male co-workers. Yet, when I talk to my girlfriends about their experiences, itll often seem like these kinds of encounters are assumed, just part and parcel of being a woman. Am I not a woman then?

On the other hand, media, and film often portray women as being pitted against one another. The celebrity world is often plagued with questions of which actress wore an outfit better. Tabloids are full of dramatic, overblown catfights between musicians. The popular narrative on womanhood either overgeneralizes by assuming universal experiences that are not always shared, or it does the extreme opposite by actively dividing women between the jealous and the coveted, the beautiful and the not so much, the haves and the have-nots. Either way, women are divided, demarcated, and disassociated, at a time when true unity is needed the most with emerging conversations in feminism and the Times Up movement.

Indeed, women will often try to generate such universal definitions of womanhood in order to engender solidarity, but in reality, it only further divides us. There is no singular, common experience. Surviving sexual assault does not make me any more a woman than one who, thankfully, has not had to. Choosing to dress up in frilly frocks and glide across the ice rink as a figure skater every morning before school for 14 years certainly does not make me any more a woman than my sisters who played on their schools field hockey teams or any less of one than my best friend who played no sports whatsoever. Having many guy friends, not being particularly girly, and preferring the color blue to pink are not demerits in some kind of tally on my female experience.

In the age of feminism, a conversation has emerged not only on what is required to be a proper advocate for gender equality but also on what it means to be a woman, period. One approach has been to universalize the female experience, but that inevitably leaves some women feeling alienated; another has been to actively divide women along arbitrary categorizations. However, the best approach would be to recognize and embrace the multidimensionality of womanhood. Instead of speaking for all women, lets speak for ourselves and encourage other women to add nuance to the conversation by doing the same. Even though the term womanhood implies a singularity to the experience, women everywhere today prove how multifaceted the female experience really can be even in mundane instances like walking home, alone, in the dark, to the Quad.

Reshini Premaratne 21 is a joint concentrator in Social Studies and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations in Currier House. Her column appears on alternate Mondays.

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We The Women | Opinion - Harvard Crimson

Reaching the Singularity May be Humanity’s Greatest and Last Accomplishment – Air & Space Magazine

In a new paper published in The International Journal of Astrobiology, Joseph Gale from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and co-authors make the point that recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI)particularly in pattern recognition and self-learningwill likely result in a paradigm shift in the search for extraterrestrial intelligent life.

While futurist Ray Kurzweil predicted 15 years ago that the singularitythe time when the abilities of a computer overtake the abilities of the human brainwill occur in about 2045, Gale and his co-authors believe this event may be much more imminent, especially with the advent of quantum computing. Its already been four years since the program AlphaGO, fortified with neural networks and learning modes, defeated Lee Sedol, the Go world champion. The strategy game StarCraft II may be the next to have a machine as reigning champion.

If we look at the calculating capacity of computers and compare it to the number of neurons in the human brain, the singularity could be reached as soon as the early 2020s. However, a human brain is wired differently than a computer, and that may be the reason why certain tasks that are simple for us are still quite challenging for todays AI. Also, the size of the brain or the number of neurons dont equate to intelligence. For example, whales and elephants have more than double the number of neurons in their brain, but are not more intelligent than humans.

The authors dont know when the singularity will come, but come it will. When this occurs, the end of the human race might very well be upon us, they say, citing a 2014 prediction by the late Stephen Hawking. According to Kurzweil, humans may then be fully replaced by AI, or by some hybrid of humans and machines.

What will this mean for astrobiology? Not much, if were searching only for microbial extraterrestrial life. But it might have a drastic impact on the search for extraterrestrial intelligent life (SETI). If other civilizations are similar to ours but older, we would expect that they already moved beyond the singularity. So they wouldnt necessarily be located on a planet in the so-called habitable zone. As the authors point out, such civilizations might prefer locations with little electronic noise in a dry and cold environment, perhaps in space, where they could use superconductivity for computing and quantum entanglement as a means of communication.

We are just beginning to understand quantum entanglement, and it is not yet clear whether it can be used to transfer information. If it can, however, that might explain the apparent lack of evidence for extraterrestrial intelligent civilizations. Why would they use primitive radio waves to send messages?

I think it also is still unclear whether there is something special enough about the human brains ability to process information that casts doubt on whether AI can surpass our abilities in all relevant areas, especially in achieving consciousness. Might there be something unique to biological brains after millions and millions of years of evolution that computers cannot achieve? If not, the authors are correct that reaching the singularity could be humanitys greatest and last advance.

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Reaching the Singularity May be Humanity's Greatest and Last Accomplishment - Air & Space Magazine

Singularity Cases and Components Available at OCUK – Play3r

Singularity Computers is an Australian based PC component manufacturer that specialises in creating some of the most beautiful hardware available. If youre a fan of high quality, unique modded PC systems with an emphasis on aesthetics Singularity is a dream come true. Their extensive range of products ranges from reservoirs to distro plates and even water-cooled PC cases. Singularity Computers hardware makes it easier to create your own exceptional work of art.

Wraith Mini ITX Showcase

TheSingularity Computers Wraithis a mini-ITX case with extensive options for installing a custom water cooling system. The compact chassis has an integrated distro plate, which acts as a motherboard tray and is made of transparent acrylic glass, and the graphics card is displayed vertically.

TheSpectre 2.0is an E-ATX case with extensive options for installing a custom water cooling system. The mid-tower has an integrated distro plate that acts as a motherboard tray and is made of transparent acrylic glass. The graphics card can be displayed vertically with the enclosed riser cable.

Singularity not only build showcases but a full range of high spec, heavily engineered water-cooling components. Singularity computers have designed their products to be highly versatile in order to give you the flexibility and freedom to create your own ideas. When building a unique PC you need as many options as possible and the large product range allows for this. Within the lineup, there is everything you need to realise a stunning high-quality custom loop with plenty of choices when it comes to tubing, reservoirs, pumps, and distro plates.

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Singularity Cases and Components Available at OCUK - Play3r

Singularity Computers hardware is available from Overclockers UK now – KitGuru

Overclockers UK has added another manufacturer to its arsenal, Singularity Computers will be joining the ranks to offer its range of modding components and cases to UK PC enthusiasts via the Overclockers UK store.

If you are unfamiliar with the name Singularity Computers, it is an Australian based manufacturer of PC components that specialise in creating some of the most amazing and beautiful hardware. The company offers a wide range of custom liquid cooling products, PC chassis that showcase components like nothing else and a range of modding accessories.

Singularity Computers puts a huge emphasis on aesthetics in the design of its products and has an extensive range of unique products including reservoirs, distribution plates and even fully water-cooled PC cases. Products that will be available from Singularity Computers at Overclockers UK include the Wraith mini-ITX show case, which is a compact chassis featuring an integrated transparent acrylic distro plate with a D5 pump that acts as the motherboard tray to show off components like no other mini-ITX can.

The Singularity Spectre 2.0 is a larger open frame E-ATX chassis perfect for installing complex custom water cooling on high-end systems. The mid-tower open frame chassis also has a distribution plate as a motherboard tray, it can accommodate two 360mm radiators and includes the option for vertical graphics card mounting with mounting bracket and riser cable included.

As well as these beautiful show cases, Overclockers UK will also be stocking the full range of Singularity Computers heavily engineered water cooling components. According to OcUk, Singularity water cooling components are highly versatile and provide users with flexibility and freedom to create their own unique custom cooling solutions. The range includes everything that is needed to build a high quality custom cooling loop.

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KitGuru says: I really like the look of some of these new products from Singularity Computers and cant wait to try out some of the custom cooling parts. What do you guys think of this new Singularity gear at Overlockers UK?

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Singularity Computers hardware is available from Overclockers UK now - KitGuru

How long have we got before humans are replaced by artificial intelligence? – Scroll.in

My view, and that of the majority of my colleagues in AI, is that itll be at least half a century before we see computers matching humans. Given that various breakthroughs are needed, and its very hard to predict when breakthroughs will happen, it might even be a century or more. If thats the case, you dont need to lose too much sleep tonight.

One reason for believing that machines will get to human-level or even superhuman-level intelligence quickly is the dangerously seductive idea of the technological singularity. This idea can be traced back to a number of people over fifty years ago: John von Neumann, one of the fathers of computing, and the mathematician and Bletchley Park cryptographer IJ Good. More recently, its an idea that has been popularised by the science-fiction author Vernor Vinge and the futurist Ray Kurzweil.

The singularity is the anticipated point in humankinds history when we have developed a machine so intelligent that it can recursively redesign itself to be even more intelligent. The idea is that this would be a tipping point, and machine intelligence would suddenly start to improve exponentially, quickly exceeding human intelligence by orders of magnitude.

Once we reach the technological singularity, we will no longer be the most intelligent species on the planet. It will certainly be an interesting moment in our history. One fear is that it will happen so quickly that we wont have time to monitor and control the development of this super-intelligence, and that this super-intelligence might lead intentionally or unintentionally to the end of the human race.

Proponents of the technological singularity who, tellingly, are usually not AI researchers but futurists or philosophers behave as if the singularity is inevitable. To them, it is a logical certainty; the only question mark is when. However, like many other AI researchers, I have considerable doubt about its inevitability.

We have learned, over half a century of work, how difficult it is to build computer systems with even modest intelligence. And we have never built a single computer system that can recursively self-improve. Indeed, even the most intelligent system we know of on the planet the human brain has made only modest improvements in its cognitive abilities. It is, for example, still as painfully slow today for most of us to learn a second language as it always was. Little of our understanding of the human brain has made the task easier.

Since 1930, there has been a significant and gradual increase in intelligence test scores in many parts of the world. This is called the Flynn effect, after the New Zealand researcher James Flynn, who has done much to identify the phenomenon. However, explanations for this have tended to focus on improvements in nutrition, healthcare and access to school, rather than on how we educate our young people.

There are multiple technical reasons why the technological singularity might never happen. I discussed many of these in my last book. Nevertheless, the meme that the singularity is inevitable doesnt seem to be getting any less popular. Given the importance of the topic it may decide the fate of the human race I will return again to these arguments, in greater detail, and in light of recent developments in the debates. I will also introduce some new arguments against the inevitability of the technological singularity.

My first objection to the supposed inevitability of the singularity is an idea that has been called the faster-thinking dog argument. It considers the consequences of being able to think faster. While computer speeds may have plateaued, computers nonetheless still process data faster and faster. They achieve this by exploiting more and more parallelism, doing multiple tasks at the same time, a little like the brain.

Theres an expectation that by being able to think longer and harder about problems, machines will eventually become smarter than us. And we certainly have benefited from ever-increasing computer power; the smartphone in your pocket is evidence of that. But processing speed alone probably wont get us to the singularity.

Suppose that you could increase the speed of the brain of your dog. Such a faster-thinking dog would still not be able to talk to you, play chess or compose a sonnet. For one thing, it doesnt possess complex language. A faster-thinking dog will likely still be a dog. It will still dream of chasing squirrels and sticks. It may think these thoughts more quickly, but they will likely not be much deeper. Similarly, faster computers alone will not yield higher intelligence.

Intelligence is a product of many things. It takes us years of experience to train our intuitions. And during those years of learning we also refine our ability to abstract: to take ideas from old situations and apply them to new, novel situations. We add to our common sense knowledge, which helps us adapt to new circumstances. Our intelligence is thus much more than thinking faster about a problem.

My second argument against the inevitability of the technological singularity is anthropocentricity. Proponents of the singularity place a special importance on human intelligence. Surpassing human intelligence, they argue, is a tipping point. Computers will then recursively be able to redesign and improve themselves. But why is human intelligence such a special point to pass?

Human intelligence cannot be measured on some single, linear scale. And even if it could be, human intelligence would not be a single point, but a spectrum of different intelligences. In a room full of people, some people are smarter than others. So what metric of human intelligence are computers supposed to pass? That of the smartest person in the room? The smartest person on the planet today? The smartest person who ever lived? The smartest person who might ever live in the future? The idea of passing human intelligence is already starting to sound a bit shaky.

But lets put these objections aside for a second. Why is human intelligence, whatever it is, the tipping point to pass, after which machine intelligence will inevitably snowball? The assumption appears to be that if we are smart enough to build a machine smarter than us, then this smarter machine must also be smart enough to build an even smarter machine. And so on. But there is no logical reason that this would be the case. We might be able to build a smarter machine than ourselves. But that smarter machine might not necessarily be able to improve on itself.

There could be some level of intelligence that is a tipping point. But it could be any level of intelligence. It seems unlikely that the tipping point is less than human intelligence. If it were less than human intelligence, we humans could likely simulate such a machine today, use this simulation to build a smarter machine, and thereby already start the process of recursive self-improvement.

So it seems that any tipping point is at, or above, the level of human intelligence. Indeed, it could be well above human intelligence. But if we need to build machines with much greater intelligence than our own, this throws up the possibility that we might not be smart enough to build such machines.

My third argument against the inevitability of the technological singularity concerns meta-intelligence. Intelligence, as I said before, encompasses many different abilities. It includes the ability both to perceive the world and to reason about that perceived world. But it also includes many other abilities, such as creativity.

The argument for the inevitability of the singularity confuses two different abilities. It conflates the ability to do a task and the ability to improve your ability to do a task. We can build intelligent machines that improve their ability to do particular tasks, and do these tasks better than humans. Baidu, for instance, has built Deep Speech 2, a machine-learning algorithm that learned to transcribe Mandarin better than humans.

But Deep Speech 2 has not improved our ability to learn tasks. It takes Deep Speech 2 just as long now to learn to transcribe Mandarin as it always has. Its superhuman ability to transcribe Mandarin hasnt fed back into improvements of the basic deep-learning algorithm itself. Unlike humans, who get to be better learners as they learn new tasks, Deep Speech 2 doesnt learn faster as it learns more.

Improvements to deep-learning algorithms have come about the old-fashioned way: by humans thinking long and hard about the problem. We have not yet built any self-improving machines. Its not certain that we ever will.

Excerpted with permission from 2062: The World That AI Made, Toby Walsh, Speaking Tiger Books.

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How long have we got before humans are replaced by artificial intelligence? - Scroll.in

Robots to the Rescue: How They Can Help During Coronavirus (and Future Pandemics) – Singularity Hub

As the coronavirus pandemic forces people to keep their distance, could this be robots time to shine? A group of scientists think so, and theyre calling for robots to do the dull, dirty, and dangerous jobs of infectious disease management.

Social distancing has emerged as one of the most effective strategies for slowing the spread of COVID-19, but its also bringing many jobs to a standstill and severely restricting our daily lives. And unfortunately, the one group that cant rely on its protective benefits are the medical and emergency services workers were relying on to save us.

Robots could be a solution, according to the editorial board of Science Robotics, by helping replace humans in a host of critical tasks, from disinfecting hospitals to collecting patient samples and automating lab tests.

According to the authors, the key areas where robots could help are clinical care, logistics, and reconnaissance, which refers to tasks like identifying the infected or making sure people comply with quarantines or social distancing requirements. Outside of the medical sphere, robots could also help keep the economy and infrastructure going by standing in for humans in factories or vital utilities like waste management or power plants.

When it comes to clinical care, robots can play important roles in disease prevention, diagnosis and screening, and patient care, the researchers say. Robots have already been widely deployed to disinfect hospitals and other public spaces either using UV light that kills bugs or by repurposing agricultural robots and drones to spray disinfectant, reducing the exposure of cleaning staff to potentially contaminated surfaces. They are also being used to carry out crucial deliveries of food and medication without exposing humans.

But they could also play an important role in tracking the disease, say the researchers. Thermal cameras combined with image recognition algorithms are already being used to detect potential cases at places like airports, but incorporating them into mobile robots or drones could greatly expand the coverage of screening programs.

A more complex challengebut one that could significantly reduce medical workers exposure to the viruswould be to design robots that could automate the collection of nasal swabs used to test for COVID-19. Similarly automated blood collection for tests could be of significant help, and researchers are already investigating using ultrasound to help robots locate veins to draw blood from.

Convincing people its safe to let a robot stick a swab up their nose or jab a needle in their arm might be a hard sell right now, but a potentially more realistic scenario would be to get robots to carry out laboratory tests on collected samples to reduce exposure to lab technicians. Commercial laboratory automation systems already exist, so this might be a more achievable near-term goal.

Not all solutions need to be automated, though. While autonomous systems will be helpful for reducing the workload of stretched health workers, remote systems can still provide useful distancing. Remote control robotics systems are already becoming increasingly common in the delicate business of surgery, so it would be entirely feasible to create remote systems to carry out more prosaic medical tasks.

Such systems would make it possible for experts to contribute remotely in many different places without having to travel. And robotic systems could combine medical tasks like patient monitoring with equally important social interaction for people who may have been shut off from human contact.

In a teleconference last week Guang-Zhong Yang, a medical roboticist from Carnegie Mellon University and founding editor of Science Robotics, highlighted the importance of including both doctors and patients in the design of these robots to ensure they are safe and effective, but also to make sure people trust them to observe social protocols and not invade their privacy.

But Yang also stressed the importance of putting the pieces in place to enable the rapid development and deployment of solutions. During the 2015 Ebola outbreak, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Science Foundation organized workshops to identify where robotics could help deal with epidemics.

But once the threat receded, attention shifted elsewhere, and by the time the next pandemic came around little progress had been made on potential solutions. The result is that its unclear how much help robots will really be able to provide to the COVID-19 response.

That means its crucial to invest in a sustained research effort into this field, say the papers authors, with more funding and multidisciplinary research partnerships between government agencies and industry so that next time around we will be prepared.

These events are rare and then its just that people start to direct their efforts to other applications, said Yang. So I think this time we really need to nail it, because without a sustained approach to this history will repeat itself and robots wont be ready.

Image Credit: ABBs YuMi collaborative robot. Image courtesy of ABB

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Robots to the Rescue: How They Can Help During Coronavirus (and Future Pandemics) - Singularity Hub

Devin Townsend Readies "Ultimate Edition" of ‘Empath’ – Exclaim!

The expanded album features a 5.1 surround mix, acoustic recordings and more

Published Apr 01, 2020

InsideOut Music, Townsend's label home, announced today that an "Ultimate Edition" ofEmpathwill touch down on June 5.

The expanded issue will see the album released as a2CD/2Blu-ray package, featuring a 5.1 surround sound mix, demos, live recordings from Townsend's 2019 acoustic tour, visualizers, album commentary, a documentary and more.

The new edition, which you can find cover art for up above, will also feature an artbook. Find a complete tracklisting below, and pre-order the package here.

Townsend has recently shared new music as part of his ongoing "Quarantine Project," also noting that the material will be released as an album"when all this calms down."

Empath: Ultimate Edition:

CD1:

1. Castaway2. Genesis3. Spirits Will Collide4. Evermore5. Sprite6. Hear Me7. Why?8. Borderlands9. Requiem10. Singularity: Adrift11. Singularity: I Am I12. Singularity: There Be Monsters13. Singularity: Curious Gods14. Singularity: Silicone Scientists15. Singularity: Here Comes The Sun!

CD2:

1. The Contrarian (Demo)2. King (Demo)3. The Waiting Kind (Demo)4. Empath (Demo)5. Methuselah (Demo)6. This Is Your Life (Demo)7. Gulag (Demo)8. Middle Aged Man (Demo)9. Total Collapse (Demo)10. Summer (Demo)

Blu-ray 1:

1. Castaway (5.1 Surround Mix)2. Genesis (5.1 Surround Mix)3. Spirits Will Collide (5.1 Surround Mix)4. Evermore (5.1 Surround Mix)5. Sprite (5.1 Surround Mix)6. Hear Me (5.1 Surround Mix)7. Why? (5.1 Surround Mix)8. Borderlands (5.1 Surround Mix)9. Requiem (5.1 Surround Mix)10. Singularity: Adrift (5.1 Surround Mix)11. Singularity: I Am I (5.1 Surround Mix)12. Singularity: There Be Monsters (5.1 Surround Mix)13. Singularity: Curious Gods (5.1 Surround Mix)14. Singularity: Silicone Scientists (5.1 Surround Mix)15. Singularity: Here Comes The Sun! (5.1 Surround Mix)16. Castaway (Stereo Mix Visualizer)17. Genesis (Stereo Mix Visualizer)18. Spirits Will Collide (Stereo Mix Visualizer)19. Evermore (Stereo Mix Visualizer)20. Sprite (Stereo Mix Visualizer)21. Hear Me (Stereo Mix Visualizer)22. Borderlands (Stereo Mix Visualizer)23. Why? (Stereo Mix Visualizer)24. Requiem (Stereo Mix Visualizer)25. Singularity: Adrift (Stereo Mix Visualizer)26. Singularity: I Am I (Stereo Mix Visualizer)27. Singularity: There Be Monsters (Stereo Mix Visualizer)28. Singularity: Curious Gods (Stereo Mix Visualizer)29. Singularity: Silicone Scientists (Stereo Mix Visualizer)30. Singularity: Here Comes The Sun! (Stereo Mix Visualizer)

Blu-ray 2:

1. Empath Documentary2. Empath Album Commentary3. Genesis 5.1 Mixing Lesson4. Acoustic Gear Tour5. Intro (Live in Leeds 2019)6. Let It Roll (Live in Leeds 2019)7. Funeral (Live in Leeds 2019)8. Ih-Ah (Live in Leeds 2019)9. Deadhead (Live in Leeds 2019)10. Love? (Live in Leeds 2019)11. Hyperdrive! (Live in Leeds 2019)12. Terminal (Live in Leeds 2019)13. Coast (Live in Leeds 2019)14. Solar Winds (Live in Leeds 2019)15. Thing Beyond Things (Live in Leeds 2019)16. King (Official Video)

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Devin Townsend Readies "Ultimate Edition" of 'Empath' - Exclaim!

Saints Row IV Re-Elected: Where to Find The Singularity Gun – Screen Rant

The Nintendo Switch has finally received a port for Saints Row IV: Re-Elected and both new and old fans are flocking to the title. Players will once again be able to run through a simulated version of Steelport blowing up cars, shooting aliens, and living it up as President of the United States. The best thing that Saints Row does though, is give players access to an impressive amount of weapons.

Related: Saints Row IV: Re-Elected Review - It's Just as Good

One of the best weapons in the entirety of Saints Row IV, and one that players will want to quickly get their hands on, is the Singularity Gun. This weapon will fire out black holes that can suck up enemies and cause a massive amount of damage. This weapon is perfect for clearing out large groups of enemies or causing lots of property damage. By following this guide players can obtain the Singularity Gun for themselves.

The first thing that players will need to do before obtaining the Singularity Gun is to track down Johnny Gat. In order to find Gat players will need to play through the mission "... The Very Next Day". Once this mission is completed Johnny Gat will be available on the ship. From there players just need to exit the simulation and speak to Johhny in order to begin his Loyalty Quest, "WWGD".

After talking to Gat, he will give the player several tasks to complete for this quest. The first thing that Gat asks the player to do is shut down a Hotspot. This will involve avoiding a lot of enemies as the player attempts to destroy the three generators powering the Hotspot. These generators will be positioned on floating platforms surrounding the spot. After these are shut down, players then need to bring the controller down before moving on to the next task.

The next task shouldn't cause players to many issues. The only thing that players need to do is eliminate 20 Saints Flow mascots. The easiest way to clear this mission is to use the freeze blast enemies to set them up for easy kills.

The next task will send players to a flashpoint area. Players will need to clear out all Zin troops in the vicinity. Once this happens players will then have to face off against a Warden. The Warden's stomps, telekinesis, and laser blasts should be avoided at all costs.

After killing the Warden, players will then get to causes some mayhem from within a tank. In order to beat this task, at least $600,000 in property damage will have to be caused by the tank. With over three minutes on the clock, this is more than enough time to cause that amount of damage.

The final task is a simple as rushing over to another flashpoint and taking out another group of Zin soldiers. After this just exit the simulation and go talk to Johnny Gat. After a short conversation, players will finally have access to Saints Row IV: Re-Elected's strongest weapon: The Singularity Gun.

Next: Saints Row Movie Writer Wants Adaptation to Become An Insane Film Franchise

Saints Row IV: Re-Elected can be played on Nintendo Switch.

The Office Reboot: Michael Scott Movie Coming To NBC's Streaming Service [UPDATED]

Cody Peterson is an avid reader and writer. Graduated from Midwestern State University with a BA in English where he worked as an editor for the University literary journal. Currently a freelancer for Screenrant, where he writes about video games. When he isn't writing he usually spends his time playing video games or editing the podcast he runs with his best friend.

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Saints Row IV Re-Elected: Where to Find The Singularity Gun - Screen Rant

Existing Drugs May Work Against Covid-19. AI Is Screening Thousands to Find Out – Singularity Hub

Youve heard of chloroquine by now. Originally developed by German scientists in the 1930s, the anti-malaria drug is based on a natural compound present in the bark of certain South African trees. For nearly a century its been saving lives globally, but remained under the radar of countries where malaria isnt a big problem.

Thanks to Covid-19, chloroquine is back in the media spotlight as a potential treatment to reduce severe coronavirus symptoms.

To be clear: we dont know if it works. Chinese physicians threw the drug (along with a whole other bucketful) in a last-ditch attempt on severe Covid-19 sufferers who were dying. Some got better. Many didnt. Without clinical trialswhich are ongoingpositive effects couldve been just wishful thinking.

Chloroquine isnt an isolated story. Several potential existing drugs are being investigated for Covid-19, though at the moment there are no definitively effective drugs, Dr. Li Haichao told Singularity Hub. Li is a respiratory and critical care physician at Peking University First Hospital and a member of the national emergency medical rescue team to Wuhan.

What ties these promising drug candidates together, however, is that none of them are new, that is, none were specifically developed for coronavirusor any virus. Yet they all have traits that make them potentially powerful drugs to combat the new virus thats been wreaking havoc across the globe.

Repurposing available drugs is perhaps the fastest route to an SOS treatment in any outbreak. Rather than developing new drugs from scratcha daunting effort that could last a decadeexisting drugs, especially those already approved by regulatory agencies, could storm into action much faster and save lives.

For now, in the face of this brand-new virus, scientists are making educated guesses based on expertise and intuition to select a few potential drug candidates.

What if theres another way?

This week, a preprint paper outlined how deep neural networks could help doctors search for antivirals against a new target. Especially intriguing is the fact that the algorithm doesnt just look at experimental drugsit also screens through a library of compounds, already approved for other ailments, that could also potentially work for coronavirus symptoms. Tapping an existing, approved drug is like asking a friend for help rather than an online stranger: you already understand the drugs safety and metabolism profiles, and that increases trust.

But its not all ponies and rainbows. AI-based drug repurposing is perhaps even more dangerous than de novo drug discovery. Familiarity is a double-edged sword; its exactly because you trust an approved drug that youre less inclined to question its safety. The margin of therapeutic and toxic doses of chloroquine, for example, is narrow, and poisoning can be life-threatening. AI could helpbut fundamentally its up to clinical trials to validate.

The preprint is one recent attempt at a fascinating movement in using AI for drug discovery.

AIs role in drug discovery has been touted in many ways: finding new targets, scouring for novel candidate molecules that improve hit ratethat is, how many go through rigorous clinical trials and make it to market. Most AI-based attempts focus on finding new compounds; yet with Covid-19 rapidly destroying global health and wealth economies, drug repurposing is emerging as a previously undervalued bet.

The idea of using a drug for one disease on another may seem strange. If it takes a decade to develop a drug against one disease, why would it work for something else?

The reason is biological similarity.

Nature is kinda lazy. Although the Covid-19 virus is new to humans, its not exactly an alien species unknown to evolution. As a coronavirusor heck, a virus itselfwe have a basic idea, based on previous similar viruses such as SARS and MERS, of how it infects cells and how it rapidly transmits. Studies are underway to decipher why its so freaking effective compared to its cousins, but thats the crux: there are previous examples to look at.

On the human recipient side, we can also match up how our bodies respond at the molecular or even genetic level to such an infection compared to other viruses. After infection, a virus fundamentally changes how a cells protein factories work. Because viruses cant replicate themselves, they require our cells manufacturing facilities to reproduce, which changes the cells gene expression profile. Its like looking at a citys satellite image before and after being hit by the virusthere are notable changes in traffic, air pollution, artificial lights, and so on, relatively easy to distinguish.

Heres the main idea: if a drug changes gene expression profiles similarly between two different circumstancessay, two different infections, one of which is newthen its conceivable that the drug can work for the new infection. At least, thats the logical, AI-based point of view.

From an ER physicians perspective, all of the above is too complicated to consider in real life. Why use chloroquine in Covid-19 patients? Because, controversially, it has anti-viral properties on isolated cells in labs, even though to date, no acute virus infection has been successfully treated by chloroquine in humans. The use of chloroquine was a desperate attempt: Chinese doctors administered the drug as a last-ditch, gut-feeling effort, because it seemed to have (unconfirmed) beneficial effects against SARS more than a decade ago. Gene expression was the last thing on their minds.

Unlike human doctors, AI does have the ability to dig deeper into drug effects at the molecular or genetic level. As a purely fictional example: from a deep neural nets perspective, if a drug that works on HIV triggers the same genetic expression changes in patients with Covid-19, perhaps the drug could also work for the new coronavirus.

Using AI for drug repurposing isnt newhundreds of studies on the topic have come out in recent years. The tough part is setting up the experiment.

The preprint, for example, is based on a hypothesis using SARS, a virus similar to the one that causes Covid-19. A gene, dubbed COPB2, was previously found essential to help SARS replicate in the body. Because the Covid-19 virus and SARS have at least 86 percent similarity in their genome, a drug that works for SARS could in theory be promising for battling Covid-19. This is in line with most drugs currently tested against the new coronavirusmost were initially developed for other viruses.

Heres where machine learning comes in. The team first looked at the genetic profile of cells without the COPB2 gene, which (if the gene is essential for Covid-19) means that they are at least partially resilient against SARS, and maybe against the new coronavirus. They then screened through mass chemical libraries to find compounds that trigger a similar genetic profile in cells as eliminating the COPB2 gene altogether.

The neural net yielded a list of experimental and approved compounds that matched the profile. One sanity check chemical, for example, was previously found to reduce SARS replication in infected cells.

If you have questions and doubtsgood, you should. Were still in the beginning stages of tackling Covid-19. This means that theres very little data on the virus that can be used to train AI. The preprint used SARS as a proxy, which is logical, especially because we know so little yet about the new coronavirus. To their credit, the team also calls for academic and industry collaborations to experimentally validate their results.

However, is COPB2 necessary for Covid-19 to hijack your cells? No clue! We simply dont have enough data to confirm either way. Would the drug candidates against SARS work for the Covid-19 virus? No one knows.

And thats the lesson. Drug repurposing in a crisis is often a Hail Mary attempt. Doctors are desperate. But without taking a step back and running controlled trials, we will let hope take over data and truth to the detriment of scientists, physicians, and patients alike. AI, without doubt, has the potential to blast open a world of potential repurposed drug candidates, ranked by predicted efficacy. Thats really great: rather than a handful of promising drugs, we could have ones that we havent even thought of.

But its also dangerous to run away with AI-recommended hype, especially for drugs already on the market. Just because theyre safe for one tested disorder doesnt mean theyll act the same for another. Everyone is impatient to find refugebut thats exactly why scientific objectivity needs to kick in first.

Image Credit: Pexels from Pixabay

Originally posted here:

Existing Drugs May Work Against Covid-19. AI Is Screening Thousands to Find Out - Singularity Hub

Mind-blowing Nasa photo reveals glowing mess of Milky Ways centre including our galaxys supermassive black – The Sun

NASA has given space fans an unprecedented look at the violent black hole at the centre of our galaxy.

A fascinating picture published by the space agency shows the ominous object slap bang in the middle of the Milky Way.

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The image was captured using Nasa's orbiting Chandra X-Ray Observatory last year butwas featured as Nasa's Astronomy Picture of The Day on Monday.

The various colours are the different types of light emitted by the mysterious region, which is 26,000 light years from Earth.

Green and blue regions are high-energy X-ray emissions picked up by Chandra, while red sections are low-energy radiation captured by MEERKAT, a ground-based telescope in South Africa.

Nasa said in yesterday's post: "This enigmatic region... glows in every type of light that we can see."

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Just to the right of the colourful central region lies Sagittarius A (Sag A), the supermassive black hole in the middle of our galaxy.

Sag A weighs about four million times the mass of the Sun and is more than 13million miles wide.

"Hot gas surrounds Sag A, as well as a series of parallel radio filaments known as the Arc, seen just left of the image centre," Nasa wrote.

"Many stars orbit in and around Sag A, as well as numerous small black holes and dense stellar cores known as neutron stars and white dwarfs."

What is a black hole? The key facts

Here's what you need to know...

What is a black hole?

What is an event horizon?

What is a singularity?

How are black holes created?

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Last year, scientists unveiled the first ever picture of a black hole.

The black hole, described by scientists as a "monster", is 24billion miles across - 3million times the size of the Earth.

Sitting about 300 million trillion miles away from our planet, it was photographed by a network of eight telescopes across the globe known as the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).

When used together, the telescopes combine with the power of a single telescope "the size of our planet", scientists said.

TOASTY TESTChina's 'artificial sun' SIX TIMES hotter than real Sun 'to be ready this year'

PLAGUE PITEerie Black Death mass grave with dozens of bodies unearthed after 700 years

SHOOTING STARComet that may be the 'brightest in 20 years' will soar across sky this month

POLAR OPPOSITEWarm rainforest covered 'most of West Antarctica' around 90million years ago

FLU GOTTA BE KIDDING MECoronavirus conspiracies including claims it was 'made by CIA'

THINK PINKRare 'Super Pink Moon' will fill skies next week how to spot it

In other space news, Nasa astronauts could build a Moon base using their own pee and lunar dirt to make space concrete.

Space Force has successfullylaunched its first missionsince its establishment as a US military service.

And, the Hubble Space Telescope has revealed new data about what may be themost powerful cosmic stormin the universe.

What do you think of the Nasa photo? Let us know in the comments...

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at tech@the-sun.co.uk

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Mind-blowing Nasa photo reveals glowing mess of Milky Ways centre including our galaxys supermassive black - The Sun

Money & Me: ‘When Covid-19 hit, the income I had lined up was suddenly taken away’ – The National

John Sanei is a futurist, author and motivational speaker. A self-made millionaire in his twenties, he was bankrupt by the age of 31, before making his fortune back again. Mr Sanei, 44, is also Africas first faculty member at Singularity University in San Francisco, a lecturer at Duke Corporate Education in Johannesburg, and a partner associate at the Copenhagen Institute of Future Studies in Denmark and co-founder of Future Self Academy, a platform helping authors turn their non-fiction books into courses. He is a digital nomad who bases himself between Dubai, where he moved last year, London, Bali and Cape Town. The South African is single and lives in Dubai Marina.

There was a moment as a child when my mum couldnt buy my brother and me a yo-yo. I remember making a decision I would never be poor again.

John Sanei

I grew up in Swaziland near South Africa and I come from a single-mum family. My mum was a secretary who earned very little money. Every month, we would never make it to the end of the month. Shed be in bed every night trying to calculate how to make ends meet and Id be sitting on the other end of the bed watching my mum cry and become stressed because we didnt have enough. So my upbringing shaped me to become anxious around the concept of money, angry that there wasnt enough and hopeless that I couldnt help her because I was a kid and didnt know how.

There was a moment as a child when my mum couldnt buy my brother and me a yo-yo. A single yo-yo between us. I remember making a decision I would never be poor again. When I was 13, I got a job in a grocery store packing bags at the tills, and I earned 3.20 South African rand (Dh0.65) an hour.

The lessons I learnt around money were terrible lessons we didnt have enough of it, I was frustrated that we were so constrained with what we could eat and do. My father wasnt helping us, so my lessons around money were all of hopelessness, anxiousness, anger, frustration and pretty much every negative emotion you could apply.

When I made the conscious decision, my foot went flat on the accelerator. By the time I was 17, I opened up my first business, and by the time I was 25, I had a shoe distribution business, vending machines, restaurants and retail stores. I was flying high. At 27 or 28, I was living the life of my dreams, with multiple holidays, homes, cars, clothes and all the trappings that come from having been poor and imagining what youd do with money when youre rich. I fell into the trap of spending it quicker than I could make it because I couldnt believe that I was there.

At 31, I had no money and owed people lots of money. One of my restaurant partners sued me for future franchise fees. I'd signed a 10-year contract but closed at seven years, so they sued me for the remainder, a fictitious amount of 8 million rand. I couldnt pay it because I didnt have the money. At 31, not only did I have that hanging over my head, but I also couldnt pay rent of 6,500 rand. I was depressed and really had nothing. My down point was being ashamed and embarrassed in front of all the people that Id been successful before.

I was always worried Id be poor again, and we know that what you fear the most becomes true. But on a more literal level, I didnt read all the contracts I was signing; I stretched myself too thin. And then there was the lack of acknowledgement from an alpha male, from a father figure growing up. I sought that from other people, trying to gain acceptance and approval from people around me, so I stretched myself more than necessary. Who needs six restaurants, two retail stores, 40 vending machines and a shoe distribution business? You could do very well and have a fantastic life with just one of those businesses.

I was in a hotel room in Amsterdam when I received a row of emails postponing or cancelling conferences Id been booked at. Eight talks were off the table, two conferences I was to speak at in South Africa were cancelled, a banking client told me I was not allowed to go into their offices. So my world changed; suddenly all the income I had lined up got taken away. I was in a space of anxiousness that I last felt when I was bankrupt at 30.

I realised I needed to pivot immediately. So I reached out to friends in cyberconferencing and signed up to a multi-user conference site, so I can talk and hundreds of people can listen, Im starting to do more webinars Ive done four talks already and have another three booked up. Ill also be doing one-on-one coaching.

At times like this, you want to make sure your diet is right, that youre around the right people and that youve got the best health resources around you. Im staying with family at a farm in South Africa. Whatever decisions youre making now, make sure theyre not around money or career they are not essentials and are not important. In extraordinary times you need to make extraordinary decisions.

I havent looked.

I dont save for the sake of saving. I buy what I need and then whatever else I make goes into my account or into shares. I dont have a number, I just need very little. Theres a saying that the most wealthy person doesnt have the most, but is the one who needs the least.

At 40, when I went through my divorce, I realised I wanted to be a speaker and author which is really where my highest joy lies. The divorce and the pain that came with it catalysed me to find the best process of telling stories.

I live by luxurious minimalism. I have very few things but those are the best money can buy. I spend a fair amount of money on [renting] great apartments in great areas that are fully furnished so I can plug in and plug out. I dont have a car so I don't have any transport or fixed payments. I have credit cards with bank accounts in two or three places around the world and I move around the world utilising this concept of luxurious minimalism. My number one luxury is flexibility and adaptability.

I have in the past and I have disability insurance and a hospital plan in case some emergency happens. Besides that, I like to invest in the New York Stock Exchange based on my own research because I am a futurist and Im researching a stock anyway.

I invest in brands I believe will do well over a long period of time. Ive put money into Beyond Meats because I love how they are creating a solution for the world. Other than that I make decisions around my own freedom. Im an entrepreneur, I like to use my money to build my businesses.

Relax, calm down, chill out, you dont need all that acknowledgement. You dont need to prove yourself. You are enough. Focus on one or two businesses, you dont need any more.

Updated: April 2, 2020 02:06 PM

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Money & Me: 'When Covid-19 hit, the income I had lined up was suddenly taken away' - The National

Devs Wants to Unsettle You with that Dj Vu Feeling – SF Weekly

Devs wants to be the TV series that reflects our 21st century disaffections back to us. The writer and director of the show, Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Annihilation), easily conjures up alienation as a mood. The camera cooly tracks the San Francisco skyline in the same way that it tracks the numbed-out expressions of the characters. But its the soundtrack that carries most of the emotional weight. Pounding forward, it suggests the presence of a juggernaut, one thats made of silicon and steel. Technology is the alienating force in Devs, a rampaging machine thats gone AWOL, distancing us from our neighbors as well as from ourselves.

But after five of eight episodes (the finale airs on Thursday, April 16), Garland deepens the preternatural chill at a glacial pace. As a storyteller, hes as meticulous as a clockmaker with the internal machinery of his fictional universe. Its the overdetermined plot thats leaving little room for the characters to develop. Theyre frozen in place by the fate he wrote out for them on his laptop. They lack warmth, wit and human singularity. Its hard to imagine anyone on screen doing laundry, spilling crumbs on the carpet or, for that matter, vacuuming them up.

Lily (Sonoya Mizuno) and her boyfriend Sergei (Karl Glusman) work at Amaya, a Silicon Valley tech company thats meant to resemble a Google or Facebook campus. Most of the scenes set there were shot at UC Santa Cruz. The cinematography accentuates the Lynchian strangeness of towering redwoods casting shadows against sleek glass and concrete buildings. Outwardly, the physical resemblance to a sprawling Silicon Valley company also suggests the buttoned-up psychic life of the place. If youre as smart, hard-working and talented at coding as Lily and Sergei, youll find yourself set up to work inside Californias version of paradise. Unfortunately for them and for the rest of us who are addicted to the regions apps and products they failed to notice that Forest (Nick Offerman), Amayas CEO, has veered far away from Googles now-abandoned ethos: Dont be evil.

Amaya was the name of Forests daughter. She died before Devs begins and, just past the halfway point, we have a glimpse at the CEOs personal history. Garland builds the doleful narrative around his loss. The camera often lingers on Forest mourning his daughter. To drive home how aggrieved he is, theres also a Sphinx-sized statue of the girl that stands in the center of the campus. Its an eerie figure that silently watches over everyone with the qualities of an omniscient god and a blank-eyed childs doll.

But I may be misinterpreting Forests motivation and mistaking the obvious for a red herring. The teaser for Episode 6 reads, Lily and Jamie visit Forest looking for answers, and Katie reveals to Lily the true nature of the Devs system. I suspect that Forest will reveal more details about his lifes work to Lily and her helpful ex-boyfriend Jamie (Jin Ha). For now, weve seen that the Devs system is a mystical portal that reveals a multiverse engineered by Amayas quantum physics geniuses. Lily and Sergeis troubles begin when hes promoted to this inner sanctum. To get there, he gives a winning presentation to Forest and his second in command Katie (a dour Alison Pill).

The Devs department is housed in a golden mausoleum with a floating elevator. Its such an enlightened space that the developers work endless shifts, not knowing how many days or nights are passing. They contribute their knowledge to this centrifuge of power and are rewarded with breathtaking salaries. What that looks like for a viewer is a group of actors getting paid to stare at and be entranced by computer screens. These scenes are meant to be hypnotic. And they are for the first hour. After that, a monochromatic haze stifles the pacing and the characters. When a U.S. Senator visits Forest to request a campaign donation and to suggest the possibility of Congressional oversight, we know that hes lying to her. From the top down, Amayas corporate culture demands that all employees master the art of reticence and dissimulation.

The exemplar of villainy in this world is Kenton, the head of security at Amaya. Garland has cast Zach Grenier to play the part. In his seven seasons on The Good Wife, Greniers character never evolved into anything more than a greedy and manipulative lawyer. Here, as the muscle in Devs, hes more self-contained than he was on that CBS melodrama. But hes not much more than a brute and a faithful servant of Amayas dark heart. Unlikely as it is, my hope is that, when the big reveal drops, Kenton turns out to be a really nice guy.

Garland also pays tribute to Vertigo, Alfred Hitchcocks fogged-in vision of San Francisco. Lily meets an associate of Sergeis at Fort Point, the Golden Gate Bridge rendez-vous where Jimmy Stewart dives into the bay to rescue Kim Novak. Like Stewarts character, Lilys playing detective but shes in over her head. The city scenery is mostly observed from above. And thats how close it feels to an accurate depiction of San Franciscos cultural life. The depiction of a homeless man who lives on Lily and Sergeis Dolores Park doorstep prompted a friend of mine to ask, Is it me, or is no one getting San Francisco right? I suggested that he may turn out to be a plant or another red herring.

Devs expands the depiction of techs cultural aggression and annexation that David Fincher established in The Social Network. Garland tells us that, though warned, were now all servile creatures, beholden to the great gods who rule over us, however remotely, from their Silicon Valley headquarters. But when compared with the HBO series The Leftovers (2014-2017), Devs suggests a mood whereas Damon Lindelofs series sustains a primal emotion.

When 2 percent of the population suddenly disappears in The Leftovers, the world seizes up and contracts a universal feeling of loss. Despite a shared sense of grief, the show demonstrates the need for connection within one specific family (theyre stand-ins for the rest of humanity). Devs tells us that we can correct that feeling of loss by digitally engineering a response, since we no longer have the capacity to do so in real life. Being deprived of human contact as we are today, I prefer the now idealized conclusion that The Leftovers eventually reaches.

At the end of Devs fourth episode, The Beacon Sound Choir sings, We are the fortunate ones who get to be born again. Perhaps thats the secret Katies about to reveal.

Devs airs on FX on Hulu Thursdays.

Continued here:

Devs Wants to Unsettle You with that Dj Vu Feeling - SF Weekly