Category Archives: Singularity

The year is 2030. In a high-security containment lab, scientists gathered around a towering machine, eagerly awaiting the first look at a newly discovered bacterium on Mars.

With a series of beeps, the machinea digital-to-biological converter, or DBCsignaled that it had successfully received the bacteriums digitized genomic file. Using a chemical cocktail comprised of the building blocks of DNA, it whirled into action, automatically reconstructing the alien organisms genes letter-by-letter.

Within a day, scientists had an exact replica of the Martian bacterium.

To Craig Venter, the genetics maverick who created the first synthetic life form in 2016, beaming aliens back to recreate on Earth may sound like science fiction, but is potentially real.

Recently, working with Daniel Gibson, vice president of DNA technology at Synthetic Genomics, Venter published a prototype DBC capable of downloading digitized DNA instructions and synthesizing biomolecules from scratch.

Not only did the futuristic machine pump out functional bits of DNA, vaccines, and proteins, it also automatically synthesized viral particles from scratch.

Teleporting alien life to Earth is just one role Venter envisions for the DBC. Working the other way, we may be able to send Earths extremophile bacteria to a printer on Mars. If genetically enhanced to pump out oxygen, the bacteria may slowly change the Martian landscape, making it more habitable to humans before we ever set foot on the Red Planet.

More close to home, the DBC could allow instant, on-demand access to life-saving medicine or vaccines during an outbreak or finally enable access to personalized medicine.

We are excited by the commercial prospects of this revolutionary tool, as we believe the DBC represents a major leap forward in advancing new vaccines and biologics, says Venter in a press release.

At the basis of Venters foray into biological teleportation is the idea that all life formsat least on Earthare essentially DNA software systems. DNA directs and creates the more tangible biological hardware made of proteins, cells, and tissues.

Because DNA contains all the necessary information to boot up a life form, by hacking its code and writing our own, we now have the power to create living organisms never before seen on Earth.

Back in 2010, Venter inserted a bacterial genome completely synthesized from chemicals in the lab into a single-cell recipient. The synthetic genome booted up the living bacterium, allowing it to replicate into a large colony of artificial organisms. Six years later, his team ventured even further into the realm of science fiction, creating a new bacteria species with just 437 genesthe absolute known minimum amount of genetic code needed to support life.

These studies and others clearly show we now have a new set of tools that allow scientists to manufacture new living species to join our planets inventory of life. But why stop there? If life is nothing but code that can be packaged, emailed, downloaded, and copied, why not use the same technology to transmit life?

The DBC is Venters attempt to transfer and manufacture life.

Standing at eight feet long and six feet tall, the machine is a Frankenstein beast of mechanical blocks and wires splayed out across a double-deck table. Were working on the portability of the machine using new technologies such as microfluidic chips and microarrays, explained the authors.

Equipped with an ethernet hub, the DBC downloads DNA files from the internet and prints the code using the four chemical bases of DNAadenosine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine (A, G, T, C).

Its packaging complex biology that each of our tiny cells do remarkably well at a much, much smaller scale, explains Venter.

While automated DNA printers have already hit the market, the DBC takes it one step further. The machine is capable of building proteins from the genetic code (printing biological hardware, so to speak), bringing it one step closer to building living cells from scratch.

At the heart of the system is Archetype, proprietary software that optimally breaks down the input DNA sequence into more manageable short sequences to synthesize in parallel. This massively increases efficiency and reduces sequencing errors that increase with longer DNA strands.

Once assembled, the machine scans the strands for any errors before pasting the bits back into complete DNA assembles. From there, a series of robotic arms transfer the DNA from module to module, automatically adding reagents that turn the synthetic genes into functional proteins.

In one proof-of-concept study, the machine pumped out green fluorescent protein, an algae protein that often serves as an experimental canary in the lab. Following the DBC run, the resulting product glowed bright green as expected, and subsequent analysis found that over 70 percent of all synthesized molecules were error-free.

While impressive, the team acknowledges that future models need to do better.

All it takes is one DNA base to be incorrect for a protein not to work, or a therapeutic to not do what its supposed to, or for a cell to not be functional, warns Gibson.

In another experiment, the DBC successfully produced functional flu viral particles, RNA vaccines, and bacteriophagesviruses that infect bacteria that can be used to combat infections or even cancer.

Thats huge. If there is a pandemic, everyone around you is dying and you cannot go outdoors, you can download the vaccine in a couple of seconds from the internet, says Venter. A machine like this in hospitals, homes, and remote areas could revolutionize medicine.

Venter also has his eye on personalized medicine. In the future, if you have an infection you get its genome sequenced in minutes, he says. The doctor could then cross-reference your bug with an online database, download and print the available phage treatments in office and send you on your way.

Venters ambition doesnt stop there. He imagines combining the DBC with technologies from his synthetic organisms to construct a blank slate recipient cell capable of producing food, oxygen, and fuelthe perfect workhorse to send around the world or into space.

In theory, the cell would be capable of receiving any synthetic genome designed to produce life-supporting molecules. These cells have to be engineered, says Venter, but stresses that it can be done.

Having a DBC on board means a crew hurtlingthrough space would no longer rely on supply ship rendezvousand well never have a real life Mark Watney starved and stranded on Mars.

But thats looking way far ahead.

According to Gibson, before we get too distracted with fanciful thoughts of space, a lot more work still has to be done. For one, the DBC needs to shrink down to a more manageable size. For another, current DNA synthesis technologies are incredibly inefficient and wastefulabout 99.999 percent of the raw materials go to waste, he saysa problem further magnified as the team moves on to larger DNA constructs.

These arent small challenges, but the DBC shows that biological teleportation for biological materials is feasible. So why not aim high?

Mine is not a fantasy look at the future, says Venter. The goal isnt to imagine this stuff. We are the scientists actually doing this.

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'Biological Teleportation' Edges Closer With Craig Venter's Digital-to-Biological Converter - Singularity Hub

Despite bold predictions from several tech firms about the future of neural interfaces, the science of brain augmentation is still in the early days. So, what do academics think of all the hype coming out of Silicon Valley?

Mikhail Lebedev, a neuroscientist who works on brain-machine interfaces (BMI) at Duke University, recently won a $100,000 prize from the open-access academic publisher Frontiers for a collection of papers on brain augmentation, curated over the last four years.

The prize money is designed to help him and fellow editors Ioan Opris (University of Miami neuroscientist) and Manuel Casanova (University of South Carolina medical doctor) to set up an international conference on the topic next year. So, I took the opportunity to speak to Lebedev about the state of the field.

In the next 10 years we will see realistic visual prostheses of different kinds and a lot of technologies for rehabilitation of stroke and spinal cord injury. How its described in these hype articleslike having people typing from the brain or millions of electrodes implanted in the brainwill be realized, but maybe in 20 years.

I may be wrong, because once new technologies start to come to this field it can really develop fast. If 10 years ago it was fine to insert a half-millimeter-thick electrode into the brain, now there are nanoscale electrodes. Of course, decoding brain activity will still be a problem for quite a while.

We have some basic understanding. We know some areas of the brain are more cognitive compared to others. So, if you want to extract more advanced information from the brain, you should place your electrodes inside or over these areas. But the representation of thought is not well advanced, so I dont think in the next 10 years we will be able to decode free-floating thoughts.

I think it is very realistic, but the first success will come from augmented reality (AR), where you use your normal senses, which are quite good, to interface to this AI, or lets call it an exo-brain. So, interfacing directly is a really good idea, but its still limited by the number of channels for such interfacing. The major problem is that we dont really understand the brain code, so we dont really know how to make this interface very efficient.

But my memory is limited, so AR glasses could really help, like if some AI guides me through an environment. You can imagine a computer and the brain working together. So the brain gives examples and the computer then learns, and the brain takes advantage of the computing power of an external device.

Take any brain function, and you can try to enhance it. In sensory functions, you can add new sensors to the brain. For example, you can add a sensor of electromagnetic fields that we cannot sense normally, and youd have this new sense. You can place these new sensors around the perimeter of the head and then youd have panoramic vision. Of course, I would experiment first in animals for this kind of application!

You can also try to micro-stimulate certain areas in the brain, but so far the majority of papers show you can suppress certain processing steps, not really improve. But if you think this suppression is maybe helpful, then you can come up with some ideas. For example, imagine certain tasks that a person is solving, and the computer knows the right answerso it sends a suppressive impulse to certain parts of the brain and biases the brains decision.

There are two major branches. The first is non-invasive devices, which are very easy to implement, and they kind of work. The problem is that the quality of signals they provide is limited. If you look at electroencephalogram (EEG) systems, theyre composed of the activity of huge numbers of neurons, and the strongest EEGs are recorded during sleep. So all the activities related to, say, fine motor control, become really small and you cannot detect them in EEGs. On top of that, EEGs suffer from artifacts of all kinds.

Of course, EEG devices are not the only ones that use non-invasive approaches. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIR) is actually a very good non-invasive method. They do well in detecting certain activities, but they work very slowly.

The potential of invasive approaches hasnt been realized at all. What we have now is the ability to record from, say, 100 neurons. So in the future, when we record from millions of neurons, we can think about all kinds of decoding ideas. Basically right now the obstacle to that is the invasive surgery needed to implant such a device.

Pharmacology is not my exact field, but drug developers are doing amazing work. They can develop molecules for some specific purpose that can work for one brain receptor, but not another, or one brain area, but not another. So in principle, all these methods can be improved and become targeted for particular problems.

You can even modify brain cells genetically, like in optogenetics, where they make cells that are sensitive to light. This has not been fully realized because there are many more possibilities. The cells can be sensitive to magnetic fields, to stretch, you can probably make mechanosensitive neurons by genetic engineering. Or you can try to implant some cells from another organism in the brain. Any science fiction idea you can find nowadays is being realized, so I wont say no to anything!

Im optimistic, so I see mostly upsides. We really want to improve; we want to become less primitive people. The main downside is probably the same as drug use. So, lets imagine a person implanting himself in the pleasure centre of the brain and then just constantly stimulating himself. Probably you dont want this, but it may be difficult to avoid.

Interfering with the brains motivation and pleasure systems, this can be a problem, and of course, you can imagine militaries getting hold of itand making soldiers they can control. In fact, any BMI interface can also act as a lie detector. You can really detect some things that normally you dont want to expose, that you want to keep private.

I dont worry about this because what will probably happen is the rich people will get the first brain augmentation systems that will be very expensive, very cumbersome, and work really badly. But as the technology develops it will become cheap, then everybody will get access. So, this particular part I dont think is a problem in a capitalistic society.

Editors note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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Computers dont exist in a vacuum. They serve to solve problems, and the type of problems they can solve are influenced by their hardware. Graphics processors are specialized for rendering images; artificial intelligence processors for AI; and quantum computers designed forwhat?

While the power of quantum computing is impressive, it does not mean that existing software simply runs a billion times faster. Rather, quantum computers have certain types of problems which they are good at solving, and those which they arent. Below are some of the primary applications we should expect to see as this next generation of computers becomes commercially available.

A primary application for quantum computing is artificial intelligence (AI). AI is based on the principle of learning from experience, becoming more accurate as feedback is given, until the computer program appears to exhibit intelligence.

This feedback is based on calculating the probabilities for many possible choices, and so AI is an ideal candidate for quantum computation. It promises to disrupt every industry, from automotives to medicine, and its been said AI will be to the twenty-first century what electricity was to the twentieth.

For example, Lockheed Martin plans to use its D-Wave quantum computer to test autopilot software that is currently too complex for classical computers, and Google is using a quantum computer to design software that can distinguish cars from landmarks. We have already reached the point where AI is creating more AI, and so its importance will rapidly escalate.

Another example is precision modeling of molecular interactions, finding the optimum configurations for chemical reactions. Such quantum chemistry is so complex that only the simplest molecules can be analyzed by todays digital computers.

Chemical reactions are quantum in nature as they form highly entangled quantum superposition states. But fully-developed quantum computers would not have any difficulty evaluating even the most complex processes.

Google has already made forays in this field by simulating the energy of hydrogen molecules. The implication of this is more efficient products, from solar cells to pharmaceutical drugs, and especially fertilizer production; since fertilizer accounts for 2 percent of global energy usage, the consequences for energy and the environment would be profound.

Most online security currently depends on the difficulty of factoring large numbers into primes. While this can presently be accomplished by using digital computers to search through every possible factor, the immense time required makes cracking the code expensive and impractical.

Quantum computers can perform such factoring exponentially more efficiently than digital computers, meaning such security methods will soon become obsolete. New cryptography methods are being developed, though it may take time: in August 2015 the NSA began introducing a list of quantum-resistant cryptography methods that would resist quantum computers, and in April 2016 the National Institute of Standards and Technology began a public evaluation process lasting four to six years.

There are also promising quantum encryption methods being developed using the one-way nature of quantum entanglement. City-wide networks have already been demonstrated in several countries, and Chinese scientists recently announced they successfully sent entangled photons from an orbiting quantum satellite to three separate base stations back on Earth.

Modern markets are some of the most complicated systems in existence. While we have developed increasingly scientific and mathematical tools to address this, it still suffers from one major difference between other scientific fields: theres no controlled setting in which to run experiments.

To solve this, investors and analysts have turned to quantum computing. One immediate advantage is that the randomness inherent to quantum computers is congruent to the stochastic nature of financial markets. Investors often wish to evaluate the distribution of outcomes under an extremely large number of scenarios generated at random.

Another advantage quantum offers is that financial operations such as arbitrage may require many path-dependent steps, the number of possibilities quickly outpacing the capacity of a digital computer.

NOAA Chief Economist Rodney F. Weiher claims(PowerPoint file)that nearly 30 percent of the US GDP ($6 trillion) is directly or indirectly affected by weather, impacting food production, transportation, and retail trade, among others. The ability to better predict the weather would have enormous benefit to many fields, not to mention more time to take cover from disasters.

While this has long been a goal of scientists, the equations governing such processes contain many, many variables, making classical simulation lengthy. As quantum researcher Seth Lloyd pointed out, Using a classical computer to perform such analysis might take longer than it takes the actual weather to evolve! This motivated Lloyd and colleagues at MIT to show that the equations governing the weather possess a hidden wave nature which are amenable to solution by a quantum computer.

Director of engineering at Google Hartmut Neven also noted that quantum computers could help build better climate models that could give us more insight into how humans are influencing the environment. These models are what we build our estimates of future warming on, and help us determine what steps need to be taken now to prevent disasters.

The United Kingdoms national weather service Met Office has already begun investing in such innovation to meet the power and scalability demands theyll be facing in the 2020-plus timeframe, and released a report on its own requirements for exascale computing.

Coming full circle, a final application of this exciting new physics might be studying exciting new physics. Models of particle physics are often extraordinarily complex, confounding pen-and-paper solutions and requiring vast amounts of computing time for numerical simulation. This makes them ideal for quantum computation, and researchers have already been taking advantage of this.

Researchers at the University of Innsbruck and the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) recently used a programmable quantum system to perform such a simulation. Published in Nature, the team used a simple version of quantum computer in which ions performed logical operations, the basic steps in any computer calculation. This simulation showed excellent agreement compared toactual experiments of the physics described.

These two approaches complement one another perfectly, says theoretical physicist Peter Zoller. We cannot replace the experiments that are done with particle colliders. However, by developing quantum simulators, we may be able to understand these experiments better one day.

Investors are now scrambling to insert themselves into the quantum computing ecosystem, and its not just the computer industry: banks, aerospace companies, and cybersecurity firms are among those taking advantage of the computational revolution.

While quantum computing is already impacting the fields listed above, the list is by no means exhaustive, and thats the most exciting part. As with all new technology, presently unimaginable applications will be developed as the hardware continues to evolve and create new opportunities.

Image Credit:IQOQI Innsbruck/Harald Ritsch

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6 Things Quantum Computers Will Be Incredibly Useful For - Singularity Hub

The global auto industry is worth $2 trillion, but electric and hybrid cars currently make up less than one percent of that figure. However, experts are predicting an explosion in electric car adoption.

Financial services company UBS predicted demand for electric cars will reach an inflection point in 2018 as their cost shrinks to equal (and eventually undercut) the cost of internal combustion engine vehicles. China saw a 53 percent increase in electric car sales from 2015 to 2016, and India is aiming to sell only electric cars by 2030.

Even though theyll be affordable, and theyll keep the air cleaner, though, electric cars will still have one major limitation, and thatsthe fact that theyre electric. Electric things run on batteries, and if batteries dont get recharged every so often, they die.

Teslas Model 3 will go 200 miles on one charge, and Chevys new Bolt goes 238 miles. These are no small distances, especially when compared to the Volts 30-mile range just three years ago. Even so, once the cars batteries are drained, recharging them takes hours.

Researchers at Stanford University just took a step toward solving this problem. In a paper published last week in Nature, the team described a new technique that wirelessly transmits electricity to a moving object within close range.

Wireless power transfer works using magnetic resonance coupling. An alternating magnetic field in a transmitter coil causes electrons in a receiver coil to oscillate, with the best transfer efficiency occurring when both coils are tuned to the same frequency and positioned at a specific angle.

That makes it hard to transfer electricity while an object is moving though. To bypass the need for continuous manual tuning, the Stanford team removed the radio-frequency source in the transmitter and replaced it with a voltage amplifier and a feedback resistor.

The system calibrates itself to the required frequency for different distances. Using this system, the researchers were able to wirelessly transmit a one-milliwatt charge of electricity to a moving LED light bulb three feet away. No manual tuning was needed, and transfer efficiency remained stable.

One milliwatt is a far cry from the tens of kilowatts an electric car needs. But now that theyve established that an amplifier will do the trick, the team is working on ramping up the amount of electricity that can be transferred using this system.

Switching out the amplifier itself could make a big differencefor this test, they used a general-purpose amplifier with about ten percent efficiency, but custom-made amplifiers could likely boost efficiency to over 90 percent.

It will still be a while before electric cars can get zapped with infusions of charge while cruising down the highway, but thats the future some energy experts envision.

In theory, one could drive for an unlimited amount of time without having to stop to recharge, said Shanhui Fan, professor of electrical engineering and senior author of the study. The hope is that youll be able to charge your electric car while youre driving down the highway. A coil in the bottom of the vehicle could receive electricity from a series of coils connected to an electric current embedded in the road.

Embedding power lines in roads would be a major infrastructure project, and it wouldnt make sense to undertake it until electric car adoption was widespreadwhen, for example, electric cars accounted for at least 50 percent of total vehicles on the road, or more. If charging was easier, though, more drivers might choose to go electric.

Tesla has already made electric car ownership a bit easier by investing heavily in its Supercharger network. There are currently 861 Supercharger stations around the world with 5,655 chargers, and hundreds more are in the works. The stations charge Tesla vehicles for free in a half hour or hourinstead of multiple hours.

Ripping up roads to embed power lines that can charge cars while theyre moving seems unnecessary as technologies like the Superchargers continue to proliferate. But as electric vehicles proliferate too, drivers will want their experiences to be as seamless as possible, and that couldinclude not having to stop to charge your car.

Despite the significant hurdles left to clear, charging moving cars is the most exciting potential of the Stanford teams wireless transfer system. But there are also smaller-scale applications like cell phones and personal medical implants, which will likely employ the technology before its used on cars. Fan even mentioned that the system may untether robotics in manufacturing.

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This Tech Could Charge Electric Cars While They Drive - Singularity Hub

Two thousand years ago, the ancient Greeks looked into the night sky and saw geometric shapes emerge among the stars: a hunter, a lion, a water vase.

In a way, they used these constellations to make sense of the random scattering of stars in the fabric of the universe. By translating astronomy into shapes, they found a way to seek order and meaning in a highly complex system.

As it turns out, the Greeks were wrong: most stars in a constellation dont have much to do with one another. But their approach lives on.

This week, the Blue Brain Project proposed a fascinating idea that may explain the complexities of the human brain. Using algebraic topology, a type of mathematics that projects complex connections into graphs, they mapped out a path for complex functions to emerge from the structure of neural networks.

And get this: while the brain physically inhabits our three-dimensional world, its inner connectionsmathematically speakingoperate on a much higher dimensional space. In human speak: the assembly and disassembly of neural connections are massively complex, more so than expected. But now we may have a language to describe them.

We found a world that we had never imagined, says Dr. Henry Markram, director of Blue Brain Project and professor at the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland who led the study.

This may be why its been so difficult to understand the brain, he says. The mathematics usually applied to study networks cannot detect the high-dimensional structures and spaces that we now see clearly.

When we think about the brain, branchy neurons and gooey tissue come to minddefinitely 3D objects. Physically speaking, there are no high-dimensional mini-brains hidden within our own, and our neurons dont jump into a higher plane of existence when they fire away.

Outside of physics, dimension is really just a fancy way of describing complexity. Take a group of three neurons that work together (A, B, and C), for example. Now think about how many ways they can connect together. Because information is generally only passed one way from a neuron to its downstream partner, A can only link to B or C. In topology speak, the dimension here is two.

Similarly, a group of four neurons has dimension three, five neurons dimension four and so on. The more neurons in a group, the higher the dimensionand so the system gets increasingly complex.

In our study, dimension does not describe spatial dimensions, but rather the topological dimension of the geometric objects we are describing. A 7- or 11-dimensional simplex is still embedded in the physical three-dimensional space, explains study author Max Nolte, a graduate student at EPFL, to Singularity Hub.

To begin parsing out the organization of the brain, the team started with functional building blocks called simplices. Each simplex is a special group of neurons connected with each other in a very specific order.

One neuron is very influential and speaks first, one listens to all neurons, and others listen to a few neurons and speak to the ones theyre not listening to, says Nolte. This specific structure makes sure that the listening neurons can really understand the speaking neurons in a brain where always millions of neurons are talking at the same time, like in a crowded stadium.

As before, dimensions describe the complexity of a simplex.

In six different virtual brains, each reconstructed from experimental data obtained in rats, the team looked for signs of these abstract mathematical objects. Incredibly, the virtual brains contained extremely complex simplicesup to dimension sevenand roughly 80 million lower dimensional neuron groups.

The enormous amount of simplices hidden inside the brain suggests that each neuron is a part of an immense number of functional groups, much more than previously thought, says Nolte.

If simplices are building blocks, then how do they come together to form even more complicated networks?

When the team exposed their virtual brain to a stimulus, the neurons assembled into increasingly intricate networks, like blocks of Lego building a castle.

Again, its not necessarily a physical connection. Picture groups of neurons linking to others like a social graph, and the graphs associating into a web or other high-dimensional structure.

The fit wasnt perfect: in between the higher-dimensional structures were holes, places where some connections were missing to make a new web.

Like simplices, holes also have dimensions. In a way, says Nolte, the dimension of a hole describes how close the simplices were to reaching a higher dimension, or how well the building blocks associated with each other.

The appearance of progressively higher dimensional holes tells us that neurons in the network respond to stimuli in an extremely organized manner, says Dr. Ran Levi at the University of Aberdeen, who also worked on the paper.

When we look at the reaction of the brain over time to a stimulus, we see abstract geometric objects forming and then falling apart as it builds functional networks, says Levi.

The brain first recruits simpler neural networks to build a 1D frame. These networks then associate into 2D walls with holes in between. Fast-forward and increasingly higher dimensional structures and holes form, until they reach peak organizationwhatever connections the neurons need to get the job done.

Once there, the entire structure collapses, freeing up the simplices for their next tasks, like sand castles materializing and then disintegrating away.

We dont knowwhat the brain is doing when it forms these cavities, says Levi to Singularity Hub.

Whats clear, however, is that neurons have to fire in a fantastically ordered manner for these high-dimensional structures to occur.

It is quite clear that this hyper-organized activity is not just a coincidence. This could be the key to understanding what is going on when the brain is active, says Levi.

The team also worked out how neurons in the same or different groups talked to one another after a stimuli.

It really depends on where they are in the high-dimensional structure and their own groups.

Imagine two stranger neurons chatting away, says Nolte. Theyll probably say many unrelated things, because they dont know each other.

Now, imagine after a stimulus they form high-dimensional networks. Like Twitter, the network allows one neuron to hear the other, and they may begin repeating some of the things the other one said. If they both follow dozens of other people, their tweets may be even more similar because their thoughts are influenced by a shared crowd.

Using simplices, we dont only count how many shared people they are following, but also how these people they are following are connected to each other, says Nolte. The more interconnected two neurons arethat is, the more simplices they are a part ofthe more they fire to a stimulus in the same way.

It really shows the importance of the functional structure of the brain, in that structure guides the emergence of correlated activity, says Levi.

Previous studies have found that the physical structure of neurons and synapses influence activity patterns; now we know that their connections in high-dimensional space also factor in.

Going forward, the team hopes to understand how these complicated, abstract networks guide our thinking and behaviors.

Its like finding a dictionary that translates a totally obscure language to another language that we are actually familiar with, even if we dont necessarily understand all stories written in this language, says Levi.

Now its time to decipher those stories, he adds.

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Just like the Bionic Man, Rob Spence has a prosthetic eye. But instead of fighting crime, he uses it to make films. Rather than use a GoPro or Facebook Live to document his surroundings, Spence can do so with his own eye. Hes been stumping at TED Talks, boasting the technology, which has robot enthusiasts calling it a first step toward technological singularity e.g. the marrying of tech with the human body.

After a childhood accident with a shotgun a la A Christmas Story left him blind in his right eye, Spencedecided not to let it slow him down inhis career as a filmmaker. So in 2007, he enlistedthe help of a team of engineers to design him a prosthetic eye with a specialattachment: a video camera, which Spence calls the Eyeborg. The device fits snugly into Spences eye socket. Although he cant see out of it since it isnt connected to his brain the prosthetic contraption allows him to film his surroundings for short periods of time.

Also Read: Why Amazon's Whole Foods Acquisition Makes Sense

Time Magazine named the Eyeborg among the top 50 inventions of 2009.Since then, Spence has put the tech to use, filming a documentary. (To pay the bills, he does commercial work for brands such as Ford, Salesforce and Absolut Vodka.) Spence has also given TED talks on cybernetics and the future of human bodily modification.

Most recently, Spence appeared at the FutureWorld techconference in Toronto, where he showed off his fancy ocular gadget to a crowd of robotics enthusiasts at the Ontario College of Art and Design, reports Vice.

Spence told TheWrap that he plans to employ theEyeborg as more of a toy than a filmmaking tool in the future. The Canadian filmmaker and tech enthusiast said he currently uses hisprosthetic eye camera as the worlds most absurd toy for one-eyed filmmakers. In fact, he doesnt actually use it for his work. Spence said, Thats like trying to be a journalist but your style of writing is stream-of-consciousness. Among the top challenges that come with using the tiny tech: I get blinking, glancing, and the picture is 320240 with analog dropouts. As for the reason why he transitioned out of making documentaries to commercial content: Documentary is an expensive hobby.

You can keep up with Rob Spence, his Eyeborg, and his upcoming projects on his website.

Steven Spielberg's tech-heavy "Minority Report," starring Tom Cruise, is now 15 years old. Considered one of the most prescient sci-fi movies to grace the big screen, it predicted multiple future innovations, including facial recognition, personalize advertising and predictive crime fighting. In honor of the movie's anniversary, click through here to revisit 18 more movies that accuratelypeered into the future of technology:

We're so used to touch screens at this point -- we use them every day on our smart phones, and even at McDonald's-- that it's easy to forget that Tom Cruise used the technology in "Minority Report."

Long before Siri, there was HAL. The ominous yet soft-spoken computer system was the antagonist in 1968's "2001: A Space Odyssey." Stanley Kubrick's sinister talking computer ended up turning on itscrew in a Siri user's worst nightmare.

Tech giant Elon Musk is at the helm of SpaceX, which will send two tourists to space in 2018. But "2001: A Space Odyssey" imaginedcommercial space travel decades ago.

Elon Musk, Google and Uber have been duking it out to bring self-driving cars to the masses, but Arnold Schwarzenegger might have jumpstarted the competition when he took a robot-controlled ride in 1990's "Total Recall."

"The Terminator" predicted military drones in 1984 -- long before they were introduced to police forces and militaries.

Virtual reality is taking over the tech scene.You can play games in VR, watch movies and experience Coachellaall from the comfort of your living room. But Hollywood predicted we'd have VR more than 20 years ago in 1992's "Lawnmower Man."

The 1982 cult classic "Blade Runner," starring Harrison Ford, predicted digital billboards, which you can see now all over the country, from Times Square in New York to the Vegas strip.

Remember when the TSA rolled out invasive body scanners and a lot of people freaked out? "Airplane II: The Sequel" imagined airport scanners that revealed a person's naked body to agents.

Woody Allen's "Sleeper" had robots assisting surgeons by offering advice during surgery. Today, doctors use robotics to add precision to procedures.

The beloved 1960s cartoon "The Jetsons" -- which was made into a movie in 1990 -- predicted the use of robots to clean homes. They had a robotic vacuum and a robotic maid.Can you say Roomba?

In vitro fertilization and at-home genetic testing are common place these days. "Gattaca," with Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, predicted this tech in 1997.

FaceTime, and Skype before it, are commonplace today. But it was cool new technology in 1989's "Back to the Future Part II."

There are a ton of different options out there for smart watches. This was predicted in 1990's "Dick Tracy."

It's so easy to order Domino's online -- you can even watch how far along in the process your pizza is. In 1995's "The Net" with Sandra Bullock, they showed ordering pizza online for the first time.

Tinder, Bumble and OKCupid are only a few of the many, many online dating options out there. But Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks were on the forefront of the online dating trend in "You've Got Mail."

VR porn is growing in popularity. Or as it's called in 1993's "Demolition Man" -- "digitized transference of sexual energies."

From robotic vacuums to smart watches, Hollywood got these tech trends right

Steven Spielberg's tech-heavy "Minority Report," starring Tom Cruise, is now 15 years old. Considered one of the most prescient sci-fi movies to grace the big screen, it predicted multiple future innovations, including facial recognition, personalize advertising and predictive crime fighting. In honor of the movie's anniversary, click through here to revisit 18 more movies that accuratelypeered into the future of technology:

Read more:

How Real-Life Bionic Man's 'Eyeborg' Cam Represents First Step Toward Singularity - TheWrap

On Wednesday, Bill Nye said that he is not afraid that machines will take over and mocked Ray Kurzweils predictions for how fast artificial intelligence will improve.

In an interview with the Singularity.FM podcast, Nye said that he thinks that the machine revolution will not be as incredible as predicted. Since humans are making the machines, we dont need to worry about a sudden onset of artificial intelligence taking over and replacing us, despite what Ray Kurzweil and Elon Musk worry about. Looking at where technology is in the world today and the timelines predicted for the rise of artificial intelligence leaves Nye dubious of Kurzweils predictions.

Im skeptical, especially about these extraordinary timelines 2029? What is that, 12 years from now? No! No. Nye said. Im not concerned, because humans make the machines. Sooner or later, to put it in old terms, somebodys got to shovel the coal to make the electricity run the machine.

Ray Kurzweil has predicted that the singularity, when humans merge with computer super-intelligence will happen in 2045. At that time, hes said that there will be an explosion of art, humor, and people will be sexier. Nye mocked Kurzweil for this prediction, and that he thinks computers will be able to beat a Turing test in 2029.

Thats where, The machines are going to create machines, that are going to like provide the electricity and everything is going to work perfectly and its going to be really good and its going to happen in the next nine years. Ray, really? Really? said Nye, using an exaggerated tone while imitating Kurzweil. Isnt that when youre going to be 80, and so thats when you predicted it, hoping your brain would go in some electronic receptacle. Dude, no.

Nye points out that there are a billion people in the world today who have never even made a phone call. This leaves him pretty skeptical that an artificial intelligence revolution would dramatically change things most places. And since humans design the machines, hes not convinced that were on the brink of computers that can surpass human intelligence. Im not concerned, he said.

You can watch the whole interview here, with the bit on AI and Kurzweil starting at 9:45.

See the article here:

Bill Nye Disses Ray Kurzweil's Singularity Prediction - Inverse

Ewald Hesse leads the Grid Singularity venture, rooted in his extensive experience in the energy sector and acute interest in distributed business models.

Ewald Hesse leads the Grid Singularity venture, rooted in his extensive experience in the energy sector and acute interest in distributed business models. Hesse has served as Regional director for business development and strategy in Southeast Europe at Andritz Hydro, a global supplier in renewable (hydro) energy technology. Earlier in his career, he explored technology transfer and joint ventures in China and European automobile sector at Metzler and ABB power and automation technologies group. Ewald holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering and Project Management from the University in Konstanz, Germany.

BizDev

Dr. Ana S. Trbovich is a member of the Grid Singularity founding team in charge of strategy and business development.

Dr. Ana S. Trbovich is a member of the Grid Singularity founding team in charge of strategy and business development. She teaches Entrepreneurship and Strategic Management at FEFA, a leading business school in Belgrade, Serbia, and consults on competitiveness and innovation policy for international organisations, including the EU and the World Bank. She has been actively engaged in Serbias economic reforms and the EU accession process both as a high government official and senior advisor. She holds a PhD and MALD from the Fletcher School, and MPA from Harvards Kennedy School of Government. Dr. Trbovich serves on boards of several business and civil society organisations, and the Belgrade Philharmonic.

CSO & Co-Founde

Erwin Smole is the Grid Singularity co-founder responsible for sales. Boasting over two decades of experience in the energy sector, Erwin held senior management positions in utilities, regulatory authority E-Control, and PwC.

Erwin Smole is the Grid Singularity co-founder responsible for sales. Boasting over two decades of experience in the energy sector, Erwin held senior management positions in utilities, regulatory authority E-Control, and PwC. He has further been engaged in strategic business advisory for government and international organizations (UNDP, EU), as well as a range of energy market entrepreneurs. Erwin is a recognized expert in development of new business cases in the both regulated and non-regulated energy market segments. He holds a MSc in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University of Graz, Austria and an MBA from the California Lutheran University, USA. He is Associate Professor at the University of Applied Science in Carinthia, Austria

Dr. Gavin Wood

Before founding Ethcore and co-founding Grid Singularity, Dr. Gavin Wood was the Chief Technology Officer and cofounder of the Ethereum Project.

Before founding Ethcore and co-founding Grid Singularity, Dr. Gavin Wood was the Chief Technology Officer and cofounder of the Ethereum Project. During his time with the project, he co-designed, formalised and implemented the Ethereum Protocol, created the Whisper protocol and devised the DEVp2p network protocol, the Solidity programming language and Mix IDE. Prior to Ethereum, he pushed the state-of-the-art in video synthesis tools, audio analysis software and programming paradigms, and co-founded several technology startups. Dr. Wood has given seminars and presented to numerous audiences around the world from keynotes at regional technology conferences to musings about the future of legal systems. He coined the terms 'web three' and 'allegality'.

Dr. Aeron Buchanan

Dr. Aeron Buchanan has helped Grid Singularity as a founding member form its blockchain vision. He received his doctorate from the Robotics Department of Oxford University in the field of Computer Vision.

Dr. Aeron Buchanan has helped Grid Singularity as a founding member form its blockchain vision. He received his doctorate from the Robotics Department of Oxford University in the field of Computer Vision, after working as algorithm designer for the special effects industry and reading Engineering and Computer Science for his undergraduate degree. He has since designed algorithms for UAVs, started tech companies building light-show controllers and blockchain technology, and acted as a consultant to economics and ecological research laboratories. He is head of research and development at EthCore, a company partnering with Grid Singularity and aiming to continue the advancements in consensus platform technology and more readily bring the benefits to society and the economy, not least in the energy industry.

Dr. Jutta Steiner

Before co-founding Grid Singularity and the blockchain technology company Ethcore Ltd, Dr. Jutta Steiner oversaw the security audit and integration for the Ethereum foundation prior to the launch of the public blockchain in 2015.

Before co-founding Grid Singularity and the blockchain technology company Ethcore Ltd, Dr. Jutta Steiner oversaw the security audit and integration for the Ethereum foundation prior to the launch of the public blockchain in 2015. She was a co-founder of Project Provenance Ltd., a London based start-up that employs blockchain technology to render supply chains more transparent. She worked for management consultancy McKinsey where she advised clients in banking and telecommunications on IT strategy. She holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics

Tobias Federico Market Design Leader

Tobias Federico is Market Design Leader at Grid Singularity, coordinating applications development.

Tobias Federico is Market Design Leader at Grid Singularity, coordinating applications development. Federico graduated in Energy and process engineering at the Technical University in Berlin, Germany, and has a wealth of experience as a researcher and consultant on energy market design, integration of renewable energies, and utilities portfolio and risk management. He founded Energy Brainpool in 2003, where he developed the highly regarded energy market modelling and forecast application, Power2Sim.

Florian Schmitt

Florian Schmitt serves as advisor on branding and design for Grid Singularity. He is the Creative Director of Hi-ReS!, a creative agency he founded in 1999.

Florian Schmitt serves as advisor on branding and design for Grid Singularity. He is the Creative Director of Hi-ReS!, a creative agency he founded in 1999 and in January 2015 he was named Chief Creative Director of the SYZYGY Group, which acquired Hi-ReS! in 2008. After studying industrial design at Hochschule fr Gestaltung Offenbach, he worked as a visual effects supervisor and was soon promoted to promo and commercials director. A record deal with the seminal independent label NinjaTune lured Florian to London where he set up Hi-ReS! He has over the years achieved the highest accolades for digital media including D&AD Silver, Cannes Cyberlions, Clios, One Shows, BAFTA and Webby awards. He is a member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences and BAFTA. Florian also runs Nanika with Andreas Muller, focusing on emerging technologies and interactive installation work beyond the traditional inputs and outputs.

Tina Hesse Operations Manage

Tina Hesse is Operations Manager at Grid Singularity. Simultaneously persistent and open-minded, she stirs the GSy administrative mechanism with commitment, diligence and enthusiasm.

Tina Hesse is Operations Manager at Grid Singularity. Simultaneously persistent and open-minded, she stirs the GSy administrative mechanism with commitment, diligence and enthusiasm. Passionate about numbers and learning, Tina holds a degree in Management and Economics from Paderborn University in Germany, where she specialized in Taxation, Accounting and Finance.

Stefanie Grndl MA, EventHorizon Project Leader

Stefanie Grndl is an experienced project manager, networking enthusiast, passionate connector and marketing content editor.

Stefanie Grndl is an experienced project manager, networking enthusiast, passionate connector and marketing content editor. She has successfully proven her ability to keep many balls in the air, keep track of different tasks and lead a diverse team to a successful outcome. Stefanie is an expert in building win-win partnerships and cooperations, with outstanding results in fundraising for events and projects. She holds a Masters degree in Management and International Business from the University of Styria, and has specialised in Sustainable Business and CSR Management during her studies at the University of Gteborg, Sweden.

Past Events

November 24, 2016 10th Munich Cleantech Conference, Munich, Germany Panel on Blockchain - Mythos, Hype - oder die Disruption der Energiewirtschaft?

November 15-17, 2016 European Utility Week 2016, Barcelona, Spain Panel on "Investing in Technology or Innovation?

November 7, 2016 Annual Smart Grid Austria Meeting, Vienna Grid Singularity is invited to talk about Blockchain in the Energy Sector

October 5-6, 2016 Cleantech Venture Day, Lahti, Finland Panel on Blockchain Revolution

September 29, 2016 Energietag 2016, Berlin, Germany Panel on Trends and Innovations in the Digital Energy World

September 28-29, 2016 Oesterreichs Energie Kongress in Salzburg, Austria Panel on Digitalisierte Erzeugung - Evolution oder Revolution?

September 21, 2016 Start-Up Night - Digitale Energiewelten in Berlin, Germany organized by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy - BMWi

September 19, 2016 Grid Singularity has been awarded for the Most Innovative Idea at Energy Start-up Networking, Berlin, Germany organized by Solarpraxis Neue Energiewelt AG

Upcoming Events

February 2, 2017 Energy Academy, Linz, Austria organized by O Energiesparverband Workshop on Solar-Stromspeicher in privaten Haushalten

March 13-14, 2017 Best of blockchain: Energy, Euroforum, Dsseldorf

March 20, 2017 Techfestival organized by DENA, Berlin, Germany

March 27-28, 2017 5th M2M/IOT Wien, Vienna, Austria

March 30-31, 2017 Innovationsforum Energie, Zurich, Switzerland

March 31, 2017 Schweizer Stadtwerkekongress, Biel, Switzerland Panel on Is Blockchain the next Big Thing in the Energy Business?

May 3-4, 2017 Digital Enterprise, Vienna, Austria

Original post:

Grid Singularity

Physicists have wondered for decades whether infinitely dense points known as singularities can ever exist outside black holes, which would expose the mysteries of quantum gravity for all to see. Singularities snags in the otherwise smooth fabric of space and time where Albert Einsteins classical gravity theory breaks down and the unknown quantum theory of gravity is needed seem to always come cloaked in darkness, hiding from view behind the event horizons of black holes. The British physicist and mathematician Sir Roger Penrose conjectured in 1969 that visible or naked singularities are actually forbidden from forming in nature, in a kind of cosmic censorship. But why should quantum gravity censor itself?

Now, new theoretical calculations provide a possible explanation for why naked singularities do not exist in a particular model universe, at least. The findings indicate that a second, newer conjecture about gravity, if it is true, reinforces Penroses cosmic censorship conjecture by preventing naked singularities from forming in this model universe. Some experts say the mutually supportive relationship between the two conjectures increases the chances that both are correct. And while this would mean singularities do stay frustratingly hidden, it would also reveal an important feature of the quantum gravity theory that eludes us.

Its pleasing that theres a connection between the two conjectures, said John Preskill of the California Institute of Technology, who in 1991 bet Stephen Hawking that the cosmic censorship conjecture would fail (though he actually thinks its probably true).

The new work, reported in May in Physical Review Letters by Jorge Santos and his student Toby Crisford at the University of Cambridge and relying on a key insight by Cumrun Vafa of Harvard University, unexpectedly ties cosmic censorship to the 2006 weak gravity conjecture, which asserts that gravity must always be the weakest force in any viable universe, as it is in ours. (Gravity is by far the weakest of the four fundamental forces; two electrons electrically repel each other 1 million trillion trillion trillion times more strongly than they gravitationally attract each other.) Santos and Crisford were able to simulate the formation of a naked singularity in a four-dimensional universe with a different space-time geometry than ours. But they found that if another force exists in that universe that affects particles more strongly than gravity, the singularity becomes cloaked in a black hole. In other words, where a perverse pinprick would otherwise form in the space-time fabric, naked for all the world to see, the relative weakness of gravity prevents it.

Santos and Crisford are running simulations now to test whether cosmic censorship is saved at exactly the limit where gravity becomes the weakest force in the model universe, as initial calculations suggest. Such an alliance with the better-established cosmic censorship conjecture would reflect very well on the weak gravity conjecture. And if weak gravity is right, it points to a deep relationship between gravity and the other quantum forces, potentially lending support to string theory over a rival theory called loop quantum gravity. The unification of the forces happens naturally in string theory, where gravity is one vibrational mode of strings and forces like electromagnetism are other modes. But unification is less obvious in loop quantum gravity, where space-time is quantized in tiny volumetric packets that bear no direct connection to the other particles and forces. If the weak gravity conjecture is right, loop quantum gravity is definitely wrong, said Nima Arkani-Hamed, a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study who co-discovered the weak gravity conjecture.

The new work does tell us about quantum gravity, said Gary Horowitz, a theoretical physicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

In 1991, Preskill and Kip Thorne, both theoretical physicists at Caltech, visited Stephen Hawking at Cambridge. Hawking had spent decades exploring the possibilities packed into the Einstein equation, which defines how space-time bends in the presence of matter, giving rise to gravity. Like Penrose and everyone else, he had yet to find a mechanism by which a naked singularity could form in a universe like ours. Always, singularities lay at the centers of black holes sinkholes in space-time that are so steep that no light can climb out. He told his visitors that he believed in cosmic censorship. Preskill and Thorne, both experts in quantum gravity and black holes (Thorne was one of three physicists who founded the black-hole-detecting LIGO experiment), said they felt it might be possible to detect naked singularities and quantum gravity effects. There was a long pause, Preskill recalled. Then Stephen said, You want to bet?

The bet had to be settled on a technicality and renegotiated in 1997, after the first ambiguous exception cropped up. Matt Choptuik, a physicist at the University of British Columbia who uses numerical simulations to study Einsteins theory, showed that a naked singularity can form in a four-dimensional universe like ours when you perfectly fine-tune its initial conditions. Nudge the initial data by any amount, and you lose it a black hole forms around the singularity, censoring the scene. This exceptional case doesnt disprove cosmic censorship as Penrose meant it, because it doesnt suggest naked singularities might actually form. Nonetheless, Hawking conceded the original bet and paid his debt per the stipulations, with clothing to cover the winners nakedness. He embarrassed Preskill by making him wear a T-shirt featuring a nearly-naked lady while giving a talk to 1,000 people at Caltech. The clothing was supposed to be embroidered with a suitable concessionary message, but Hawkings read like a challenge: Nature Abhors a Naked Singularity.

The physicists posted a new bet online, with language to clarify that only non-exceptional counterexamples to cosmic censorship would count. And this time, they agreed, The clothing is to be embroidered with a suitable, truly concessionary message.

The wager still stands 20 years later, but not without coming under threat. In 2010, the physicists Frans Pretorius and Luis Lehner discovered a mechanism for producing naked singularities in hypothetical universes with five or more dimensions. And in their May paper, Santos and Crisford reported a naked singularity in a classical universe with four space-time dimensions, like our own, but with a radically different geometry. This latest one is in between the technical counterexample of the 1990s and a true counterexample, Horowitz said. Preskill agrees that it doesnt settle the bet. But it does change the story.

The new discovery began to unfold in 2014, when Horowitz, Santos and Benson Way found that naked singularities could exist in a pretend 4-D universe called anti-de Sitter (AdS) space whose space-time geometry is shaped like a tin can. This universe has a boundary the cans side which makes it a convenient testing ground for ideas about quantum gravity: Physicists can treat bendy space-time in the cans interior like a hologram that projects off of the cans surface, where there is no gravity. In universes like our own, which is closer to a de Sitter (dS) geometry, the only boundary is the infinite future, essentially the end of time. Timeless infinity doesnt make a very good surface for projecting a hologram of a living, breathing universe.

Despite their differences, the interiors of both AdS and dS universes obey Einsteins classical gravity theory everywhere outside singularities, that is. If cosmic censorship holds in one of the two arenas, some experts say you might expect it to hold up in both.

Horowitz, Santos and Way were studying what happens when an electric field and a gravitational field coexist in an AdS universe. Their calculations suggested that cranking up the energy of the electric field on the surface of the tin can universe will cause space-time to curve more and more sharply around a corresponding point inside, eventually forming a naked singularity. In their recent paper, Santos and Crisford verified the earlier calculations with numerical simulations.

But why would naked singularities exist in 5-D and in 4-D when you change the geometry, but never in a flat 4-D universe like ours? Its like, what the heck! Santos said. Its so weird you should work on it, right? There has to be something here.

In 2015, Horowitz mentioned the evidence for a naked singularity in 4-D AdS space to Cumrun Vafa, a Harvard string theorist and quantum gravity theorist who stopped by Horowitzs office. Vafa had been working to rule out large swaths of the 10500 different possible universes that string theory naively allows. He did this by identifying swamplands: failed universes that are too logically inconsistent to exist. By understanding patterns of land and swamp, he hoped to get an overall picture of quantum gravity.

Working with Arkani-Hamed, Lubo Motl and Alberto Nicolis in 2006, Vafa proposed the weak gravity conjecture as a swamplands test. The researchers found that universes only seemed to make sense when particles were affected by gravity less than they were by at least one other force. Dial down the other forces of nature too much, and violations of causality and other problems arise. Things were going wrong just when you started violating gravity as the weakest force, Arkani-Hamed said.The weak-gravity requirement drowns huge regions of the quantum gravity landscape in swamplands.

Weak gravity and cosmic censorship seem to describe different things, but in chatting with Horowitz that day in 2015, Vafa realized that they might be linked. Horowitz had explained Santos and Crisfords simulated naked singularity: When the researchers cranked up the strength of the electric field on the boundary of their tin-can universe, they assumed that the interior was classical perfectly smooth, with no particles quantum mechanically fluctuating in and out of existence. But Vafa reasoned that, if such particles existed, and if, in accordance with the weak gravity conjecture, they were more strongly coupled to the electric field than to gravity, then cranking up the electric field on the AdS boundary would cause sufficient numbers of particles to arise in the corresponding region in the interior to gravitationally collapse the region into a black hole, preventing the naked singularity.

Subsequent calculations by Santos and Crisford supported Vafas hunch; the simulations theyre running now could verify that naked singularities become cloaked in black holes right at the point where gravity becomes the weakest force. We dont know exactly why, but it seems to be true, Vafa said. These two reinforce each other.

The full implications of the new work, and of the two conjectures, will take time to sink in. Cosmic censorship imposes an odd disconnect between quantum gravity at the centers of black holes and classical gravity throughout the rest of the universe. Weak gravity appears to bridge the gap, linking quantum gravity to the other quantum forces that govern particles in the universe, and possibly favoring a stringy approach over a loopy one. Preskill said, I think its something you would put on your list of arguments or reasons for believing in unification of the forces.

However, Lee Smolin of the Perimeter Institute, one of the developers of loop quantum gravity, has pushed back, arguing that if weak gravity is true, there might be a loopy reason for it. And he contends that there is a path to unification of the forces within his theory a path that would need to be pursued all the more vigorously if the weak gravity conjecture holds.

Given the apparent absence of naked singularities in our universe, physicists will take hints about quantum gravity wherever they can find them. Theyre as lost now in the endless landscape of possible quantum gravity theories as they were in the 1990s, with no prospects for determining through experiments which underlying theory describes our world. It is thus paramount to find generic properties that such quantum gravity theories must have in order to be viable, Santos said, echoing the swamplands philosophy.

Weak gravity might be one such property a necessary condition for quantum gravitys consistency that spills out and affects the world beyond black holes. These may be some of the only clues available to help researchers feel their way into the darkness.

Excerpt from:

Where Gravity Is Weak and Naked Singularities Are Verboten - Quanta Magazine

Singularity University, a global community using exponential technologies to tackle the worlds greatest challenges, has announced it will hold its first international summit on the African continent in Johannesburg, South Africa on August 23-24.

The two-day SingularityU South Africa Summit is being hosted in collaboration with Standard Bank, and with key strategic partners such as Deloitte, MTN and SAP.

The event will convene exponential thought leaders, Singularity University faculty, and organisations from around the world to provide participants with insights into emerging exponential technologies and how they can be used to create positive change and economic growth in the region.

Singularity University is proud to be working with Standard Bank and Mann Made Media to host this first-ever SingularityU South Africa Summit, and to connect with Africas leaders and organizations shaping the future, said Rob Nail, associate founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Singularity University.

South Africa represents a microcosm of the challenges facing humanity worldwide and is fast gaining a solid reputation as a global centre. Through this Summit, we hope to connect and inspire leaders in the region to effect global impact.

Mic Mann, organiser of the SingularityU South Africa Summit, said South Africa has a unique opportunity to play a vital role in shaping an abundant future for all Africans.

Our ability to leverage and develop accelerating technologies in the coming years, will allow us to leapfrog legacy systems and compete in the global economy and have a massive impact on our growth and economic health. It is of the utmost importance for us to bring Singularity University to South Africa to educate, empower and inspire leaders and future leaders in Africa, he said.

Read the rest here:

Inaugural Singularity University Summit to be held in SA. - Disrupt Africa