Category Archives: Transhuman News

In Brief Bitcoin has surpassed another milestone by reaching worth of more than $4,000. Many are still optimistic about the currency's future.

Another day, another Bitcoin milestone passed. The worlds first and largest cryptocurrency surpassed the $4,000 mark for a moment yesterday. The new all-time high for Bitcoin is now $4,162.57. The price has dropped slightly since that high was reached, and at the time of writing now sits at $4,072.30.

This latest milestone marks the currencys seemingly unstoppable surge since the beginning of the year. In January, Bitcoin was trading at less than $1,000 per coin. Now, the burgeoningcryptocoinsare worth more than four times that amount. Early adopters must be rejoicing that their faith in the cryptocurrency is (thus far) being rewarded.

Experts remain optimistic about Bitcoins potential, yet some are beginning to fear that it has entered a bubble. Still, the trend seems to be in favor of its continued success. No one knows for sure what the future of Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general will look like. The debate of whether the reward is worth the risk will continue to rage on.

The bigger picture here though, is blockchain. While it is most closely associated with cryptocurrency at the moment, that doesnt even begin to scratch the surface of what is possible with this tech. So while cryptocurrency may still be considered a gamble, get ahead of the game and read up on blockchain, because it is, almost certainly, the future.

Disclosure: Several members of the Futurism team, including the editors of this piece, are personal investors in a number of cryptocurrency markets. Their personal investment perspectives have no impact on editorial content.

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Bitcoin Continues to Plow Through Milestones By Surpassing the $4000 Mark - Futurism

In Brief Elon Musk's nonprofit AI company has successfully beaten some of the world's greatest Dota 2 players. The game is much more complex than chess or Go, and the bot's ability to win is indicative of the increasing power of AI systems. An AI World First

eSports are growing in popularity and quickly becoming a surprisingly lucrative sport. eSports are a form of competition where the action takes place in an electronic system, usually a video game. There are a ton of formal competitions and tournaments for a wide range of games, such asStarCraft 2, Overwatch, and Defense of the Ancients (Dota) 2.

One way that developers of artificially intelligent systems teach their creations is through gaming. Googles AI, AlphaGo, became so advanced at playing the ancient game of Go, that it was able tobeat whatever human master was thrown at it. This was quite the achievement, as Go involves much more complexity than games like chess which theDeep Blue computer system was able to master in 1996.

Now, AI systems are coming for the best that eSports have to offer. Elon Musks OpenAI software has become the first AI to beat the world greatest eSports athletes. Musk took to Twitter to announce this achievement.

OpenAI published an accompanying blog post explaining the significance of what theyve built. Dota 1v1 is a complex game with hidden information. Agents must learn to plan, attack, trick, and deceive their opponents. The correlation between player skill and actions-per-minute is not strong, and in fact, our AIs actions-per-minute are comparable to that of an average human player.

The software taught itself how to play the game by playing itself. Our bot has learnedentirely via self-playto predict where other players will move, to improvise in response to unfamiliar situations, and how to influence the other players allied units to help it succeed.

OpenAI has a history of using novel approaches to train its AI. Last year, they let their system loose on Reddit, where it processed nearly two billion comments. It may be unclear what is in store for the future of OpenAI and other AI projects, but professional gamers are seemingly out of luck for a while.

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Elon Musk's OpenAI Created a Bot That Can Beat the World's Best eSports Players - Futurism

Riding the Heat Wave

Hot weather has forceddozens of commercial flights to be canceledat airports in the Southwest this summer. This flight-disrupting heat is a warning sign. Climate change is projected to have far-reaching repercussions includingsea level rise inundating citiesand shifting weather patterns causinglong-term declines in agricultural yields. And there is evidence that it is beginning to affect the takeoff performance of commercial aircraft, with potential effects on airline costs.

National and global transportation systems and the economic activity they support have beenoptimized for the climatein which it all developed: Machines are designed to operate in common temperature ranges, logistical plans depend on historical weather patterns and coastal land development is based onknown flood zones. In the aviation sector, airports and aircraft are designed for the weather conditions experienced historically. Because the climate is changing, even fundamental infrastructure elements like airports and key economic sectors like air transportation may need to be redesigned and reengineered.

As scientists focused on theimpacts of climate change and extreme weatheron human society and natural ecosystems around the world, our research has quantified how extreme heat associated with ourwarming climate may affect flightsaround the world. Weve found that major airports from New York to Dubai to Bangkok will see more frequent takeoff weight restrictions in the coming decades due to increasingly common hot temperatures.

There is robust evidence that extreme events such as heat waves and coastal flooding are happening withgreater frequency and intensitythan just a few decades ago. And if we fail to reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly in the next few decades, the frequency and intensity of these extremes is projected toincrease dramatically.

The effects on aviation may be widespread. Many airports are built near sea level, putting themat risk of more frequent floodingas oceans rise. The frequency and intensity ofair turbulence may increasein some regions due tostrengthening high-altitude winds. Stronger winds would force airlines and pilots tomodify flight lengths and routings, potentially increasing fuel consumption.

The July heat-relatedPhoenix flight cancellationshappened at least in part because airlines operational manuals didnt include information fortemperatures above 118 degrees Fahrenheit because that kind of heat is historically uncommon. Its another example of how procedures may need to be updated to adapt to a warmer climate.

High air temperatures affect the physics of how aircraft fly, meaning aircraft takeoff performance can beimpaired on hot days. The amount of lift that an airplane wing generates is affected by the density of the air. Air density in turn depends mostly on air temperature and elevation; higher temperatures and higher elevations both reduce density.

Lower the air density, the faster an airplane must travel to produce enough lift to take off. It takes more runway to reach a higher speed, and depending on how long the airports runway is, some airplanes might risk running out of room before reaching sufficient speed. When this occurs, the only immediate option is to reduce the aircrafts weight to lower its required takeoff speed by removing passengers, luggage and cargo. This is referred to as a weight restriction

Weight restrictions happen now, especially in hot places like Phoenix andDubaiand at airports with short runways likeNew Yorks LaGuardiaand Washington, D.C.s Reagan National, but our research suggests that they may become much more common in the future.

Global temperatures have beensteadily rising for decades, and they will almost certainly continue to do so. In some regions, there is evidence that thehottest temperatures may increase at a faster ratethan the average,further stacking the deckin favor of extreme heat. These hotter temperatures will reduce air density and make it much more likely weight restrictions are needed for flights taking off during the hottest parts of the day.

The frequency and magnitude of weight restrictions is projected to increase in some locations, the number of days requiring at least some amount of weight restriction for certain aircraft could double or triple, perhaps covering 50 or more days per year.

On most affected flights, the amount of cargo, passengers and fuel that must be removed to allow for takeoff will usually be small between 0.5 percent and 4 percent of the total load. That means fewer paying customers on airplanes, and less cargo on board. When those restrictions add up across the global air transport system, the costs can be significant.

Carrying just a fraction of a percent fewer passengers or less cargo can add up tomillions of dollars in lost revenuefor an airline over years of operation. That makes even small weight restrictions a concern in such a highly competitive and optimized industry. These limits could disproportionately affectlong-haul flights, which require large fuel loads and often take off near their maximum weights.

There are ways that airlines could mitigate increasing weight restrictions. The most feasible is to reschedule some flights to cooler hours of the day although withair traffic increasingand many airports alreadyoperating near capacity, this could prove difficult.

Another potential solution is to build longer runways. But thats not always possible: Some airports, like New Yorks LaGuardia, are on coastlines or in dense urban environments. Even where a longer runway is technically possible, buying the land and expanding an airports physical area may beexpensive and politically difficult.

Aircraft could be optimized for takeoff performance, but redesigning aircraft isextremely expensive and can take decades.Manufacturers are always workingto build planes that arelighter and more fuel-efficient. In the future, those efficiency improvements will be necessary just to maintain todays performance.

These changes are merely examples of the countless procedures, processes and equipment requirements that will have to be adjusted for a changing climate. Even if those adaptations are successful, they will take effort and money to achieve.

Many sectors of the economy, including the aviation industry, have yet to seriously consider the effects of climate change. The sooner, the better: Both airport construction and aircraft design take decades, and have lasting effects. Todays newest planes may well beflying in 40 or 50 years, and their replacements are being designed now. The earlier climate impacts are understood and appreciated, the more effective and less costly adaptations can be. Those adaptations may even include innovative ways to dramatically reduce climate-altering emissions across the aviation sector, which would help reduce the problem while also responding to it.

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How Hot Weather and Climate Change Affect Airline Flights - Futurism