Category Archives: Transhuman News

In Brief Google is on schedule to produce a 49 qubit chip and achieve quantum supremacy by the end of 2017. This is a critical step along the way to functional quantum computers that can achieve problems far beyond the capacity of traditional systems. Googles 49 Qubit Chip

Google is maintaining its edge in the world of quantum computing. Its 20-qubit processor is currently undergoing tests, and the company appears to be on schedule to have its working 49-qubit chip ready by the end of 2017 as promised. Until it began trialing the 20-qubit chip, Googles most powerful quantum chip was the 9-qubit effort from 2015.

Traditional computer bits are binary, only existing as either 0 or 1; theyre like light switches that are either on or off. Qubits, on the other hand, can be 0 or 1 like regular bits, but can also have quantum properties that allow them to exist in a superposition where they are both 0 and 1 simultaneously. This makes qubits potentially far more powerful, because instead of figuring something out by trying each option one by one, they can simultaneously compute more than one possibility.

Googles 49-qubit chip will allow them to develop a 49-qubit quantum system that can solve problems that are far beyond the capacity of ordinary computers: Google calls this goal quantum supremacy. The 20-qubit system that the Google quantum computing team is now working on currently boasts a two-qubit fidelity of 99.5 percent. The higher the rating, the fewer errors the system makes. Quantum supremacy demands not only a 49-qubit system, but also sufficient accuracy to achieve a two-qubit fidelity of at least 99.7 percentwhich Google is on track to deliver by the end of 2017.

Google isnt alone in their quest for advancing quantum computing. In 2016, IBM was running a 5 qubit computer, but by May 2017, it was offering beta access to its 16 qubit platform to the public for testing purposes. Furthermore, qubits alone arent the only consideration for actually achieving working quantum computers; error correction and scaling will also be critical to quantum systems. However, if Google does achieve quantum supremacy, it will be a majorstep forward.

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Google is Closer Than Ever to a Quantum Computer Breakthrough - Futurism

In Brief China's central bank has developed its own cryptocurrency, which is now being tested. Cryptocurrencies have the potential to not only benefit China, but the rest of the world, due to their basis in blockchain. Benefits of Digital Currency

Chinas central bank thePeoples Bank of China has developed a prototype of a cryptocurrencythat it could end up in circulation in the nearfuture.It would beintroduced alongside the Chinas primary currency the renminbi (also called the yuan).Chinawill besimulating possible scenarios and running mock transactions using the cryptocurrency with some commercial Chinese banks. Click to View Full Infographic

The potential benefits of developing a digital currency are significant, particularly in China. First, it would decrease the cost of transactions, and therefore make financial services more accessible, which would be a big help tothe millions of people in the country who are unconnected to conventional banks. Second, as it would be supported by blockchain, it has the potential to decrease the rates of fraud and counterfeiting, which would be of service to thegovernments attempts to reduce corruption a key concern. Third, it would make the currency easier to obtain, which would increase the rate of international transactions, allowing for more trades and faster economic growth.

Since Bitcoins humble beginnings back in 2009 (when it was only valued at around 0.0007 USD) the digital currency, and the very idea of cryptocurrencies in fact,has grown monumentally. The total market cap of cryptocurrencies on April 1st of this year was over $25 Billion. A singleBitcoin is now worth more than $2,500. Now many national economies, as Chinas plan shows,areconsidering the idea of developing their own variant.

Although Chinas experimental approach to simulate a self-developed cryptocurrencys usage is the first of its kind, other countries and institutions have made strides in that direction as well. The Deputy of Russias central bank has emphatically statedthatregulators of all countries agree that its time to develop national cryptocurrencies. Over 260,000 stores in Japan will begin accepting Bitcoin as legal tender this summer, and big banks like Santander have announced plans to develop their ownversion.

Cryptocurrencies have the potential of revolutionizing not only the business world, but manymethods of transaction.There has already been talk of using cryptocurrencies to administer Universal Basic Incomesdue to their traceability, as well as for thedelivery of human aid; the potential for which was demonstrated bya recent experiment to help refugees in Jordan by the UN.

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China Becomes First Country in the World to Test a National Cryptocurrency - Futurism

When Will We Clone a Human?

Human cloning may endure as one of the go-to science fiction tropes, but in reality we may be much closer to achieving it than our fictional heroes might imply. At least in terms of the science required. On of the most prominent hurdles facing us may have less to do with the process and more to do with its potential consequences, and our collective struggle to reconcile the ethics involved.That being said, while science has come a long way in the last century when it comes to cloning a menagerie of animals, cloning humans and other primates has actually proven to be incredibly difficult. While we might not be on the brink ofcloning entire human beings, were already capable of cloning human cells the question is,should we be?Click to View Full Infographic

The astoundingly complex concept of cloning boils down to a fairly simple (in theory, at least) practice:you need two cells from the same animal one of which is an egg cell from which youve removed the DNA. You take the DNA from the othersomatic cell and put it inside the devoid-of-DNA egg cell. Whatever that egg cell goes on to produce for offspring will be genetically identical to the parent cell.While human reproduction is the result of the joining of two cells (one from each parent, each with their own DNA) the cellular photocopy technique does occur in nature.Bacteria reproduce through binary fission: each time it divides, its DNA is divided too so that each new bacterium is genetically identical to its predecessor. Except sometimes mutations occur in this process and in fact, that can be by design and function as a survival mechanism. Such mutations allow bacteria to, for example, become resistant to antibiotics bent on destroying them. On the other hand,some mutations are fatal to an organism or preclude them coming into existence at all. And while it might seem like the picking-and-choosing thats inherent to cloning could sidestep these potential genetic hiccups, scientists have found thats not necessarily the case.

Image Credit: Pixabay

While Dolly the sheep might be the most famous mammal science has ever cloned, shes by no means the only one: scientists have cloned mice, cats, and several types of livestock in addition to sheep. The cloning of cows has, in recent years, provided a great deal of knowledge to scientists about why the processdoesnt work: everything from implantation failure to those aforementioned mutations that render offspring unable to survive.Harris Lewin, professor in the UC Davis Department of Evolution and Ecology, and his team published their findings on the impact cloning has ongene expression in the journalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesback in 2016. In the studys press release Lewin noted that the findings were certainly invaluable to refining cloning techniques in mammals, but that their discoveries also reinforce the need for a strict ban on human cloning for any purposes.

The creation ofentiremammals via reproductive cloning has proven a difficult process both practically and ethnically, as legal scholar and ethicist Hank Greely of Stanford University explained toBusiness Insiderin 2016:

The cloning of human cells,however, may be a far more immediate application for humans.Researchers call it therapeutic cloning, and differentiate it from traditional cloning that has reproductive intent. In 2014, researchers created human stem cells through the same cloning technique that generated Dolly the sheep. Because stem cells can differentiate to become any kind of cell in the body, they could be utilized for a wide variety of purposes when it comes to treating diseases particularly genetic diseases, or diseases where a patient would require a transplant from an often elusive perfect match donor.This potential application is already well underway: earlier this year a woman in Japansuffering from age-related macular degeneration was treated with induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells created from her own skin cells, which were then implanted into her retinas andstopped her vision from degenerating further.

We asked the Futurism community to predict when they think well be able to successfully clone a full human, and the majority of those who responded agree that it feels like were getting close: nearly 30 percent predicted well clone our first human by the 2020s. We have replaced, and replicated almost every biology on earth, said reader Alicja Laskowska, [the] next step is for cures and to do that you need clean DNA, and theres your start.

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How Close Are We to Successfully Cloning the First Human? - Futurism

In BriefScientists were able to erase certain kinds of memories whileretaining others in snail neurons. While much more research isrequired before this is attempted in humans, the researchers arehopeful that this study could one day lead to new therapies forpost-traumatic stress disorder. Snails Minds Rendered Spotless

In the U.S. alone, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is estimated to affect about 8 million adults every year. Whether these individuals are struggling with events from a battlefront or a violent past encounter, they are likely to have at least two kinds of memories associated with their trauma associative memories and non-associative memories.

Associative memories contain important information about the traumatic event, like who hurt you, or perhaps where the event took place. Non-associative memories, on the other hand, are about details that are not directly related to the traumatic event, but can still trigger symptoms of PTSD. But now, scientists have found a way selectively delete non-associative memories while retaining associative ones at least in snails.

They were able to do this by blocking various molecules associated with an enzyme called Protein Kinase M (PKM), which is critical for maintaining long-term memories. Researchers recently reported in the journal Current Biology that they were able to erase different kinds of memories by blocking different molecules associated with PKM, and were even able to erase specific memories by blocking certain variants of these molecules.

By isolating the exact molecules that maintain non-associative memory, we may be able to develop drugs that can treat anxiety without affecting the patients normal memory of past events. Jiangyuan Hu, a co-author of the paper, said in an interview for a Columbia University press release.

While the team is hopeful that these methods will be as effective in humans as they were in snails, many more studies are needed before we get to that point. And, as yet, the team isnt sure that the memories they erased are gone forever only further research can clarify this issue.

This line of research may hold incredible promise for people suffering from PTSD, other mental health issues caused by traumatic events, and even drug addiction. However, this is a delicate area. Memories serve a purpose in most cases, and if we erase bad memories we may find ourselves making the same mistakes. In addition, some theorize that its not the memories per se that are the problem its the recall process gone awry that causes the trauma to be re-experienced.

Furthermore, it isnt clear how successful scientists will be at erasing only specific memories when, by their very nature, memories are interlinked with one another. Even if they can, will all of a persons other memories make sense in context when one life-changing yet negative experience is suddenly gone?

Still, the team believes that the only way we can know if erasing memories is a viable medical strategy is by studying it. Our study is a proof of principle that presents an opportunity for developing strategies and perhaps therapies to address anxiety, co-author Samuel Schacher said in the press release.

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Scientists Selectively Erased Memories In Snails Are We Next? - Futurism