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Category Archives: Transhuman News

‘That’s our word, and you can’t have it back’: Ice Cube confronts Bill Maher for using the n-word – Washington Post

Posted: June 10, 2017 at 6:45 pm

Rapper Ice Cube was a panelist on "Real Time" a week after Bill Maher used the n-word on the show. Here's what Ice Cube had to say, plus how other entertainers viewed the controversy. (Nicki DeMarco/The Washington Post)

A week after Bill Maher used the n-word on Real Time, Fridays episode of his HBO show focused largely on a discussion of race, with black personalities essentially lecturing the comedian on why what he had done was unacceptable.

I want you to school me. I did a bad thing, he told Georgetown University professor Michael Eric Dyson, adding later: For black folks, that word I dont care who you are has caused pain. Im not here to do that It doesnt matter that it wasnt said in malice; it wasnt. It brought back pain to people.

For several minutes, Maher was on the hot seat and on the receiving end of questions. Actor-rapper Ice Cube didnt seem to hold back, telling Maher that he and white people shouldnt get too comfortable with saying the n-word, even if done without a hint of racism. He also said that he felt the comedian has been bucking up against that line, and that last weeks mistake was a teachable moment for Maher.

What made you think that it was cool to say that? Ice Cube asked.

Maher repeated his apology and said that he simply reacted, without thinking, to a comment by Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) about working in the fields.

[Bill Maher says he is very sorry for using a racial slur on his HBO show]

Though he accepted theapology, Ice Cube dished out many reasons he felt Mahers behavior was so problematic.He said, in part:

I still think you need to get to the root of the psyche because I think theres a lot of guys out there who cross the line because theyre a little too familiar, or they think theyre too familiar. Or, guys that, you know, might have a black girlfriend or two that made them Kool-Aid every now and then, and then they think they can cross the line. And they cant. You know, its a word that has been used against us. Its like a knife, man. You can use it as a weapon or you can use it as a tool. Its when you use it as a weapon against us, by white people, and were not going to let that happened again because its not cool Thats our word, and you cant have it back.

Its not cool because when I hear my homie say it, it dont feel like venom. When I hear a white person say it, it feel like that knife stabbing you, even if they dont mean to.

The longtime HBO host drew widespread criticism last week after using the racial slur during an exchange with Sasse on his show. The senator invited Maher to visit Nebraska and said, Wed love to have you work in the fields with us.

Work in the fields? Senator, Im a house n, Maher said in response. No, its its a joke.

HBO late-night host Bill Maher was under fire this week for using a racial slur on his show. Here are some other occasions where he has faced criticism for his jokes. (Elyse Samuels/The Washington Post)

He apologized in a brief statement the following day, saying the word was offensive and that he was very sorry. The backlash was immediate, with HBO also condemning the use of the word and with some calling for Mahers firing.

[Maher, Griffin, Colbert: Anti-Trump comedians are having a really bad moment]

Dyson, the professor and a friend of Mahers whos come to his defense on social media, asked the comedian about white privilege and whether he understands the need to challenge the unconscious reflex to say the racial slur evenunintentionally.

Yeah, but of course, I think I do. Were all evolving. Were all who were are This happened once. A guy said a weird thing; I made a bad joke, Maher said of the comment from Sasse that prompted the controversial response. It was wrong, and I owned up to that. But its not like a career of this. Its not like I went out there last Friday and I said, Oh, Im going to break some new ground tonight.

Maher added: You know, it happened and it was wrong, and people make mistakes and were all sinners But I totally get that I grew up in an all-white town in New Jersey, not Alabama thats the country Race wasnt even an issue. It didnt exist, except my parents told me the right thing about it

Symone Sanders, a Democratic strategist and former press secretary for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), criticized Maher for using the term house n, saying it was an affront to black women.

As a white person in America, you wouldve been the master, the slave owner It was mostly black women who were enslaved in the house, who were raped, who were beaten daily, day in and day out, Sanders said. They endured physical and mental abuse. For a lot of people in America, that was like slap in the face to the black community, particularly to black women.

Maher, whos on his 15th season of hosting Real Time, has been known to say or do controversial things on his show.

[Ann Coulter finds an unlikely ally in her free-speech spat with Berkeley: Bill Maher]

He drew criticism earlier this yearwhenhe interviewed Milo Yiannopoulos,the controversial former Breitbart editor known for making inflammatory comments about Muslims, women and minorities. Maher had defended his decision, saying inviting Yiannopoulos on his show brought his views under scrutiny, according to the Los Angeles Times.

In 2014, Maher was accused of hate speech when he said it was wrong to say only a few bad apples in the Muslim community have extremist beliefs.

Islam is the only religion that acts like the mafia, that will f kill you if you say the wrong thing, draw the wrong picture, or write the wrong book, Maher said during an episode on Real Time with atheist scholar Sam Harris and actor Ben Affleck.

In 2001, Maher lost his ABC show, Politically Incorrect, following controversial commentscriticizing military action to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

We have been the cowards lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. Thats cowardly, he said.

Maher apologized after his comments prompted companies to pull their ads. He said he was criticizing the government, not individual soldiers.ABC fired Maher afterward.

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He broke me: A defiant, tearful Kathy Griffin slams attacks by Trump and his family

The celebrity apology is so popular, even the provocateurs are doing it

Bill Mahers interview with a Trump defender started out nice. Then Russia came up.

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'That's our word, and you can't have it back': Ice Cube confronts Bill Maher for using the n-word - Washington Post

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When Worlds Collude: Hoppe, Bruenig, and their shared vision of the libertarian future (I) – Nolan Chart LLC

Posted: at 6:44 pm

Progressive lawyer, online pundit, and internet troll Matt Bruenig has a question forlibertarians: My first question for Cato and libertarians more generally is this: What is upwith Hans-Hermann Hoppe?[1]

I wish I could respond, Who? Alas, I am well aware of Hoppe. Many libertarians and other readers, though, may have just that response. Fortunately, Bruenig hasprovide an introduction:

For the unacquainted, Hoppe is a very prominent libertarian academic, certainly well knownwithin intellectual libertarian circles. He ironically works at the University of Nevada as aneconomics professor, making him a public employee. He publishes frequently in libertarianacademic journals, is a Distinguished Fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, founded theProperty & Freedom Society, is frequently referenced by other libertarians as one of them, and[authored a] 2001 book Democracy: The God That Failed. It is a tad on the long side, but itsreally good, the [following] quotes especially.[1]

We will look at Bruenigs quotes later. For now it is enough to say that, while Hoppe does have followers who self-identify as libertarians, many if not most libertarians who know of him want nothing to do with him.

Here is an assessment of Hoppe that I suspect many libertarians who have read him or his admirerswould accept:

The errors of Hans-Hermann Hoppe are regrettable for two reasons: Firstly, Hoppe is a highlyintelligent and well-educated economist who for whatever reasons fails to notice when he doesdamage to the values of freedom and property, which he claims to support. This is the tragicpersonal side of Hans-Hermann Hoppe. But it is also tragic for academic discussions: At a timewhen we are surrounded by ever growing welfare states we badly need thinkers like Hoppe to showus how to tackle todays problems. But instead of doing that, Hoppe prefers to take refuge in hispipe dreams of a so-called natural order, which rather resembles the abyss of a variation ofright-wing totalitarianism. For all these reasons, for all his errors and mistakes and for hiswrong-headed methodology we may expect Hoppes ideas to remain a footnote in the history ofpolitical thought. And it may well be better this way. An effective strategy of liberation wouldlook very different. If Hoppe continues to use the terms liberalism and freedom for hisauthoritarian and pseudo-liberal agenda, it is time for the true liberals to claim back theseterms from him.[2]

It is only necessary to add that (1) the very idea of libertarianism that Bruenig claimslibertarians should be following (2) is not only compatible with, but looks like it would result in,Hoppes theorized libertarian society of the future; furthermore, while (3) Hoppes account of that societysuffers from serious flaws and errors, (4) Bruenigs account of that future society, being based on his reading of Hoppe, has the same flaws and errors. Making those four points is easy enough, but demonstrating them requires a bit more work.

Bruenig believes that libertarians should advocate for an ideal state of affairs that he calls Grab-what-you-can world or Grab World. He claims that this is the only possible world compatible with thelibertarian core belief (or set of beliefs) that are referred to under the label of the Non-Aggression Principle or NAP:

The world which follows the non-aggression principle is the one Roderick Long calls the grab-what-you-can world' this quote [from Long] clearly describes the only world that followsthenon-aggression principle the grab-what-you-can world satisfies the non-aggressionprinciple andno other world does almost everyone opposes following the non-aggressionprinciple as itrequires the grab-what-you-can world the grab-what-you-can world is theworld that follows thenon-aggression principle.[3]

This claim follows from Bruenigs definition of force, which is not the standard libertarianone. By his definition, theft, embezzlement, fraud, looting, and other property offensesshould not be considered uses of force: a property offense involves no force (strictly defined) becauseno body has been attacked.[4] By this definition that force is just attacking other peoplesbodies Bruenig reasons his way to Grab World:

Its simple: 1) grabbing pieces of the world does not, by itself, involve initiating forceagainst other people (if it did, then all resource use would be considered aggression), and 2)attacking someone for grabbing up a piece of the world does involve initiating force againstother people.[3]

In Grab World, there is only one law, the Basic Rule: You may not act upon the bodies of otherswithout their consent.[4] Everything else, including the property crimes listed above, wouldbe legal.From this Rule follows the idea of Grab World, as envisioned by its creator, Roderick Long (thelibertarian philosopher from whom Bruenig grabbed the idea):

Imagine a world in which people freely expropriate other peoples possessions; nobody initiatesforce directly against another persons body, but subject to that constraint, people regularlygrab any external resource they can get their hands on, regardless of who has made or been usingthe resource. Any conception of aggression according to which the world so described is free ofaggression is not a plausible one.[5]

Plausibly or not, Grab World is free from aggression (the initiation of force) as Bruenig definesit: in the libertarian set, there seems to be severe difficulties with distinguishing betweenwhat we might call Actual Initiation (defined as who touched who first) and IdeologicalInitiation[6]. What [libertarians] actually mean by initiation of force is not some neutral notionof hauling off and physically attacking someone.[7]

David S. Amato points out that Bruenigs criterion of Actual Initiation as touching would not includepointing a gun at someone else: even the mugger doesnt, underBruenigs Actual Initiation standard, initiate force against his victim, at least notnecessarily. Pointing a gun at someone, with the desired goal of taking his money or possessions,doesnt require the mugger to touch the victim, to make any actual, physical contact.[5] Nor, for that matter, would pulling the trigger. But to be charitable,that conclusion should probably be chalked up to Bruenigs sloppy writing rather than his actualbeliefs; it is reasonable to think that he includes shooting and threatening people with guns,bows and arrows, and bombs as examples of the use of force as well as mere touching.

What seems less reasonable is to imagine the Grab World state of affairs obtaining in reality.Grab World would require a society of pacifists (as, by stipulation, nobody initiates forcedirectly against another persons body). But while difficult to conceive, it is not logicallyimpossible. As a youth I read a speculative fiction novel by Damon Knight, Rule Golden, in whichthe galactic overlords unleashed a gas upon earth which caused everyone who physically hurt another personto experience the victims pain; those who killed others would die.[8] Anyone with enoughimagination could probably think of other ways for Grab World to be instantiated.

So far, so good. But Bruenig makes assumptions about Grab World that do not look so reasonable.Among them:

(1) It is more or less communism, yes.[9] No, it is not. It may resemble the ultimate communistsociety that Karl Marx envisioned; but it rules out any chance to establish the dictatorship of theproletariat that Marx saw as being necessary to get there. In the dictatorship stage, which isall that every self-proclaimed Communist regime has ever reached, there is plenty of property; itjust all belongs to the state. Property rules against trespass, theft, and the like have alwaysbeen enforced by the states violence and bloodshed (as Bruenig likes to call it) under thoseregimes just as strongly as in states with private property; even more violently and bloodily, in many cases.

(2) there is a state that is preventing people from assaulting and battering and the like.[9]Wrong again. States require a division of labor society which in turn requires an exchangeeconomy: since those enforcing the Basic Rule are losing the opportunity to grab or produce goodsand resources or themselves, they must be supported by those who are doing the latter. ButBruenig forecasts that, on grab world, exchange would initially break down completely:

there is no such thing as a non-coercive trade. All trades rely upon violent coercion. I onlytrade with someone because they have a violence voucher that they will redeem [from the state] if I decide to actupon the piece of the world without doing so. They only trade with me for the same reason. If yougot rid of the coercion, which is to say you got rid of violence vouchers, no trading wouldoccur.[6]

Without the possibility of exchange, production of consumer goods would grind to a halt; whowould buy them, when one could just loot for them? But with nothing being produced, at a certainpoint people would start running out of stores to loot; then where would a state get its tools ofviolence, its guns, handcuffs, police cars, prisons, tanks, fighter planes, and all the rest?Given Grab Worlds universal pacifism, those are not things they could go around and grabfrom just anyone.

Even if the state did get manage to get supplied with its tools of violence, it could not usethem, as that would be acting on the bodies of others without their consent, just as it is today.No one could be physically detained, arrested, or held at gunpoint (much less shot) in Grab World. No one couldbe jailed or placed under house arrest awaiting trial, physically compelled to attend a trial(including witnesses or jurors as well as defendants), or punished physically, including byimprisonment, if convicted.

Since Bruenigs Basic Rule forbids anyone to act on the bodies of others, it forbids its ownenforcement. All a state could do to anyone violating Bruenigs Rule, without itself violating the Rule, would be to grab things from him; in other words, the Basic Rule would forbid anyone fromtreating those who violate it any differently from non-violators. That would mean the end of thestate as we know it, and as we have known it for all of recorded history.

(3) It is a propertyless society.[9] There is no reason to think so. As Bruenig admits, there is nothing in Grab World stopping people from developing their own rules and conventions, which could include rules against taking each others property, invading each others homes,killing each others pets, and the like. Those rules could of course include standard libertarianrules respecting property rights, as they would be consensual, and therefore could include allowing others to useforce in response to cases of theft and so on.[11]

Since in communities with such rules, and those communities only, people would be able to produce and tradegoods, it is reasonable to imagine them as coming into immediate being in actual communities;villages and small towns where people know and trust each other. Only such communities could givepeople the property security, and the division of labor, necessary to maintain a more-thanstarvation existence after the cities were looted. However, they could do so only byinstantiating property rights through voluntary community covenants.

It is easy to imagine these proprietary communities expanding to the size of whole counties,walled or fenced off and guarded against outsiders. It would be easy enough (and not necessarilyinvolve any touching) to restrict admission only to those who consented to the community rules onforce. One can even imagine a flood of refugees to them from the cities, all of whom were admitted would haveconsented to the standard libertarian view of defensive force.

Outsiders like Bruenig would still have the negative liberty to invade and loot communities, andsome might do just that; but there is no reason communities would have to merely let them do it.Non-consenters could climb fences, or cut holes in them, to get in to do their looting; but toget out again they would have to let go of their loot; at which point a community police or possecould simply grab it all back. Would-be looters could also tunnel under fences; but communitydefenders could simply destroy the tunnels. (Question for any Bruenig Bros reading: woulddestroying a tunnel with looters in it count as attacking them?)

I have written elsewhere on this evolution.[10] To sum up:rather than a propertyless society, Grab World looks like it would evolve into thestateless world of proprietary communities envisioned by Hoppe, where political power isstripped from the hands of the central government and reassigned to the states, provinces,cities, towns, villages, residential districts, and ultimately to private property owners andtheir voluntary associations.[1]

However, the vision of those libertarian communities imagined by Hoppe looks completely flawed,riddled with conceptual errors. Those errors in turn inspire Bruenig to adopt a similarly flawedaccount filled with the same errors. Documenting that assessment, though, must wait for now.

[1] Matt Bruenig, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Libertarian Extraordinaire, Demos, September 11, 2013. http://www.demos.org/blog/9/11/13/hans-hermann-hoppe-libertarian-extraordinaire

[2] Oliver Hartwich, The Errors of Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Open Republic Magazine (Dublin) 1:2 (October 2005). Web, June 9, 2017. https://oliverhartwich.com/2005/10/10/the-errors-of-hans-hermann-hoppe/

[3] Matt Bruenig, What a World Following the Non-Aggression Principle Looks Like, Demos, January 29, 2014. http://www.demos.org/blog/1/29/14/what-world-following-non-aggression-principle-looks

[4] Matt Bruenig, The Lesson of Grab What You Can, Demos, June 3, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140606193500/http://www.demos.org/blog/6/3/14/lesson-grab-what-you-can

[5] David S. Amato, Against Grab World, Libertarianism.org, October 15, 2015. https://www.libertarianism.org/columns/against-grab-world

[6] Matt Bruenig, Violence Vouchers: A descriptive account of property, Matt Bruenig Politics, March 28, 2014. http://mattbruenig.com/2014/03/28/violence-vouchers-a-descriptive-account-of-property/

[7] Matt Bruenig, Can you sustain an economic philosophy solely by begging the question?. Matt Bruenig Politics, October 7,2015. http://mattbruenig.com/2015/10/02/can-you-sustain-an-economic-philosophy-solely-by-begging-the-question/

[8] Damon Knight, Rule Golden, Three Novels. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. Print.

[9] Matt Bruenig, Comment, June 23, 2014, to Bruenig, Pick-up basketball and grab what you can. Matt Bruenig Politics, June 22, 2014. http://mattbruenig.com/2014/06/22/pick-up-basketball-and-grab-what-you-can/

[10] George J. Dance, Grab World, Nolan Chart, May 26, 2017. https://www.nolanchart.com/grab-world

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If you’ve noticed many seeming human traits in animals, you’ll want to read this – Washington Post

Posted: at 6:42 pm

Picture this scenario: You and a co-worker are given a task to complete. The co-worker occasionally pretends to do something but leaves you with all of the drudgery.

Now imagine that your co-worker weighs several thousand pounds and has a trunk.

Thats what happened to an Asian elephant in an experiment looking at social intelligence among animals, which researchers are learning is far more complex than previously thought. In addition to deception like that lazy elephant there are fascinating examples of cooperation.

For instance, some dolphin moms in Australia teach their daughters to don a sea sponge on their snouts, allowing them to search the seafloor for fish without hurting their noses. You can read more about it in Scientific Americans Secret Lives of Animals, a special collectors edition available on newsstands until July 10.

Many of the articles highlight just how much humans have in common with other creatures. One praises the architectural genius of termites, which build towering mounds that circulate air and offer protection from enemies. Another explains how wasps can recognize individual faces. Theres an examination of same-sex couplings in the animal kingdom, which details several of the reasons these relationships can evolve.

Then theres the tear-jerker When Animals Mourn by Barbara J. King, a professor of anthropology at the College of William & Mary. It includes an anecdote about a giraffe giving birth to an infant with a deformed foot. The mom stays close to the baby, even though that means not foraging with her herd and potentially putting her life at risk. When the young giraffe dies after four weeks, the mom is joined by 16 other females, which all help protect the body from predators.

Pet owners may want to flip directly to The World According to Dogs, a collection of scientific findings about mans best friend. The most useful tidbit: If a dog wont play with you, youre probably just doing it wrong. Patting the floor, picking up a dog, smooching it those are all ineffective techniques, according to a 2001 study. Instead, try a different strategy, suggests writer Julie Hecht: The researchers found that giving chase and running away and lunging forward were associated with play 100percent of the time.

And dont miss your chance to learn about the star-nosed mole, which boasts a schnozzle ringed by 22 fleshy appendages that are usually a blur of motion, writes Kenneth C. Catania of Vanderbilt University. Although the pink blob on its face allows the mole to find and eat five separate prey items in a single second, humans can be glad this feature is one thing we dont share with animals.

Read more

What floppy-eared foxes taught us about how animals became tame

A kitten nursery saves tiny lives in a city aiming to become no kill

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Scientists find human tooth inside HL Hunley submarine during cleanup – Charleston Post Courier

Posted: at 6:42 pm

If you want to know how the cleanup of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is going, think oven cleaner.

In the simplest form of chemistry explanation, the sub is being subjected to a mixture of sodium hydroxide and a mild electrical current.

The effect is that, when combined, it gradually helps to soften some of the concrete-hard buildup of sand, mud and shells that accumulated inside the sub during the 140 years it was buried off Sullivan's Island so that it can be removed later.

"The equivalent would be oven cleaner," said Michael Scafuri, lead archaeologist, pointing to the caustic nature of the reaction.

Another find officials reported Wednesday: A human tooth.

While most of the remains of the eight men who sailed on the sub's final Feb. 17, 1864, mission were removed and ceremonially buried at Magnolia Cemetery in 2004, a tooth was recently discovered stuck in the concretion at crank handle position Number 3.

It is believed that's where crewman Frank Collins sat.

Scafuri said the tooth loss was "post mortem," meaning that long after the sinking, the tooth came loose during the decomposition process and stuck to the crank handle where it corroded with the iron.

Project restoration members gave a media update showing where the restoration project is so far some 17 years after the Civil War vessel was raised from the waters and taken to Clemson University's Warren Lasch Conservation Center in North Charleston.

While the sub's exterior is mostly cleaned bare and smooth, the upper level of the interior still has scabs of concretion. The crank shaft the crew used to hand power the vessel is also clean, but scientist report finding cloth remnants and loose metal sleeves at some of the crank positions.

The thought is these add-ons helped reduce the likelihood of blisters or chaffed hands.

What's still not known is if the team will truly be able to determine what caused the 40-foot-long by 3-foot-wide sub to be lost after ramming its explosive black powder charge into the Union blockade ship Housatonic, sinking her in a massive explosion.

The sub never returned to port after the attack that night, seemingly lost until a dive team funded by best-selling author Clive Cussler found her in 1995 buried under 3 feet of sand roughly 1,000 feet away from the wreck of the Housatonic.

Conclusively answering the mystery of what caused the sinking remains elusive for now.

"To be honest and upfront about it, we will always have an element of uncertainty because until we invent a time machine we're never going to know exactly what happened," Scafuri said.

It could be a series of complicated events, ranging from human error to "something obvious" or something not considered yet, he said.

"Everything is on the table within reason," Scafuri said.

The cleanup work, which is often painstakingly slow, will continue with an undetermined finish time.

Scafuri said the appearance today, however, means the sub is presented in a more clean and clearer fashion than from the day it was recovered in 2000.

"It looks like a submarine now, as opposed to a corroded artifact," he said. "Basically it looks like a submarine now more than ever."

Reach Schuyler Kropf on politics at 843-937-5551. Follow on Twitter at @skropf47.

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Humans Have Been Trying to Communicate with Space for Decades – Futurism

Posted: at 6:42 pm

In BriefWe have been trying to communicate and receive messages fromaliens for around 50 years. From radio waves to lasers, fromstrange signals to hydrogen speaking across the universe: whatprogress have we made? The Cosmic Chorus

The Universe is full of noises and Earth now also contributes to the cacophony. The first time we called out to the stars was on November 19,1962 with The Morse Message. This message was sent in Morse code from the Evpatoria Planetary Radar to Venus. What did we say? MIR the Russian word for both world and peace. This was followed a few days later on November 24 by LENIN and SSSR (Russias leader and the abbreviation for the Soviet Union, respectively). Later, in 1999, a team headed by Alexander Zaitsev, a rogue Search for ExtraterrestrialIntelligence (SETI) member, beamed Cosmic Call 1 to four nearby suns from the Yevpatoria RT-70 radio telescope in Crimea. He called his system Messaging to Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI).

He argued that his decision was due to the SETI Paradox, which he characterized as This paradoxical disparity of effort, a passionate desire to receive and no corresponding attempt to give.He also stated that he did not want to live in a cocoon, in a one-man island.'

Similar messages were subsequently sent out in 2001 (Teen Age Message), 2003 (Cosmic Call 2), and 2008 (A Message From Earth). These messages caused fierce debate within the scientific coommunity, prompting multiple meetings by the Royal Societyin 2010 on the topic of Towards a Scientific and Societal Agenda on Extraterrestrial Life.

SETI has sent authorized messages into the cosmos, including the Lone Signal in 2013 and A Simple Response to an Elemental Message in 2016. Other messages not related to or verified by SETI have also been sent, such as the the Hello From Earth message in 2009.

In response, we have heard very little back, causing some to dub the universe The Great Silence David Brin told Phys.org that the most obvious possibilities have now been ruled out, including gaudy tutorial beacons that advanced ETCs would supposedly erect.

A particularly exciting narrowband radio signal from space was detected by the Ohio State Universitys Big Ear radio telescope in 1977, which many have since dubbed the Wow! Signal, although it has now been shown to probably be caused by comets. A less notable example is Radio source SHGb02+14a, which was detected in 2003. The radio source was 1420 MHz and lasted for a minute each time it was observed, although the signal was extremely weak.

There are two aspects of our communication with aliens: how we send it, and what we say. There has been vigorous discussion about both facets of inter-galaxy communication.

The main means we currently have of broadcasting ourselves across the universe is through radio signals. Frequency modulated radio waves were used when we projected a message from the Arecibo radio telescope inPuerto Rico in 1974: it contained, in binary, pictorial representations of humanity, formulas for the elements and compounds that make up DNA, as well as representations of the Solar System. Other systems have been more manual: for example, the Pioneer 10 and 11 probes bolting Pioneer Plaques to their doors.

Future efforts will try to update this system, using either the more sophisticated radio signals we possess today, or turning to lasers to beam ourselves to other planets.METI will begin their search by beaming to Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to our sun.

Douglas Vakoch, the former director of Interstellar Message Composition at the SETI Institute and president of METI,said to Forbes, Its too late to conceal ourselves in the universe, so we should decide how we want to represent ourselves. But how can we know how what we choose to represent is what will be received when we have no comprehension of the technology aliens may be using, or of their specific culture?

The central debate over what we send to aliens stems from what they would think if they received a signal. Opinion is split among scientific heavyweights over whether aliens would be benevolent or malevolent. Carl Sagan believes that any contact would be benign because, as he stated in his novel Contact, written in 1985, In the long run, the aggressive civilizations destroy themselves, almost always. On the other hand,Stephen Hawking believes that if aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didnt turn out well for the Native Americans.

Other specialists such as Seth Shostak, an astronomer at SETI, thinkthat if we truly believed in a threat, we would be more careful about all radio use;he told phys.org, We cannot pretend that our present level of activity with respect to broadcasting or radar usage is safe. If danger exists, were already vulnerable.

An encounter with aliens is a real possibility, and one that would have earth-changing consequences. When we will meet them is anyones guess it may be in ten years, it may be never but it is important to have discussion surrounding how to deal with an encounter to prepare for every possible outcome.

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Driverless Autonomous Cars Will Be on US Roads in the Next 2 Months – Futurism

Posted: at 6:42 pm

In BriefWashington governor Jay Inslee signed an executive orderWednesday that would allow self-driving car pilot test programs tooperate even without a human driver behind the wheel. Such an ordercould fast-track the development of AV technology. Eliminating the Problem

How difficult is it to test autonomous vehicles (AVs) on public roads? Uber can probablytell you all about it. Much of thedifficulty in obtaining the permits necessary forsuch tests comes from fear. Because self-driving technology is new, because the systems have been involved in incidentsin the past, and so on, people arent quite ready to trust the tech.

The governor of Washington state, however, has a different perspective. Governor Jay Inslee signed an order on Wednesday that would allow for autonomous vehicle tests without a human driver behind the wheel. According to the governors official blog, the order could allow these tests to begin within the next two months. Self-driving system developers can already apply for permits for pilot program tests through the states Department of Licensing.

Clearly, for Inslee, human drivers are far more dangerous than self-driving technology. One thing I know about radar, it doesnt drive drunk, it doesnt drive distracted, he said, according toThe Seattle Times.We humans are really good at a lot of things, driving cars isnt necessarily one of them compared to the automated processes that are digital and foolproof.

Executive Order 17-02, a copy which was obtained by The Seattle Times, quantifies the governors assertions: [R]oughly 94 percent of automobile accidents are caused by human error, and autonomous vehicle technology may reduce injuries and save countless lives.

Many people believe autonomous driving technology is still in the veryearly stages of development, and no company has yet achieved true Level 5 autonomy. However, developments have clearly shown that these driverless vehicles are already capable of so much, including actually saving the lives of passengers.

Washington doesnt want to be left behind in adopting such a game-changing technology. Washington state is already a leader in autonomous vehicle technology. We are an early-adopter that welcomes innovation and the safe testing and operation of AVs, Inslee said in the blog post.

Indeed, self-driving cars could potentially save the lives of as many as 300,000 to 400,000 peopleannually by eliminating human error, which is the cause of an estimated 94 percent of crashes. And thats just one benefit of the tech. As Inslee added, AVs could help save countless lives, reclaim time spent in traffic, improve mobility, and be an important tool in our efforts to combat climate change. As tests move forward in Washington, the rest of the world will soon find out just how valuable this technology can be.

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Bitcoin’s Rival Just Caught Russia’s Attention – Futurism

Posted: at 6:42 pm

In Brief Russia has shown a great deal of interest in Ethereum-based blockchain technology. This could signal a move toward diversifying Russian interests with technology outside of fossil fuels. Russian Evolution

Youve likely heard of Bitcoin as the future of money, but it is not the only cryptocurrency in the running for cashless economy dominance. The second largest among them is found on the Ethereum blockchain and is called Ether. One of the critical differences between Bitcoin and Ether is that while Bitcoin is first and foremost a currency, Ether, however, can be a platform for a variety of decentralized applications. In short, Ether can do much more than Bitcoin.

The adaptive quality of the platform may be part of the reason why Russia, under President Vladimir Putin, seem to be showing great interest in Ethereum. Reporting from Bloomberg reveals that Putin has been thinking aboutdigital currency. The digital economy isnt a separate industry, its essentially the foundation for creating brand new business models, he said at last weeks St. Petersburg Economic Forum.

Russia could be looking at Ethereum as a way to expand the countrys economic profile of fossil fuels with technology. Bloombergs Leonid Bershidskysuggests that Putin is under the impression that, to wean the country off its oil dependence, they needed a major leap in some specific area of technology that wasnt yet dominated by Western, Chinese, or Japanese tech giants.

Russia is already testing an Ethereum-based blockchain system through its central bank. When Deputy Governor Olga Skorobogatova was asked if Russia is pursuing a national virtual currency, she did not deny the possibility. Currently, there are a few countries already experimenting with national cryptocurrencies.

Coindesk cites eight cryptocurrencies from a variety of countries in the Eurozone. Among them are Icelands Auroracoin, Pesetacoin and Spaincoin from Spain, Gaelcoin from Ireland, and Aphroditecoin from Cyprus. Cryptocurrenciesoffer a lot of benefits including both transparency and security. The level of encryption essentially makes counterfeit transactions impossible.

Russia is among the most powerful countries in the world. Adoption of this technology would be a major boon for the platform and could accelerate the expansionof its influenceacross the world.

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Expert: We’ll Find Alien Life in the Next 10 to 15 Years, but It Won’t Be Intelligent – Futurism

Posted: at 6:42 pm

The Search for Life

Fromhighly trained scientists toiling away at research institutesto amateur enthusiasts gazing upwardfrom their backyards, humanity boasts no shortage of people looking for life beyond Earth. Add to that the massive size of the universe estimates range in the trillions of galaxies and probability dictates that we should have already encountered another species by now.

And yet, we still have no evidence that we arent alone in the universe.

However, according to astronomy researcherChris Impey, this hunt for life beyond Earth may soon yield results. In an interview with Futurism, he revealed that he believes that we are less than two decades away from finding extraterrestrial lifebut it may not be the kind of life we were hoping for: I put my money on detecting microbial life in 10 to 15 years, but not at all detecting intelligent life.

While Impey is skeptical that intelligent life is within our sights, he does have a couple of suggestions as to where we should focus our search for extraterrestrial lifeforms, intelligent or not. The first is our own backyard, or, more accurately, our own solar system.

While Impey tells Futurismhe doesnt rule out the possibility that life still exists on Mars,he says that those lifeforms are likely below the surface and are, therefore, much harder to detect. As such, he asserts that we have a better chance of finding evidence of life that used to exist on the Red Planet: If we actually get Mars rocks back here to Earth from a place that we think could have been habitable in the past, then we might find evidence of prior life.

Other bodies in our solar system could potentially host life as well, according to Impey, including the water world Europa(one of Jupiters several moons). He thinksfuture missions targeting the satellite could yield helpfulif not entirely conclusiveresults, asserting that they should at least give us some better idea if that ocean could have life in it.

Of course, our solar system is just one very small corner of a very massive universe, so wed be remiss if we didnt look beyond it for signs of life. To narrow down the scope of our search, Impey suggests targeting the manyexo-Earths weve already uncovered. Instead of focusing on the planets surfaces, though, we should research their atmospheres.

In the next few years, well be able to use the James Web Space Telescope and other detection devices to look for biomarkers such as oxygen and methane in the atmospheres of these Earth-like planets, says Impey. This biomarker experimentcould find evidence of microbial life indirectly, he explains. The research should help us pinpoint the planets that are the closest to Earth as possible, not in distance, but in character, he adds, and since Earth is the only place we know life exists, finding the most Earth-like planets is our best bet for finding life.

Even if Impey is right, and humanity is still decades away fromfinding intelligent alien life, the discovery of microbial life on Mars, Europa, or one of the thousands of exoplanets weve identified would still be a huge development. It would mean Earth isnt unique, that something else living is out there.

We could use the knowledgewe glean from studying this microbiallife to narrow down our hunt for other, more complex organisms. By providing valuable insights into how other living beings are able to survive on worlds far different from our own, this microbial life could help in our quest to become a multi-planetary species. Even the discovery of past microbial life would be helpful, as it could serve as something of a cautionary tale, providing us with the opportunity to learn and ensure we dont meet the same fate.

As Impey notes, thanks to dramatic advances in technology, weve never been better equipped to discover life beyond Earth than we areright now: Every new SETI experiment done now is about as good as the sum of all previous SETI experiments put together.

However, even if all of the currently planned experiments and missions came up short, Impey doesnt envision humanity giving up the hunt for extraterrestrial life any time soon: The first SETI experiment was in 1959, so obviously it has been going on for over half a centurywithout any success. The people who do it dont seem put off by failure.

This interview has been slightly edited for clarity and brevity.

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Berkeley Biologist: CRISPR Gene Editing Will Cure Genetic Disease – Futurism

Posted: at 6:42 pm

The End of Genetic Disease CRISPR-Cas9,the worlds best gene editing tool, has lent itself toa plethora of research and experiments. Scientists owea great deal to the person considered to be its founder if we could really credit one person specifically with its advent. Certainly, University of California Berkeley biologist Jennifer Doudna deserves consideration for thetitle as one of the worlds leading figure in whats being called the CRISPR Revolution. It was Doudnas work in 2012 that first suggested the possibility of using CRISPR-Cas9 for genome editing. Since then, it has certainly been put into good use human clinical trials of the technologys capabilities areexpected to begin soon in the United States.

On Thursday,speaking at WIREDs 2017 Business Conference in New York, Doudna made a bold claim about the future of CRISPR. I think its really likely that in the not-too-distant future it will cure genetic disease, she saidat the conference.However, Doudna remains aware thatthe use of such a powerful tool needs to be carefully considered especially since studies have shownit can haveunintended repercussions.

But globally we need to come up with a consensus on moving forward in a responsible way, Doudna added. This wasnt the first time she emphasized need for ethical responsibility in using CRISPR.

Doudna herself has certainly been careful to practice what she preaches: In 2015, she became part of a broad coalition of leading biologists that put parameters in place for the use of CRISPR. They agreed to a worldwide moratorium on gene editing to whats called the germ line. In other words, putting a prohibition onedits that would bepassed down to subsequent generations. However, because it isnt legally binding, it wasnt able tostop such experiments from taking place. In China, for instance, theres already work involving CRISPR to edit the genome of human embryos.

Recognizing the legal and ethical hurdles CRISPR still needs toovercome, Doudna went on tospeak about a much more plausible area for this gene editing tool to demonstratemore immediate success: its application for farming. When I think about where we are likely to see the biggest impacts in the shortest amount of time, I really think its going to be in agriculture, Doudna told the audience in New York.

Indeed, CRISPR has already been already been successfully used to grow and eat! one crop in particular. The first wasthat cabbage in Sweden, and now, agricultural giant Monsanto has even been given license by the Broad Institute to use CRISPR-Cas9 in seed development. Doudna also mentioned research by scientists from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York that could make harvesting tomatoes easier.

For me, that really illustrates the potential for this, Doudna said who is herself a tomato farmer. [CRISPR] allows plant breeders to do things that would have been very difficult, sometimes impossible in the past.

With the science, the ethics, and the legal ramifications of CRISPR still being ironed out, farming seems to a reasonable compromise for continue to experiment with the tech, and many experts are already working on its continued refinement.Given that dedication, itmight not be that long before the end of genetic diseases which is what Doudna hopes could be ultimately realized would be accomplished with the help of CRISPR.

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France is Now Offering US Scientists Grants to Research Climate Change – Futurism

Posted: at 6:42 pm

In Brief A new program, inspired by the efforts of French president Emmanuel Macron, is opening the country up to scientists and other experts who are working on solution to the climate problem.

Recently elected French president Emmanuel Macron has madehis offer to U.S. climate scientistsmore official: the French government has launched a program that gives four-year grants to scientists, teachers, business people, and even students who are working on climate change solutions. Of course, to receive the grant, the individual must be willing tomove in to France.

The program, called Make Our Planet Great Again, wasinspired by a speech Macron gave last week in response toPresident Donald Trumps decision to withdraw the United Statessupport and commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement.

Where ever we live, whoever we are, we all share the same responsibility, Macron said the speech,Make our planet great again, anobvious play on President Trumpscampaign slogan.

To all scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and responsible citizens who were disappointed by the decision of the President of the United States, I want to say that they will find in France a second homeland, Macron said. This echoes an earlier message the French president posted viavideo on Facebook almost a month before he was elected.

With this new initiative, France is affirming the importance of a combined global effort to combat climate change, which remains aglobal problem. Its necessary to pool the minds of the worlds experts and to fund projects particularly those devoted to research aimed at curbing climate change. As Macron said, its crucial for all of us to work together on concrete solutions for our climate, our environment.

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