Category Archives: Transhuman News

The Evolution of the Workforce

It almost shouldnt come as a surprise. In an age defined by advancements in the tech industry, it was only a matter of time before the traditional paradigms set by the industrial revolution had to change.

The sophistication of todays technology means factories are turning to computers instead of human employees to get the job done. According to a joint study conducted by Oxford University and the Oxford Martin School, [] 47 percent of jobs in the US are at risk of being automated in the next 20 years. ABall State University studyconcluded that almost nine out of 10 jobs have been lost to automation since 2000, and a factory in China just saw a 250 percent increase in production after replacing 90 percent of its workforce with automated systems.

However, as demand for physical labor goes down, other opportunities are arising, and according to Clive Thompson of Wired, the next big blue-collar job will be coding.

The information technology industry is expected to grow faster than almost any other, with some predicting a 12 percent growth between 2014 to 2024. The problem lies in the fact that coding will require a different technical skill setthan much of todays blue collar work. But thankfully, many employers are responding to the needs of the evolving job market by attempting to make code learning more accessible.

Silicon Valley giants like Google have initiatives designed to engage and teach anyone interested in programming. Schools are working tointroduce codingas early as high school, while various other institutions are offering intensive code-learning programs. This level of education and exposure to coding wont necessarily give these future coders the knowledge to create complex AI algorithms, but it would be enough to qualify them for a well-paying, reliable job in the IT department.

It should also be notedthat coding opportunities reach far beyond the tech industry. Silicon Valley employs only eight percent of the coders in the U.S., andaccording to one study, half of all programming openings are in industries outside of technology, such asfinance, manufacturing, and healthcare. Theres also the draw of compensation. The national average salary for IT jobs is double the national average for all jobs: $81,000 annually.

Its now a matter of demystifying coding as a profession that only gifted computer prodigies are capable of learning. As Thompson points out in his article, several of the skills needed to be successful at blue collar occupations like coal mining intense focus, an ability to function within a team, a level of comfort working with engineering tech, etc. could easily translate into coding. Once people realize that it is a highly specialized skill but one that they can learn to do well, coding has the potential to open more doors to employment in the age of automation.

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The Next Blue Collar Job? Coding - Futurism - Futurism

In Brief

Researchers have discovered a way to make the promising flow battery much more practical. Flow batteries store energy in liquid-filled tanks. Prior to this most recent discovery, flow batteries, after a number of charge-discharge cycles, would suffer from rapid storage capacity degradation.

In order to overcome the degradation hurdle, the researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) modified the structure of molecules in the solution to make them water soluble. This allowed for the electrolytes to be dissolved in neutral water, creating a battery that only loses one percent of its storage capacity every 1000 cycles. According to the officialpress release, the battery is able to run for ten years with only a minimum amount of upkeep.

Unlike other battery liquids, the solution in this new flow battery is both non-toxic as well as non-corrosive. Spilling it on skin or on the floor causes no injury or property damage.

Any innovations in energy storage will only continue to help renewable energy to become as, if not more, of a viable power source. The US Department of Energy (DOE) has stated that building a battery with the capacity to store energy for less than $100 per kWh would make clean energy from sources like the sun and wind on par with traditional power plants. Imre Gyuk of the DOE stated, I expect that efficient, long duration flow batteries will become standard as part of the infrastructure of the electric grid.

Better batteries are a key component in realizing the full potential of renewable energy. As can be seen with the opening of the first Powerpack station in California, battery storage can help ease the burden of demand on a grid during peak usage times. Developments like this that improve batteries will lead to the use of fewer fossil fuels and decrease overall dependence on environmentally damaging sources of power generation.

Read the rest here:
Harvard's Remarkable New Battery Can Run For More Than a Decade - Futurism

Red and Blue

Concerns over artificial intelligence (AI) have been around for some time now, and thanks to a new study by Googles DeepMind research lab, it seems that this Terminator-esque future of intelligent machines may not be that farfetched.

Using games, a platform that Googles DeepMind AI is terribly familiar with, researchers have been testing whether neural networks are more likely to cooperate or compete, and if these AI are capable of understanding motivations behind making that choice.

For the research, they used two games with similar scenarios for two AI agents, red and blue.

In the first game, the agents were tasked with trying to gather the most apples (green) in a basic 2D graphical environment. The agents were given the option to tag one another with a laser blast that temporarily removed them from the game. After running the scenario a thousand times, they realized that the agents were willing to cooperate when the apples were abundant, but they turned on each other when the stakes were higher.

The researchers realized that, in a smaller network, the agents were more likely to cooperate. Whereas in a larger, more complex network, the AI were quicker to sabotage one another.

In the second scenario, a game called Wolfpack, the agents played as wolves that were tasked with capturing a prey.When the wolves are close in proximity during a successful capture, the rewards offered were greater. Instead of going all lone wolf, this incentivized the agents to work together.

In a larger network, the agents were quicker to understand that cooperation was the way to go.

The Google researchers hope that the study can lead to AI being better at working with other AI in situations with imperfect information. As such, the most practical application of this research, in the short term, is to be able to better understand and control complex multi-agent systems such as the economy, traffic systems, or the ecological health of our planet all of which depend on our continued cooperation,the study says.

At the very least, the study shows that AI are capable of working together and that AI can make selfish decisions.

Joel Leibo, who was the lead author of the paper, outlines the next steps in an interview withBloomberg, Going forward it would be interesting to equip agents with the ability to reason about other agents beliefs and goals.

Originally posted here:
Google DeepMind Shows That AI Can Have Killer Instincts - Futurism

Multiple Threats in Modern Warfare

Each year at the Red Flag exercise organized by the United States Air Force Warfare Center (USAFWC), the air forces of several NATO countries gather at the Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada for a series of advanced aerial combat training exercises. This year, one fighter plane took center stage at the event, according to a report by Aviation Week.

Lockheed Martins F-35 Lightning IIstole the show, outperforming its competition with a ratio of 15 kills for every one F-35 that was downed and it all happened in an increased threat environment. In the past, the non-kinetic effects were not fully integrated into the kinetic fight, Air Force Cyber Forward director Col. Robert Cole explained in a statement.

This integration in an exercise environment allows our planners and warfighters to understand how to best integrate these, learn their capabilities and limitations, and become ready to use [these combined resources for maximum] effect against our adversaries, he added.

Lockheed Martins latest fighteris different from those that preceded it precisely because its meant to face multiple threats at a time and react to increasingly complex warfare scenarios. The F-35 is the most advanced multi-role fighter combining advanced stealth capabilities with fighter aircraft speed and agility, fully-fused sensor information, network-enabled operations, and advanced logistics and sustainment, according to Lockheed Martin.

This means that its not just capable of taking on conventional threats and enemy surveillance, it can also deal with cyberthreats and electronic warfare. Before, where we would have one advanced threat and we would put everything we had F-16s, F-15s, F-18s, missiles, we would shoot everything we had at that one threat just to take it out now we are seeing three or four of those threats at a time, Lt. Col. George Watkins told Aviation Week. Just between [the F-35] and the [F-22] Raptor, we are able to geolocate them, precision-target them, and then we are able to bring the fourth-generation assets in behind us after those threats are neutralized.

In short, the F-35s advanced capabilities make it the fighter jet of the future, ready to take on more modern threats. As Watkins said, Its a whole different world out there for us now.

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Lockheed's F-35 Fighter Jet Just Demolished the Competition - Futurism

The Warmest Planet

Even though Mercury is closer to the Sun, Venus is the hottest planet in the Solar System.It has surface temperatures of about 460 degrees Celsius (860 degrees Fahrenheit) coupled with a carbon dioxide-rich air that has an atmospheric pressure about 90 times that ofEarths. As such, surface exploration has been virtually impossible in the past, as this extreme heat and pressure woulddestroy scientific equipment. Thatsabout to change.

NASAsGlenn Research Center team has developed extremely durable silicon carbide semiconductor integrated circuits that are tough enough to withstand the harsh conditions on Venus surface far better than any existing tech.

We demonstrated vastly longer electrical operation with chips directly exposed no cooling and no protective chip packaging to a high-fidelity physical and chemical reproduction of Venus surface atmosphere, said lead electronics engineer Phil Neudeck. And both integrated circuits still worked after the end of the test.

This technology, which was only recently demonstrated by NASA, was detailed in the journal AIP Advancesin December 2016.

During the test conducted at NASAs Glenn Extreme Environments Rig (GEER), the engineers were able to prove that their integrated circuits could work under conditions similar to those found on Venus. The chips lasted for 521 hours more than 100 times longer than other electronics previously designed for a Venus exploration.

With further technology development, such electronics could drastically improve Venus lander designs and mission concepts, enabling the first long-duration missions to the surface of Venus, said Neudeck. Though many are making preparations to go to Mars, some researchers suggest Venus as a potential option for human colonization, assuming it could be terraformed.These long-overdue missions would be the first step to exploring that possibility.

The applications of this chip, however, arent just limited to Venus exploration missions. According toGary Hunter, principle investigator for Venus surface electronics development, This work not only enables the potential for new science in extended Venus surface and other planetary exploration, but it also has potentially significant impact for a range of Earth relevant applications, such as in aircraft engines to enable new capabilities, improve operations, and reduce emissions.

Originally posted here:
NASA Finally Has a Computer That Can Survive on Venus - Futurism