GRcade

Maybe the X-Planes are returning after a few decades away.

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/artic ... be-422774/

Peter Crisp wrote:Maybe the X-Planes are returning after a few decades away.

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/artic ... be-422774/

That's a missile, not a plane. [/pedant]

They've been working on hypersonic missile tech for a few years now. It'll probably be deployable by mid-century, eliminating the need for carrier battlegroups and the like, as their hypersonic arsenal with global reach could be stationed on the mainland US or its territories. This, exo-armor and advancing robotics will completely change the face of warfare in the developed world.

Sciency people, I need a hand.

I'm helping my son with his science fair project. He wants to make a hoverboard. I'm going to get the bits to make an electromagnet tomorrow.

My plan is to get some big nails, wrap wire around them, and then lay them out in a circuit, using a Hot Wheels car circuit as a base. Then I'm going to stick some magnets to a lego hoverboard and hopefully have the matching polarity of the hoverboard magnets over the electromagnet track make it float around.

Will this work?

The US is encouraging an arms race on hypersonic weaponry and delivery systems, being wholly irresponsible as usual or maybe just blind ignorant about the significance of what they are developing. They ought to start speaking with China and others and take a step back before they esculate tensions to more dangerous levels and undermine mutual security. Ideally the UN should institute a test ban on hypersonic delivery systems as a way of preventing an esculation of nuclear weapons systems and the creation of further roadblocks to disarmament.

Meep wrote:The US is encouraging an arms race on hypersonic weaponry and delivery systems, being wholly irresponsible as usual or maybe just blind ignorant about the significance of what they are developing. They ought to start speaking with China and others and take a step back before they esculate tensions to more dangerous levels and undermine mutual security. Ideally the UN should institute a test ban on hypersonic delivery systems as a way of preventing an esculation of nuclear weapons systems and the creation of further roadblocks to disarmament.

I think that's a bit heavy for a school science project, to be honest.

Nobody posted about the latest Hubble record breaking find?

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/hubble-team-breaks-cosmic-distance-record wrote:By pushing NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to its limits, an international team of astronomers has shattered the cosmic distance record by measuring the farthest galaxy ever seen in the universe. This surprisingly bright infant galaxy, named GN-z11, is seen as it was 13.4 billion years in the past, just 400 million years after the Big Bang. GN-z11 is located in the direction of the constellation of Ursa Major.

(A lot more in link above.)

It blows my mind that we can see a baby galaxy - 13 billion years ago - right now.

Deep Mind just won the first of its five matches with the worldwide Go champion.

It's happening.

That was a game that was supposed to last for days, and it won in the first round!

I for one welcome our new machine overlords.

BBC article wrote:There are more possible positions in Go than atoms in the universe, according to DeepMind's team.

I can't even

Karl wrote:Deep Mind just won the first of its five matches with the worldwide Go champion.

It's happening.

I need your clothes, your boots and your Go board.

This AlphaGo/SkyNet machine has now won the first 3 matches thereby winning the 5-match series.

A crushing victory for the robots we ought to get used to.

If Trump wins: Skynet! Save us!

Saint of Killers wrote:If Trump wins: Skynet! Save us!

We're gonna build a firewall, and skynet is paying.

Didn't see anyone post the new version of BD's Atlas:



I've been thinking a lot lately about the greater impact of employing androids. When it becomes so much more efficient, safe and cost-effective to automate all unskilled jobs, what happens to everyone in those roles? How will it ever be possible to maintain such a high level of unemployment? As the earnings gap widens and widens, do we just condemn the less-educated to extinction? Is the next step in our evolution then to cast off our civilization's dead weight and breed intelligence?

Or, if we create artificial superintelligence, and all roles are automated do we just... retire? Forget economy entirely and everyone just lives in leisure? Does the superintelligence condemn us to extinction in the same way?

The prospect of a technological singularity both excites and terrifies in equal measure.

jiggles wrote:I've been thinking a lot lately about the greater impact of employing androids. When it becomes so much more efficient, safe and cost-effective to automate all unskilled jobs, what happens to everyone in those roles? How will it ever be possible to maintain such a high level of unemployment?

Or, if we create artificial superintelligence, and all roles are automated do we just... retire? Forget economy entirely and everyone just lives in leisure? Does the superintelligence condemn us to extinction in the same way?

It will never happen as humans are too selfish and will go mad at somebody "having it easy!" but with mass automation and/or androids and robots doing all the work, why would we need to employ people in unskilled jobs? If machines are planting, growing, harvesting and distributing food, why should anybody pay for it?

People might look at it as people being lazy, but imagine if human life was a journey of learning and leisure with no horrible jobs to do and no risk of being homeless or starving. Those who wanted to work could do so out of choice and everyone else could just live their lives the way they wanted.

Or more likely, we will all end up enslaved by Skynet. Not because it needs slaves but just because it wants to make us miserable.

The onus is on the world to crack on with logical steps that haven't been taken yet for dumb dumb dumb reasons.

I'll give you an example - overpopulation is a massive problem and the world is pumping out children faster than it can handle. Yet the Catholic Church tells people condoms are the devil's instruments and a sin to use; some churches even spread 'information' in third world countries that they cause the spread of AIDS, not help prevent it

If we can lower the birth rate then we wouldn't suddenly have so many people to worry about making redundant. Plus there are always industries that emerge to replace others - so if difficult manual labour jobs get filled, this is good. But you're still going to want an unskilled friendly face pulling your pint for you, or bringing you your meal on a plane, etc.

I would imagine legislation will come in to specify which roles can be automated and which cannot.

I'm really just thinking out loud here

All the icky and unpopular jobs should be automated. But with any automation comes a need for people who can maintain these systems - until we develop self-maintaining machines, anyway.

Alvin Flummux wrote:All the icky and unpopular jobs should be automated. But with any automation comes a need for people who can maintain these systems - until we develop self-maintaining machines, anyway.

Can't wait to see José stop shovelling gooseberry fool at the bullring and finally be able to put his Masters in Mechanical Engineering to use.

Actually, we're looking at this all wrong. Maybe to find everyone's newest profession, we have to look back to the oldest profession.

1. We need to program any super-AI to find us ultra-sexy so they don't exterminate us.
2. We all strawberry float robots for cash.