Day: November 27, 2021

Categories
Space Force

Whose job is it to prevent Armageddon? | Politico

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NASA is prepared to blast a spacecraft into an asteroid at 16,000 mph in an unprecedented attempt to sway it off track. However, the one-year mission, which will begin on Nov. 24, raises a fundamental conundrum for scientists and security experts: whose job is it to guard the world against a potentially life-ending piece of rock if one were to come our way? Right now, the answer is no one. A huge asteroid striking Earth is a “once in a millennium type of event,” according to NASA. Each year, the space agency uses modern telescopes and other stargazing methods to uncover thousands of previously unseen “near-Earth objects” with orbits that will someday bring them into our galactic neighborhood. 

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/11/20/global-planetary-defense-earth-asteroids-523072 

Categories
Robots

Common Misconceptions About Robots and Artificial Intelligence | Mental Floss

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If you’ve been worried that your robot vacuum may become alive and start attacking your dog—or even take over the world—don’t fret. The machine is, in fact, a robot. But it’s only been designed to do one thing: maintain your surfaces clean and possibly avoid tripping down the stairs in the process. Artificial intelligence, on the other hand, has not been provided. So, what’s the distinction between robots and artificial intelligence? Robotics and artificial intelligence, according to Mental Floss host Justin Dodd, are not the same thing. Robotics is the study and design of machines capable of performing tasks. Artificial intelligence, on the other hand, is widely used in the development of systems that are endowed with human-like cognitive processes. 

Source: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/652409/robots-artificial-intelligence-misconceptions 

Categories
Information Warfare

The US Must Turn the Tables on Russia’s Psyops | Defense One

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According to Andrei Ilnitsky, a Russian defense minister’s advisor, the US is waging a “psychological war” against Russia. If only it were that simple. Because of a focus on raw force, America’s use of psychological operations, or psyops, has declined since the Cold War. Meanwhile, Russia’s biggest triumphs have come via psychological warfare. It’s past time for the US military to catch up, modernize its psyops against Russia for the twenty-first century, and resurrect its once-viable history of winning hearts and minds. Moscow’s obsession with psyops originates in part from its assessments of America’s soft power role in the disintegration of the Soviet Union. 

Source: https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2021/11/us-must-turn-tables-russias-psyops/186906/ 

Categories
Machine Learning

Co-evolution based machine-learning for predicting functional interactions between human genes | Nature

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More than a million eukaryotic species are likely to be mapped in the next decade. This could help us better understand genotype-phenotype crosstalk, gene function, and relationships, as well as solve evolutionary concerns. We use phylogenetic profiles from 1154 eukaryotic species to construct a machine-learning strategy for using them. This strategy uses eukaryotic clade co-evolution to anticipate similar functions between human genes and the setting in which they occur. Functional labels for less-studied genes can be determined using this method. Overall, this method allows for more accurate annotation of function and functional interactions, as well as a better understanding of the evolutionary mechanisms that lead to co-evolution. 

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-26792-w 

Categories
Gaming

The Lure of Emotionally-Complex Video Games | Undark

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Maxine Caulfield, the primary character in the game Life is Strange, is an 18-year-old high school student with a passion for photography. She has lately returned to her homeland of Oregon, where she sees the killing of a blue-haired girl in a school bathroom. Maxine, who goes by the nickname Max, raises her hand and screams, “No!” The scene then abruptly reverses. Max retreats to the restroom and pushes the fire alarm, stopping the murder, knowing she has the possibility of turning back time. She eventually learns that the blue-haired girl is an old acquaintance named Chloe. The two form a partnership in order to discover out what’s behind a fellow student’s abrupt absence. 

Source: https://undark.org/2021/11/03/the-lure-of-emotionally-complex-video-games/