Tag: technology

Futuristic “biocomputers” Using Human Brain Cells Could Soon Be A Reality

Futuristic “biocomputers” using the power of human brain cells could soon become a reality — revolutionizing digital technology, a new study explains. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University say the half-human-half-machine devices have the potential to push past current technological limits by using brain organoids taken from tiny human skin samples.

The team of scientists has been experimenting with brain tissue the size of a pen dot, containing neurons and other functions with the ability to learn and memorize. Professor Thomas Hartung, who leads the work, says this “biological hardware” could soon assist with valuable research on how the human brain works and provide a way of alleviating energy consumption demands in supercomputers.

The study team also hopes organoid intelligence could additionally revolutionize drug testing research for neurodevelopmental disorders and neurodegeneration. Though computers can do calculations with numbers and data far quicker than humans, the brain is much better at making complex logical decisions, such as identifying one animal from another.

“The brain is still unmatched by modern computers,” Hartung says in a media release. “Frontier, the latest supercomputer in Kentucky, is a $600 million, 6,800-square-feet installation. Only in June of last year, it exceeded for the first time the computational capacity of a single human brain — but using a million times more energy.”

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Dystopia Down Under: Facial Mood-Tracking CCTV Cameras Deployed at Mardi Gras Pride Parade

Surveillance cameras with the ability to measure a crowd’s “mood” and track the number of people by counting cell phone frequencies were deployed at the Lesbian and Gay Mardi Gras Parade on Saturday in Sydney, Australia.

The CCTV technology from the Dynamic Crowd Measurement firm was used to monitor Oxford Street in Sydney as the city’s LGBTQ-themed Mardi Gras parade was held for the first time since 2019, having been cancelled for the past three years due to the Chinese coronavirus.

According to a report from the Sydney Morning Herald, the cutting-edge cameras came equipped with the ability to track the mood of the crowd, with software being able to track facial expressions and determine whether they are displaying signs of happiness, anger, or neutrality.

The cameras also come with the ability to measure crowd density by counting the number of cell phone frequencies emitted in a given area. It was estimated that around 12,000 people attended on Saturday.

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Journalist Uses AI Voice to Break into Own Bank Account

In a recent experiment, Vice.com writer Joseph Cox used an AI-generated voice to bypass Lloyds Bank security and access his account.

To achieve this, Cox used a free service of ElevenLabs, an AI-voice generation company that supplies voices for newsletters, books and videos.

Cox recorded five minutes of speech and uploaded it to ElevenLabs. After making some adjustments, such as having the AI read a longer body of text for a more natural cadence, the generated audio outmaneuvered Lloyds security.

“I couldn’t believe it had worked,” Cox wrote in his Vice article. “I had used an AI-powered replica of a voice to break into a bank account. After that, I accessed the account information, including balances and a list of recent transactions and transfers.”

Multiple United States and European banks use voice authentication to speed logins over the phone. While some banks claim that voice identification is comparable to a fingerprint, this experiment demonstrates that voice-based biometric security does not offer perfect protection.

ElevenLabs did not comment on the hack despite multiple requests, Cox says. However, in a previous statement, the firm’s co-founder, Mati Staniszewski, said new safeguards reduce misuse and support authorities in identifying those who break the law.

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Brain implant startup backed by Bezos and Gates is testing mind-controlled computing on humans

In a Brooklyn lab stuffed with 3D printers and a makeshift pickleball court, employees at a brain interface startup called Synchron are working on technology designed to transform daily life for people with paralysis.

The Synchron Switch is implanted through the blood vessels to allow people with no or very limited physical mobility to operate technology such as cursors and smart home devices using their mind. So far, the nascent technology has been used on three patients in the U.S. and four in Australia.

“I’ve seen moments between patient and partner, or patient and spouse, where it’s incredibly joyful and empowering to have regained an ability to be a little bit more independent than before,” Synchron CEO Tom Oxley told CNBC in an interview. “It helps them engage in ways that we take for granted.”

Founded in 2012, Synchron is part of the burgeoning brain-computer interface, or BCI, industry. A BCI is a system that deciphers brain signals and translates them into commands for external technologies. Perhaps the best-known name in the space is Neuralink, thanks to the high profile of founder Elon Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter.

But Musk isn’t the only tech billionaire wagering on the eventual transition of BCI from radical science experiment to flourishing medical business. In December, Synchron announced a $75 million financing round that included funding from the investment firms of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

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China successfully tests ‘phantom space strike’ weapon which can overwhelm an enemy’s missile defence systems ahead of a nuclear attack

China has successfully tested a ‘phantom space strike’ – a new tactic to overwhelm and sabotage missile defences by emitting fake target signals from space.

Military engineers announced earlier this month they had completed a computer simulation and achieved positive results.

The tactic is designed to overwhelm the enemy on the basis that there is only so much a missile defence system would be able to cope with.

This can lead to exhaustion of the enemy’s weapon supplies, making it easier to destroy it. 

In the simulation, a ballistic missile was launched against an enemy which had a missile defence system. 

After surpassing the atmosphere, the missile released three spacecrafts containing radio interference equipment which picked up enemy radar network signals and sent back dummy signals, successfully triggering enemy forces to launch an interceptor.

‘Generating phantom tracks in space is extremely difficult,’ the team wrote, according to South China Morning Post.

‘We solved one of the major challenges … with a clever design.’

The team was led by Zhao Yanli, a senior engineer in the People’s Liberation Army Unit 63891 – a military agency based in the central Chinese province of Henan that develops new technologies.

Dummy attacks are often used in combat to exhaust the enemy’s supplies. 

The team said this tactic was not previously feasible in space. Now the positive results of the simulation have given them hope as they move the project onto the next stage to battle any engineering challenges.

Researchers exploited a weak spot in radar stations where signals can become fuzzy and crossed over. 

The spacecrafts’ direction, speed and formation would be decided before the launch and would be based on the information obtained about the enemy’s radar station.

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‘We Could Eat Malignant Chicken Tumors by the Bucket Load’ – Lab Grown Meat’s Impending CANCER Problem.

Lab-grown meat, touted as the “cruelty-free” food of the future by everyone from the World Economic Forum to Hollywood mega-celebs like Leonardo DiCaprio, may have a fatal problem, according to a new Bloomberg story.

The problem is that the materials used to make the product – “immortalized cell lines” – replicate forever, just like cancer. Which means, in effect, that they are cancer. Although these cell lines are widely used in scientific research, they’ve never been used to produce food before.

“Immortalized cells are a staple of medical research, but they are, technically speaking, precancerous and can be, in some cases, fully cancerous… [but d]on’t worry: Prominent cancer researchers tell Bloomberg Businessweek that because the cells aren’t human, it’s essentially impossible for people who eat them to get cancer from them, or for the precancerous or cancerous cells to replicate inside people at all.”

– Bloomberg BusinessWeek

Industry types are “confident” that eating such products poses no risk – although there isn’t any hard data – but it’s not difficult to see, even if the products are “proven” safe, how people might be put off by the thought they’re eating a glorified tumor.

All the evidence suggests that the most prominent producers of these new products – including the “Big Three” startups, Believer Meat, Eat Just and Upside Foods – are doing their best to avoid confronting the issue in public. But whether they’ll be able to keep do so after this latest blast of high-profile negative publicity, remains to be seen.

The story comes at a time of growing difficulty for new alternatives to traditional animal products, especially so-called “plant-based meats”.

At the beginning of the month, we reported on the ongoing problems faced by Impossible Foods, which is laying off 20 percent of its workforce, or nearly 140 staff.

Plant-based meats have gone from double-digit growth to double-digit decline in the last year, with sales of refrigerated meat alternatives falling by 10.5 percent for the year to September 4 2022.

In response to another cover story from Bloomberg Businessweek, which labelled plant-based meats “just another fad”, Impossible took the bold step of taking out a full-page advertisement in the New York Times to counter the claims. Impossible’s new CEO, Peter McGuiness has put the company in a more confrontational stance, which includes denying the mounting evidence that his company, and others like it, are in serious trouble.

Beyond Meat, by contrast, has barely even been able to put on a brave face. Shares in the company plunged 75 percent in the first three quarters of the last year, and its flagship pilot collaboration with McDonald’s, the “McPlant Burger”, was discontinued by the fast-food giant.

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Zombie Drones Made from DEAD Birds Could Soon Fool Wildlife and Nature Enthusiasts

Up in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plane — it’s a dead zombie bird scientists are using as a drone? Researchers at New Mexico Tech are using the time-honored art of taxidermy to help them develop “zombie drones” out of the bodies of deceased birds.

The team found a way to use these body parts to create realistic avian imposters. They believe that the drones can aid in wildlife monitoring, by blending in better with natural environments. Assistant professor of mechanical engineering, Dr. Mostafa Hassanalian, emphasizes that the team does not kill birds to create the devices and they have no intention of using the drones to spy on others.

“I should mention that the main and only use for this project is wildlife monitoring, not spying. Drones are being used for wildlife monitoring; however, they create lots of noise which could scare the animals,” Dr. Hassanalian says, according to a statement from SWNS.

“No real birds were physically harmed in the making of the drones, and we do not intend to do this at all. We have only used the feathers and taxidermy birds that are available in the Market and have worked with local taxidermy artists.”

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Google project is running “prebunking experiment” on social media

Who better than Google to “uphold technology as a force for good” – all joking aside, but that is exactly how the tech behemoth presents Jigsaw, its unit that “explores threats to open societies, and builds technology that inspires scalable solutions.”

According to a blog post, the latest such solution is “the largest prebunking experiment on social media to date” launched in September, with the goal of “countering the threat of disinformation.” Speaking of jigsaws – this also appears to be a piece in the puzzle that is the fierce “war on disinformation” that is being waged by Big Tech and traditional media.

“Prebunking” could be described as “precrime’s little cousin” – it means debunking what is deemed to be lies, tactics or sources before they happen/can act. Developing effective ways to do this can be a force for good – or evil, and so given its track record with censorship, Google (via Jigsaw) conducting this kind of experiment is sure to raise a few eyebrows.

Perhaps to make the whole thing more palatable, Jigsaw tied this effort to an actual war – that in Ukraine – and explains the need to test “prebunking” techniques as a way to protect refugees.

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Actually, Hordes of Highly Sophisticated Unidentified Aircraft Have Been Flying Over U.S. Territory

Things are starting to get really strange.  First, a “Chinese spy balloon” was shot down off the coast of South Carolina after it had traveled across much of the continental United States.  Then, another “unidentified object” was shot down over Alaska.  Subsequently, at the request of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a third “unidentified object” was shot down over Canada.  And now we have just learned that a fourth “unidentified object” has been shot down over Lake Huron.  In addition, a congressman from Montana is reporting that there is an “unidentified object” flying over his state.  On top of everything else, China is telling us that an “unidentified object” has been flying near the Chinese port city of Qingdao.

All of a sudden, these sightings have become the biggest news story in the entire country, and I think that it is likely that there will be even more sightings in the days ahead.

But let’s put all of this into perspective.

The only reason why most people are freaking out about this story is because the mainstream media is freaking out about this story. If the mainstream media was ignoring this story, they would also be ignoring this story.

We have been trained to believe that a story is important only when the mainstream media tells us that it is important.

If millions of Americans want to get excited about some balloons, that is fine. I will get excited with them. But the truth is that hordes of highly sophisticated unidentified aircraft have been flying over U.S. territory for years.

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Pentagon Spotting More Flying Objects Due to Enhanced Military Radar

The rise in the number of high-altitude objects recently identified flying in U.S. airspace is due in part to the government enhancing its radar systems, a top Pentagon official said on Sunday.

Melissa Dalton, assistant secretary of defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs, told reporters in a briefing on Sunday that officials have been closely scrutinizing U.S. airspace ever since the first Chinese surveillance balloon was shot down on Feb. 4 after making its way across the United States and approaching the Atlantic coast.

“In light of the People’s Republic of China balloon that we took down last Saturday, we have been more closely scrutinizing our airspace at these altitudes, including enhancing our radar, which may at least partly explain the increase in objects that we detected over the past week,” Dalton said.

She added that the Pentagon is also aware that a number of high-altitude objects can be used by a range of companies, countries, and research organizations for “purposes that are not nefarious, including legitimate research.”

With that being said, Dalton noted that officials had not been able to definitively assess or verify what the recent objects that were discovered flying over U.S. airspace were being used for, and thus the government acted out of an “abundance of caution” to protect national security.

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