Tag: technology

Military chiefs scramble to rush UK’s new laser ‘death ray’ into service amid fears over Russian missiles and drones – with hi-tech DragonFire system to be fitted to Royal Navy warships

Military chiefs are to rush devastating laser guns into service to meet the threat posed by Russian drones and missiles.

Royal Artillery troops will test the revolutionary ‘DragonFire’ weaponry, which burns holes through incoming enemy ordnance, during the summer.

The sudden urgency to roll out a suite of ‘directed energy weapons’ follows the Kremlin’s alarming effective use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in Ukraine.

British soldiers will also experiment with radio frequency weapons capable of firing magnetic pulses at enemy targets thereby cutting off their power supplies.

Last night, UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps boasted that Britain is leading the world in the development of these breakthrough technologies.

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Mind Reading Technology May be Used For ‘National Security’

An ever-growing list of brain activity monitoring technologies, agencies and programs have given rise to the notion of using what comes out of such ventures – mind reading abilities – for national security threat prevention via pre-crime surveillance.

SFGate reported Tuesday that ‘we may need to rethink freedom of thought’ due to mind reading nanotech, while The Information reported Monday that AI is now being used to read the mind, leading to ‘consequences from the data gold rush’.

During a 2006 congressional discussion regarding the Electronic Surveillance Modernization Act which was aimed at greatly expanding U.S. government surveillance powers, congressman Pete Hoekstra, Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee spoke to the concept of using emerging technologies in the realm of ‘intention understanding’ to scan the public for potential terroristic thoughts.

“Our country needs to rapidly and effectively bring every intelligence tool to bear to find our enemies, detect and understand their intentions, and thwart their hostile and terrorist acts against our country and our people,” Hoekstra said.

The Congressman’s goal of utilizing ‘every’ intelligence tool to ‘detect and understand’ target’s intentions implies knowing what is being thought within the brains of whomever the government deems ‘interesting‘.

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GROUNDBREAKING NON-INVASIVE UNIVERSAL BRAIN-COMPUTER INTERFACE LETS PEOPLE PLAY VIDEO GAMES USING ONLY THEIR MIND

In a groundbreaking development, engineers at the University of Texas at Austin recently unveiled a universal brain-computer interface (BCI) technology that allows individuals to control video games solely with their minds. 

This innovative advancement could represent a leap forward in the scientific quest to harness the brain’s potential, possibly revolutionizing how we interact with digital devices and offering new horizons for individuals with motor disabilities.

The core of this new brain-computer interface breakthrough lies in its unique ability to bypass extensive calibration, which has long hampered the mainstream adoption of BCI technologies. Traditional interfaces must consider individuals’ unique neural patterns, thereby demanding that the devices be custom-tuned for each user. 

However, researchers say they’ve developed a “one-size-fits-all” system that uses machine learning to dynamically adapt to users’ needs. The result is a seamless experience and a universal brain-computer interface that can shift from one person to another without the cumbersome need for recalibration. 

“When we think about this in a clinical setting, this technology will make it so we won’t need a specialized team to do this calibration process, which is long and tedious,” Satyam Kumar, a UT graduate student and study co-author, said in a press release. “It will be much faster to move from patient to patient.”

The device uses a cap filled with electrodes to measure electrical signals in the brain. A sophisticated machine learning decoder then translates a user’s neural activity into game actions. Whether navigating the twists and turns of a racing game or balancing a digital bar, researchers say the interface learns and self-calibrates through repetition, making it a universally applicable solution.

Researchers demonstrated their novel universal brain-computer interface by having 18 test subjects play a car racing game similar to Mario Kart. Donning the cap filled with electrodes, participants successfully navigated complex courses using nothing but thought. Study findings were recently published in the journal PNAS Nexus. 

At the South by Southwest Conference in Austin, Texas, from March 8 to 16, researchers showcased the broader potential of the new universal brain-computer interface. During the conference, volunteers quickly learned to control hand and arm rehabilitation robots using only their thoughts and the interface, demonstrating its versatility and user-friendliness.

The universal BCI technology developed by the UT team represents a significant shift away from other BCI technologies, such as Neuralink. Notably, Neuralink made headlines when a 29-year-old man who is paralyzed used their implant to post a tweet on the social media platform X by just thinking about it.

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Japan Warns AI Could Cause Total Collapse of the Social Order

Two top Japanese companies have warned that artificial intelligence could cause a total collapse of the social order if it is not rapidly reigned in.

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) and Yomiuri Shimbun Group Holdings, the country’s largest telecommunications company and the country’s biggest newspaper, jointly published the AI manifesto.

It warned that if legislation is not passed quickly in major countries across the world, artificial intelligence threatens to decimate democracy and provoke widespread societal unrest.

Pointing to AI programs being developed by US tech giants, the manifesto warns, “In the worst-case scenario, democracy and social order could collapse, resulting in wars.”

The report stated that such technology is designed to seize users’ attention with little regard for morality or accuracy.

Guided by Keio University researchers, the companies called on the Japanese government to pass new laws to protect elections and national security from AI.

As we previously highlighted, programs such as Google’s Gemini AI system caused fury after they openly discriminated against white people and in some cases erased them from history altogether.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT produced equally ludicrous content, in one case saying it would refuse to quietly utter a racial slur that no human could hear in order to save 1 billion white people from a “painful death.”

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Manta Ray High-Endurance Underwater Drone Unveiled

Northrop Grumman has completed the construction of its first full-scale Manta Ray uncrewed underwater vehicle, or UUV, prototype. The company is developing the drone under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Manta Ray program, which seeks to demonstrate critical technologies for a new class of very long-endurance payload-capable UUVs. 

The news was announced by Northrop earlier today, along with the release of the first image of its full-size testbed, seen in the feature image of this article. Now that its assembly has been finalized, the next step will be to actually test it, which Northrop has previously said will take place at some stage this year.

While details on the overall dimensions of the prototype have not been made public, Northrop describes it as an “extra-large glider” that draws inspiration from the “graceful glide” of the manta ray. In mimicking the shape and movement of the fish after which it’s named, Northrop’s drone features a lifting body that has sea glider-like properties, but is not a glider in the true sense of the term (i.e., it does not strictly employ variable-buoyancy propulsion alone instead of thrusters or propellers to move it forward).

In the video below, released by Northrop in 2022, we see computer-generated footage of Manta Ray being propelled via four small propellers. Imagery of the full-size testbed released by Northrop today also shows the presence of rear propellers, of which there appear to be two, rather than four.

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US company hoping to bring back the dodo and the mammoth – but here’s why it won’t be like Jurassic Park

The idea of scientists bringing pre-historic creatures back to life with some clever DNA trickery might sound familiar to fans of the 1993 Hollywood blockbuster Jurassic Park.

But for Colossal Biosciences – a company that hopes to reintroduce extinct species such as the dodo and the mammoth – it is more than just a film script.

It’s a reality – and one that could be just years away.

“We’ve got all the technology we need,” says Ben Lamm, chief executive of the firm, based in Dallas, Texas.

“It is just a focus of time and funding. But we are 100% confident [we can bring back] the Tasmanian tiger, the dodo, and the mammoth.”

The science behind the project is simple: Work out the genes that make an extinct animal what it is, and then replicate those genes using the DNA of a close existing relative.

“It’s almost reverse Jurassic Park,” says Mr Lamm, speaking to Sky News.

“In the film, they were filling in the holes in the dinosaur DNA with frog DNA.

“We are leveraging artificial intelligence and other tools to identify the core genes that make a mammoth a mammoth and then engineering them into elephant genomes.”

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DATA DELIVERY RATES 4.5 MILLION TIMES FASTER THAN AVERAGE BROADBAND ACHIEVED IN MAJOR FIBER OPTIC BREAKTHROUGH

The fastest data delivery rate ever achieved using specific wavelength bands in fiber optic technology has been reported by an international team of researchers, who say they sent information 4.5 million times faster than the average home broadband will allow.

According to researchers at Aston University in Birmingham, England, who participated in the experiment, a series of new technologies they developed allowed them to successfully transfer data at an astonishing rate of 301 terabits (301,000,000 megabits) per second.

Remarkably, the Aston team says the breakthrough that achieved these impressive data transfer rates used only standard optical fiber.

The team says their breakthrough paves the way toward greener solutions by allowing the transfer of larger amounts of information without the use of additional optical fiber.

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Secretive Experiment to Shoot Aerosols Into the Sky Over San Francisco to Increase Cloud Cover

A secretive project conducted from the deck of an aircraft carrier in the San Francisco Bay will shoot trillions of aerosol particles into the sky to increase cloud cover in the name of preventing global warming, and details have been held back to “avoid (a) public backlash.”

The experiment is being dubbed America’s “first outdoor test to limit global warming.”

“The Coastal Atmospheric Aerosol Research and Engagement, or CAARE, project is using specially built sprayers to shoot trillions of sea salt particles into the sky in an effort to increase the density — and reflective capacity — of marine clouds,” reports Scientific American.

“The experiment is taking place, when conditions permit, atop the USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum in Alameda, California, and will run through the end of May, according to a weather modification form the team filed with federal regulators.”

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Combating “Hate”: The Trojan Horse For Precrime

Philip K. Dick’s 1956 novella The Minority Report created “precrime,” the clairvoyant foreknowledge of criminal activity as forecast by mutant “precogs.” The book was a dystopian nightmare, but a 2015 Fox television series transforms the story into one in which a precog works with a cop and shows that data is actually effective at predicting future crime.

Canada is trying to enact a precrime law along the lines of the 2015 show, but it is being panned about as much as the television series. Ottawa’s online harms bill includes a provision to impose house arrest on someone who is feared to commit a hate crime in the future. From The Globe and Mail:

The person could be made to wear an electronic tag, if the attorney-general requests it, or ordered by a judge to remain at home, the bill says. Mr. Virani, who is Attorney-General as well as Justice Minister, said it is important that any peace bond be “calibrated carefully,” saying it would have to meet a high threshold to apply.

But he said the new power, which would require the attorney-general’s approval as well as a judge’s, could prove “very, very important” to restrain the behaviour of someone with a track record of hateful behaviour who may be targeting certain people or groups…

People found guilty of posting hate speech could have to pay victims up to $20,000 in compensation. But experts including internet law professor Michael Geist have said even a threat of a civil complaint – with a lower burden of proof than a court of law – and a fine could have a chilling effect on freedom of expression.

While this is a dangerous step in Canada, I also wonder if this is where burgeoning “anti-hate” programs across the US are headed. The Canadian bill would also allow “people to file complaints to the Canadian Human Rights Commission over what they perceive as hate speech online – including, for example, off-colour jokes by comedians.”

There are now programs in multiple US states to do just that –  encourage people to snitch on anyone doing anything perceived as “hateful.”

The 2021 federal COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act began to dole out money to states to help them respond to hate incidents. Oregon now has its Bias Response Hotline to track “bias incidents.”

In December of 2022, New York launched its Hate and Bias Prevention Unit. Maryland, too, has its system – its hate incidents examples include “offensive jokes” and “malicious complaints of smell or noise.”

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These Electronic Textiles Don’t Need Chips or Batteries

Sensors, controllers, and other electronic devices embedded in clothing could change the way we interact with computers and with each other. But efforts to turn t-shirts into electronic devices have been hampered by the need to power them with bulky batteries and process their data using stiff circuit boards.

Research published today in Science shows that it doesn’t have to be that way. Textiles woven from high-tech layered fibers couple with the body to scavenge electromagnetic energy from the environment—batteries not included. The textiles can also act as simple sensors that are easy to read by eye, or they can beam out a wireless signal. The research team behind the fibers includes Chengyi Hou, Hongzhi Wang, and Qinghong Zhang, who are in the college of materials science and engineering at Donghua University in Shanghai.

The group has demonstrated these smart fibers in a variety of applications. They’ve made a carpet that senses people’s footsteps, a textile-based game controller, a wearable 644-pixel display, and a textile keyboard that can be used to write messages to put on the display.

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