The recent launch of the James Webb space telescope has the science world abuzz with dreams of cosmic breakthroughs in our understanding of the universe. Scientists hope it’ll help us gaze back in time to the universe’s origin, explain the mysteries of dark matter, and find definitive proof of ET. Each of those results would be among the greatest scientific accomplishments in human history. But the aliens one might have the biggest immediate impact on civilization. For that very reason, a team o
The People’s Republic of China recently published a “position paper” detailing the nation’s views on military AI regulation. Having thoroughly perused it, we’ve come to the following conclusion: it’s gibberish. Up front: The first thing you want to know when a global superpower releases official government documentation detailing its views on the use of artificial intelligence for military applications is whether the signatory intends to develop lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS). China’s
Artificial intelligence has entered all our lives, but few people have embraced it as firmly as I. Over the past year, I’ve tried to embed AI into every aspect of my futile existence. I envisioned creating a cyborg in a real-life sci-fi story, in which I’d play the parts of both Frankenstein and his monster. And if that didn’t work out, surely the algorithms would be adequate replacements for my useless brain. Right? Friends, lovers, and nemeses: this was my year with AI. The belly of the beast
The James Webb space telescope was successfully launched over the weekend. The $10B honeycomb array, which will serve as the spiritual successor to Hubble, is now on its way to Lagrange point two. There, it’ll sit in orbit a million miles away from the planet it was built on. ✅ Milestone achieved. @NASAWebb is safely in space, powered on, and communicating with ground controllers. The space telescope is now on its way to #UnfoldTheUniverse at its final destination one million miles (1.5 million
It was my first time pitching a VC investor. I had settled on the couch of my living room, ready for a video call with someone I had never met in person. I had a business idea and a team to pull it off. He had the money and interest in early-stage startups. Fingers crossed it’s a match! The call was short and to the point. We spoke about my idea, the team behind it, and why we needed the money. Half an hour later, a $100k investment landed in our bank account. How did that happen? First of all,&
The universe started with a Big Bang. Everything that was ever going to be anything was compacted into a tiny ball of whatever-ness and then it exploded outward and the universe begin expanding. At least, that’s one way of looking at it. But emergent new theories and ages-old philosophical assertions are beginning to find a foothold in cutting-edge quantum physics research. And it’s beginning to look more and more like we might actually be the center of the universe after all. That’s not to say
A team of theoretical physicists working with Microsoft today published an amazing pre-print research paper describing the universe as a self-learning system of evolutionary laws. In other words: We live inside a computer that learns. The big idea: Bostrom’s Simulation Argument has been a hot topic in science circles lately. We published “What if you’re living in a simulation, but there’s no computer” recently to posit a different theory, but Microsoft’s pulled a cosmic “hold my beer” with this
If you ask a physicist like me to explain how the world works, my lazy answer might be: “It follows the Standard Model.” The Standard Model explains the fundamental physics of how the universe works. It has endured over 50 trips around the Sun despite experimental physicists constantly probing for cracks in the model’s foundations. With few exceptions, it has stood up to this scrutiny, passing experimental test after experimental test with flying colors. But this wildly successful model has conc
Amidst the booming influx of electric vehicles worldwide, automakers and tech companies have been focusing on optimizing the most vital and expensive part of EVs: the batteries. They aren’t all alike, and manufacturers use a range of different kinds of batteries. So we’ve decided to select and rank the three most prominent (or promising) battery types: lithium, solid-state, and sodium-ion batteries. We’ll compare the batteries using four criteria: safety, energy density and charging time, sustai
This article was originally published here. I’ve been seeing more and more job postings for analytics engineers in recent months. Every company wants someone that has both data analytics and software engineering skills. It’s the best bang for their buck in hiring one person. I first became an analytics engineer 6 months ago, after working for 2 years as a data engineer. And I’ve never looked back. I’m glad I decided to apply for a position I had never heard of. It ended up being the perfect pos