H+ Weekly - Issue #255
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Hello and welcome to this round number issue #255 of H+ Weekly!
With the entire world being in lockdown and all public events being cancelled, many events moved to virtual space. London Futurists is amongst them and their next virtual event - Engineering greater human resilience - will take place on Saturday, April 25th from 2PM UK time. The discussion will revolve around the topics of strengthening human resilience on all fronts, from immune systems to intelligence to human solidarity and spirit of inner mastery. If this sounds interesting to you, you can register here.
This is one of many virtual events London Futurists hosted in recent days. You can find more on their YouTube channel.
SPONSORED
Humble Book Bundle: Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning By Morgan & Claypool
Humble Bundle teamed up with Morgan & Claypool and is offering 19 ebooks about artificial intelligence for just $12.50 (normally, the entire bundle would cost over $1000). Your purchase will help support the Book Industry Charitable Foundation and this newsletter.
Get the Book Bundle here
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Jeff Hawkins: Thousand Brains Theory of Intelligence
I don't know why it took me so long to discover Lex Fridman's Artificial Intelligence podcast. Fridman spoke with many interesting people in-depth about AI, technology and their thoughts about these topics. In this episode, Fridman speaks with Jeff Hawkins about neuroscience, reverse-engineering the neocortex, intelligence and AI.
► NVIDIA RTX Voice - Linus Tech Tips (7:46)
NVIDIA released RTX Voice. It uses unused RTX cores to run an AI that removes background noise in real-time. Alex from Linus Tech Tips gives it a try and the results are quite impressive - it can remove background noise, from the loud keyboard and screaming children to a vacuum cleaner, megaphone and drums.
ROBOTICS
Underwater Crawling Soft Robot Stays In Shape
PATRICK is a robotic starfish. To be more specific, it is a soft robot made from molded silicone designed to work underwater.
► Best Robot Arms of our time (14:26)
Skyentific is my recent YouTube discovery. It's a channel focusing on robotics (specifically robotic arms) from a more technical point of view and also teaches how to build one.
SubT Challenge Urban Circuit Overview
Here is a more in-depth overview of DARPA's recent Subterranean Challenge. It has everything you need - the overview of the facility the robots were competing in, the competition and an overview of each robot.
► Zoox: ~1-Hour Fully Autonomous Drive in San Francisco with Commentary (26:47)
Engineers from Zoox released a video of their self-driving car's 1-hour long autonomous trip around San Fransisco with real traffic, just like the one you would encounter if you were the driver.
Boston Dynamics’ Spot finds a new career in telemedicine amid COVID-19 pandemic
Boston Dynamics joins other tech companies in the fight against COVID-19 and transforms their four-legged robot Spot to be a mobile teleconferencing system. Equipped with an iPad, it allows healthcare workers to remotely check-in with the patients. There are plans to equip the robot with more sensors to detect patients' temperature, respiratory rate, pulse rate and oxygen saturation, or transforming Spot into a mobile disinfection station with UV light on its back.
OTHER
► Issac Arthur - Economies of the Future (28:16)
Isaac Arthur (one of my favourite YouTubers) asks the question - but what about the economy of the future? How would the economy in a post-scarcity future, where everything is made by robots and AI, with abundant sources of power, look like? Will there still be a place for money to exists and if so, what future civilizations can use as a currency?
Thank you for subscribing,
Conrad Gray (@conradthegray)
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