The Zen of Technology & Scientific Discovery! (& Robots)

[Jundo]

I am writing a book entitled "BUILDING the FUTURE BUDDHA: The Kōan of Robots, Genetic Engineering and Travel to the Stars," in which I posit what Zen and Buddhism may be like in the future. When folks read my book ... hopefully sometime in the near future ... I hope that they remember this article, and that maybe I am not so crazy! The author is one of the UK's most respected scientists ...

Martin Rees -- Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics, University of Cambridge

Lord Martin Rees is Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge. He holds the honorary title of Astronomer Royal.

He writes ...

Human technological civilization only dates back millennia (at most) – and it may be only one or two more centuries before humans, made up of organic materials such as carbon, are overtaken or transcended by inorganic intelligence, such as AI. Computer processing power is already increasing exponentially, meaning AI in the future may be able to use vastly more data than it does today. It seems to follow that it could then get exponentially smarter, surpassing human general intelligence.

Perhaps a starting point would be to enhance ourselves with genetic modification in combination with technology – creating cyborgs with partly organic and partly inorganic parts. This could be a transition to fully artificial intelligence.

AI may even be able to evolve, creating better and better versions of itself on a faster-than-Darwinian timescale for billions of years. Organic human-level intelligence would then be just a brief interlude in our “human history” before the machines take over. So if alien intelligence had evolved similarly, we’d be most unlikely to “catch” it in the brief sliver of time when it was still embodied in biological form. If we were to detect extraterrestrial life, it would be far more likely to be electronic than flesh and blood – and it may not even reside on planets.

...

... Post-human intelligences may also be able to build computers with enormous processing power. Humans are already able to model some quite complex phenomenon, such as the climate. More intelligent civilizations, however, may be able to simulate living things – with actual consciousnesses – or even entire worlds or universes. ... How do we know that we aren’t living in such a simulation created by technologically superior aliens? Maybe we are no more than a bit of entertainment for some supreme being who is running such a model? Indeed, if life is destined to be able to create technologically advanced civilizations that can make computer programs, there may be more simulated universes our there than real ones out there – making it conceivable that we are in one of them.

This conjecture may sound outlandish, but it is all based on our current understanding of physics and cosmology. We should, however, surely be open-minded about the possibility that there’s much we don’t understand.

https://www.livescience.com/extrater...not-biological

My book asks what Buddhism might have to say, and be like, then in similar scenarios ...

Gassho, J

STLah

[Jundo]

The universe is like a big factory, and you and I and all of us come off the assembly line ... ... then delivered by Amazon??

Enormous 'shipyard' of ancient galaxies discovered 11 billion light-years away

A similar protocluster may have created our Milky Way.

Astronomers have discovered a massive "shipyard" where galaxies are built, similar to the one our Milky Way grew up in.

The giant structure, called a protocluster, contains more than 60 galaxies and is 11 billion light-years from Earth, so far away that scientists are observing a part of the universe that is only 3 billion years old.

Researchers released a paper on the protocluster named G237 in January, but its existence has now been confirmed by an international team of astronomers, who published their follow-up findings on Oct. 26 in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

"You can think of galaxy protoclusters such as G237 as a galaxy shipyard in which massive galaxies are being assembled, only this structure existed at a time when the universe was 3 billion years old," study co-author Brenda Frye, an associate professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona, said in a statement. ... "The picture we have pieced together now is that of a successful galaxy shipyard, which is working at high efficiency to assemble galaxies and the stars within them and has an energy supply that is more sustainable," Frye said.

https://www.livescience.com/protoclu...g237-confirmed

But at the same time, think of all the things that had NOT to happen so that we could be here: One single asteroid on different course, one tiny virus other that it was, could have changed history and we would NOT be here either!

An asteroid barely missed Earth last week, and no one knew it was coming

An asteroid about the size of a refrigerator shot past Earth last week, and astronomers didn't know the object existed until hours after it was gone.

It was a close call (from a cosmic perspective); the space rock's trajectory on Oct. 24 carried it over Antarctica within 1,800 miles (3,000 kilometers) of Earth — closer than some satellites — making it the third-closest asteroid to approach the planet without actually hitting it, CNET reported. ... But with a diameter of just 6.6 feet (2 meters), UA1 was too small to pose a threat. Even if it had struck Earth, most of its rocky body would have burned away in the atmosphere before it could hit the ground, CNET reported.
https://www.livescience.com/surprise-asteroid-flyby

Gassho, J

STLah

[Amelia]

The child in me wants the hoverbike... The adult in me wants to live.

Gassho
Sat, lah

[Jundo]

So, all the planets we've found so far outside our solar system have still been inside our Milky Way galaxy ... so, this is something! ...

NASA discovers first possible planet outside our galaxy

Scientists may have detected signs of a planet transiting a star outside of the Milky Way, in what could be the first planet ever to be discovered outside our galaxy.

The possible exoplanet was discovered in the Whirlpool Galaxy -- the spiral galaxy Messier 51 (M51) -- by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, NASA said in a press release on Monday.

An exoplanet is a planet outside of our solar system that normally orbits a star other than our own sun in our galaxy. Until now, all other exoplanets have been found in the Milky Way, and most of them have been found less than 3,000 light-years from Earth.

This newly discovered possible exoplanet in the Whirlpool Galaxy would be about 28 million light-years away -- thousands of times farther away than those in the Milky Way.

"We are trying to open up a whole new arena for finding other worlds by searching for planet candidates at X-ray wavelengths, a strategy that makes it possible to discover them in other galaxies,"
https://us.cnn.com/2021/10/26/world/...scn/index.html

Gassho, J

STLah

[Jundo]

Okay, it is not the "flying car" that I thought we'd all have by now when I used to watch the Jetsons as a kid ... and it is not exactly affordable ... and it don't exactly look safe ... but it now goes to the top of my list of things I don't need but like anyway ...

https://youtu.be/1g9J_eXixz0

By chance, this video also came up today ... and I just think it cool ... it is no. 2 on my list of things I don't need but like ...

https://youtu.be/H1_OpWiyijU

Gassho, J

STLah

[Skot]

Speaking of William Shatner;

"I'm waiting for that feeling of contentment
That ease at night when you put your head down
And the rhythms slow to sleep
My head sways and eyes start awake
I'm there not halfway between sleep and death
But looking into eyes wide open trying to remember
What I might have done, should have done
At my age I need serenity I need peace
It hasn't happened yet
It hasn't happened yet
It hasn't happened yet"

Skot SatUrToday

[Jundo]

Yes, the body is pretty amazing ... "empty" or not ...

Stunning images show how muscles heal themselves after a workout

Exercise leaves muscles riddled with microscopic tears, so after a rigorous workout, the control centers of muscle cells — called nuclei — scoot toward these tiny injuries to help patch them up, scientists recently discovered.

In the new study, published Oct. 14 in the journal Science, researchers uncovered a previously unknown repair mechanism that kicks in after a run on the treadmill. Striking images show how, shortly after the exercise concludes, nuclei scuttle toward tears in the muscle fibers and issue commands for new proteins to be built, in order to seal the wounds. That same process likely unfolds in your own cells in the hours after you return home from the gym.

The study authors discovered that "nuclei moved toward the injury site within 5 hours of injury," Dr. Elizabeth McNally and Alexis Demonbreun, of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, wrote in a commentary, also published in Science. And within only 24 hours of the injury, the repair process was "nearly complete."

Nuclei (purple) in a muscle cell migrate toward the site of an injury to help repair the tear. (Image credit: William Roman)

https://www.livescience.com/muscle-repair-by-roaming-nuclei

Now, off to the gym!

Gassho, J

STLah

[Jundo]

And, in keeping with that, more to ponder regarding the happenstance and blind fortune (or was it?) of our being alive on this precious planet right now ...

New findings a 'complete reversal' in understanding why Earth became hospitable to life and its 'twin' didn't

Venus may be a sweltering wasteland today, but scientists have questioned whether the planet was always so inhospitable. While previous studies suggested Venus might have once been covered in oceans, new research has found the opposite: Venus has likely never been able to support oceans.

Researchers also determined that a similar story could have played out on Earth as well had things been just a bit different.

Venus, our closest planetary neighbor, is called Earth's twin because of the similarity in size and density of both planets. Otherwise, the planets differ radically. While Earth is a natural hub for life, Venus is a lifeless planet with a toxic carbon dioxide atmosphere 90 times thicker than ours, clouds of sulphuric acid and surface temperatures that reach 864 degrees Fahrenheit (462 degrees Celsius) -- hot enough to melt lead.

To understand how these two rocky planets turned out so differently, a team of astrophysicists decided to try to simulate the beginning, when our solar system's planets formed 4.5 billion years ago. They used climate models -- similar to what researchers use when simulating climate change on Earth -- to peer back in time at young Venus and Earth. Their new study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03873-w

More than 4 billion years ago, Earth and Venus were piping hot and covered in magma. Oceans can only form when temperatures are cool enough for water to condense and fall as rain over thousands of years. That's how Earth's global ocean formed over tens of millions of years. Venus, on the other hand, remained hot. At the time, our sun was about 25% fainter than it is now. But that wouldn't have been enough to help Venus cool off, since it's the second-closest planet to the sun. The researchers questioned whether clouds could have played a role in helping Venus cool down. Their climate model determined that clouds did contribute, but in an unexpected way. They clustered on the night side of Venus where they wouldn't have been able to shield the planet's day side from the sun. ... Rather than shielding Venus from heat, the night side clouds contributed to a greenhouse effect that trapped heat within the planet's dense atmosphere and kept temperatures high. With such consistent, trapped heat, Venus would have been too hot for rain to fall. Instead, water could only exist as its gaseous form, water vapor, in the atmosphere.

...

Things could have turned out the same way for Earth if our planet had been slightly closer to the sun or if the sun was as bright back then as it is now. Because the sun was dimmer billions of years ago, Earth was able to cool down enough from its molten state for water to form and create our global ocean. The faint young sun "was a key ingredient to actually form the first oceans on Earth," Turbet wrote in an email.

https://us.cnn.com/2021/10/13/world/venus-oceans-earth-scn/index.html

Let's just hope that, with global warming, we don't eventually catch up to Venus!

Gassho, J

STLah

[Jundo]

However one feels about this silly rocket ...

https://youtu.be/AAqj5tATg-Y

Gassho, J

STLah

[Kotei]

Well, now my family and Treeleaf won't be rid of me, even when I'm dead!

Tuning a GPT-3 like model (GPT-Neo) with your writings from the last 15 years is something I am thinking about for quite a while now.
Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.

[Jundo]

Well, now my family and Treeleaf won't be rid of me, even when I'm dead!

William Shatner 'AI' will chat with you about the 'Star Trek' actor's life

You've got questions; Shatner's got answers.

Got a question for "Star Trek" actor William Shatner? You could see it answered in an interactive conversation powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and using video responses that Shatner prerecorded.

This two-way conversational video platform was developed by StoryFile, and the company recently introduced the "conversation" with Shatner on its website as a way to commemorate the actor's 90th birthday this past spring. In the video, a jovial-looking Shatner sits in a room awaiting users' questions about his life and career, which can be posed as audio or text. Once Shatner is asked a question, the system swiftly selects an appropriate answer from the prerecorded options, providing the response in real time.

The company recorded Shatner's answers in front of a greenscreen at StoryFile's studio in Los Angeles over four days; questions covered various topics, including details of his life story, according to a behind-the-scenes video that StoryFile shared March 22 on Vimeo.
https://www.livescience.com/william-shatner-ai-chat

Give it a try! Ask him about religion or football or Star Trek, and sit back ...

https://www.storyfile.com/

Gassho, J

STLah

[Jundo]

That sky... just...


st/rj

Oh, ya gotta love folks who know their stuff! Some challenges on the authenticity of this PICTURE!

Beautiful but probably FAKE!

This is actually a montage of Earth sky on to Mars foreground. 'Mars' is near Regulus and Saturn is near Spica; so the sky images are from April 2012. ... the sky on mars is not so dark at night ...
https://www.facebook.com/SocialJunki...43315067435809

Sorry folks, although it is lovely.

Gassho, J

STLah

[rj]

That sky... just...


st/rj

[Jundo]

UPDATE:

Oh, ya gotta love folks who know their stuff! Some challenges on the authenticity of this PICTURE!

Beautiful but probably FAKE!

This is actually a montage of Earth sky on to Mars foreground. 'Mars' is near Regulus and Saturn is near Spica; so the sky images are from April 2012. ... the sky on mars is not so dark at night ...
https://www.facebook.com/SocialJunki...43315067435809

Sorry folks, although it is lovely.

This truly BREATHTAKING JAW DROPPING MIND BLOWING 360 degree view of the night sky on MARS, taken by the Rover ...

... do not miss this.

(Thank you, Bion, it popped into my Facebook feed from you)

Use your mouse to look around ...

https://www.facebook.com/SocialJunkieTravel/posts/243316277435688

[Rousei]

I'm very much a humanities person, however I find the sciences and mathematics to be fascinating. While I do not understand any of it, the concepts alone really open my eyes. Case in point, a British mathematician called Roger Penrose and I just learnt won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2020.

I learnt about him through his idea of a cyclical universe. That is to say, according to him when the universe has expanded so far for so long it's mathematically no different to the moment before the big bang. So the Universe births itself anew, a rebirth so to speak over and over and over. This aligns quite nicely I thought to the Buddhist idea of aeon/kalpa.

Gassho
Mark
ST