Submission Statement

The AI behind self-driving cars could do with a boost. Although some developers are touting Level 5 autonomy "soon", it seems to have been that way for a while. In reality, Level 4 is about the most anyone has advanced to with a commercial product. That's good for set predetermined routes, but the promise of Level 5 is "door-to-door" autonomy.

This seems like quite a fundamental breakthrough. It's interesting to wonder when it will be first commercialized.

Submission Statement

Most stars (73%) are Red Dwarfs, smaller and dimmer than our sun. That dimness makes it easier to resolve details of their planets, and it's why they are the first targets in the hunt for simple extraterrestrial life. This telescope would target nearby sun-like stars. There are thought to be about 400 of those.

How soon could this telescope launch? Perhaps the mid-2030s. It's interesting to wonder if evidence of simple extraterrestrial life will have been found by then. There will likely be much data on nearby red dwarf exoplanets by that time.

>>Musks loop

RIP to Musk's Hyperloop, its the past & its best to forget about it, and move on.

I'm especially intrigued by the Polish company Nevomo that is one of these 7. Their approach is mag lev trains on existing rail tracks, they say could achieve speeds of 550 kph (340 mph).

>> I don't think Thunderf00t is the last word on what will and won't work

My take on Youtube debunkers is that if a person thinks a Youtuber is the last word on every single area of human knowledge & expertise, above and beyond everyone else in the field, perhaps a 101 course in critical thinking might be an idea.

A Chinese company is approaching the hyperloop idea with a partial vacuum and maglev trains. This seems an approach that might work. Total vacuums seem impractical to implement, but partial vacuums are much easier to engineer.

Submission Statement

Hyperloop trains were a concept that seemed to be nearing reality several years ago and then faded away. Except they haven't. Several companies around the world seem to be moving forwards in developing the technology.

Will any of this result in a real-world application? It's interesting the EU is sponsoring this, and the focus is on the EU so much. It suggests the industry might think this is where progress is likely.

Bring up a possible future scenario in one of its positive aspects, and base the discussion off of that.

So instead of - AI that can do the work of humans leading to unemployment, point out how great it will be that when AI replaces doctors, that everyone in the developing world will have equal access to this cheap, almost free resource.

>>Why can we expect that?

Because with current efforts it's likely by 2030 hundreds, if not thousands of nearby (100 light years) exoplanets will have had their atmosphere's scanned for biosignatures.

If microbial life is common, then you would expect it to show up at least once per 1,000 planets.

Ground and space telescopes like Spitzer, Kepler, Hubble, TESS, MAUVE and the James Webb Space Telescope are contributing to this search.

As are the TRAPPIST, TOLIMAN, Breakthrough Watch, & SPECULOOS programs.

Submission Statement

I think the sudden acceleration in humanity's capabilities in the search for extraterrestrial life is an under-appreciated story of the 2020s. No one knows how common intelligent life with technologically advanced civilizations might be, but we can expect simple microbial life to be common.

It's conceivable, as multiple teams around the world are working on this, that we'll detect the latter by the end of this decade, and if we have some idea of its prevalence, we'll be closer to knowing more about the extent of the former.

Submission Statement

"Two practical questions stand out: Can we achieve neural control of extra robotic limbs concurrently with natural movement, and can the system work without the user’s exclusive concentration?"

Other research has shown our brains to be surprisingly plastic at adapting to brand new senses. The other thing that is interesting about this research is that the participants think it may be able to be done with existing technology.

Submission Statement

I knew China dominated the renewables transition, but these figures starkly lay out just how great that domination is.

This exposes a crucial weakness for the rest of the world. As Covid & the Russian invasion of Ukraine have shown, relying on other countries for key supply chains can quickly turn into a disastrous vulnerability.

It's well within the realm of possibility that China may attempt to invade (or more likely blockade) Taiwan. As things stand now, that puts the global switch to renewables in peril.

Both the EU & US have recently been talking in terms of trillions of Euros and Dollars to localize green energy production, maybe they need to do even more?

>>Don’t normal aeroplanes already cruise at like 900kmh? What’s the big difference ?

Jet airliners (Boeing, Airbus, etc) are about the same speed, but this engine isn't competing with those.

This design only works on smaller planes. So this is faster than most of those, and it seems quieter, more fuel efficient and cheaper to maintain.

Submission Statement

Should this technology work as envisaged, I would assume it will be considerably cheaper than existing aircraft designs. As with electric cars, fewer moving parts means easier to build and less need for maintenance.

Though I'm not sure that will make much difference to the economics of flying taxis. There are lots of reasons to question if they will ever make sense, from a business point of view, even with cheaper aircraft.

Submission Statement

It's starting to feel like AI development is now happening so quickly human institutions are floundering in its wake. Universities in particular, now look like many of their practices are outdated. This is yet another example that almost all their current methods of testing and assessment can be gamed by students using AI.

It's worth considering that AI's growth is exponential. As amazing as this looks in early 2023. The AI that will exist by the end of this decade will be hundreds of times more powerful than today.

Submission Statement

This is a rare bit of good news for the European space industry. ESA currently has no independent launch capability. It's in between shutting down production of old models, and waiting for the next-gen ones to arrive. Meanwhile, the stopgap Vega 5s are out of action over safety fears, and the Soyuz backups to those can't be used because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Problems run deeper. ESA has spoken about the urgent need to pivot to reusable rockets, but is it being realistic about how to get there? The USA has a vast publicly funded military budget to support its space industry. Europe's spending is tiny in comparison. It can't expect European capital markets to support a European SpaceX if that company doesn't have the likelihood of 10's or 100's of billions of € in government (military) support the way Space X does.