A Look At Current Existing Longevity Treatments

The Next Big Future: Currently existing longevity treatments are feasible but expensive and difficult to access

If you want to do something about your long-term health and life expectancy that are available then focus on exercise and calorie restriction - nothing else at that same level of easy availability is anywhere near as effective or as proven.

Fighting Aging describes the first gene therapies, stem cell transplants, and glimmerings of SENS-like repair therapies capable of removing some of the metabolic wastes associated with age-related diseases.

In order to actually undergo one of these new therapies, you would have to undertake some combination of the following:
(a) spend money at early adopter levels, high in comparison to the cost a customer would pay for a final product years down the line,
(b) network for connections to find access to the necessary services and other items,
(c) persuade the small number of current developers to depart from their current practice of adhering to regulation and provide you access,
(d) break (the unjust and largely horrible) laws related to provision of medical services,
(e) travel to a less restrictive jurisdiction as a medical tourist, and
(f) accept a fair degree of risk of failure - that even if everything else goes well, and all involved do their jobs, the present implementation of the treatment just doesn't work, or the present understanding of the science and data provides a false and inflated impression of what the treatment can achieve.

Read more ....

CSN Editor: Bottom line .... sleep, reducing stress, exercise, and proper diet .... these are the best and most effective solutions

The Most Detailed View Of The Earth's Seafloor To Date Has Been Released

This map shows a global view of gravity changes. Shades of orange and red represent areas where seafloor gravity is stronger than the global average, a phenomenon that mostly coincides with the location of underwater ridges, seamounts, and the edges of Earth’s tectonic plates. Shades of blue represent areas of lower gravity, corresponding largely with the deepest troughs in the ocean

Daily Mail: The most accurate ocean floor map ever made: Scientists reveal the alien landscape beneath the sea in incredible detail

* The map was created by measuring the shape and gravity field of Earth using a series of satellites
* Shades of orange and red represent areas where seafloor gravity is stronger than the global average
* This phenomenon mostly coincides with the location of underwater ridges, seamounts and tectonic plates
* Shades of blue represent areas of lower gravity, corresponding largely with the deepest troughs in the ocean

We have more complete maps of the surface of Mars than we do of some areas on Earth.
In an effort to change this, scientists have created the most detailed view of the Earth's seafloor to date, revealing huge mountains and giant crevices beneath the ocean.
The map was created by measuring the shape and gravity field of Earth, a relatively-new discipline known as geodesy. It provides gives an accurate picture of seafloor topography at a scale of 3.1 miles (5km) per pixel.

Read more ....

CSN Editor: A smart concept .... using gravity as a means to map out the sea-floor.

Calculating The Cost Of Rescuing Matt Damon In The Movies

20TH CENTURY FOX

UPROXX: Here’s How Much Money Has Been Spent Saving Matt Damon

Scotty still doesn’t know what Fionna and me are doing in my van every Sunday, but someone figured out how much money has been spent saving Matt Damon. It goes beyond Saving Private Ryan (France), Interstellar (space), and The Martian (space again; someone keep him on Earth and away from Nazis, please) — Damon also needed assistance in Courage Under Fire, Titan A.E., Syriana, Green Zone, and Elysium. And it’s cost a lot of potatoes.

Read more ....

CSN Editor: Hint .... it costs a lot.

MIT Technology Review's 2015 Annual Summary On Developments In Robots And AI

Will Knight, MIT Technology Review: What Robots and AI Learned in 2015

It was the year that self-driving cars became a commercial reality; robots gained all sorts of new abilities; and some people worried about the existential threat posed by super-intelligent future AI.

The robots didn’t really take over in 2015, but at times it felt as if that might be where we’re headed.

There were signs that machines will soon take over manual work that currently requires human skill. Early in the year details emerged of a contest organized by Amazon to help robots do more work inside its vast product fulfillment centers.

The Amazon Picking challenge, as the event was called, was held at a prominent robotics conference later in the year. Teams competed for a $25,000 prize by designing a robot to identify and grasp items from one of Amazon’s storage shelves as quickly as possible (the winner picked and packed 10 items in 20 minutes). This might seem a trivial task for human workers, but figuring out how to grasp different objects arranged haphazardly on shelves in a real warehouse is still a formidable challenge for robot-kind.

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CSN Editor: A brief and concise summary of the year.

Will Artificial Intelligence Doom Mankind?

Raffi Khatchadourian, New Yorker: The Doomsday Invention

Will artificial intelligence bring us utopia or destruction?

I. OMENS

Last year, a curious nonfiction book became a Times best-seller: a dense meditation on artificial intelligence by the philosopher Nick Bostrom, who holds an appointment at Oxford. Titled “Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies,” it argues that true artificial intelligence, if it is realized, might pose a danger that exceeds every previous threat from technology—even nuclear weapons—and that if its development is not managed carefully humanity risks engineering its own extinction. Central to this concern is the prospect of an “intelligence explosion,” a speculative event in which an A.I. gains the ability to improve itself, and in short order exceeds the intellectual potential of the human brain by many orders of magnitude.

Such a system would effectively be a new kind of life, and Bostrom’s fears, in their simplest form, are evolutionary: that humanity will unexpectedly become outmatched by a smarter competitor. He sometimes notes, as a point of comparison, the trajectories of people and gorillas: both primates, but with one species dominating the planet and the other at the edge of annihilation. “Before the prospect of an intelligence explosion, we humans are like small children playing with a bomb,” he concludes. “We have little idea when the detonation will occur, though if we hold the device to our ear we can hear a faint ticking sound.”

Read more ....

Update: Some scientists fear superintelligent machines could pose a threat to humanity (Washington Post)

CSN Editor: A thought provoking article on the implications of developing AI platforms. I still believe that mankind .... because of its survival instincts .... will never put itself in a position where it may be destroyed. Still .... one has to wonder and it is on this issue that this New Yorker post is a must read.

For Drone Owners, Beware Of Drone Jamming Zones

(Click on Image to Enlarge)

CREDIT: Brown Bird Design

Daily Mail: Drone-jamming equipment to be deployed at public events to stop terrorists using cheap unmanned aircraft in killer attacks

* System was installed for the first time on the roof of Scotland Yard
* Specialised equipment can detect, track and even intercept drones
* The £700,000 device could be used to defend critical infrastructure

A device to block drones flown by terrorists will be used at major public and sports events following a successful trial at London’s Remembrance Sunday parade.

The system was installed on the roof of Scotland Yard, close to where the commemoration took place – the first time it has been deployed by police in the UK.

The equipment, designed and built by a British consortium, can detect, track and intercept small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) flown by enemies – potentially saving hundreds of lives.

Read more ....

CSN Editor: I guess it will only be a matter of time before this tech becomes affordable and widely used.