> Lake Nyos tragedy

The size of Energy Dome's C02 bladders are miniscule in comparison to the amount of C02 released at Lake Nygos.

That tragedy released 1.2 cubic kilometer of gas. Here's a 1 cubic kilometer cube for scale; it dwarves the whole of Lower Manhattan.

>>That’s sounds super inefficient.

They claim the opposite.

In a research paper here they speak of an RTE (Radiative Transfer Efficiency) of 77%, and say the system's simplicity contributes to its efficiency, as it has only only two thermodynamic transformations: one compression and one expansion.

Submission Statement

There are bold claims about cost, but the really interesting thing about Energy Dome is its potential speed of deployment. As it uses existing common off-the-shelf materials it can overcome many of the supply chain bottlenecks that bedevil other grid storage battery solutions.

More details are here.

Submission Statement

Here's the rumor statement from Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI.

It's worth noting The Turing Test is considered obsolete. It only requires an AI to appear to be intelligent enough to fool a human. In some instances, GPT-3 already does that with some of the more credulous sections of the population.

The Winograd Schema Challenge is regarded as a much better test of true intelligence. It will require genuine reasoning ability from an AI. The answer won't be available from scanning the contents of the internet and applying statistical methods that frequently correlate with what a truly intelligent, independently reasoned answer to a question is.

In any case, if the leap to GPT-4 is as great as the one from GPT-2 to GPT-3 was, we can expect even more human-like intelligence from AI.

Submission Statement

This puts Waymo in the global lead when it comes to robo-taxis. Cruise in San Francisco is trialing a service with no safety drivers, but it only operates from 10pm-6am. Baidu is trialing operations in two Chinese cities without safety drivers, but are still basically in test mode, with very few operational cars.

If I were Uber or Lyft, I would be worried. You need these companies a lot more than they need you, if they need you at all.

Submission Statement

This is great news, but it's worth remembering that of the 725,000 human deaths every year from mosquitoes, 600,000 of those are from malaria, and this technique doesn't work with the mosquitoes that cause it.

Still, what is hopeful about this technique is that it's so cheap and easy to operate. The boxes with the eggs can be easily distributed and take no special knowledge to operate. It really is as simple as just adding the right amount of water to the right schedule.

Submission Statement

Here's a Twitter thread from lead researcher Deepak Pathak explaining more of this.

When sci-fi writers imagine future widespread robot adoption in society, it's usually with humanoid-type robots. The Will Smith movie "I, Robot" is a good example of this.

Perhaps it's quadrupeds that will get there first. Boston Dynamics Spot is useful enough that you could imagine it selling in tens or hundreds of millions of units around the world; if the price was right, however they cost $74,500. This version was built for $6,000 and the Unittree Go1sells for only $2,700.

If someone brings the functionality demonstrated here in something costing less than $3,000 I would imagine you will start seeing robot dogs everywhere, and they'll have to update any remake of I, Robot.

>>This technology is very expansive

Actually the opposite is the case, as you are replacing human workers with robots. Apis Cor claim a 30% reduction in prices compared to traditional methods.

It's reasonable to assume if the industry matured and was in widespread use, and its robots continued technologically advancing, and were able to do more and more of the work, costs would go down even more.

Submission Statement

The US capital markets regularly throw billions, if not tens of billions, at technology companies whose business models stretch credulity. Uber has raised $25 billion, and never once turned a profit.

Which raises the question, why aren't they interested in 3D printing of houses? There is a massive shortage of houses around the world and the construction staff to build them. Country after country on every continent lacks housing, poor and rich countries alike. It seems reasonable to assume global demand for 3D printed houses could be counted in the tens of millions, perhaps even more.

Apis Cor has a demonstrable record of achievement with its technology. Their most famous construction in Dubai looks of a standard many people would be perfectly happy with as a dwelling.

Yet they and the rest of this sector are shunned by capital markets - what gives?

>> They’ve been 3D printing massive, space-bound structures for years.

Relativity Space, like several others, has used 3D printing to build parts for rockets on Earth.

3D printing has been tested onboard the ISS, but as far as I know no one has tested a 3D printer in orbit outside the ISS, as Redwire plans to do.

Submission Statement

A recent research paper suggests that large-scale in-orbit robotic construction is going to need cooperative swarm robots and that this technology does not exist yet. What Redwire Space is doing looks like a step in the right direction.

This reminds me of another currently NASA-supported effort, SpinLaunch, and their kinetic launcher. One of its challenges is the massive G forces at launch and the damage it might do to electronics. That wouldn't be a problem if it was launching the base material 3D printers extrude for construction. SpinLaunch & Redwire Space might be perfect partners for each other.

>>because “reasons”

Africa's population will go from 1.3 billion today to 4.3 billion in 2100, while the US's will only increase by 100 million.

>>But the old world economies generate an excess of trillions over Africa,

Actually it seems the opposite is true, at least according to this Australian research.

It says Africa's economy will be several multiples of what America's and Europe's are in 2100.

>>I would think that planets around white dwarfs would have had a bad time when those stars became white dwarfs.

True, but they remain stable (albeit much cooler/smaller) for billions of years afterwards. I assume they are looking for life that might have evolved after the star's red giant phase.

Submission Statement

It seems in the next few years we may get to scan dozens of exoplanet atmosphere's for signs of extraterrestrial life. Apart from using the JWST, the other big effort is the SPECULOOS Project using telescopes in Chile and the Canary Islands to scan 1,000 of the nearest ultra-cool stars and brown dwarf stars. Should simple single cell life be common throughout the universe, it seems plausible we will discover evidence of it soon.

Submission Statement

I find this interview odd, as it seems to fly in the face of other things we can see happening. We seem to be at an inflection point with autonomous cars. At least two companies, one in China, one in San Francisco, are live testing Level 4 robo-taxis without safety drivers. If this testing is successful, then it's hard not to see this as the start of robo-taxis beginning to eat into the business of human-driven taxis.

I wonder if this interview is a CEO trying to reassure shareholders over a decision he's made? He mentions he sold off Lyft's autonomous tech. Perhaps he's attempting to make the best case for that decision by downplaying that his competitors are making such strides with it?

Submission Statement

These capsules are designed to be partially reusable, and NASA hopes to get 3 missions out of each. They are for the Artemis VI-VIII missions. Artemis V will be the 3rd crew lunar landing of the Artemis program, and is at the lunar south pole, presumably to assess locations for a base. Its proposed Artemis VI-VIII will land components of that lunar base.

Many people wonder how SpaceX will affect these plans. Presumably, its Starship will be in operation in the second half of this decade, and will ultimately render the SLS obsolete.

China is detailing its plans for a base at the lunar south pole on a similar time frame and options to land commercial payloads with lunar landers are starting up too. It seems likely by the time we get to 2030 today's plans might need updating.

>>calls 5G a computing platform.

I didn't say it was a computing platform, I said it was very likely it will use new OS's.

The follow on from that, is that these may be developed in China first, if it is the first place to have 10's or 100's of millions of people using 5G.

> How is it a replacement for an OS?

I'm sure Windows, Android, and iOS will still be around in the 2030's, and I'm sure they will have plenty of 5G apps.

However, it's likely the OS that dominates 5G hasn't been built yet.

None of the three main OS's have any meaningful VR/AR features now. If China gets to widespread 5G adoption first (likely), then the first software companies to be building apps for 10's and 100's of millions of 5G consumers will be Chinese.

I can't see them doing this on legacy western OS's that aren't fit for 5G purposes in the first place.

There's a popular video that looks at what the experience of a VR/AR OS might be like called Hyper-Reality

>>Am I missing something? I thought 5G was just a faster cellular data spec

No, its much more than that.

That's because it will allow massive data speeds ( 1-4 Gbit/s) with almost no latency (the best 5G is in single digits milliseconds).

5G will be the platform for virtual reality, augmented reality, remote human control of robots/drones, and for an Internet of Things will trillions of sensors.

It's hard to imagine it not being the main computing planform in the 2030's. Who on earth would want Windows or Android when you could have 5G delivering what its capable of. Today's computing planforms will look geriatric in comparison.

>>I'm not sure I understand.

A few different people comment in the OP article.

The TLDR version is that the companies that have switched from Huawei for 5G have chosen even less secure and easy to hack software.

Submission Statement

Eliminating Huawei from 5G, as many countries have done, was supposed to make them less vulnerable to Chinese hacking. Instead, it's done the opposite. It also seems to have had another weakening effect. China is racing ahead with 5G adoption, which makes you wonder if banning Huawei is slowing down those countries that have done it?

5G will be the major computing platform of the late 2020s and 2030s. It looks like it could be China dominating it.

>>international agreements not to mine the moon

There is no real economic reason to mine the moon.

The fusion reactors that would use it's Helium-3 haven't been invented yet, and even when they are, many people doubt mining the moon's Helium-3 could ever economically compete with obtaining it from Earth.

Submission Statement

Astrobiotic and Intuitive Machines are the two others aiming to launch in 2023.

If all these companies succeed it will mean landing payloads on the moon will be as cheap as 10's of millions of $/€, perhaps as time goes on at the lower end of that estimate. I can see lots of takers for these missions. Academic institutions across the globe must be a market worth hundreds of millions a year at these prices. Not to mention the world's different space agencies sub-contracting out missions.

I wonder how a commercial lunar economy can take off on its own? It strikes me that governments will have to seed the first billions. But how many - 10's or 100's of billions?

Submission Statements

Rooftop wind power is a sector that has seen many false starts and dodgy claims over the years. Is Aeromine any different? It looks like there may be reason to be cautiously optimistic.

I can see this solution often failing on NIMBY planning permission grounds. It seems a thing most neighbors would love to object to. It could still find lots of use cases however. Particularly in remote, rural, or particularly windy locations.