Category Archives: Futurism

A Cryptocurrency Powerhouse

Thus far, 2017 has proven to be a notable year forcryptocurrencies and not just the one most everyones familiar with. While Bitcoin has been on a continuous upward trend, its major competitorEther is following close behind. Despite last weeks flash crash and Sundays fake news market value drop, the price of Ether is back up, opening today (Wednesday) at $282.44. Thatsup by more than 13 percent since markets closed on Tuesday, and its continually going up.

Aside from an increase in market value, Ethereums price per coin is also up. Its reached $300, which is a substantialjump from an initial value of $10 at the beginning of 2017. This is making Ethereum a more attractive option for amateur miners than Bitcoin. Therefore, theres beena surge in Ether mining from homes, using just computer graphics cards to pump new Ether units while at the same time securing the Ethereum blockchain the public ledger of transactions that makes it all possible.

Real-time index from cryptocurrency analysis site Digiconomists founder Alex de Vries shows that Ethereum mining is powered by an amount ofelectricity equivalent to that consumed by a small country.All those household computers turned into Ether miners each have blockchain transactions consuming at least, if not more than,45 kWh of electricity. According to de Vries, the entire Ethereum network could be consuming as much as4.2 Terawatt-hours (tWh) which is only a little bit morethan whats consumed bythe Middle Eastern island of Cyprus.

Still, themethodology behind de Vries index isnt totally exact, and since blockchain isdecentralized, it would be next to impossible to truly ascertain justhow much electricity thesehome-based Ether mining operations are consuming. The estimates do indicate,however, just how energy-intensive cryptocurrency mining has the potential to be. One major reason for this is the power-hungry graphics cards involved. Its ironic that mining cryptocurrencies in order to maintain blockchains which are perhaps the most efficient and secure information ledgers we have is a process thats not particularly efficient.

This may not be the case for long, though. Unlike Bitcoin,Ethereum has plans to move away from its existing energy-intensive mining algorithms. Instead of operating on a Proof of Work model, its building a hybrid one that incorporates Proof of Stake. Simply put, this new protocol could allow an Ether holder to mine just by having their computers connected, Vries explained to Motherboard. In a full Proof of Stake algorithm, energy consumption would become negligible, he added.

Until then, mining for Ether will continue to demand huge amounts of electricity and computing power. Plus, as the price for Ether units continue to increase (with the market value of Ether following with it) more and more miners will bemining for it. Ultimately, they could wind up consuming as much electricity as the price of Ether could support. The question is, is this energy and computing power for digital currency worth it? For the time being it seems that it is,if the growing number of miners are any indication.

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Ethereum Could Be Using More Than a Country's Worth of Electricity - Futurism

In Brief Canadian neuroscientists have proposed a novel way of understanding how the brain stores memory. In particular, they hypothesized that forgetfulness is the brain's way of prioritizing information that's crucial for survival. The Usefulness of Forgetting

Weve all had moments of forgetfulness, and not infrequentlythe act of forgetting about something can have a negative impact on our day or even our lives. Some even consider being forgetful to be asign of damage in the brain, particularly the area tasked with storing and retaining information.While this may be true in the case of memory disorders, Canadian neuroscientists from the University of Torontopropose that the typicalmoments of forgetfulness with which most of us are familiar are actuallythe brains way of making us smarter and that those moments may even make our lives better.

In a study published in the journal Neuron, researchers offered an alternative hypothesis as to why the brain purposefully works to forget information. Though not entirely a new field of study, the neurobiology of forgetting has been relatively unexamined, as co-author Blake Richards explained during an interview with NPRs Andrea Hsu.

Their researchfound that the brains ability to store huge amounts of information can often be hindered by keeping memories that may be irrelevant for our everyday existence. In fact, I would argue theyre not just irrelevant, but they can be detrimental to living our daily lives, Richardssaid. Information that isnt necessary for us to evolve and survive, then, isnt necessary for the brain to retain.

Our memories ultimately are there to help us make decisions, to act in the world in an intelligent manner, Richards went on toexplain. Evolution cares about whether or not you are an individual whos making appropriate decisions in the environment to maximize your chances of survival.

Researchers argue that forgetting is actually a function of memory. Ironic, right? But when you think about it, it actually makes a lot of sense.

Much of Richards work on memory and forgetfulness is thanks to his application of theories on artificial intelligence (AI) and how the brain learns. He said that in the world of AI theres a phenomenon called over-fitting, where a machine ends up storing so much information that it hinders its ability to make intelligent decisions.

Richards hopes that by understanding the neurobiology of forgetting, well be able to design AI systemscapable of interacting with the world and making decisions the same way human beings do. Luckily, there are many studies currentlyfocused on trying to make AI systems or artificial neural networks behave like human brains. One crucial aspect were still working on is how to facilitatememory development in AI.By understanding the nuances of human memory, it may be possible to design AI systems that distinguish between information thats trivial and whatsnecessary for survival.

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Neuroscientists Say Forgetting Things May Be an Essential Part of Our Brain Function - Futurism

In Brief Hampton Creek has surprised the world by announcing they have been working on lab-grown meat and plan to launch commercially in 2018. This meat alternative is one of many possible solutions to the environmental problems caused by the food industry. Meaty Ambitions

Hampton Creek, a startup that develops plant-based alternatives to foods that are usually produced by animals, has announced that the lab-grown meatthey have been developing clandestinely over the last year will go commercial in 2018. If the timeline is accurate, the launch would come three years earlier than their closest competitor, Memphis Meats, which predicts their product will reach stores in 2021.

One of the biggest issues Hampton Creek will face in achieving this aim is the cost of clean meat. Although the price of lab-grown meat has fallen 99 percent in the last three years with the first lab-grown burger costing $230,000 it is still more expensive than farmed meat. Hampton Creek has not released any information concerning how much their product will cost.

Central to the companys product istheir research into replacing the scarce fetal bovine serum that most lab-grown meats use with plant-based nutrients. Simply getting that right wont be enough to produce a solid final product, though. As Josh Tetrick, CEO of Hampton Creek, conceded to Quartz, Just because youve nailed the battery doesnt mean youve nailed the electric car.

Opinion is split as to whether the 2018 goal is achievable. Some cite Hampton Creeks previous actionswhen they were developing and marketing their Just Mayo product as a reason to be skeptical. Others are more optimistic regarding Hampton Creeks timeline the Good Food Institutes executive director Bruce Friedlichtold Business Insider that with the right resources, it should be achievable.

A cost-effective, price-competitive clean meat could have paradigm-shifting consequencesfor both the world food market and the environment. Not only would it radically reduce animal suffering, it would also decrease global emissions. The meat industry is estimated by the World Resources Institute to produce 13.5 percent of greenhouse gases worldwide, and if nothing changes, this percentage is likely to increase given that the worlds population could reach around 9.7 billion by 2050.

To combat these issues, the world has seen a surge in the production of alternative meat products, which can be split into three categories: plant-based meat, such as the pea protein-based pea burger produced by Beyond Meat; more sustainable meat sources, such as the insect meat produced by Cornish Edible Insects; and lab-grown meat, such as that proposed by Hampton Creek and Memphis Meats.

If we are to survive as a species, we must radically change how much pollution we create, and changing the way we eat is a key aspect of this. Any alternative to the environmentally damaging meat industry represents a step toward preserving humanitys future, so let us all hope Hampton Creeks announcement is as promising as it seems.

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A New Company Will Have Fake Meat on the Shelves Next Year - Futurism

In Brief For the first time, astronomers have confirmed the discovery of orbiting supermassive black holes. The black holes are located in a galaxy 750 million light-years from Earth, and their discovery could teach us a great deal about our universe. Supermassive Orbit

Researchers at the University of New Mexico (UNM) have made an incredible discovery that could help us better understand not just black holes, but also the universe.

For the first time ever, astronomers have observed and measured two supermassive black holesorbiting one another. The black holes are hundreds of millions of light-years from us, but that just happens to be the perfect distance from the Earth for optimal observation.

The observation process was an undertaking 12years in the making. For a long time, weve been looking into space to try and find a pair of these supermassive black holes orbiting as a result of two galaxies merging, professor Greg Taylor explained in a UNM news release. Even though weve theorized that this should be happening, nobody had ever seen it until now.

The team used the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA)to plot the black holes trajectoriesand confirm that they are indeed in orbit with one another. However, the size of the black holes makes their orbital period around 24,000 years, so even after viewing the binary system for over a decade, the scientists have yet to witness any curvature in their orbit.

These orbiting black holes could teach us a great deal about our universe.Supermassive black holes have a lot of influence on the stars around them and the growth and evolution of the galaxy, Taylor explained. So, understanding more about them and what happens when they merge with one another could be important for our understanding for the universe.

Bob Zavala, an astronomer with the U.S. Naval Observatory, likens the potential of this discovery to what astronomers were able to learn about stars from studying theirbinary orbits. Now well be able to use similar techniques to understand super-massive black holes and the galaxies they reside within, he told UNM.

The UNM team plans to observe the black holes again in three or four years to confirm their findings and get a more precise reading of the orbit. This discovery will undoubtedly provide a wealth of new knowledge for many years to come.

Link:
A Groundbreaking Discovery Just Verified the Existence of Orbiting Supermassive Black Holes - Futurism

In Brief German Chancellor Angela Merkel has spoken out against the digital world's freedom from the stringent regulation that is applied to international finance and trade. To address this issue, she plans to lay the groundwork for global digital regulation at the G20 summit in July. Merkel and the Digital World

At the Dual Year Germany Mexico event in Mexico City earlier this month, German Chancellor Angela Merkel addressedthe lack of regulation within the transglobal digital world, pointing outthe relative freedom companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon enjoy in comparison to those involved in areas such as finance or trade.

Merkel stated that the world needs to introduce an international policy to govern Industry 4.0, a term used by German politiciansto describe thegrowth of the Internet of Things (IoT), smart devices, and automation. She argued that the need is pressing asthe disparate national policies currently in place could prove disastrous at any moment.

We still have no international rules, Merkel explained during her visit. Some provider could emerge thats an island, and from which things could be done, relevant to security, that could destroy an entire system. On this question of the rules-based handling of it, were still right at the start.

Europe has already begun to take serious action against the misuse of data, now the worlds most popular resource. European antitrust officialsjust fined Google a record $2.7 billionfor skewing results in their own favor. Meanwhile, Germany has been spearheading the prosecution of digital data firms, recently introducing a 9th amendment to the German Competition Act (ARC) that makes it easierto fine digital companies.

However, Merkel has no plans to wait for something to be done on a global scale. Her goal is to lay the groundwork for global regulation at a G20 summitin July, working out a consistent policy on how to approach the possible violations of security, privacy, and coercion enacted by internet behemoths.

As Merkel noted during her visit to Mexico,ensuring the security of the digital world will require international collaboration, so hopefully all of the countriesin the G20 will be open to working together to that end when they meet inHamburg in a few short weeks.

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Germany Wants to Crack Down on the Digital World's Lack of Regulation - Futurism

In Brief The world's first "Forest City," designed to fight pollution and climate change, is under construction in China. Covered in greenery and trees, it will absorb nearly 10,000 tons of CO2 and 57 tons of pollutants yearly, and produce 900 tons of oxygen.

The worlds first Forest City, created to fight pollution, is now under construction in Liuzhou, Guangxi Province, China. Designed by Stefano Boeri Architetti, a team that develops green projects all around the world, the futuristic Forest City will be home to a community of about 30,000 people. It will be covered in greenery, including nearly 1 million plants of more than 100 species and 40,000 trees that together absorb almost 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide and 57 tons of pollutants, and produce approximately 900 tons of oxygen annually. As a result, Forest City will help to decrease the average air temperature, improve local air quality, create noise barriers, generate habitats, and improve local biodiversity in the region.

Liuzhou Forest City will be self-sufficient, running on renewable energy sources such as geothermal and solar energy. The city will also be entirely wired, and will include commercial zones, residential areas, recreational spaces, a hospital, and two schools. Forest City will be connected to Liuzhou by a fast rail line for electric cars.

Liuzhou Municipality Urban Planning commissioned the design for the 175-hectare Liuzhou Forest City which will be situated along the Liujiang River in the northern part of Liuzhou. The project has a high profile in China and, if it succeeds, it will set an example for green city design elsewhere in the country and around the world. The project is planned to be complete sometime in 2020.

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China Has Officially Started Construction on the World's First Forest City - Futurism