Artificial Intelligence Maps the Universe: An Algorithm's View

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How does an algorithm view the Universe, if all the known variables are provided? Artificial intelligence can balance all these variables, crunch the simultaneous equations, much better than some top-tier, but outdated, hominid on a (much) slower biological platform.


(above) An image of a slice through the local universe, 370 million light years on each side. The red circles mark the positions of galaxies observed with the 2MRS survey which measured the positions and distances of over 45000 galaxies. The blue circles are random points (galaxies) inserted to smooth the map across the 'zone of avoidance' where nearby gas and dust in our Galaxy blocks the view of more distant objects. These data are superimposed on the light and dark background of the cosmic web of galaxies modelled by Kitaura et al using an artificial intelligence algorithm. Credit: Francisco Kitaura, Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics.

Using Artificial Intelligence to Chart the Universe

(Phys.org) Astronomers in Germany have developed an artificial intelligence algorithm to help them chart and explain the structure and dynamics of the universe around us with unprecedented accuracy. The team, led by Francisco Kitaura of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics in Potsdam, report their results in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Scientists routinely use large telescopes to scan the sky, mapping the coordinates and estimating the distances of hundreds of thousands of galaxies and so enabling them to create a map of the large-scale structure of the Universe. But the distribution that astronomers see is intriguing and hard to explain, with galaxies forming a complex 'cosmic web' showing clusters, filaments connecting them, and large empty regions in between.

The driving force for such a rich structure is gravitation. This force originates from two components; firstly the 5% of the universe that appears to be made of 'normal' matter that makes up the stars, planets, dust and gas we can see and secondly the 23% made up of invisible 'dark' matter. Alongside these some 72% of the cosmos is made up of a mysterious 'dark energy' that rather than exerting a gravitational pull is thought to be responsible for accelerating the expansion of the universe. Together these three constituents are described in the Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM) model for the cosmos, the starting point for the work of the Potsdam team.

Measurements of the residual heat from the Big Bang – the so-called Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation or CMBR emitted 13700 million years ago – allow astronomers to determine the motion of the Local Group, the cluster of galaxies that includes the Milky Way, the galaxy we live in. Astronomers try to reconcile this motion with that predicted by the distribution of matter around us and its associated gravitational force, but this is compromised by the difficulty of mapping the dark matter in the same region.

"Finding the dark matter distribution corresponding to a galaxy catalogue is like trying to make a geographical map of Europe from a satellite image during the night that only shows the light coming from dense populated areas", says Dr Kitaura.

To try to solve this problem he developed a new algorithm based on artificial intelligence (AI). It starts with the fluctuations in the density of the universe seen in the CMBR, then models the way that matter collapses into today's galaxies over the subsequent 13 billion years. The results of the AI algorithm are a close fit to the observed distribution and motion of galaxies.

Dr. Kitaura comments, "Our precise calculations show that the direction of motion and 80% of the speed of the galaxies that make up the Local Group can be explained by the gravitational forces that arise from matter up to 370 million light years away. In comparison the Andromeda Galaxy, the largest member of the Local Group, is a mere 2.5 million light years distant so we are seeing how the distribution of matter at great distances affects galaxies much closer to home.

'Our results are also in close agreement with the predictions of the LCDM model. To explain the rest of the 20% of the speed, we need to consider the influence of matter up to about 460 million light years away, but at the moment the data are less reliable at such a large distance.

'Despite this caveat, our model is a big step forward. With the help of AI, we can now model the universe around us with unprecedented accuracy and study how the largest structures in the cosmos came into being."


WMAP Full Sky 7 Years
(above) The detailed, all-sky picture of the infant universe created from seven years of WMAP data. The image reveals 13.7 billion year old temperature fluctuations (shown as color differences) that correspond to the seeds that grew to become the galaxies. The signal from the our Galaxy was subtracted using the multi-frequency data. This image shows a temperature range of ± 200 microKelvin. Credit: NASA / WMAP Science Team

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Farthest View Ever of the Universe: Hubble eXtreme Deep Field

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Hubble eXtreme Deep Field: a new, improved portrait of mankind's deepest-ever view of the Universe

Countless planets, stars, galaxies, clusters...

Farthest View Ever of the Universe: Hubble eXtreme Deep Field

SEPTEMBER 25, 2012: Like photographers assembling a portfolio of best shots, astronomers have assembled a new, improved portrait of mankind's deepest-ever view of the universe. Called the eXtreme Deep Field, or XDF, the photo was assembled by combining 10 years of NASA Hubble Space Telescope photographs taken of a patch of sky at the center of the original Hubble Ultra Deep Field. The XDF is a small fraction of the angular diameter of the full Moon. The Hubble Ultra Deep Field is an image of a small area of space in the constellation Fornax, created using Hubble Space Telescope data from 2003 and 2004. By collecting faint light over many hours of observation, it revealed thousands of galaxies, both nearby and very distant, making it the deepest image of the universe ever taken at that time. The new full-color XDF image reaches much fainter galaxies and includes very deep exposures in red light from Hubble's new infrared camera, enabling new studies of the earliest galaxies in the universe. The XDF contains about 5,500 galaxies even within its smaller field of view. The faintest galaxies are one ten-billionth the brightness of what the human eye can see.

Fly Through the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field This video takes you through Hubble's deepest view of the universe, from its location in the sky to the dimmest, most distant galaxies.



Hubble Extreme Deep Field Pushes Back Frontiers of Time and Space This video explains how astronomers meticulously assembled mankind's deepest view of the universe from combining Hubble Space Telescope exposures taken over the past decade. Guest scientists are Dr. Garth Illingworth and Dr. Marc Postman.









The public is invited to participate in a "Meet the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field Observing Team" webinar, where three key astronomers of the XDF observing team will describe how they assembled the landmark image and explain what it tells us about the evolving universe. Participants will be able to send in questions for the panel of experts to discuss. The webinar will be broadcast at 1:00 p.m. EDT on Thursday, September 27, 2012. To participate in the webinar, please visit: http://hubblesite.org/go/xdf/ .

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Cheetah Robot Runs Faster Than Usain Bolt!

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Cheetah Robot Concept: The Inevitable Future

We await the untethered outdoor version in 2013 as the Rise of the Machines and Artificial Intelligence continues unabated...

Cheetah Robot Runs 28.3 mph; a Bit Faster than Usain Bolt Cheetah Robot is a fast-running quadruped developed by Boston Dynamics with funding from DARPA. It just blazed past its previous speed record, getting up to 28.3 mph, about 0.5 mph faster than Usain Bolt's fastest 20 meter split. This version of the Cheetah Robot runs on a treadmill with offboard power. Testing on an untethered outdoor version starts early next year. For more information about Cheetah or the other robots we develop, visit www.BostonDynamics.com




Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus): fondly remembered archaic and defunct biological platform


Usain Bolt: not fast enough!

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Rough-Terrain Robot Follows Human Leader

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LS3 - Legged Squad Support System

The future proxy for ground war - robots - beginning with doing the grunt work. Follow the human leader, at least for now. AI autonomy will be next as the creepiness factor escalates. Drones are already rapidly becoming the air war proxy.

LS3 - Legged Squad Support System The Legged Squad Support System (LS3) is a rough-terrain robot developed by Boston Dynamics with funding from DARPA and the US Marine Corps. It is designed to carry 400 lbs of payload and travel 20 miles without refueling. LS3 has sensors that let it follow a human leader while avoiding obstacles in the terrain. For more information visit www.BostonDynamics.com.




LS3 - Legged Squad Support System: Columns & Herds Coming to a Theater of War or Civil Disturbance Near You!

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Galactic Halo: Milky Way Is Surrounded by Hot Gas

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This artist's illustration shows an enormous halo of hot gas (in blue) around the Milky Way galaxy. Also shown, to the lower left of the Milky Way, are the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, two small neighboring galaxies. The halo of gas is shown with a radius of about 300,000 light years, although it may extend significantly further.

NASA'S Chandra Shows Milky Way is Surrounded by Halo of Hot Gas

● Chandra has provided evidence that our Milky Way Galaxy is embedded in an enormous halo of hot gas that extends for hundreds of thousands of light years.
● The mass of the halo is estimated to be comparable to the mass of all the stars in the Milky Way galaxy.
● If the size and mass of this gas halo is confirmed, it could be the solution to the "missing-baryon" problem for the Galaxy.

WASHINGTON (Sept. 24, 2012) -- Astronomers have used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to find evidence our Milky Way Galaxy is embedded in an enormous halo of hot gas that extends for hundreds of thousands of light years. The estimated mass of the halo is comparable to the mass of all the stars in the galaxy.

If the size and mass of this gas halo is confirmed, it also could be an explanation for what is known as the "missing baryon" problem for the galaxy.

Baryons are particles, such as protons and neutrons, that make up more than 99.9 percent of the mass of atoms found in the cosmos. Measurements of extremely distant gas halos and galaxies indicate the baryonic matter present when the universe was only a few billion years old represented about one-sixth the mass and density of the existing unobservable, or dark, matter. In the current epoch, about 10 billion years later, a census of the baryons present in stars and gas in our galaxy and nearby galaxies shows at least half the baryons are unaccounted for.

In a recent study, a team of five astronomers used data from Chandra, the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton space observatory and Japan's Suzaku satellite to set limits on the temperature, extent and mass of the hot gas halo. Chandra observed eight bright X-ray sources located far beyond the galaxy at distances of hundreds of millions of light-years. The data revealed X-rays from these distant sources are absorbed selectively by oxygen ions in the vicinity of the galaxy. The scientists determined the temperature of the absorbing halo is between 1 million and 2.5 million kelvins, or a few hundred times hotter than the surface of the sun.

Other studies have shown that the Milky Way and other galaxies are embedded in warm gas with temperatures between 100,000 and 1 million kelvins. Studies have indicated the presence of a hotter gas with a temperature greater than 1 million kelvins. This new research provides evidence the hot gas halo enveloping the Milky Way is much more massive than the warm gas halo.

"We know the gas is around the galaxy, and we know how hot it is," said Anjali Gupta, lead author of The Astrophysical Journal paper describing the research. "The big question is, how large is the halo, and how massive is it?"

To begin to answer this question, the authors supplemented Chandra data on the amount of absorption produced by the oxygen ions with XMM-Newton and Suzaku data on the X-rays emitted by the gas halo. They concluded that the mass of the gas is equivalent to the mass in more than 10 billion suns, perhaps as large as 60 billion suns.

"Our work shows that, for reasonable values of parameters and with reasonable assumptions, the Chandra observations imply a huge reservoir of hot gas around the Milky Way," said co-author Smita Mathur of Ohio State University in Columbus. "It may extend for a few hundred thousand light-years around the Milky Way or it may extend farther into the surrounding local group of galaxies. Either way, its mass appears to be very large."

The estimated mass depends on factors such as the amount of oxygen relative to hydrogen, which is the dominant element in the gas. Nevertheless, the estimation represents an important step in solving the case of the missing baryons, a mystery that has puzzled astronomers for more than a decade.

Although there are uncertainties, the work by Gupta and colleagues provides the best evidence yet that the galaxy's missing baryons have been hiding in a halo of million-kelvin gas that envelopes the galaxy. The estimated density of this halo is so low that similar halos around other galaxies would have escaped detection.

The paper describing these results was published in the Sept. 1 issue of The Astrophysical Journal. Other co-authors were Yair Krongold of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in Mexico City; Fabrizio Nicastro of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass.; and Massimiliano Galeazzi of University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's science and flight operations from Cambridge.


Milky Way

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Graham Hancock: The Sovereignty of Consciousness

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Ayahuasca the Sacred Vine of the Amazon

Take a mind-bending journey with Graham Hancock as he describes his experiences with psychedelics and shamanism, the effects on consciousness, and "spirit molecules" in general. Regarding these journeys into consciousness, Hancock asserts these decisions "should not be devolved onto the state". We have "psychic sovereignty", sovereignty of individual consciousness, and government control is a "fundamental abuse of human rights in our society".

"Our society is a society under the guise of all kinds of propagandistic bs which is denying us the right of sovereignty over our own consciousness. If we are not sovereign over our own consciousness, then actually we are not sovereign over anything. Then all the so-called freedoms of our society are complete illusions when that society does not allow us to make fundamental decisions about what we wish to explore or not to explore with our own consciousness. That's what we are - we are consciousness. We are not these bodies, we are not matter. We are consciousness - pure consciousness manifested in physical form. If we can't make decisions about that, then everything else is just a bad joke."

Graham Hancock and the Sacred Vine London Real meets Graham Hancock, author of "Fingerprints of the Gods".



"Fingerprints of the Gods" author Graham Hancock explains why all politicians should drink Ayahuasca 10 times, the gruesome Aztec history behind his new book "Wargod", why he took Ibogaine to gain closure with his late father, and how Joe Rogan is just an all-around cool dude.

"You said that all politicians should be required to drink Ayahuasca 10 times before taking office." - Brian (00:46)

"All across the world we have a venal class of dishonest, self-serving bureaucrats who are using the power we give them to oppose themselves upon us." - Graham (01:52)

"You have to understand that we've had more than 40 years now of massively financed propaganda called the 'War on Drugs'." - Graham (03:10)

"In a way it's a very Orwellian world where language is being used against us. It's almost impossible to approach the issue of 'drugs' without immediately linking it to the notion of 'abuse.'" - Graham (04:47)

"Do we as adults have the right to make decisions about what we put in our own bodies and what we experience with our own consciousness without reference to the powers of the state or must we seek permission from the state in order to explore our own consciousness?" - Graham (05:17)

"I find again and again you get these instant knee-jerk reactions. 'Oh they're talking about a drug, this isn't be for me. They must be dirty people.'" - Graham (08:37)

"I don't believe I would have written that book if I hadn't had this nudge from this curious plant ally called cannabis." - Graham (13:37)

"I don't do things by half-measures. I was smoking a very great deal of cannabis for 24 years." - Graham (14:10)

"During those Ayahuasca sessions whatever intelligence spoke to me directly and made it very clear to me that my journey with Cannabis had come to an end." - Graham (15:33)

"It's astonishing that one plant intervened to stop me working with another plant." - Graham (19:20)

"There are all kinds of ways to challenge ourselves. Some people do it by climbing a mountain or scuba diving. The most profound and challenging ordeals is to drink Ayahuasca. It is in a way the ultimate adventure." - Graham (24:06)

"I want to find out about your new book. Can you talk about it?" - Brian (45:30)

"There is very clear documentation of the sacrifice of 80,000 human beings over the course of 4 days so the entire city was filled with human blood." - Graham (49:58)

"The demonic realm got involved in the human world and said. 'We've made things really bad in Mexico already, how can we make things worse?" - Graham (51:20)

"The 22yr old Graham Hancock had an awful lot to learn." - Graham (59:42)

"Iboga is the root bark of a bush that grows in Central Africa." - Graham (1:00:53)

"It's a sacred duty to see a loved one through the transition and it's also a tremendous gift that the loved one gives to us, the opportunity to learn from it." - Graham (1:05:23)

"The one thing I'm glad about is that I did have the opportunity to tell my Dad that I loved him." - Graham (1:06:58)

"If you were really a tough guy you'd take Iboga and Ayahuasca at the same time." - Nic (01:08:28)

"The active ingredient in Ayahuasca is Dimethyltryptamine. I've done some work with pure D.M.T. as well, I've done 11 journeys." - Graham (01:08:48)

"Did you get stoned with Joe?" - Nic (01:17:10)

"Joe is such a lovely, wonderful human being with an incredibly open and inquiring mind and just very very gentle and very very intelligent and I definitely got high on the conversation." - Graham (01:17:55)

"I've really enjoyed this conversation, time has really flown, it reminded me of my conversation with Joe Rogan. Nice, relaxing, positive, enjoyable feeling." - Graham (01:20:40)

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NASA Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes Observe Most Distant Galaxy Ever Seen?

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Newly discovered galaxy known as MACS 1149-JD (Image credit: NASA/ESA/STScI/JHU)

A Glimmer From a Dark Cosmic Era

WASHINGTON (NASA) -- With the combined power of NASA's Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes, as well as a cosmic magnification effect, astronomers have spotted what could be the most distant galaxy ever seen. Light from the primordial galaxy traveled approximately 13.2 billion light-years before reaching NASA's telescopes, shining forth from the so-called cosmic dark ages when the universe was just 3.6 percent of its present age.

Astronomers relied on gravitational lensing to catch sight of the early, distant galaxy. In this phenomenon, predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago, the gravity of foreground objects warps and magnifies the light from background objects.

In the big image at left, the many galaxies of a massive cluster called MACS J1149+2223 dominate the scene. Gravitational lensing by the giant cluster brightened the light from the newfound galaxy, known as MACS 1149-JD, some 15 times, bringing the remote object into view.

At upper right, a partial zoom-in shows MACS 1149-JD in more detail, and a deeper zoom appears to the lower right. In these visible and infrared light images from Hubble, MACS 1149-JD looks like a dim, red speck. The small galaxy's starlight has been stretched into longer wavelengths, or "redshifted," by the expansion of the universe. MACS 1149-JD's stars originally emitted the infrared light seen here at much shorter, higher-energy wavelengths, such as ultraviolet.

The far-off galaxy existed within an important era when the universe transformed from a starless expanse during the dark ages to a recognizable cosmos full of galaxies. The discovery of the faint, small galaxy opens a window onto the deepest, remotest epochs of cosmic history.


Hubble Space Telescope

NASA Telescopes Spy Ultra-Distant Galaxy Amidst Cosmic 'Dark Ages'

WASHINGTON (NASA) -- With the combined power of NASA's Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes, as well as a cosmic magnification effect, astronomers have spotted what could be the most distant galaxy ever seen. Light from the young galaxy captured by the orbiting observatories first shone when our 13.7-billion-year-old universe was just 500 million years old.

The far-off galaxy existed within an important era when the universe began to transit from the so-called cosmic dark ages. During this period, the universe went from a dark, starless expanse to a recognizable cosmos full of galaxies. The discovery of the faint, small galaxy opens a window onto the deepest, remotest epochs of cosmic history.

"This galaxy is the most distant object we have ever observed with high confidence," said Wei Zheng, a principal research scientist in the department of physics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and lead author of a new paper appearing in Nature. "Future work involving this galaxy, as well as others like it that we hope to find, will allow us to study the universe's earliest objects and how the dark ages ended."

Light from the primordial galaxy traveled approximately 13.2 billion light-years before reaching NASA's telescopes. In other words, the starlight snagged by Hubble and Spitzer left the galaxy when the universe was just 3.6 percent of its present age. Technically speaking, the galaxy has a redshift, or "z," of 9.6. The term redshift refers to how much an object's light has shifted into longer wavelengths as a result of the expansion of the universe. Astronomers use redshift to describe cosmic distances.

Unlike previous detections of galaxy candidates in this age range, which were only glimpsed in a single color, or waveband, this newfound galaxy has been seen in five different wavebands. As part of the Cluster Lensing And Supernova Survey with Hubble Program, the Hubble Space Telescope registered the newly described, far-flung galaxy in four visible and infrared wavelength bands. Spitzer measured it in a fifth, longer-wavelength infrared band, placing the discovery on firmer ground.

Objects at these extreme distances are mostly beyond the detection sensitivity of today's largest telescopes. To catch sight of these early, distant galaxies, astronomers rely on gravitational lensing. In this phenomenon, predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago, the gravity of foreground objects warps and magnifies the light from background objects. A massive galaxy cluster situated between our galaxy and the newfound galaxy magnified the newfound galaxy's light, brightening the remote object some 15 times and bringing it into view.

Based on the Hubble and Spitzer observations, astronomers think the distant galaxy was less than 200 million years old when it was viewed. It also is small and compact, containing only about 1 percent of the Milky Way's mass. According to leading cosmological theories, the first galaxies indeed should have started out tiny. They then progressively merged, eventually accumulating into the sizable galaxies of the more modern universe.

These first galaxies likely played the dominant role in the epoch of reionization, the event that signaled the demise of the universe's dark ages. This epoch began about 400,000 years after the Big Bang when neutral hydrogen gas formed from cooling particles. The first luminous stars and their host galaxies emerged a few hundred million years later. The energy released by these earliest galaxies is thought to have caused the neutral hydrogen strewn throughout the universe to ionize, or lose an electron, a state that the gas has remained in since that time.

"In essence, during the epoch of reionization, the lights came on in the universe," said paper co-author Leonidas Moustakas, a research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif.

Astronomers plan to study the rise of the first stars and galaxies and the epoch of reionization with the successor to both Hubble and Spitzer, NASA's James Webb Telescope, which is scheduled for launch in 2018. The newly described distant galaxy likely will be a prime target.


Spitzer Space Telescope

For more information about Spitzer, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer

For more information about Hubble, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/hubble

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Consciousness and Reality: The Mind - Matter Connection

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Reality and the Extended Mind by Adrian D. Nelson

Reality and the Extended Mind: Consciousness in an Interconnected Universe

Psi researchers Herb Mertz, Dean Radin, Brenda Dunne, Roger Nelson, Robert Jahn, Garret Moddel, York Dobyns, Adam Michael Curry, Rupert Sheldrake, John Valentino, and Larry Dossey discuss anomalies of consciousness, mind - matter interactions. Our consciousness extends out into the world and is not contained just within our brains.

The world and our consciousness intermix and interact. The physiology of our body is in a dialog with future states of ourselves. Our awareness is spread out across time. Further, when focused, our consciousness can coalesce with other minds. Is there an observer-driven component to reality?

Robert Jahn says the evidence obtained are not just superficial curiosities but is erupting from very deep and very consequential characteristics of the human mind. Brenda Dunne notes that if we are going to understand reality, we have to look at the subjective side as well as the objective side.

Psi Phenomena is defined as anomalous properties associated with consciousness unanticipated by widely accepted modern theories. These events include precognition (presentiment), telepathy, distant mental influence, etc. in both normal and altered states of consciousness. Dean Radin describes these events, and the evidence, as meaningful, important, and interesting.

Documentary - Reality and the Extended Mind (1 of 2) Reality and the Extended Mind is a non-profit documentary by Adrian Nelson. As an increasing number of academics acknowledge the findings erupting from psi research, quantum mechanics and many other areas of science, thinkers are coalescing on a new description of reality. This new description of reality signals paradigm shifts in several scientific fields, and notably the necessity for a new model of consciousness. My book, Reality and the Origins of Consciousness dives into these mysterious new waters, attempting to give a lucid account of these ideas, following a skeptical, open-minded and secular approach. The insights awaiting us will be profound, corresponding with dramatic shifts in the way we see and interact with the world.



Documentary Reality and the Extended Mind (2 of 2)




Institute of Noetic Sciences | Consciousness | Science | Spirituality | Wisdom

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Dmitry Itskov and Project Immortality 2045: Transplanting a Human Brain into an Avatar

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Dmitry Itskov is leading the Project 2045

We all have dreams in life and some have big dreams. A few have visions. A handful of people have visions that change the world. Dmitry Itskov is one of them. A vision as in transforming humanity completely and forever. A vision of transplanting the human brain into an artificial body, a robot, an avatar. A transbiological vision of the future of humanity. As Ray Kurzweil says, "Prepare to Evolve".

The goal is to preserve human personality and prolong life. That is, transfer a human's individual consciousness to an artificial carrier. Dmitry Itskov wants to do this himself at the first opportunity, which he believes could be as soon as 10 years!

Dmitry Itskov's premise, and motivation, is that humanity is too divided by race and religion. These differences, these divisions and the resulting conflicts are irreconcilable. Therefore, humanity must physically change to survive and hopefully leave these differences behind. Further, humanity is destroying the planet and avatars won't need to eat or even require houses! Diseases and death will be defeated.

Avatar-A: Scientists Prepare for Human Brain Transplant Following the steps of James Cameron, a young Russian media mogul has launched his own Avatar project. Dmitry Itskov does not want to explore a new planet, though: he just plans to make a human brain immortal by transplanting it into a robot's body.



Dmitry Itskov on Project Immortality 2045 The Singularity Summit 2011 was a TED-style two-day event at the historic 92nd Street Y in New York City. The next event will take place in San Francisco, on October 13 & 14, 2012. For more information, visit: http://www.singularitysummit.com




Project 2045


The Dalai Lama has endorsed Dmitry Itskov's Project 2045

International Manifesto of the "2045" Strategic Social Initiative (Partial)

Mankind has turned into a consumer society standing at the edge of a total loss of the conceptual guidelines necessary for further evolution. The majority of people are almost exclusively absorbed in merely maintaining their own comfortable lives.

Modern civilization, with its space stations, nuclear submarines, iPhones and Segways cannot save mankind from the limitations in the physical abilities of our bodies, nor from diseases and death.

We are not satisfied with modern achievements of scientific and technical progress. Science working for the satisfaction of consumer needs will not be able to ensure a technological breakthrough towards a radically different way of life.

We believe that the world needs a different ideological paradigm. Within its framework it is necessary to form a major objective capable of pointing out a new direction for the development of all mankind and ensuring the achievement of a scientific and technical revolution.

Global Future and the Technological Singularity: A New Era for Humanity

Russia 2045 Strategic Social Initiative

Global Future 2045 International Congress

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Tom Campbell: Who Are We In This Reality?

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Are humans "Virtual Reality Rovers" that have evolved in, been inserted into, this Universe?

Tom Campbell expands on his Theory of Everything (My Big TOE) and how we humans interface with this reality, the Universe, which is virtual. We are a free will awareness unit. This is a subset of our higher individuated unit of consciousness, outside of this reality, this Universe. That in turn is a subset of the ultimate consciousness, a larger consciousness system, also known as God and also outside of this reality, this Universe.

Bruce Lipton describes us humans as "Earth Rovers", similar to a Mars Rover. The rover is you in this Universe on planet Earth while our higher consciousness is the controller back at NASA. Taking this idea further, you could also consider humans as "Virtual Reality Rovers" or even "Players" in this Universe, this virtual reality, this game.

Tom Campbell: Who Are We In This Reality? As Consciousness, we are an Information System. Reality is Information. R = I is an identity for the 21st century.

We are part of, but not separate from, the Larger Consciousness System. This may sound like the more familiar phrase "we are made in the image of God". If you are a physicist, a Consciousness researcher, and an evolved spiritual being such as Tom, the descriptions are one and the same.

The eternal question "Who are we"? will be answered in a way you have never heard before. Such subjects as free will, the difference between what we know ourselves to be here as consciousness and what we are as Consciousness outside this learning lab we call earth, and past lives will be discussed within the context of a computer analogy by a physicist who has researched this from outside this virtual reality.

As this interview unfolds, you will get a glimpse of why Tom's My Big TOE encompasses all aspects of our reality into one scientifically derived theory of everything. (For in-depth theory see the Calgary presentation on his twcjr44 YouTube channel).





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Ray Kurzweil: Technological Singularity, Immortality, Bringing Back the Dead

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Ray Kurzweil: Biological and non-biological intelligence and thinking will merge

Prepare to evolve as Ray Kurzweil takes us for a fast ride into the future where both reality and human thinking change! A series of 3 interviews with Ray Kurzweil covers the singularity, his immortality cocktail, and bringing back the dead. He begins with a discussion of the already existing impact of technology in our daily lives, both externally and internally, both outside and inside our bodies. This integration of humans and technology will continue, at an increasing rate, to ultimately merge "man and machine".

Human reality itself will change through the implementation and integration of both augmented reality and virtual reality into our everyday, objective reality. The stream of information we receive through our consciousness via our senses that is processed by our brain will literally be enhanced and expanded by technology.

Not only will our reality change but humans will have two sets of intelligence and thinking: biological and non-biological. The non-biological intelligence and thinking is technology interfacing with our bodies and especially our brains.

First the non-biological intelligence has and will continue more and more to augment our biological intelligence. Next the non-biological intelligence will increase our biological intelligence until finally completely merging into a transhuman, transbiological intelligence. Further, first the non-biological intelligence will be backed up, just like any software. Kurzweil believes ultimately the non-biological intelligence will be able to model and back up the biological intelligence - "us humans". Of course, at that point you could generate the merged transbiological intelligence in another reality such as a virtual reality. An immortality, a continuity of consciousness, could then be achieved for a transhuman.

Futurist Ray Kurzweil on Singularity Author, inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil talks with economics correspondent Paul Solman about what Kurzweil has dubbed 'the singularity': the melding of man and machine to the point where one can't tell the difference between the two.


Watch Futurist Ray Kurzweil on Singularity on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

Ray Kurweil's Immortality Cocktail The second of our interview outtakes with inventor/author/futurist Ray Kurzweil. In our broadcast story, Kurzweil explained that his recipe to combat aging entails taking 150 pills a day. You can find more details at a supplements business he runs, rayandterry.com, which features, we were excited to see, items like "healthy chocolates."

Watch Ray Kurweil's Immortality Cocktail on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

Ray Kurzweil on Bringing Back the Dead This outtake with Mr. Immortality: does Kurzweil believe that an avatar of his dead father -- created with artificial intelligence and a lifetime's worth of data and mementos -- is, well, his actual father, the guy who died when Ray was 22? We asked him how that quest influenced his goal of "immortality today."

Watch Ray Kurzweil on Bringing Back the Dead on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

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Algorithms That Learn: The Rise of Artificial Intelligence

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A system is intelligent if it is more useful to talk about in terms of goals than in terms in mechanisms. ~ Richard Sutton

The above quote that an intelligent system has goals is skirting the edges of the definition and discussion of consciousness. Reaching the point when software, an algorithm or even a network, "wakes up" and has consciousness has been the subject and speculation of many a technician and philosopher. This is the ultimate line to be crossed to achieve artificial or transhuman intelligence.

How do you reach this line to be crossed? Lukasz Kaiser begins with describing the existing deterministic "agents" as receiving an input stream, then a program that produces an output stream. This is the mechanistic view. Another view is to think of developing software in terms of the program having goals, as noted in the quote above. Kaiser then presents a higher-level model to achieve goal-oriented results, an algorithm that learns by observing.

Lukasz Kaiser: Playing General Structure Rewriting Games Dr. Kaiser’s research presentation at the Third Conference on Artificial General Intelligence. This is a joint work with Lukasz Stafiniak.



It’s a Bright Future If You Are an Algorithm, the New Evolutionary Force


Proposed Sign for "Dangerous Artificial Intelligence"



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Vernor Vinge Discusses the Singularity, Future, Possibilities: "The human era will be ended"

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Countdown to the Singularity

Vernor Vinge on the Technological Singularity Vernor Vinge can rightly be called the Father of the Technological Singularity and came up with the term itself. Vinge thinks the technological singularity will occur no later than 2030. "I'd be surprised if it doesn't happen by 2030". "The technological singularity is the most likely scenario for the relatively near future". Vinge states, "In the relatively near future, humankind, by using technology, will either create or become creatures of superhuman intelligence". This type of change, a technological change, will be qualitatively different than technological changes in the past. The change will be so profound that what will happen is unknowable, hence a singularity and event horizon over which no information, actually speculation and prediction, can occur. This implies no limit to progress. However, Vinge finds hope in this future world and not fear of the unknown. "Overall, we are in a situation where we can surpass the wildest dreams of optimism of previous generations."

Technological Singularity Paths Vinge watches paths to the singularity, and the developments in each as positive and negative indicators as to the overall progress towards the technological singularity. These paths are scenarios on how the singularity could occur. He lists 5 paths:
1) Artificial Intelligence scenario: humans create superhuman artificial intelligence in computers, machines become super-intelligent
2) Intelligence Amplification scenario: humans enhance human intelligence through human-to-computer interfaces, that is, humans achieve intelligence amplification, humans become super-intelligent
3) Biomedical Intelligence scenario: humans directly increase their intelligence by improving the neurological operations of their brains, humans become super-intelligent
4) Internet Intelligence scenario: humanity, its networks, computers, and databases become sufficiently effective to be considered a superhuman being, humans and machines collectively become super-intelligent
5) Digital Gaia scenario: the network of embedded processors becomes sufficiently effective to be considered a superhuman being, machines collectively become super-intelligent
6) [Editor's Note: this leaves only one other possible scenario: humans collectively become super-intelligent?]

Vernor Vinge & The Singularity: Authors at Google 5-time Hugo Award winning author Vernor Vinge, one of the most lauded SF writers of our era, discusses his work and concepts from it, including the concept of "The Singularity" which he coined, and his latest novel, "Children of the Sky," the sequel to "A Fire Upon the Deep." He is interviewed by Brad Templeton of EFF/Singularity U/Google X



About Vernor Vinge Vernor Vinge is a retired San Diego State University professor of mathematics, a computer scientist, and an award-winning science fiction author. Vinge is a futurist who is known as the originator of the term "technological singularity" and his 1993 essay, "The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era" expounds on this concept. In the essay, he states, "Within thirty years we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended". He introduced the term "technological singularity" at an artificial intelligence conference at Carnegie-Mellon University in 1982 and later in a science fiction novel, "Marooned In Realtime" in 1986. Vinge has expanded on the themes of virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and the technological singularity in his books and describes himself as a science fiction writer.



Singularity Concept Timeline Vernor Vinge developed and honed the concept of the technological singularity in the 1980s and early 1990s. The culmination was a 1993 paper, a presentation at NASA and now a classic, "The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era". Vinge says that as the exponential increase in technology becomes more and more evident, especially compared to the 1980s and 1990s, the concept of the technological singularity will increasingly be part of the cultural fabric. "It fits more with what's going on. It becomes a steady drumbeat like background music, like background wallpaper, in how we look at things when it comes to progress. It is a way of looking at things, the world." He feels this concept is a model than can be run to interpret daily events. To keep a balanced view, Vinge also "runs a model" of the technological singularity not happening, as a contra-indicator and even has given a talk on this scenario. In retrospect, from the NASA essay in 1993 to the present, 2011, Vinge says there is little he would change in his paper


Warning! Dangerous Software in this Room!

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The Thirteenth Floor: Realities Within Realities

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Nested and Interconnected Realities

Nothing like stacking simulated realities on top of simulated realities and/or interconnecting realities to mix events up! Then the question of "What is real?" begins to confuse a wandering soul! See The Thirteenth Floor videos below, in which two realities become interconnected and begin to impact each other.

Humanity is just at the initial steps of virtual reality creations (e.g. computer games, Second Life, The Sims, World of Warcraft, et. al). As these become more immersive, the lines will begin to blur between our so-called objective reality and emerging virtual realities. Will humanity ultimately migrate into virtual reality, leaving our objective reality behind?

If humanity ultimately creates virtual realities which are a viable subset of our existing "objective reality", could this infer our reality is likewise a subset of a larger reality? If so, could this larger reality, which has been called extra-dimensional, metaphysical, and/or spiritual by the pundits and philosophers, have created the Universe as a simulated reality?

Perception of reality, our stream of consciousness, the world as we begin to see with new eyes becomes a series of Russian nested eggs or dolls, one within another within another. A dream within a dream...

The Thirteenth Floor Trailer

The barriers that separate fantasy from reality are shattered in this stylish, mind-jarring thriller, where two parallel worlds collide in a paroxysm of deception, madness and murder.

On the thirteenth floor of a corporate tower, high-tech visionary Douglas Hall (Craig Bierko, The Long Kiss Goodnight) and his high-strung colleague, Whitney (Vincent D'Onofrio, Men In Black), have opened the door to an amazing virtual world - circa 1937 Los Angeles. But when the powerful leader of their secret project (Armin Mueller-Stahl, Shine, The X-Files) is discovered slashed to death, Hall himself becomes the prime suspect.

Arriving from Paris is the beautiful and mysterious Jane Fuller (Gretchen Mol, Rounders), claiming to be the murder victim's daughter. Her instant, magnetic attraction to Hall only further blurs the lines of what is real. Is he the killer? Is the inscrutable Jane somehow connected?

To find the answers, Hall must cross the boundaries into the simulated reality he has helped create - and confront the astonishing truth about his own existence.



The Thirteenth Floor Movie

To unravel a mystery, a murder suspect must explore the boundaries between reality and a computer-simulated fantasy.





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Mike Adams & Tom Campbell on Reality & Consciousness

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"Is all that we see or seem But a dream within a dream?" ~ Edgar Allan Poe

Mike Adams, aka The Health Ranger, of NaturalNews.com has started another website, DivinityNow.com. The first video released on the new website is The God Within (below).

Mike raises some solid, thought-provoking points regarding physics, objective reality, virtual reality, consciousness, and even political philosophy. I have posted about the various forms of the Simulation Argument, the Universe as virtual reality.

I disagree with Mike on the issue of observation, specifically consciousness, affecting quantum physics observations. The classic example is the Double Slit Paradox. In my opinion, Tom Campbell has successfully explained this. It is information (not consciousness, measurement, or observation) that is determining the resulting data and further explanation is on this website (and the second video below). Sure, consciousness is required to enable the act of measurement or observation, but it is the information created that is the key. However, mind over matter is possible via consciousness and information, in my opinion.

At the end of the video, Mike comes to the conclusion that what is called "enlightenment" in various spiritual traditions is actually the realization that you are in fact inside a virtual reality, a contained reality. Further, you are reaching out to the "outside" reality, outside our virtual reality, outside our Universe, to the creator and designer. This agrees with Tom Campbell's conclusions.

This is an intriguing idea and reminds me of Alan Watts, a Zen Buddhist adherent. Watts said that when a master attained enlightenment it called for a good laugh by the now enlightened master. I personally took this to mean first, the enlightenment was most likely not what was originally expected at the beginning of the spiritual journey, and second, the enlightenment unveiled the ultimate absurdity and humor of the situation the master realized he (and everyone else) was actually in.

The God Within (FULL) from DivinityNow.com - Mike Adams

DivinityNow.com, founded by Mike Adams, releases this mind-expanding documentary on "conscious cosmology," covering consciousness, particle physics, the nature of reality, the Big Bang, quantum physics, origins of life, free will, and more.



Tom Campbell discusses the Universe as a virtual reality and each human as a consciousness receiving a data stream. Humans are virtual creations as is the entire Universe, rendered by something beyond this reality. He begins with the Double Slit Experiment Paradox and later mentions a recent quantum entanglement discovery that confirms his theory.

My Reality = Virtual + Information. Let's go down the rabbit hole with Tom in this interview and discover the world is not as it seems. That is, the Universe is not a physical, objective reality. See tags at end of post for additional information on this subject, including The Universe As a Virtual Reality and the Double Slit Experiment Paradox.

Tom Campbell: Our Reality Is Information

In this informal interview in Atlanta June 8, 2012, Tom Campbell, author of My Big TOE, expands on the significance of the scientific experiment called the Double Slit in terms everyone can understand.

"If you understand the Double Slit experiment, you understand how our reality works". He continues "Everything we do is not different from the Double Slit experiment".

This explanation is valuable to scientists as well as the general public. Tom takes a difficult subject and applies helpful analogies to clarify the implications of this scientific experiment.



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CERN: Evidence of Higgs Boson Particle Discovered

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One event with two muons (tracks in red) and two electrons (tracks in green) found by CMS.

The two teams at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, CMS and ATLAS, have reported their results to-date in the search for the Standard Model Higgs Boson. The particle discovered is most  likely the Higgs Boson but additional research is necessary. A 5 sigma confidence is considered a discovery and adequate confidence (odds are less than 1 in 3.5 million that it was produced by chance).

Peter Higgs, 83, who first proposed the idea of the boson in 1964 was present and cried at the end of the presentation. "For me it's a really incredible thing that it's happened in my lifetime".

Joe Incandela of the CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) team confirmed that a particle has been discovered that is consistent with the Higgs boson theory. The new boson has a mass 125.3GeV (+-0.6) with a 4.9 sigma confidence.

Fabiola Gianotti of the ATLAS team confirmed a Higgs-like boson particle has been discovered at a mass of 126.5GeV with a 5.0 sigma confidence.

Cern Scientists Announce Higgs Boson Discovery Scientists at the Cern research centre in Switzerland reveal they have found a new subatomic particle that could be the Higgs boson. The announcement was greeted by rousing cheers and a few tears from the audience. The finding marks a breakthrough in understanding of the fundamental laws that govern the universe.



The Discovery of the Higgs Boson? Garrett Lisi Explains Following the CERN announcement, Theoretical physicist Garrett Lisi explains the discovery of the Higgs Boson particle by CERN scientists. Previously, LHC results have strongly signaled the existence of a Higgs with a mass of 125 gigaelectronvolts (GeV), or roughly 125 times more massive than the proton.



The Higgs Boson: Fireworks or Flameout? Theoretical Physicist Dr. Michio Kaku says that even with strong evidence of the Higgs Boson, it is not time to pop the champagne. Next up: use the Large Hardon Collider to find dark energy.

Watch video here.

What Is a Higgs Boson? Fermilab scientist Don Lincoln describes the nature of the Higgs boson. Several large experimental groups are hot on the trail of this elusive subatomic particle which is thought to explain the origins of particle mass.





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Fermilab Announces Higgs Particle Results: Closer But Not Close Enough

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The Tevatron and Main Injector rings at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois. (Image credit: US Energy Department)

As the world awaits the July 4 update by CERN on the Large Hadron Collider results in the search for the Higgs particle, Fermilab announced their Tevatron results on July 2.

Fermilab reported "Tevatron scientists found that the observed Higgs signal in the combined CDF and DZero data in the bottom-quark decay mode has a statistical significance of 2.9 sigma. This means there is only a 1-in-550 chance that the signal is due to a statistical fluctuation".

"We achieved a critical step in the search for the Higgs boson,” said Dmitri Denisov, DZero cospokesperson and physicist at Fermilab. “While 5-sigma significance is required for a discovery, it seems unlikely that the Tevatron collisions mimicked a Higgs signal. Nobody expected the Tevatron to get this far when it was built in the 1980s."

Scientists Announce New Findings on Higgs Boson Researchers near Chicago announce they're closer to proving the Higgs boson exists. European scientists set to make a Higgs announcement soon.



Tevatron Scientists Announce Their Final Results on the Higgs Particle

Fermilab - July 2, 2012

After more than 10 years of gathering and analyzing data produced by the U.S. Department of Energy's Tevatron collider, scientists from the CDF and DZero collaborations have found their strongest indication to date for the long-sought Higgs particle. Squeezing the last bit of information out of 500 trillion collisions produced by the Tevatron for each experiment since March 2001, the final analysis of the data does not settle the question of whether the Higgs particle exists, but gets closer to an answer. The Tevatron scientists unveiled their latest results on July 2, two days before the highly anticipated announcement of the latest Higgs-search results from the Large Hadron Collider in Europe.

“The Tevatron experiments accomplished the goals that we had set with this data sample,” said Fermilab’s Rob Roser, cospokesperson for the CDF experiment at DOE’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. “Our data strongly point toward the existence of the Higgs boson, but it will take results from the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe to establish a discovery.” "The Tevatron experiments accomplished the goals that we had set with this data sample," said Fermilab's Rob Roser, cospokesperson for the CDF experiment at DOE's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. "Our data strongly point toward the existence of the Higgs boson, but it will take results from the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe to establish a discovery."

Scientists of the CDF and DZero collider experiments at the Tevatron received a round of rousing applause from hundreds of colleagues when they presented their results at a scientific seminar at Fermilab. The Large Hadron Collider results will be announced at a scientific seminar at 2 a.m. CDT on July 4 at the CERN particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland.

"It is a real cliffhanger," said DZero co-spokesperson Gregorio Bernardi, physicist at the Laboratory of Nuclear and High Energy Physics, or LPNHE, at the University of Paris VI & VII. "We know exactly what signal we are looking for in our data, and we see strong indications of the production and decay of Higgs bosons in a crucial decay mode with a pair of bottom quarks, which is difficult to observe at the LHC. We are very excited about it."

The Higgs particle is named after Scottish physicist Peter Higgs, who among other physicists in the 1960s helped develop the theoretical model that explains why some particles have mass and others don't, a major step toward understanding the origin of mass. The model predicts the existence of a new particle, which has eluded experimental detection ever since. Only high-energy particle colliders such as the Tevatron, which was shut down in September 2011, and the Large Hadron Collider, which produced its first collisions in November 2009, have the chance to produce the Higgs particle. About 1,700 scientists from U.S. institutions, including Fermilab, are working on the LHC experiments.

The Tevatron results indicate that the Higgs particle, if it exists, has a mass between 115 and 135 GeV/c2, or about 130 times the mass of the proton.

"During its life, the Tevatron must have produced thousands of Higgs particles, if they actually exist, and it's up to us to try to find them in the data we have collected," said Luciano Ristori, co-spokesperson of the CDF experiment and physicist at Fermilab and the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) . "We have developed sophisticated simulation and analysis programs to identify Higgs-like patterns. Still, it is easier to look for a friend's face in a sports stadium filled with 100,000 people than to search for a Higgs-like event among trillions of collisions."

The final Tevatron results corroborate the Higgs search results that scientists from the Tevatron and the LHC presented at physics conferences in March 2012.

The search for the Higgs particle at the Tevatron focuses on a different decay mode than the search at the LHC. According to the theoretical framework known as the Standard Model of Particles, Higgs bosons can decay in many different ways. Just as a vending machine might return the same amount of change using different combinations of coins, the Higgs can decay into different combinations of particles. At the LHC, the experiments can most easily observe the existence of a Higgs particle by searching for its decay into two energetic photons. At the Tevatron, experiments most easily see the decay of a Higgs particle into a pair of bottom quarks.

The Tevatron is one of eight particle accelerators and storage rings on the Fermilab site. The largest, operational accelerator at Fermilab now is the 2-mile-circumference Main Injector, which provides particles for the laboratory’s neutrino and muon research programs. What is a Higgs Boson? Fermilab scientist Don Lincoln describes the nature of the Higgs boson. Several large experimental groups are hot on the trail of this elusive subatomic particle which is thought to explain the origins of particle mass.





After more than 10 years of gathering and analyzing data produced by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Tevatron collider, scientists from the CDF and DZero experiments have found their strongest indication to date for the long-sought Higgs particle. The Tevatron results indicate that the Higgs particle, if it exists, has a mass between 115 and 135 GeV/c2, or about 130 times the mass of the proton.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Higgs Boson (pdf download)

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Hubble, Swift Detect First-Ever Changes in an Exoplanet Atmosphere

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This artist's rendering illustrates the evaporation of HD 189733b's atmosphere in response to a powerful eruption from its host star. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope detected the escaping gases and NASA's Swift satellite caught the stellar flare.
(Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center)

Hubble, Swift Detect First-Ever Changes in an Exoplanet Atmosphere

An international team of astronomers using data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has made an unparalleled observation, detecting significant changes in the atmosphere of a planet located beyond our solar system. The scientists conclude the atmospheric variations occurred in response to a powerful eruption on the planet's host star, an event observed by NASA's Swift satellite.

"The multiwavelength coverage by Hubble and Swift has given us an unprecedented view of the interaction between a flare on an active star and the atmosphere of a giant planet," said lead researcher Alain Lecavelier des Etangs at the Paris Institute of Astrophysics (IAP), part of the French National Scientific Research Center located at Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris.

The exoplanet is HD 189733b, a gas giant similar to Jupiter, but about 14 percent larger and more massive. The planet circles its star at a distance of only 3 million miles, or about 30 times closer than Earth's distance from the sun, and completes an orbit every 2.2 days. Its star, named HD 189733A, is about 80 percent the size and mass of our sun.

Exo-Planet Hot Flareup Astronomers classify the planet as a "hot Jupiter." Previous Hubble observations show that the planet's deep atmosphere reaches a temperature of about 1,900 degrees Fahrenheit (1,030 C). HD 189733b periodically passes across, or transits, its parent star, and these events give astronomers an opportunity to probe its atmosphere and environment. In a previous study, a group led by Lecavelier des Etangs used Hubble to show that hydrogen gas was escaping from the planet's upper atmosphere. The finding made HD 189733b only the second-known "evaporating" exoplanet at the time. The system is just 63 light-years away, so close that its star can be seen with binoculars near the famous Dumbbell Nebula. This makes HD 189733b an ideal target for studying the processes that drive atmospheric escape.




The exoplanet HD 189733b lies so near its star that it completes an orbit every 2.2 days. In late 2011, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope found that the planet's upper atmosphere was streaming away at speeds exceeding 300,000 mph. Just before the Hubble observation, NASA's Swift detected the star blasting out a strong X-ray flare, one powerful enough to blow away part of the planet's atmosphere. (Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center)

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Tom Campbell: Our Reality Is Information (and Virtual)

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"My consciousness" receives a data stream, therefore I am

Tom Campbell discusses the Universe as a virtual reality and each human as a consciousness receiving a data stream.Humans are virtual creations as is the entire Universe, rendered by something beyond this reality. He begins with the Double Slit Experiment Paradox and later mentions a recent quantum entanglement discovery that confirms his theory.

My Reality = Virtual + Information. Let's go down the rabbit hole with Tom in this interview and discover the world is not as it seems. That is, the Universe is not a physical, objective reality. See tags at end of post for additional information on this subject, including The Universe As a Virtual Reality and the Double Slit Experiment Paradox

Tom Campbell: Our Reality Is Information In this informal interview in Atlanta June 8, 2012, Tom Campbell, author of My Big TOE, expands on the significance of the scientific experiment called the Double Slit in terms everyone can understand.

"If you understand the Double Slit experiment, you understand how our reality works". He continues "Everything we do is not different from the Double Slit experiment".

This explanation is valuable to scientists as well as the general public. Tom takes a difficult subject and applies helpful analogies to clarify the implications of this scientific experiment.



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Global Future and the Technological Singularity: A New Era for Humanity

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The world is on the verge of global change. The rate of globally significant events, and that of discoveries and crises, is growing exponentially. We are facing the choice: To fall into a new Dark Age - into affliction and degradation – or to find a new model for human development and create not simply a new civilization, but a new mankind.

2045: A New Era for Humanity In February of 2012 the first Global Future 2045 Congress was held in Moscow. There, over 50 world leading scientists from multiple disciplines met to develop a strategy for the future development of humankind. One of the main goals of the Congress was to construct a global network of scientists to further research on the development of cybernetic technology, with the ultimate goal of transferring a human's individual consciousness to an artificial carrier.



Global Future Timeline

2012-2013. The global economic and social crises are exacerbated. The debates on the global paradigm of future development intensifies. New transhumanist movements and parties emerge. Russia 2045 transforms into World 2045. Simultaneously, the 2045.com international social network for open innovation is expanding. Here anyone interested may propose a project, take part in working on it, or fund it, or both. In the network, there are scientists, scholars, researchers, financiers and managers.

2013-2014. New centers working on cybernetic technologies for the development of radical life extension rise. The 'race for immortality' starts.

2015-2020. The Avatar is created -- A robotic human copy controlled by thought via 'brain-computer' interface. It becomes as popular as a car.

2020. In Russia and in the world appear -- in testing mode -- several breakthrough projects: Android robots replace people in manufacturing tasks; android robot servants for every home; thought-controlled Avatars to provide telepresence in any place of the world and abolish the need business trips; flying cars; thought driven mobile communications built into the body or sprayed onto the skin.

2020-2025. An autonomous system providing life support for the brain and allowing it interaction with the environment is created. The brain is transplanted into an Avatar B. With Avatar B man receives new, expanded life.

2025. The new generation of Avatars provides complete transmission of sensations from all five sensory robot organs to the operator.

2030-2035. ReBrain -- The colossal project of brain reverse engineering is implemented. World science comes very close to understanding the principles of consciousness.

2035. The first successful attempt to transfer one's personality to an alternative carrier. The epoch of cybernetic immortality begins.

2040-2050. Bodies made of nanorobots that can take any shape arise alongside hologram bodies.

2045-2050. Drastic changes in social structure, and in scientific and technological development. All the for space expansion are established. For the man of the future, war and violence are unacceptable. The main priority of his development is spiritual self-improvement.

A new era dawns: The era of neohumanity.



Russia 2045 Strategic Social Initiative

Global Future 2045 International Congress

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The New Age of Cognitive Computing

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The Cognitive Systems Era Join IBM's Dharmendra Modha - Manager, Cognitive Computing Systems and Master Inventor - as he offers a glimpse of IBM Research's efforts to help shape the new age of cognitive computing.




Dharmendra Modha - Manager, IBM Cognitive Computing Systems

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Dolphin Nebula Swimming Through Space

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The Dolphin Nebula image is surreal. This is known and reported by Space.com as "crescent-shaped planetary nebula SH2-188 glows in wisps of green". Bill Snyder, an astrophotographer, has created an extraordinary image for us to enjoy and ponder.

Bill Snyder reports, "Sh2-188 also known as PNG128.0-4.1 and Simeis22. The Dolphin Nebula, in the constellation Cassiopeia, is a planetary nebula. It is approxmiatly 850 light years from Earth This an asymmetrical shaped planetary nebula."

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Dolphin Nebula

Thanks to Space.com for breaking the story and Bill Snyder for his wonderful image.

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Welcome To Your Future Brain: Enhancing Our Senses and Perception

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Reality Is A Digital Data Stream

Alas, the human biological platform perceives only a small amount of the data stream, the information, around us. For example, a tiny portion of the electromagnetic spectrum is detected by people. How tiny? David Eagleman says we see one ten-trillionth of the electromagnetic spectrum! And that's just one data stream we are missing out on!

We need enhancement, additional receptors to receive the broadband cable version of reality! Tom Campbell talked about this reality data stream here, Tom Campbell: Why Reality is a Computed Simulation.

David Eagleman: Welcome To Your Future Brain We're entering a very interesting stage of human history right now where we can start importing technology to enhance our natural senses or perception of the world, says neuroscientist David Eagleman. Directed / Produced by Elizabeth Rodd and Jonathan Fowler.




Electromagnetic Spectrum

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