Coffee under threat

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There could be a caffeine shortage

Climate change could push up the price of our beloved addiction coffee, prices might rise as the temperature does.

The price of coffee is likely to go up as the land where the coffee is farmed might not be suitable for the coffee to grow.

Ethiopia is the birthplace and the biggest exporter of Arabica coffee beans, but according to a report in Nature Plants today, the production of the bean could be under threat unless action is taken.

Basically we are drinking a lot more coffee than we are producing and so far the manufacturer’s have enough coffee saved up from previous years to continue to drink it as normal – which means we’ve avoided a price hike or a shortage altogether.

However the long term outlook is causing greater cause for concern. Scientists from London’s Kew Gardens have said that if action is taken, a coffee shortage could be avoided – 2 possible solutions are: the relocation of coffee-growing areas and forest conservation.

A combination of the two could avoid a coffee shortage, therefore avoiding the human population having a major meltdown due a lack of their caffeine fix!  

How smart will AI become?

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Andrew Ng has likened Artificial Intelligence to be as important to us as electricity in the years to come, as crazy as that sounds, our ancestors probably thought the same as electricity.

Our work life will be different and AI will be far more competitive than any human, it will require us to sharpen up our mental skills!

Whilst experts believe that we will still be required to do jobs that are very important and carry a lot of weight to it, just because robots/AI don’t have the same emotional attachment/engagement than that of a human. Whilst the challenge for us would be because we as humans like to seek confirmation and things that confirm what we think of ourselves. Thus holding us back. To over come this would require us to take the things w take for granted like thinking and listening to a new level.

Thus in time, our definition of “smart” (good grades) will begin to change. Smart will become the people who make the least amount of mistakes in life.

AI is incredible in that sense as we cannot do things quicker/recall information/produce alternative occurrences of an event than a super computer or any time of AI, it’s just too good.

A new definition of smart will promote a new way of thinking, it won’t be what you know, but it will be how good your skills are. Quantity of knowledge replaced by quality. Thus, in turn, forcing us to get better at cognitive and emotional skills. Adjusting after mistakes, learn emotional intelligence, letting go of the ego. Making us perceive reality a lot easier and not what we want it to be. Embracing what it means to be human, in turn, living alongside smart technology.

 

Memory Implants are Almost here!

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The idea of a chip that allows record and replay memories may seem farfetched, Apple believe it soon will become reality.

During a TED talk in Vancouver Tom Gruber co-creator of Siri said:

“I believe AI will make personal memory enhancement a reality. I think it’s inevitable.”

Konbini are reporting that companies from all across Silicon Valley are working on designing telepathic AI that would allow such feats.

It’s hoped that tech like this would help in law suits and in the courts with things like assault, sexual assault and other crimes, acting as irrefutable evidence. While this is good, there is the worry of privacy and how ‘memories’ could be kept insanely secure (nothing can beat it being solely in your mind though eh?) To this privacy worry Gruber stated:

“We get to chose what is and is not recalled and retained. It’s absolutely essential that this be kept very secure.”

He’s spitballing of course, but we shall see what happens in the future.

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

Would you get an implant?

What memory would you like to re-see?

What memory wouldn’t you like to see again?

What memory would you delete?

Are we all going to become cyborgs?

Facebook delivering internet

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Internet has become a human right and something that we need – like air.

To help save lives in times of natural disasters, Facebook have designed a “Tether – Antenna” A small unmanned helicopter that hooks onto undamaged fiber and power lines (when cellular infrastructure was damaged but fiber lines in the area still work) and then hover “a few hundred feet from the ground,”  to provide internet and when complete will be able to offer internet, sometimes at up to months at a time!

The tech is still early in terms of development but, like the company’s plans for blanketing the developing world with a limited form of internet connectivity alongside Terragraph, (a gigabit wifi system that bolsters signals in dense urban environments) and Aquila, (Facebooks internet delivering drones) – it highlights that Facebook want to do a lot more than just put augmented masks on your face.

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

Mastercard Fingerprints

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MasterCard have announced a “next generation biometric card” which embeds fingerprint recognition into debit cards. Interesting.

It is called Pick N Pay, users place their thumb on a card which includes a fingerprint reader and still require you to enter your pin, but helps if you lose the card as to use the card it requires both the number and thumbprint to match.

MasterCard is piloting this feature in Europe, Asia and South Africa and expects to to be fully rolled out by the end of 2017. Small win for security but it raises HUGE questions about privacy.

 TechCrunch’s write-up, emphasis added:

One relatively large drawback for the convenience of the biometric card is that the spokeswoman confirmed users are currently required to go to a bank branch in order to register and enroll their fingerprint. (Which is then converted into an encrypted digital template that is stored on the card.)

So banks will have a Physical copy of YOUR FINGERPRINT! When Gizmodo reached out to Mastercard about this they ensured them that the data is encrypted before being stored on the chip and once on the chip it cannot be retrieved.

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

GTA V Teaching Autonomous Cars?

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GTA V is one of the simulation platforms that researchers and engineers are using to test and train AI to eventually drive us to work. Car companies are touting that there will be a no hands on model in 3 years but there’s still a lot to learn and a lot of algorithms to respond to. Which is where GTA V comes in, scientists from Darmstadt University of Technology in Germany and Intel Labs have developed algorithms that have been tweaked for use in self driving cars.

This is because there’s more time to do more things in the virtual world and cars never run out of petrol.  It will never be a substitute for real world environments but the game is the game is the closest and most ‘realistic’ virtual environment to compare real world possibilities to. (With 262 types of vehicles, more than 1,000 different unpredictable pedestrians and animals, 14 weather conditions and countless bridges, traffic signals, tunnels and intersections.)

Most things are done through trial and error, and we’re spitballing here, exploring countless different scenarios and adjusting how the cars would react to said situations countless times!

It may seem out of this world but realistic video games are able to generate very similar data to what AI agents can obtain from the road. AI software has been using games such as Super Mario Bros/Angry Birds tackling problems in controlled environments, learning through simple trial and error.

Waymo (A self driving car company) uses it’s simulators to create an infinite number of situations that it’s engineers can muster up. Such as having three cars changing lanes at the same time at an assortment of speeds and directions, what’s learned virtually is applied physically and problems encountered on the road in real life is then studied in simulation.

So it’s not so crazy afterall.

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Amazon shop problem?!

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Amazon shop – Amazon Go is in a spot of bother. A report out of seattle claims that Amazon Go is encountering some pretty big technical issues. It gets confused when people shop – more than 20 people to be exact.

Which puts the whole ‘just walk out’ theory into chaos. An unnamed source told the Wallstreet journal that:

Amazon has run into problems tracking more than about 20 people in the store at one time, as well as the difficulty of keeping tabs on an item if it has been moved from its specific spot on the shelf. For now, the technology functions flawlessly only if there are a small number of customers present, or when their movements are slow.

Well. It’s not a great start. If this comes from concept to reality we may have to wait a bit longer.

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

 

Internet Lemonade!

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Researchers have found an ingenious way to send the taste of lemonade through the internet! It looks like lemonade too! The researchers first used sensors to get the characteristics of lemonade which was then sent to a smart tumbler of water where LEDs replicated colour. Electrodes in the tumblr then reproduced the sourness by stimulating a users (drinkers?) tastebuds.

Whilst it isn’t really sending lemonade through the internet as testers have said that the taste wasn’t as sour as the real thing it goes a long way to sending drinks across the web. Researchers have even said that they’re working on developing a cock tail that would even mimic the smell of a drink.

 

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

 

Spinach Heart

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Scientists have found a way to turn spinach leaves into human heart cells that function. Yes. Spinach Leaves.

Scientists pump a detergent through the spinach which strips it of all of its plant cells, turning it into a clear shell made of cellulose. The scientists then culture the heart cells by sending both fluids and microscopic beads through the spinach’s veins to feed the new cells.

It’s safe and potentially a great way to grow new heart tissue. Other methods such as 3D printing aren’t as good as Spinach as printing can’t replicate a complex network of veins which are needed to grow cells. What’s incredible is that the cellulose in the Spinach is bio compatible so you won’t have to worry about your body rejecting it (If it was 3D printed)

It is just research at the moment and is a long way off but if this happens it could be HUGE and not just for other body parts too.

Find out more here:

 

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Elon Musk’s BrainPlug

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Well Matrix is about to become reality…if Elon Musk has his way.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that, Elon Musk has started a company called “Neuralink” to develop a “neural lace: that would allow humans to communicate with machines without a physical interface. By implanting electrodes into a brain so that we could upload or download thoughts to a computer – thus possibly allowing us to achieve higher levels of cognitive function. (all sounds X-Men like doesn’t it!)

Musk touched upon a Neural Lace like implant at Vox Media’s Code Conference in 2016, stating it could allow humans to achieve “symbiosis” with machines, preventing them from becoming “house cats” to AI.

Though the WSJ is reporting that Neuralink’s first products could use implants to treat disorders such as epilepsy.

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