When Sentient Artificial Intelligence Becomes Reality

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Two things humans often do: We anthropomorphise, and we dehumanise. Which is, if you think about it, a rather curious dichotomy: when we anthropomorphise, we ascribe human characteristics to inhuman beings, and when we dehumanise, we do the opposite, denying the full and equal humanity of other members of our own species. The classic example of this is someone who invests deeply in animal welfare, but doesn’t care about human rights abuses. Obviously, it’s possible to feel passionate about both, and there’s also the issue of compassion fatigue: There’s only so much we can care about before we reach a sort of emotional event horizon and start to shut down.

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Foz Meadows, YA urban fantasy writer, author of the novels Solace and Grief and The Key to Starveldt.

Foz is also a prolific blogger, writing about feminism, pop culture, politics and more both at her own place Shattersnipe: Malcontent & Rainbows and over at The Huffington Post. Foz’s posts constantly blow our minds away so we just had to invite her over for this year’s Smugglivus.

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.Click link below for article and video:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/foz-meadows/when-sentient-al-becomes-reality_b_3434882.html?ir=TED+Weekends&ref=topbar

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Restoring the Blue

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We’ve mapped less than 10 percent of the ocean with the resolution we’ve mapped 100 percent of the Moon and Mars, and yet when we send rovers to Mars what’s the first sign of life they probe for? Water. David Gallo’s ‘Underwater Astonishments’ reminds us of how little we know about our own blue marble planet and the 97 percent of its livable habitat that is saltwater. Remember that we air-breathing terrestrials only inhabit about 300 feet of space from prairie dog burrows to the tops of the trees where birds nest. Above that is only heaven and space. Hundreds of people have now gone into space, calling it “the last frontier,” but last year Jim Cameron became only the third human being ever to reach the lowest point on our planet, seven miles down in the Pacific’s Challenger Deep.

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David Helvarg is Executive Director of Blue Frontier Campaign (www.bluefront.org) and the author of five books: Blue Frontier, The War Against the Greens, 50 Ways to Save the Ocean, Rescue Warriors and Saved by the Sea. He is editor of the Ocean and Coastal Conservation Guide, organizer of several ‘Blue Vision’ Summits for ocean activists, and winner of Coastal Living Magazine’s 2005 Leadership Award and the 2007 Herman Melville Literary Award. Helvarg worked as a war correspondent in Northern Ireland and Central America, covered a range of issues from military science to the AIDS epidemic, and reported from every continent including Antarctica. An award-winning journalist, he produced more than 40 broadcast documentaries for PBS, The Discovery Channel, and others. His print work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, LA Times, Smithsonian, Popular Science, Sierra, and The Nation. He’s done radio work for Marketplace, AP radio, and Pacifica. He has led workshops for journalists in Poland, Turkey, Tunisia, Slovakia and Washington DC. He is a licensed Private Investigator, body-surfer and scuba diver.

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.Click link below for article and video:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-helvarg/ocean-conservation_b_3361936.html?ir=TED+Weekends&ref=topbar

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Robots with your face want to invade workplaces and hospitals

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Robotic telepresence remains one of those technologies that is always lingering just on the horizon; it’s going to change everything, the futurists say, just as soon as it gets here. But while several clever telerobotics solutions have come to market in recent years (Vgo and Double Robotics for instance), no solution has yet been both sophisticated and user-friendly enough for the mainstream. These robots — designed to give a remote human operator control of a mobile surrogate robot so that, for instance, a company manager in Chicago can virtually tour a factory floor in Topeka — allow users to move around an environment and interact with people and objects on the other side of the city, country, or planet. But for the most part, telerobots remain high-priced toys.

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.Click link below for article:

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/06/10/robots-with-your-face-want-to-invade-workplaces-and-hospitals/#tech?hpt=tech_zite1_featured

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Take an “Artwalk” Through Downtown Stamford Connecticut

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“Stamford is going to just flood artists”

The streets of downtown Stamford will transform into one large art exhibit this weekend for the City’s first ever Artwalk. The free event, created by the Stamford Downtown Special Services District, will showcase more than 90 artists in shops, restaurants, and galleries downtown.

Stamford DSSD President Sandy Goldstein says, “We want to make sure that people recognize the downtown as an art venue.”

Patrons can visit over 35 venues on the Artwalk route, where they will run into live music, performances, and special activities a long the way.

Artwalk curator Valerie Cooper says, “It’s just a wonderful conglomerate of diversity, culture, of different nationalities, and my vision was to put something together that reflected exactly what Stamford sort of stands for.”

The Old Town Hall Museum and UConn’s campus art gallery are just two of six participating galleries that will feature special exhibits for the event.

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Artwalk curator Valerie Cooper

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.Click link below for article and video:

http://stamford.itsrelevant.com/content/14726/take-an-artwalk-through-downtown-stamford

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When To Divorce: Questions To Ask Yourself Before Ending Your Marriage

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What do you need to think about before calling it quits? The experts weigh in.

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Getty Images

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.Click link below for story and slideshow:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/14/when-to-divorce-ending-marriage_n_3423342.html?icid=maing-grid7|myaol|dl26|sec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D329354

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15-Year-Old Sells Over $1 Million Worth of Flip Flops

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“Fox & Friends” says 15-year-old Madison Robinson has sold over $1 million worth of flip flops. Her Fish Flops are already

sold in Nordstrom, a place Madison never imagined her shoes would be. KRIV says Nordstrom sells the shoes in 60 stores across the country. Daily Mail says the money Madison has already earned is going towards her college tuition. She plans to study business in college and grow her Fish Flops empire. The shoes sell for $25 a pair.

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.Click link below for video:

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State Department accused of covering up sex and prostitution investigation

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 The U.S. State Department’s ability to investigate wrongdoing by its staff is under question after a report that the agency tried to cover up several crimes committed has surfaced.

Some of the allegations are against then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s security detail who allegedly hired prostitutes, a U.S. ambassador accused of trolling public parks for paid sex and a security official in Beirut committing sexual assaults on foreign nationals.

An internal memo from the State Department’s inspector general listed eight examples of wrongdoing by agency staff or contractors. 

The memo also seems to indicate that the government agency tried to use its authority to stop the investigation and instead, opting to have the official, whose name has not been released, meet with Undersecretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy in Washington. The official was then allowed to return to his job overseas.

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.Click link below for story:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/11/state-dept-accused-covering-up-sex-and-prostitution-investigation/?cmpid=prn_aol&ncid=mobile2

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What Do I Do If My Teen Is Thinking About Suicide?

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They say that the worst pain in life is losing a child. When parents hear that their child is thinking about suicide, or has even tried to commit suicide, they often become paralyzed by the fear that they will say or do something that will lead their child to take their own life. Many parents coming into our suicide prevention programs say “I feel like I am walking on eggshells and don’t know what to do.” Yet, parents are rarely involved in treatment to any great extent. In fact, we have heard from many parents that they have been discouraged from participating in their child’s mental health treatment!

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Dr. Esposito-Smythers is an Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department at George Mason University, Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Community Health at Brown University,  and a Licensed Clinical Psychologist.  She is also a Clinical Supervisor at the George Mason University Center for Psychological Services (psyclinic.gmu.edu). Specifically, she supervises graduate students in the provision of cognitive behavioral therapy for children and adolescents experiencing depression, anxiety, and/or behavior problems.

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.Click link below for article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christy-espositosmythers/teen-suicide-prevention_b_3333486.html?ir=TED+Weekends&ref=topbar

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Sarah Murnaghan’s Surgery Deemed A Success

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A 10-year-old girl whose efforts to qualify for an organ donation spurred public debate over how organs are allocated underwent a successful double-lung transplant on Wednesday, the girl’s family said.

Sarah Murnaghan, who suffers from severe cystic fibrosis, received new lungs from an adult donor at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, spokeswoman Tracy Simon said.

The Murnaghan family said it was “thrilled” to share the news that Sarah was out of surgery.

“Her doctors are very pleased with both her progress during the procedure and her prognosis for recovery,” the family said in a statement.

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.Click link below for story, video, and slideshow:

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.Click link below for related post:

http://jtm71.wordpress.com/2013/06/08/judge-moves-sarah-murnaghan-onto-adult-lung-list/

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Mind-Controlled Helicopter Performs Stunts In Incredible Test Flights (VIDEO)

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Imagine being able to control a flying robot with your mind.

Sounds like a flight of fancy, but researchers at the University of Minnesota have fashioned an electrode-studded cap that records brain waves and uses them to control a “quadcopter” via wi-fi. Results of the copter’s test flights were published in the June issue of the Journal of Neural Engineering.

How does it work? “It’s completely noninvasive. Nobody has to have a chip implanted in their brain to pick up the neuronal activity,” biomedical engineering student and one of the paper’s authors, Karl LaFleur, said in a written statement.

Thinking about moving a body part makes cells in an area of the brain called the motor cortex produce tiny electrical currents. The cap sends this information to a computer, which translates it into directions for the copter.

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.Click link below for story, video, and slideshow:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/06/mind-controlled-helicopter-incredible-flight_n_3396863.html?ref=topbar

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