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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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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‘Time Cloak’ Makes Information Vanish By Creating Gaps In Time, Scientists Say

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A new invisibility cloak for data can make information vanish by creating holes in time, new research suggests.

The researchers, who describe their work today (June 5) in the journal Nature, found that by tweaking the optical signals in telecommunications fibers, they created a way to essentially mask data sent between a sender and a receiver to outside observers. This isn’t the first time researchers have taken a page from Harry Potter: Last year, scientists also demonstrated a similar invisibility cloak.

But the new “time cloak” can create many time holes in rapid succession, which means masked data could be sent at commercial data speeds, said Martin McCall, a theoretical-optics researcher at Imperial College London who was not involved in the study. 

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Scientists demonstrate how they have have created, a new invisibility technique that doesn’t just cloak an object (like in Harry Potter books and movies), but masks an entire event. It is a time masker that works by briefly bending the speed of light around an event.

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.Click link below for story and slideshow:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/06/time-cloak-invisibility-information-gaps-time_n_3395737.html?ref=topbar

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Penguins’ Flying Ability Lost As Birds Became Better Swimmers, Study Of Murres Suggests

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Humans spent centuries conspiring to fly, so it might be hard to imagine that any creature would give up the skill, and yet penguins waddle among us. A new study helps confirm that these seabirds traded flight to become better swimmers.

Penguins have a litany of physical features that make them energy-efficient underwater. For instance, their shortened wingspans lessen drag; their dense wing bones make them less buoyant; and their bulky bodies help them stay insulated and dive deeper. Unlike other aquatic birds that paddle underwater with their webbed feet, penguins beat their wings to propel themselves far below the surface. Emperor penguins can even go to depths greater than 1,500 feet (450 meters), lasting 20 minutes on a single breath.

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Murres, which resemble flying penguins, have the highest wing-loading of any bird, which results in exceptionally high flight costs and could explain why Antarctic penguins have evolved flightlessness.

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

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/penguins-flying-ability-birds-swim-better-murres_n_3318799.html?ref=topbar

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New York Man Fatally Shot In Alleged Anti-Gay Hate Crime

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A New York Times report has identified the victim as Mark Carson, 32, and the suspect as 33-year-old Elliot Morales.

In what may be the latest in a disturbing series of crimes allegedly targeting New York’s gay community, a man was fatally shot in the head May 18 while walking through the West Village.

As NBC is reporting, local law enforcement officials are investigating the case as a hate crime after learning the suspect, who was arrested just blocks from the scene, allegedly hurled a series of anti-gay insults at the 32-year-old victim before shooting him.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told the Associated Press that the suspect referred to the victim, who has been identified in the media only as a Brooklyn resident, and his companion as “gay wrestlers” after encountering them on the street shortly after midnight.

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

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/18/new-york-gay-hate-crime-shooting-_n_3299277.html?icid=maing-grid7|myaol|dl23|sec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D315289

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Jaime Clutter, Indiana Mom, Died After Killing 2 Children: Cops

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A woman who thought her family was being stalked by “demonic presences” killed her two children in a southern Indiana creek before she also drowned, police said Friday.

Police had released little information after body of Jaime Clutter, 35, was found in March, along with the bodies of her 10-year-old son, Brandon, and 6-month-old daughter, Katelyn. The naked bodies were recovered in a park less than a mile from where the family lived in New Albany, a city along the Ohio River just west of Louisville, Ky. Their clothing was found strewn in the creek.

New Albany Police Chief Sherri Knight said during a news conference Friday that mental illness, including postpartum depression, was the underlying factor in the deaths. Knight added that authorities didn’t know whether Clutter committed suicide or downed by accident, noting that “hypothermia was a significant contributing factor” in her death.

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Willie Wilkins, Veteran, Gets Back Dog Tag He Lost In World War II

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Carol Wilkins leaned over the side of her father’s wheelchair and handed him the small red box, a heart-shaped cutout revealing its contents: a weathered, bent silver dog tag.

“Oh, Daddy, look,” Wilkins exclaimed as her 90-year-old father opened it, his eyes beaming and smile wide. “They’re back.”

Sixty-nine years after losing his dog tag on the battlefields of southern France, Willie Wilkins reclaimed it Wednesday after a trans-Atlantic effort to return it to him. It started more than a decade ago in a French backyard and ended with a surprise ceremony in Newark City Hall.

“I am so happy,” Carol Wilkins said. “You don’t know what joy is on my heart for what you have done for my father.”

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

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/08/willie-wilkins-dog-tag-world-war-ii_n_3238591.html?icid=maing-grid7|myaol|dl40|sec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D311526

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Warp Drive Feasible? Relativity Loophole Means ‘Star Trek’ Device Might Actually Work, Physicists Say

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In the “Star Trek” TV shows and films, the U.S.S. Enterprise’s warp engine allows the ship to move faster than light, an ability that is, as Spock would say, “highly illogical.”

However, there’s a loophole in Einstein’s general theory of relativity that could allow a ship to traverse vast distances in less time than it would take light. The trick? It’s not the starship that’s moving — it’s the space around it.

In fact, scientists at NASA are right now working on the first practical field test toward proving the possibility of warp drives and faster-than-light travel. Maybe the warp drive on “Star Trek” is possible after all. [See also: Warp Drive: Can It Be Done? (Video)]

According to Einstein’s theory, an object with mass cannot go as fast or faster than the speed of light. The original “Star Trek” series ignored this “universal speed limit” in favor of a ship that could zip around the galaxy in a matter of days instead of decades. They tried to explain the ship’s faster-than-light capabilities by powering the warp engine with a “matter-antimatter” engine. Antimatter was a popular field of study in the 1960s, when creator Gene Roddenberry was first writing the series. When matter and antimatter collide, their mass is converted to kinetic energy in keeping with Einstein’s mass-energy equivalence formula, E=mc².

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In the “Star Trek” TV shows and films, the U.S.S. Enterprise’s warp engine allows the ship to move faster than light, an ability that is, as Spock would say, “highly illogical.” However, there’s a loophole in Einstein’s general theory of relativity that could allow a ship to traverse vast distances in less time than it would take light.

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

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/14/warp-drive-possible-star-trek-special-relativity_n_3273422.html?ref=topbar

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Willie Jerome Manning Execution Blocked By Mississippi Supreme Court

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The Mississippi Supreme Court has indefinitely delayed Tuesday’s scheduled execution of Willie Jerome Manning amid questions involving evidence in the case, intervening hours before he was set to die for the slayings of two college students.

Manning, who had challenged errors involving evidence analysis, was originally set to receive a lethal injection at 6 p.m. CDT at the state prison in Parchman. But with mere hours remaining, the high court blocked the execution until it rules further in the case.

Manning was convicted in 1994 in the shooting deaths of two Mississippi State University students, Jon Steckler and Tiffany Miller. Their bodies were found in a rural area in December 1992.

The FBI has said in recent days that there were errors in agents’ testimony about ballistics tests and hair analysis in the case.

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Willie Jerome Manning

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.Click link below for story, slideshow and video:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/07/willie-jerome-manning-execution-blocked-mississippii_n_3231790.html?ref=topbar

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Exoskeletons, Lasers, and Jet Packs: How to Be a Real-Life Iron Man

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Aside from the (admittedly considerable) appeal of watching Robert Downey Jr. crack wise as billionaire genius-turned-superhero Tony Stark, perhaps the biggest lure of Marvel’s Iron Man movies is finding out just what kind of amazing toys and gadgets he’s built into the latest version of his high-tech armor this time around. Although such innovations as a costume that unfolds itself from a suitcase onto your body (Iron Man 2‘s “Mark V” armor) or clothes that follow you around when you wear special bracelets (Marvel’s The Avengers‘s Mark VII armor) remain the stuff of science fiction, a surprising amount of the tech on display in the Iron Man mythos has counterparts in our world, even if the reality is a bit less colorful and unlikely to help us in the case of a Chitauri invasion.

From strength-enhancing exoskeletons to repulsor rays and sentient robot sidekicks, becoming a real-life Iron Man wouldn’t be easy — and it definitely wouldn’t be cheap — but it wouldn’t be entirely outside the realm of possibility, either.

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.Click link below for article and gallery:

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/04/real-life-iron-man/#slideid-142484

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