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When AI Creatures Ask ‘Why Me?'

When AI Creatures Ask ‘Why Me?'

In my algorithm, as readers will have noticed, exaggerated fear of artificial intelligence is a mask for what really distresses us, the thought that we are algorithms too.
We think we're so smart and free, but we are apes who wear clothes. Our thoughts and actions have their origins in the animal mess. They aren't our own creations.

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MIT's high-tech ‘bubble wrap' turns air into safe drinking water — even in Death Valley
MIT's high-tech ‘bubble wrap' turns air into safe drinking water — even in Death Valley

Yahoo

time33 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

MIT's high-tech ‘bubble wrap' turns air into safe drinking water — even in Death Valley

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. MIT researchers have created a high-tech 'bubble wrap' capable of collecting safe drinking water directly from the air — even in Death Valley, the driest desert in North America. The new water harvester is a major step towards providing safe, accessible drinking water to people across the globe — and works wherever you may find water vapor in the air, scientists said in a new study published June 11 in the journal Nature Water. The water harvester is made from hydrogel (a highly water-absorbent material) that is enclosed between two layers of glass — much like a window. At night, the device absorbs water vapor from the atmosphere. During the day, the water condenses on the glass thanks to a coating that keeps the glass cool. The liquid water then drips down the glass and is collected in a system of tubes. The hydrogel is formed into a special shape, a series of domes resembling a sheet of bubble wrap that swells up when absorbing water vapor. The domes increase the material's surface area, which increases the amount of water it can hold. Researchers tested the new device for a week in Death Valley, a unique desert valley spanning across parts of California and Nevada. It's the hottest place in the world and the driest place in North America. Related: 2 billion people could face chaotic and 'irreversible' shift in rainfall patterns if warming continues It produced about a quarter to two-thirds of a cup of water every day (57-161.5 milliliters). In more humid areas, the device should produce even more water. This design is a lot more effective than some previous attempts to collect drinking water from air, all without needing electricity to power it, MIT representatives said in a statement. The researchers also solved another long-standing problem with the quality of water collected using hydrogel designs. Lithium salts, added to the hydrogel to increase water absorption, normally leak into the water in similar designs, rendering the water unsafe to drink without further processing. This new design includes a salt stabilizer called glycerol which reduces the leakage below 0.06 ppm, the US Geological Survey's estimate for how much lithium salt can be present in groundwater before it might be unsafe to drink. RELATED STORIES —Stabbed, cut, attacked, twisted — scientists subject new stretchable battery to extreme torture, and it retained 90% of its capacity —Ancient groundwater records reveal worrying forecast for US Southwest —Scientists invent photosynthetic 'living' material that sucks CO2 out of the atmosphere While one panel might not produce enough water to sustain an entire household, they don't take up much space — which means multiple panels could be set up for a single household. The researchers estimate that using eight 3 foot by 6 foot (1 m by 2 m) panels could be enough to supply households anywhere that there isn't easy access to safe drinking water. Compared to the costs of bottled water in the US, the device could pay for itself in less than a month and last at least one year. 'We imagine that you could one day deploy an array of these panels, and the footprint is very small because they are all vertical,' Xuanhe Zhao, one of the paper's authors and a professor of both MIT's mechanical engineering and civil and environmental engineering departments, said in the statement. 'Now people can build it even larger, or make it into parallel panels, to supply drinking water to people and achieve real impact.' The team plans to test the panels in additional resource-limited environments to learn more about the device's performance under different conditions.

‘Tron: Ares' Will Have Nine Inch Nails at Their Most Industrial Rock
‘Tron: Ares' Will Have Nine Inch Nails at Their Most Industrial Rock

Gizmodo

timean hour ago

  • Gizmodo

‘Tron: Ares' Will Have Nine Inch Nails at Their Most Industrial Rock

More than anything, folks are excited for Tron: Ares because of its soundtrack. In a first for the duo in their time as film composers, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are going by 'Nine Inch Nails' for their work on the threequel, and that means they're leaning fully into their rock band history. Speaking to Empire Magazine, Reznor said the Ares soundtrack features 'not one second of orchestra.' In fact, he went so far as to call the music not just different from the first two films (respectively scored by Wendy Carlos and Daft Punk), but one that 'takes a bigger swing for what music can do in cinema without sounding fucking pompous.' This was an active goal for the pair, who've previously worked on Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, Soul, and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and Naughty Dog's upcoming sci-fi adventure Intergalactic: The Lost Prophet. What type of sound are the two cooking up? According to Reznor, the Tron: Ares score will be 'precise and unpleasant at times' without falling 'atonal and punishing' territory. He and Ross wanted to focus on the undertones of the film's story, which centers on Jared Leto's Ares leaving the digital space for the human world. As such, the duo keyed in on 'artificial characters' like Ares and Jodie Turner-Smith's Athena 'being infused with feelings and emotions and a sense of questioning their purpose and their replaceability, their lack of soul, in some ways.' Sounds like a lot, and given Disney's recent track record, we'll probably get to hear some of it before Tron: Ares arrives in theaters on October 10. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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