Dr Rajiv Desai
An Educational Blog
Is artificial intelligence (AI) an existential threat?
Is artificial intelligence (AI) an existential threat? _ _ Section-1 Prologue: On September 26, 2022, without most of us noticing, humanity’s long-term odds of survival became ever so slightly better. Some 11,000,000 km away, a NASA spacecraft was deliberately smashed into the minor planet-moon, Dimorphos, and successfully changed its direction of travel. It was an important proof of concept that showed that if we’re ever in danger of being wiped out by an asteroid, we might be able to stop it from hitting the Earth. But what if the existential threat we need to worry about isn’t Deep Impact but Terminator? Despite years of efforts from professionals and researchers to quash any and all comparisons with apocalyptic science fiction and real-world artificial intelligence (AI), the threat of this technology going rogue and posing a serious threat to survival isn’t just for Hollywood movies. As crazy as it sounds, […]
SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY (SYNBIO)
Synthetic Biology (synbio): _______ Scientists Elizabeth Allman and Kristin O’Brien teach a course in synthetic biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. O’Brien said that the goal of synthetic biology is not to build “better organisms” but rather to create biological machines. _______ Prologue: The advent of digital technology is considered one of the biggest revolutions of all time for how quickly and deeply it changed the world forever. Even more powerful revolution is coming, which goes under the name of synthetic biology. The potential of this discipline is very well understood in the biological scientific world. It is time I make general public aware of the impact it will have on our lives. Synthetic biology brings together a bewildering number of disciplines: biotechnology, molecular biology, systems biology, biophysics, computer engineering, genetic engineering, and more. Synthetic biology will allow scientists and engineers to create biological systems that do not occur […]
DRIVERLESS CAR
DRIVERLESS CAR: _____ _____ Prologue: Karl Benz invented the automobile in 1885. Later that year Benz took it out for the first public test drive and he crashed into a wall. Car crash trend continues till date. In spite of stronger cars, extra seat belts, and air bags, 1.25 million people are killed on the world’s roads every year. What could have prevented the accident? The obvious answer is that you could have — by paying attention. Driver error is the most common cause of traffic accidents, and with cell phones, drunken driving, in-car entertainment systems, more traffic and more complicated road systems, it isn’t likely to go away. But if drivers aren’t going to concentrate on the road, who is? If technology continues on its current course, your car will do the concentrating for you. Automakers are developing complex systems that allow cars to drive themselves. Machines are much […]
CREATIVITY
CREATIVITY: _ Have a look at a picture below. What do you think? A non-creative brain sees only a hodgepodge of disconnected shapes, but a creative brain can go beyond common sense and find the connecting concept that makes sense of the shapes. The picture is of a dog drinking from a stream, with its head in the middle of the picture facing down to the water and its tail off to the right. _ The picture above shows how your brain can even create things that don’t exist. If you can see the white triangle – the one with its apex pointing up – it’s because your brain has created that triangle to unify what is otherwise simply a collection of angles and Pac-Man shapes. There is, in fact, no white triangle there. _ If you measure these two tables with a ruler, you will see that they […]
