Lifeboat Foundation

Uber and OpenAI researchers say an advance in Go-Explore AI in beating Atari games could have applications for robotics and drug design.

Work is due to start on the world’s first ‘space hotel’ in low Earth orbit in 2025 — and it will come equipped with restaurants, a cinema, spa and…

Developed by the Orbital Assembly Corporation (OAC), the Voyager Station could be operational as early as 2027, with the infrastructure built in orbit around the Earth.

Continue reading “World’s first space HOTEL to begin construction in Earth orbit in 2025” »

“Scientists found that a caterpillar called the tomato fruit worm not only chomps on tomatoes and their leaves, but also deposits enzyme-laden saliva on the plant, interfering with its ability to cry for help. If it all sounds a bit improbable, starting with the concept of plants crying for help, scientists also scoffed at that idea when it was first proposed a few decades ago. But it has been shown time and time again that when under attack, plants can emit chemical distress signals, causing their peers to mount some sort of defense. A classic example is the smell of a freshly mown lawn, which prompts the release of protective compounds in nearby blades of grass that have yet to be cut. In some cases, plant distress signals can even summon help from other species. That’s what happens with the tomato. When caterpillars nibble on the plant’s leaves, the leaf pores release volatile chemicals that are detected by a type of parasite: a wasp that lays eggs inside caterpillars. (Not to overwork the horror-movie analogy, but as with the hapless astronauts in the “Aliens” franchise, it doesn’t end well for the caterpillar.)”

While there’s a famous horror-movie spoof about killer tomatoes, no one seems to have made one about caterpillars—the insect pests that eat the juicy red fruits of summer.

Over the past few years, computer scientists have created numerous computational techniques that can automatically generate texts, images and other types of data. These models are highly advantageous, particularly for creating data or creative works that are demanding and time-consuming for humans to produce manually.

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By Amir Ebrahimi — Principal Software Engineer · ‎Unity Technologies

What opened quantum computing up for me was realizing that it’s even more connected to our physical universe than classical computing is.

Continue reading “I’ve Worked in Game Development My Whole Career — Here’s Why I’m Learning Quantum Computing” »

With cinemas badly hit by Covid-19 restrictions they are looking for new revenue streams. 🎮

If the original clip scared moviegoers, this one would’ve blown their minds.

According to a new study, the mood of background music in a movie scene affects a person’s empathy toward the main character and their interpretation of the plot, environment, and character’s personality traits. The findings were published in Frontiers in Psychology.

While researchers have long studied the impact of music on human behavior, fewer studies have explored how music can affect a person’s interpretation of film. Study authors Alessandro Ansani and team aimed to explore this by experimentally manipulating the soundtrack of an ambiguous movie scene.

“I’ve always been interested in music and cinema, since I was a baby; my mother told me she used to put me in front of our stereo to calm me down when I was crying, for some reason,” said Ansani, a PhD student at Sapienza University of Rome and research assistant at the CoSMIC Lab.

JetPlay has launched Ludo, a game creation platform that uses artificial intelligence to accelerate the creative process.

The Seattle-based JetPlay has launched the open beta of Ludo, following a successful closed beta with participation from independent studios around the world. It will be a big test about whether automation can be useful in the domain of creativity, where humans have dominated so far.

Ludo is a game ideation platform that helps teams come up with ideas for games as well as images that can help them generate concept art. To me, this could go either way depending on the quality of the results. If it doesn’t work well, it could be a terrible idea, spitting out clones of popular games or otherwise leading creators astray. If it works well, however, it could accelerate creative moments and put your imagination on turbocharge, giving you a place to start your creative work.