Links for 2021-12-02
Researchers shrink camera to the size of a salt grain: "The new system can produce crisp, full-color images on par with a conventional compound camera lens 500,000 times larger in volume, the researchers reported in a paper published Nov. 29 in Nature Communications." https://engineering.princeton.edu/news/2021/11/29/researchers-shrink-camera-size-salt-grain
Long-range and hierarchical language predictions in brains and algorithms. Unlike deep language models, the brain makes long-range and hierarchical predictions. https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.14232
"We provide strong evidence for time crystals as a new phase of matter." https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04257-w
Ask a Techspert: What exactly is a time crystal? https://blog.google/inside-google/googlers/ask-techspert-what-exactly-time-crystal/
The Gene-Synthesis Revolution — “If the first phase of the genomics revolution focused on reading genes through gene sequencing, the second phase is about writing genes. Crispr, the gene-editing technology whose inventors won a Nobel Prize last year, has received far more attention, but the rise of gene synthesis promises to be an equally powerful development. Crispr is like editing an article, allowing us to make precise changes to the text at specific spots; gene synthesis is like writing the article from scratch.” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/24/magazine/gene-synthesis.html
Affirmative Action is Damaging Civil Service Competency. https://angloreaction.wordpress.com/2021/11/27/affirmative-action-is-damaging-civil-service-competence/
Can Digital Reality Be Jacked Directly Into Your Brain? — “The idea of uploading a synthetic experience into a mind has been a load-bearing member in science fiction for at least 75 years… But in real life (that’s what this is, right?), we’re a long way from a data port in the nape of every neck. Neuroscientists can decode the signal coming out of the brain well enough to move a cursor or a robotic arm, though they can’t achieve the fluid elegance of a biological connection. Signal going in is even trickier.” https://www.wired.com/story/brain-computer-interfaces-digital-reality/
Flytrex raises $40M to build its drone-based delivery service across suburbs in the US https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/19/flytrex-raises-40m-to-build-its-drone-based-delivery-service-across-suburbs-in-the-u-s/?guccounter=1
“One of my favorite questions to ask people is: r(a,b) = x; r(b,c) = x; r(a,c) = 0. How big could x be?” https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2021/11/27/a-little-correlation-puzzle-leading-to-a-discussion-of-the-connections-between-intuition-and-brute-force/
Nine familial exterminations was the most serious punishment for a capital offense in premodern China, Korea and Vietnam. A collective punishment typically associated with offenses such as treason, the punishment involved the execution of all relatives of an individual, which were categorized into nine groups. Nine exterminations were often done by slow slicing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_familial_exterminations
Nuclear is the greenest energy of all. The United Nations conducted a study on the carbon footprint of different energy sources. It took into account emissions at all stages, from raw material extraction, construction, actual operation and decommissioning. It turns out that nuclear power has the lowest emissions of all energy sources - even lower than windmills or photovoltaic panels! https://unece.org/sites/default/files/2021-10/LCA-2.pdf
Finland Battles 'Exceptional' Malware Attack Spread by Phones: “Finland is working to counter malware-carrying text messages of unknown origin that number in the millions, according to Aino-Maria Vayrynen at the country's National Cyber Security Center. Finnish telecom Telia has intercepted hundreds of thousands of texts containing links to the FluBot malware. Many messages claim recipients have received a voice mail and request they open a link, which on Android devices summons a prompt that requests the installation of the malware-impregnated application; authorities said users of Apple's iPhones are ushered to fraudulent material on the site. "The malware attack is extremely exceptional and very worrying," said Teemu Makela at leading Finnish telecom Elisa Oyj.” https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-30/finland-battles-exceptional-malware-attack-spread-by-phones
Why Isn’t GPT-3 A Bigger Story?
https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/r4ejiz/why_isnt_gpt3_a_bigger_story/
And GPT-3 is already old news. Progress has been rapid and extensive (e.g. Codex, Blender Bot, AlphaFold, ruDALL-E, NÜWA, EfficientZero...).
Normies who only read what prestigious newspapers and journals highlight for them won't realize the importance of developments like GPT-3 before the nanobots start converting the hemoglobin in their arteries into computronium.
If you want to know about important or interesting developments and ideas before they go mainstream you need to be comfortable with noise in the form of crazy and wrong ideas and follow nonconformist cranks.
P.S. When it comes to artificial intelligence, always remember the following: “Do not look at where we are. Look at where we will be two more papers down the line.” — Károly Zsolnai-Fehér