Links for 2021-12-22
The images you see above were generated by an artificial neural network based on the text input written below each image. Soon everyone will be able to create an infinite amount of images by simply describing what they want in natural language. Audio and video will follow. The world ten years from now will be very different from the world of today. What a time to be alive! https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.10741
“In 70's RAND Exper. randomly assigned 7700 to free or full price medicine over 4yrs, saw no effect on health. New Karnataka Hospital Insurance Exper. randomly assigned 52,292 to free or full price hospitals over 3yrs, also saw no effect on health.” https://overcomingbias.com/2021/12/karnataka-hospital-insurance-experiment.html
A new untethered and insect-sized aerial vehicle: “Researchers at Toyota Central R&D Labs have recently created an insect-scale aerial robot with flapping wings, powered using wireless radiofrequency technology. This robot, presented in a paper published in Nature Electronics, is based on a radiofrequency power receiver with a remarkable power-to-weight density of 4,900 W kg-1.” https://techxplore.com/news/2021-12-untethered-insect-sized-aerial-vehicle.html
Giving Bug-Like Bots a Boost: New Artificial Muscles Improve the Performance of Flying Microrobots https://scitechdaily.com/giving-bug-like-bots-a-boost-new-artificial-muscles-improve-the-performance-of-flying-microrobots/
New water findings on Mars from the FREND neutron telescope: a Switzerland-sized region in Valles Marineris with up to 40% water by weight in the soil. https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103521004528?via%3Dihub
Team of Nobel prize economists runs experiment and finds that giving the ultra poor a big asset transfer increases incomes 10 years later! https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/aeri.20200667
"We examined whether the heritability of intelligence varies across racial or ethnic groups... We found that White, Black, and Hispanic heritabilities were consistently moderate to high, and that these heritabilities did not differ across groups." https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160289619301904
"problems caused by cosmic rays happen often enough to keep error-corrected quantum computations from working unless we figure out a way to limit the rays' impact." https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/12/cosmic-rays-can-swamp-error-correction-on-quantum-processors/
“If only we could coordinate to get ~1M cryonics customers, to most a pleasant immorality would be cheaper than a typical funeral. We don't have to die.” https://www.overcomingbias.com/2021/12/we-dont-have-to-die.html
As the world shifts to renewable energy it becomes very dependent on a handful of countries for crucial minerals. The Democratic Republic of Congo controls nearly 75% of the world’s cobalt. https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/24d5dfbb-a77a-4647-abcc-667867207f74/TheRoleofCriticalMineralsinCleanEnergyTransitions.pdf
"Scientists said the embryo inside the egg, which was laid between 72 million to 66 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period, was that of a two-legged, feathered carnivore known as an oviraptorid." [WSJ] https://archive.md/Lv3tN
"No other group of Americans is as likely to be married as Indian Americans. Family is a cornerstone of Indian American life. Our analysis of 2019 American Community Survey finds that Indian immigrants have highest family stability of any group in America, with 94% of Indian immigrants with children stably married, compared to 66% of white Americans. “With family, it’s a very strong collective unit,” Pooja Mamidanna, a therapist. “It’s not I vs. you. (It is a) collectivistic family dynamic... So, it’s not even about putting yourself first. It’s putting your family first.”" https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2021/12/16/22838432/is-the-american-dream-dead-not-for-indian-americans-parag-agrawal-sundar-pichai-marriage-tech