Links for 20210807
1. "A new generation of AI-powered robots is taking over warehouses: Within a few years, any task that previously required hands to perform could be partially or fully automated away" https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/08/06/1030802/ai-robots-take-over-warehouses/
2. The future history of 2022-2026 https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/6Xgy6CAf2jqHhynHL/what-2026-looks-like-daniel-s-median-future
3. De novo evolution of macroscopic multicellularity: "Over 600 daily transfers (~3,000 generations), multicellular snowflake yeast evolved macroscopic size, becoming ~2·10^4 times larger (~mm scale) and 10^4-fold more biophysically tough, while remaining clonal...his work shows how selection acting on the emergent properties of simple multicellular groups can drive sustained biophysical adaptation, an early step in the evolution of increasingly complex multicellular organisms." https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.03.454982v1
4. “A bunch of babies kept dying and getting permanent neurological damage, and everyone knew exactly how to stop it, but if anyone did the FDA would take away their licenses and shut them down.” https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/adumbrations-of-aducanumab
5. Geometry of abstract learned knowledge in the hippocampus: "The existence of conjoined cognitive maps suggests that the hippocampus performs a general computation—the creation of task-specific low-dimensional manifolds that contain a geometric representation of learned knowledge." https://www.gwern.net/docs/psychology/2021-nieh.pdf
6. A new Air Force weapon will wipe out drone swarms with the push of a button https://taskandpurpose.com/military-tech/air-force-drone-swarm-defense-mjolnir/
7. Air Force Directed Energy Report Argues Defensive Force Fields May Be "Just On The Horizon" https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/41624/air-force-directed-energy-report-argues-defensive-force-fields-may-be-just-on-the-horizon
8. Qualcomm, Amazon boost Intel plan to leapfrog chipmaking rivals by 2025 https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/qualcomm-amazon-boost-intel-plan-to-leapfrog-chipmaking-rivals-by-2025/
9. KAUST Scientists Reducing the Computational Power Required to Analyze DNA https://www.hpcwire.com/off-the-wire/kaust-scientists-reducing-the-computational-power-required-to-analyze-dna/