Free Republic

In an unprecedented achievement, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), in collaboration with the U.S. Air Force, has announced that through its “ACE” program the X-62A “VISTA” has become the first autonomous fighter jet in the world to successfully engage in aerial dogfighting maneuvers against a manned F-16. This historic event marks a significant milestone in applying artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in combat scenarios, highlighting a radical advancement in military aviation technology. “The X-62A Team demonstrated that cutting-edge machine learning-based autonomy could be safely used to fly dynamic combat maneuvers,” Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall...

Seems every week there’s another article out about people being Concerned over the possible dangers posed by artificial intelligence (AI for short). A lot of the tech people involved in developing it are asking for some government guidelines and regulation, Somehow, they can’t seem to slow down on their own. Can’t afford to let someone else get it first, you see. The big worry is that somehow, any AI might determine that its goals are not in line with those of humans, and it will take over the world. The one movie that’s constantly referenced is The Terminator (1984), in...

Believe it or not, but ideas of artificial intelligence and automata were alive and well over 2,000 years ago within Greek mythology. The myth of Talos (‘Τάλως’)—the first robot-like creature in mythology—is certainly a fascinating example. Its name is related to Zeus, as on the island of Crete, Talos was not a human being but an automaton made by Zeus himself. Another version of the Greek myth attributes his creation to Hephaestus, the god of fire and iron. In other versions, Talos was the son of Cres and the god Hephaestus. Made by humans, rather than born of nature, the...

Shrouded within the park of Villa Demidoff, in Medici Villas (Unesco World Heritage List, 2013), Pratolino, Vaglia, Tuscany, just 7 miles north of Florence, Italy, there sits a gigantic 16th century sculpture - 14-meter-tall masterpiece statue - known as Colosso dell'Appennino, or the Appennine Colossus. The brooding structure was first erected in 1580 by Flemish sculptor Giambologna, pseudonym of Jean de Boulogne (Douai, 1529 - Florence, 1608).Created between 1579 and 1580, the statue was included in Francesco I de’ Medici’s collection of natural and artificial wonders, and ended up costing twice as much as the works needed to complete the...

But the team stresses they do not want to build a replica of the original bronze structure of a warrior standing over the entrance of the ancient city’s harbour. Instead, they want to construct a 150-metre tall “reimagining” of the wonder, based on the ambitions and vision of the original 2200-year-old monument. They want to crowdsource its funding through the internet. It will still be a colossal statue. It will still be a lighthouse. But it will we sheathed in a bronze-coloured skin that doubles as solar panels. The team says they aim to “put back on the map the...

SETIÂ’s Colossus by Paul Gilster on May 31, 2013 For the most part, the focus of SETI since Project Ozma has been directed at intercepting signals deliberately sent our way. It doesnÂ’t have to be so, of course, because extraneous signals from a civilization going about its business would also be profoundly interesting, and even a civilization not much more advanced than ours might be throwing off powerful evidence of its existence through the planetary radars it uses to detect potential impactors in its own system. Whether or not the Ohio State WOW! signal was a SETI detection remains unresolved,...

The acclaimed fiction author tells the tale of the man who changed the world, though few have heard of him. John Atanasoff got an idea one night in the late 1930s and developed it into the first computer. Ms. Smiley discusses the man, his invention and his obscurity with Washington Post technology writer Cecilia Kang. Jane Smiley has written 15 works of fiction, including the Pulitzer Prize winning A Thousand Acres. She's also written four works of non-fiction and been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2006, she received the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award for...

It's been over three years since we last heard about Ron Howard's remake of the 1970 film Colossus: The Forbin Project, an adaptation of the 1966 sci-fi novel by Dennis Feltham Jones. But in the recent news about writer Jason Rothenberg scripting the adaptation of The Twilight Zone, Deadline included a second story unto itself. The writer is also adapting Colossus for Universal and Imagine Entertainment, but the real gem in the story brings news that Will Smith is attached to star in the story about the world's first-ever sentient computer and the misunderstood genius who gains power over the...

It may not straddle the port as its predecessor once did, but in terms of sheer luminosity and eye-catching height the new Colossus of Rhodes will not disappoint. Nor will it fall short of the symbolism that once imbued the ancient monument. Twenty-three centuries after craftsmen carved the legendary statue that has inspired legions of painters, poets, playwrights and politicians, a new world wonder, built in the spirit of the original Colossus, is about to be born on the Aegean island. After decades of dashed hopes, the people of Rhodes will fulfil a long-held dream to revive one of the...

An adult specimen of the world’s largest known squid was hauled to the surface by a New Zealand longliner fishing for toothfish in Antarctic waters. The creature, known as a colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) and with eyes the size of a car tire weighed an estimated 450 kilograms. The squid was eating a hooked toothfish when it was hauled from the deep by the vessel San Aspiring. "It is likely that it is the first intact adult male colossal squid to ever be successfully landed," Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton said today. "The scientific community will be very interested in this...

More than two millennia after it was toppled by an earthquake, the Colossus of Rhodes - one of the seven wonders of the ancient world - is to rise again. Instead of standing astride the venerable port of Rhodes town, however, the 100ft bronze figure will tower over the island's downmarket resort of Faliraki, infamous for the drunken antics of thousands of British tourists who go there every year. Faliraki, about five miles south of Rhodes town, boasts a strip of bars and clubs a third of a mile long, where cut-price alcohol lures hordes of tourists on drinking binges...

NOTE: If I know anything about the rabid naysayers on FR, at least some of the RELIGIOUS [vs spiritual] types will wail and rant that ANYTHING having to do with numbers and The Bible has to be crossing the line into dealing with Biblically forbidden NUMEROLOGY. This is nonsense. The dictionary definition of “numerology” makes clear that numerology is the study of numbers, as the figures designating the year of one’s birth, “to determine their supposed influence on one’s life, future, etc.” [Quix color, bold emphasis on the definition from: HERE: http://www.infoplease.com/ipd/A0562554.html Clearly, the Biblically prohibited issue is INTEREST IN,...

<p>I hate the word empire when used to describe the United States. If the US is an empire, it sure is empire-lite. We are not expanding the borders. It’s hard to have colonies when you don't have any colonists. Aside from Iraq for the next three and a half weeks, we do not administer foreign countries.</p>

Return of Colossus marks D-Day Tony Sale led the team to rebuild Colossus Mk2 Colossus Mk2, a wartime code-breaker hailed as one of the first electronic computers, has been rebuilt and reunited with Bletchley Park veterans. At Bletchley, the hub of British code operations, it crucially found the keys to break the Lorenz code used by Hitler to encrypt messages to his generals. Colossus Mk2 has been painstakingly put back together over a decade by computer conservationists for Bletchley museums. As part of D-Day celebrations, 30 war coders gathered to see it once more. Besides its code-breaking prowess, Colossus was...

CSPAN had a three hour interview with author/historian Niall Ferguson today and will repeat it in about half an hour at 12:00 am Eastern time. In Depth: Niall Ferguson Description: Niall Ferguson joins Book TV for a three-hour conversation about his life and work. Mr. Ferguson teaches Financial History at the Stern School of Business at New York University. He is also a Senior Research Fellow and Visiting Professor of History at Jesus College, Oxford University, and a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He is the author of five books: "The Pity of War: Explaining World...

April 25, 2004 -- Colossus: The Price of America's Empire by Niall Ferguson, Penguin Press, 366 pages, $25.95 JOHN Kerry makes the case that the present administration has unduly alienated our allies - leaving us alone, isolated and increasingly frustrated in trying to do too much overseas with too few resources. Should we Americans rightly be worried about similar charges from allies and enemies alike of unilateralism, preemption and hegemony? Not to worry, Niall Ferguson assures us in his latest reflection on the state of the world. The problem of failed states, global terrorism and European fury abroad has nothing...

South African businessmen plan to build a statue of Nelson Mandela bigger than the Statue of Liberty as part of a scheme to rejuvenate the rundown city of Port Elizabeth. A waving figure of the country's first post-apartheid president will tower 65 metres (210 feet) above the city's harbour mouth, if the planners get the necessary funding. They are copying, blatantly, the Colossus of Rhodes. Except this is tacky, tasteless and politically illiterate. - Ivan Critics dismiss the idea as "blatant exploitation" of the Mandela legend but backers say the project would act as both a monument to freedom and...