Stephen Hawking: Threat to Humanity - Artificial Intelligence and Smart Weapon Systems

Stephen Hawking, in an article inspired by the new Johnny Depp flick Transcendence, said it would be the "worst mistake in history" to dismiss the threat of artificial intelligence.

In a paper he co-wrote with University at California, Berkeley computer-science professor Stuart Russell, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology physics professors Max Tegmark and Frank Wilczek, Hawking cited several achievements in the field of artificial intelligence, including self-driving cars, Siri and the computer that won the US game show Jeopardy!

"Such achievements will probably pale against what the coming decades will bring," the article in Britain's Independent said.

"Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history," the article continued. "Unfortunately, it might also be the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks."

The professors wrote that in the future there may be nothing to prevent machines with superhuman intelligence from self-improving, triggering a so-called "singularity."

"One can imagine such technology outsmarting financial markets, out-inventing human researchers, out-manipulating human leaders, and developing weapons we cannot even understand."

"Whereas the short-term impact of AI depends on who controls it, the long-term impact depends on whether it can be controlled at all," the article said.

"Although we are facing potentially the best or worst thing to happen to humanity in history, little serious research is devoted to these issues outside non-profit institutes such as the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, the Future of Humanity Institute, the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, and the Future of Life Institute."

"All of us should ask ourselves what we can do now to improve the chances of reaping the benefits and avoiding the risks."

Rare Image: The Myanmar snub-nosed monkey

Researchers working in Northern Myanmar have captured the first photographs of the recently discovered Myanmar snub-nosed monkey.

"These images are the first record of the animal in its natural habitat," said Ngwe Lwin, the Burmese national who first recognised the monkey as a possible new species.

"It is great to finally have photographs because they show us something about how and where it actually lives."

"The Myanmar snub-nosed monkey was described scientifically in 2010 from a dead specimen collected from a local hunter," said Frank Momberg of FFI, who organised the initial expeditions that led to the monkey's discovery. "As yet, no scientist has seen a live individual," he added.

Picture: FFI/BANCA/PRCF/REX FEATURES

Humanity's Shame: Javan Rhino Extinction

Left: A Javan rhino's leg which was found with a bullet lodged inside, in Vietnam's Cat Tien National Park. 

Right: Officials arrange the skeleton of the last Javan rhino in Vietnam. 

The critically-endangered Javan rhinoceros has become extinct in Vietnam after poachers apparently killed the country's last animal for its horn.

Picture: WWF Greater Mekong/PA/AP

The undated photo below, was issued by the WWF Greater Mekong and it shows a Javan rhino captured on camera in Vietnam's Cat Tien National Park.

The species had been thought to have disappeared from mainland Asia until 1988, when an individual was hunted in the Cat Tien area of Vietnam, leading to the discovery of a small population.

But efforts to conserve the remaining Javan rhinos in Cat Tien National Park have failed, experts said.

Genetic analysis of 22 dung samples collected between 2009 and 2010 by a survey team from Cat Tien National Park and wildlife charity WWF, has revealed that they all belonged to a single individual which was found dead in April last year. 

NASA WISE: Doubt Raised over Dinosaur Extinction by Asteroid

Observations from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission indicate the family of asteroids some believed was responsible for the demise of the dinosaurs is not likely the culprit, keeping open the case on one of Earth's greatest mysteries.

While scientists are confident a large asteroid crashed into Earth approximately 65 million years ago, leading to the extinction of dinosaurs and some other life forms on our planet, they do not know exactly where the asteroid came from or how it made its way to Earth. A 2007 study using visible- light data from ground-based telescopes first suggested the remnant of a huge asteroid, known as Baptistina, as a possible suspect.

According to that theory, Baptistina crashed into another asteroid in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter about 160 million years ago. The collision sent shattered pieces as big as mountains flying. One of those pieces was believed to have impacted Earth, causing the dinosaurs' extinction.

Since this scenario was first proposed, evidence developed that the so-called Baptistina family of asteroids was not the responsible party. With the new infrared observations from WISE, astronomers say Baptistina may finally be ruled out.

"As a result of the WISE science team's investigation, the demise of the dinosaurs remains in the cold case files," said Lindley Johnson, program executive for the Near Earth Object (NEO) Observation Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

"The original calculations with visible light estimated the size and reflectivity of the Baptistina family members, leading to estimates of their age, but we now know those estimates were off. With infrared light, WISE was able to get a more accurate estimate, which throws the timing of the Baptistina theory into question."

WISE surveyed the entire celestial sky twice in infrared light from January 2010 to February 2011. The asteroid-hunting portion of the mission, called NEOWISE, used the data to catalogue more than 157,000 asteroids in the main belt and discovered more than 33,000 new ones.

Visible light reflects off an asteroid. Without knowing how reflective the surface of the asteroid is, it's hard to accurately establish size. Infrared observations allow a more accurate size estimate.

They detect infrared light coming from the asteroid itself, which is related to the body's temperature and size. Once the size is known, the object's reflectivity can be re-calculated by combining infrared with visible-light data.

The NEOWISE team measured the reflectivity and the size of about 120,000 asteroids in the main belt, including 1,056 members of the Baptistina family. The scientists calculated the original parent Baptistina asteroid actually broke up closer to 80 million years ago, half as long as originally proposed.

Protecting the Croatia Limestone Cave System and it's unique animal life

Species of animals, millions of years old, could be wiped out by pollution and development in Croatia according to a new breed of cave biologists.

Jana Bedek and her team of bio-speleologists have recently discovered that the underground networks of the Balkans, especially Croatia, have the richest cave fauna in the world.

"We are now in the place with the best range of cave animals in the world," she says.

"The other countries have their own rich fauna in rainforests, marine ecosystems etc, but here in this area we have cave fauna. Really important at world level."

But on a political and economic level, Croatia is emerging from decades of communism, and the devastating Balkan war, with a desire to develop.

Stephen Hawking Says Humanity Won't Survive Without Leaving Earth

If humanity is to survive long-term, it must find a way to get off planet Earth — and fast, according to famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking.

In fact, human beings may have less than 200 years to figure out how to escape our planet, Hawking said in a recent interview with video site Big Think. Otherwise our species could be at risk for extinction, he said.

"It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million," Hawking said. "Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain inward-looking on planet Earth, but to spread out into space."

Humans stuck on Earth are at risk from two kinds of catastrophes, Hawking said. First, the kind we bring on ourselves, such as possible devastating impacts from climate change, or nuclear or biological warfare.

A number of cosmic phenomena could spell our demise, too. An asteroid could slam into Earth, killing large swaths of the population and rendering the planet uninhabitable. Or a supernova or gamma-ray burst near our spot in the Milky Way could prove ruinous for life on Earth.

Life on Earth could even be threatened by an extraterrestrial civilization, Hawking has pointed out on his Discovery Channel television series, "Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking."

Dangerous aliens may want to take over the planet to use its resources for themselves, he said in the series. It would be safer for the survival of our species if we had people living on other worlds as a backup plan, Hawking proposed.

"The human race shouldn't have all its eggs in one basket, or on one planet," he told Big Think. "Let's hope we can avoid dropping the basket until we have spread the load."

Climate Change: US Bird Species driven to Extinction

North American bird species are "facing a new threat—climate change—that could dramatically alter their habitat and food supply and push many species towards extinction," said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar on Thursday when he announced the new report, "The State of the Birds: 2010 Report on Climate Change."

According to the report, climate changes will have "an increasingly disruptive effect on bird species in all habitats." Oceanic migratory species and birds living in Hawaii will face the greatest threats, according to the report.

The report was a collaborative effort between the U.S. North American Bird Conservation Initiative, federal and state wildlife agencies, and organizations including the American Bird Conservancy, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Klamath Bird Observatory, National Audubon Society, and The Nature Conservancy.

Among the report's key findings:

• All 67 species of oceanic birds commonly found in the U.S. (including albatrosses, petrels, tropical terns, tropic birds, frigate birds and puffins) are vulnerable to disruptions in their habitats due to climate change. The birds all have low reproductive rates and rely on locations which are likely to face heavy changes, along with the climate. Overfishing and invasive species also threaten these oceanic birds.
• Coastal birds (such as the saltmarsh sparrow) will be threatened by rising sea levels and increased storm activity, which will damage or destroy the fragile ecosystems on which they rely.
• Island birds will also be threatened by rising sea levels and shrinking habitats. Hawaii's puaiohi and 'akiapMl 'au, along with the Puerto Rican parrot are among the species that will feel the pinch in these circumstances.
• Arctic and alpine species like the white-tailed ptarmigan and gray crowned rosy-finch will lose critical breeding and feeding habitat as increased temperatures alter the patterns of surface water and vegetation.
• Birds in wetlands will suffer from increased droughts, those in grasslands will experience drier habitats, and forest dwellers will find their habitats shifting northward and to higher elevations, which could separate them from their current food resources.

"Just as they did in 1962 when Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, our migratory birds are sending us a message about the health of our planet," Salazar said.

"The dangers to these birds reflect risks to everything we value: our health, our finances, our quality of life, and the stability of our natural world," Audubon's Glenn Olson said in a prepared statement. "But if we can help the birds weather a changing climate, we can help ourselves."

So what comes next for all of these threatened birds? "All of the effective bird conservation efforts already taking place to protect rare species, conserve habitats and remove threats need to be continued," said David Mehlman of The Nature Conservancy. "Additionally, they need to be greatly expanded to meet the threat climate change poses to bird populations."

Read ScientificAmerican Online's coverage of last year's "State of the Birds" report here.

Saving Gorillas Starts With Understanding Their Human Neighbours

Saving Gorillas Starts With Understanding Their Human Neighbours

Understanding local human cultures is key to preserving gorillas, elephants and other wildlife in African parks and reserves, according to new research from Purdue University.

"Conservation efforts and the management of protected areas are often designed with the best intentions, but sometimes supporting scientific data is missing or incorrect assumptions are made about a local culture or even the outsiders or trade that plays a role in the area," said Melissa Remis, a professor of anthropology who studies gorillas.

"Conservation isn't just about protecting wildlife, you also need to consider the human dimension such as how local hunting technologies or even migration can change how land is used."

YouTheria: Predictive Animal Database for Endangered species

A new animalia database that allows users to explore the factors that predispose different mammalian species to extinction – from human encroachment to slow reproductive rate – could be useful in planning conservation schemes, its developers say. Anyone can access the online system, YouTHERIA, which allows users to manipulate parameters including habitat ecology, litter size and diet, and test their own hypotheses.

It relies on a vast database of all known and recently extinct mammals, called PanTHERIA, which lists details of the species' ecology, behaviour, diet, geographical range and habitat, based on more than two decades of published research. The database also records the extent to which each of the 5000-odd species is being impacted by humans and habitat degradation.

Warning signs

Analysis of the database has already highlighted a set of key characteristics – slow reproductive rate being one – which predispose mammals to extinction.

"For example, the Seychelles flying fox isn't declining in abundance now because its habitat is intact," says Andy Purvis, a biodiversity researcher at Imperial College London, who helped produce the tools. "But our database suggests that its slow reproductive rate will predispose it to extinction if and when its habitat is disturbed."

Purvis also recommends that conservationists focus on protecting the tundras of Siberia and Canada, where mammals predisposed to extinction because of slow reproduction, are currently thriving in healthy habitat.

Until now, the database has been restricted to the team of biologists who developed it, but Kate Jones at the Zoological Society of London and colleagues have made it freely available to other researchers, hoping that they will contribute to the data.

Encyclopedia of Life, another collaborative database of species, launched two years ago, has already seen contributions from 2 million people from 200 countries. This week it reached its 150,000th entry.

Journal reference: Ecology, DOI: 10.1890/08-1494.1

Humanity Must Save the Wild Tigers: An Obligation without Negotiation

There are only 3000 Tigers left in the wild. There are only 3000 Tigers left in the wild. Sorry, but it needs repeating. Wild Tigers have never been in a tighter spot and only humanity can help.

Only 1.7 per cent of historical tiger numbers are alive today. Indian tigers, such as the one seen here charging the camera, could be a new focus of conservation.

New research in PLoS Genetics suggests that the most effective way to save the wild tiger or at least a representative group, is to focus conservation efforts on the Indian variety, which has over half of the species's genetic diversity. By default, this also means turning our backs on 50% of Tiger genes that we deem as 'un-saveable' or beyond 'salvation'. It brings great shame on humanity to admit this and endorse it.

Indian tigers are equipped with such eclectic genes, that it could be better able to adapt to the future change, inflicted on it by humanity, than any other tiger on Earth.

Why are we continuing to stress this species to extinction. Is it purely economics and money or is it simply a selfish drive to become, not only the dominant species on the Earth but the only species.

Big Beautiful Boobies are back from the brink

The Mark Twain of gannets (Image: T.E. Steeves)

IT HAPPENED to me and it happened to Mark Twain, now it has happened to an enigmatic species of gannet: Reports of its death, it seems, are greatly exaggerated.

The Tasman booby (Sula dactylatra tasmani) was first described in 1988 from fossils found on Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands, off the east coast of Australia, but it was believed to be extinct in the late 18th century, after being hunted and eaten by Dutch sailors.

Having finished exterminating the Dodo, the Dutch sailors from the East India Company moved on to other islands in the region, to continue their colonial plundering of the peoples, flora, fauna and natural resources.

Now, a team of geneticists, palaeontologists and naturalists has declared the bird very much alive and well. It's strong sense of survival enabled it to retain it's meagre existence, living among its fossil ancestors on both islands, and also on New Zealand's Kermadec Islands to the east.

(Biology Letters, DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2009.0478).

Gorillas on the verge of Extinction!

YOU might have missed it, but in December 2008 - when the world's media were preoccupied with President Barack Obama's election and the global economic recession - the United Nations declared 2009 the Year of the Gorilla.

If you did notice, you could be forgiven for wondering why. Just weeks earlier it was reported that almost half of all primate species are at risk of extinction, so why lavish yet more attention on the one that is seldom out of the spotlight?

Gorilla Numbers Plummeting

The simple answer is because they need it now more than ever. Despite all the film footage, fieldwork and fund-raising, and the efforts of park rangers and conservation NGOs, the number of gorillas continues to plummet. Hunting, logging, mining and disease are taking a terrible toll on the greatest of the great apes, and if things continue as they are, they may be reduced to nothing more than a series of small, highly vulnerable populations within decades.

Iconic Animals

That's not the only reason the UN chose to focus on gorillas. These apes are such iconic animals they can galvanise people into action like few others. Redoubling efforts to protect gorillas and their habitats will benefit other endangered primates, including chimps and bonobos. If those efforts centre on development projects and gorilla tourism, they can also improve the lives of some of the world's poorest people.

Long Term Plan for a Short Term Crisis?

That is the UN's plan. And entirely the wrong one, as far as many gorilla experts are concerned. For all its good intentions, they say, there's no way it can work fast enough to give gorillas any chance of recovery.

For all its good intentions, there is no way the UN's strategy can work fast enough to give gorillas any chance of recovery

"If you try to make saving gorillas a development issue, then you will fail," says Peter Walsh, a leading authority on the abundance and distribution of gorillas. "Any action must focus on protecting the gorillas." Nor is tourism the panacea African governments and potential donors think. "The idea that tourism alone can pay for conservation is a pipe dream," Walsh says. With gorilla numbers falling so fast, it is time to take tough decisions, he argues.

All 4 Species Endangered

The challenge is daunting. Each of the four subspecies of gorilla is listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List - three of them critically - and each faces its own unique combination of threats and challenges (see map).

Dodo Bones Found in Mauritius

Dutch scientists from Leiden, representing the University's Dodo Research Team, have shared in the unique discovery of two bones , a pelvis and a leg, of the extinct flightless bird, the Dodo. These were found in the Mare aux Songes marsh on the island of Mauritius.

In the past, only single bones have been discovered. Peculiar to Mauritius, the Dodo was about one metre tall and weighed about 20kg. It died out in the late 17th century, as a result of human 'activity'.

The Leiden Natural History Museum Naturalis said that this was the first time that Dodo bones have been found in the position in which they died. A new excavation method was used, a drainage technique, which made the discovery possible. The bones lay among the remains of three giant turtles which probably got stuck in the marsh.

Definition: Human Activity
The birds were killed partly for food but mainly for sport by the islands visitors, the Dutch! The birds were pursued by the sailors and could not escape because they were flightless. Up to that point and for centuries prior to the human invasion, the Dodo had no enemies or predators so, it had no need to fly.

The Dutch certainly have a great interest in the Dodo and its mass extinction on the island of Mauritius because it was Dutch sailors, from the notorious East India Company (VOC) that perpetrated the massacre and carried out the eventual extinction of the species. So, every time the Dodo scientists from Leiden go to Maurituis, its really a bit of a guilt trip!

Flowers: some potent, some facing extinction and some just stink up the place

Angel trumpet flowers

Angel trumpet flowers come from Colombia in South America.
In ancient times, the slaves and wives of dead Mayan kings were put to sleep by drinking a potion containing this innocent looking flower - and then buried alive.






Mauritian blue bell flower

Existing on only one cliff in Mauritius, this flower is highly endangered in the wild.

The lovely blue bell-shaped flower contains a sweet red nectar. If you were to shake the flower, your hands would be left bright red.