Related papers: Reprogramming Matter, Life, and Purpose
Extending and modifying his domain of life by artifact production is one of the main characteristics of humankind. From the first hominid, who used a wood stick or a stone for extending his upper limbs and augmenting his gesture strength,…
According to the International Energy Agency, each human uses more than 80 GJ of energy per year; this is equivalent to leaving a washing machine continuously running for one year for every person on Earth. This consumption is expected to…
Refactoring is a crucial technique for improving the efficiency and maintainability of software by restructuring its internal design while preserving its external behavior. While classical programs have benefited from various refactoring…
Currently it is widely accepted that the language of science is mathematics. This book explores an alternative idea where the future of science is based on the language of algorithms and programs. How such a language can actually be…
The doomsday argument is a probabilistic argument that claims to predict the total lifetime of the human race. By examining the case of an individual lifetime, I conclude that the argument is fundamentally related to consciousness. I derive…
The full optimization of the design and operation of instruments whose functioning relies on the interaction of radiation with matter is a super-human task, given the large dimensionality of the space of possible choices for geometry,…
There is compelling theoretical evidence that quantum physics will change the face of information science. Exciting progress has been made during the last two decades towards the building of a large scale quantum computer. A quantum group…
A theme that has come to the fore in advanced planning for long-range space exploration is the concept that empty space itself (the quantum vacuum, or spacetime metric) might be engineered so as to provide energy/thrust for future space…
An important long-term goal in machine learning systems is to build learning agents that, like humans, can learn many tasks over their lifetime, and moreover use information from these tasks to improve their ability to do so efficiently. In…
As robot make their way out of factories into human environments, outer space, and beyond, they require the skill to manipulate their environment in multifarious, unforeseeable circumstances. With this regard, pushing is an essential motion…
Much of today's sustainability discourse emphasizes efficiency, clean technologies, and smart systems, but largely underestimates fundamental physical constraints relating to energy-matter interactions. These constraints stem from the fact…
Lifelong machine learning is a novel machine learning paradigm which can continually accumulate knowledge during learning. The knowledge extracting and reusing abilities enable the lifelong machine learning to solve the related problems.…
The rapid development of new software and algorithms, fueled by the immense amount of data available, has made the shelf life of software products a lot shorter. With a rough estimate of more than 40,000 new software projects developed…
The LHC will probe the nature of the vacuum that determines the properties of particles and the forces between them. Of particular importance is the fact that our current theories allow the Universe to be trapped in a metastable vacuum,…
Quantum computing exposes the brilliance of quantum mechanics through computer science and, as such, gives oneself a marvelous and exhilarating journey to go through. This article leads along that journey with a historical and current…
Programming is about automation in a wide variety of domains. Developing itself is one of those. As a side-effect, progress in automated coding may make people less willing to learn computer programming. This could become an issue, if the…
As quantum theory celebrates its 100th birthday, spectacular successes are mixed with outstanding puzzles and promises of new technologies. This article reviews both the successes of quantum theory and the ongoing debate about its…
Machine learning has typically focused on developing models and algorithms that would ultimately replace humans at tasks where intelligence is required. In this work, rather than replacing humans, we focus on unveiling the potential of…
Quantum computing promises to provide the next step up in computational power for diverse application areas. In this review, we examine the science behind the quantum hype, and the breakthroughs required to achieve true quantum advantage in…
A major goal of artificial intelligence (AI) is to create an agent capable of acquiring a general understanding of the world. Such an agent would require the ability to continually accumulate and build upon its knowledge as it encounters…