Holy crap! The Age of The Machines is nigh: a bunch of scientists in Switzerland have created learning robots that can lie to each other. Okay, so they don’t swill beer or put bends in girders–they just communicate to each other with benign flashing lights, thank goodness, instead of using lasers to destroy humans:The team at the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at the Federal Institute of Technology created the little experimental learning devices to work in groups and hunt for “food” targets nearby while avoiding “poison.” Imagine their surprise when one generation of robots learned to signal lies about the poison, sending opponents to their doom.
Daily Archives: January 21, 2008
Gene Genie # 24
The Blog Carnival … is HERE at biomarker-driven mental health 2.0
Crazy Floridians
For your amusement, a selection from the public comments on the fight over science standards in Florida. Continue reading Crazy Floridians
Hear the truth (Happy Birthday MLK)
Today’s Linux Calendar Output
- Jan 21
- Lenin died, 1924
- Jan 21
- Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson born in Clarksburg, VA, 1824
- Jan 21
- Our Lady of Altagracia in Dominican Republic
- Jan 21*
- Lee-Jackson Day in Virginia (3rd Monday)
- Jan 21*
- Robert E. Lee’s Birthday in Alabama & Mississippi (3rd Monday)
- Jan 21*
- Martin Luther King Day (3rd Monday of January)
- Jan 21
- Anniversary Day (Wellington)
- Jan 21
- Austrian troops invade the Belgian United States, 1790
- Jan 22
- Sir Francis Bacon born, 1561
- Jan 22
- Sam Cooke is born in Chicago, 1935
Cyber attacks caused blackouts?
The CIA on Friday admitted that cyberattacks have caused at least one power outage affecting multiple cities outside the United States.
Interesting… Continue reading Cyber attacks caused blackouts?
This is what happens if you get pulled over for DWI in Minnesota
Don’ t drive drunk. Don’t let this happen to you! Continue reading This is what happens if you get pulled over for DWI in Minnesota
New Web Carnival: Berry Go Round
Berry Go Round is a new web carnival. It is …
A plant’s Carnival, to be hosted at Seedsaside by the end of january 2008. Please submit your best posts before the 25th of January. Send contributions to seedsaside[at]gmail.com…
Google to Host Terabytes of Open-Source Science Data
Sources at Google have disclosed that the humble domain, http://research.google.com, will soon provide a home for terabytes of open-source scientific datasets. The storage will be free to scientists and access to the data will be free for all. The project, known as Palimpsest and first previewed to the scientific community at the Science Foo camp at the Googleplex last August, missed its original launch date this week, but will debut soon.
The Internet
Check out this picture of the Internet! Can you find yourself? I think I see my house!!!
the worst of scienceblogs.com
There is a new blog you should know about. It’s called “The Worst of Scienceblogs.com” and it contains, so far, only three posts (so maybe we are not so bad after all). I thank Terra Sigillata, one of WOS’s victims, for pointing this out. Continue reading the worst of scienceblogs.com
Chimpanzee Food Sharing
Is chimpanzee food sharing an example of food for sex?
One of the most important transitions in human evolution may have been the incorporation of regular food sharing into the day to day ecology of our species or our ancestors. Although this has been recognized as potentially significant for some time, it was probably the Africanist archaeologist Glynn Isaac who impressed on the academic community the importance of the origins of food sharing as a key evolutionary moment. At that time, food sharing among apes was thought to be very rare, outside of mother-infant dyads. Further research has shown that it is in fact rare … the vast majority of calories consumed by human foragers in certain societies and at certain times of the year comes from a sharing system, while the fast majority of calories consumed by chimpanzees is hand to mouth without sharing.