Cognitive Science

Way out, beyond the heliosphere, an A.I. aboard NASA space probe Voyager 3 generates free jazz - broadcast via livestream 24/7 - until we lose contact. Its artificial neural network was trained on John Coltrane's INTERSTELLAR SPACE with modified SampleRNN. It listened to the album 16 times then continued to make music in the style. Voyager 1 and 2 launched in 1977 carrying a mixtape Carl Sagan made called THE SOUNDS OF EARTH. It featured Blind Willie Johnson, Chuck Berry, recordings of laughter, Beethoven, Bach, Stravinsky, along with diagrams of human reproductive organs.

What do we mean when we say'context'? In essence, context is the information that frames something to give it meaning. Taken on its own, a shout could be anything from an expression of joy to warning. In the context of a structured piece of on-stage Grime, it's what made Stormzy's appearance at Glastonbury the triumph it was. The problem is that context doesn't come free – it has to be discovered.

In The Good Place, a cerebral fantasy-comedy TV series, moral philosophy gets teased. On YouTube, the show released a promotional video, "This Is Why Everyone Hates Moral Philosophy," that gets its title from a line directed at Chidi, a Senegalese professor of moral philosophy who suffers from chronic indecision: The pros and cons of even trivial choices have long paralyzed him. We see him, as a precocious boy, urged to get on with picking teammates for a soccer game. Flustered, Chidi explains, "I have to consider all the factors: athletic strategies, the fragile egos of my classmates, and gender politics! Should I pick a girl as a gesture toward women's equality, or is that pandering? Or do I think it's pandering because of my limited male point of view? The kids waiting to play shake their heads, facepalming. A friend later insists he "fix his brain." An M.R.I., courtesy of a neuroscientist named Simone, shows he's fine. "Wow, there are actual answers here--data you can observe, and learn from," Chidi says. Science is all about getting answers," Simone replies.

If you're an avid science geek, chances of you keeping a track on all the latest scientific innovations are high. And we don't blame you, it is truly exciting to keep tabs on all the latest technological innovations since it opens up our eyes to the endless possibilities of the scientific world. And now RMIT researchers have come up with yet another device in optogenetics which replicates the way the brain stores and loses information. In case you're not already aware about what optogenetics is all about, it's a technique that allows scientists to explore the body's electrical system with utmost accuracy and precision. It makes use of light to manipulate neurons so that it can be turned on or off.

Elon Musk announced late Tuesday night that the final goal of Neuralink, his brain-machine interface startup, is to allow humans to "achieve a symbiosis with artificial intelligence," and that by "merging with AI," humans will be able to keep up with AI. Musk plans to begin human trials on an early version of Neuralink intended to treat brain injuries next year. "Ultimately we can do a full brain machine interface," Musk said in an announcement that was widely livestreamed. "This is going to sound pretty weird. Ultimately we can achieve a symbiosis with artificial intelligence. This is not a mandatory thing, this is something you can choose to have if you want. This is going to be really important at a civilization-level scale. Even in a benign AI scenario, we will be left behind. With a high-bandwidth brain machine interface we can go along for the ride and have the option of merging with AI." Musk has become famous for his moonshot projects, his lofty promises, his quick temper on Twitter, and his various plans for society that don't include input from the rest of us.

Learning new skills can make older people's brains three decades younger in just six weeks, according to a new study. Taking up three new tasks at the same time boosts mental power and protects against Alzheimer's disease, scientists have found. These skills may range from language lessons to using an iPad, photography, writing music or painting. Taking up three new skills, such as language lessons or learning how to use an iPad, at the same time can make older people's brains three decades younger in just six weeks (file photo) The course workload would be similar to an undergraduate's and adds to growing evidence that dementia is avoidable through lifestyle changes. After less than two months, those in their 80s increased their cognitive abilities to levels similar to those seen in someone in their 50s.

Elon Musk's Neuralink projects have been somewhat secretive since the company was first established. To that effect, all that's been known about the firm was that it was working on machine-brain interfaces. Well, the company has finally gone public with its first project and it turns out that it's an AI that can be inserted into a person's brain to allow them to connect to phones and computers. Machine/brain interface devices have been on the market in some form for over a decade, with people suffering from paralysis seeing many of the benefits of using these kinds of devices. For example, back in 2006, Matthew Nagle, who suffered from a spinal cord injury, was able to play Pong aided by the devices.

"The solution to the Rubik's Cube involves more symbolic, mathematical and abstract thinking, so a deep learning machine that can crack such a puzzle is getting closer to becoming a system that can think, reason, plan and make decisions." An expert system designed for a narrow task, such as only solving a Rubik's Cube will forever be limited to that domain. But a system like DeepCubeA, boasting an adaptable neural net, can be used for other tasks, such as solving complex scientific, mathematical, and engineering problems. Stephen McAleer, a co-author of the new paper, told Gizmodo how this system "is a small step toward creating agents that are able to learn how to think and plan for themselves in new environments." Reinforcement learning works the way it sounds.

Williams Syndrome, a rare neurodevelopmental disorder that affects about 1 in 10,000 babies born in the United States, produces a range of symptoms including cognitive impairments, cardiovascular problems, and extreme friendliness, or hypersociability. In a study of mice, MIT neuroscientists have garnered new insight into the molecular mechanisms that underlie this hypersociability. They found that loss of one of the genes linked to Williams Syndrome leads to a thinning of the fatty layer that insulates neurons and helps them conduct electrical signals in the brain. The researchers also showed that they could reverse the symptoms by boosting production of this coating, known as myelin. This is significant, because while Williams Syndrome is rare, many other neurodevelopmental disorders and neurological conditions have been linked to myelination deficits, says Guoping Feng, the James W. and Patricia Poitras Professor of Neuroscience and a member of MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research.

Elon Musk recently gave a presentation on Neuralink, his newest venture designed to create computer-brain interfaces. Founded in 2017, the company is experimenting with a minimally invasive brain implant that utilizes "threads" to reduce the amount of damage done to surrounding brain tissue compared to current implanted devices. Musk spoke on the unnecessary size of most current implants, saying that a smaller chip could be used in their place. Providing patients with a smaller, less obstructive brain implant is exactly what Neuralink is aiming to do with their product. In the presentation, Musk also said he sees Neuralink potentially bridging the gap between the human brain and artificial intelligence as well.