Herself’s Artificial Intelligence

The cure for an emerging outbreak may already be in your medicine cabinet.

And with an artificial intelligence computer program he’s creating, a Canadian researcher is honing in on that link.

“By the time (an outbreak) occurs it’s already too late to create a new drug from the ground up,” says University of British Columbia chemist Artem Cherkasov.

“The idea is when a new infection comes in or gets noticed, to use some of the existing substances and try them against the virus or pathogen.”

. . .

He says there are untold numbers of drugs on the market that may have more than one pharmaceutical function. His program aims to identify those additional medical capabilities and match them up against emerging infectious ailments.

“My program predicts in a virtual world … what the chances are for all those tens of thousands of substances to be antibiotic,” he says.

“So before testing anything, I can prioritize and rank all those compounds and once they are ranked you have a list of higher priority entities to test against a new pathogen.”
. . .

The program technology he’s employing is known by the general name “in silico.” It is increasingly being used by drug companies to test compounds against diseases in a virtual computer world.

Finding new disease for known cures

More information:
In silico molecular biology experiments
The emerging in-silico scientist (pdf)

. . .
Last month, the National Academy of Sciences issued a “weird life” report cautioning NASA not to be so focused on water. It told the space agency that “as the search for life in the solar system expands, it is important to know what exactly to search for.”

That same report urged NASA to avoid being “fixated on carbon” when it looks for life even though carbon is often called the backbone of life on Earth.

But if carbon isn’t a requirement for life, how about silicon? In other words, what about machines?

Ray Kurzweil, a renowned futurist who advises people such as Bill Gates, believes that by 2029 a machine will pass a prime test of artificial intelligence, offering the same kind of answers as a human.

“The key issue as to whether or not a non-biological entity deserves rights really comes down to whether or not it’s conscious,” Kurzweil said. “Does it have feelings?”

Many scientists familiar with these challenges of defining life say the answers won’t be easy to find.

. . .

Scientists struggle to define life

More information:
Kurzweil AI
Life elsewhere in the solar system could be different from life as we know it
Braitenberg Vehicles

You’re an independent filmmaker. You don’t have a big Hollywood marketing budget. How do you market your film?

Make robots, of course!

Or, to be more precise, you make “chatbots.”

“Flatland was a different kind of film; strange, intellectual, bizarre,” said Ladd Ehlinger Jr., director of the animated feature. “So I wanted something different to promote it.”

Chat room regulars may be familiar with the concept of a “chatbot.” Alternately referred to as “pornbots,” because they’re often employed by the adult entertainment industry, they are also almost universally despised.

“No one likes chatbots that pretend to be humans,” said Ehlinger. “But I wondered if they could be put to better use? To be entertaining in and of themselves, to answer questions about my film, to introduce people to the world of Flatland?” said Ehlinger.

Flatland, an animated science fiction feature film based on the 1884 novel by Edwin A. Abbott, is popular with mathematicians and computer scientists for its explorations into such heady subjects as dimensionality and the nature of reality.
Artificial Intelligence to Promote Feature Film ‘Flatland’

More information:
My CyberTwin ‘Film Ladd’
Flatland, the film