The Case for Cyclic Neural Networks: Could Circular Data Mimic Biological Intelligence and Improve Machine Learning?
Artificial neural networks powering large language models like ChatGPT connect data sequences in straight lines: for example, A leads to B which leads to C. But real-life data relationships aren’t always linear, and biological intelligences connect the dots and weigh probabilities in many different ways. Cyclic neural networks hold promise for capturing and interpreting data more naturally in circles rather than lines, improving the reliability of their predictions as they feed on huge amounts of information synthesized from countless human and machine sources. As we increasingly rely on LLMs and AI agents to weigh probabilities for us, fully connecting the dots is crucial.
New Technologies Bring Us Closer to Communicating With Animals. Will the Experience be Humbling?
If we could learn to speak dog, elephant, or any of the vast array of sounds that animals communicate with, how would our perception of life change? Machine learning could soon help answer the question, as algorithms enable scientists to detect patterns and meaning in animal sounds. The studies of bioacoustics and ecoacoustics, and technologies like passive acoustic localization, have already led to important discoveries. As science comes closer to cracking the code of animal language, will legal and ethical systems respond to preserve nature, recognize animal intelligence, and prevent human manipulation?
CRISPR, AI, and the Human Code: The Case of Personalized Human Gene Editing
A baby in the U.S. was recently saved by the first-ever personalized CRISPR gene-editing therapy. At the same time, embryo screening is being marketed to parents as a way to select for traits like intelligence and low anxiety. Gene editing is also advancing in brain and heart research, and while these innovations promise to transform medicine, major ethical and scientific gaps remain. A landmark study in Brazil has uncovered over 8 million previously undocumented genetic variants, most absent from global databases, raising urgent concerns about whose genomes shape the future of healthcare.
Destroying Cancer Cells with Vibrating “Molecular Jackhammers” Stimulated by Light
Initial lab tests demonstrate the effectiveness of “molecular jackhammers,” a new process that could eradicate caner cells. The jackhammers are made with infrared light that causes molecules of a medical imaging dye to vibrate at a frequency that delivers enough force to break the membranes of cancer cells. While effective methods to deliver the jackhammers to targeted body areas need more research and human trials are years away, it’s one example of the use of electromagnetism to stop the advance of deadly cancers and extend life with non-invasive techniques
In Focus
Smarter, Cooler, Greener: The Promises and Paradoxes of Solar-Powered Cities
Can digital technologies make our cities cooler, cleaner, and more energy-efficient? AI, blockchain, and digital twins are already helping buildings cut energy use by up to 79%, but recent studies show that some green solutions like rooftop solar panels can raise daytime temperatures in hot cities. At the same time, deep learning is revealing strong solar potential even in cloudy regions like southeastern Nigeria. But as millions of panels approach the end of their lifespan, few cities are prepared to handle the looming wave of solar waste.
Protecting The Young, and Defending Independent Thought, in the Age of GenAI
Users of ChatGPT, and other LLMs that have shaped today’s age of generative AI, report a loss of creativity and capacity for independent thought. With AI consuming ever more of our data, how can we protect the data of today’s youth? Now the most vulnerable, they are the creators of the future and humanity’s most precious asset. Can GenAI’s power be redirected, not to replace but instead to enhance our uniquely individual human power for creativity? With the future in the balance, we explore some of the possibilities for a happy median between technology’s speed and our slower but far more inventive time for reflection.
Everything Has a Beginning and End, Right? Physicist Says No, With Profound Consequences for Measuring Quantum Interactions
Quantum technologies require measurements of quantum interactions, but is measuring accuracy possible if we can’t pinpoint the beginning and end in chains of cause and effect over time? Physicist Julian Barbour redefines time as an increasing complexity of interactions, when one arrow of time from the past splits at a “Janus point” into two arrows for the future. Could identifying the Janus point help to resolve the problem of circuit decoherence that has held back full-scale quantum computing?
Editorial Perspectives
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Blog
Privacy of Thought and Choice of Expression: Reflect on Their Value and Our Choice of Social Media Technology
By any measure, commercial social media has not been a net benefit to the social fabric, and now it will be used by the U.S. government to track the thoughts and actions of foreign students. The current technology is not the only option available, however, and it's worth a pause for some human reflection on the ways we could change social media to build community, protect our privacy of thought, and promote human creativity.
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Blog
The Corruption of Four-Dimensional Humanity with Two-Dimensional Technology
Words and images on two-dimensional screens can create a powerful fantasy world, but one that's far removed from the complexity of four-dimensional human living. A social media broadcaster like the world's wealthiest human can be oblivious to the effects on vulnerable adults and children from offers of million dollar payments to voters, "free speech," and threats of termination targeting 2.3 million government workers. Social media's catastrophic failure is that it doesn’t allow us to see when we’re being bad in the eyes of others.
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Blog
An Urgent Appeal for Separation of Tech and State
For the same principles and benefits that separation of church and state brought to democracies, the power of giant tech companies and their leaders must be kept separate from government. The power of the people, which is the constitutional goal of democracies whether it's practised or not, deserves no less. Tech and state must disentangle, if the people are to have any hope of remaining technology's masters. The alternative, if we cede control to our technological creations, is unconscionable.
Podcasts and Webcasts
Lindsay House: Leading 20,000 Citizen Scientists to Uncover Dark Energy’s Secrets
The Fascinating World of Mathematics at the Fields Institute, with Dr. Deirdre Haskell
Keeping Humans in the Loop: a Discussion with Saima Fancy
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Latest Quantum Computing
Accounting for Quantum Cause and Effect: Tensor Networks and Process Matrix Formalism Advance the Quest to Conquer Probability
Researchers recently reported success in predicting sequences of cause and effect in a fluid flow, a task that had until now been impossible because of the computational burden. Using the techniques of tensor networks, which are fundamental for quantum computing, and process matrix formalism, the research finding holds promise for simulating fluid motion, and for conquering probabilities that can result in quantum circuit decoherence.
Everything Has a Beginning and End, Right? Physicist Says No, With Profound Consequences for Measuring Quantum Interactions
Quantum technologies require measurements of quantum interactions, but is measuring accuracy possible if we can’t pinpoint the beginning and end in chains of cause and effect over time? Physicist Julian Barbour redefines time as an increasing complexity of interactions, when one arrow of time from the past splits at a “Janus point” into two arrows for the future. Could identifying the Janus point help to resolve the problem of circuit decoherence that has held back full-scale quantum computing?
Does Time Flow in Two Directions? Science Explores the Possibility—and its Stunning Implications
A new proof shows that time could move in opposite directions, both backward and forward like a pendulum, and equations of physics would work the same either way. Are there two arrows of time, not just the one that we experience moving from past to future? The mathematics of a two-arrow time flow describing both the original and end states of a quantum system could provide a solution for the problem of decoherence in fragile quantum circuits.
Featured Science News
Will We Find a Universal Memory for All Physical Scales, From the Tiny Quantum to Giant Stars, in the Geometry of Curves?
In the continuing search for a theory unifying general relativity’s gravity with quantum mechanics, evidence suggests the universe retains a record of events in the geometry of curves that preserve the gravitational consequences of interactions from the tiny quantum to massive stars. We survey 30 years of discoveries pointing to the possibility of decoding probabilities at any scale.
Latest Philosophy of Technology
The Case for Cyclic Neural Networks: Could Circular Data Mimic Biological Intelligence and Improve Machine Learning?
Artificial neural networks powering large language models like ChatGPT connect data sequences in straight lines: for example, A leads to B which leads to C. But real-life data relationships aren’t always linear, and biological intelligences connect the dots and weigh probabilities in many different ways. Cyclic neural networks hold promise for capturing and interpreting data more naturally in circles rather than lines, improving the reliability of their predictions as they feed on huge amounts of information synthesized from countless human and machine sources. As we increasingly rely on LLMs and AI agents to weigh probabilities for us, fully connecting the dots is crucial.
Protecting The Young, and Defending Independent Thought, in the Age of GenAI
Users of ChatGPT, and other LLMs that have shaped today’s age of generative AI, report a loss of creativity and capacity for independent thought. With AI consuming ever more of our data, how can we protect the data of today’s youth? Now the most vulnerable, they are the creators of the future and humanity’s most precious asset. Can GenAI’s power be redirected, not to replace but instead to enhance our uniquely individual human power for creativity? With the future in the balance, we explore some of the possibilities for a happy median between technology’s speed and our slower but far more inventive time for reflection.
Thinking in the Age of Machines: Global IQ Decline and the Rise of AI-Assisted Thinking
Are our minds adapting—or deteriorating—in the digital age? As global IQ scores decline and artificial intelligence assumes more cognitive tasks, new questions emerge about the future of human thought. From the reversal of the Flynn effect to the rise of “brain rot” in online culture, researchers are examining how technology, media, and shifting environments are subtly reshaping our capacity to think.
Latest Technology Over Time
After Centuries of Exploring the Mysteries of the Great Pyramid Shafts, Will Robotics Help to Uncover Their Purpose?
Over 200 years have passed since French Emperor Napoleon’s night in the Great Pyramid puzzling over its purpose, and there remains no consensus but many theories on the question. The reason for the shafts in the King’s and Queen’s Chambers is particularly mystifying, and we explore many possibilities. Will robots, which have penetrated the shafts most deeply, help to unlock the secret that’s thousands of years old?
Decoding Ancient Technology Using Modern Technology
From the discovery of a 500-year-old ocean-going canoe in the Chatham Islands to the AI-powered decoding of ancient Roman scrolls buried in volcanic ash, modern technologies—like radiocarbon dating, CT scanning, and AI—are transforming the study of ancient artefacts. Mysteries endure, however, like the undeciphered Voynich Manuscript, and continue to challenge our understanding of the past.
The Fascinating History of the Computer, from ENIAC, Vacuum Tubes and Transistors, to Microchips
We trace computing history from ENIAC, the first computer in 1947, from vacuum tubes to transistors, to the development of microchips that put far greater computing power in our our phones than the giant ENIAC had. With the world at the brink of a quantum computing revolution, what lessons can we draw from our computing history to shape the best possible future with our next technological leap ?
Latest Science News
New Technologies Bring Us Closer to Communicating With Animals. Will the Experience be Humbling?
If we could learn to speak dog, elephant, or any of the vast array of sounds that animals communicate with, how would our perception of life change? Machine learning could soon help answer the question, as algorithms enable scientists to detect patterns and meaning in animal sounds. The studies of bioacoustics and ecoacoustics, and technologies like passive acoustic localization, have already led to important discoveries. As science comes closer to cracking the code of animal language, will legal and ethical systems respond to preserve nature, recognize animal intelligence, and prevent human manipulation?
CRISPR, AI, and the Human Code: The Case of Personalized Human Gene Editing
A baby in the U.S. was recently saved by the first-ever personalized CRISPR gene-editing therapy. At the same time, embryo screening is being marketed to parents as a way to select for traits like intelligence and low anxiety. Gene editing is also advancing in brain and heart research, and while these innovations promise to transform medicine, major ethical and scientific gaps remain. A landmark study in Brazil has uncovered over 8 million previously undocumented genetic variants, most absent from global databases, raising urgent concerns about whose genomes shape the future of healthcare.
Destroying Cancer Cells with Vibrating “Molecular Jackhammers” Stimulated by Light
Initial lab tests demonstrate the effectiveness of “molecular jackhammers,” a new process that could eradicate caner cells. The jackhammers are made with infrared light that causes molecules of a medical imaging dye to vibrate at a frequency that delivers enough force to break the membranes of cancer cells. While effective methods to deliver the jackhammers to targeted body areas need more research and human trials are years away, it’s one example of the use of electromagnetism to stop the advance of deadly cancers and extend life with non-invasive techniques