Subj : Engineering, AI, Viruses To : All From : Mike Powell Date : Fri Jan 03 2025 10:50:00 From TLDR 2025-01-02 9 INTRIGUING ENGINEERING FEATS FOR 2025 (4 MINUTE READ) [6] This article covers nine engineering projects planned for this year. These include MethaneSat, a satellite that anyone can use to pinpoint specific problem areas and track emissions of methane more broadly; a processing site for radioactive nuclear waste; a personal aircraft called the Airhart Sling that anyone can fly in under an hour; Rocket Lab's Neutron, a reusable booster capable of launching 13,000 kilograms to low earth orbit; and profitable robotaxis. HOW AI IS UNLOCKING ANCIENT TEXTS - AND COULD REWRITE HISTORY (15 MINUTE READ) [7] Artificial neural networks are being used to decipher ancient texts. The technology is producing more data for scholars than they've had for centuries. It is making sense of vast archives, filling in missing and unreadable characters, and decoding rare and lost languages. The technology promises a fundamentally new way to explore ancient sources. H5N1: MUCH MORE THAN YOU WANTED TO KNOW (24 MINUTE READ) [10] All pandemic flus started as bird flus - influenza A evolved in birds but it sometimes spreads to other animals, including pigs, cattle, and humans. The most common way for a bird flu to spread to humans is to 'reassort' with a human flu virus, which results in a virus with all of the human flu virus' human adaptations, but with enough new antigens from the bird virus to evade the immune system. Pigs can be infected by both human and bird viruses, so they are a common place for this reassortment to take place. Humans can catch animal diseases without the disease having 'crossed over' to humans, but every viral replication that takes place in a human who has both a bird and a normal human flu gives the virus an extra chance to reassort in a way that produces a bird-antigen-fortified human-adapted flu virus. 2024 IN AI PREDICTIONS (14 MINUTE READ) [11] This article contains a list of predictions made in 2024 by prominent people in the AI industry about AI development over the next couple of decades. It also reviews some of the predictions made about 2024. Elon Musk thinks that AI will probably be smarter than any single human by the end of this year. However, Geoffrey Hinton and Yann LeCun have both said that it will take much longer, possibly even two decades. INTERNAL SPACEX DOCUMENTS SHOW THE SWEET STOCK DEALS OFFERED TO INVESTORS LIKE A16Z, GIGAFUND (7 MINUTE READ) [12] a16z was authorized to buy nearly 4.3 million shares for almost $300 million and Gigafund, whose co-founder is a SpaceX board member, was allocated over 1.4 million shares at a cost of nearly $100 million. Links: ------ [6] https://spectrum.ieee.org/technology-in-2025?utm_source=tldrnewsletter [7] https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-04161-z?utm_source=tldrnewsletter [10] https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/h5n1-much-more-than-you-wanted-to?utm_sou rce=tldrnewsletter [11] https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/CJ4sppkGcbnGMSG2r/2024-in-ai-predictions?u tm_source=tldrnewsletter [12] https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/01/internal-spacex-documents-show-the-sweet -stock-deals-offered-to-investors-like-a16z-gigafund/?utm_source=tldrnewsletter -- https://tldr.tech $$ --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux * Origin: capitolcityonline.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/HTTP (1:2320/105) .