Today on Mornings with Carmen, we talked about making tires that will not fall apart in the harsh conditions at the Moon’s south pole, the latest Gallup pole numbers on American’s views on euthanasia, and if the Singularity is nearer.
Designing tires that will work at the Moon’s south pole
In 2030, the Artemis V mission plans to send American astronauts on the South Pole of the Moon, where they will conduct several days of science experiments. However, in order for astronauts to get around, they need a car. The lunar terrain vehicle will need special tires because temperatures at the South Pole can be as low as −300°F. The soil is loose because of the low gravity, and it is sharp like pieces of glass. This would destroy normal rubber tires. And if that isn’t bad enough, there is no atmosphere, so the UV from the sun would degrade the rubber over time.
These special conditions mean NASA can’t just repurpose their design for the Mars Curiosity Rover, so they have commissioned three tire companies to come up with a design: Michelin, Goodyear, and Venturi Astrolab. Each of them has a year to come up with a design that will be tested on a simulated moon surface.
Small majority of Americans support legal euthanasia
According to a Gallup poll, about 71% of Americans believe doctors should be “allowed by law to end the patient’s life by some painless means if the patient and his or her family request it.” While 60% believe doctors should “be allowed to assist the patient to commit suicide” for terminal patients with sever pain who request it. There are several states along with Washington DC where the second, physician-assisted suicide, is legal. In Canada, euthanasia, or what their laws call medical aid-in-dying, is legal.
It’s also important to point out that even though some Americans think it should be legal, not as many think it should be moral. If you break it down to by religious views, 66% of the most religious Americans believe doctor-assisted suicide is morally wrong.
Humans will reach (technological) Singularity in 21 years
Back in 1999 Computer scientist and futurist Ray Kurzweil predicted that artificial general intelligence would be achieved once we could develop technology that can do 1 trillion computations per second. He thought this would happen in 2029, and the Singularity would occur in 2045. He wrote a book about this in 2005 called The Singularity is Near.
Kurzweil now has a new book, The Singularity is Nearer. He thinks that humans will achieve a million-fold intelligence by 2045 through a hybrid of natural intelligence and cybernetic intelligence through a brain-computer interface (BCI). If that’s not weird enough, he thinks that the BCI will be achieved using nanobots that inserted into our capillaries. He also thinks there will come a point when AI-assisted medicine will out-pace aging, so we could theoretically achieve immortality.
If this sounds like a faith in technology, it is. One of my colleagues at CBHD said that when Kurzweil is pressed in interviews to explain how we will overcome some pretty insurmountable problems, his response is basically that AI will figure it out.
Bonus: Vernor Vinge is credited with popularizing the idea of a coming technological singularity. You can read his 1993 paper here.