DTN 047: Miss America Supports Nuclear Power

The Big Picture

The Dubious Economics of Deep-Sea Mining

“The specter of commercial operations has galvanized opponents of deep-sea mining. Far from being barren, the deep ocean floor teems with life, just a fraction of which has been identified; deep-sea ecological dynamics are only hazily understood, but it’s clear that digging nodules from the seabed could be extremely destructive, and ecological recovery may take centuries if it happens at all. The United Nations Environment Programme says that deep-sea mining in its present forms cannot be considered sustainable. That, however, was not the main subject of the presentation delivered by Victor Vescovo, a private equity investor and explorer who has dived to the deepest points of all five oceans. Instead he talked about the extraordinary challenge of operating complex machinery in corrosive salt water at near-freezing temperatures and thousands of pounds of pressure per square inch. “It is an incredibly hostile environment,” he said. “It rips up anything mechanical or electrical almost like it has a will to do so.” This made a mockery, he said, of The Metal Company’s projections: not the $13.1 billion value of metals targeted by their first project, but the $7.1 billion it would cost to retrieve them.” (Nautilus)

In Defense of AI Hallucinations

“Besides providing an instructive view of plausible alternate realities, the untethering of AI outputs from the realm of fact can also be productive. Because LLMs don’t necessarily think like humans, their flights of statistical fancy can be valuable tools to spur creativity. “That’s why generative systems are being explored more by artists, to get ideas they wouldn’t have necessarily have thought of,” says Vectara’s Ahmad. One of the most important missions of those building AI is to help solve humanity’s intractable problems, ostensibly by coming up with ideas that leap past the bounds of human imagination. Ahmad is one of several people I spoke with who believe that even if we figure out how to largely eliminate those algorithmic fibs, we should still keep them around. “LLMs should be capable of producing things without hallucinations, but then we can flip them into a mode where they can produce hallucinations and help us brainstorm,” he says. Vempala of Georgia Tech agrees: “There should be a knob that you can turn,” he says. “When you want to drive your car you don't want AI to hallucinate what's on the road, but you do when you're trying to write a poem for a friend.” (WIRED)

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Deep Tech News

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JPEG of the Week

The X-59 being guided into Stall 5. — The X-59 aircraft—the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission—is designed to demonstrate the ability to fly supersonic, or faster than Mach 1, while reducing the loud sonic boom to a sound that is about as loud as a car door closing. The 99-foot-long plane is just 14 feet tall, making it look needle-like from the side. The single-engine jet will have a cruise altitude of 55,000 feet and will be capable of speeds up to 925 mph (Mach 1.4). NASA will fly the X-59 over several communities to gather data on human responses to the sound generated during supersonic flight. Currently, the Federal Aviation Administration does not allow civil aircraft to travel over speeds exceeding Mach 1. But in the next several years, the Quesst mission will test out the disruptiveness of sonic thumps. NASA will deliver that data set to U.S. and international regulators to possibly enable commercial supersonic flight over land. (*via* *NASA* / *Gizmodo*)

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Peer Review

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Funding x M&A

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Miscellanea

Miss America Supports Nuclear Power / Microsoft is adding a new key to PC keyboards for the first time since 1994 / VW wouldn't help locate car with abducted child because GPS subscription expired / List of Animals That Have Passed the Mirror Test / Why Is There a 'Strand of DNA' on Massachusetts License Plates? / After 34 Years, Someone Beat Tetris / Scientists Have Formally Invited Aliens to Visit Kentucky / Drones Are the New Drug Mules / Boeing 737 Max planes are grounded after a hole blew in one mid-flight

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