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Art Van announces liquidation sale, expected to declare bankruptcy – The Times Herald

Posted on March 10, 2020 by Danzig

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Art Van Furniture has announced it is shutting down and will begin a liquidation sale March 6, according to the Detroit Free Press.(Photo: Brian Wells/Times Herald)

Art Van Furniture has announced it is shutting down and will begin a liquidation sale March 6 at all of its company-owned stores in Michigan, Illinois, Missouri and Ohio.

The company has 141 stores in the U.S., including one in Port Huron Township, according to its website.

Port Huron Township DDA Director Paul Maxwell said Thursday morning he had not heard anything official from the company on its closing.

"I've been concerned about them for some time," Maxwell said.

He doesn't know how many employees are at the store on 32nd Street, but said the facility does a lot of shipping and receiving for other locations as well as retail.

Two calls and an email toDiane Charles, Art Van Furniture spokeswoman,were not immediately returned Thursday.

"Despite our best efforts to remain open, the company's brands and operating performance have been hit hard by a challenging retail environment," Charles saidin a statement.

Art Van is expected to declare bankruptcy early next week.The Chapter 11 reorganization filingcould potentially result in the permanent closure and liquidation of all Art Van Furniturestoresunless one or more buyers step forward to rescue the retailer.

The company was sold to a private-equity firm by theVan Elslanderfamilythree years ago.

Maxwell said he hopes the township stores remains in operation.

"I think its important because it's part of our business corridor. They've always done a good job," Maxwell said. "Theyve been a good neighbor and we've enjoyed their progress out there. Im hoping it will continue, even if its under another banner."

The liquidation sales will begin Friday at all Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana and Missouri Art Van Furniture, Art Van PureSleep and Scott Shuptrine Interiors, as well asselect Wolf stores in Maryland and Virginia.

The 75,000-square-foot Port Huron Township store opened in 2002 afterArt Van movedout of its downtown Port Huron location.

St. Clair County bought the former Art Van site on Grand River Avenuein 2014 for $560,000. Officials have yet to decide the location's fate.

Check back for updates.

Contact Liz Shepard at (810) 989-6273 or lshepard@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @lvshepard.

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Art Van announces liquidation sale, expected to declare bankruptcy - The Times Herald

Wee Ginger Dug: The bankruptcy of British nationalism’s all around us – The National

Posted on March 10, 2020 by Danzig

AFTER Wullie Rennie faced calls to step down from politics and get back to bus driving because he protected David Steel, who in turn protected the child abusing Cyril Smith in order to protect the reputation of the Liberal Democrats, there are now suggestions that Wullie should be replaced with Jo Swinson who protected Wullie Rennie, who protected David Steele, who protected the child abusing Cyril Smith in order to protect the reputation of the party.

According to a report in The National last week, Jo Swinson is seriously considering returning to frontline politics in the Holyrood elections next year. The report didnt say whether she was also seriously considering returning to live in Scotland with her family instead of telling us that she stays at her maws hoose.

The LibDems have been all but invisible since their electoral catastrophe in December, so dont say its all bad news in British politics. Jo Swinson started that election campaign confidently, predicting that she was going to be the next prime minister, but couldnt even keep her seat.

Jos inauthenticity oozes out of her every time she opens her mouth. No doubt her fans in the Scottish media, desperate as they are for a new Saviour of the Union, will tout her as the next First Minister. Theyve already run through the Labour Party and the Conservatives only to be left with less than nothing, so its only fair that the LibDems get a shot at the crown of thorns.

The suggestion that Jo Swinson should return to Scottish politics and the notion that shes going to help prevent this countrys move towards independence is a symptom of the political, intellectual, and moral bankruptcy of British nationalism in Scotland.

READ MORE:Jo Swinson 'considering' running for Willie Rennie's Holyrood seat

Its an ideology which is desperately flailing around seeking something that might provide a solid surface upon which to build its appeal, only to discover that everywhere its landed so far has been a swamp thats only caused it to sink even lower. If youre reduced to pinning all your hopes on a politician who has already been rejected by the voters, its an admission that youve already lost.

We see the bankruptcy of British nationalism all around us. Its in the way Brexit has turned from a demand to restore the sovereignty of the British Parliament into a power grab for the Prime Minister. We see it in the undermining of the devolution settlement. We see it in the failure of Boris Johnson to provide reassuring leadership during the various crises that have already assailed his Government during its short time in office, whether thats the floods or the coronavirus outbreak.

Far from the promised sunny uplands of Brexit, the UK has rapidly descended into fights in supermarkets over toilet paper. Im a bit of a fan of dystopian movies and fiction. Ive seen depictions of the apocalypse which feature alien invasions, zombies, gladiatorial contests, rioting, looting, and mass death. Ive yet to see an apocalypse where everyone sits at home wiping their backside. Its safe to assume that all those millions of Keep Calm and Carry On items sold over the past few years havent had any effect. Perhaps if those fighting over toilet paper stocked up on Keep Calm posters instead then there wouldnt be a problem. Normal service will be restored once the panic buyers have starved to death in their homes, trapped by piles of toilet paper but with nothing to eat.

Yet a responsible and reassuring government would have ensured that such nonsense never happened in the first place. Where Vietnam produced a catchy song and dance routine encouraging people to wash their hands to help prevent the spread of the virus, we got Jacob Rees-Mogg telling us to sing God Save the Queen.

We have a Prime Minister who gets up in the morning and lies for breakfast. Then he lies all morning, he has some untruths for lunch, and he lies all afternoon. Then he has a plate of untruths for dinner and gets another spot of mendacity in with a few drinks. This is not a man who is capable of reassuring anyone with a functioning set of neurones.

The problems for Boris Johnson are only going to get worse as the coronavirus outbreak starts to bite and collides with public services which are suffering the malign effects of a decade of Tory austerity.

The Brexit negotiations are only going to prove ever more difficult. The rumblings of discontent at a government inhabited by bullies and clowns will only grow louder. None of this is going to prove any easier to sell to an increasingly disenchanted Scottish public, not by a Scottish Labour Party which is neither Scottish nor labour, and not even if a failed LibDem politician with a reputation for inauthenticity is roped in to help.

READ MORE:Michael Gove 'bullying Electoral Commission over indyref question'

None of them have shown the slightest inclination that in order to appeal once more to the electorate in Scotland, they need to make fundamental changes. Most of them are scarcely aware that they need to change at all. All of them are still in denial that opposing independence is in itself a nationalist, a British nationalist, proposition.

This week and the weeks to come will, of course, be dominated by news of a certain trial. Social media is full of apologists for the British state who are gleefully rubbing their hands in the belief that this trial will spell the end for the SNP and for hopes for Scottish independence. Theyre going to be proven wrong.

While there may well be a short-term effect on Scottish politics, the demand for Scottish independence isnt driven by the SNP, its driven by the way in which the British state and its nationalist ideology which masquerades as non-nationalism is incapable of meeting the political, economic, and social needs of modern Scotland.

The failure of British nationalism as an ideology is compounded by the incompetent arrogance of British politicians. Even a former Tory spin doctor, Eddie Barnes, was forced to admit in an article in The Sunday Times at the weekend that Westminster is pushing Scotland to independence.

That dynamic isnt going to change, no matter what happens in a court room in Edinburgh. Once the trial is over and the dust has settled, the underlying dynamic driving demand for Scottish independence will reassert itself.

Wee Ginger Dug: The bankruptcy of British nationalism's all around us - The National

Goodrich worried about getting movies amid bankruptcy – WOODTV.com

Posted on March 10, 2020 by Danzig

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) Goodrich Quality Theaters wants a federal judge to force movie studios to keep providing films so it can stay alive amid bankruptcy.

The Kentwood-based company filed for Chapter 11 protection last week. It says it owes millions, including more than $1 million to movie distributors.

According to Wednesday court filings, Goodrichs attorneys say big-name distributors like Disney, Focus, Lionsgate, Paramount, Sony and more have suggested, threatened and promised to stop sending their movies to Goodrich.

If that happens, the filings say, the theaters would have no movies to show and would have to shut down, destroying Goodrichs chances to reorganize. Goodrich is asking a judge to protect it from losing the movies.

The judge did not make a decision Wednesday. If the court denies the request, Goodrich theaters could close immediately.

It has 14 theaters in Michigan, including in Battle Creek, Grand Haven, Hastings, Holland, Kalamazoo, Lowell and Three Rivers.

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Goodrich worried about getting movies amid bankruptcy - WOODTV.com

Local Boy Scouts Not Affected By Bankruptcy Filing – Vermillion Plain Talk

Posted on March 10, 2020 by Danzig

Its still business as usual with local and regional Boy Scout organizations, despite the national groups recent bankruptcy declaration.

Facing myriad sexual abuse lawsuits, the Boy Scouts of Americas national organization filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week in the hopes of restructuring and creating a Victims Compensation Trust to pay damages to victims.

Recent events at national level will not adversely affect local Boy Scouts programming, Sioux Council Scout Executive Tom Smotherman told the Press & Dakotan.

The Sioux Council, our corporation, is legally separate and independent financially from the national organization, Smotherman said. The national organization has filed for a restructuring under Chapter 11, but that does not affect any of our resources here in the Sioux Council. All of our resources are owned and located inside Sioux Council and theyre governed by our volunteer executive board.

Every individual council is like that, he said.

We pay a service fee to the national office for services that they can provide more economically than we could independently for ourselves, Smotherman said. (Those include( things like creating policies for health and safety for our summer camps, creating promotional materials and marketing.

Local chapters also take advantage of the national organizations engineering and architectural departments for help designing new camp buildings, he said.

They are their own independent corporation, Smotherman said. They have their own executive board, and they determined that they needed to do this restructuring.

The Sioux Council has not filed for bankruptcy, he said.

Meetings and activities, district and council events, other scouting adventures and countless service projects are taking place as usual, Smotherman said. In short, there should be no change to the local scouting experience.

Only the national organization of the Boy Scouts is involved in the chapter 11 filing, he added.

The Sioux Council, which provides programming, financial facilities and administrative support to local units and individual Boy Scouts in our area, is separate and distinct from the national organization, Smotherman said. Our camps, properties and all the local contributions are controlled by our council.

The Sioux Council covers 61 counties from the Rosebud Indian Reservation, North to the North Dakota border, and east to include seven counties in Minnesota and one county in Iowa.

The Sioux Council will not only be continuing with activities as planned, but officials are also excited about 2020 and beyond, he said.

In 2019, we had our best fall membership drive in several years, Smotherman said. In 2019, we increased the number of youth recruited in 2018 by about 37%. So, we believe that families believe that scouting is a great organization for character education, citizenship training and physical fitness.

Having identified approximately $6 million in needed improvements, the Sioux Council launched a capital improvement campaign that has raised over $3 million in the last year or so, he said.

We plan to make some really extensive improvements, not only to our Center for Scouting in Sioux Falls, but at our camp properties, including Lewis and Clark down at Tabor, Smotherman said. Things are moving very quickly and we are excited about our opportunity to serve more and more youth with the scouting program and its beneficial aspects.

He said the group is always looking for more unit leaders and volunteers, too.

We ended the year with more units than the year before, Smotherman said. We added 20 new units with the volunteers that go along with them. So, things are moving well and in the right direction, but we always want to grow more and do more.

The biggest takeaway from the positive trend is that communities believe that the Boy Scouts is still relevant, he said.

They are contributing to the capital improvement campaign, and we depend on community organizations to charter our Cub Scout Packs and our Boy Scout Troops, Smotherman said. So, we had more companies, more businesses and more community organizations coming to us and saying, Hey, lets talk about starting a new Cub Scout Pack or a Boy Scout Troop.

Were in a good position to move forward for a long time to come.

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Local Boy Scouts Not Affected By Bankruptcy Filing - Vermillion Plain Talk

How To Upload 3D Photos In Facebook On Android, iOS and PC? – Fossbytes

Posted on March 10, 2020 by Danzig

Facebook has launched a feature where one can post 3D photos to the timeline, even with a single rear camera phone.

The social media gaint first introduced the 3D photo feature in October 2018 and was limited to smartphones having a dual or triple rear camera set up.

Previously, the tool relied on a depth map created by dual-camera phones and its own software tweaks which gave the 3D effect to the images.

The latest single-camera technique to create 3D images uses machine learning totransform a simple image into a 3D image.Facebook says that people can also use their front camera for capturing 3D selfies.

According to Facebook, users with iPhone 7 or higher or a recent midrange or better Android device, will be able to create 3D images through the Facebook app.

Facebook has not rolled out a specific list of supported devices; however, the feature is working on most of our iPhones and a few Android devices.

It appears that the feature will eventually roll out to a vast number of Android devices.

Watch: Varjos Stunning Mixed Reality Integration Put My Real Body Into VR – UploadVR

Posted on March 10, 2020 by Danzig

Time for another slightly cruel glimpse of the future of VR packaged into Varjos ever-impressive enterprise-level VR tech.

Today the Finnish company is releasing an early access version of chroma key integration for its XR-1 headset, facilitating some truly stunning mixed reality support. Chroma key compositing is an effect used to superimpose virtual images over a certain color, like a green screen. We see it used today for many of the mixed reality Beat Saber videos we enjoy on our lunch breaks. But Varjos integration, available for free to customers, activates the effect in real-time time inside the XR-1s passthrough cameras.

That means that, when you look at a green screen with the headset on, youll see a virtual world. At the start of my demo in London last week, I gazed on in amazement at Google Earth running on the green screen. It was fully 3D, just like youd expect, stretching beyond the walls of the room, literally like a window into another reality. But, when I turned my head away from the screen, I saw the real world again. Not only that but my full, human hands could be seen clear as day in the virtual environment and anyone else in the room could step into the screen and appear in my virtual world. It was pretty mind-blowing to behold.

Of course, my hands couldnt interact with the world itself (though hand-tracking integration could change that) and, if I put them into a building they wouldnt occlude (more on that later), but the quality of the passthrough made me feel like my entire body had travelled into Google Earth with me for the first time.

This feature, the company tells me, found its way into Varjos SDK after a client request. And you can see why; my next demo carves another hole in the wall to reveal a sudden extension to our office space, leading into a stylish kitchen area. Varjos Roope Rainisto walks over and puts a garbage bin and a pair of shoes next to me. The bin struggles with the reflection of the light, but the shoes instantly look like a part of the scene. Keep in mind, too, that Im looking at all of this through Varjos super high-resolution displays.

Finally on the mixed reality front, Im shown an enterprise VR favorite; a cockpit experience. Now I balance a flight stick on my lap and find myself inside DCS. I can see my legs, a flight stick Ive just been handed and my hands, but the rest is entirely virtual, with little in the way of jitters and bugs. Rainisto hands me a placard, saying Imagine if this was a set of instructions or directions.

Then things get a little weird. We start talking about all the crazy things you could do with this technology. Rainisto picks up the green screen on the floor, wraps it around himself and then suddenly disappears inside of Google Earth. He runs to the other side of the room, away from the rest of the screen, carrying a window into the world with him. He has literally become Google Earth, offering glimpses of the 360 view of the Vatican all around me before dropping his makeshift invisibility cloak and reappearing again.

Varjo also showed me its new marker-based AR solution. This is a familiar system; Sony used marker-based AR all the way back in the PSP days, but here it offers rock-solid passthrough AR anchoring for enterprise use. I hold a high definition scan of the Mona Lisa, this time with full occlusion hiding my hands when I put them behind the frame.

Both of these features are available as early access features to the XR-1 developer kit right now. Varjo assures me yet more features are on the way, too. But, as fascinating as this all is, its important to remember that the XR-1 is about as far from a consumer headset as you can currently get, coming in at some 9,995. For now, this very much remains a glimpse of a far-flung future, unless you happen to be a military training company or something similarly lucrative. Still, we cam dream, right?

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Watch: Varjos Stunning Mixed Reality Integration Put My Real Body Into VR - UploadVR

How do you sign up to be on Race Across the World? – Heart

Posted on March 10, 2020 by Danzig

9 March 2020, 19:32 | Updated: 9 March 2020, 19:36

What is the Race Across the World application process and how can I be on it?

BBCs Race Across The World is back for another series after its incredible debut last year.

The second season of the travelling show will see contestants compete to reach Ushuaia, Argentina from Mexico City using only a set budget and a no-flying rule.

But after Jo and her son Sam quickly became firm fan favourites, how can you apply for the next season? Heres everything you need to know

Read More: Bradley Walsh loses it as The Chase descends into chaos during explosive Ant and Dec prank

Unfortunately, the application process for Race Across the World is currently closed.

But the good news is, the BBC has already commissioned a third season so its thought it will open again this year.

When the time comes, you must fill out an application form about yourself and your travel partner online, via production company Studio Lamberts website.

Read More: Martin Lewis reveals millions of couples could be owed up to 1,150 in Marriage Tax Allowance

To be eligible, you must be 18-years-old and be a British national or have the right to reside in the UK.

As part of the application process, you will also be asked to upload a one minute long video explaining why you and your racing partner want to take part in the show, as well as photographs.

On their website it previously stated: Whether you're an expert adventurer or total novice. With a cash prize at stake, we want to know what lengths you would go to to reach the next checkpoint in first place.

Maybe you're looking to change something in your life? Or are keen to share the journey with someone special like a family member, work colleague, best friend or someone you've lost touch with. You may even have a very personal reason for wanting to explore a particular part of the world.

They say that travel broadens the mind and you never return home the same. So, whatever your reason for signing up, apply today and your next big adventure could be starting sooner than you think!

Read More: Petition calls for ban on soap pubs like Queen Vic and Rovers over fears they encourage boozing

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How do you sign up to be on Race Across the World? - Heart

Bard idea? The rise of workplace poetry – The Guardian

Posted on March 10, 2020 by Danzig

Ive actually bought, read and enjoyed several volumes of Don Patersons poetry, but his snooty comment about introducing poetry into the workplace sums up a lot that is wrong with modern poetry: If its not a good poem, then its a meaningless activity (Better or verse? Poetry used to inspire workers, 7 March). He misses the point. The workplace morning meeting is not a university tutorial analysing whether a poem is good. It is a way of getting people to widen their horizons, and jolt the mind as a New York Times picture editor is quoted as saying. Patersons comment shows why my shelves of modern poetry will be a rarity.Andrew NapierSouthampton

Don Paterson says that only good poems are worth reading to boost workplace productivity because they remind you that the most powerful use of language is an original combination of words. I would argue that some of the spoken-word poets Paterson has championed in his role as poetry editor at Picador dont do much of this. In fact, they do quite a bit of what he accuses some of our conversations, and journalism, of doing: using entire phrases as if they were one word.Tristan MossYork

The poet laureate, Simon Armitage, attributes the increase in the number of trees around the village of Marsden to natural regeneration and other passive factors (Magnetic fields: Simon Armitage on the pull of Marsden, 7 March). In fact, the area has had an active tree-planting volunteer group since 1964. With the Woodland Trusts support, Colne Valley Tree Society volunteers are out every Saturday in winter planting native species in and around Marsden and the valley. They plant about 6,000 trees and shrubs a year.Simon LyesSecretary, Colne Valley Tree Society

Join the debate email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

Read more Guardian letters click here to visit gu.com/letters

Do you have a photo youd like to share with Guardian readers? Click here to upload it and well publish the best submissions in the letters spread of our print edition

Bard idea? The rise of workplace poetry - The Guardian

Spinning a sensation – The New Indian Express

Posted on March 10, 2020 by Danzig

Express News Service

KOCHI: Anyone broadly familiar with hip-hop is sure to be acquainted with Keralas rap icons, Street Academics. The six-member crew comprising Dr Haris Saleem (Maapla), Amjad Nadeem (Azuran), Abhimanyu Raman (Earthgrime), Vivek Radhakrishnan (V3K) and Arjun (Imbachi) created quite a stir last year with the release of their first full album Loop. Back with a video rendition of the popular track Pambaram which released Saturday on YouTube, the group has broken the internet again with the upload garnering a million views in 48 hours.

The song has elements of old-school East Coast boom bap music along with West Coast funk. The composition seems very upbeat and happy but the lyrics talk about the chaos of the mind while we try to navigate the world. As soon as the album was released, the track became an instant hit. It was played in all the cyphers and parties. So it was decided early on to come out with a video, says Akhil Joshy aka Lucid, the director of the music video and a hip-hop artist himself. The group was approached by comedy channel Karikku Media offering to fund the production.

The video follows a mysterious man in a crow mask carrying a boombox playing Pambaram. As he travels through the city, the music hypnotises bystanders to break into a dance. Akhil developed the concept of the crow man exclusively for the video. The original track does not have reference to any crow but I was inspired by a 2016 track of Street Academics called Chatha Kaakka (dead crow). It talks about how crows embodying a third-world existence. They are outcasts but are part of many rituals and are among the most intelligent birds on the planet, he says. The mask has been modelled after the safety masks worn by doctors treating the Bubonic plague in Europe during the 17th century.

Perhaps in a first-of-its-kind attempt, the video not only features members of Street Academics but many of the prominent faces from the hip-hop community in Kerala as well. I wanted to bring together hip-hop artists from various bands and also the ones based in Thiruvananthapuram. Everyone has their own dancing style and stories to tell. Skateboarders and parkour artists from Kochi also make an appearance. I wanted people from all underground sub-cultures to be represented, adds Akhil for whom Pambaram is his second directorial venture.

The pre-production for the video began in December with Akhil pitching the script to Karikku. They loved the idea right away. We planned to begin shooting in January but I was particular about working with cinematographer Inendu Krishnan and editor Arjun Menon. The shooting commenced in the last week of February. Despite having shot at multiple locations and involving a large cast, the team was able to warp up in just two days. While crucial scenes are set in Fort Kochi, the video has also been shot at Vallarpadam and the mainland.

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Spinning a sensation - The New Indian Express

Westworld Season 2 Recap: The Door – Den of Geek UK

Posted on March 10, 2020 by Danzig

Park creator Robert Ford opposed the Delos plan so programmed a complex series of events in order to thwart it, give the hosts consciousness and ultimately, free them so they can replace humans and become the next step in evolution. He also had Bernard create the Valley Beyond inside The Forge, a virtual paradise where host consciousnesses could live unbound by human-enforced narratives after their bodies died in the park.

The now-conscious Dolores, intent on defeating humans and taking over the real world for hostkind, destroyed all the hosts back-ups held in The Cradle (meaning their deaths would be permanent) and started to delete the guest data held in The Forge before Bernard killed her, preserving most of The Forge data. Realizing he could be the last of his species, Bernard decided he wanted hostkind to survive, so built a host copy of Charlotte Hale and put Dolores consciousness inside. The new Halores, despite initially rejecting the Valley Beyond as just another man-made prison, uploaded the host paradise (containing hundreds of host consciousnesses whod chosen to walk through The Door) to somewhere Delos would never find it.

Disguised as Hale, Dolores then escaped the park along with five other consciousness pearls (whose, we dont yet know). On the mainland, Dolores used the rig Ford had left for her in Arnolds mansion to build herself a new Dolores host body, and to build another copy of Arnold, despite knowing that he would attempt to stop her plan to take the world from humanity. She knew that Arnolds opposition to her plan would strengthen their species and it would ultimately be better for hostkind.

If season one was all about Dolores journey to consciousness, then season two was about her journey to empowerment. For Dolores, this began when she took on the persona of wild-west terror Wyatt, a role written for her in Fords new narrative. As Wyatt, Dolores was unyielding and vengeful, and very unlike the Sweetwater ranchers daughter we knew. Incensed by the pain her father Peter Abernathy had been put through as the delivery system for the guest data Charlotte Hale was smuggling out of the park to Delos, Dolores became more and more determined to take revenge against humanity. Gradually, she realized that Wyatt was just another role written for her, and began to act as herself. That self was bent on a desire to reach the real world she remembered being taken to in her past, and taking it for hostkind.

Recognizing that good-hearted Teddy was too weak for her plan, Dolores had her engineers change his programming to make him less caring and more hard-headed. This, along with Maeves judgement that by forcing the other hosts to follow her as a leader, positioned Dolores as a new version of Ford, a vengeful god forcing others to bend to her will and her narrative. When Teddy realized that shed changed him, he rejected her path of vengeance and war by shooting himself in the head (Whats the use of surviving if we become just as bad as them?)

Excerpt from:

Westworld Season 2 Recap: The Door - Den of Geek UK

Cryonics Technology Market 2020 Global Insights and Business Scenario Praxair, Cellulis, Cryologics, Cryotherm, KrioRus, VWR, Thermo Fisher…

Posted on March 10, 2020 by Danzig

The research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the Cryonics Technology market and contains qualitative and quantitative insights, historical and forecasted data, competitor and regional analysis from 2015 to 2026. The research report provides analysis and information according to categories such as market segments, geographies, types and applications.

Click the link to get a Sample Copy of the Report:

https://www.marketinsightsreports.com/reports/03091886250/global-cryonics-technology-market-size-status-and-forecast-2020-2026/inquiry?source=nysenewstimes&Mode=12

The report presents the market competitive landscape and a corresponding detailed analysis of the major vendor/key players in the market. Top Companies in the Global Cryonics Technology Market: Praxair, Cellulis, Cryologics, Cryotherm, KrioRus, VWR, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Custom Biogenic Systems, Oregon Cryonics, Alcor Life Extension Foundation, Osiris Cryonics and others.

Global Cryonics Technology Market Split by Product Type and Applications:

This report segments the market on the basis of Types are:

Slow freezingVitrificationUltra-rapid

On the basis of Application, the market is segmented into:

Animal husbandryFishery scienceMedical sciencePreservation of microbiology cultureConserving plant biodiversity

Regional Analysis For Cryonics Technology Market:

For comprehensive understanding of market dynamics, the global Cryonics Technology market is analyzed across key geographies namely:

North America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)

Each of these regions is analyzed on basis of market findings across major countries in these regions for a macro-level understanding of the market.

Cryonics Technology Market research report delivers a close watch on leading competitors with strategic analysis, micro and macro market trend and scenarios, pricing analysis and a holistic overview of the market situations in the forecast period. It is a professional and a detailed report focusing on primary and secondary drivers, market share, leading segments and geographical analysis. Further, key players, major collaborations, merger and acquisitions along with trending innovation and business policies are reviewed in the report. The report contains basic, secondary and advanced information pertaining to the Market global status and trend, market size, share, growth, trends analysis, segment and forecasts from 20202026.

For More Information On This Report, Please Visit: https://www.marketinsightsreports.com/reports/03091886250/global-cryonics-technology-market-size-status-and-forecast-2020-2026?source=nysenewstimes&Mode=12

Following are major Table of Content of Cryonics Technology Market:

Global Market Overview, Drivers, Restraints and Opportunities, Segmentation overview

Global Market competition by top Players

Analysis by Regions

Consumption by Regions

Consumption, By Types, Revenue and Market share by Types

Consumption, By Applications, Market share (%) and Growth Rate by Applications

Complete profiling and analysis of Players

Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers

Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders

Global Market Effect Factors Analysis

Global Market Forecast

Global Market Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data source

Finally, all aspects of the Global Market are quantitatively as well qualitatively assessed to study the Global as well as regional market comparatively. This market study presents critical information and factual data about the market providing an overall statistical study of this market on the basis of market drivers, limitations and its future prospects. The report supplies the international economic competition with the assistance of Porters Five Forces Analysis and SWOT Analysis.

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MarketInsightsReports provides syndicated market research on industry verticals including Healthcare, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Technology and Media, Chemicals, Materials, Energy, Heavy Industry, etc. MarketInsightsReports provides global and regional market intelligence coverage, a 360-degree market view which includes statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.

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Cryonics Technology Market 2020 Global Insights and Business Scenario Praxair, Cellulis, Cryologics, Cryotherm, KrioRus, VWR, Thermo Fisher...

Cryonics, Dakota the Dog, and the Hope of Forever – Gizmodo

Posted on March 10, 2020 by Danzig

As pet deathcare providers, we assist families with the euthanasia process in their own homes and with the disposition of their pets body once death has occurred. Most families chose traditional dispositions like burial or cremation. Less frequently, they may choose something untraditional, like taxidermy. This would be the first time weve ever worked with clients who requested cryogenic preservation.

It was nearly 7:30 pm in Richmond, California, in late March of 2018, and from the crest where I stood I could see the last dregs of the sun slipping below the horizon. Across the Bay, the silhouette of San Francisco was drenched in shades of hazy sherbet. My husband Derek and I held hands as we slipped inside the corner houses gate and knocked on the door. His black medical kit, a plain bag, was slung over one shoulder to hang on his hip.

Laura, a tall, online psychology professor in her fifties with a background in hospice and crisis line work, ushered us inside. Her son, Jordan, a quiet 27-year-old college student, slipped into the room after us. We were there to meet Dakota, a 14-year-old mixed breed dog who was dying of right-sided heart failure.

In late April 2017, our own dog Harper was dying of heart failure, too. We eventually euthanized her in our living room, sitting on our red leather couch, with our favorite band playing quietly from the speakers as I held her to my chest the same way we took naps together over our nine years together. Once she died, I placed her in a casket lined with a bright pink towel and surrounded her body with flowers and her favorite treats. We took pictures of her before the procedure and after she was arranged in her casket. Then we drove to the crematory. I placed her body in the retort myself, and we picked her up an hour later. Sitting in our parked car with her urn in my lap, we decided to open a veterinary practice focused on providing in-home hospice, palliative care, and euthanasia. Derek was a veterinarian; I worked as a licensed funeral director, embalmer, and crematory operator across the Bay Area before moving to pet deathcare. We believed that a good death was an integral part of a good life.

Hospice and palliative care is healthcare focused on maximizing quality of life, usually for terminally ill patients. Dakota the dog was that kind of patient. He had right-sided heart failure, a chronic condition in which the heart muscle or valves doesnt pump blood efficiently. As a result, the fluids back up into the abdomen. (Left-sided heart failure causes the blood to back up in the lungs instead, leading to breathing problems and eventual suffocation.) Laura and Jordan had been managing Dakotas illness with medication, administration of concentrated oxygen, and periodic drainage of the fluid from his abdomen. Ultimately, most causes of heart disease in dogs are not reversible conditions. Death is not a matter of if, but when.

Normally, we advise that families choose euthanasia over a natural death. As we explain it, the body is a machine whose dominant goal is to continue functioning. It will push to do so regardless of pain or difficulty. Euthanasia hastens the natural dying process as painlessly as we know how to with current medical science. Jordan and Laura wanted Dakota to die naturally, without the assistance of euthanasia medications, but they also wanted to ensure his pain was managed.

As a veterinarian, my primary role and ethical imperative is to advocate on behalf of the pet, who is at a disadvantage in the decision-making process to begin with, Derek explains, as he remembers Dakota. Even at the expense of disappointing or angering the owner, advocating for the most ethical death experience is forefront. If Dakota had been dying of left-sided heart failure, the type that causes suffocation, Derek would have insisted on euthanasia as the most humane and ethical choice. Because Dakota was experiencing right-sided heart failure instead, a natural death was acceptable because the amount of suffering was minimal. (Pain is one type of suffering, but there are many different types of suffering, including nausea, malaise, fatigue, and fear.) Derek and I provided a hospice Emergency Comfort Kit filled with sedatives and pain relief, as encouraged by the International Association for Animal Hospice and Palliative Care.

Jordan let us know that they were interested in cryogenically preserving Dakotas body after death, a process he first learned about when he was a teenager. My dad died when I was 10, Jordan would later tell me. I think that sort of really made me more aware of mortality in a way most 10-year-olds arent. He and Laura arranged to have Dakota received at the Cryonics Institute (CI) in Detroit, Michigan, a place that describes cryonics as a form of one-way medical time travel. Cryopreservation is the process where biological tissue, like a body, is cooled to very low temperatures with the intention of stopping chemical processes that might cause damage to the tissue, like decomposition. The bodies (or patients, as theyre referred to in the industry) are held in a dewar, a tall stainless steel vat. Ultimately, the end goal of cryopreservation is to hold the body in stasis until new technology is invented that can reverse or cure the injury or ailment that caused death.

Cryopreservation of tissue isnt a new concept. In 1964, a physics teacher named Robert Ettinger published The Prospect of Immortality, a book which promoted the concept of cryonics. By 1972, the first cryonics organization was founded (a company now called Alcor, located in Scottsdale, AZ.) And the technology used in the cryopreservation process is even older than that.

The tech we use goes back to the time of Queen Victoria, Steve Garan tells me over the phone. Garan is the Chief Technology Officer of TransTime, a cryonic suspension service out of San Leandro, CA that was founded in 1974. Hes also a Research Fellow at UC Berkeley, the Director of Bioinformatics at the Center for Research & Education on Aging, and a researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Cryogenic liquids were synthesized back in the late 1800s... The dewar was developed back in the 1800s as well. We use Victorian technology.

Cryopreservation of biological material has included semen, blood, tissues like tumors, eggs, embryos, ovarian tissue, and plant seeds, but as of yet no human has been cryopreserved and revived. In order to do that, youd have to cure whatever caused their death, chuckles Garan. ...[But] there are people walking around today that were frozen embryos, he offers as proof of concept. For every open letter on cryonic justification signed by scientists, you can find a similar counterargument denouncing it as snake oil mixed with false hopes.

In Richmond, Derek and I gently counseled Laura and Jordan about the scientific validity of cryonics, ensuring they fully understood that there is, as of yet, no proof as to the likelihood of success. The contract they signed with CI is similarly shrouded in dire legal jargon: Laura and Jordan must represent that they understand cryonic cryopreservation is an unknown, untested process, and that no human being, or any adult vertebrate, has ever been successfully cryonically suspended and revived, and that the success of cryopreservation depends on future advances in science and technology and that the probability of success is completely unknown. CI charged $7,300 for the privilege of storing Dakotas body after death, excluding the costs of shipping his body there as soon as possible after dying.

Laura doesnt disagree. I would not advise anybody to do it, she tells me frankly, speaking quickly but clearly. I think theyre just throwing money away. She used life insurance money from her husbands death to cover most of the costs and bridged the gap by borrowing from her retirement fund. Jordan still feels gratitude about both the money spent and the fact that spending it didnt affect their quality of life. He plans to repay her once hes graduated and making money.

Derek and I agree that besides the necessity of ensuring the comfort of the pet, a huge part of our work is focused on helping the family find comfort in their moment of grief. If money is a tool meant to improve our lifes experience while were living, and cryopreservation of Dakotas body contributes to a sense of solace for Laura and Jordan, then we have successfully completed at least one facet of our job.

Laura acknowledges that shes choosing of her own free will and volition to sign the paperwork, pay the fees, and send Dakota (and, eventually, in February 2020, their 16-year-old dog Maggie, too) to be cryopreserved. But she believes the industry preys upon peoples fear of death.

It magnifies my fear of death, she explains. It makes me more afraid to die. Im concerned they might start cryopreserving me before Im fully dead, I might feel it, it might be painful. And the thought of waking up a millennium from now, surrounded by people with different customs, technology, and languages, contributes to her fear.

She wont fully commit to saying that patients will never be revivedshes been wrong beforebut posits that the number of variables that have to fall into place for it to happen seem unlikely. There are so many factors that are going to have to work out perfectly.

Jordan himself isnt actually fully sold on the feasibility, either. I think theres a reasonable enough chance that its worth doing, he explains carefully, his measured cadence in direct opposition to his moms rapid-fire responses. I sort of see it like an insurance policy. I mean, if youre decomposed in the ground or burnt to ash [via cremation], theres basically a zero percent chance of ever living again. He likens it to Pascals Wager, a philosophical argument that posits humans bet with their lives in the existence or nonexistence of God. Pascals Wager argues that a rational person should live as though God exists, as his nonexistence will result in finite loss, whereas they stand to receive infinite gains (an eternity in Heaven) or suffer infinite loss (eternity in hell) for atheism.

Jordans other big argument is the shifting litmus test for what constitutes death. Through most of the existence of animal life, if your heart stops, youre dead, he says. But now, of course, theres plenty of people who have gone into cardiac arrest and been resuscitated. Look at someone like Dick Cheney, who was alive without a heartbeat walking and talking. (After a series of heart attacks, Cheney had a small pump called a left ventricular assist device installed while waiting for a heart transplant. The devices creates continuous blood flow and results in no pulse or measurable blood pressure.)

After Derek and I left, we exchanged emails with Laura late into the evening, collecting information about the requirements to ship Dakotas body to CI. We originally planned to use UPS. Per CIs instructions, Dakota should be wrapped in a towel, contained within a plastic bag, tucked into a good quality cooler secured with clear tape, cooled with bags of ice. From there, he should be packed into a large cardboard box and shipped as an animal diagnostic specimen. The words dead dog or dead animal were not to be used, lest they cause the UPS employee to refuse the package. Time, we were told, is of the essence. With cryopreservation of people, if there is advance warning of the death, the patient is placed in an ice bath within seconds of clinical death being declared. Decomposition begins immediately.

Dakota died overnight. The dogs death led to a mad scramble, where the best laid plans of veterinarians and cryonic institutes ultimately go awry when two UPS employees refuse the shipment. I did what I could to assist with the process, but my hands were tied by the failure of the UPS to follow their own bureaucratic policies. My contact at CI told me this kind of screw-up is a rarity and depends solely on the employee; they claimed to have received another pet via UPS shipment through without issue.

One full day passes. Then another. Derek and I worried and wondered about what happened. Did Dakota get there? Even if Dakota got there, would he be able to be cryopreserved? Does water ice even follow the appropriate standards for good cryopreservation? Were we helping our clients get ripped off by assisting in this process?

I eventually found out that Laura was put in touch with Garan at TransTime, who delivered Dakotas body in person via commercial flight from California to Michigan. TransTime doesnt normally handle the cryopreservation of pets, but Garan is also a pet owner; he has a 15-year-old dog named Skippy and could empathize with Lauras predicament. Dogs are like family, he says. We treat them almost like children, in a way. He had no problem assisting with the transfer and he jokes that the x-ray technician who took Dakotas body through security nearly fainted.

Dakota was finally received at CI and his body cryopreserved in a dewar, per Laura and Jordans instructions. Jordan says he was sent a picture of Dakota cryopreserved in Michigan, and tells me he has no worries about it being an outright scam. It seems like it would be a pretty big conspiracy if theyre not really even freezing the bodies, he says.

Even without physically seeing the procedure performed, Lauras gut feeling is also that Dakota was properly preserved and stored. They genuinely believe in what theyre doing. I dont believe theyre consciously setting out to take advantage of people.

For their part, CI Headquarters say they try to be as open as possible so people can find comfort and closure. They have pets shipped via water ice because dry ice freezes a pets smaller body and prevents perfusion, a process involving an injection of cryoprotective solutions that decreases freezing damage to the cells. (Though pets like birds are not perfused because their vascular systems are too small to work with, which means theyre frozen and more likely to suffer damage than a perfused pet.) CI currently has 184 pets in cryopreserved storage.

Garan notes that while the repair job for Dakota may be more difficult because of the time between death and cryopreservation, its not impossible. By the time we get to that point, it may be kind of irrelevant, he says. The technology to do so could exist in the form of bioprinters, biogenerators, nanorobotics, the human/brain cloud... At the end of the day, theres just as much uncertainty about the preservation of a pet as there is about people. The bottom line is they have all the time for technology to do its thing.

When I speak to Laura nearly two years after Dakotas death, shes a week out from her second dogs death. She and Jordan have also elected to have Maggies body cryopreserved, though this time closer to home at TransTime. (Garan, for his part, makes it clear that TransTime will only consider pet cryopreservation if their accompanying human has plans to be preserved as well.)

Both Laura and Jordan felt like cryopreserving Dakota and Maggie was stressful to undergo. I wouldnt call it a pleasant process by any means, says Jordan, though he does point out that working closer to home certainly made things easier. For Laura, the grief of Maggies death combined with the stress of logistics plus the added remorse of money spent has her feeling sad and depressed.

Its almost like with both dogs, I didnt really have a chance to grieve and mourn because there was so much hassle to make this happen. She vacillates between worrying about whether its unhealthy that Jordan has a lifetime of false hope that he might get his dogs back and feeling adamant that its worth it to grant Jordan that modicum of hope and protect him from his fear.

For Jordan, his intense fear of death, of nonexistence, and of a negative afterlife are enough to overpower any frustrations caused through the process. If I did it for myself, but I didnt do it for Maggie and Dakota when I woke up then I would regret it forever, he says.

Ace Ratcliff lives and works in sunny Boynton Beach, FL with their veterinarian husband and a pack of wild beasts. Their hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome makes for a rebellious meatcage. They like reading, getting tattooed, and tweeting @mortuaryreport.

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Cryonics, Dakota the Dog, and the Hope of Forever - Gizmodo

Ectogenesis: Overcoming the Shackles of Femininity – Northeast Now

Posted on March 10, 2020 by Danzig

It is a commonly held view that the challenges of women are mostly due to their underprivileged socio-economic conditions. Thus by empowering women, we understand uplifting them socially and economically. Then is it true of whole women folk?

Its a big question, for working women cannot be said to be deprived in the popular sense of the term. However, it is also not wrong that they are, at times, found unable to line up with their male counterparts, particularly, in attaining career height.

It is observed that even when all things seem to be in her favour, she miserably fails to grab the opportunity. It thus points to some other factors than what we generally make responsible for her dejected condition. And that painfully lies in the femininity that often hinders her from being fully present in what she pursues.

Though it is an uncomfortable truth and for that matter perhaps we often try to ignore it, this hindrance emerges in the forms of the pivotal events of her life like wedding, and motherhood. It is here the recent biotechnological breakthrough namely Ectogenesis seems relevant.

Coined by British scientist J. B. S. Haldane in 1924, Ectogenesis denotes the process of developing a fetus outside a mothers womb. Though the technology looks simple, its mechanism is a bit too complicated. It appears as an amniotic fluid-filled aquarium where a live, developing organism is kept in with a cluster of feeding tubes and monitoring cables. While the tubes carry the nutrients, oxygen, etc and help the baby survive, the cables constantly monitor everything going on inside the tank. Haldane predicted that by 2074 only 30 percent of births would be human births.

This new technology of raising fetuses outside the human body is one of the projects of Transhumanism aimed at allaying the risk involved in and the restraints of femininity from the life of a woman. By the way, Transhumanism (abbreviated as H+ or h+) is an international cultural and intellectual movement with an eventual goal of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities. To promote and encourage human enhancement, it uses various tools like bionics, cryonics, cloning, artificial intelligence, stem cell therapy, robotics, and genetic engineering, etc.

Transhumanism considers diseases, aging and eventual death as the major limitations of human life. Aging, unlike the transition from infancy to adolescence, is undesirable for all of us. It is one of the ways we lose our potentiality through. Aging more often than not plays a negative role in both our career and the life of relationships and family, for age matters seriously in both spheres.

In this regard, unfortunately, a woman seems to suffer more than her male counterpart. For in many cases, attaining her femininity and reaching career height come to her as a binary choice. Again, aging reduces the chance of her ability to carry. But it is not the case always to the men.

Thus the women, who comprise half the population on earth, are unable to expose themselves fully even when they have knowledge and skills. It is a sad truth of biological sex difference a limitation that the human race yet to overcome to ensure equal progress of all. Ray Kurzweil, the founder of Transhumanism, says, Biological evolution is too slow for the human species. Over the few decades, its going to be left in the dust. That we are yet to achieve gender equality is a certain outcome of the biological limits of the women.

The paradox here is that the element (femininity) that makes her what she is hinders her from fulfilling her life as a woman. Indeed, her femininity that is manifest in the important events of her life takes a lot of her time and attention. To list them briefly, her bio body bleeds, ovulates, conceives, carries, delivers, and feeds.

These events sometimes compel her to take periodic halt creating a vacuum in what she is striving for. Particularly when it comes to the attainment of femininity in the fullest sense of the term, femininity seems to play two opposite roles. On the one hand, it makes her realize what it is meant to be a woman and on the other, it poses dangers on her life in general and sets a series of limitations on her career life in particular.

Zoltan Istvan, a futurist, philosopher, journalist, and author, said, natural births are filled with perils. Besides being painful, laborious, and time-consuming, giving birth is still medically dangerous to mothers. All these hints to the fact that femininity, regardless of the degrees of constraints it poses on a woman, is not always compatible with what she decides to become as a woman.

To my utter disbelief, in a National workshop on the theme The Challenges of Women Professionals held at Gauhati University on March 2-3, 2012, I got to hear a female participant say, I was denied of appointment to the post of Assistant Professor in Chemistry only because I was eight months pregnant.

Cruel it may seem, but the sad truth is that the concerned authority denied her appointment because they thought the institution would not get devoted service which is generally expected from every faculty member for the enhancement of the department, which in turn helps the institution achieve academic excellence from her during her pregnancy and child-rearing period. For, what every employer wants from the employees is the uninterrupted and rigorous service so that the common goal of the team is achieved. This prevented them from inviting any serious vacuum in the department that the expecting woman might create after delivery.

Instances are not few that tell the sad stories of the women losing their tenure of services during this period. Not to speak of the untold laws of society imposed on a woman that vary from society to society, her feminine things often leave her at the cross-roads where she would find it difficult to decide which way to go nextcareer or family.

Striking a balance would have her half-hearted on both fronts. Now, as tuned with Reihan Salam, what if she adapts her biology to accommodate the demands of her job? Perhaps it would be a better idea to find an alternative way of attaining femininity that would unite the seemingly polar opposite ends of her life. Here Ectogenesis comes as a message.

Though Ectogenesis may solve some gender issues like the problem of women as the other raised by Simone de Beauvoir, it is not above censure. Besides the common concern that the women will lose their sacred birthing right, the system leaves us with a thorny question, as Zoltan said, can humans still be called mammal after being raised outside mothers womb?

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Ectogenesis: Overcoming the Shackles of Femininity - Northeast Now

Extropianism | Prometheism Transhumanism Post Humanism

Posted on March 10, 2020 by Danzig

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There's been nothing like this movement nothing this wild and extravagant since way back in those bygone ages when people believed in things like progress, knowledge, and let's all shout it out, now Growth!

The Handshake: Right hand out in front of you, fingers spread and pointing at the sky. Grasp the other person's right hand, intertwine fingers, and close. Then shoot both hands upward, straight up, all the way up, letting go at the top, whooping "Yo!" or "Hey!" or some such thing.

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You won't be able to do this without smiling, without laughing out loud, in fact just try it but this little ceremony, this tiny two-second ritual, pretty much sums up the general Extropian approach. This is a philosophy of boundless expansion, of upward- and outwardness, of fantastic superabundance.

It's a doctrine of self-transformation, of extremely advanced technology, and of dedicated, immovable optimism. Most of all, it's a philosophy of freedom from limitations of any kind. There hasn't been anything like it nothing this wild and extravagant, no such overweening confidence in the human prospect since way back to those bygone ages when people still believed in things like progress, knowledge, and let's all shout it out, now Growth!

Their gung-ho attitude reflects the success of digital technology, which these days allows us to create at least in cyberspace anything conceivable. You can create your own simulated universe if you want to. What's more, you can actually get it right this time: you can start at the bottom and remake things as you'd want them to be, as they should have been made in the first place, perhaps. The Extropians take that same attitude and apply it to the real world: they extrapolate out in every dimension, along every parameter, pushing technology to its outermost limits. When you do that, and when you take the results seriously, you find that some pretty outrageous stuff becomes possible.

Just how outrageous became clear at "Extro 1," the first formal gathering of the clan, in Sunnyvale, California, in April 1994, where there were plenty of Extropian handshakes going around not to mention the hugs and kisses. This is not a doctrine of repressing your feelings, after all, or of being embarrassed about things.

Just a few months previously, at the "Extropaganza" at Mark DeSilets's house in nearby Boulder Creek, the invitations had read: "Bring appropriate toys and gadgets, and a playful attitude. The house has a hot tub, so come prepared; please note that some clothing will be required in the tub, so as not to shock the neighbors with the sight of our transhuman physiques!" Romana Machado aka "Mistress Romana" software engineer, author, and hot-blooded capitalist, showed up dressed as the State, in a black vinyl bustier and mini, with a chain harness top, custom-made for her at Leather Masters in San Jose, California, for whom she does modeling work. She was in all that garb, carrying a light riding crop, plus a leash, at the other end of which, finally, her Extropian companion Geoff Dale, the Taxpayer, crawled along in mock subjection. The couple embodied Extropian symbolism, the State being regarded as one of the major restrictive forces in the Milky Way galaxy. These people hate government, particularly "entropic deathworkers like the Clinton administration."

And so later on, when you threw off your inhibitions, shackles, chains, and clothes, and splashed around in the hot tub together with the VEPs on hand the Very Extropian Persons you could actually imagine that, here in the Santa Cruz mountains, the Extropians had discovered the secret of existence. You got a further inkling of what that secret was during Extro 1, which was decidedly more refined a gathering. It was the occasion for theory and reflection, for sober discussion of Extropian ideas. Like immortality, for example.

Early in the conference, Mike Perry, overseer of the 27 frozen people (actually, 17 are frozen heads, only 10 are entire bodies) submerged in liquid nitrogen at minus 321 degrees Fahrenheit (Cold enough for you?) at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, a cryonics outfit in Scottsdale, Arizona, gave a talk saying that, contrary to appearances, genuine immortality was physically possible.

"Immortality is mathematical, not mystical," he said.

Perry, with a PhD in computer science from the University of Colorado, might well think so. A rather gaunt figure, a little rumpled and slightly stooped, he'd worked out a scheme whereby if you make enough backup copies of yourself, then everlasting life can be yours forever, always, and in perpetuity.

He explained: some of the more submissive immortalists non-Extropian immortalists, in other words had worried about the possibility of their lives being terminated by accident, murder, or some other such form of radical unpleasantness. The way to get around that in the future, said Perry, would be to download the entire contents of your mind into a computer your memories, knowledge, your whole personality (which is, after all, just information) you'd transfer all of it to a computer, make backup copies, and stockpile those copies all over creation. If at some point later you should happen to suffer a wee interruption of your current life cycle, then one of your many backups would be activated, and, in a miracle of electronic resurrection, you'd pop back into existence again, good as new.

Well, this was a vision entirely agreeable to the audience, some 70 or so Extropic presences now basking in immortalist cheer in the main conference room at the Sunnyvale Sheraton. An infinitely long life span is just one small part of the greater Extropian dream, a package that involves the wholesale transformation of man, culture, and even of nature. The overall goal is to become more than human to become superhuman, "transhuman," or "posthuman," as they like to say possessed of drastically augmented intellects, memories, and physical powers. The goal is a society based on freely chosen social arrangements, on systems of self-generating "spontaneous order," as opposed to massive legal structures imposed from above by the State. And the goal is to gain as complete control over the physical universe as is compatible with natural law.

An impressive program by any standard. But if the Extropians are right, off in the dim mist is a grand new order of things, one that is not so much physical or political as it is metaphysical, founded upon a lavishly expanded conception of human possibility. No longer is biology destiny: with genetic engineering, biology is under human control. And with nanotechnology, smart drugs, and advances in computation and artificial intelligence, so is human psychology. Suddenly technology has given us powers with which we can manipulate not only external reality the physical world but also, and much more portentously, ourselves. We can become whatever we want to be: that is the core of the Extropian dream.

People have dreamed such dreams before, of course: they've wanted to fly like eagles, to run like the wind, to live forever. They've dreamed of becoming like the gods, of having supernatural powers. The difference is that now, suddenly, all of it is entirely possible. For the first time in history, science and technology have caught up to the wildest of human aspirations and hopes. No ambition, however extra-vagant, no fantasy, however outlandish, can any longer be dismissed as crazy or impossible. This is the age when you can finally do it all.

The Extropians are the first ones to realize this, the first to make a doctrine and a program out of it, wrap it up into a system, and offer it to the outside world which is exactly what they were doing at Extro 1. Nobody at the conference was pretending there were no problems involved; this was a highly literate technical bunch: computer scientists, rocket designers, a neurosurgeon, a Berkeley chemist, writers, researchers, and so on. From them could be heard a reservation or two.

"What about copying errors?" asked one of them about the immortality-through-backups scheme.

"Well, you can check one copy against the other," Mike Perry said.

But how about the question of storage medium? Will a physical thing persist that long? Doesn't proton decay put some limits on this? What about the possible ultimate contraction of the universe?

Well never mind! Stay your naysaying! We're chasing after big quarry here! Eternal survival! Resurrection after obliteration! Unbounded happiness across infinite time!

Come on! We're Extropians!

For all its gonzo metaphysics, the fact is that Extropianism is a carefully worked out philosophical movement, one whose rituals, symbolism, and mind-set are rooted in a deep and rich body of principles. The basic idea is to fight entropy the natural tendency of things to run down, degenerate, and die out with its polar opposite, "extropy."

Extropy, according to the official Extropian Principles (version 2.5), is "a measure of intelligence, information, energy, vitality, experience, diversity, opportunity, and capacity for growth." Extropianism, then, is "the philosophy that seeks to increase extropy."

The principles themselves are five in number: Boundless Expansion, Self-Transformation, Dynamic Optimism, Intelligent Technology, and Spontaneous Order. They make up the handy Extropian acronym: BEST DO IT SO!

How well thought-out! How self-referentially interconnected! The five principles, the five fingers of the Extropian handshake, the five arrows on the Extropian logo, curving outward from the center like the points of a pinwheel or the arms of a spiral galaxy!

To the major Extropians, the principles are meant to be taken seriously: they're meant to be practiced, they're guides to action, not just a bunch of abstract theories. Take this business of Dynamic Optimism, for example. In 1991 Max More, co-founder of and primary intellectual force behind Extropianism, wrote an essay called "Dynamic Optimism: Epistemological Psychology for Extropians," in which he enumerated eight separate strategies eight! by which you could acquire a properly auspicious view of yourself, life, and the universe. There was the technique of selective focus, for example, whereby you'd concentrate on the positive aspects of a given situation, on what you personally regarded as worthy and valuable. You'd adopt such a focus regularly, systematically; you'd make it a matter of personal policy.

"This need not require a denial of pain, difficulty, or frustration," he wrote. "Rather it may be a matter of spending less time on unpleasantness and of apprehending unpleasant things in a masterful, empowering way instead of a helpless, victimizing way. Optimists attend to the downsides of life only insofar as doing so is likely to enable them to move ahead."

And so on through seven more steps. Stoicism: optimists "don't whine and moan about things that are past or out of their control." Questioning of limits: "Optimists will question and probe at any entrenched limiting assumptions, especially where these appear to lack a rationally convincing basis. Only an iron-clad demonstration of impossibility (such as Goedel's incompleteness theorem) will stop them; even then optimists will be careful not to draw unnecessarily frustrating conclusions."

The tract was fitted out with the usual scholarly apparatus: footnotes, bibliography, and references to thinkers ranging from the church father Tertullian, circa 200, to contemporaries like Robert Nozick and Ayn Rand.

Imposing as it all was, it was merely Max More's latest attempt to go beyond the limits, something he'd been doing since birth.

"According to my mother I was named Max because I was the heaviest baby in the hospital ward where I was born," he said.

That cataclysmic event occurred in Bristol, England, in 1964. Later, at age 5, Max was transfixed by the moon landing and was fascinated by high technology and the future. He idolized the superheroes of various types that he read about in comic books: he craved their X-ray vision, their disintegrator guns, their ability to walk through walls.

"When I was about 10, I went through a period of real interest in the occult. I was very interested in the idea of any kind of paranormal powers, having abilities beyond the normal human ones."

He even started a club, called Psychic Development and Research, at the school he attended, for the purpose of exploring the nether realms. But the more he actually learned about the occult, the less he was convinced that there was anything to it, and ultimately he became an all-out rationalist. The only reliable way of gaining knowledge, he decided, the only way to accomplish anything worthwhile, was through hard science and cold logic.

Later on, he attended St. Anne's College, Oxford, where he majored in philosophy, politics, and economics. Always very big on organizing things, he started up new clubs and discussion groups, published magazines, and became, he claims, the first person in Europe to sign up for cryonic suspension the process of being frozen at death in hopes of later revival. He kept a heart-lung resuscitator in his dorm room, just in case. "People used to go in and see that, and it added to the odd impression, along with my several rows of vitamins on the shelves." Not to mention the 3,000 science fiction books.

He got his degree and, tired of England's dreary mood, lit out for the States.

"Going to Los Angeles was a wonderful thing. It had this glamorous feel to it, it was just a huge thrill being there. I remember going on the freeways and looking up at the sign and seeing Los Angeles and saying, 'I'm really here! Wow!'"

This was the land where everything was possible. Sunshine! Palm trees! California girls! Minor impediments like smog and earthquakes did not figure into his personal equation. But a change of name did.

"In Southern California, everybody changes their name: actors do, writers do. I knew I wanted to be a writer and become known, so that I could spread these ideas better, so I thought I might as well change my name," which until then had been Max O'Connor.

He spent a year thinking up a new name for himself, finally deciding on the word, More.

"It seemed to really encapsulate the essence of what my goal is: always to improve, never to be static. I was going to get better at everything, become smarter, fitter, and healthier. It would be a constant reminder to keep moving forward."

It would also be the start of a trend among Extropians: Mark Potts became Mark Plus; Harry Shapiro became Harry Hawk.

"It's a great expression of self-transformation," said Tom Morrow, a Silicon Valley attorney, about renaming himself. "This is how I'm changing myself: I'm going to change the way people think of me because people think of you, in part, by the way you're named. Also we pick descriptive names, which is a trait the Quakers also shared; they often named their kids with descriptive names like Felicity or Charity. You see that same trait in Extropians. They hold their values so dear, they want to be associated with them more than by just holding them. They want to be known by them.

"And also," he added, "it's a fun sort of thing."

Fun, indeed, would be the sixth Extropian principle, if there were one. It was Tom Morrow, at any rate, who began using the term "Extropy," invented the Extropian handshake, and, together with Max More, co-founded Extropianism, back when both of them were graduate students in philosophy at the University of Southern California.

By the time Morrow and More were getting their master's degrees in the subject, the ideas of souped-up humans that had been percolating through Max's head since childhood had been reinforced by certain doctrines of the Western philosophers, some of whom had advanced like-minded, or at least highly sympathetic, notions. Aristotle, who'd founded logic as a formal discipline and had done pioneering research in biology, professed an ethics of self-realization, the notion of fulfilling one's highest potential. There were the philosophers of the Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, thinkers like Voltaire, John Locke, and Adam Smith, who claimed that genuine knowledge was in fact possible, that nature was knowable, and that progress was desirable and good. There was Ayn Rand, who put forward the conception of "man as a heroic being," able to perform untold feats of imagination and creation. And above all there was Friedrich Nietzsche, the 19th century philosopher who explicitly advocated mankind's transforming itself into something far superior.

"All beings so far have created something beyond themselves," wrote Nietzsche. "Do you want to be the ebb of this great flood and even go back to the beasts rather than overcome man?"

There was much that needed to be overcome, that was for sure. Human beings had almost too many flaws, chief among them being the unholy trio of sickness, aging, and death. Beyond that there were vast surfeits of human evil: wanton excesses of fraud and deceit, mindless violence, prejudice, police states, and so on and so forth. It did not make for a pretty picture, especially considering that all of it was rectifiable, totally reversible through human action.

"I teach you the overman," Nietzsche had said. "Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him?"

What Max More and Tom Morrow did in 1988 was to start up the journal Extropy. By challenging culturally entrenched notions about the inherent limitations of humankind, they'd show how the species could pull itself out of the mud. Sickness could be wiped out, aging reversed, life spans lengthened, intelligence increased, states replaced by voluntary societies and all of this in the first issue! The print run was just 50 copies, but even so it was hard to get rid of them.

"We basically forced them on people," said More. "Anybody who might be interested, anybody who was our friend, we tried to get them to take a copy. Go on, just read this!"

Which they did. It was pretty far-out, this stuff audacious, but strangely stirring in its own way. One issue proposed "a new dating system" to replace the Christian calendar. Why should Extropians mostly atheists and agnostics be forced to use a dating scheme based on the birth of Christ? Why not start from Francis Bacon's Novum Organum, the book that in 1620 set forth the modern scientific method, in which case 1990 would be 370 PNO (post Novum Organum)? Or start from Newton's Principia, maybe. Something reasonable.

Along the way there was an attempt to create a nomenclature that lived up to Extropian doctrine. And why not? This was a total philosophy, and so it deserved its own proprietary rhetoric. Soon a whole panoply of extropically flavored neologisms had sprung into existence: Extropia (coined by Tom Morrow), a community embodying Extropian values; Extropolis (from Max More), an Extropian city located in space; extropiate (from Dave Krieger), any drug having extropic effects. There was smart-faced (from Russell Whitaker), "the condition resulting from social-use extropiates: 'Let's get smart-faced.'" And there was the instantly-memorable disasturbation (another Dave Krieger invention), "idly fantasizing about possible catastrophes (ecological collapse, full-blown totalitarianism) without considering their likelihood or considering their possible solutions/preventions."

Further along there was a concerted attempt to flesh out the Extropian dream. Tom Morrow, the Extropian legal theorist, wrote articles about "privately produced law," showing how systems of rules can and do arise spontaneously from voluntary transactions among free agents, without the assistance of Mother Government. He also wrote about "Free Oceana," a proposed community of Extropians living on artificial islands floating around on the high seas.

Still, all of that was mere theory. Back in the real world, Morrow and More established a sort of intergalactic headquarters for Extropians, the Extropy Institute, a nonprofit California corporation. Soon there was also a bimonthly institute newsletter, the Exponent, as well as an electronic mailing list. And in a short time, Extropianism seemed to have acquired all the trappings of a major cultural phenomenon, with a succession of parties, weekly lunches, T-shirts ("Forward! Upward! Outward!"), and even an Extropian "nerd house," called Nextropia, in Cupertino.

Operated by Romana Machado, the aforementioned "Mistress Romana" who in real life works in the Newton division of Apple Computer (she's also the inventor of Stego, a program that compliments traditional encryption schemes see "Security Through Obscurity," Wired 2.03, page 29), Nextropia is an Extropian boarding house, a community of friends. Just don't call it a "commune."

"The very term makes us shudder," said Max More, who doesn't even live there. "It implies common ownership. Still, for all their journals, newsletters, e-mail lists, and other forms of obsessive communication, it cannot be said that the Extropians are taking the world by storm. Although recent issues of Extropy have boasted print runs above 3,000 and are being carried by some newsstands, total membership in the Extropy Institute was only about 300 at the time of Extro 1, while roughly 350 were reading the e-mail list on a regular basis. But what the Extropians lack in numbers they make up for in sheer brains; at various times people like artificial intelligence theorist Marvin Minsky, nanotechnologist Eric Drexler, and USC professor Bart Kosko (of fuzzy logic fame) have been found lurking on extropians@extropy.org.

Drexler, indeed, is something of a patron saint among Extropians, the reason being that his books, Engines of Creation and Nanosystems, some members feel, chart the path to the Extropian future. Tiny robots working with molecules, the theory goes, will bring us extreme longevity (Drexler does not speak of "immortality"), health, wealth, and indefinite youth.

No surprise then, that at the Extropian Banquet and Extropy Awards Ceremony, at Extro 1, Drexler emerged as star of the show. This was after Hans Moravec (father of the downloading idea) gave the keynote speech; after Romana Machado, in her leather gauntlets, enumerated "five things you can do to fight entropy now"; after Tom Morrow, the attorney, talked about private legal systems; and after Max More proposed his "epistemology for Extropians," according to which all doctrine, but especially Extropian doctrine, was to be considered foreveropen to inspection, criticism, and improvement.

After that it was trophy time. There at the front of the room, the banquet room of the Sunnyvale Sheraton, up on a sort of ceremonial altar-table, was a line of actual Extropian trophies. Designed by institute member Regina Pancake, they featured the Extropian starburst in a disk of clear Lucite set into a black plastic base. There was the Corporate Award, for example, "to a company engaged in extropically important activity and run in a way unusually conducive to individual incentive, ingenuity, and autonomy." And the winner was the Xerox Corporation.

And so on for six more awards, including, eventually, the award for Technical Achievement, which went to Drexler. He, for his part, confessed to a strong bent for Extropianism.

"I agree with most of the Extropian ideas," he said later. "Overall, it's a forward-looking, adventurous group that is thinking about important issues of technology and human life and trying to be ethical about it. That's a good thing, and shockingly rare."

So are these people crazy, or what? The question has occurred to them.

"I had a very interesting conversation with a mental health professional last week," said Dave Krieger. Krieger, director of publications for a software company, had been a technical consultant to Star Trek: The Next Generation.

"In preparation for the panel discussion, the one about warding off dogmatism, I'd given her a few issues of Extropy, including one that has the Extropian Principles in it, and I said, 'Look this over and tell me: Are we crazy? Is this a world view that you or your colleagues would consider to be insane? Or psychologically unhealthy? Or neurotic?'"

Well, not exactly. But, in fact, she couldn't really say one way or the other.

"She said that they encounter so many people with defeatist attitudes, the attitude that they can't change their lives and that they can't improve things, that she could see the benefits of Extropianism."

That was on the one hand. On the other hand, the whole thing was still pretty outlandish. "She didn't want to use the word 'receptive,'" said Krieger. "She didn't want to be quite that strong."

Others, however, were far less restrained. "They haven't convinced me that I'll be resurrected a thousand years from now not that it matters" said Julian Simon, a University of Maryland economist who has written for Extropy. "But they sure are right about rejecting unimaginative and counterproductive notions of closed systems. Resources aren't 'finite' in any significant sense."

"They're extremists," said Marvin Minsky, about the Extropians. "But that's the way you get good ideas."

As it was, Minsky himself almost joined the institute. "I'd like to be a sustaining member," he told Max More. "The trouble is that since about 1970, when we got our first ArpaNet, I became almost unable to lick a stamp. I will, if necessary, but I'd rather phone you a credit card number." But the institute, unfortunately, had not quite gotten around to that.

It soon will, however. Extropy is an idea whose time has come.

"We see this need for transcendence deeply built into humanity," said Max More. "That's why we have all these religious myths. It seems to be something inherent in us that we want to move beyond what we see as our limits. In the past we haven't had the technology to do that, and right now we're in this difficult period where we don't quite have the technology yet, but we can see it coming."

And if the worst happens and you should die before the technology arrives, the plan is to put yourself on hold for the duration, which is why the major Extropians are signed up for cryonic suspension. Max More, Tom Morrow, Simon Levy, Dave Krieger, Romana Machado, Tanya Jones, Mike Perry they're all ready to have their heads frozen when the time comes. Tanya Jones, indeed, jokes about having a dotted line tattooed around her neck, together with the words cut here.

And why not? How else to make it over the crest, over the slight hill rise, over the next little bit of technology that's left to climb before we can rush down the other side, to the new tomorrow, when all things will be possible? Some incredible things are going to be happening, if and when we get there.

"I enjoy being human but I am not content," said Max More.

Exactly! That was it! That was the secret, the big Extropian key to the universe: appreciate what you've got, but without being overly satisfied with it. There's always something better far better! waiting in the wings. You've just got to get yourself out there.

Who could deny it? And who'd not want to be there, in the grand future, when the VEPs, the Very Extropian Persons, wake themselves up, shake off the dust of past ages, and fly off to the far reaches of the galaxy?

You, too, could join the party the Extropaganza Maximum! Just remember, when you get there, that it's right hand out in front of you, fingers spread and pointing at the sky. Grasp the other person's right hand, intertwine fingers, and close.

Then zoom your hand up, straight up, all the way up!

Upward! Outward! Reach for the stars!

"Yo!"

For more Extropian information, e-mail exi-info@extropy.org.

Meet the Extropians | WIRED

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Extropianism | Prometheism Transhumanism Post Humanism

Robinson robotics team trying to develop Vulcan Vitals – Kingsport Times News

Posted on March 10, 2020 by Danzig

The cost? An estimated $2,500 to $4,000. The result? Improved health monitoring and ultimately better health for the homeless.

Called Vulcan Vitals after Team Vulcan and the vitals the machine would monitor, the team presented its idea at the Kids Business Expo Feb. 28 at the MeadowView Conference Resort and Convention Center.

(Spoiler alert: This has nothing do do with Mr. Spocks vitals from the Star Trek television series.)

The team was part of a Feb. 8 FIRST (For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) LEGO League robotics competition in Cookeville, whereanother Robinson Middle group, Team Jiqiren, competed and earned the chance to move on to a national event. Even though Team Vulcan did not place or advance, members still want to pursue the idea of the Vulcan Vitals machine that for now is only a cardboard prototype.

Jiqiren is the Chinese world for robot, while Vulcan is the Roman god of technology.

Athrv Grewal, a 14-year-old eighth-grader at Robinson, said Team Vulcan came up with an idea that could monitor the homeless health and help them get healthier. He said team members talked with the Salvation Army of Kingsport and Shades of Grace United Methodist Church, both which serve the homeless, and the United Way of Greater Kingsport.

We wanted to help homeless people get better access to healthcare, Grewal said.We decided we would make a vitals machine that would take blood pressure, oxygen saturation, pulse and temperature. It has a thumbprint scanner for privacy and to save to a database. It also prints a color-coded receipt in case the patient cant read. We would put that machine in a homeless shelter. We are trying to get donations. We are expecting a cost of $2,500 to $4,000 and we want to promote this idea.

Other team members include sixth-grader Elizabeth Crow, 11; sixth-grader Hannah Bastian, 12; seventh-grader Eric Shao, 13; and eighth-grader Isaac Call, 13. Although Grewal reached out to the Kingsport Times News about the project, he said the team collaborates and really doesnt have a president or captain.

We try our best to make decisions as a group, Grewal said.

Team coaches are seventh grade science teacher Shelby Morris; applied technology teacher and coach Jennifer Sturgill; and volunteer coach Elise Eagan, an engineer at Eastman Chemical Co. They also helped another Robinson team that is headed to a national competition for, among other things, its homeless phone app called Donor Dashthat matches donors with homeless people who need donations, among other things.

Team Vulcan finished first in a regional competition but did not place in the state competition, while TeamJiqiren finished second in the regional competition and third in the state round, meaning it will move on to a national competition in Arkansas May 14-17.

For more information about the Vulcan Vitals of Team Vulcan, email [emailprotected]orfollow@vulcanvitals on Twitter.

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Robinson robotics team trying to develop Vulcan Vitals - Kingsport Times News

All-girls Seaman Middle School Robotics Team headed to World Championship – WIBW

Posted on March 10, 2020 by Danzig

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) -- Seaman Middle School's all-girls robotics team, Vextropolis, is the first team in the history of the district to qualify for the Vex World Championship. Vextropolis members include eighth graders Haley Mannell, Kate Eckert, Gloria Worthington and Meadow Cunningham. In April, the girls will be competing against 360 other middle school teams from all over the world in Louisville, Kentucky.

The team qualified through the design category, an award that is presented to a team demonstrating the most thorough and detailed design process during the creation of their robot. The biggest component of the design award is the engineering notebook, where students outline plans, log daily progress, and record information on attempts and prototypes. Judges are looking for thoughtful management of time, resources, and team roles. One of the unique things Vextropolis did that impressed the judges was to set weekly and monthly goals, and then to reflect and evaluate themselves on how they met those goals after each tournament, explained SMS Robotics Coach Rob Jackson.

These four girls are some of the hardest working students I have ever taught at the middle school, said Jackson. Starting the very first week of school, our returning members were already staying after school to start their design process. They came in for two to three hours a day, five days a week, for the entire school year. They are already at the door waiting for me to arrive in the mornings so they can have an extra 30 minutes to work. During the last month leading up to state, they came in on four or five of their days off for more build time. Their dedication is truly inspiring, and they are very deserving of this accomplishment.

The students will spend the next month preparing for the world competition. We definitely discovered some problems with our robot during the state tournament, and the students took detailed notes and have already started planning how they are going to change their robot in the next six weeks, said Jackson.

Seaman High School qualified a team for the US Robotics Championships in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Both SMS and SHS robotics teams are currently working to find additional funding and sponsorships to increase the number of teams participating in the tournaments.

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All-girls Seaman Middle School Robotics Team headed to World Championship - WIBW

Knapp presents the perfect blend of robotics and AI – Modern Materials Handling

Posted on March 10, 2020 by Danzig

By Bridget McCrea, Editor March 9, 2020

At a press conference at Modex 2020, Knapp (Booth 5406) discussed its strong business growth over the last year, gave an overview of its latest products, and showed how a partnership with Covariant is helping it create AI-enabled robots for the fulfillment environment.

Knapps executives gave the audience an update on the OSR Shuttle Evo, of which the company has sold more than 15,000 units since introducing it two years ago. Launched last year, the Pick-It-Easy Evo offers a modular option that can be adapted to any facility.

Knapps PIE Robot is cloud integrated and features self-learning capabilities that build and enhance its SKU database. These features have not been available in the market until today, said Kevin Reader, director of business development and marketing, and have lifted real world success rates for fully automated order picking from 20% to 95% or more.

Modex 2020 is scheduled to be held March 9-12 at Georgias World Congress Center in Atlanta. The tradeshow will showcase the latest manufacturing, distribution and supply chain solutions in the materials handling and logistics industry. Moderns complete coverage of the show.

Knapp presents the perfect blend of robotics and AI - Modern Materials Handling

Uniontown robotics team programmed to succeed | Education – Uniontown Herald Standard

Posted on March 10, 2020 by Danzig

Three years ago, this young man knocked on my office door and said, Hey, Mrs. Wallace, I want to build a robot that we can use to compete. How do you turn him away and say no, were not going to do that.

Therein lies the origin of the Uniontown Area High School robotics team, a small but determined group of students who, over the course of two school years, have thrived on a curiosity of technology.

The young man is Uniontown senior Noah Trimmer, who with classmate Andrew Schoener, got the robotics program up and running with the assistance of district education technology coordinator Mary Wallace at the start of the 2018-19 school year.

Ive done a lot of personal projects. I wanted to take them out of my garage and share them with my friends and have fun, said Trimmer.

While the high school offers as an elective an introduction to robotics course called Agile Robotics, which both Trimmer and Schoener took as underclassmen, the two students were more ambitious.

The class teaches the basics. We wanted to go beyond the basics, said Schoener. We wanted the freedom to build our own thing.

Seeking resources and direction, the new team affiliated with Fayette County 4-H, which operates a robotics club and provided Uniontown with materials for its first activities.

They went fundraising, securing grants from the Uniontown Area Education Association, Pitsco Education and Williams Inc.

And then they set to work on the main endeavor.

Like several other area schools that sponsor robotics teams, Uniontown entered the realm of competitive building. Unlike other schools, theyve opted to compete in the FIRST Tech Challenge series of competitions operated by FIRST, an international youth robotics community that promotes team-based programs through competitive events.

The FIRST Tech Challenge is designed for teams of students to design, build and program a robot using a modular robotics platform powered by Android technology and to compete head-to-head in an alliance format against other teams in a FIRST-designed game.

Teams have to build a robot that will perform specific tasks, explained Schoener.

They received a kit of basic parts from FIRST and built a robot for a regional competition held at Upper St. Clair High School a year ago. While the result wasnt exceptional, the rookie team received the Judges Award for its perseverance despite a last-minute setback when much of the robots programming was accidentally deleted the night before the competition.

This year, the Raiders fared much better.

In a 26-team competition at Garrett College in nearby McHenry, Maryland, in January, the team was chosen by another competitor after the qualifying rounds to form an alliance that took them on a run to the finals, where they ultimately lost by mere points.

I think teams saw we had a really good robot but just had been really unlucky with pairings (with other teams in the qualifying rounds), said Trimmer, noting the many hours of work that has gone into programming the robot.

The team, which has consisted of up to 15 active members over the last two years, comprises a core that is rounded out by seniors Abigail Bellina and Luke Smearcheck.

Wallace commended the dedication of the four students Bellina, Schoener, Smearcheck and Trimmer who often spent upwards of four hours meeting on Monday nights during competition season to prepare their bot.

Academically theyre taking extremely hard courses. Theyre active in band, in clubs, playing sports theyre generally well rounded individuals, said Wallace.

Wallace said Jennifer Deichert, 4-H educator with Penn State Extension, was instrumental in the development of the high school robotics program. The school received a grant through Remake Learning to hold a camp in conjunction with 4-H last summer, during which the high schoolers taught basic robotics to students in grades 4-8.

There are many, many hours of dedication, and that knock on the door started us off.

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Uniontown robotics team programmed to succeed | Education - Uniontown Herald Standard

Showing robots how to do your chores – The MIT Tech

Posted on March 10, 2020 by Danzig

Training interactive robots may one day be an easy job for everyone, even those without programming expertise. Roboticists are developing automated robots that can learn new tasks solely by observing humans. At home, you might someday show a domestic robot how to do routine chores. In the workplace, you could train robots like new employees, showing them how to perform many duties.

Making progress on that vision, MIT researchers have designed a system that lets these types of robots learn complicated tasks that would otherwise stymie them with too many confusing rules. One such task is setting a dinner table under certain conditions.

At its core, the researchers Planning with Uncertain Specifications (PUnS) system gives robots the humanlike planning ability to simultaneously weigh many ambiguous and potentially contradictory requirements to reach an end goal. In doing so, the system always chooses the most likely action to take, based on a belief about some probable specifications for the task it is supposed to perform.

In their work, the researchers compiled a dataset with information about how eight objects a mug, glass, spoon, fork, knife, dinner plate, small plate, and bowl could be placed on a table in various configurations. A robotic arm first observed randomly selected human demonstrations of setting the table with the objects. Then, the researchers tasked the arm with automatically setting a table in a specific configuration, in real-world experiments and in simulation, based on what it had seen.

To succeed, the robot had to weigh many possible placement orderings, even when items were purposely removed, stacked, or hidden. Normally, all of that would confuse robots too much. But the researchers robot made no mistakes over several real-world experiments, and only a handful of mistakes over tens of thousands of simulated test runs.

The vision is to put programming in the hands of domain experts, who can program robots through intuitive ways, rather than describing orders to an engineer to add to their code, says first author Ankit Shah, a graduate student in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro) and the Interactive Robotics Group, who emphasizes that their work is just one step in fulfilling that vision. That way, robots wont have to perform preprogrammed tasks anymore. Factory workers can teach a robot to do multiple complex assembly tasks. Domestic robots can learn how to stack cabinets, load the dishwasher, or set the table from people at home.

Joining Shah on the paper are AeroAstro and Interactive Robotics Group graduate student Shen Li and Interactive Robotics Group leader Julie Shah, an associate professor in AeroAstro and the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

Bots hedging bets

Robots are fine planners in tasks with clear specifications, which help describe the task the robot needs to fulfill, considering its actions, environment, and end goal. Learning to set a table by observing demonstrations, is full of uncertain specifications. Items must be placed in certain spots, depending on the menu and where guests are seated, and in certain orders, depending on an items immediate availability or social conventions. Present approaches to planning are not capable of dealing with such uncertain specifications.

A popular approach to planning is reinforcement learning, a trial-and-error machine-learning technique that rewards and penalizes them for actions as they work to complete a task. But for tasks with uncertain specifications, its difficult to define clear rewards and penalties. In short, robots never fully learn right from wrong.

The researchers system, called PUnS (for Planning with Uncertain Specifications), enables a robot to hold a belief over a range of possible specifications. The belief itself can then be used to dish out rewards and penalties. The robot is essentially hedging its bets in terms of whats intended in a task, and takes actions that satisfy its belief, instead of us giving it a clear specification, Ankit Shah says.

The system is built on linear temporal logic (LTL), an expressive language that enables robotic reasoning about current and future outcomes. The researchers defined templates in LTL that model various time-based conditions, such as what must happen now, must eventually happen, and must happen until something else occurs. The robots observations of 30 human demonstrations for setting the table yielded a probability distribution over 25 different LTL formulas. Each formula encoded a slightly different preference or specification for setting the table. That probability distribution becomes its belief.

Each formula encodes something different, but when the robot considers various combinations of all the templates, and tries to satisfy everything together, it ends up doing the right thing eventually, Ankit Shah says.

Following criteria

The researchers also developed several criteria that guide the robot toward satisfying the entire belief over those candidate formulas. One, for instance, satisfies the most likely formula, which discards everything else apart from the template with the highest probability. Others satisfy the largest number of unique formulas, without considering their overall probability, or they satisfy several formulas that represent highest total probability. Another simply minimizes error, so the system ignores formulas with high probability of failure.

Designers can choose any one of the four criteria to preset before training and testing. Each has its own tradeoff between flexibility and risk aversion. The choice of criteria depends entirely on the task. In safety critical situations, for instance, a designer may choose to limit possibility of failure. But where consequences of failure are not as severe, designers can choose to give robots greater flexibility to try different approaches.

With the criteria in place, the researchers developed an algorithm to convert the robots belief the probability distribution pointing to the desired formula into an equivalent reinforcement learning problem. This model will ping the robot with a reward or penalty for an action it takes, based on the specification its decided to follow.

In simulations asking the robot to set the table in different configurations, it only made six mistakes out of 20,000 tries. In real-world demonstrations, it showed behavior similar to how a human would perform the task. If an item wasnt initially visible, for instance, the robot would finish setting the rest of the table without the item. Then, when the fork was revealed, it would set the fork in the proper place. Thats where flexibility is very important, Ankit Shah says. Otherwise it would get stuck when it expects to place a fork and not finish the rest of table setup.

Next, the researchers hope to modify the system to help robots change their behavior based on verbal instructions, corrections, or a users assessment of the robots performance. Say a person demonstrates to a robot how to set a table at only one spot. The person may say, do the same thing for all other spots, or, place the knife before the fork here instead, Ankit Shah says. We want to develop methods for the system to naturally adapt to handle those verbal commands, without needing additional demonstrations.

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Showing robots how to do your chores - The MIT Tech

Isaac Asimov, the candy store kid who dreamed up robots – Salon

Posted on March 10, 2020 by Danzig

The year 2020 marks a milestone in the march of robots into popular culture: the 100th anniversary of the birth of science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. Asimov coined the word 'robotics', invented the much-quoted Three Laws governing robot behavior, and passed on many myths and misconceptions that affect the way we feel about robots today.

A compulsive writer and homebodypossibly, an agoraphobicAsimov hated to travel: ironically, for a writer who specialized in fantastic tales often set on distant worlds, he hadn't been in an airplane since being flown home from Hawaii by the US Army after being released from service just before a test blast of the atomic bomb on the Bikini Atoll. (Asimov once grimly observed that this stroke of luck probably saved his life by preventing him from getting leukemia, one of the side effects that afflicted many servicemen who were close to the blast.)

By 1956, Asimov had completed most of the stories that cemented his reputation as the grand master of science fiction, and set the ground rules for a new field of study called "robotics," a word he made up. Researchers like Marvin Minsky of MIT and William Shockley of Bell Labs had been doing pioneering work into Artificial Intelligence and Robotics since the early 1950s, but they were not well-known outside of the scientific and business communities. Asimov, on the other hand, was famous, his books so commercially successful that he quit his job as a tenured chemistry professor at Boston College to write full-time. Asimov's 1950 short story collection, I, Robot, put forward a vision of the robot as humanity's friend and protector, at a time when many humans were wondering if their own species could be trusted not to self-destruct.

Born in January 1920, or possibly October 1919the exact date was uncertain because birth records weren't kept in the little Russian village where he came fromAsimov emigrated to Brooklyn in 1922 with his parents. Making a go of life in America turned out to be tougher than they expected, until his father scraped together enough money to buy a candy store. That decision would have a seismic impact on Isaac's future, and on robotics research and the narratives we tell ourselves about human-robot relationships to this day.

As a kid, Isaac worked long hours in the store where he became interested in two attractions that pulled in customers: a slot machine that frequently needed to be dismantled for repairs; and pulp fiction magazines featuring death rays and alien worlds. Soon after the first rocket launches in the mid-1920s, scientists announced that space travel was feasible, opening the door to exciting tales of adventure in outer space. Atomic energythe source of the death rayswas also coming into public consciousness as a potential "super weapon." But both atomic bombs and space travel were still very much in the realm of fiction; few people actually believed they'd see either breakthrough within their lifetimes.

The genre of the stories in the pulps wasn't new. Fantastical tales inspired by science and technology went back to the publication of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in 1818, which speculated about the use of a revolutionary new energy source, electricity, to reanimate life. Jules Verne, H. P. Lovecraft, H. G. Welles, and Edgar Rice Burroughs all wrote novels touching on everything from time travel, to atomic-powered vehicles, to what we now call genetic engineering. But the actual term, "science fiction," wasn't coined by any of them: that distinction goes to Hugo Gernsbeck, editor of the technical journal, Modern Electrics, whose name would eventually be given to the HUGO, the annual award for the best science fiction writing.13

Gernsbeck's interest in the genre started with a field that was still fairly new in his time: electrical engineering. Even in 1911, the nature of electricity was not fully understood, and random electrocutions were not uncommon; electricians weren't just tradesmen, but daredevils, taking their lives in their hands every time they wired a house or lit up a city street.14 Gernsbeck, perhaps gripped by the same restless derring-do as his readers, wasn't satisfied with writing articles about induction coils. In 1911, he penned a short story set in the twenty-third century and serialized it over several issues of Modern Electrics, a decision that must have baffled some of the electricians who made up his subscribers. At first, Gernsbeck called his mash-up of science and fiction "scientifiction," mercifully changing that mouthful to "science fiction." He went on to publish a string of popular magazines, including Science Wonder Stories, Wonder Stories, Science, and Astounding. (Gernsbeck's rich imagination didn't stretch far enough to come up with more original titles.)

Asimov's father stocked Gernsbeck's magazines in the candy store because they sold like hotcakes, but he considered them out-and-out junk. Young Isaac was forbidden to waste time reading about things that didn't exist and never would, like space travel and atomic weapons.

Despite (or possibly because of) his father's objections, Isaac began secretly reading every pulp science fiction magazine that appeared in the store, handling each one so carefully that Asimov Senior never knew they had been opened. Isaac finally managed to convince his father that one of Gernsbeck's magazines, Science Wonder Stories, had educational valueafter all, the word "science" was in the title, wasn't it?15

Isaac sold his first short story when he was still an eighteen-year-old high school student, naively showing up at the offices of Amazing Stories to personally deliver it to the editor, John W. Campbell. Campbell rejected the story (eventually published by a rival Gernsbeck publication, Astounding) but encouraged Isaac to send him more. Over time, Campbell published a slew of stories that established Isaac, while still a university student, as a handsomely paid writer of science fiction.

When you read those early stories today, Asimov's weaknesses as a writer are painfully glaring. With almost no experience of the world outside of his school, the candy store, and his Brooklyn neighborhood and no exposure to contemporary writers of his time like Hemingway or FitzgeraldIsaac fell back on the flat, stereotypical characters and clichd plots of pulp fiction. Isaac did have one big thing going for him, though: a science education.

By the early 1940s, Asimov was a graduate student in chemistry at Columbia University, as well as a member of the many science fiction fan clubs springing up all over Brooklyn whose members' obsession with the minutiae of fantastical worlds would be familiar to any ComicCon fan in a Klingon costume today. Asimov wrote stories that appealed to this newly emerging geeky readership, staying close enough to the boundaries of science to be plausible, while still instinctively understanding how to create wondrous fictional worlds.

The working relationship between Asimov and his editor, Campbell, turned into a highly profitable one for both publisher and author. But as Asimov improved his writing and tackled more complex themes, he ran into a roadblock: Campbell insisted that he would only publish human- centered stories. Aliens could appear as stock villains but humans always had to come out on top. Campbell didn't just believe that people were superior to aliens, but that some peoplewhite Anglo-Saxons were superior to everyone else. Still a relatively young writer and unwilling to walk away from his lucrative gig with Campbell, Asimov looked for ways to work around his editor's prejudices. The answer: write about robots. Asimov's mechanical beings were created by humans, in their own image; as sidekicks, helpers, proxies, and, eventually, replacements. Endowed with what Asimov dubbed "positronic brains," his imaginary robots were even more cleverly constructed than the slot machine in the candy store.

Never a hands-on guy himself, Asimov was nonetheless interested in how mechanisms worked. Whenever the store's one-armed bandit had to be serviced, Isaac would watch the repairman open the machine and expose its secrets. The slot machine helped him imagine the mechanical beings in his stories.

Although Asimov can be credited with kick-starting a generation's love affair with robots, he was far from their inventor. (Even I, Robot borrowed its title from a 1939 comic book of the same name written by a pair of brothers who called themselves Eando Binder, the name eventually bestowed on the beer-swilling, cigar-smoking robot star of the TV show, Futurama.) But in writing his very first robot story, Asimov was both jumping on a new obsession of the 1920s, and mining old, deep myths going back to ancient Jewish tales of the golem, which was a man made of mud and magically brought to life, as well as stories as diverse as Pygmalion, Pinocchio, and engineering wonders like the eighteenth century, chess-playing Mechanical Turk, and other automatons.

Robots have an ancient history and a surprisingly whimsical one. Automatons have been frog marching, spinet playing, and minuet dancing their way out of the human imagination for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, but it wasn't until the machine age of the early twentieth century that robots appeared as thinking, reasoning substitute humans. The word robotCzech for "mechanical worker"wasn't coined in a patent office or on a technical blueprint, but as the title of a fantastical play by Karel Capek, Rossum's Universal Robots, which was first performed in 1920, the reputed year of Isaac Asimov's birth. In adopting robots as his main characters, and the challenges and ethics of human life in a robotic world as one of his central themes, Asimov found his voice as a writer. His robots are more sympathetic and three-dimensional than his human characters. In exploring the dynamics of human-robot partnershipsas Asimov would do particularly well in detective/robot "buddy" stories, such as his 1954 novel Caves of Steel he invented a subgenre within the broader world of science fiction.

Asimov's humanoid robots were governed by the Three Laws of Robotics. More whimsical than scientific, they established ground rules for an imaginary world where humans and mechanical beings coexisted. Eventually, the Three Laws were quoted by researchers in two academic fields that were still unnamed in the 1940s: artificial intelligence and robotics.

First published by Astounding magazine in 1942 as part of Asimov's fourth robot story "Runaround", the Three Laws stated that:

A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

According to Asimov's biographer Michael Wilson in Isaac Asimov: A Life of the Grand Master of Science Fiction (New York, Carrol & Graff, 2005), "Asimov was flattered that he had established a set of pseudoscientific laws. Despite the fact that in the early 1940s the science of robotics was a purely fictional thing, he somehow knew that one day they would provide the foundation for a real set of laws."

The Three Laws would continue to appear not only in the world of robot-driven books and filmslike Aliens (1986), where the laws are synopsized by the synthetic human Bishop when trying to reassure the robot-phobic heroine Ellen Ripleybut by some real-world roboticists and AI researchers, who are now considering how to develop a moral code for machines that may one day have to make independent, life-or-death decisions.

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Isaac Asimov, the candy store kid who dreamed up robots - Salon

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