NASA is hosting the biggest global hackathon of the year, NASA Space App Challenge 2019. In which NASA opens its portal for everyone to generate solutions for the problems related to Space and Earth. NASA is allowing an opportunity to everyone from scientists, coders, designers, technologists, storytellers developers from all age groups as well.
All you have to do is to use NASA’s original and authentic information and confer a solution through an app that should help us more in the exploration of space. It also provides people to start their career in a new direction under the field of their interest.
This event is a challenge to the expert and the citizen scientist to come up with innovative solutions of some real problems by utilizing our data.” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
“Through Space Apps, anyone can pursue an area that fires their curiosity and passion and contribute to NASA’s future missions and the world’s engagement with space.”
Every year NASA host this hackathon in almost 75 countries, more than 200 events happen, thousands of people participate in it, and these aggregates are increasing every year. In 2019, there are more than 250 locations!
The local event is also going to be held in Pakistan this year from 18th-20th Oct. The event will be hosted by a private science and educational organization named RaheQamar. It will start on the evening of 18th October with the Bootcamp and will continue till the evening of 20th Oct.
There are limited seats for the participants, so earlier enlisting will be considered as a priority.
The recently published book, “Athena’s Choice” is a Sci-Fi novel with a gripping plot that peeks into the future and predicts the role of AI in human lives. It was first released in 2018 and has since received a flow of positive remarks and reviews on websites like Goodreads and Amazon. The main genres of the book include Artificial intelligence, crime/ mystery, and bioterrorism.
The story told in the year 2099, where we are introduced to Athena Vosh, a girl living in the US and a world dominated by womankind. Men have become extinct due to a virus that caused the Y-Fever. Initially, the virus was used in battles against armies, but affected the whole male population of the world, leaving behind the vulnerable and more sensitive of the women. The women of the world are divided into two parties; one who supports that men should be brought back, and the other, who believe that the world could not be a better place without the vices and treachery of the other gender. The later, therefore, strongly oppose the Project Lazarus, which aims to save the male species of human beings.
The plot twists when the Lazarus Genome has been stolen and Athena Vosh is contacted by Public Safety Headquarters to assist officer Valerie Bell in the mysterious case of the Lazarus Genome. Together, they work as a team to interview several scientists including, the influential Grace Antares. The suspense increases as they get closer to unraveling the mystery of the Genome, coupled with Athena’s confusing dreams.
The book has been written in a smooth and catchy style, not letting the reader’s attention waver. Snippets of informative passages about the technology and news of the era have beautifully fitted between the chapters. These provide an insight into the world in which Athena lives.
The topic was challenging and attempted well. Although there are a few ambiguities left in the reader’s mind after reading the novel, for example, how can food be printed, as described by the author? The technology seemed too far-fetched to me at times e.g., how her Home unit prints Athena’s clothes. Life and its extravagances seem very unrealistic throughout the book, and how can a student like Athena, who lives with her friend, afford this kind of lifestyle?
I observed the message behind the story that the author tried to convey; that both genders are equally necessary for the lifecycle and the normal functioning of society. Feminism is not healthy at all, and both men and women should accept each other’s faults to embrace equality and understanding. A world without men is not the solution to vices like rape and harassment.
Also, stress has been laid upon handling biological samples like genomes with the utmost care. It has shown how, in the future, computers will be able to serve humanity in everyday tasks and chores.
Athena’s choice has won the 2019 National Indie Excellence Award for Visionary fiction, the 2019 Maxy Award for Science fiction and has been nominated as a finalist for the 2019 NIEA for science fiction.
About the Author
Boostrom with Athena’s choice
Adam Boostrom is a former national merit scholar, valedictorian, championship wrestler, and Kiwanis award recipient.
Almost two years ago, an unusual case shook the art world. Art theft and forgery are not uncommon but claiming an exhibited art piece to be “Fake” definitely induce disorder. The issue arose when in a German public collection, a painting thought to be made by artist Kazimir Malevich in 1915 was labeled as counterfeit and a judicial trial was held to seek the truth. Some witnessed and art experts said that it was original enough and “could hang in Stedelijk” while some stated to the authorities that such works were terribly “awful imitations”.
A similar case in 2018, led to the closure of the Ghent Museum of Fine Art in Belgium after some of the artwork raised suspicion among the critics and as a result, the director of the museum was suspended. These are troublesome matters that occur frequently in the world of art and not only cause harm to the reputation but do monetary damage as well. One may ask why not come up with a solution to address such recurrent inconveniences? Well, we might have an answer now: Artificial Intelligence.
“Black Rectangle, Red Square,” thought to have been painted by Kazimir Malevich
Usually, when we think of AI, it is in terms of
machine learning for robots or better technology for industries. Art and AI are
a combination that few have heard of. It might be because it is still in the
growth phase but surely a lot of work is being through combining these two and
just like every other field, AI may conquer art as well in the future.
A look into AI’s contribution to the art
At the moment, AI is playing diverse roles in art.
From art investigation to creating art, it has managed to make its place in
this diverse area. Art forgeries investigation and general study are pretty
tough jobs and take up a lot of money and time. There is the use of methods
like spectroscopy with infrared radiations, numerous types of separation
techniques like gas chromatography, etc. But Artificial Intelligence, being the
brilliant thing it is, can do this job without all these expensive resources
and only needs an art piece to do the investigation. Before discussing that, it
should be noted that AI is not just probing into art, it is also creating it!
Yes, you read that right. Don’t feel threatened that
AI will take over your Crayola makers or your paintbrushes and strip you of
your creativity. That is not going to happen anytime soon. But it most
definitely is creating art using digital techniques and advanced algorithms and
has even managed to auction a piece at Christie’s titled “Portrait of Edmond
Belamy” at a hefty price of $432,500.
Portrait of Edmond Belamy
Such type of artificial art generation has been going for around 50 years and coding enables it to learn aesthetic and creative values by interpreting and looking at thousands of images. A new system called generative adversarial network (GAN) has been designed by researchers which pair a generator for making images with a discriminator that analyzes the pictures. The combination enables the creation of an intricately done art piece. In a survey conducted with the public, it was found that people liked the AI art more than human-made paintings and considered it to be more inspiring and complex.
Beware, art forgers!
For recognizing whether a presented art piece is real or not, new and powerful Artificial Intelligence technologies are being created and developed that can accurately detect forgeries. A team at Rutgers developed a process that analyzed three hundred drawings by famous artists including Picasso and Egon Schiele at the tiny level of strokes. The designed algorithm was then put to test and the success rate reached up to 80 percent.
AI can study the speed of brush strokes using new algorithms
The gestures, shape, and even the speed of the brush stroke
is inspected and uncovers a lot of information and provides very useful data.
Just an image is needed to judge if it is really original or made in an amateur
workshop. A big database is extremely helpful and with more improvements, the
practical use of this technology would be immense. The team is hopeful that it
will be “a hugely valuable addition to the arsenal.”
AI as a tool for art conservation
Artificial Intelligence has also penetrated various other domains of art and a recent project that gained worldwide attention was its use for uncovering hidden details in old masterpiece paintings including the renowned Ghent Altarpiece. In investigativeresearch done by a team from UCL, digital X-ray images of a high resolution were studied and viewed using AI which helped in the conservation of the piece. For those who might not know about it, Ghent Altarpiece is a famous twelve-panel painting made by Netherlandish brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck. For studying it, new algorithms and X-ray images of the different panels of the altarpiece were used and later made into two clear and detailed images. Usually, the use of X-ray images of paintings is hard to interpret for everything gets in the path of the rays and especially in retouched pieces.
Recently, X-ray imaging was used to uncover a hidden painting underneath Picasso’s La Misereuse accroupie (The Crouching Beggar). On the surface it is an image of a figure in a blanket and a scarf but underneath it lies a landscape painting as revelated through the imaging techniques. Moreover, it showed the creative process of how Picasso painted the figure. Other methods implying the study of the chemical nature of pigments were used as well. But as mentioned before, in such processes X-ray images may get mixed up and these signals need to be separated to perform detailed study and accurate interpretation.
The Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage is using artificial intelligence for the Ghent Altarpiece preservation
Researchers proposed a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) based self-supervised network. Through this method, signals of varying origin are captured and accurately separated, something that other similar approaches haven’t been able to successfully perform. AI separates these images and original master paintings are made visible which helps in the conservation and restoration process like it is doing for the Ghent Altarpiece investigation being done by the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA). Such approaches give insight into the hidden details and technicalities that are not visible to the naked eye. The potential can be used to evaluate how a masterpiece was developed and how unique and iconic works of art can be saved from different threats. Conservationists and academics have commended the use of AI and are pleased with the turnout of the data that can be used for various purposes.
A bright creative future
AI still lacks behind in a lot of the things but surely it won’t take a long time to catch up and perform even more extraordinary feats and otherwise impossible tasks. One should appreciate the accomplishments so far, from identifying fake and forged paintings to baring the secrets in an artwork, it is becoming a right hand for the art investigators and even for art enthusiasts who feel the need to respect and admire beautiful creations without any doubts or fears. It is a creative tool, not threatening as some may perceive, but a promising aid to the future of art.
A Pakistani scientist, Dr. Nozair Khawaja, led breakthrough research on Saturn’s moon Enceladus, which got published in the Monthly Notices of Royal Astronomical Society and Oxford Academic. Dr. Khawaja is a Wazir-Abad based planetary scientist working at Free University Berlin. The research Co-led by Dr.Frank Postbrg and Mr. Fabian Kllener.
Dr. Khawaja at a conference at IST Islamabad
Abstract
Enceladus is one of the most exciting objects in the Solar System. It has a subsurface liquid water ocean, which is in contact with its water-percolated hot rocky core. It emits the ocean material from the depths of its subsurface ocean into the outer space in the form of plumes of water vapor and ice grains. Last year, a team of international scientists, co-lead by Dr. Nozair Khawaja and Prof. Dr. Frank Postberg, discovered highly complex and large organic compounds that emerged from Enceladus hydrothermal core [1]. It was the very first time that such large and complex organic molecules were found in any of the extraterrestrial ocean worlds.
Now a team of scientists, under the supervision of Dr. Nozair Khawaja of Free University Berlin, has found small, soluble and reactive oxygen and nitrogen-bearing organic compounds that also emerged from the depths of Enceladus hydrothermal vent and detected in the ice grains ejected out from Enceladus. The significance of this reactive oxygen and nitrogen-bearing compounds is that such organics are known precursors/ingredients to synthesis biologically-relevant organic compounds, like amino acids, in Earth’s hydrothermal system. Here, it should be noted that no amino acids in Enceladus Ocean were found yet, but finding ingredients of biologically-relevant organic compounds has once again proven Enceladus a potentially habitable world.
Scientists previously found a large quantity of molecular hydrogen emerging from Enceladus
Who is Dr. Nozair Khawaja?
Dr. Nozair Khawaja was born in Wazirabad and completed his Master’s degree in Astronomy and Space Sciences from the Punjab University. Later on, he did Ph.D. in Geosciences from Heidelberg University, Germany. He also worked as a postdoc scholar at the Institute of Earth Sciences, Heidelberg University and is currently working in Free University, Berlin.
Dr. Khawaja did his research on life beyond Earth and has now become a leading researcher on many space exploring programs within our solar system. In 2019, he got Group Achievement Award for Cassini’s Cosmic Dust Analyzer from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
He is a recipient of the first prize of the Horneck-Brack Award, at the European Astrobiology Network Association in 2018. He has also received the Short Term Scientific Mission (STSM-2010) Grant from European Cooperation in Science and Technology, ECOST – action chemical cosmos. His work has appeared in highly cited peer review journals like Nature, Journal of Royal Astronomical Society, and Science.
Enceladus – Saturn’s Ocean World
Five mid-sized Saturn’s moons Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione and Rhea orbit within Saturn’s E ring, beyond the main ring system. These are nearly spherical moons and have relatively low density and high albedo. The interiors of these moons are made up of water ice surrounding a small silicate core, whereas the surfaces are composed mainly of water ice.
All surfaces of moons in the E ring, except Enceladus, are dominated by impact craters and have been considered as geologically inactive for billions of years. The high albedo and relatively young un cratered geology of wide areas on Enceladus was discovered during Voyager Saturn flybys. In 2004-05 Cassini performed a number of flybys of Saturn’s icy satellites.
Clearly, the most spectacular discovery was the geological activity near Enceladus’ South Pole. An anomaly in the magnetic field near Enceladus observed by the Cassini Magnetometer in February 2005, led to a closer flyby to investigate the phenomenon. On 14 July 2005 Cassini performed a flyby of Enceladus with the closest approach of ~ 168 km from the moon’s surface. The onboard Cassini’s Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) acquired images of Enceladus’ South Polar Terrain (SPT) and discovered jets of icy particles emitting from 135 km long fractures, situated at ~ 55°S latitude. The Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) aboard Cassini pointed out endogenic activity from SPT. The CIRS instruments detected 3 to 7 gigawatts of thermal emission from the SPT centered on the four linear stripes, the so-called “tiger stripes”.
Note
This is a press release from the Astrobiology Network of Pakistan (ABNP). Dr. Nozair Khawaja is the Founder of ABNP and has been working on NASA’s historic space Cassini Mission. Dr. Khawaja is involved in the Japanese future space mission, Destiny Plus and is also associated with NASA’s exciting Astrobiological space mission – Europa Clipper.
David Pokora, a Canadian mastermind hacker, was arrested on March 28, 2014, by the American services for the theft of trade secrets. He was the first foreigner to ever be sentenced by the American services for stealing secret information through hacking. What makes his case so special; David’s extraordinary hacking skills, his luck or negligence of American intelligence service? Let us explore his story for answers.
Childhood
David Pokara fell in love with video games as early as 1995, when he was only three. He started playing first-person shooters and became mesmerized by the magical control he was able to exercise. He was titled as a “born programmer” later on.
He started coding in elementary school, but only wholly mastered and fell in love with it when he was on a trip to Poland with his family. He carried his laptop there, a place without Wi-Fi and taught himself the Visual Basic .NET programming language. This was the kick-start of his career in programming as well as hacking.
Xbox is a popular gaming console
As he became more and more enamored with tech, he finally received his first XBOX. He became deeply invested in it, playing games like Halo for hours. It was then that he found a group of hackers who tweaked the Xbox, changing its functionality. Upon opening the case of the console, the hackers found a lot of what Bruce Schneier (a cryptography expert) calls “kindergarten security mistakes.” Using this, hackers were able to tinker the Xbox to do all sorts of new things, even playing music.
Using this information, Pokora was able to hack his family Xbox and began changing his favorite game of Halo. He began to change the physics of the game, allowing players to change the landscapes, making blue skies rain or digitizing water.
However, this was pulled to a stop when Microsoft released their Xbox 2, which didn’t have the same security mistakes. There was only one way frustrated hackers could continue, which was through the Xbox 360 development kit, known as “dev kits.” These were machines that Microsoft engineers used to create the Xbox, which may look like ordinary consoles but were necessary for game development. Therefore, a hacker with this kit would be able to program the Xbox, similar to an authorized code. But, Microsoft only sent bags to proper, licensed game development companies. Sometime during the mid-2000s, bankrupt companies would be dumping these kits in haste.
In 2006, Rowdy Van Cleave, a 38-year-old Xbox enthusiast, found a pile of dev kits in his local recycling center. Ecstatic, he made a deal with the center, which allowed him to buy the Xbox equipment for lower prices. Though he kept some for himself, and gifted others, he was willing to sell them secretly to desperate buyers. David Pokora stumbled upon this at the age of 16 and helped peddle Xbox kits to other hackers for high prices and made friends along the way.
Now secure with his kit, he began to seriously tinker the game of Halo. He would hack for hours, disregarding high school grades and would continue working until he crashed at around 3 or 4 am. Pokora would then post his work on online platforms, on which he happened to meet Anthony Clark. He and Clark bonded, working together on coding projects in which they changed the Xbox Halo 2 game, endowing the main character with unique abilities. They uploaded their work online and received only compliments and congratulations from engineers at Microsoft and Bungle. But the gray area they were in only seemed to get darker.
Emboldened by the praise they received, they began to steal new unreleased gaming software with ‘PartnerNet,’ including a Halo 3 map that they shared generously with friends. The next time they entered, they noticed a message left by Microsoft and Bungle engineers which said; “Winners Don’t Break Into PartnerNet.” But, far too attached, the hackers took the warning lightly and ignored it.
The Money
In 2009, Pokora and Clark found an opportunity to earn money. The almost flawless Xbox 360 had a vulnerability- a trick called “JTAG.” When a specific ‘modchip’ was added to the console’s motherboard, the Xbox 360’s defenses could be broken. When news of this leaked, players hurried to get their Xbox Is JTAGed. Clark and Pokora used this time to create “modded lobbies” in Call of Duty. For about $100 per 30 minutes, players could fight a battle to the death, with extra abilities or ‘superpowers.’
Pokora and his hacker team found an opportunity to earn money
Pokora also offered “infections” in which players could sabotage their opponents in standard games which were not hacked. This allowed players to keep their superpowers in non-hacked games. Though it was unethical when money started coming, it was too much to refuse. In fact, on good days they earned about $8000!
In 2010, a boy known as Dylan Wheeler was fortunately given a list of passwords for public forums by Epic Games. After searching for a while, he found the personal password of Epic Games account, of an employee. Excited, Wheeler searched for someone skillful enough to help accompany him, so he messaged Pokora. Wheeler wanted to access the private information of a company which was secured. It would be by far the most illegal thing Pokora had done yet,
but curiosity prevailed, and Pokora agreed.
Forming a hacker group, Pokora added another one, Sanadodeh Nesheiwa, who downloaded all private information of the video games from Epic Games onto the disc which he then parceled to Pokora. The hackers began to call themselves “Xbox Underground.” Pokora shared this with friends, which resulted in it appearing on online sites. This resulted in an FBI investigation. However, the hackers remained unscathed as the investigators were unable to locate them. Empowered by their success, the hackers carelessly continued. Through their access to Epic Games, they were able to find other companies, including Zombie Studios, creators of the video game Spec Ops. As they continued, Pokora became more and more obsessed, going deeper and deeper and refusing to heed the warnings of his friends. He kept stealing secret software, including an early copy of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
Hacking
As time passed, Pokora became more deeply involved in the dark and grew more and more careless about his illegal actions. He befriended Justin May, a guy who had previously been arrested, to help him pedal pre-released games to buyers for hundreds of dollars.
As time passed, Pokora became more careless about his illegal actions
The hackers added two more skilled players in their group and then began scavenging the Zombie Studios servers. It was there that they happened upon an army server which contained a simulator for the AH-64D Apache helicopter that Zombie was developing on a Pentagon contract. They also began to steal Microsoft documents for the latest designs of the new Xbox, now known as Xbox One. After taking the hardware designs, they began shipping materials to create their consoles and sell them for as high as $5000. Some members even disappeared when one of the purchases didn’t come through, rumors circulating that the FBI had taken him away.
Arrested
Pokora continued his work, becoming more and more independent after a falling out with Clark. Soon other members of his hacker group had brushes with the law, some getting caught. Unaware that law enforcement was waiting to arrest their gang, Pokara continued. He found a burglar at the Microsoft campus, willing to steal a real Durango prototype in exchange for money and passwords. Pokora agreed, and he and his friend bought the prototypes.
Knowing how dangerous this was, Pokora was hesitant, calling Arman the burglar “crazy.” The thief was caught, putting him in fear for the first time.
In March 2014, Pokora, along with his father, went a trip to the U.S. for buying a missing piece from his car. He stopped at the border, and the border officials recognized his username. Realizing that they had the long-sought illegal hacker, he was detained at U.S. Customs and Borders, until finally arrested and sent to jail after a court proceeding.
Quantum computing holds great importance for the next wave of the information revolution. A number of physical platforms are available to realize quantum bits (qubits), including those based on nuclear magnetic resonance, trapped ions, superconductors, half-spin particles, and single photons. Qubits based on photons are readily accessible at room temperature and hence can be used to perform experiments in the undergraduate laboratory.
The “Single Photon Quantum” initiative was an effort to develop a laboratory incorporating modern, cost-effective versions of some of the experiments that have shaped our modern understanding of quantum physics. These experiments include quantitative demonstrations of the existence of single photons, tests of Bell’s inequalities, single-photon interference, quantum eraser, and quantum state tomography.
Dr. Sabieh Anwer with Hamza Waseem and Faizan e Illahi
Hamza Waseem and Faizan-e-Elahi, two students of electrical engineering in UET Lahore, converted their deep sense of deprivation of formal education in physics to a craving for experimenting with single photons. After a year and a half of dedicated effort, struggling between coursework at their parent institution and the tough challenges, this group of students working in LUMS Physics lab managed to complete a suite of nine fundamental experiments.
Dr. Sabieh Anwer, Associate Professor of Physics at LUMS, who supervise these to students in this brilliant project said that ” For many years I had dreamed of making a laboratory for our students that could demonstrate fundamental facets of quantum physics, quan- information and quan -computing. Though our students do work with SQUIDs, Franck-Hertz tubes and lasers, I was looking for ideas that were more “grainy”, counter-intuitive and quantitative and that could directly relate to quantum interference, entanglement, density matrices, nonlocality and reveal the eerie aspects of quantum physics. Fortunately, I came across two students, Hamza Waseem and Faizan-e-Elahi and after the hard work of more than one year, we successfully completed this project.
Transhumanists believe that we should augment our bodies with new technology.
In the last two to three decades, Artificial Intelligence has revolutionized our lives and the world around us with its astounding perks and impacts. Now, AI making its way out to produce a combination of our body and metal that will enhance our strength, intelligence, and life span, that eradicates the concept of aging as a cause of death.
Scientists are aiming to eradicate the concept of natural selection where it takes hundreds of years for one species as we found them nowadays. Technology has been used for the benefit of humankind for a long but transhumanism is replacing the concept of Biotechnology. In the past, scientists modeled devices like corrective lenses, false teeth to aid human, whereas transhumanism is based on the concept of replacing the damaged body organs completely with an enhanced one to overcome the biological deficit or to augment senses of human so that they can detect things they are not built to sense.
Transhumanism involves the evolution of three basic pillars of humanity: our body, our thoughts, and behavior.
Our Bodies will be augmented
scientists are planning to escort such body augmentations that will enable humans to be more strong, smart-having enhanced life span; a near embodiment of God. We can expect the arrival of contact lenses that can take pictures or video, universal language translator earbuds that allow us to communicate anywhere in the world, and powered clothing that mimics the biomechanics of the human body and increase user’s physical strength with the help of Transhuman.
Implants will be used to improve cognition, ranging from brain microchips to prosthetic cyber-brains and subdermal RFID chips. Our senses will be augmented with the help of implants so we can detect infrared or ultraviolet radiation. Cochlear, optic implants, bionic limbs, and artificial organs will be used to overcome biological damage, though these techniques are already in use.
Robotic exoskeletons such as this one can help people who have suffered spinal injuries. Photograph Credit: Alamy
The most powerful of all will be the biological augmentation, that will enable humans to select the most intelligent embryo using IVF technology. We will also be able to eliminate all heritable diseases using the powerful CRISPR gene-editing technology.
All these advancements will enable humans to live a longer and healthier life. When the old concept of treating aging as an inevitable cause of death will be replaced by taking it as a pathology, we will be able to treat and prevent it. People will get older slowly and will progress towards longer life spans than expected.
We will brainstorm at a faster pace
Implantable brain-machine interfaces, in the process of development, will alter the way of our communication. BMIs will surpass the barrier of speed with which humans deal while communicating. Humans will communicate at the speed of their thought in its full, unfiltered state.
Mark Zuckerberg has described this scenario as: Today, when we share our vacation experiences, we upload photos and videos. With BMIs, I can share my full sensory and emotional vacation experience with my friends and family.
Transhumans would raise a host of ethical problems and dilemmas
Advocates of Transhumanism believe that going beyond the natural barriers of an ordinary human being, will remarkably revolutionize the world but not everyone agrees with the idea.
In the modern world, technological advancements are not merely used by patients or sick people, healthy people are also using them to boost their powers. The drug erythropoietin (EPO) that was used by the patients of anemia to increase their red blood cell production, is now in the use of athletes to improve their bloodstream’s ability to carry oxygen to their muscles.
Blay Whitby, an artificial intelligence expert at Sussex University says“We are now approaching the time when, for some kinds of track sports such as the 100-metre sprint, athletes who run on carbon-fibre blades will be able outperform those who run on natural legs,”
Scientists think there will come a point when athletes with carbon blades will be able to out-run able-bodied rivals. Photograph: Alexandre Loureiro/Getty Images
The debates give rise some critical questions such as if ethically justified for a surgeon to replace the normal limbs with the carbon-fire blades just so they can win the race? Who will own it: wearer or NHS? Who will be responsible if any of this technology is used to carry a crime? These issues need to be debated before it’s too late.
According to Cybernetics expert Kevin Warwick, “What is wrong with replacing imperfect bits of your body with artificial parts that will allow you to perform better – or which might allow you to live longer?”
The position is also summed up by Whitby in the words,
“History is littered with the evil consequences of one group of humans believing they are superior to another group of humans,” he said. “Unfortunately in the case of enhanced humans, they will be genuinely superior. We need to think about the implications before it is too late.”
Future of Transhuman
Transhumanism, the burgeoning field of science, is aiming for a future of more developed human beings with extraordinary minds, ageless bodies having immense physical strength. It is paving its way to a world where terminologies like “disabled” and handicap” would be obsolete. Aging will lose its “virtue of necessity” aspect and life span expected to be enhanced to 120.
Not everyone is an advocate of transhuman, as it has raised certain issues both in an ethical and evolutionary phase. Many are afraid that advancements in technology will supersede the need for humans in the future.
Now, the time has come, scientists have to decide the dimensions, where they exactly want to drag humanity? Transhuman may be superior but will they possess emotions, empathy, and ethical values, we do need to live a happier and healthier life?
Artificial Intelligence is a very interesting aspect of technology which enables machine or computer systems to perform tasks which require human thinking and intellect, like visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making and interpretation of different languages. Besides these learning, reasoning and self-correction are also some awesome features of AI machines.
It is a matter of fact that health care covers a wide chunk of fields like medicine, biotechnology, pharmacy, psychology, genetics, and bioinformatics and AI is interrogated into each in one way or the other.
In health care, AI is rudimentary for managing and analyzing data, making decisions and conversations and thus providing a great helping arm for practitioners in general.
History
Before we dig deeper into the role of AI in healthcare though, let’s drive together on the road of history to see where it all started. In the 1960s, extensive research bore the fruit of making the first problem-solving program, Dendral. Its basic purpose was to evaluate hypothesis formation and it was to be used by pioneers of organic chemistry to identify unknown samples via their mass spectra and properties. A team of highly creative research associates at Stanford University wore the badge of honor for introducing and using this software.
Several systems then derived from this primary one, like MYCIN, which was also developed at Stanford and was capable of applying AI to identify infectious bacteria and the respective dosage of antibiotics required to erase them.
These early events catalyzed the further development of AI in healthcare, applying algorithms to accommodate sparse data and conquer new levels of assessment techniques required in healthcare.
Improvements over this half-century period
Better computer performance yielding speedy data collection and processing.
Growth of genomic sequencing databases
Improved natural language processing computer vision and ability to mimic human processes.
Precise robot-assisted surgery.
Availability of large amounts of data from healthcare devices.
These are just a few of the ameliorations that the field of healthcare has experienced on behalf of AI.
Current Research
Various fields of medicine have inculcated AI into their procedures and achieved improvement.
Radiology this field has grasped the most popular so far, having acquired the adeptness to interpret imaging results and detecting minute changes which could otherwise be easily missed by the human eye. Algorithms with higher resolution have been implemented to detect diseases like pneumonia with better accuracy.
Imaging recent development has allowed AI to evaluate corrective jaw surgery and other facial aspects regarding an attractive appearance
Telehealth or Telemedicine has provided immense ease and convenience. It involves the distribution of health-related services and information through electronic and telecommunication technologies. It bridges the gap when rural areas, lacking transport, immobility or less staff pose as a barrier. AI comes in handy one wears a monitoring device constantly to assess levels of chemicals in his body.
Electronic health records It is important for permanent saving and security of data, but equally problematic for users due to cognitive overload, hacking issues or burnout. HER data can also be used to predict individual treatment response with a 72 percent accuracy.
Industry the use of AI in healthcare industry section could be another article altogether, such vast and detailed are the applications. The main focus of AI in the health sector is in the clinical decision support systems, several industrial Giants are widely in use of these systems.
Microsoft’s Hanover project, in partnership with Oregon Health and Science University’s Knight Cancer Institute, analyzed medical research to predict the most effective cancer drug treatment options for patients.
Google’s DeepMind is being used by the UK National Health Service to detect certain health risks through data collected with the use of a mobile app.
Apple Iphone’s health app keeps track of users’ activities and he can check and analyze his lifestyle, monitoring heart rate Pulse, and steps taken in a day.
Benefits of AI in Healthcare
Used a diagnostic tool
Can identify stages of cancer
Drug discovery
Assessing the effectiveness of chemotherapy in cancer patients
Keeping doctors up-to-date in clinical research
Data management
Optimizing schedules of patients and doctors.
Future of AI in Healthcare
AI’s transformative power is reverberating across numerous industries but has reached stardom in the health industry particularly.
The total public and private sector investment in health care AI is stunning; All told, it is expected to reach 6.6 billion dollars by 2021. Even more staggering, it is predicted that the top AI applications may result in annual savings of 150 billion dollars by 2026.
AI has the potential to solve the dilemma of the “iron triangle”, which includes three interlocking factors: access, affordability, and effectiveness.
Other future uses include Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) to help affected patients to move and speak. Virtual nursing assistants are predicted to become common, answering patient queries and decreasing tedious hospital visits.
Another positive aspect which is visible with the increased use of AI is more healthcare availability to developing nations, where there are fewer doctors and staff.
In short, AI in healthcare is predicted to decrease medical costs and improve the quality of medical services.
From early ages, we have been reading stories of ancient forest fires which were devastating enough to eradicate entire populations dependent on them. Also, we have witnessed a good number of forest fires which have had no substantial initiation cause. But now a recent scientific study conducted by an international team of researchers led by Elisabeth Dietze provides surprising answers.
Amazon forest fire devastation
Organized forestry
According to that research team, after the end of the 18th century, the number of forest fires were reported higher than ever with a variation in organized forestry. Organized forestry depicts that monoculture trees (trees of the same species) were planted in those forests during their restoring. For instance, in a region of northeastern Poland, the research team presented scientific data pointing out that the frequency of forest fires had increased by two-thirds of its original ratio.
Forest regimes
Scientifically every landscape has its own probability of how fire behaves there. This phenomenon is better known as “fire regime”. Fire regimes are directly influenced by an area’s climatic conditions, vegetative patterns, and landscape orientation. Any impactful interference of humans with any of these parameters can result in disruption of the forest regime of that area. In their research, the researcher observed a temperate forest landscape around Lake Czechowskie in the bory tucholskie (English: tuchola forest) located in northeastern Poland.
They made an effort to identify the extent to which forest management influenced the fire regime of that area. Molecular fire makers which include pieces of charcoal, molecules formed during biomass combustion, particulate matter (specifically sulfur contents). A majority of these molecular entities originated from drilling cores of lake sediments.
Lake Czechowskie
A rehab for the forests:
In their research, the team of scientists mentioned that human activities have caused two major changes in the fire regimes of the 19th and 20th century. One, the amount of biomass combustion increased unintendedly during the mid-19th century. In the process, forests were restructured with huge addition of flammable pine tree monocultures crucial for industrialization.
At the end of the 19th century, polish ministry of forestry took serious notice of the “burning” issue and issued a fire protection strategy. Included in this strategy preview was a plantation of a wide variety of tree species, building of a denser network of paths, availability of extremely mobile emergency fire brigade service designation near major risk sites. These methods proved worthwhile in the process of safekeeping of forests. But later on, history saw a rather odd change when the Soviet Union was shattered. At that time, there was an enormous need for rapid industrialization as a lot of independent state’s future was at stake if the current energy demands would not be met. This, in turn, led to a greater plantation of pine trees in the forests. This resulted in a greater forest area of that region. And since then an estimated 14 major forest fires have been reported in and around Soviet Union forest regimes.
In conclusion of their research, Elisabeth Dietze commented “In the course of climate change with its temperature rise and more frequent dry summers a new adjustment of forestry is necessary. Fires should be suppressed more effectively in the future and the forest should be restructured — towards a more diverse and less flammable tree and shrub species. This is our most important result for forestry.”
Today’s digitalized world is characterized by the connectivity provided by internet, smartphones, tablets, smartwatches and smart glasses. While on one hand, this connectivity has opened a plethora of innovations such as the Internet of things (IoT), whereby everything can be controlled from within the touch of fingertips, it eventually gives rise to the big threats such as National and global security. Increasing incidents of cyber-attacks, cyber-theft and bullying point to nowhere but an imminent threat of regional or global cyberwar.
While it is a general misperception that Pakistan does not have any contributions in the field of Science and Technology and that women are discouraged from education, let alone pursue STEM, Dr, Fauzia Idrees Abroo, Pakistan’s first female cyber-security analyst, is a pleasant surprise for many science enthusiasts.
Dr. Abro started her educational career when she obtained her Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics from Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET), Jamshoro. She hails from rural Sindh and despite all the hurdles against the education of women, she pursued her passion and obtained masters in Cryptology from NUST. This was just a beginning in her career which took her to pursue a Ph.D. in Cyber Security from City, University of London.
Her research interests are malware analysis, detection and prevention, mobile security, VoIP, network security, machine learning, IoT and Artificial Intelligence, most of them have been published in various academic journals and conference proceedings. She serves on several editorial boards and program committees of international journals and conferences.
Currently, she is working on the security of the Internet of Things (IoT). This scribe had a chance to interact with Dr. Abro, who is Pakistan’s first female with a doctorate in Cyber Security from a foreign University, the first female Ph.D. of Pakistan Armed Forces (Tri-services) as well.
Following are the excerpts from my conversations with Dr. Abro.
Let us know
about your childhood and who inspired you most during your academics?
I belong to a remote area of Sindh. Life was quite hard, getting an education was extremely difficult due to social and cultural problems. I used to study a lot because I always dreamed of becoming an outstanding professional. I was lucky to get an unending support from my family. Today, I have everything one can dream for and I’m content that all is earned through sheer hard work. During my studies in Pakistan, I was inspired by my mentor Professor Bhawani Shankar who has been supporting and helping out many students of Pakistan to excel through their education. I’m also inspired by Professor Rahman Aziz of City University London who has never stopped supporting thousands of students from all over the world.
Do you encounter obstacles in
your life and career? How do you manage and what will you suggest for working
ladies in Pakistan?
Yes, I do, especially in my career. I opted for Engineering and Military, both being male-dominated fields and especially in third world countries like Pakistan, there are people who do not support women in male-dominated fields. There is a big list of obstacles from gender discriminations to biases against working women and mothers of young children. I have two children and before each of them, I had to go through miscarriages due to non-conducive working conditions.
I knew that I had to be strong, communicative and competent to survive in order to see my dreams turn into reality. I had to give extra time to my work to fill the gaps created during my absence due to maternity leaves. I was able to manage the circumstances with selfless support from my husband. I would not be where I am today without his support after my marriage. I would suggest to the working ladies, work hard and keep a balance between family and work life. There is no peace without a peaceful family life and there is no happiness without. Don’t isolate yourself in workplaces, be active, inclusive and participate in activities positively. Try to minimize the communication gap between you and the people you work with.
You have diverse academic experience from being an electrical engineer to cryptologist. What were the factors which led you to pursue these fields?
I joined Pakistan Air Force as an Electronics Engineer and was trained to work on avionics systems besides networks, IT and electronics equipment. I had an interest in security and luckily PAF selected me for Masters in Cryptology/information security to fulfill its cryptology and cyber security requirements. After my masters, I assigned to work in information/network security which further increased my interest in cyber security. Eventually, I was selected for European Union scholarship for Ph.D. from the UK. My work experience in PAF Cyber security setup and my Ph.D. in Information security have contributed to my career choice. Now it has become my hobby, career and something I’m passionate about.
We should realize that each smart gadget is not very smart against cyber threats and each social media application is accruing our personal information from our gadgets.
The concept of security has evolved from the traditional security dilemma of a state to the vulnerabilities faced by individuals. What are the threats and challenges faced by individuals and states in the context of cyber security?
With the ever-increasing role of internet in almost everything we do, we’re more and more vulnerable to cyber threats. Anyone using the internet for anything is exposed, hence awareness about requisite security measures is extremely essential for each individual. It’s an ever-evolving field which requires persistence and continuous focus of both the developers and end-users. Although, every organization is conscious of the threat and ensures regular measures but still we see so many breaches all over the world very frequently. This implies that the importance of cyber security will always remain extremely critical for both individuals and organizations all over the globe.
The emergence of cyberspace has opened new battlegrounds. How will future developments in cyberspace and new technologies shape any future warfare?
Almost all contemporary and future concepts of warfare have a very heavy dependence on cyberspace. With the emergence of super computational technologies and rapid developments in associate gadgetry, each segment of cyberspace is being exploited as an essential tool of warfare. A paradigm shift in warfare is that cyber warfare is now an everlasting activity which would only intensify in times to come.
Dr.Abro recently awarded sixth global Cyberjustu award
What can be done at an individual
level to get secured from cyber threats?
First of all, each individual should get himself acquainted with the potentials and impact of cyber threats on our daily life. Usage of social media is increasing and so are the chances of cyber threats for the users. We need to educate especially our children to be careful while sharing their personal information on social media. We should realize that each smart gadget is not very smart against cyber threats and each social media application is accruing our personal information from our gadgets.
We must know that Cameras, Mics and our files in our gadgets are accessible to cyber attackers. We need to be careful about what are we sharing on social media, storing on our smart devices and how are we accessing the internet. Use strong passwords for online services accounts, install good anti-virus programs and update the software regularly.
Are there any global efforts done by the international society and bodies to overcome the threats of cyberwar between states or any cyber-attack by a group or individual?
There are international bodies that are monitoring the hackers and cyber activities but we must know that all international intelligence agencies are intensely involved in cyber monitoring and are using individual’s data for their covert activities. There are on-going global efforts by UN, Council on foreign relations and some other international organizations and think tanks for regulating the cyberspace especially in terms of cyber-attacks and cyber warfare.
Pakistan drafted its cyber security
policy in April 2019. Is this policy comprehensive enough to tackle the
challenges faced by Pakistani users and state?
As per my knowledge, some work was kick-started to formulate the cyber security policy guidelines but it’s not complete yet. Cyber security policy is a subject which needs to be reviewed very frequently and should be formulated by competent professionals with the involvement of different stakeholders of the state.
Dr.Abro is a proud Mom of two kidsand believes that there is no peace without a peaceful family life
You are currently working on IoT (Internet of Things). Let us know about the latest developments and challenges in this technology?
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a rapidly growing network of connected smart sensors/devices. It is becoming the foundation of many services such as smart homes, smart cities, health monitoring, agriculture system, smart environment, and smart water control systems. IoT will bring the next Industrial Revolution because it’s changing the way people live, work and communicate.
In 2017,
around 29% of organizations had already installed IoT technology (Vodafone IoT
Barometer, 2017-18). According to research by management consulting firm Bain,
the IoT market is set to grow to around £397 billion by 2021, more than double
the £179 billion that was spent in 2017. It is envisaged that by 2020, the
number of connected devices will rise to 20.4 billion worldwide (Gartner report
2017) and the global IoT devices market is expected to reach around USD 158,140
million in 2024 (Zion report 2018).
As IoT continues to expand, the number of challenges the emerging technology faces is also on increase. The main concern is the availability of connectivity, data integrity, big data, security and privacy of connected devices, cloud and network.
You got several awards including the Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah and Benazir Bhutto lifetime achievement award. What are your future targets to achieve and your future research plans?
I always try to motivate and encourage our young students especially the females to opt for STEM studies. I would also like to work on drone security. I have started an organization for women: Women in Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (WiSTEM) to help and support the women working or studying STEM. I’ll continue working for the empowerment of women. I’ll be using the WiSTEM platform to work for equal opportunities for women. As for as my research is concerned, I will be working on IoT security especially the intrusion detection system for IoT connected devices.
What is next for you? Your
message for womenfolk in Pakistan?
I try to remain abreast with the latest research and development in the domains of cyber security. I see myself as a leading cyber security entrepreneur in the next five years providing its products and services worldwide. I’m an enthusiast to provide a flexible and conducive working platform for women in cyber security and STEM.
My message to women of Pakistan is to work hard and know their potentials. Only courage can lead to success and motivate others who struggle to survive in very challenging environments. To get something extra you need to do extra.
