He says crewed missions will begin within 4-6 years depending on whether certain economic and technological challenges can be overcome.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has revealed an ambitious plan to build a human city on Mars within the next few decades beginning with uncrewed Starship voyages in 2026.
If all goes well, according to Musk, crewed trips will begin by the end of the decade.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reveals the roadmap for putting humans on Mars. Source: Elon Musk
Billionaire tech CEO Elon Musk is certainly very hands-on with his work, but not to that extent, apparently.
Elon Musk has denied a New York Times report suggesting he had volunteered his sperm to help seed a colony on Mars.
The July 11 report suggested that Musk had quietly directed his team to plan an off-world habitat that could survive Mars’ hostile environment.
One team is looking at plans for “small dome habitats,” including materials that could be used to build them. Another is working on spacesuits that could survive Mars’ freezing extraterrestrial climate — made up of 95% carbon dioxide and only 0.13% oxygen — while a third is researching whether humans could have children there.
“Even Mars may not be safe” if superintelligent AI turns against humanity, warns Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.
Super-advanced artificial intelligence, left unchecked, has a “serious chance” of surpassing humans to become the next “apex species” of the planet, according Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.
But that will boil down to how humans potentially intervene with AI developments, he said.
New monster post: my own current perspective on the recent debates around techno-optimism, AI risks, and ways to avoid extreme centralization in the 21st century.https://t.co/6lN2fLBUUL pic.twitter.com/h5aIyFNCoh
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) November 27, 2023
In a Nov. 27 blog post, Buterin, seen by some as a thought leader in the cryptocurrency space, argued AI is “fundamentally different” from other recent inventions — such as social media, contraception, airplanes, guns, the wheel, and the printing press — as AI can create a new type of “mind” that can turn against human interests, adding:
“AI is [...] a new type of mind that is rapidly gaining in intelligence, and it stands a serious chance of overtaking humans' mental faculties and becoming the new apex species on the planet.”
Buterin argued that unlike climate change, a man-made pandemic, or nuclear war, superintelligent AI could potentially end humanity and leave no survivors, particularly if it ends up viewing humans as a threat to its own survival.
“One way in which AI gone wrong could make the world worse is (almost) the worst possible way: it could literally cause human extinction.”
“Even Mars may not be safe,” Buterin added.
Buterin cited an August 2022 survey from over 4,270 machine learning researchers who estimated a 5-10% chance that AI kills humanity.
However, while Buterin stressed that claims of this nature are “extreme,” there are also ways for humans to prevail.
Buterin suggested integrating brain-computer interfaces (BCI) to offer humans more control over powerful forms of AI-based computation and cognition.
A BCI is a communication pathway between the brain's electrical activity and an external device, such as a computer or robotic limb.
This would reduce the two-way communication loop between man and machine from seconds to milliseconds, and more importantly, ensure humans retain some degree of “meaningful agency” over the world, Buterin said.
Related: How AI is changing crypto: Hype vs. reality
Buterin suggested this route would be “safer” as humans could be involved in each decision made by the AI machine.
“We [can] reduce the incentive to offload high-level planning responsibility to the AI itself, and thereby reduce the chance that the AI does something totally unaligned with humanity's values on its own.”
The Ethereum co-founder also suggested “active human intention” to take AI in a direction that benefits humanity, as maximizing profit doesn’t always lead human down the most desirable pathway.
Human beings are deeply good. pic.twitter.com/AbOfd75IJ4
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) November 27, 2023
Buterin concluded that “we, humans, are the brightest star” in the universe, as we’ve developed technology to expand upon human potential for thousands of years, and hopefully many more to come:
“Two billion years from now, if the Earth or any part of the universe still bears the beauty of Earthly life, it will be human artifices like space travel and geoengineering that will have made it happen.”
Magazine: Real AI use cases in crypto, No. 1: The best money for AI is crypto
Owners of luxury watches can now verify ownership as NFTs and then take DeFi loans out against them, while Miley Cryus may soon enter the metaverse and NFTs with new patents.
Global confectionery giant Mars has teamed up with virtual metaverse band KINGSHIP to create limited edition boxes of M&M'S featuring content from the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC).
KINGSHIP is a group made up of three BAYC NFT hodlers and one Mutant Ape Yacht Club MAYC owner. As part of the deal, the avatars depicted in the NFT art will be printed on the chocolate candies in a select number of boxes.
There has been a total of 4,000 boxes created in total, split between two tiers of rarity. The regular tier comes in 3,900 brown celebratory gift boxes, while the 100 “gold” edition boxes are wrapped in gold and white foil, number 1 to 100 and have the Kingship member’s apes printed on the M&M'S.
Additionally 6,000 candy gift jars have been put up for sale from today via the M&M'S website. Hodlers of the KINGSHIP Key Card NFTs were given early access to this promotion, suggesting the gold edition boxes may already be gone.
"We're excited to continue our Mars foray into the metaverse through this partnership with 10:22PM and KINGSHIP, as a way to engage our fans in a new and exciting space," said Jane Hwang, Global Vice President at Mars Wrigley.
The deal marks another interesting utilization of the IP behind Yuga Labs’ NFT projects, with other BAYC hodlers using the content for TV shows and restaurants in the past.
Despite the NFT sector going through a lengthy bear market, one Pudgy Penguin NFT has recently sold for a whopping 400 Ether (ETH) on Aug. 22, worth roughly $670,000 at current prices.
There are 8888 Pudgy Penguin NFTs in circulation and the project is one of the most popular NFT collections on the market.
The NFT sold was Pudgy Penguin #6873, one of the rarest in the collection as nearly all of penguin avatar’s traits are shared by just 0.01% of the other NFTs in the project.
According to the transaction history on OpenSea, the seller CoinUnited previously bought the NFT for 225 ETH on Sept. 8 last year, worth roughly $788,000 at the time. As such they banked a major ETH profit, though it would be counted as a $118,000 fiat loss.
This Pudgy Penguin just sold for 400 ETH ($630,000) pic.twitter.com/JM1OVkZlSg
— nathanhead.eth (@NathanHeadPhoto) August 22, 2022
Over the past 30 days Pudgy Penguin NFTs have generated $7.5 million worth of sales, marking a 314% increase within that time frame according to data from CryptoSlam.
The 4K Protocol, a Web3 project that bridges real world assets to NFTs, has partnered with DeFi lending platform Arcade to launch decentralized finance loans against physically backed luxury watch NFTs.
The 4K protocol enables users to mint NFTs tied to their assets and guarantees a 1-to-1 ownership via storage providers and asset authenticators.
Related: NFTs are a 'natural place' for digital artists — Gal Yosef
As part of the partnership, an NFT minted on 4K linked to a top-of-the-line Rolex Cosmograph Daytona was used to secure a loan from Arcade, marking an interesting, albeit risky, use case for tokenizing real world assets.
Former Disney star and widely popular musician Miley Cryus is gearing up for Web3 after filing two Metaverse and NFT trademarks relating to the words “Miley” and “Miley Cryus” with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
According to an Aug. 22 tweet from trademark attorney Mike Kondoudis, Cyrus is planning to launch digital goods such as virtual clothing, footwear, sports gear and also entertainment services.
#MileyCyrus has filed trademarks for MILEY
— Mike Kondoudis (@KondoudisLaw) August 22, 2022
and MILEY CYRUS claiming plans for:
✅ Clothing + Energy drinks
✅ Entertainment services
✅ Virtual currency management software
✅ Virtual clothing, footwear, sports gear
...and more!#Crypto #Web3 #Metaverse @MileyArmy @mileyworld pic.twitter.com/ng1PKxfAbR
Cryptocurrency risk management firm Elliptic has released a report suggesting that scammers have stolen more than $100 million worth of NFTs since in 2021.
Decentralized exchange Uniswap is reportedly in talks with multiple NFT lending protocols to build NFT financialization according to a social media post from Uniswap's head of NFT product Scott Lewis.
Following the Terra blockchain fallout and the great UST de-pegging event, the Terra network ecosystem is now a wasteland of almost worthless tokens and protocols. While both UST and LUNA were top ten crypto market cap contenders, Terra’s decentralized finance (defi) presence was second to Ethereum in terms of total value locked. Today, the remaining […]
NASA, the U.S. space agency, has partnered with Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite, to build a challenge for developers to help create a Martian metaverse experience. The challenge will include various tasks, including designing several key environments for Martian astronauts, which will be rendered using Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5 to provide a realistic […]
In mid-March, the top five blockchains — in terms of total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (defi) — currently command more than 82% of the $198 billion TVL in defi across all blockchains. Each of these chains offers different types of defi protocols like decentralized exchange (dex) platforms and lending applications, allowing people to […]
Users have been warned against a new malware designed to steal crypto from browser extension wallets such as MetaMask and Coinbase Wallet.
Security was never the strong suit of browser-based crypto wallets to store Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and other cryptocurrencies. However, new malware makes the safety of online wallets even more complicated by directly targeting crypto wallets that work as browser extensions such as MetaMask, Binance Chain Wallet or Coinbase Wallet.
Named Mars Stealer by its developers, the new malware is a powerful upgrade on the information-stealing Oski trojan of 2019, according to security researcher 3xp0rt. It targets more than 40 browser-based crypto wallets, along with popular two-factor authentication (2FA) extensions, with a grabber function that steals users’ private keys.
MetaMask, Nifty Wallet, Coinbase Wallet, MEW CX, Ronin Wallet, Binance Chain Wallet and TronLink are listed as some of the targeted wallets. The security expert notes that the malware can target extensions on Chromium-based browsers except Opera. Sadly, it means some of the most common browsers such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Brave made it to the list. Also, while they are safe from extension-specific attacks, Firefox and Opera are also vulnerable to credential-hijacking.
Related: 'Less sophisticated' malware is stealing millions: Chainalysis
Mars Stealer can be spread through various channels such as file-hosting websites, torrent clients and any other shady downloaders. After infecting a system, the first thing the malware does is check the device language. If it matches the language ID of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Belarus or Russia, the software leaves the system without any malicious action.
For the rest of the world, the malware targets a file that holds sensitive information such as crypto wallets’ address info and private keys. It then leaves the system by deleting any presence once the theft is complete.
Hackers are currently selling Mars Stealer for $140 on dark web forums, meaning the barrier to access the trojan is relatively low for malicious actors. Users who hold their crypto assets on browser-based wallets or use browser extensions like Authy to utilize 2FA are warned to be cautious against clicking dubious links or downloads.
