M Thomas Apple Author Page

Science fiction, actual science, history, and personal ranting about life, the universe, and everything

Beyond Spacesuits: How Genetic Engineering Could Make Us Martian

September 19, 2026
MThomas

When we think about colonizing Mars, we usually imagine advanced spacesuits, dome cities, and massive terraforming projects.

Beyond Spacesuits: How Genetic Engineering Could Make Us Martian

Wish I had seen this writing prompt this past June! I could have written…

Well, probably something very similar to this. Only without the obvious use of AI.

Just think, though…this would be the beginning of a new species of human, the first in several hundreds of thousands of years.

Homo Martis?

AGI by 2027? 2028? 2030?

March 11, 2024
MThomas

“It should be able to make a smarter AGI, then an even smarter AGI, then an intelligence explosion,” he added, presumably referring to the singularity.

https://futurism.com/artificial-superintelligence-agi-2027-goertzel?fbclid=IwAR2v9500C6hNEfhD4RehqCa04Dltys7KuVkyuepcgmiqoNhSBseMtpHojJs

Seriously. Am I the only one who thinks this is, like, a really, really, REALLY bad idea?

When AI becomes actual AI…

October 26, 2023
MThomas

We compared current scientific theories of what makes humans conscious to compile a list of “indicator properties” that could then be applied to AI systems. 

We don’t think systems that possess the indicator properties are definitely conscious, but the more indicators, the more seriously we should take claims of AI consciousness. 

https://theconversation.com/why-chatgpt-isnt-conscious-but-future-ai-systems-might-be-212860

Last year, an engineer for Google who was working on what was then called “LaMDA” (later released as “Bard”) claimed that the software had achieved consciousness. He claimed it was like a small child and he could “talk” with it.

He was fired.

Bard, ChatGPT, Baidu, and so forth are advanced chatbots built on what’s called “Large Language Models” (LLM) and can generate text in an instant.

But the programs are not AI, strictly speaking. They have no sentience.

Continue Reading

Frogs embryos turned into xenobots

April 12, 2021
MThomas

Oh you precious little life forms…

Using blobs of skin cells from frog embryos, scientists have grown creatures unlike anything else on Earth, a new study reports. These microscopic “living machines” can swim, sweep up debris and heal themselves after a gash.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/frog-skin-cells-self-made-living-machines-xenobots/amp?__twitter_impression=true

The possibilities are endless…

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