Astribot, Simulon, and Reversible Computation – Live and Learn #41

✨ Quote ✨

There are no natural resources. There are only natural raw materials. It is human creativity that transforms raw materials into resources through technological innovations.

– Robert Zubrin – (source)

🖇️ Links 🖇️

Astribot V1 Demo by Astribot. A Chinese company has dropped their stationary humanoid-like robot, and their demo is insane. The robot can do all kinds of household tasks efficiently, quickly, and accurately. The crazy thing is, none of the tasks in their demo are sped up or tele-operated. It's all real-time machine learning, and the number of tasks the robot can do and how dexterous it is while doing them is pretty impressive.

Why nothing can grow on Mars by Asimov Press. An idea-piece that explains why it is terribly hard to make any living organisms grow outside on the surface of Mars. TLDR: There are too many extreme variables, like the extreme saltiness of the soil, the lack of atmosphere, and the harsh cold. The conclusion? Even if we were to combine all the crazy traits organisms have evolved on Earth to survive in extreme conditions into one "super" organism, it would still not be able to survive on Mars.

Earth AI by NotBoring. Finding valuable mining sites is a complex problem, and the current space is ripe for disruption. It is slow, sluggish, and super costly. EarthAI is a startup that uses machine learning and a custom drilling rig to do just that. This article is a deep dive into the company and the reasoning behind it. To me, the best part was the story of the founder running around Russia with a fresh geology major under his belt, trying to judge the geology, while he was armed with a freaking shotgun in order to defend himself from bears.

Vaire: Reversible Computing by Future of Computing. This article introduces how a startup by the name of Vaire is tackling a big challenge in computing: namely, how today's computers produce too much waste heat. Waste heat limits how many transistors we can stack into a given volume. Eliminate waste heat, and you can essentially 3D stack chips and continue Moore's law. But here's the real kicker: physically, a computation can be built such that it can run both ways. This is called reversible computation. Such a reversible computer would use almost no energy and also produce virtually no waste heat. And Vaire is trying to build just such a machine. And if they succeed in this, we can have essentially near-zero energy computing on a vastly bigger scale. I hope they succeed.

Simulon Thread by uhm, me ^^. There is a beta app named Simulon that people use to create epic VFX with their iPhones and AI. I've collected some of the best examples that I've seen on X in one giant thread. It's crazy how good the lighting and little details like reflections and shadows have become. They are blending 3D models right into reality, making it look like they are really there, which is a massive win for AR. And because the whole thing runs with AI, the workflows are fast and easy to use.

🌌 Traveling 🌌

I've just left Guadeloupe and moved to Dominica in the last few days. Guadeloupe was terribly beautiful, and I am sad to have left this small island. I had an absolute blast there during the previous two months: stunning waterfalls, beaches, time spent with amazing people, and all-around good vibes.

Here are some more pictures I took during my time there:

The next pictures in the following iteration of Live and Learn will be coming from Dominica. Until then, stay tuned ^^

🎶 Song 🎶

Freckles by Lawrence

Youtube Music | Spotify

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That's all for this time. I hope you found this newsletter useful, beautiful, or even both!

Have ideas for improving it? As always please let me know.

Cheers,

– Rico