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A couple of weeks ago, Nobel laureate Demis Hassabis forecasted that artificial intelligence (AI) will match human intelligence within the next 5–10 years. This expectation, shared by other AI analysts, is based on the exponential growth in AI technology. However, it neglects an important factor. As humans delegate thinking to computers, they get dumber. The situation is similar to athletes losing muscle tissue by not practicing. The introduction of AI to the workforce relieves humans from a variety of intellectual tasks. The resulting “intellectual vacation mode” is likely to trigger a decline in human cognitive capabilities. As a result, the crossing point between human intelligence and AI might arrive faster than expected, not only because AI abilities are advancing fast but also because humans are getting dumber. The two trends are correlated since better AI agents would reduce the intellectual burden on humans. A paper published in the journal Intelligence two years ago concluded that American IQs are dropping for the first time in recent history. An analysis of 394,378 scores on intelligence tests taken between 2006 and 2018 showed that IQs had fallen in the categories of logic and vocabulary, computation and mathematics, and visual problem-solving and analogies. This reverses the so-called Flynn effect, which previously described a steady rise in IQ by about three IQ points per decade since 1932. The decline is steepest in the age group of 18 to 22, which is supposed to have better IQ scores than older people. Separate from that, a 2023 survey revealed that 34% of American adults scored at the lowest levels of numeracy, lacking the ability to work with numbers. Another recent study reported a trend that started around the mid-2010s with more people finding it difficult to concentrate, reason and problem-solve. Young adults exhibit a reduced attention span and weakening critical thinking skills based on data concerning 18-year-old Americans as well as data on 15-year-olds around the world. Extensive exposure to digital screens was demonstrated to cause a decline in verbal skills of children and reduce the ability of college-age adults to concentrate and process information. A psychological study revealed that people could retain and process data significantly better if their smartphones were in another room. Just turning their phone off did not make a difference, as people still demonstrated a decline in cognitive abilities when their smartphone was next to them. Human intelligence flourishes in response to challenges. With fewer problems to solve and more sources of superficial engagements in the age of social media and AI, the need for deep thinking and rigorous inquiry declines. Of course, there will always be statistical outliers at the high-IQ tail of the probability distribution, involving people who are driven to learn, analyze, and innovate without the help of AI agents. Given these trends, one may wonder optimistically whether the exponential rise in AI will compensate for the alarming decline in human cognitive abilities, so that the net effect will still be positive. I do not think so. The prosperity of democratic countries depends critically on the cognitive abilities of their citizens and less so on the tools they use. This is because humans control the physical world in ways that cannot be substituted by AI systems. We need politicians to make sound judgments, juries to reach reasonable verdicts, technologists to make good investments and scientists to discover new knowledge. But more than anything, we need the commitment of humans to interactions with other humans and to the challenge of finding the truth from primary sources of evidence and knowledge. Consuming knowledge that was processed by AI is equivalent to feasting on junk food. It may feel good at the moment, but in the long-term it is bad for our health. Here’s hoping that we can revise our education system so as to reestablish a rising Flynn curve of human IQ scores in the 21st century. Otherwise, we might not be able to get a hold of the steering wheel when our self-driven cars will ride us off the cliff. The post Superhuman AI is Closer Than We Think, for the Wrong Reason! appeared first on Anomalien.com.

Derek Ward-Thompson and Megan Argo: NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has detected the largest organic (carbon-containing) molecules ever found on the red planet. The discovery is one of the most significant findings in the search for evidence of past life on Mars. This is because, on Earth at least, relatively complex, long-chain carbon molecules are involved in biology. These molecules could actually be fragments of fatty acids, which are found in, for example, the membranes surrounding biological cells. Scientists think that, if life ever emerged on Mars, it was probably microbial in nature. Because microbes are so small, it’s difficult to be definitive about any potential evidence for life found on Mars. Such evidence needs more powerful scientific instruments that are too large to be put on a rover. The organic molecules found by Curiosity consist of carbon atoms linked in long chains, with other elements bonded to them, like hydrogen and oxygen. They come from a 3.7-billion-year-old rock dubbed Cumberland, encountered by the rover at a presumed dried-up lakebed in Mars’s Gale Crater. Scientists used the Sample Analysis at Mars (Sam) instrument on the Nasa rover to make their discovery. Scientists were actually looking for evidence of amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins and therefore key components of life as we know it. But this unexpected finding is almost as exciting. The research is published in Proceedings of the National Academies of Science. Among the molecules were decane, which has 10 carbon atoms and 22 hydrogen atoms, and dodecane, with 12 carbons and 26 hydrogen atoms. These are known as alkanes, which fall under the umbrella of the chemical compounds known as hydrocarbons. It’s an exciting time in the search for life on Mars. In March this year, scientists presented evidence of features in a different rock sampled elsewhere on Mars by the Perseverance rover. These features, dubbed “leopard spots” and “poppy seeds”, could have been produced by the action of microbial life in the distant past, or not. The findings were presented at a US conference and have not yet been published in a peer reviewed journal. The Mars Sample Return mission, a collaboration between Nasa and the European Space Agency, offers hope that samples of rock collected and stored by Perseverance could be brought to Earth for study in laboratories. The powerful instruments available in terrestrial labs could finally confirm whether or not there is clear evidence for past life on Mars. However, in 2023, an independent review board criticised increases in Mars Sample Return’s budget. This prompted the agencies to rethink how the mission could be carried out. They are currently studying two revised options. Mars Sample Return will deliver Mars rocks to Earth for study. Signs of life? Cumberland was found in a region of Gale Crater called Yellowknife Bay. This area contains rock formations that look suspiciously like those formed when sediment builds up at the bottom of a lake. One of Curiosity’s scientific goals is to examine the prospect that past conditions on Mars would have been suitable for the development of life, so an ancient lakebed is the perfect place to look for them. The researchers think that the alkane molecules may once have been components of more complex fatty acid molecules. On Earth, fatty acids are components of fats and oils. They are produced through biological activity in processes that help form cell membranes, for example. The suggested presence of fatty acids in this rock sample has been around for several years, but the new paper details the full evidence. Fatty acids are long, linear hydrocarbon molecules with a carboxyl group (COOH) at one end and a methyl group (CH3) at the other, forming a chain of carbon and hydrogen atoms. A fat molecule consists of two main components: glycerol and fatty acids. Glycerol is an alcohol molecule with three carbon atoms, five hydrogens, and three hydroxyl (chemically bonded oxygen and hydrogen, OH) groups. Fatty acids may have 4-36 carbon atoms; however, most of them have 12-18. The longest carbon chains found in Cumberland are 12 atoms long. Organic molecules preserved in ancient Martian rocks provide a critical record of the past habitability of Mars and could be chemical biosignatures (signs that life was once there). The sample from Cumberland has been analysed by the Sam instrument many times, using different experimental techniques, and has shown evidence of clay minerals, as well as the first (smaller and simpler) organic molecules found on Mars, back in 2015. These included several classes of chlorinated and sulphur-containing organic compounds in Gale crater sedimentary rocks, with chemical structures of up to six carbon atoms. The new discovery doubles the number of carbon atoms found in a single molecule on Mars. The alkane molecules are significant in the search for biosignatures on Mars, but how they actually formed remains unclear. They could also be derived through geological or other chemical mechanisms that do not involve fatty acids or life. These are known as abiotic sources. However, the fact that they exist intact today in samples that have been exposed to a harsh environment for many millions of years gives astrobiologists (scientists who study the possibility of life beyond Earth) hope that evidence of ancient life might still be detectable today. It is possible the sample contains even longer chain organic molecules. It may also contain more complex molecules that are indicative of life, rather than geological processes. Unfortunately, Sam is not capable of detecting those, so the next step is to deliver Martian rock and soil to more capable laboratories on the Earth. Mars Sample Return would do this with the samples already gathered by the Perseverance Mars rover. All that’s needed now is the budget. Derek Ward-Thompson, Professor of Astrophysics, University of Central Lancashire and Megan Argo, Senior Lecturer in Astronomy, University of Central Lancashire This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The post NASA’s Mars Rover One Step Closer to Finding Alien Life on Mars appeared first on Anomalien.com.