Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas explored in HG Wells' novella, published in 1895, in which the Time Traveller moves forward to 802,701 AD. There he finds humanity has evolved into the Eloi and Morlocks, where the Eloi are small but leisured fruitarians and the Morlocks live below ground, carry out the work and have a different diet. Escaping the Morlocks, he travels millions of years into the future, where the environment no longer supports humanity.
29 October 2019
Pindex: Will Quantum Computers & AI Help You Live To 200?
How Quantum AI could help you live to 200, like a bowhead whale.Google's quantum supremacy news opens exciting doors. A quantum computer completed a task in 200 seconds that would take 10,000 years on today's fastest supercomputer.We explore the special connection between quantum computers and AI. Together, they will change everything.
Politico: Far left and right outflank center in regional German vote
The far-left Die Linke party largely held steady to secure first place at 31 percent of the vote in the state of Thuringia, thanks in part to the popularity of state premier Bodo Ramelow, according to preliminary results. Meanwhile, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) once again demonstrated its strong support in the east of the country by surging ahead to finish second at 23.4 percent, more than doubling its vote share in the last election of 2014. [...]
The ballot in the state of a little more than 2 million is expected to have limited impact at national level as Thuringia is a rural region of small towns rather than teeming metropolises. However, the result means efforts to build a coalition will be fraught, testing party red lines. The prior coalition made up of Die Linke, the SPD and the Greens now falls short of a majority. [...]
All parties have ruled out working with the AfD. Its regional leader, Björn Höcke, is a right-wing firebrand whose controversial statements about the Nazi era have prompted some within the party to try to oust him from its ranks.
Politico: Is the clock change worth it?
The outgoing European Commission president last year promised that spring 2019 would be the last time the whole of Europe would have to alter their watches for the bi-annual time change. But now the soonest countries will get around to deciding whether to scrap the change will be 2021, after some capitals complained Juncker’s bid was too much, too soon, without a proper impact assessment.[...]
For many Europeans, the bi-annual clock change is an irritation in spring when it means a shorter night, and a welcome reprieve come the winter season when it means an extra hour in bed. But for others — especially in Germany, where opposition is high — it is a pointless switch that disrupts sleep, upends farming regimes and makes the streets more dangerous. It also presents an administrative challenge: Staff at Germany’s rail giant Deutsche Bahn will spend the weekend switching 120,000 clocks back at thousands of stations across the country. [...]
A study by the Bundestag’s Office of Technology Assessment in 2016 found a decrease of less than 0.8 percent in annual power consumption from lighting. But there were no significant changes from heating. Increasing use of energy-efficient lightbulbs mean they use less energy anyway, further undermining energy saving claims.
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