The science behind why no one laughs at our jokes

How do you like the following joke from Sumeria in about 1900BC? “Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap.” Or this classic from Egypt, 1600BC? “How do you entertain a bored pharaoh? You sail a boatload of young women dressed only in fishing nets down the Nile and urge the pharaoh to go catch a fish.” If not, maybe try this more modern joke from 1000AD Britain: “What hangs at a man’s thigh and wants to poke the hole that it’s often poked before? Answer: A key.” The chances…

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TNW Podcast: Boris comes over to co-host; Slack’s Cal Henderson talks European tech

Welcome to the new episode of the TNW Podcast — the show where we discuss the latest developments in the European technology ecosystem and feature interviews with some of the most interesting people in the industry. In today’s episode, Andrii is joined by Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, co-founder, member of the board, and former CEO of TNW. The topics discussed include the jobs created by Dutch startups, giant state funding for energy projects, translations of the word ‘computer’, and a bunch of other things in between. In the interview section, we’re featuring a conversation with Cal Henderson, co-founder and… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/jUgcNFD

Google’s ‘time crystals’ could be the greatest scientific achievement of our lifetimes

Eureka! A research team featuring dozens of scientists working in partnership with Google‘s quantum computing labs may have created the world’s first time crystal inside a quantum computer. This is the kind of news that makes me want to jump up and do a happy dance. These scientists may have produced an entirely new phase of matter. I’m going to do my best to explain what that means and why I personally believe this is the most important scientific breakthrough in our lifetimes. However, for the sake of clarity, there’s two points I need to make first: Time crystals are a… This story continues at The Next Web Or just read more coverage about: Google from The Next Web https://ift.tt/3fdRQlg

Defining humanlike intelligence and entrusting it with our lives, explained by an AI researcher

TNW Answers is a live Q&A platform where we invite interesting people in tech who are much smarter than us to answer questions from TNW readers and editors for an hour. Yesterday, Melanie Mitchell, the author of ‘Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans’ and the Davis Professor of Complexity at the Santa Fe Institute, hosted a TNW Answers session where she spoke about how much we should really trust AI, her worries surrounding the technology, and defining humanlike intelligence in machines. [Read: Chess grandmaster Gary Kasparov predicts AI will disrupt 96% of all jobs] Most fears around AI usually… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/2w7anvS

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