Human Behavior

Playing a Robot in D&D: Here’s How to Add More Sci-Fi to Your Fantasy – BoLS

Dungeons & Dragons is a game all about fantasy adventurers with magic swords on quests. Heres how to play a robot in D&D.

Yes, Dungeons & Dragons is, on the surface, a game all about fantasy. But what does that mean? Genre is only as meaningful as its distinction. And heroic fantasy adventurers can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Generic European Mediaeval Times is just sort of the boring mayo-is-too-spicy-for-me default.

But adding sci-fi to fantasy is a tale as old as time. Even in the most Tolkienesque fantasy, the works of Lord of the Rings author Jolkien Rolkien Rolkien Tolkien himself, do elements of science fiction crash in. Beren One-Hand rose to the heavens in a glass ship atop a pillar of flame.

And if that can be in the Silmarillion, then you absolutely can be a robot in D&D. So grab your Binary Language of Moisture Vaparators -> English dictionary. Because heres how to play a robot in D&D.

First things first, in order to be a robot, you have to understand what a robot is. We all know that a man is a miserable pile of blood and secrets. But robots? Thats something else entirely.

Now its a safe bet to assume that if youre considering playing a robot in D&D you have some pre-set ideas. Robots are synthetic beings, right? Created for some purpose with a sentience of their own.

But in D&D that can be dwarves, if you think about it. Because what are dwarves if not the stone-forged creations of Moradin? If the father of all dwarves breathed into them a love of crafting, is that not the same as being programmed, but with meat instead of metal?

Fortunately, this is D&D. We dont have to get existential. We can represent what it means to be a robot mechanically. There are rules for being organic and having a meat body, and rules that might center a robot PCs synthetic nature.

There are three main robotic PC races in D&D:

The latter isnt officially in D&D yet, but given that we know Planescape is coming, it seems a safe bet that what we see in the Wonders of the Multiverse Unearthed Arcana (where Glitchlings are found) will make the jump to published material sooner rather than later. Each of them has a different approach to being a robot. But by and large, all of them remove the need to eat, drink, breathe, or sleep. Lets take a look!

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Warforged are probably the first thing that leaps to mind when you think about Robots and D&D. Introduced in the very first Eberron, Warforged introduced a ton of people to fantasy robots. Made of living steel and stone every Warforged is a unique creation. They are made with steel, darkwood, stone, and rootlike cords infused with alchemical fluids.

Originally built to fight in a war, these constructed beings were given the freedom to find purpose.

Pick Warforged if you want to play the kind of robot that is searching for a function. Theyre the iconic pick for a synthetic being learning to be organic.

Mechanically, this is represented by the following:

You can be a more artisanal robot, though. For that, you might consider Autognome. Autognomes are mechanical beings built by rock gnomes. Built and programmed.

This is an important distinction because theyre more traditional robots. An Autognome might say this isnt in my programming. Every Autognome is wildly different. While Warforged might share a similar chassis design (they were originally built as weapons of war), Autognomes are built for a variety of purposes according to the whims of their creators.

If you want to play the kind of robot that adventures but is much more mechanical, and sort of celebrates that distinction, Autognome is a great place to start. Mechanically, theyre represented in the following ways:

Introduced in the Wonders of the Multiverse Unearthed Arcana, Glitchlings are robotic beings created by forces of planar law. If you want to be a magic robot, then this is the way to go.

Glitchlings are given rudimentary personalities but are all about absorbing information and experiences and developing as they go. If you want to play a robot that holds up a mirror to humanity/organic life and all its foibles, then misinterpreting it through the lens of a Glitchling is probably the way to do it.

Like Warforged and Autognomes, they too have rules that make them stand out from organic life:

Now that youve figured out what kind of robot you want to be, how do you actually do it? The right class will take you a long way. Now, before we get into it, I should mention, any class can be a robot. Because you can justify anything, and theres not a single class that wont be fun.

That said, a few options stand out without needing too much work:

Sorcerer After all, what is programming but an arcane language written in eldritch symbols that requires the right components to work? The Clockwork Soul Sorcerer is a natural fit. You can take a page from the artificers handbook and flavor your spells as things you do with your magic robot technology. Instead of waving your hands to cast scorching ray, maybe a flamethrower emerges from a hidden panel on an arm, etc.

Artificer You dont have to be an artificer to be a robot, but blend magic and technology in the same ways your character already is. Any of them works, but the Armorer and Artillerist feel like natural fits.

Warlock Look Eldritch Blast is basically already a laser. And theres no way Ruby comes from anything other than an Infernal Warlock Patron. Scrums are just the part of the bargain that sealed the deal.

Fighter From Johnny Five to Futuramas knife-wielding Roberto, we all know robots can fight. Battle Master makes for an excellent choice as you can flavor your maneuvers as enhanced combat protocols. Rune Knight too, since it gives you an in-combat transformation.

Rogue Assassin droids are common in Star Wars, of course, theyre a good fit for D&D too.

But there are plenty of other tools at your disposal beyond just pick one of the character races that is a robot. The deathless nature of the Reborn is a great way to play someone whos a bit robotic but with flesh. It all comes back to what you want to do when playing a robot.

There are lots of reasons one might want to play a robot in D&D. Among the many you might:

And theyre all valid. But its important to keep in mind what you want to explore with your character. Once you do, you can start roleplaying like a robot.

Now that youve picked the perfect PC race, its time to make your robot into a character. You can start by looking at what questions you want to ask, as a robot. Weve mentioned some above. Then just find ways to ask them in character.

Maybe your Warforged was built to be a scout originally, and now theyre looking for their own purpose. You can ask things, either literally, or better yet, with actions. Look at Bastion, from Overwatch.

Bastion was built as a gun turret tank soldier but found purpose in the woods. You can have your robot PC ask questions with their curiosity about the world. Maybe you befriend animals. Maybe you try to mimic human behavior to mixed results. But curiosity is a great drive for a robot.

On the opposite end of the robot spectrum, you have Bender, Bending Rodriguez, who does cool robot things and cant do many other things. Like being a folk singer.

But he has fun playing within the constraints of his programming. Playing a robot can be a great way to act up in certain scenes. You can decide that something is or isnt part of your programming, and let that guide your behavior and choices.

Being a robot gives you an interesting viewpoint, and from there, you can do what you like.

Even little things like catchphrases can help ground your character in who they are. Weve talked about this in developing a character voice. You could just as easily throw in a little bit of a verbal reminder to folks that youre playing a robot. Saying well that doesnt compute works whether youre saying it like a Speak & Spell or saying it like Bender might say kill all humans. You just want to find opportunities to explore the niche youve carved for yourself outside of being human.

Which we all definitely are, and know how to do. So, no need for any follow-up questions about that, right fellow humans? Hah.

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Playing a Robot in D&D: Here's How to Add More Sci-Fi to Your Fantasy - BoLS

Human Behavior

Predicting and Preventing Pandemics is Goal of New NSF Awards – Datanami

Sept. 16, 2022 The potential for future pandemics is an ever-present and growing threat, whether they are due to known diseases like monkeypox or Ebola, or an as-yet-unknown infection. Nearly $26 million in new awards from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) will support interdisciplinary investigations and collaborations that aim to predict and prevent the next infectious disease outbreak, significantly contributing to national security, public health and economic stability.

The grants are part of NSFs new Predictive Intelligence for Pandemic Prevention (PIPP) program, which supports high-risk, high-payoff convergent research that aims to identify, model, predict, track and mitigate the effects of future pandemics. The 26 new projects span the entire timeline of pandemic response, supporting data collection and analysis, creation of new sensors and predictive capabilities, methods for understanding impact and spread, processes to increase our ability to anticipate the role of human behavior and information sharing, and development of mitigation strategies and policy recommendations.

This research will transform our capabilities, scientists say, addressing what is needed to be adequately prepared for future responses as identified by the first annual report on implementation of theAmerican Pandemic Preparedness Plan.

Several projects will incorporate the use of artificial intelligence, machine learning, cutting-edge modeling systems or the synthesis of open-source intelligence to forecast critical data. Specific awards will focus on families of viruses with the strong potential to create a pandemic, such as plant pathogens and influenza viruses, including bird flu. Others will concentrate on efforts in specific populations or areas, including rural and resource-limited locations, Indigenous communities, and cities.

Collaborative and innovative science and engineering research holds the keys to mitigating the impact of the next outbreak. NSFs investments will support nearly 500 researchers in fields such as biology, epidemiology, geography, mathematics, statistics, chemistry, physics, computer science, nursing and medicine, health economics, sociology, anthropology, communications, psychology, and engineering. The investigators are located at nearly 50 institutions in 22 states and the District of Columbia, including six in Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) jurisdictions, three primarily undergraduate institutions and five minority-serving institutions.

The broader community and other stakeholders, including farmers, Indigenous peoples, policymakers and the public will be engaged through workshops, symposia and other events held by the researchers. Each project will also involve interdisciplinary education and training opportunities for a diverse set of students from kindergarten through the postdoctoral level.

Learn more about thePIPP programandview the full list of awards atnsf.gov.

Source: NSF

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Predicting and Preventing Pandemics is Goal of New NSF Awards - Datanami

Human Behavior

Understanding the Game Theory Behind Ethereum – Bitcoin Market Journal

Summary: When people invest in cryptocurrency, they often think about its inherent value and potential price movement. Another important aspect is game theory, which creates the incentives in well-designed blockchain networks. In this article, youll learn to see the hidden rules of the game.

Game theory is a branch of applied mathematics that explores human behavior in competitive or cooperative environments. It studies how people react in scenarios requiring complex decision-making: do they cooperate or compete?

Dont let the term confuse you: game theory is more about mathematics than Monopoly. The concept was initially used in economics, but it has since evolved to other disciplines, including blockchain.

Game theory models are used to predict players potential behavior within a system, as well as the possible outcomes of their actions. These models can be employed by sociologists, psychologists, and politicians, among others.

Game theory distinguishes three key elements:

Other elements are the information available at any given point, and the so-called equilibrium, which is the point in a game where all players have made their decisions, and an outcome is reached.

Although we can observe game scenarios across a wide range of human activities, cryptocurrency is one of the most interesting applications.

Since blockchain involves the interactions of nodes or block validators in a decentralized network, game theory is essential for predicting how these nodes (i.e., the people running them) will behave.

Game theory enables cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, as it moves to Proof of Stake to avoid disruptions and ensure the reliability of the blockchain.

In the movie A Beautiful Mind, Russell Crowe plays the mathematician John Nash, who created one of the most famous game theories, now called the Nash equilibrium.

As described in the movie clip above, the best outcome of a game is where there is no incentive to deviate from an initial strategy. An individual can receive no benefit from changing action during the game, assuming other players stick to their strategies. A game may have several Nash equilibriums, or none at all.

In the Nash equilibrium, each players strategy is the best outcome when considering the decisions of other players. The best result will come from everyone in the group doing whats best for himself, and the group.

The Nash equilibrium stipulates that the optimal strategy for a player is to stick to the initial plan while knowing the opponents strategy, and that all actors should maintain the same strategy. If no one changes their strategy, even when they know the strategy of the other players, then the Nash equilibrium is proven.

Lets take another famous example: the Prisoners Dilemma.

In this imaginary scenario, two criminals (A and B) have been arrested by the police and are interrogated separately. The prosecutor interviewing the criminals tries to convince them to testify against one another in exchange for a reduced sentence.

Here are the rules of the game:

The payoff possibilities look like this:

The best scenario individually for A (or B) is to betray and be set free. However, that would require the other person to stay quiet, and the lack of communication makes it impossible to predict what decision the other would make.

In the face of a payoff, most prisoners would likely choose to act on self-interest by betraying.

But if both criminals betray, they end up with three years in prison, which is not the best outcome.

Therefore, the optimal solution would be for both not to betray, and get only one year instead of three.

Imagine youre one of the criminals. What would you do: stay quiet, or betray your partner?

Game theory models like the Prisoners Dilemma are crucial when building a decentralized economic system like a blockchain.

When designing bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto used a combination of cryptography and game theory to create a system that doesnt need to be supervised by a centralized entity. In other words, the game theory ensures all the players are aligned to keep the network secure.

The use of game theory in crypto has led to the concept of cryptoeconomics, which combines cryptography which is used to prove and authenticate past events with financial incentives, which are used to encourage future behavior that will benefit the entire network.

Cryptoeconomics is very much about game theory, as it examines the behavior of blockchain nodes based on the incentives provided by the protocol, taking into account the most rational and probable decisions.

For example, the Ethereum blockchain is designed as a public, decentralized network of distributed nodes: servers storing the entire history of transactions. Each new block added to the chain has to be agreed upon by all nodes, even though they cannot trust each other (since anyone could spin up a malicious node).

So, how can such a decentralized system detect and avoid bad game-players?

To date, Ethereum has relied on the Proof of Work (PoW) consensus algorithm, which protects the blockchain from malicious activity by using cryptographic mechanisms (i.e., hard math problems) that make the mining process demanding and expensive.

This incentivizes mining nodes to behave honestly, since otherwise they can get banned, wasting precious energy and effort. As a result, every miner reaches the most rational decision to act honestly and contribute to the security of the blockchain.

As Ethereum shifts to Proof of Stake, validators must stake a minimum of 32 ETH (about $50,000 as of this writing) to run a node. If a validator tries to write a bad block to the new Ethereum, instead of wasting energy and electricity, theyre potentially forfeiting their staked ETH.

With both PoW and PoS, the rules of the game make it in your best interest to keep the game running well.

Game theory is crucial when designing a blockchain system, given that blockchains have no central authority to handle transactions. Instead, users must trust miners or block validators who co-operate continually to add new blocks, and get rewarded for their effort.

The incentives like being rewarded ETH for running an Ethereum validator node must align all the players. You stake Ethereum, and you earn Ethereum, which makes you more committed to securing the value of Ethereum, in a self-reinforcing loop.

In any PoS system, however, its possible to simply buy up the majority of the network in whats called a 51% attack: you would then have the voting power to write whatever you want to the blockchain.

At todays prices, that would require about $100 billion worth of Ethereum, which is possible, as the largest Ethereum wallet holds over $20 billion. But in pulling off your 51% attack, investors would lose faith in the Ethereum network, probably forking an alternate version, and your $100 billion would be worthless.

Ethereum, once again, is saved by game theory!

As John Nash realizes in the movie clip above, game theory shows the best outcome is when we act both in our own interest, and in the interest of the group.

Thanks to a combination of game theory and cryptography, the PoW consensus algorithm prevents any malicious activity from mining nodes. The same is true for PoS blockchains, like the validator nodes in the new Ethereum.

Thanks to game theory models, everyone has an incentive to stick to the rules. Its a game where everyone wins.

To get more insights about blockchain technology explained in plain English, subscribe to our free crypto investing newsletter.

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Understanding the Game Theory Behind Ethereum - Bitcoin Market Journal

Human Behavior

American Black Bears entering their excessive eating phase | The Clayton Tribune, Rabun County, GA – Clayton Tribune

Ellijay, GA The Appalachia Georgia Friends of the Bears would like to remind the public that fall has arrived.

The leaves have started turning at the higher altitudes, children and young adults alike are returning to school, and Southeastern Conference football heralds the arrival of fall.

For those not familiar with the biological clock of the American Black Bear, late summer, and early fall heralds a time know as Hyperphagia, or excessive eating. They must eat a lot of food to store fat for the winter. Bears all over North American are entering Hyperphagia now.

Black Bears are opportunistic feeders. A 250-pound male Black Bear must eat 3,000 calories a day to maintain weight, which is approximately 1.5 lbs. of acorns a day. On top of all these calories needed for daily living they must consume 20,000 calories/day or about 20 lbs. of acorns during Hyperphagia to gain the needed 3-5 lbs./day needed for hibernation.

Garbage kills bears

Two-thirds of all Human-Bear conflict is bears accessing human garbage. In addition to the dangers of being around humans, they ingest packaging that damages their teeth chewing metal cans which will cause intestinal damage and result in a painful death. The human food causes tooth decay, increasing the likelihood of abscesses that will kill them. Natural food does not!

It is more important now to secure attractants to reduce the possibility of having Human-Bear conflicts. This comes in the form of garbage, birdseed, hummingbird feeders, pet food, livestock food, greasy BBQs, smokers, and fish cookers, and other wildlife foods accessed by Black Bears. These attractants teach them to approach homes and humans for more food.

Today there is a general agreement that most Human-Bear conflicts are the result of human behavior. There is no such thing as a nuisance, or problem Bears. Bad human behavior begets bad bear behavior.

The Appalachia Georgia Friends of the Bears is a 501(c)(3) non-profit whose mission is to reduce Human-Bear conflict through proactive educational outreach programs, increasing public awareness about coexisting with black bears, the use of humane bear deterrents, and advocacy. Visit them at https://agfriendsofthebears.com or their partners at BearWise.org

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American Black Bears entering their excessive eating phase | The Clayton Tribune, Rabun County, GA - Clayton Tribune

Human Behavior

Savannah hoping to end traffic deaths by 2027 – WSAV-TV

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) The City of Savannah averages about 22 traffic deaths annually, whether its a pedestrian or cyclist-involved incident. City leaders recognize the problem and firmly believe it can be remedied.

WSAV spoke to Savannah city leaders about plans to minimize traffic deaths in the city, especially in the downtown area. Its called the Vision Zero Action Plan. It forecasts zero traffic deaths by 2027.

We can build in to correct the misbehaviors of human behavior, said Jay Melder, Savannah City Manager. That if we can put in and build an environment and engineering, the kinds of streets and roadways and transportations and transit systems and connectivity that are going to decrease the likelihood of a collision.

City leaders say that changes can be made to encourage better human behavior and they forecast a drastic drop in traffic deaths. Thats if the city receives funds from a $5 billion federal grant they applied for on Wednesday night.

We put in about totals up to $23 million, Melder said. There are two main components of that grant; one is the intersection at 37 and MLK, which is historically one of our most dangerous intersections.

The other component would be to fund the Tide To Town project an initiative that aims to connect 75 percent of savannah neighborhoods to safe walking and biking infrastructure.

While residents liked what they heard, the tourist component still needs to be considered because they are unfamiliar with our streets.

The keystone of vision zero is traffic enforcement, said alderman Nick Palumbo. It is heavy traffic enforcement. It is ticketing. Its getting out there and is far more aggressive than what were seeing in savannah right now. There will be pushback from motorists.

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Savannah hoping to end traffic deaths by 2027 - WSAV-TV

Human Behavior

Review: Comparing the past to the present in ‘The U.S. and the Holocaust’ documentary – GazetteNET

Mike Pride, editor emeritus of the Concord Monitor and former administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes, writes history books. He lives in Bow, New Hampshire.

Toward the end of The U.S. and the Holocaust, Ken Burns new documentary, the audience hears the last entry in the wartime diary of Anne Frank: Its a wonder I havent abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.

Moments later, the historian Deborah Lipstadt appears onscreen to declare that these words are not the story of the Holocaust.

The American reaction to the German campaign to exterminate Europes Jews, the principal subject of the film, does not redound to our credit, she says.

Of all the films Burns has made, this is the timeliest and most disturbing. It tells two intertwined stories in graphic detail: Adolf Hitlers maniacal determination to murder the Jews of Europe and the forces that kept the United States from doing more to stop him.

As the film notes in closing, the anti-Semitic rants and lies in the America of the 1930s and 40s still echo in the nations political climate in 2022.

The Statue of Liberty graces the screen more than once during the film. Americans take such pride in this national symbol that 3.5 million of them visit it each year. Many identify with the lines of Emma Lazaruss sonnet hailing the majestic statue as the Mother of Exiles:

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, tempest-tost, to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

The Burns film clarified how short of these ideals America fell during the years before World War II. The Ku Klux Klan re-emerged as a murderous vigilante force in the 1920s. Much of the country supported euthanasia to strengthen the gene pool, racial segregation, the social ostracism of Jews, and the virulent anti-Semitism of Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh, among others. Hitler-loving German Bunds drew more than 20,000 people to a 1938 rally at Madison Square Garden.

Rolled out one after another in the film, these strains of hatred portray an America far removed from the country described in high school history books.

After Kristallnacht, the Nazi rampage of rape and terror that killed hundreds of Jews and destroyed 2,500 Jewish-owned businesses in Germany, survivors flocked to U.S. embassies seeking to emigrate. In America, the magazine Christian Century warned that letting in more Jews would only exacerbate our Jewish problem. The Daughters of the American Revolution and the American Legion also opposed raising the immigration quota for Jews.

In addition to expert historians and contemporary film footage, Burns and his partners use the fate of families to tell their story. These include Otto Frank, Annes father, and the Franks Amsterdam neighbor-in-hiding Elfriede Geiringer, whose father and brother died in the camps.

Now 100 years old, Guy Stern, the only member of his family to escape, returned to Germany in 1944 as a U.S. Army linguist to interrogate German POWs. If I can shorten the war by an hour, maybe I can save a family, he told himself. He broke into tears at a liberated concentration camp. It was skeletons you were talking to, he said.

Daniel Mendelsohn undertook a global odyssey to learn what had happened to his family. The Lost: A Search for Six of the Six Million, his book about this quest, lends particularity to the unimaginable death toll. In the film, he suggests one reason Americans failed to comprehend the plight of the Jews: As it was happening to us, we couldnt believe it. If we couldnt believe it, how could anyone else believe it?

The film describes the evolution of Hitlers thinking. When Germany annexed Austria in 1938, adding 139,000 Jews to his realm, he realized that his thirst for territorial expansion, especially in the East, would increase this population. Extermination became his solution. Four years later, when the Germans discovered that Zyklon could kill Jews for a penny a victim, he ordered a major escalation of the gassing.

By then, President Franklin D. Roosevelt knew what was happening, and much of the American public did, too. In November 1942, the New York Herald-Tribune exposed the existence of the death camps on its front page. Millions of Jews and others are being gathered up and killed, Edward R. Murrow, the popular radio reporter, told his listeners.

The United States had been at war for less than a year, and its mass bombing of Germany had scarcely begun. D-Day remained a year and a half away.

The film describes both Roosevelts dilemma and the lingering anti-Semitism in high places. The president knew he could not divert his military to save the Jews, and he saw no practical way to accomplish this. He aimed instead to win the war as soon as possible and punish the murderers of the Jews afterward.

Meanwhile, as rabbis marched on Washington pleading for action, some State Department officials lied about the situation and resisted raising the Jewish immigration quota.

In 1944, Americans at last acknowledged the tragedy, but as the film captures the moment, even this did not induce a willingness to act. Seventy percent of respondents told pollsters they knew Jews were being murdered, but they greatly underestimated the scale of the killing, estimating the death toll at a million when 5 million had already been exterminated. Just 5 percent of those polled favored allowing more European Jews to come to America.

In the films closing scenes, the horrors of Nazi Germany echo in the American present as white supremacists converge on Charlottesville, racists carry out mass shootings of Jews and Black people, Donald Trump scorns immigrants, and a mob assaults the Capitol. Comparing the past to the present so directly is rare in a film by Burns, but sadly, it seems relevant here.

Even when his films stay in their moment, the past echoes in the present. In this one, Daniel Mendelsohn sums up one lesson of studying the Holocaust: The fragility of human behavior is the one thing you really learn. These people we see in the sepia photographs, theyre no different from us. You look at your neighbors, the people at the dry cleaners, the waiters in the restaurant, thats who these people were. Dont kid yourself.

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Review: Comparing the past to the present in 'The U.S. and the Holocaust' documentary - GazetteNET

Human Behavior

Sharing a laugh: Scientists teach a robot when to have a sense of humor – EurekAlert

image:An example of conversation between the researchers and Erica. view more

Credit: Image: Inoue et al

Since at least the time of inquiring minds like Plato, philosophers and scientists have puzzled over the question, Whats so funny? The Greeks attributed the source of humor to feeling superior at the expense of others. German psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud believed humor was a way to release pent-up energy. US comedian Robin Williams tapped his anger at the absurd to make people laugh.

It seems no one can really agree on the question of Whats so funny? So imagine trying to teach a robot how to laugh. But thats exactly what a team of researchers at Kyoto University in Japan are trying to do by designing an AI that takes its cues through a shared laughter system. The scientists describe their innovative approach to building a funny bone for the Japanese android Erica in the latest issue of the journal Frontiers in Robotics and AI.

Its not as if robots cant detect laughter or even emit a chuckle at a bad dad joke. Rather, the challenge is to create the human nuances of humor for an AI system to improve natural conversations between robots and people.

We think that one of the important functions of conversational AI is empathy, explained lead author Dr Koji Inoue, an assistant professor at Kyoto University in the Department of Intelligence Science and Technology within the Graduate School of Informatics. Conversation is, of course, multimodal, not just responding correctly. So we decided that one way a robot can empathize with users is to share their laughter, which you cannot do with a text-based chatbot.

A funny thing happened

In the shared-laughter model, a human initially laughs and the AI system responds with laughter as an empathetic response. This approach required designing three subsystems one to detect laughter, a second to decide whether to laugh, and a third to choose the type of appropriate laughter.

The scientists gathered training data by annotating more than 80 dialogues from speed dating, a social scenario where large groups of people mingle, or interact, with each other one-on-one for a brief period of time. In this case, the matchmaking marathon involved students from Kyoto University and Erica, teleoperated by several amateur actresses.

Our biggest challenge in this work was identifying the actual cases of shared laughter, which isnt easy, because as you know, most laughter is actually not shared at all, Inoue said. We had to carefully categorize exactly which laughs we could use for our analysis and not just assume that any laugh can be responded to.

The type of laughter is also important, because in some cases a polite chuckle may be more appropriate than a loud snort of laughter. The experiment was limited to social versus mirthful laughs.

The robot gets it

The team eventually tested Ericas new sense of humor by creating four short two- to three-minute dialogues between a person and Erica with her new shared-laughter system. In the first scenario, she only uttered social laughter, followed only by mirthful laughs in the second and third exchanges, with both types of laughter combined in the last dialogue. The team also created two other sets of similar dialogues as baseline models. In the first one, Erica never laughs. In the second, Erica utters a social laugh every time she detects a human laugh without using the other two subsystems to filter the context and response.

The researchers crowdsourced more than 130 people in total to listen to each scenario within the three different conditions shared-laughter system, no laughter, all laughter and evaluated the interactions based on empathy, naturalness, human-likeness and understanding. The shared-laughter system performed better than either baseline.

The most significant result of this paper is that we have shown how we can combine all three of these tasks into one robot. We believe that this type of combined system is necessary for proper laughing behavior, not simply just detecting a laugh and responding to it, Inoue said.

Like old friends

There are still plenty of other laughing styles to model and train Erica on before she is ready to hit the stand-up circuit. There are many other laughing functions and types which need to be considered, and this is not an easy task. We havent even attempted to model unshared laughs even though they are the most common, Inoue noted.

Of course, laughter is just one aspect of having a natural human-like conversation with a robot.

Robots should actually have a distinct character, and we think that they can show this through their conversational behaviors, such as laughing, eye gaze, gestures and speaking style, Inoue added. We do not think this is an easy problem at all, and it may well take more than 10 to 20 years before we can finally have a casual chat with a robot like we would with a friend.

Frontiers in Robotics and AI

Computational simulation/modeling

Not applicable

Can a robot laugh with you?: Shared laughter generation for empathetic spoken dialogue

15-Sep-2022

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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Sharing a laugh: Scientists teach a robot when to have a sense of humor - EurekAlert

Genetics

Explainer: The Basics of DNA and Genetic Systems – Visual Capitalist

A Newfound Link Between Cancer and Aging?

A new study in 2022 reveals a thought-provoking relationship between how long animals live and how quickly their genetic codes mutate.

Cancer is a product of time and mutations, and so researchers investigated its onset and impact within 16 unique mammals. A new perspective on DNA mutation broadens our understanding of aging and cancer developmentand how we might be able to control it.

Cancer is the uncontrolled growth of cells. It is not a pathogen that infects the body, but a normal body process gone wrong.

Cells divide and multiply in our bodies all the time. Sometimes, during DNA replication, tiny mistakes (called mutations) appear randomly within the genetic code. Our bodies have mechanisms to correct these errors, and for much of our youth we remain strong and healthy as a result of these corrective measures.

However, these protections weaken as we age. Developing cancer becomes more likely as mutations slip past our defenses and continue to multiply. The longer we live, the more mutations we carry, and the likelihood of them manifesting into cancer increases.

Since mutations can occur randomly, biologists expect larger lifeforms (those with more cells) to have greater chances of developing cancer than smaller lifeforms.

Strangely, no association exists.

It is one of biologys biggest mysteries as to why massive creatures like whales or elephants rarely seem to experience cancer. This is called Petos Paradox. Even stranger: some smaller creatures, like the naked mole rat, are completely resistant to cancer.

This phenomenon motivates researchers to look into the genetics of naked mole rats and whales. And while weve discovered that special genetic bonuses (like extra tumor-suppressing genes) benefit these creatures, a pattern for cancer rates across all other species is still poorly understood.

Researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute report the first study to look at how mutation rates compare with animal lifespans.

Mutation rates are simply the speed at which species beget mutations. Mammals with shorter lifespans have average mutation rates that are very fast. A mouse undergoes nearly 800 mutations in each of its four short years on Earth. Mammals with longer lifespans have average mutation rates that are much slower. In humans (average lifespan of roughly 84 years), it comes to fewer than 50 mutations per year.

The study also compares the number of mutations at time of death with other traits, like body mass and lifespan. For example, a giraffe has roughly 40,000 times more cells than a mouse. Or a human lives 90 times longer than a mouse. What surprised researchers was that the number of mutations at time of death differed only by a factor of three.

Such small differentiation suggests there may be a total number of mutations a species can collect before it dies. Since the mammals reached this number at different speeds, finding ways to control the rate of mutations may help stall cancer development, set back aging, and prolong life.

The findings in this study ignite new questions for understanding cancer.

Confirming that mutation rate and lifespan are strongly correlated needs comparison to lifeforms beyond mammals, like fishes, birds, and even plants.

It will also be necessary to understand what factors control mutation rates. The answer to this likely lies within the complexities of DNA. Geneticists and oncologists are continuing to investigate genetic curiosities like tumor-suppressing genes and how they might impact mutation rates.

Aging is likely to be a confluence of many issues, like epigenetic changes or telomere shortening, but if mutations are involved then there may be hopes of slowing genetic damageor even reversing it.

While just a first step, linking mutation rates to lifespan is a reframing of our understanding of cancer development, and it may open doors to new strategies and therapies for treating cancer or taming the number of health-related concerns that come with aging.

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Explainer: The Basics of DNA and Genetic Systems - Visual Capitalist

Genetics

Purrsonalised health: The startups and VCs betting on pet genetics – Sifted

Direct-to-consumer home genetic kits allowed startups like 23andMe to offer health and ancestry insights at an affordable cost. Now, similar tech is coming to pets.

Itll help vets, breeders and pet parents to verify parentage and breed, diagnose diseases and plan for future health risks.

Everything we have seen happening in humans, in terms of predictive and personalised medicine and genetics-based diagnostics, has migrated into the pet space, says Sergey Jakimov, founding partner of LongeVC, a European VC fund that focuses on early-stage biotech and longevity. This is super exciting because pets, as living beings, have equalised themselves in importance in terms of how much money and attention is spent on their longevity, and in disease diagnostics and prevention.

Its not the first time human health innovation has come to the animal world US-based Signal Pet, for example, provides artificial intelligence-based radiology but animal genetics could be big business.

Animal genetics market revenue is predicted to exceed $6.4bn by 2027, up from $99m in 2020. Sifted dug into the sector and found the startups to watch and the VCs watching them.

Feragen, an Austria-based pet genetics startup, sees the vet sector as a growth engine for its business. It wants to move from diagnostics, where such tools are common, into disease prevention.

Puppies are more like family members

We want to push the prevention angle. What can we learn from genetics to create a life plan for a dog? says Anja Geretschlger, founder and CEO. Pet parents are becoming more interested in understanding the risk of diseases that might come when the pet is five or six, so they are more prepared when the symptoms show up.

Michael Geretschlger, Anjas husband and collaborator, says preventive health is getting more [attention] as puppies are more like family members. Anja Geretschlger adds that genetic insights are valuable for breeders in the era of designer dogs.

This is because cross-breeding can lead to health complications, such as labradoodles developing skin problems due to different fur structures between labradors and poodles.

Another European player is Germany-based Generatio, which provides genetic testing for animal owners, vets and breeders.

Theres also UK-based AffinityDNA, acquired in May by Australian diagnostics company Genetic Technologies, which provides animal testing for allergies and intolerances, paternity testing and direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic tests from companies like Embark, Wisdom Panel and BasePaws.

Genetic Technologies portfolio includes General Genetics Corporation and associated brand EasyDNA, which offers UK pet owners breed composition tests, disease susceptibility tests for dogs, and feline and equine offerings.

European VCs are also interested in startups across the pond. Garri Zmudze, a Latvian biotech angel investor and founder of Switzerland-based LongeVC, investedin Basepaws, the American cat genetics company recently acquired by Zoetis, an animal medicines and vaccinations company.

Basepaws plans to expand into the veterinary portfolio of genetic, oral and microbiome screening tools for disease risk, screening 64 feline health markers and over 210 canine health markers.

For some, the pet genetics space is not just a play on the pet market but could inform human health and longevity science. Some diseases are rare in humans but are common in certain breeds of pets, who are useful for studies into genetic disease origins.

There is a tight connection between humans and animals and we can learn from both, says Anja Geretschlger.

Zmudzes investment in Basepaws, for instance, was not a pet consumer market bet at all. Instead it was aligned with his interest in human longevity, given the genetic overlaps between animals and humans in diseases like cancer and some neurodegenerative conditions.

There is a tight connection between humans and animals and we can learn from both

These overlaps are the reason we have animal models in clinical trials, because the metabolic processes are translatable, says Jakimov. There are tonnes of matches.

Matt Kaeberlein, professor of laboratory medicine and pathology at the University of Washington School of Medicine and head of the dog ageing project, a world-leading biological study of ageing in dogs, sits on the LongeVC advisory board, alongside executives from European pharmaceutical giants Roche and Novartis. And Zmudze was also an investor in Insilico Medicine, an AI drug discovery unicorn.

As home to many of the worlds top pharmaceutical companies, Europe could be a major player in longevity research. Switzerland is developing a Longevity Valley initiative, Bristol Myers Squibb and Merck are major investors in cancer immunotherapies and the pharma industry is investing in early stage longevity companies like senescent cells companies, through initiatives like Mercks early stage venture arm.

Pharmaceutical companies live in the future, they live in 10 to 20 year cycles, says Jakimov. They are super focused on the longevity sector.

This article first appeared in our monthly Unleashed pet tech newsletter, a collaboration with Purina Accelerator Lab. All content is editorially independent.Sign upto our newsletter here to keep up to date with the latest goings on in the European pet tech industry.

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Purrsonalised health: The startups and VCs betting on pet genetics - Sifted

Genetics

Uncovering the Genetic Basis of Mental Illness Requires Data and Tools That Aren’t Just Based on White People – San Diego Voice and Viewpoint

By Hailiang Huang, Harvard University

Mental illness is a growing public health problem. In 2019, an estimated1 in 8 people around the worldwere affected by mental disorders like depression, schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. While scientists have long known that many of these disorders run in families, their genetic basis isnt entirely clear. One reason why is that the majority of existing genetic data used in research is overwhelmingly from white people.

In 2003, the Human Genome Project generated the first reference genome of human DNA from a combination of samples donated by upstate New Yorkers, all of whom were of European ancestry. Researchers across many biomedical fields still use this reference genome in their work. But it doesnt provide a complete picture of human genetics. Someone with a different genetic ancestry will have a number ofvariationsin their DNA that arent captured by the reference sequence.

When most of the worlds ancestries are not represented in genomic data sets, studies wont be able to provide a true representation of how diseases manifest across all of humanity. Despite this, ancestral diversity in genetic analyses hasnt improved in the two decades since the Human Genome Project announced its first results. As of June 2021,over 80%of genetic studies have been conducted on people of European descent. Less than 2% have included people of African descent, even though these individuals have the most genetic variation of all human populations.

To uncover thegenetic factorsdriving mental illness,I, Sinad Chapman and our colleagues at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have partnered with collaborators around the world to launch Stanley Global, an initiative that seeks to collect a more diverse range of genetic samples from beyond the U.S. and Northern Europe, and train the next generation of researchers around the world. Not only does the genetic data lack diversity, but so do the tools and techniques scientists use to sequence and analyze human genomes. So we are implementing a new sequencing technology that addresses the inadequacies of previous approaches that dont account for the genetic diversity of global populations.

To study the genetics of psychiatric conditions, researchers use data fromgenome-wide association studiesthat compare the genetic variations between people with and without a particular disease. However, these data sets are mostlybased on people of European ancestry, largely because research infrastructure and funding for large-scale genetics studies, and the scientists conducting these studies, have historically been concentrated in Europe and the United States.

One way to close this gap is to sequence genetic data from diverse populations. My colleagues and I are working in close partnership with geneticists, statisticians and epidemiologists in 14 countries across four continents to study the DNA of tens of thousands of people of African, Asian and Latino ancestries who are affected by mental illness. We work together to recruit participants and collect DNA samples that are sequenced at the Broad Institute in Massachusetts and shared with all partners for analysis.

Prioritizing the voices and priorities of local communities and scientists is foundational to our work. All partners have joint ownership of the project, including decision-making and sample and data ownership and control. To do this, we build relationships and trust with the local communities we are studying and the local university leaders and scientists with whom we are partnering. We work to understand local cultures and practices, and adapt our collection methods to ensure study participants are comfortable. For example, because there are different cultural sensitivities around providing saliva and blood samples, we have adapted our practices by location to ensure study participants are comfortable.

We also freely share knowledge and materials with our partners. There is a two-way exchange of information between the Broad Institute and local teams on study progress and results, enabling continual learning, teaching and unity between teams. We strive to meet each other where we are by exchanging practices and training scientists to support the development of locally grown and locally led research programs.

Our collaboration with African research groups provides a prime example ofour model. For example, our African research colleagues are co-leaders on the grants that fund the lab equipment, scientists and other staff for projects based at their study sites. And we help to support the next generation of African geneticists and bioinformaticians through adedicated training program.

Collecting samples from more diverse populations is only half of the challenge.

Existing genomic sequencing and analysis technologies do not adequately capture genetic variation across populations from around the world. Thats because these technologies were designed to detect genetic variations based on reference DNA from people of European ancestry, and they reduce accuracy when analyzing sequences that arent derived from the reference genome. When these tools are applied to genetic data from other populations, they fail to detect much of the rich variation in their genomes. This can lead researchers to miss out on important biomedical discoveries.

To address this issue, we developed an approach to genome sequencing that can detect more genetic variation from populations around the world. It works by sequencing theexome the less than 2% of the genome that codes for proteins in high detail, as well as sequencing the 98% of the genome that does not code for proteins in less detail.

This combined approach reduces the trade-offs geneticists often have to make in sequencing projects. High-depth whole genome sequencing, which reads through the entire genome multiple times to get detailed data, is too costly to do on a large number of DNA samples. While low-coverage sequencing reduces costs by reading smaller segments of the genome, it may miss some important genetic variation. With our new technology, geneticists can get the best of both worlds:sequencing the exome in depthmaximizes the likelihood of pinpointing specific genes that play a role in mental illness, while sequencing the whole genome less in depth allows researchers to process large numbers of whole genomes more cost-effectively.

Our hope is that this new technology will allow researchers to sequence large sample sizes from a diverse range of ancestries to capture the full breadth of genetic variation. With a better understanding of the genetics of mental illness, clinicians and researchers will be better equipped to develop new treatments that work for everyone.

Genomic sequencing opened a new era ofpersonalized medicine, which promises to deliver treatments tailored to each individual person. This can be done only if the genetic variations of all ancestries are represented in the data sets that researchers use to make new discoveries about disease and develop treatments.

This article is republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons license.

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Uncovering the Genetic Basis of Mental Illness Requires Data and Tools That Aren't Just Based on White People - San Diego Voice and Viewpoint