NASA Space Habitat Research Goes Undersea

PSandusky writes "NASA is preparing to make use of Aquarius, the underwater laboratory off Key Largo, for an extended period of time to research the effects of isolation in habitats situated in extreme environments. Planned areas of research include extravehicular activity logistics and crew health and performance. According to NASA's factsheet (PDF), the mission will include some communication with schools and social media sites. "

Re:This is news???

[Anonymous Coward]

There just isn't enough troll spray in the world to get rid of you people is there.

Thankfully you are full of fail, troll, and will continue to fail no matter how hard you try.

Re:This is news???

[sillybilly]

Space is no hiding place from an artificial AI with stronger intelligence than humans, that's full steam ahead to getting developped, and it's practically impossible to avoid. There is talk about the "awakening" of the universe, how that era is unavoidable, how everything is going to be interconnected and intelligent like a Borg cube. Where does such a world leave humans? Humans may be fugitives from hunters with stronger AI than them, similar to how deer and rabbits run from us. But even deer and rabbits can escape, if they hide sufficiently well - stronger AI does not automatically mean total domination. In the jungle there are predators and prey, and having the status of prey or even a nuisance, does not automatically mean extinction. Humans, through their own monkeying, will almost inevitably create robotic beings higher up the foodchain than themselves. If not in 50 years, then in 50 million. It's only a matter of time. Under such circumstances one has to come to terms with no longer being on top, with being prey, and act accordingly. Empty space is no hiding place from strong AI, but the depths of Jupiter's hydrogen ocean, the thick clouds of Venus, and especially the deep oceans of Earth, could be. Just as we don't go and try to hunt down every deer and rabbit there is in the world, stronger AI beings may decide it's not worth it to seek us out under difficult circumstances. One still has to beware "cleansing" of areas similar to how we cleanse the ocean of all vertebrate life with our super efficient fishing nets. AI might do such a thing, and places we though were good hiding places, might end up on their radar screen, and that's bad luck for us. By analogy, we don't hunt hienas and sharks for food, we share the world with them going after the same food, but if they get caught in the way, or in our fishing nets, that's bad luck for them. The good strategy of prey, or lower on the foodchain predator, is to strive to stay off the radar screen of the top predator. Sometimes simple camouflage works, not because it's super efficient and super smart, but it's good enough to be not worth the effort to seek. But all one needs is an infrared camera on a cold night, and all of the sudden camouflaging beings glow. So one can try, but outsmarting, out-tricking the defense tricks may be retardedly simplistic. But there are certain things, such as how some snake venom's work, how life works, that's a mystery to us, there are certain things that even stronger AI than us would not know, understand and control. Just because they'd be smarter, it does not mean they would know everything. Unless they keep creating smarter AI, turning themselves into prey too, to the point where basic laws of physics might be changed, and we'd see really strange space warping ball lightning phenomena maybe more frequently, and just try to stay out of the way. Maybe, unlike to Moore's law, there may be a natural ceiling to intelligence, something we cannot understand why right now, and then everything might be in equilibrium, humans down from the top of the food chain 3 levels or 5 levels, or something similar. If anything, one would hope that the higher intelligence AI will value variety and natural conservation, and view us as integral part of their ecosystem, and maintain our population. However climate control of the Earth, to make sure it keeps functioning well, would probably end up in their hands.

NASA is doing the right thing by exploring Captain Nemo worlds. The barren surface of the Moon, Mars, and the emptiness of space is not a security zone to hide and ensure the survival of humanity in face of stronger AI, but underground tunnels on the Moon, Mars, deep waters of Earth, thick clouds and unforgiving climates of Venus may be. The worse and more unforgiving a zone is for comfortable life, the more security it poses in view of it being less tempting as a resource to higher AI. Extremophile bacteria can survive in regular environments too, but should they be under extreme attack, they can also survive in places where no other beings can go after them.

Can't believe NASA is sinking money into this...

[tehIvyn]

But then again, they've been sinking a lot lately.