A New Era of Creative Partnerships

In a new paper in a Nature Human Behavior special issue on AI, researcher Janet Rafner from Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies and Center for Hybrid Intelligence at Aarhus University and Prof. Jacob Sherson, director of the Center for Hybrid Intelligence, together with international partners, discuss research and societal       1     of creativity and AI.

The team of researchers argue that we should direct our attention to understanding and developing co-creativity, the interaction between humans and machines towards what is       2     a human-centered AI and hybrid intelligence.   In this way we will be able to develop interfaces(界面) that at the same time ensure both high degrees of automatization through AI and human control and hereby supporting a relationship that best    3     each other.

Rafner comments: To date, most studies on human-AI co-creativity come from the field of human-computer     4     and focus on the abilities of the AI, and the interaction design and dynamics.

While these       5     are key for understanding the dynamics between humans and algorithms(算法) and human attitudes towards the co-creative process and product, there is an urgent need to enrich these applications with the insights about creativity     6     over the past decades in the psychological sciences.

“Right now, we need to move the conversation away from questions like Can AI be creative? One reason for this is that    7     creativity is not set in stone. When investigating human only, machine only, and human-AI co-creativity, we need to consider the type and level of creativity under       8    , from everyday creative activities that are perhaps more suitable to machine automatization to contributions that may require higher-level human intervention;     9    , it is much more meaningful to consider some questions like, what are the similarities and differences in human cognition, behavior, motivation and self-efficacy(自我效能) between human-AI co-creativity and human creativity?”explains Rafner.

We,     10    , don’t know enough about co-creativity between humans and machines, because the line between humans and artificial intelligence isn’t always clear. Looking ahead, researchers should balance predictive accuracy with theoretical understanding, towards the goal of developing intelligent systems to both measure and enhance human creativity.

A New Exoplanet in the System

In 2014, data from NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope allowed astronomers to announce the detection of three planets orbiting Kepler-138. This was based on a     1    dip in starlight as the planet momentarily passed in front of their star, a transit.

Benneke and his colleague Diana Dragomir, from the University of New Mexico, came up with the idea of re-observing the planetary     2    with the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes between 2014 and 2016 to catch more transits of Kepler-138d, the third planet in the system, in order to study its atmosphere.

While earlier NASA Kepler space telescope observations only showed transits of three small planets around Kepler-138, Piaulet and her team were     3    to find that the Hubble and Spitzer observations suggested the presence of a fourth planet in the system, Kepler-138e.

This newly found planet is small and farther from its star than the three others, taking 38 days to complete an orbit.The planet is in the     4    zone of its star, a temperate region where a planet receives just the right amount of heat from its cool star to be neither too hot nor too cold to allow the presence of liquid water. Observing the exoplanet’s transit would have allowed astronomers to     5    its size.

With Kepler-138e, the masses of the    6    known planets were measured again via the transit timing-variation method, which consists of     7    small variations in the precise moments of the planets’ transits in front of their star caused by the gravitational pull of other nearby planets.

The researchers had another surprise: they found that the two water worlds Kepler-138c and d are twin planets, with     8    the same size and mass, while they were previously thought to be greatly different. The closer-in planet,Kepler-138b, on the other hand, is     9     to be a small Mars-mass planet, one of the smallest exoplanets known to date.

“As our instruments and techniques become     10     enough to find and study planets that are farther from their stars, we might start finding a lot more water worlds like Kepler-138 c and d,” Benneke concluded.

Feeling the Dance

Lights move in time to the rhythmic beat issuing from a floor speaker as hip-hop performer Shaheem Sanchez gets ready. Sanchez, who is deaf,     1     beside the speaker and places his hand on top of it, allowing the sound waves to course through his body. His head nods as he counts the     2     , catching the rhythm. Then rising, his body moves in so perfect time to the music that dancer and music unite in a single artistic expression. In this moment, art     3     the gap between two worlds: the deaf and the hearing.

Sanchez is one of a growing number of professional dancers with full or     4     hearing loss, working to redefine what it means to experience music and, in a larger sense, communicate with others.

Antoine Hunter is another artist who is inspiring a new generation of dancers to take the     5     . As the director of the Urban Jazz Company in San Francisco, Hunter experienced the way that dance could help people better understand each other, which     6     altered his life.

But there were few opportunities for a black deaf dancer when Hunter was first finding his feet. He had to create a world in which he could perform. Now he’s sharing it with others, both in his studio and through the Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival. The event     7     the talents of deaf and hard of hearing people from around the world.

To get more people moving, Hunter ensures that his dance company is fully     8     to students of all abilities. There are interpreters for deaf and blind students, and a(n)     9     that turns sound waves into vibrations (震动). These vibrations travel across the floor so dancers can feel the music in their feet.

All around the world, deaf dancers are turning in     10     performances. Digital media is not only making these performances more visible, but also providing deaf dancers more opportunities to show off their talents. Artists like Sanchez upload performances to online platforms, where they get thousands of views. This allows deaf artists to express themselves to a larger audience.

The Inevitable Plastics Revolution

The Guardian once called plastic “Man’s worst invention”. One of the lesser-known uses of plastic is to reduce carbon emissions. For example, plastics make vehicles lighter thereby increasing their     1    ; it also increases the shelf life of foods, reducing food waste and the need to transport more. So plastics have an important role to play in creating a     2     future.

Currently that isn’t the case. Of the 24.5 million tons of plastic waste     3     in Europe each year, only 14 per cent is recycled. The rest is burned, buried or lost on land or at sea. Indeed, the European plastics industry emits 95 million tons of CO2 each year, about 3.7 per cent of total     4    . One-third of this comes from the burning of waste plastics.

That has to change, says Marc, one of the world’s leading chemicals and plastics manufacturers. “With a     5     population, we need to find a way to make better use of our resources.” In     6     with the recycling technology company, Mura Technology, it wants to     7     the plastics economy by dramatically increasing the amount of plastic that is recycled while also reducing carbon emissions. The approach will change the way we make plastic.

Today most plastic is made from petrochemicals, using processes     8     by fossil fuels. While a great deal is thrown away, a large proportion of plastics waste can be collected and sent to be     9     recycled. This involves washing, drying and grinding the material, then heating and     10     it into a new product. But at no stage is the chemical structure of the plastic changed. In order to reduce pollution, the plastics manufacturing sector needs technological innovation.

China’s new Long March-8 rocket makes first flight

China’s new carrier rocket, the Long March-8, made its maiden flight on Tuesday, the country’s space agency said, the first phase of a strategy to deploy launch vehicles that can be reused.

The Long March-8 series is part of China’s endeavours to develop reusable rockets,     1     lowering mission costs and paving the way towards     2     launch services.

The programme has drawn parallels to private US rocket firm SpaceX’s Falcon     3    , although China said in 2018 its reusable carrier vehicle would use different technologies.

The new medium-lift carrier rocket sent five satellites into planned     4    , blasting off from the Wenchang launch site on the southern Hainan island at 12:37 pm Beijing time (0437 GMT) on Tuesday.

It    5     50.3 metres and has a take-off mass of 356 tonnes, and the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said it is of "great significance for accelerating the upgrading of launch vehicles".

The rocket’s design was based on technologies developed for previous Long March editions, Xinhua reported Tuesday.

It is also expected to lay the foundation for development of large and heavy rockets, shortening development periods and     6     costs, said Song Zhengyu, the chief designer of the Long March-8.

The five experimental satellites launched by the new rocket will     7     experiments in space science, remote sensing and communication technologies, said Xinhua.

Beijing has invested heavily in its space     8     as a sign of its technological prowess and scientific endeavour.

A(n)    9     Chinese spacecraft returned to earth last week with rocks and soil from the moon—the first     10     samples collected in four decades.

The Long March 8 rocket will eventually help China replace its fleet of medium-lift launch vehicles, providing launch services for low Earth orbit satellite constellations and payloads bound for higher altitudes, such as geosynchronous orbit, CASC said.

Floating Cities: The Wave of the Future?

Rainwater pouring into the New York City subway. Towns and roads in Pennsylvania overtaken by floodwater. These dramatic scenes made     1     in September 2021. As many as 40.5 million people have already been     2     by the effects of the climate crisis. Rising sea levels, along with extreme flooding, are putting more and more coastal residents and others at risk. By 2050, more than 1 billion people will live in countries that lack the basic systems and services to     3     sea-level rise, according to the Institute for Economics and Peace. And all these climate refugees will need to seek out new homes on dry land.

One     4     architects and others have been exploring with more urgency in recent years is to build floating cities. In 2019, the United Nations brought together a group of innovators, scientists, and marine engineers to discuss the future of     5     sea-based communities. "As our climate and water ecosystems are changing, the way our cities retake to water needs to change, too." said U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed. "Floating cities are a means of ensuring climate adaption, as buildings can rise along with the sea."

These cities can be designed as climate     6     . They can take advantage of plentiful wind and water power for electricity, and grow food using hydroponics（水耕法）. "From traditional houseboat communities to high-tech experiments, there are many examples to learn from," she added.

Some of these experimental floating cities are already in development. Another planned community that's attracting a lot of attention is Oceanix City, which is     7     to have one-third of its 118 islands below sea level within 60 years.

Plans for Oceanix City     8     groups of hexagon-shaped（六边形）islands powered by solar and water energy. Tied to the seafloor, each human-made island would     9     around 300 people; the islands would be     10     together in communities of about 10,000 residents. Oceanix citizens would drink processed ocean water and extracted humidity from the air, and dine on a ready supply of seafood.

Happiness is not natural.It is a here human construct. A state of contentment(let alone happiness) is     1     by our genetic design because it would lower our guard against possible threats to our survival.

Chasing happiness is like chasing an elusive ghost, but the positive thinking industry claims to know its secrets.Self-help was popularized by Norman Vincent Peale, a colorful American pastor,       2    by several Republican presidents, including Richard Nixon and Donald Trump. He invented “positive thinking'", a concept now deeply embedded in our culture and steadily growing in influence.The global personal development industry was valued at S38.28 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a rate of 5.1%.

Popular films and books are full of     3     inspirational statements about how all you need to do is believe in yourself and then you'll be able to achieve anything in life. This is simply, and obviously, not true. I don't think there is a need to explain that many obstacles and misfortunes in life are inevitable, or unsurmountable. Our ancestors knew this, and many philosophical and religious traditions are based on the     4     that being alive is a very challenging task,which comes with significant amounts of suffering. It goes without saying that we should do all we can to maximize our sense of well-being and minimize our suffering, but the end result cannot be a state of     5     happiness.We are not designed that way.

The self-help genre is not a homegeneous beast, however. It is,in fact, ironie how self-help books on happiness and those on how to make it big in life are lumped together in the same bookshop shelves, given that many of the former tell us that caring too much about the latter is the main     6     to happiness.

The inevitable clash between mandatory     7     and the realities of our existence comes with a heavy psychological price. It could be argued that positive psychology blames those who are suffering for their     8     ,as it is based on the misconception that unhappiness is entirely avoidable.It follows therefore that an unhappy person must be inadequate and incompetent.Positive psychology encourages people who are struggling with a particular goal to persevere in the face of unfavorable odds, which is much more     9     psychologically in the long run than accepting defeat.

I believe that coming to     10    with life as it is,and not the happiness industry tells us it could be, will make us happier, and we will feel more at peace with ourselves and with the world. Unfortunately, the devil always has the best tunes.

NASA Begins High-Stakes Repair to Hubble Space Telescope

NASA engineers are trying to carry out repairs on the Hubble Space Telescope, which stopped working on June 13 as a result of a problem with the payload computer on board.

After a month of trying, engineers with the space agency were unable to restart the computer, so the Hubble team will switch to a(n)     1     power unit on Thursday. If successful, it will take several days to     2     return the observatory to normal operations, NASA reported.

The Hubble Telescope has shaped our understanding of the cosmos for over 30 years. It proved that almost every galaxy has a supermassive black hole at its heart. It also played a vital role in the discovery of dark matter — a mysterious substance that can’t be seen.

The payload computer is used to control and coordinate Hubble’s scientific instruments. The computer’s programs also analyze and manipulate the data it collects.

NASA engineers believe the problem is related to the Power Control Unit, or PCU, which ensures a steady voltage     3     to the payload computer. The PCU is     4     with the payload computer in the Science Instrument Command and Data Handling unit. “The team’s analysis suggests that either the voltage level from the regulator is outside of     5     levels, or the secondary protection circuit has degraded over time and is trapped in this inhibit state,” according to the NASA statement.

The telescope itself and science instruments remain “healthy and in a safe configuration,” the statement confirmed. The Hubble Space Telescope, which orbits 340 miles above Earth’s surface, hasn’t always functioned     6    . A similar repair was performed in 2008, when another part of the PCU failed.

A replacement for Hubble is in the     7    . NASA’S James Webb Space Telescope is expected to launch later this year. The large, infrared telescope appears to become the next great     8     in the universe.

But it’s     9     to give up on Hubble, said Don Lincoln, a senior scientist from NASA. “The instrument has generated scientific data leading to countless papers and also gorgeous images that have transfixed the science-interested public. In that sense, an inoperable Hubble would be a devastating loss,” he wrote in an opinion piece.

“The best-case scenario is one in which both are operating, and we must wait for those clever engineers to work their     10     to see if that is possible.”