How to Hear Disease and Build a City on the Moon: Futurology Digest #26

Voice assistants learn to diagnose diseases, cyber-defenders repel attacks on neural interfaces, and scientists treat cancer with nanoparticles

Theme of the week: voice assistants diagnose diseases

As the coronavirus began to spread around the world, Israeli startup Vocalis Health asked COVID-19 sufferers to send in recordings of their speech. People with a positive test had to open a special mobile application once a day and download voice messages into it. Then the artificial intelligence developed by Vocalis Health analyzed this data and looked for patterns in them. So the startup employees hoped to find the voice trail of the new coronavirus. Previously, the company has already managed to detect exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in this way. Now Vocalis Health is testing a pilot version of an application that will help doctors diagnose coronavirus.

In addition to Vocalis Health, companies and research teams around the world are engaged in similar developments. Most of them are trying to develop digital algorithms that only doctors in hospitals can use. But among them there are also those who dream of a wider application of technology. For example, algorithms that detect diseases can be integrated into voice assistants. Then Alice or Siri will tell you what to treat and when to see a doctor. To make this a reality, researchers will have to overcome many technical hurdles and address the ethical issues associated with breaching medical confidentiality.

Now scientists are testing neural networks that can identify diseases that affect the nervous system in risk groups. Experiments by American researchers have shown that their algorithm correctly determines Parkinson’s disease in 99% of cases. Canadian scientists have developed artificial intelligence to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease, its accuracy is 92%. Perhaps in the future, speech analysis will become as common as blood sampling. Another idea is to create an automated telephone service for remote testing of people who cannot go to a neurologist.

In addition to markers of neurodegenerative diseases, scientists are also looking for sound signatures of autism, depression, bipolar disorder, and coronary heart disease. In the future, speech analysis may become the first stage of screening, followed by a more thorough diagnosis. But not all scientists are confident in the effectiveness of this method. Some of them believe that artificial intelligence can capture non-standard speech patterns that are not necessarily related to the disease. More experiments will be needed to prove or disprove the existence of voice markers.

The Future of Work: Five New Jobs in Cybersecurity

Futuristic architecture: city on the moon

Architecture firm BIG and 3D printing company ICON will design houses for the station on the moon. Buildings will be printed from materials that can be found on the surface of the satellite. Thanks to this, architects hope to reduce the amount of construction waste. Houses will be built by robots, so the astronauts will have more time to explore and study the surface of the moon. All buildings will be spherical in order to better protect astronauts from high atmospheric pressure. Other design details are not yet known. The image below shows the architectural concept of a residential building.

Question of the week: can hackers hack the neural interface?

To find out the answer, Gizmodo interviewed seven cybersecurity researchers who work with microchips. Experts are unanimous in their opinion: it is possible to hack a neural interface, but not all of them see practical benefits in this. Some believe that today’s hackers do not have the necessary skills to cause serious harm using such devices. Other experts noted that simply gaining access to the chip is not enough – you need to decrypt the information on it, and this is not always possible even for scientists. In addition, hackers will need to somehow cover their tracks, otherwise they will be quickly caught. In any case, the benefits of such cyberattacks are not yet obvious.

Technology of the week: a safe method of cancer treatment

To cure cancer, you need to deliver the drug directly to the malignant tumor. In this case, the concentration of the active substance must be high enough, otherwise it will not work. At the same time, another problem arises: both cancerous and healthy cells are exposed to chemotherapy. This causes serious side effects, such as reduced immunity and stomach problems.

Scientists from Germany and Sweden have developed a safer way to treat cancer. To deliver the drug to mutated cells, they proposed using nanoparticles from mucin, a substance that is produced by the mucous glands of living organisms. Thanks to a special coating, these particles release the active ingredient only in the presence of cancer cells, which they recognize by their RNA. As a result, the drug acts in a targeted manner and does not have serious side effects on the patient’s body.

Article of the Week: Listen to Alien Signals on the Far Side of the Moon

Astronomers have been trying for decades to pick up signals from alien civilizations using radio telescopes, but so far have not found anything. Our Universe is very big and we need to keep looking, but there is a problem: every year the number of satellites in Earth’s orbit increases, and the signals from smartphones, phones and antennas become stronger. All this creates noise that prevents astronomers from observing the stars and listening to the sounds of space. To deal with this complexity, scientists from the US and Europe have proposed building an observatory on the far side of the Moon. According to the researchers, this is the quietest place for observations, where you can catch even those radio waves that do not reach the Earth. In addition, nights on the Moon last two Earth weeks, so scientists will be able to conduct research for longer.

One line

• A group of scientists from China and Switzerland presented electronic blood vessels.
• What is synthetic biology and why is it needed?
• scientists have proposed disinfecting surfaces with cold plasma.
• They learned how to change the shape and properties of substances using a laser.
• The new orbital station will have a compartment for space tourists.
• The Russian private company MTKS will build a competing spacecraft Crew Dragon for Roskosmos.
• The UAE plans to organize a mission to the Moon in 2024.
• The American company Gryphon Technologies will develop a nuclear engine for missiles.

What to listen

Release of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast about Isaac Asimov’s Foundation book cycle. The facilitators discuss the significance of this work for fantasy literature in general. They also reflect on the role of empires in the world, how politicians shape and change the history of peoples, and how accurately The Foundation reflects our reality. This episode of the podcast coincides with the release of the first teaser of the series of the same name, which will premiere on Apple TV+ in 2021.

What to read

The book of the English journalist Jenny Kliman “Sex without people, meat without animals. Who designs the world of the future. Kliman has interviewed dozens of scientists, artists, doctors and programmers to understand how our lives will change in the future. Will sex robots replace human relationships? What threatens us with the mass production of artificial meat? Will men be able to bear children? How to witness your own funeral? Find out in the book.

What to play

In the video game 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim from the Japanese studio Vanillaware. On the one hand, this is a strategy in which the player needs to fight off the alien invasion by controlling a group of mech robots. On the other hand, 13 Sentinels is a complete graphic novel with time travel, lost memories and doppelgänger androids.

What to see

Interview with Russian designer Alena Akhmadullina about the future of fashion. She talked about why people are spending more and more time in virtual reality, why digital shows are needed, and how fabrics and styles will change in a few decades.

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