technology

Europe is thinking about giving advanced robots rights and responsibilities. Many experts say that's a terrible idea. The European Parliament passed a resolution last year that envisions a special legal status of "electronic persons" for the most sophisticated autonomous robots. The proposal is being   considered by the European Commission, Europe's top regulator. More than 150 experts in robotics, artificial intelligence, law, medical science and ethics weighed into the debate on Thursday, with a clear warning against such a move. In an open letter   to the European Commission, they said that the proposals appear to be influenced more by science fiction than the real world. The lawmakers argue that giving advanced robots legal status would make it possible to hold machines to account for any damage they may cause. Mady Delvaux, the parliamentarian who drafted the proposal, was not immediately available to comment on the letter. The European Commissio

Elon Musk's Boring Company has raised nearly $113 million — mostly from Musk himself. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the tunnel-digging company doesn't say what the funding is for. But the Boring Company is designing and planning to build a network of high-speed tunnels for mass transportation, which Musk has referred to as "an urban loop system." He's planning to build a network of these transportation tunnels under Los Angeles. According to the Boring Company, more than 90% of the funding this round came from Musk, with the rest from early employees. The company said there weren't any venture capitalists or outside investors involved. Musk has tried other ways to raise money for the drilling company, like selling hats and flamethrowers. Musk is also the founder and CEO of electric car company  Tesla   ( TSLA )  and of SpaceX, a private space company that plans to fly tourists around the moon later this year. Musk said

SpaceX plans to open up shop at the Port of Los Angeles where it'll work on research, design and development of its Mars rocket. Los Angeles officials said Monday that a tentative lease agreement would allow SpaceX to take over a dormant building at the port in a move that could bring as any as 700 jobs to the area. The deal is expected to be approved by board of harbor commissioners on Thursday. SpaceX won't have to pay rent for the facility for more than two decades. It will get more than $40 million in rent credits for renovating and upgrading the facility, which has been vacant since 2005. The company will not receive any subsidies from the city. The Big Falcon Rocket is at the heart of CEO Elon Musk's plan to settle a colony of humans on Mars. Musk said in February that SpaceX will soon go all-in on the bold idea and begin dedicating its engineering talent to developing the BFR. His remarks came after SpaceX aced the inaugural flight of the Falcon Heav

Elon Musk has been working hard to convince Tesla investors that production of the company's first mass market car, the Model 3, is going just fine. But the electric vehicle maker has now temporarily suspended production of the sedan to work out kinks in its assembly line. Tesla   ( TSLA )  said Monday that it's pressing pause in order "to improve automation" and deal with bottlenecks. The company declined to say how long the stoppage would last. It's the latest issue for Tesla, whose stock has been battered by worries that it's behind on production of the Model 3. The sedan is an attempt by the company and Musk, its CEO, to shift from putting out small numbers of luxury vehicles to making cars on a much larger scale. The production halt was first reported by BuzzFeed, which said it would last four to five days. "Our Model 3 production plan includes periods of planned downtime in both Fremont and Gigafactory 1," a Tesla spokesperson sa

On the second floor of an infectious-disease research facility in this African capital, Dr. Joseph Kamgno, the country's leading expert on parasitic roundworms, stood at his desk staring down at the black hard-shelled case that had just arrived from a bioengineering lab at the University of California-Berkeley. The case contained what appeared to be three ordinary iPhones. But the California researchers believed these phones could do something extraordinary -- help quell river blindness, the second-leading cause of preventable blindness in the world. There is already an effective treatment, a medication that can kill the baby worms that cause the blindness. And when nearly everyone in a community takes the drug every year for a decade or so, it can eliminate the disease from the area. But treating communities widely for river blindness is a risky proposition: The treatment can cause coma or death in a small segment of the population that harbors a different parasite --

Some of the biggest tech companies pledged to stand up to governments that launch cyberattacks. On Tuesday, Microsoft, Facebook and 32 other companies signed on to the Cybersecurity Tech Accord, a pact to work together on cybersecurity issues. In addition to stymieing governmental cyberattacks, the companies also agreed to collaborate on stronger defense systems and protect against tampering of their products. "We called on the world to borrow a page from history in the form of a Digital Geneva Convention, a long-term goal of updating international law to protect people in times of peace from malicious cyberattacks," Microsoft president Brad Smith wrote in a blog post Tuesday. The financial impact of cybersecurity attacks on businesses and organizations is expected to reach $8 trillion by 2022. Firms such as Cisco, HP, Nokia, Oracle also joined the accord. Notably, absent from the signers were Apple, Alphabet and Amazon. Microsoft called for a more uniform appr

What is the New Nintendo 3DS XL? Let’s cut to the chase. The New Nintendo 3DS XL is, without doubt, the best version of the 3DS ever, and the most feature-rich, comfortable and cleverly thought-out Nintendo handheld since the DS Lite. It has a fantastic 3D screen that actually works in 3D, a processor that’s better equipped for handling more advanced 3D games, and a built-in secondary analogue pad that – with some minor reservations – renders the old Circle Pad Pro accessory unnecessary. It’s a brilliant device. New Nintendo 3DS XL – Design In terms of weight and proportions, the New Nintendo 3DS XL is so similar to the old Nintendo 3DS XL that there’s barely anything worth mentioning. It’s a few millimetres wider and thicker and has a flatter top, while the weight has crept up by around 6g. The screens aren’t merely the same size, but the exact same resolution, with a 4.18-inch, 320 x 240 resistive touchscreen at the bottom and a 4.88-inch, 800 x 240 screen at the top. By sm

Nick Wilde  is a playable character in  Disney Infinity: 3.0 Edition . He is from the 2016 Oscar winning Disney film  Zootopia . He was revealed at the 2015  D23 Expo  along with  Judy Hopps  and  Spot . He has a costume change  Power Disc  called  Officer Wilde . He was released alongside Judy Hopps to the public on March 1, 2016 Abilities Nick uses a giant popsicle to attack his enemies and can also throw it as a ranged attack. His special move is to summon a  Finnick Costume  to attack enemies. Development Work on Nick and  Judy Hopps  began well over a year before the theatrical release of  Zootopia . An early draft of  Zootopia  featured a plot point where the predators had to wear shock collars to keep them from getting too excited. A piece of early  Infinity  concept art depicts Nick wearing one of these collars, indicating that this was intended to be part of his design early on, but was dropped when the movie's plot changed. One subtle detail that the team ad

I haven't enjoyed a game in  The Legend of Zelda  franchise this much in more than 20 years. Yes, I am one of those  Legend of Zelda  fans – the ones who steadfastly maintain that the pinnacle of the series, despite all the advances of the past two decades, is a 2D sprite-based game for a 16-bit game console. Outstream Video   00:00 00:00 It's not that games like  The Ocarina of Time ,  Majora's Mask  and  The Wind Waker aren't excellent games – masterpieces, even. I'm playing through the HD remake of  Wind Waker  right now, and I'm having a wonderful time. It's just that  The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past  for the Super Nintendo was perfect. No camera issues to worry about. No wrestling with moving in a 3D space. The visuals were crisp, clean and colorful. The world was large, but not so much that travel beca

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild  is the nineteenth main installment of  The Legend of Zelda  series . It was released simultaneously worldwide for the  Wii U  and  Nintendo Switch  on March 3, 2017 Story Link  awakens from a deep sleep and a  mysterious voice guides him to discover what has become of the ruined Kingdom of  Hyrule . [3]  Link meets an  Old Man , who turns out to be the spirit of the deceased  King of Hyrule . Link learns from the King that 100 years prior, a great evil known as the  Calamity Ganon  rose up and laid waste to the kingdom and its people. [4]  Unable to be defeated, it was sealed within  Hyrule Castle , while the ruins of the land were ravaged by nature over time. Although trapped, the Calamity Ganon has grown in power, and Link must defeat it before it breaks free once more and destroys the world. After escaping the confines of the  Great Plateau , Link is encouraged to meet the wise  Sheikah  elder  Impa  and learn about the  Guardians  a