There’s some interesting stuff being developed in Britain.
Originally shared by Judah Richardson
Robots could take care of every stage of the growing process: mapping the land, planting seeds, caring for the crop, forensically weeding, then harvesting.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/20/space-robots-lasers-rise-robot-farmer
Originally shared by Danie van der Merwe
Skywater/Skysource Alliance wins challenge to extract 2 kl of water from the atmosphere per day for no more than 2c per liter using 100% renewable energy
Today, 790 million people — 11 percent of the world’s population — live without access to clean water.
Two years ago, XPrize, an international nonprofit organization, announced a global competition enticing innovators to find a sustainable and affordable way to bring potable water to those who aren’t privileged enough to have it now.
Skeptics told the competition organizers that it was impossible.
Nearly 100 submissions later, and XPrize found precisely what they were looking for — entrepreneurs who could design a minimalistic device that could reliably extract 2,000 liters of water from the atmosphere per day for no more than two cents per liter all using 100 percent renewable energy.
This weekend, the organization announced the winners of the $1.5 million grand prize.
See https://mashable.com/article/xprize-water-competition-winner
#water #drought
https://mashable.com/article/xprize-water-competition-winner
Via The Maaurovingian.
Originally shared by Ninja On Rye
The aim was to develop a haptic glove for VR that doesn’t rely on exoskeletons, pumps or thick cables.
As for how it works:
DextrES is made of nylon with thin elastic metal strips running over the fingers. The strips are separated by a thin insulator. When the user’s fingers come into contact with a virtual object, the controller applies a voltage difference between the metal strips causing them to stick together via electrostatic attraction – this produces a braking force that blocks the finger’s or thumb’s movement. Once the voltage is removed, the metal strips glide smoothly and the user can once again move his fingers freely.
They’ve got more plans for this technology:
“Gamers are currently the biggest market, but there are many other potential applications – especially in healthcare, such as for training surgeons. The technology could also be applied in augmented reality,” says Shea.
https://techxplore.com/news/2018-10-ultra-light-gloves-users-virtual.html
Originally shared by Adafruit Industries
The Incredible Bessie Blount
https://blog.adafruit.com/2018/10/20/the-incredible-bessie-blount/
via Smithsonian
In 1952, Bessie Blount boarded a plane from New York to France to give away her life’s work. The 38-year-old inventor planned to hand over to the French military, free of charge, an extraordinary technology that would change lives for disabled veterans of the Second World War: an automatic feeding device. To use it, a person only needed to bite down on a switch, which would deliver a mouthful of food through a spoon-shaped tube.
Read more
https://blog.adafruit.com/2018/10/20/the-incredible-bessie-blount/
Sears (the man) was a brilliant marketer. He deliberately made his catalog slightly narrower and shorter than the Montgomery Ward catalog – his competitor – so that a tidy person would naturally put it on top when stacking them.
Apparently, when he and his partner discovered that their catalog was enabling black people to buy things that in-person retail wasn’t permitting them to buy, he said, in effect, “Why not?” and took steps to make it easier. For business reasons, but it turned out to benefit people as well.
Originally shared by Keith Wilson
I won a contest with what may be my best short story yet, a post-Zelaznian fantasy set at the Gate of Worlds. The link is to an interview I did about it and (for a short time) you can listen to the story in audio form.
http://www.remasteredwords.com/?p=3205
http://www.remasteredwords.com/?p=3205%5D(http://www.remasteredwords.com/?p%3D3205)
A lot of SF uses artificial intelligences more as a metaphor for people who struggle to be accorded full personhood, or (depending on the author’s politics) for the threatening Other whose personhood isn’t authentic and whose existence poses a threat to us.
If you wanted to be science-fictional in a different way, you could leave those well-trodden paths and explore the actuality of “artificial intelligence” and “machine learning”: it’s not particularly similar to human intelligence and human learning, which is a strength more than it’s a weakness.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
Why We Should Stop Conflating Human and Machine Intelligence https://suhub.co/2OzJ6u7
Originally shared by Amanda Patterson
Quotable – John le Carré, born 19 October 1931. Read more here: http://bit.ly/2xuHOVh
If nothing else, read myth, legend, and medieval and renaissance literature – like Tolkien, Lewis, and Gaiman. It will help your fantasy grow deeper and richer.
Originally shared by Melissa Walsh
“Some fear that information asymmetry will allow consumers to learn of their health risks and leave insurers in the dark…”
Um, Peter, I’m pretty sure more people are worried about it being the other way around, and don’t share your optimism about the beneficent nature of the insurance industry.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
Will Tech Make Insurance Obsolete in the Future?