If it matters to you how likely your future scenario is to be realized in a particular timeframe (and I’m not saying it should matter to you, but if it does), here are some basic guidelines for figuring that out. They’re not actually expressed in the form of rules, despite the headline.
Originally shared by NASA
We are sizing up a galaxy of planets as we hunt for a world something like our own. We’ve found rocky planets in Earth’s size range, at the right distance from their parent stars to harbor liquid water. As space telescopes grow ever more sensitive, we’re beginning to zero in on evidence of life and what we consider potentially habitable worlds. Learn more: https://go.nasa.gov/2CFFxeP
Mammoths, anyone?
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
De-Extinction Is Now a Thing—Starting With Passenger Pigeons
I understand there are at least discussions being had about a staffed mission to Venus’s upper atmosphere.
Originally shared by John Reiher
The lower cloud layer of Venus (47.5–50.5 km) is an exceptional target for exploration due to the favorable conditions for microbial life, including moderate temperatures and pressures (∼60°C and 1 atm), and the presence of micron-sized sulfuric acid aerosols. Nearly a century after the ultraviolet (UV) contrasts of Venus’ cloud layer were discovered with Earth-based photographs, the substances and mechanisms responsible for the changes in Venus’ contrasts and albedo are still unknown…
Good potential for heists when all the key data is travelling across unhackable networks.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
From Quantum Computing to a Quantum Internet—A Roadmap
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
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
“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?