In an SF story I have kicking around at the back of my mind, part of the protagonist’s journey may well be by uncrewed container ship.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a21542/2020-rolls-royce-autonomous-ships/

What if you could breed shrimp that made their own plastic, or battery terminals?

https://www.hakaimagazine.com/article-short/scientist-making-batteries-out-recycled-crab-shells

One of the things that makes for good SFF is the ability to pull back from the unspoken assumptions of our own times. Robert Sheckley did this in the 1950s, criticizing consumerist suburban techno-optimism through his satirical stories.

But we can’t begin that project until we know what those assumptions are, and speak the unspeakable.

Originally shared by Brand Gamblin

Well, crap. Basically, our whole merit-based system, by being widespread and encouraging competition, is causing inequality and suffering.

Something to think next time you’re “gamify”ing a process.

The good news is, there is a cure! Gamify the process where you are the only competitor.

In other words, compare yourself only to your past, and work to beat your previous best. You are constantly trying to improve, while leaving room to be kind and forgiving to others.

https://shift.newco.co/the-idea-thats-killing-mission-driven-companies-23ed12cbc878#.q2zx1bffm

Via Winchell Chung.

At the moment, this requires lying still inside a huge machine that draws as much power as a nuclear submarine. But you know how technological progress goes.

Originally shared by Ward Plunet

Brain Scanning Just Got Very Good—and Very Unsettling

HCP data has also enabled researchers to use a brain scan to predict how a person will perform on an intelligence test and during a memory or reading task. “This may be a bit scary,” admitted Roderic Pettigrew, director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, during introductory remarks at the symposium. In order to collect of that data, the HCP team pioneered the use of a “multiband” approach, which involves scanning three sections of the brain at the same time instead of in series. This method has allowed radiologists to acquire high-resolution images up to 8 times as fast as they previously could using traditional MRI machines. “That gives us higher quality data; it also gives us a ton more data,” said Van Essen at the symposium.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/biomedical/imaging/brain-scanning-just-got-very-good-and-very-unsettling

This post makes some good points. While helping us think through potential bad consequences of a technological or social change is an important function of science fiction, it can become a facile way to tell a dramatic story, and obscure the fact that most technological and social changes also have a positive side.

The challenge is to explore the positive side without becoming boring.

Originally shared by Winchell Chung

http://mythcreants.com/blog/five-good-ideas-science-fiction-teaches-us-to-fear/

Medieval banquets. Not just sucking pig with an apple in its mouth.

Via Ilyanna Kreske.

Originally shared by Karen Price

“This manuscript is not just a description of meals enjoyed, it is an instructional text: a series of recipes, 196 in total, put together in a parchment scroll by King Richard’s cooks so that other cooks could learn their trade. Some of the recipes are for everyday use (‘common meats for the household as they should be made, craftily and wholesomely’) and some are for feasts. All are fascinating for the glimpses they give us of the incredible range of ingredients available to medieval cooks in wealthy households, the customs surrounding eating and the links drawn between food and other important contemporary disciplines – the introduction says that the work was given ‘the approval and consent of the masters of medicine and of philosophy’ who served at Richard’s court.”

http://the-history-girls.blogspot.com/2016/06/medieval-masterchef-by-catherine-hokin.html

http://the-history-girls.blogspot.com/2016/06/medieval-masterchef-by-catherine-hokin.html

This is further along than I expected – and it’s not vat meat. It’s a cleverly engineered burger made using plant materials that reproduce the textures, smells and tastes of meat.

Originally shared by David Brin

This veggie-burger looks, tastes and smells like beef — except it’s made entirely from plants. It sizzles on the grill and even browns and oozes fat when it cooks.  This is of more than minor interest. If hundreds of millions can be weaned to much-lower meat use, it could save so much land and especially water, and provide so much nutrition that the balance may tip in our favor.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/06/21/482322571/silicon-valley-s-bloody-plant-burger-smells-tastes-and-sizzles-like-meat

==

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/06/21/482322571/silicon-valley-s-bloody-plant-burger-smells-tastes-and-sizzles-like-meat

UBI is something I’m watching with interest as automation threatens jobs. I’m glad someone is doing some experiments to figure out exactly how it should work.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/06/netherlands-utrecht-universal-basic-income-experiment/487883/

So this is a 3D-printed, self-driving electric vehicle, using AI as a cloud service and the Internet of Things, produced by a company that crowdsources its designs. And it can hold a conversation with you.

This is not a concept. This is a real thing that exists today.

Originally shared by Laston Kirkland

3d printed, check. Autonomous driving, check. IBM Watson, check. Local Motors, check.

Damn, this article really pushed my buttons.

http://www.3ders.org/articles/20160616-along-came-olli-local-motors-debuts-autonomous-3d-printed-vehicle-powered-by-ibm-watson.html