It’s a Peter Diamandis article, so it’s unflaggingly techno-optimist and a bit libertarian. But he does explore some interesting initiatives going on around the world (even if the Chinese ones are a lot more disturbing to me than they are to him).
I’ve used the idea of a central, trusted ledger that facilitates automatic taxes in my latest (not-yet-published) novel, Capital Crimes.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
Could Tech Make Government As We Know It Irrelevant?
Not yet ready for prime time.
Originally shared by HACKADAY
A robot made my hamburger
The future is upon us and the robots will soon take over. Automated cars will put Uber drivers and cabbies alike out of work. Low-wage workers, like the people working behind the counter at McDonalds, will be replaced by burger-flipping robots. The entire…
http://hackaday.com/2018/10/11/i-ate-a-robot-hamburger-before-the-restaurant-went-out-of-business/
There’s an excellent story in the anthology Futuristica Volume 1 about a police bot that’s been trained on historical data and shoots an innocent young black man.
Originally shared by Gina Drayer
Surprise! An AI feed a past bias (intentional or otherwise) turns out to be biased.
“Because AI systems learn to make decisions by looking at historical data they often perpetuate existing biases. In this case, that bias was the male-dominated working environment of the tech world. According to Reuters, Amazon’s program penalized applicants who attended all-women’s colleges, as well as any resumes that contained the word “women’s” (as might appear in the phrase “women’s chess club”).”
Originally shared by Katherine Phelps
So pleased this person made the effort to understand.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
No Safety Driver Here—Volvo’s New Driverless Truck Cuts the Cab
When you’re solving a complex problem, try everything.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
The 7 Wild Energy Technologies That Just Got a Billion-Dollar Boost
Originally shared by Kam-Yung Soh
Link includes a video showing the robots in action. “If fiberglass tubes suddenly started to sprout out of the ground, you might think you had stumbled on some alien invasion. But such tubes are a real thing, woven by newly developed autonomous robots to create large structures such as bridges and temporary shelters—with minimal human input.
Each “Fiberbot” has a winding arm that pulls fiber from a tank on the ground, mixes the materials in a nozzle, and winds the wetted fiber around itself like a silkworm cocooning. Next, the robot turns on an ultraviolet light to cook the fiber into a hard tube. Then, it deflates its body and uses a tiny motor and wheels to inch itself up on top of the hardened fiber, where the process begins again.
The robots can tilt and use different winding patterns to vary the thickness and the direction of the tubes. As they build, the Fiberbots communicate with each other through a computer network to avoid running into each other or other obstacles. Together, they can calculate the most efficient way to build a given structure.”
Books are getting longer.
I wonder how much of that is down to ebooks, which weigh the same and cost the same to produce regardless of length?
I know that as I gain more experience as a writer and take on more challenging stories, it takes me longer to tell them, but there’s also the phenomenon referred to in the article: highly successful authors don’t get edited down, even when they should. Partly because their fans will keep buying the books even if they’re bloated and overwritten.
(I am not a highly successful author, for the avoidance of doubt.)
So this has potential.
They’re going to start with a writing contest (like Writers of the Future but without the L. Ron), but their ambitions are a lot bigger than that. Have a read.
I will be surprised if this book doesn’t take the top spot in my annual roundup this year; it’s beautiful.
For: people who enjoy details about food, don’t mind it being a bit literary and a touch fabulist, and like a gentle, warm, humane tone and witty, wise observation of modern life.
Not for: people who are looking for a gritty techno-thriller heavy on the speculative aspects and the action, or who can’t stand millenial protagonists.
Masha du Toit, I think this would be up your alley.