A typical space opera will have a crewed ship hopping round a planetary system in a matter of hours (usually without ever worrying about refueling). But distances between planets are really large, and Earth to Mars is realistically a journey of many months.
Here’s a slightly out-there approach to dealing with that.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
This Unbelievable Research on Human Hibernation Could Get Us to Mars http://suhub.co/2CVOijf
Representation matters.
Originally shared by Keith Wilson
If all you knew about black families was what national news outlets reported, you are likely to think African Americans are overwhelmingly poor, reliant on welfare, absentee fathers and criminals, despite what government data show, a new study says.
H/t John Bump
Near-future SF needs to take account of these trends and the underlying realities.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
World Poverty Has Plummeted—But Will It Ever Disappear? http://suhub.co/2CEKQJs
Currently, natural stupidity is a much larger problem for the world than artificial intelligence. But when will AI reach the level that was originally envisaged at the foundation of the field, back in 1956?
It’s hard to say, because not only don’t we know how complex some of the problems are, but progress is difficult to measure.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
When Will We Finally Achieve True Artificial Intelligence? http://suhub.co/2BTSCPq
In what has now become a tradition, here’s my fourth annual roundup of the best books I read this year.
I’ve added a couple of new features this time. I include “honourable mentions” for books that almost made it to the list, and a summary at the end of authors by gender on each of the four lists I’ve done so far. Results… probably won’t surprise you all that much.
We have met the dystopia, and it is us.
Originally shared by Winchell Chung
Twitter Thread: What’s the most absurd/invasive thing that tech platforms do or have done that sounds made-up but is actually true?
For example: that time iRobot planned to sell the layouts of customers’ homes after it had been mapped by their Roomba
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
Want Self-Healing Robots and Tires? Elastomers May Hold the Key http://suhub.co/2kYH1q8
Is the solution to your problem robotic ants?
Originally shared by Winchell Chung
Structural Challenges for Space Architecture
This is both weird and wonderful. Limb regeneration, curing cancers, fixing birth defects, and creating biological robots are all on the table.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
There’s Healing Power in the Secret Electrical Language of Our Cells http://suhub.co/2CYYTsv
Nanoassemblers, and the post-scarcity world that they would enable, have been used in SF by Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross, among others. Whatever we can imagine such a world being like, we’re sure to fall short of the reality (if it ever becomes possible).
My novella Gu takes a slightly different tack – programmable matter – but more or less systematically imagines some of the impacts, in the format of a documentary. Again, I’m sure I missed a lot, just because I’m embedded in a society where things are made in a certain shape and stay that shape.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
How a Machine That Can Make Anything Would Change Everything http://suhub.co/2D01G4x