I’m personally not convinced of this guy’s thesis. SF movies are good (or at least prolific) at showing the potential downside of new technologies, but not so great at showing the upsides; and actual mechanisms for making responsible choices or sane regulations are, of course, not the stuff of blockbusters. Still, there may be something in what he says.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
Sci-Fi Movies Are the Secret Weapon That Could Help Silicon Valley Grow Up
Via Deborah Teramis Christian.
A long piece with a simple message: human connection makes a difference.
Originally shared by ****
“I think people die when they feel completely alone.”
The most pivotal response was sent by a study participant who lived in an apartment in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district. The man, who 18 months earlier had written a “kiss-off” letter, now described himself as a broken vase held together by his own hands. His letter spanned five single-spaced typed pages and read as if it had taken days to write. Forty years later, Motto could remember the first sentence: “You are the most persistent son-of-a-bitch I’ve ever encountered, so you must really be sincere in your interest in me.” There it was, a perfect encapsulation of the study’s aims. Motto called it “the bingo letter.”
After about four years, Motto and his team had enough data to determine that their work was unprecedented in the history of suicide research. In the first two years following hospitalization, the suicide rate of the control group was nearly twice as high as that of the contact group. And it wasn’t only that no other experiment had ever been able to show a reduction in suicide deaths. Motto had also demonstrated something more profound: People who attempted suicide and wanted nothing to do with the mental health system could still be reached.
Peter Diamandis article; apply massive hype discount accordingly.
But if he’s even 5% right, cyberspace is coming.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
The Spatial Web Will Map Our 3D World—And Change Everything In the Process
“This letter means nothing!” Tom Swift said dismissively.
The meat is in the second half.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
Designer Babies, and Their Babies: How AI and Genomics Will Impact Reproduction
It’s always cool to see something done more simply.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
Ears Grown From Apples? The Promise of Plants for Engineering Human Tissue
Brain-computer interfaces. They’re coming.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
Hacking the Mind Just Got Easier With These New Tools
Ignore the bit about the bones; they’re confused.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
Custom-Grown Bones, and Other Wild Advances in Regenerative Medicine
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
5 Technologies Bringing Healthcare Systems into the Future
Working, as I do, for a concrete company makes me uncomfortably aware of the environmental impact, so any improvements like this are welcome.
Originally shared by Greg Batmarx
We need buildings in which to live, but crafting those buildings is making it harder to live on this planet. As much as 10% of global carbon emissions come from the production of concrete.
One ton of CO2 is generated by making one ton of cement, which is made from limestone and a few other things heated to an extremely high temperature.
But what if concrete could generate its own energy? The era of photovoltaic concrete may be getting closer. Photovoltaics, which work by converting light to energy via semiconducting, are starting to migrate from solar panels into the building materials themselves.
In November 2017, Swiss firm LafargeHolcim the world’s largest cement maker, and Heliatek a German solar-panels company, debuted photovoltaic concrete panels at French construction fair Batimat, according to Architizer.
These panels are concrete with built-in ultra-think solar panels that can be delivered as is on site. The companies say that a typical 10-story commercial building covered in 60% of these panels would generate about 30% of its annual energy requirement.
Researchers from ETH Zurich university have also developed their own ultra-thin, sinuous material in which layers of heating coils and solar cells are built into the layers of concrete.
This technology is notoriously complicated. In 2016, Tesla debuted photovoltaic solar-roof tiles that looked better than the regular tiles that sit on the roofs of most American houses. But more than two years later, very few of them have actually been installed, partially due to complications with the manufacture and also reportedly due to the “aesthetic concerns” of Elon Musk.
The company has now promised a large-scale rollout of the tiles in 2019.
Getting photovoltaic concrete ready for actual commercial building work will probably be no easier.