Category Archives: Futurism

In Brief Elon Musk's talk at the International Astronautical Congress has been adapted as a journal article in this month's New Space. The CEO of SpaceX focuses on the affordability of tickets to Mars as a key factor in its successful colonization. Mars Planning

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, delivered an address at the International Astronautical Congress held in Guadalajara, Mexico last year outlining his vision of getting humans into space. This talk has now been adapted into a fifteen-page article that was published in this months issue of the journal New Space. Musk focuses on affordability as a major factor to ensuring the possibility of Mars colonization. He says You cannot create a self-sustaining civilization if the ticket price is $10 billion per person. He believes that the cost should be about $200,000; equivalent to the median price of a house in the United States.

Musk outlines the steps he considers essential to ensuring this relative affordability. The first step, developing fully reusable transport, is already well underway at SpaceX. The company has already proven the reliability of itsreusable rockets,and have recently demonstratedthe reusability of theDragon spacecraft. Fueling is also a key factor in controlling costs: equipping any craft with additional fuel will significantly increase the weight of the craft. Musk proposes using methane which is produced on Mars and would thereforeallow for refueling viasources directly on the plant.

Many experts believe that in order to ensure the survival of our species, we must work to be multi-planetary beings. Perhaps Musks vision to get us to Mars is the first step toward that goal. Musks enthusiasm for his Mars project is quite timely if we are to believe Stephen Hawking, who predictshumanity only has 100 years left on Earth.

But colonizing Mars is only a one possibility space has to offer. Space miningand manufacturingcan help to decrease the burden on Earths resources and give us the capabilityto create products that would be impossible to manufacture on Earth.

We are at the beginning of an exciting crossroads for humanity. The space race of the mid-20th century brought about great change for humanity. Its looking like this iteration will completely transform us.

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Elon Musk Puts a Cap on Ticket Price to Mars Colony. Here's How Much It Could Cost. - Futurism

In Brief A collaboration between MIT and Harvard has yielded a fascinating new way to monitor dynamic levels in blood using color-changing tattoo ink. Though the team has no plans to pursue clinical trials, the technology could foreshadow the future of blood level monitoring. The Tattoo Test

Researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)and Harvard Medical School have developed a tattoo ink that could provide real-time updates on the bodys health. By making ink that responds to interstitial fluid the liquid in which our cells are suspended the researchers have found a unique way to monitor blood glucose, sodium, and ph levels.

The idea of the DermalAbyss project is that an individual would have the ink tattooed onto their body in the pattern of their preference. The tattoo would then change color according to the amount of the activating agent present. A tattoo using the ink designed to respond to glucose levels, for example, would change color from blue to brown as the persons blood sugar level rises.

The technology is an ingenious interaction of the body-art, medical, and bio-sensor sectors. While the researchers haveno immediate plans to release their inkto the public, the potential of the project is huge, and others could possibly explore and expand upon it in the future.

Aside from the initial tattooing process, the researchers skin interfaces are non-invasive, unlike the methods currently usedto monitor diabetes. Theyre also much harder to damage than current wearable technology.

That means the tech could improve millions of lives in the United States alone by helping the 10 percent of the population with diabetesmore easily monitor their disease.

As stated on the project website,the technology could potentially be used to measure far more than just the levels tested in the study: It could be used for applications in [continuous] monitoring, such as medical diagnostics, quantified self, and data encoding in the body.

This isnt the only research exploring innovative uses of tattoos others have found ways to link body ink to sound filesor use it to control smartphones but this research is the first to explicitly explore the medical possibilities of inked biosensors. Though just a proof of concept right now, DermalAbyss could be offering us a glimpse into the future ofhealth monitoring.

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Color-Changing Tattoos Could Help Millions Monitor Their Health in ... - Futurism

In Brief Industry veteran General Motors announced this week that it has finished mass-producing Chevrolet Bolt EV test vehicles. These autonomous cars can potentially catapult GM into the forefront of the growing self-driving car market. GM Joins the Race

Theres a potential new major player in the autonomous vehicle industry, and its a seasoned player in the automotive market. Veteran car maker General Motors (GM) announced Tuesday that its completed 10 self-driving test vehicles of its Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle (EV). Thecars were manufactured at the companysplant in Lake Orion, Michigan. GM believes the achievementcould position the company at the head of the autonomous car race.

The autonomous vehicles you see here today are purpose-built, self-driving test vehicles, GMs chairman and CEO Mary Barra told her employees Tuesday morning, USA Today reported. GM has the platform and the technology to back up its claim: itsthe first car manufacturer to mass produce self-driving vehicles.

The level of integration in these vehicles is on par with any of our production vehicles, and that is a great advantage. In fact, no other company today has the unique and necessary combination of technology, engineering and manufacturing ability to build autonomous vehicles at scale, Barra added.

GM, however, didnt rush to mass production when it came to the development oftest versions of the Chevy Bolt EV. In addition to the efficiency inherent to electric vehicles, the carsare also designed to be more affordable than other EVs on the market. To achieve what we want from self-driving cars, we must deploy them at scale, Cruise Automation CEO Kyle Vogt said in a press release. By developing the next-generation self-driving platform in San Francisco and manufacturing these cars in Michigan, we are creating the safest and most consistent conditions to bring our cars to the most challenging urban roads that we can find.

Currently, autonomous vehicles are still part of a rather niche market, though a number of studies seem to indicate that soon may change.One predicts that by 2024, the demand for self-driving vehicles will have grown to 138,089 units a huge jump from the current demands. Not only that, a previous study, published in 2014,concluded that the autonomous vehicle market would grow to $87 billion by 2030.

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General Motors Just Became the First Car Manufacturer to Mass Produce Autonomous Cars - Futurism

In Brief Fisker Inc. has released details concerning their first electric car, the EMotion. The EV is set to be a game changer in the electric car market due to its impressive milage, high top speed, and fast charging time.

If competition drives innovation, a crowded electric vehicle (EV) marketmay be the bestway to save the environment. One of the latest competitors to enter, Henrik Fisker, just announced a new electric car that may instigate an innovation war that leads to the next wave of cool, high-performing and most importantly climate friendly EVs.

The EMotion the luxurious sibling to the as-yet-unannounced mass market design ostensibly has a range of 643 kilometers (400 miles), a not insignificant improvement on the 563 kilometer (350 mile) range of Teslas Model S. With a top speed of 259 km/h (161 mph) and a nine-minute charging time, the EV lays down a serious benchmark for Tesla.

Fisker is best known for designing some of the most iconic luxury car models in history, including onesthat were used in James Bond films. The EMotion is the first car to be produced by his EV company,Fisker Inc.

Although details concerning the vehicles price, launch date, and autonomous capabilities have not yet been revealed, the EMotions announcement is a welcome update for the people who have been waiting with baited breath to see what the car would look like and how it would compare to Musks designs.

Electric cars are a pivotal part of the global fight against climate change, and the efforts of several car manufacturers including Toyota and Porscheto make them faster, sleeker, and more luxurious are helping EVs break into the supercar sector of the automotive market. Once there is an EV to meet the taste and desires of every driver, we can start to really phase out the vehicles gas-guzzling counterparts.

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Tesla's Original Designer Created a New Car and It Charges in Just 9 Minutes - Futurism

In Brief Virtual reality technology is quickly advancing, but it is still hampered by all of the required gear. Here is a timeline for when you can explore a virtual environment using only your thoughts. VR on the Mind

The technology for virtual reality (VR) has been growing in leaps and bounds over the past few years. From teaching us chemistry to helping us design cars, the virtual world is becoming more and more dominant in our everyday lives.

However, VRis still hampered by the necessity for users to wear clunky headsets and possibly other gear. While these are becoming more user friendly, we wanted to know when we will be able to bypass all that equipment to simply connect VR to our minds directly.We asked Futurism readers what they thought and got a range of predictions.

The decade with the most votes was the 2030s, taking 36 percent of readers votes. One such vote came from Kevin Kealey, who noted our progress in mapping the human brain and predicted this knowledge would soon allow VR techs to place electron inputs and outputs in the right places.

[T]he whole brain will be mapped and fully understood very soon, Kealey commented. We know where emotions come from. We know how to control them. We know most invasive techniques to place things within the body. While we still have a long way to go before we truly comprehend the complexity of the human brain, we are making progress in mapping it even using VR to help get the job done.

These guesses arent too different from some that are coming from experts in the field. For example, Dan Cook,founder of EyeMynd BrainwaveVR, has been working on tech that will allow users to interact in VR using their brainwaves no headset or controller needed.

Ten years from now, this will seem obvious, Cook said in an interview with the Guardian. Computers are becoming fast enough that we can detect and interpret all the signals of the brain in real time.Cook bases his technology off of the principles we observe when people dream. The mind can see and hear without using eyes or ears, and we should be able to harness that neurological ability, Cook argues.

Others in the field are more skeptical about the state of brain-computer interface (BCI) technology. An international group of researchers determined thatmethods for interacting with virtual environments through our thoughts remain in their infancy, as they wrote in a study published in Computer.Major research challenges must be tackled for BCIs to mature into an established means of communication for VR applications, the researchers concluded in the paper.

While we may have to wait a number of years before we can enjoy a virtual world sans headset, companies are continuing to invest in BCI and VRtechnology. Who knows where the sciencewill be by the time they finally release Magic Leap.

See all of the Futurism predictions and make your own predictions here.

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When Will Virtual Reality Be Able to Connect Directly to Our Minds? - Futurism

A Major Spike

On April 1, 2017, the total market cap for all cryptocurrencies was slightly higher than $25 billion. Roughlytwo months later, the cap exceeded $100 billion. In just over 60 days, the value of cryptocurrencies surged by 300 percent. So what is going on?

The leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, recently made headlines by climbing dramatically in value (itscurrently sitting around $2,600USD, about 160 percent higher than its value in April). But Bitcoin hasnt been alone in this extreme growth. The cryptocurrency market as a whole has spiked in value within the last few months.

While those already invested in Bitcoin might be celebrating, this jump is clearly reason to pause for anyone considering entering the market. Historically, what goes up super-fast must come down at least when it comes to the stock market. This has prompted many to call this rise a bubble, leaving investors to wonder when it will burst.

In an interview with Bank Innovation,cryptocurrency trader Jacob Eliosoff, who runs a Bitcoin-focused investment fund, explains:

Factor number one in the general price rise is just another of cryptos periodic bubble[s]: see Nov 2013, March 2013, July 2011. Lots of coins which patently have no plausible long-term use case or value the classic example is Dogecoin, an obsolete joke have set new highs during this frenzy a bad sign.

Author, professor, and game designer Ian Bogosthas previously written about bitcoin for The Atlantic.He shared his view on the latest cryptocurrency surge in an interview with Mic, explaining how the investors themselves could cause a drop in value:

Weve seen with these sort of ups and downs, these small groups of mostly Chinese pools end up with more than 50% of the capacity. And we dont know anything about these organizations. Are they state controlled? The moment [there is too much consolidation in the mining pools], then effectively the platform is dead, at least as a currency.

Anyone looking for proof of the volatile nature of cryptocurrencies, specifically Bitcoin, got it whenMark Cuban publicly criticized the currency.After the billionaire entrepreneur claimed on Twitter that Bitcoin was in a bubble and not, in fact, a currency at all, the cryptocurrency dropped significantly in value, seemingly illustrating a fragile and unstable nature.

Whether due to historical precedent, a monopoly on investment, or simply an easily swayed investor pool, it seems pretty likely that this recent rise of cryptocurrencies will lead to some sort of drop. However, that doesnt mean cryptocurrencies dont have the potential to be a major player, if not the only player, in the future of finance.

One positive development is the increasing diversity of cryptocurrencies. While Bitcoin was long the definitive leader in the market, holding roughly 80 percent of the total market cap, others such as Ethereum are making major gains, knocking Bitcoin down to just about 50 percent. As TechCrunch writer Fitz Tepper notes, The fact that these gains have come from currencies other than Bitcoin are a good sign that this is less of a bubble and more of a resurgence of interest in crypto.

Other experts notethat while drops in value are likely, they dont signal an end to cryptocurrency by any means. As Brian Kelly, CEO and founder of global investment management firm BKCM, told CNBC, Bitcoin isin the first years of what is likely to be a multi-year bull market. Of course there will be corrections and even crashes along the way, but Bitcoin is here to stay.

Blockchain, the technology supporting these digital currencies, may be even more worthy of the investment than the cryptocurrencies themselves. I would say I think conventional wisdom now is that blockchain and the underlying technology is probably more interesting and has more potential than maybe Bitcoin does by itself, Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari explained in aReuters report.

The link between digital currencies and this super-securedistributed database lends further support to the argument that digital currencies are a sound investment. However, only time will tell whether this current period of rapid growth will slow, plateau, drop, or continue skyward. As with any investment, the potential for reward comes with its share of risks, but right now, the future looks pretty bright for cryptocurrency.

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The Cryptocurrency Market is Exploding. Here's What You Need to Know. - Futurism