Category Archives: Futurism

In BriefA man with quadriplegia was able to use a system combining abrain-computer interface (BCI) and Functional ElectricalStimulation (FES) technology to move his arms again just bythinking. Movement Lost and Found

Eight years ago, Bill Kochevar was paralyzed in a cycling accident. Since then, he hasnt been able to move anything below his shoulders until now.

As part of a trial at Case Western Reserve University,two tiny, 96-channel electrodes were implanted in the motor cortex of Kochevars brain. Essentially, the electrodes register the actions of his neurons and respond by signaling a device that stimulates his arm muscles. The system has given him the ability to grasp and lift things the same way he used to, by simply thinking the command to his body. He can now drink through a straw after raising a mug of water to his mouth and eat mashed potatoes with a fork.

Kochevar prepared for the trials by learning how to move a virtual reality (VR) arm on a computer using his mind. He practiced this for four months, after which 36 electrodes were surgically implanted into his right arm. The electrodes were strategically placed to control the movement of his upper and lower arm, elbow, hand, shoulder, and wrist.

Now, when Kochevar thinks about moving his arm, the brain signals travel to the brain-computer interface (BCI), which decodesand translates them into commands for intended movements. Those commands are then converted again into patterns of electrical pulses by the Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) system in his arm. The pulses stimulate the electrodes, which move the muscles.

This successful trial, which wasthe first of its kind in the world, was part of the BrainGate2 study, which is researching the feasibility and safety of using BCI systems to help paralyzed people.

The research team says that advances needed to use the technology outside of a lab setting are not far from reality.

The brain implant would need to be wireless, but work on that is already underway. The movements themselves would also need to be more precise. That will be achieved once the investigators improve the stimulation and decoding patterns. FES systems that are entirely implantable are already being tested in other clinical research, as well.

Every day, most of us take for granted that when we will to move, we can move any part of our body with precision and control in multiple directions, and those with traumatic spinal cord injury or any other form of paralysis cannot, Case Western Reserve School of Medicine associate professor of neurology Benjamin Waltertold The Daily Case. By restoring the communication of the will to move from the brain directly to the body, this work will hopefully begin to restore the hope of millions of paralyzed individuals that someday they will be able to move freely again.

For somebody whos been injured eight years and couldnt move, being able to move just that little bit is awesome to me, said Kochevar. Its better than I thought it would be.

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Brain Implants Have Allowed a Quadriplegic Man to Move His Arm - Futurism

In BriefRecent years have brought some rapid development in the areaof artificially intelligent personal assistants. Future iterationsof the technology could fully revamp the way we interact with ourdevices.

The following article was inspired by futurist John Smarts series on the future of personal AI assistants, aka Sims. In a paraphrase offuturist Stewart Brandhe notes, We are gaining superpowers, so we better get good at using them.

The world has filled up with digital clutter, millions of apps, websites, news sources, videos, messaging programs and social media platforms. Technology was meant to make life easier, to organize and make sense of things, to free us from drudgery, not fill it with more crap we dont want.

Help is on the way. A race is going on between the tech giants to be the first to come up with the last app you will ever need. A single program that will be incredibly easy for anyone to use and that can do everything you want it to do.

Siri, the first widely distributed AI assistant, is about five years old. Back then, in the good ol days of 2012, there wasnt much that she could do, at best if you yelled at her loud enough she might be able to tell you what the weather was like outside. Today there are a wide variety to choose from, the most intelligent are Amazons Alexa and Googles Assistant, and they have come a long way from their primitive predecessor.

AI assistants have grown up fast thanks in large part to the growth of a branch of machine learning called NLP, natural language processing. Rapid improvements in this field have enabled us to talk to our machines almost as we would a human. They can now play whatever song you tell them to, instantly translate almost any phrase you say into any language you want, andanswer just about any question you have.

And they are getting smarter every day. The goal of NLP is to get these machines to understand speech as well ashumans can.This has been a huge stumbling block for AI but once it gets passed thisthe entire field will take a giant leap forward. Combined with advances being made in other areas of machine learning, these assistants will eventually gain the ability to help you complete any task you can think of, relegating all the apps and programs that you use today into the background as they will simply become the abilities of your personal assistant.

Also, your Sim will be unique. Every interaction you have with the online world today is being collected and stored in giant data bases, eventually these sims will use all of this information to read through every email and message you have ever sent and check every website you have ever visited tolearn about your job, your likes and dislikes, your hobbies, and your relationships, all to try and figure out how best to help you. It will also learn about your preferences and your habits as you use it, adapting to your particular character traits.

When Steve Jobs announced the iPhone 10 years ago he was able to boldly proclaim that it was going to revolutionize how we interact with technology because he understood one thing about successful tools, they have to be easy enough for anyone to use. The user interface on the iPhone was moreintuitive than any piece of tech before it, allowing anybody to pick it up and use it. It only took a few years before everyone on earth had a similar smart phone in their pocket.

Sims will be even more intuitive because all youll have to do is talk to them. Everyone from monks on the foothills of Tibet to the President of the United States will have one. And it will be far more than just your personal assistant. It will effectively be your doctor, your lawyer, your accountant, your travel agent, your instant messenger, your source of news, and any other service that relies on passing information from one person to another.

It will also be able to do much of your job for you, freeing up your time. However, depending on what you do, it wont take long for your boss to realize that his or her own Sim can also do your job.

Most experts say we are anywhere from 5 to 10 years away from having the technology in place and another 2 or 3 years after that for them to become widely distributed.

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Tech Giants Are Racing to Be the First to Develop The Last App - Futurism

In BriefOn March 30th, 2017, SpaceX will make a historic attempt toreuse the Falcon 9 rocket for a new space mission. Should thisattempt be successful, it could mark the age of an economicallyviable space industry. Here We Go!

Elon Musks SpaceX is planning to make history today with the first relaunch and re-landing of a previously launched and landed Falcon 9 rocket booster. A successful operation will be revolutionary for future missions to space.

The booster was first launched on April 8, 2016, and was successfully recovered after it landed on a drone ship stationed out on the Atlantic Ocean. The originallaunch was also carrying a satellite into orbit.

Pending good weather, SpaceX is hoping to relaunch then recover the lower half of their Falcon 9 rocket. The rocket will be carrying a satellite into orbit for SES, a Luxembourg-based telecommunications company, that will provide internet and television service for a large portion of Central America as well as South America.

SES really wanted to be involved in the first launch from a reusable rocket, saidMarcus Payer, the global communications director for SES.

Wherever we can change the industry equation, we will do it. We were waving our hands to be the first, Payer said in an interview with Business Insider. We are not risk-averse, otherwise we would not be launching satellites.

The goal of reusable rockets is to cut the cost of launching missions to space significantly. SpaceX already boasts the most affordable rocket launches in the world, but they could get even cheaper should reusing prove successful, especially since the boosters are the most expensive components of SpaceXs rockets. The move could give SpaceX customers a 30 percent discount on launches, potentially saving companies $18 million per launch.

A more cost effective way to get to space could really invigorate the space industry. Cheaper launches will enable more countries to get in on the cosmic action. Musk is confident that the rocket boosters could be reused more than 100 times.

SES CTO Martin Halliwellsaid his company is proud to play a role in this innovation. We believe reusable rockets will open up a new era of spaceflight, and make access to space more efficient in terms of cost and manifest management,Halliwellsaid in an SES press release.

Another exciting potential of reusable rockets is the ability to travel to and from colonized planets. One of SpaceXs major goals is to get humans onto Mars. The ability to launch multiple missions with the same rockets will significantly cut down the cost ofcolonizing such a planet.

Even before we see that lofty goal as a possibility, a lot of excellent work can be done with increased accessibility to space. The implications for commercial space travel, communications satellites, andastronomical research could truly make this technological feat one for the history books.

This is not a one-off. If it works, it will become a key element in all future satellite constellations, Payer said in the Business Insider interview. Well be double-happy if this goes well, for both our sake and SpaceXs.

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Today, SpaceX Will Try Something Potentially Revolutionary in Humanity's Journey Into Space - Futurism

In BriefThe Analemma is a futuristic concept for the world's tallestskyscraper, which would hang from an orbiting asteroid, designed byClouds Architecture Office. While its design is impressive, theAnalemma may prove to be impractical, and (definitely) fatal. A Literal Skyscraper

To go where no man has gone before is a motto that resonates at the heart of manyfuturists and Trekkies (or Trekkers). The sentimentcertainly seems to be the idea behind a design for an out-of-this-world building concept that brings out the literal meaning of skyscraper.

From the minds atClouds Architecture Office, the Analemma Tower is designed to be the future of structural form. Suspended from an orbiting asteroid via super-strong cables, the Analemma rises or falls down, depending on your perspective more than 32,000 meters (104,987 feet) high.

Analemma inverts the traditional diagram of an earth-based foundation, instead depending on a space-based supporting foundation from which the tower is suspended, according to Clouds Architecture. This system, they say, is referred to as the Universal Orbital Support System (UOSS).

The building would be powered by space-based solar panels and be divided into nine sections. The top three levels, closer to its asteroid-base, are the funerary, reliquary, and worship sections. The very bottom, the part the scrapes the Earths sky, is an entertainment area where guests and residents can shop and dine. Above that is a business and commercial section, while a huge section of the tower is residential.

The Analemma would follow a geosynchronous orbit matches Earths sidereal rotation period of one day, according to Clouds Architecture. The towers position in the sky traces out a path in a figure-8 form, returning the tower to exactly the same position in the sky each day.

Theres just one problem: You would absolutely die on this skyscraper. Also, we arent good enough at physics to make this work.okay, so two problems.

An orbiting building thatpeople can parachute from seems like a good idea, and it isuntil it isnt. Not only would its absurd location demand incredibly high prices prices that are unprecedented in the history of real estate the very concept itself raises a number of concerns.

First, theres no air, so youd probably asphyxiate. Second, its not really clear how gravity would work on this. Theoretically, the asteroid would be big enough to keep you tethered to the rock (and inside the skyscraper), but given that the skyscraper is so close to Earth, its not looking good.

Never mind the absurd precisionneeded to get an asteroid to follow an artificial orbit this close to our own planet, what about making sure that the asteroid survives and doesnt hit other space objects? Space debris, anyone?

Theres just too much uncertainty (and, you know, physics) that keeps the Analemma from being a good idea for future citiesand future worlds. Fortunately! Clouds Architecture isnt the only one with ideas for whatthe cities of the future will look like. There are a number of viable options, such as cities floating on water and concepts for colonies on Mars. Then theres also plans for colonies on the Moon, including the ESAs Moon Village.As for skyscraper ideas, Dubais 3D-printed buildingsare a bitmore probable than the Analemma.

In any case, its fun to imagine how the future will look.While we may not put our money on the the Analemma Tower, it may well inspire some ideas that are worth investing in.

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Here's How Long You'd Survive on a Skyscraper That Hangs Off an Asteroid - Futurism

Jamiroquais eighth album straddles two traditional scenarios: a dystopian, digital future and booze-soaked sunny days spent spying on sophisticated ladies. Set to the sounds of French touch, disco funk, Tron movie scores and Bond-style strings, there are agitated prophecies such as on synth onslaught Automaton and libidinous love songs: he worships at the feet of a cosmopolitan female on Summer Girl, while Hot Property is about a woman whose mind is so sharp that she just killed a man.

While his energies might have waned (his voice on the chemically addled Dr Buzz is particularly fried), the spooky groove of We Can Do It and the chintzy jazz-lite of Vitamin revive the classic traits of his early career. Despite some naff phrases, dodgy song titles and a lot of robotic trickery, during times of grim austerity, the return of Jay Kays elite, escapist lifestyle full of fast cars, fast girls and big bulldozing basslines offers a flash of ostentatious fun.

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Jamiroquai: Automaton review escapist futurism and libidinous love songs - The Guardian

In Brief A new algorithm has shown in simulations that traffic jams can be considerably reduced even if just 10 percent of cars on the road follow its guidelines. Traffic Troubles

Despite differences in individual politicsand any number of other preferences, onething many people agree on is how much they loathe getting stuck in traffic. Those that do share the sentiment withElon Musk, whose desire to find a better mode of public transportlead to the birth of Hyperloop. Although, another solution may just be to wait thirty years for autonomous vehiclesto take the main stage.

Estimates sayAmericans spent a collective 6.9 billion hours stuck in traffic in 2014. Which rounds to 42 hours per average citizen,per year, spent in traffic thats almost two days of sitting in your vehicle. Moreover, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that there were over 6 million traffic accidents in 2015. To make matters worse, the number of accidents per year has only been going up, with a 5% increase since 2006. The cost for traffic-related incidents runs up to $2200 billion per year in developed countries worldwide. Although there is promise in new AI research that might just make traffic problems a thing of the past.

Computer scientists at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore are working on an algorithm that can reduce traffic jams through intelligent routing. The program runs with the breakdown assumption, which is idea that at some point within a large traffic density, something (such as an accident)willprobably happen. The programs task is to minimize the probability of such a traffic breakdown.

After working their algorithm in simulations, and further analysis with BMW, the team is confident that their algorithm can positively improve traffic even if just 10percent of the cars in a network are driving according to their optimizations.

With similar algorithms improving in the years to come, we may live to see a day whentraffic accidents are a thing of the past. Our predecessors may one day look at how we drive, and at car safety, the way we gawk in horror at how things were almost a century ago.

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A New "Intelligent Routing" Algorithm for Cars Could Dramatically ... - Futurism