Futurism

This cybernetic hand is the first to give amputees a sense of touch

You’re looking at LifeHand2, a prosthetic limb that allows amputees to feel sensory-rich information in real time. The futuristic device, which transmits signals to nerves in the upper arm, is not yet commercially available or portable — but it represents an important proof-of-concept as researchers work to create more life-like assistive devices. To date, researchers…

io9 George Dvorsky

What happens when two chatbots try to seduce each other

Brandon Boyer was constantly being hit up by chatbots on his instant message client, and then he decided to try an experiment: What if he fed them to each other? So two of them could have a conversation amongst themselves. This is what it looks like when bots try to seduce each other: Writing in…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

The military has developed a robotic convoy that doesn’t need humans

The U.S. Army, working with Lockheed Martin, has successfully demonstrated the ability of fully autonomous convoys to operate in urban environments and under difficult conditions. It’s all part of the military’s ongoing effort to eliminate soldiers from the equation. The demonstration took place at Fort Hood, and it’s part of the Army and Marine Corp’s…

io9 George Dvorsky

This is what London’s skyline could look like in 20 years

With more than 200 towers of heights 20 stories or greater planned to be built in London over the next 20 years, the UK’s capital city is in for some big visual changes. Architectural visualization firm Hayes Davidson places those planned towers over a current image of London to imagine the future shape of London’s…

io9 Lauren Davis

These Futuristic Houses Will Blow Your Mind

Some of these sleek, weird houses look like they’ve been ripped out of the twenty-second century — and some look like they’re from the next millennium. Get ready to move into the freaky saucer homes of tomorrow. Sleeper House or Sculptured House, Genesee Mountain, Colorado (Charles Deaton, 1963) This famous elliptical house was one of…

io9 Vincze Miklós

Senior U.S. spies warn of future security threats

A senior American spy chief has released his assessment of the most troubling threats facing the US — a list that includes terrorism, hackers, WMD proliferation, pandemics, extreme weather events — and the militarization of space. The report, titled “Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community,” was presented by James Clapper on Wednesday to…

io9 George Dvorsky

Medical breakthrough could lead to functional artificial skin

Swiss researchers have achieved a major breakthrough in the development of bioengineered skin. The new grafts, which are about to undergo clinical trials, work a lot like the real thing — because they actually contain functioning blood vessels and lymph capillaries. The breakthrough was made by Daniela Marino and her team from the Tissue Biology…

io9 George Dvorsky

Drilling surprise opens door to volcano-powered electricity

Can enormous heat deep in the earth be harnessed to provide energy for us on the surface? A promising report from a geothermal borehole project that accidentally struck magma – the same fiery, molten rock that spews from volcanoes – suggests it could. Above: One of Iceland’s geothermal power plants | Photo by Gretar Ivarsson…

io9 Michael Parker – The Conversation

Lockheed takes a major step toward bringing lasers to the battlefield

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin has successfully demonstrated a 30-kilowatt fiber optic laser for military applications. It’s one of the most powerful lasers ever seen — and a major step forward to getting directed-energy weapons on the battlefield. Described as a “weapons grade” laser, the 30-kilowatt beam combines many fiber lasers operating a slightly different wavelengths…

io9 George Dvorsky

This famous brain was cut into 2,400 slices and uploaded to the cloud

Henry Molaison had one of the most unique brains known to neuroscience. Now, six years after “H.M.’s” death, his brain has been sliced, digitized, uploaded, and made available to scientists for further study. Back in 1953, surgeons performed an operation on Molaison in an effort to alleviate his terrible seizures. A team led by William…

io9 George Dvorsky

10 Failed Utopian Cities That Influenced the Future

Some of the most famous cities in history were never built. These 10 Utopian cities may have been failures, but they expressed our ideas about what the future of human civilization could look like. And many ideas contained in them continue to influence us today. Illustration from Destiny 1. Octagon City, the Vegetarian Utopia In…

io9 Annalee Newitz and Emily Stamm

The robotic future won’t look anything like what you imagine

In late autumn, I walked through drifts of crunchy leaves in Berkeley’s warehouse district to find a strange lab on the shores of San Francisco Bay. Inside, on a work bench surrounded by tidy coils of wire and electrical tape, two geeks were building the next robot revolution. But there were no Google-esque dog armies…

io9 Annalee Newitz

The future of music is . . . radio?

We’ve passed through the MP3 revolution, then moved into the streaming cloud — but in the future, we’re going de-evolve back into the old days when our music was chosen for us by a DJ. Except of course this DJ will be a personal surveillance device. That’s what Janel Torkington argues in an article for…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Vietnam gets flooded in the disaster epic Nuoc 2030

Here’s the stark image of Vietnam under water, in the new movie Nuoc 2030, which is getting its premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival. Check out the teaser trailer and poster below. Here’s the synopsis of Nuoc 2030, which sounds like one of the bleakest visions of near-future climate change we’ve seen in movies…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

The world’s first magma-powered geothermal plant

Introducing ICCP-1, the world’s first magma-enhanced geothermal system. Located in Iceland, it’s an important proof-of-concept that could lead to a revolution in the energy efficiency of high-temperature geothermal areas across the globe. Back in 2009, as part of the Icelandic Deep Drilling Project (IDDP), workers at the Krafla geothermal plant in northeast Iceland unexpectedly struck…

io9 George Dvorsky

The monstrous Sky Whale could be the future of air travel

This concept plane is called the AWWA Sky Whale and it’s the brainchild of Spanish designer Oscar Viñals. Should it ever leave the ground, the three-floor aircraft would hold 755 passengers and be powered by four large hybrid engines. The concept plane was designed with current and future technologies in mind, including micro-solar panels that…

io9 George Dvorsky

Researchers predict Facebook will die out “like a disease”

By drawing similarities between Facebook’s rapid adoption and the proliferation of an infectious disease, researchers at Princeton have devised a model that predicts Facebook will lose 80% of its users by 2017. “Ideas, like diseases, have been shown to spread infectiously between people before eventually dying out, and have been successfully described with epidemiological models,”…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

The Time Gateway is Open! Move to Neutropolis Before Prices Skyrocket!

It never fails: People from the early 21st century start opening time gateways and moving to the super-cities of 23,000 A.D. And before you know it, all of those time-jumping gentrifiers have driven real estate prices through the Oort Cloud. But it’s not too late to get a bargain. We’re selling Xondos, Laafts, and Full…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Microsoft’s ‘smart elevator’ knows where you’re going

In a recent Bloomberg Television interview, Head of Microsoft Research Peter Lee described his company’s latest achievement: An elevator that uses AI to figure out which floor you’re going to. Microsoft is currently working on a suite of applications and ‘smart devices‘ that, instead of being operated directly, intuitively work on a user’s behalf. https://gizmodo.com/hacked-fridge-sends-out-malicious-emails-in-unprecedent-1503472917…

io9 George Dvorsky

Hacked fridge sends out malicious emails in unprecedented cyber attack

You know how virtually everything these days is connected to the internet? And how tech companies don’t give a crap about security? Well, as a recent Internet of Things cyber attack has shown, our appliances are being made to turn against us. According to the security firm Proofpoint, a number of so-called smart appliances were…

io9 George Dvorsky

This cybernetic hand is the first to give amputees a sense of touch

What happens when two chatbots try to seduce each other

The military has developed a robotic convoy that doesn’t need humans

This is what London’s skyline could look like in 20 years

These Futuristic Houses Will Blow Your Mind

Senior U.S. spies warn of future security threats

Medical breakthrough could lead to functional artificial skin

Drilling surprise opens door to volcano-powered electricity

Lockheed takes a major step toward bringing lasers to the battlefield

This famous brain was cut into 2,400 slices and uploaded to the cloud

10 Failed Utopian Cities That Influenced the Future

The robotic future won’t look anything like what you imagine

The future of music is . . . radio?

Vietnam gets flooded in the disaster epic Nuoc 2030

The world’s first magma-powered geothermal plant

The monstrous Sky Whale could be the future of air travel

Researchers predict Facebook will die out “like a disease”

The Time Gateway is Open! Move to Neutropolis Before Prices Skyrocket!

Microsoft’s ‘smart elevator’ knows where you’re going

Hacked fridge sends out malicious emails in unprecedented cyber attack

JBL Boombox 4 Speaker Didn’t Stay at Full Price for Long as Amazon’s Spring Sale Pushes It Close to Used Pricing

Final Call: Get NordVPN at $266 Off + Amazon Gift Card (Few Days Left)

C-3PO’s Head From ‘Empire Strikes Back’ Sold for a Cool Million

T-Mobile 5G Home Internet Delivers Fast Speeds, Low Monthly Prices and Cash Back

Trump Says He’ll Sign Order to Pay TSA

Deadpool Will Deface ‘Magic: The Gathering’ Classics for a New Secret Lair

Apple’s Siri Isn’t Just Going to Use One Chatbot. It’s Going to Use All of Them

Why ‘For All Mankind’ Season 5 Is the Key to the Rest of the Series

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?

Asus ROG’s Cetra Open Wireless Gaming Earbuds Might Be Better Than Wearing a Headset

Nintendo’s Talking Flower Is Annoying as Hell. I Love It

Level Lock Pro Review: As Good as a Secret Smart Lock Gets

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