Futurism

Scientists Clone a Mouse From a Single Drop of Blood

Japanese researchers have successfully cloned a mouse from a drop of blood taken from a donor’s tail. The breakthrough means that animals don’t have to be euthanized when extracting their cells, which could prove important if we’re ever going to clone endangered animals. Typically, somatic nuclear cell transfer — the same technique used to clone…

io9 George Dvorsky

Would it be evil to build a functional brain inside a computer?

There’s been a lot of talk recently about using supercomputers to simulate the human brain. But as scientists get progressively closer to achieving this goal, they’re going to have to consider the ethics involved. By making minds that live inside machines, we run the risk of inflicting serious harm. https://gizmodo.com/new-1-6-billion-supercomputer-project-will-attempt-to-5980117 Brain mapping is all the…

io9 George Dvorsky

A project to build a robot with the intelligence of a three year-old

Hanson Robotics has launched a new Indigogo campaign to create “the world’s smartest robot.” Named Adam Z1, the robot will eventually be able to speak, play with toys, draw pictures, and respond with emotions. And the project is no joke. Robot designer and researcher David Hanson has pooled together three other experts in this area,…

io9 George Dvorsky

Why “Networked Matter” Is One Futurist Concept You Need to Know

Just as there are political think tanks, there are also futurist ones — they offer wisdom about emerging trends to companies and other organizations who make long-term plans. And top futurist think tank Institute for the Future wants you to know about one trend that could change the very structure of reality. They call this…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Take a psychedelic trip on Tokyo’s driverless transit system

Got five minutes? Give your brain a vacation with this mesmerizing hyperlapse video, shot from the front of Tokyo’s fully-automated Yurikamome transit system. The video, dubbed “Hyper Drive Yurikamome,” was created by Japanese videographer darwinfish105. According to his blog, he mirrored left and right and up and down to give the experience that whole floating-city…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

How can you tell you’re living in the future?

Police are shooting down protester drones in Istanbul. We have mind-controlled robotic arms. The US government is funding a map of the human brain. Plus, computers can recognize pictures of cats on the internet and we have a robot living on Mars. Has the future finally arrived? https://gizmodo.com/portraits-in-posthumanity-claudia-mitchell-5532085 https://gizmodo.com/heres-how-obamas-brain-mapping-project-will-actually-5986161 https://gizmodo.com/how-artificial-intelligences-will-see-us-5923496 https://gizmodo.com/nasa-unveils-a-spellbinding-billion-pixel-panorama-of-m-514412670 Photo of a DiY…

io9 Annalee Newitz

What do you do when your work becomes obsolete?

The Last Ice Merchant is the story of Baltazar Ushca – a 67-year-old, 5-foot-tall man who has been harvesting glacial ice from Ecuador’s Mount Chimborazo for over 50 years with little more than his hands, some hay, and a small pack of donkeys. Ushca lives a life of toil, and for very little pay. That…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

How could we engineer humans to have more empathy?

People are capable of amazing kindness, but also of unbelievable callousness. We go out of our way to help strangers, but we also turn a blind eye to misery. But what if you could make human beings kind all the time? What does science teach us about empathy, and how to create it in people?…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

By 2100, there could be 11 billion people on the planet

According to a newly-released estimate from the UN, humanity is on track to grow to a global population of 11 billion people by the end of this century. Currently, there are 7.2 billion people on the planet and we’re growing fast. https://gizmodo.com/we-are-way-off-target-if-we-hope-to-feed-everyone-by-20-514122382 UN Population Division director John Wilmoth said in a release: For the world…

io9 Annalee Newitz

We are way off target if we hope to feed everyone by 2050

A comprehensive study suggests that food production is not on track to keep up with population growth. That means food prices are going to rise in coming decades. This trend could also reverse the progress we’ve made in world food security. Previous studies have shown that we’ll need to boost current yields by 60% to…

io9 George Dvorsky

Millionaire in the machine

Dmitry Itskov dreams of immortality. It’s a dream that the Russian multimillionaire is hoping to engineer into reality in a relatively short 32 years with his creation of the “2045 Initiative” – a project devoted to the kind of “life extension technologies” that currently populate science fiction. Mr Itskov’s second attempt at promoting those technologies…

Tech News Tracy Alloway

Modern life moves way too fast, and we all take our pleasures sadly

Today’s XKCD centers on the human tendency to reflect on the past through an idyllic lens (or look toward the future through a foreboding, misanthropic one). It’s fantastic. Every day brings with it a new batch of innovation that helps us read faster, communicate quicker, assimilate information more efficiently, and travel more speedily than ever.…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

New echo-detecting app could allow humans to ‘see’ like bats

By using five microphones, a speaker, and a sophisticated new echolocation algorithm, researchers have successfully built a full 3D image of a cathedral’s insanely complex interior. The same technology could someday allow humans to navigate in total darkness. Top image: Fine Art America. Bats, dolphins, and some visually impaired humans use reflected sound to create…

io9 George Dvorsky

Would you copy your mind to a robotic body-double?

A central theme of the recently concluded GF2045 Congress was the idea of achieving a kind of immortality by transferring our minds to avatars or robots. Indeed, as Japanese professor Hiroshi Ishiguro’s presentation clearly showed, our robotic doppelgangers will truly be made to look and act like the real thing. During his presentation at Alice…

io9 George Dvorsky

It looks like PayPal is making a move to be the first bank in space

Forgot to bring your wallet to the Red Planet Gift Shop? Not to worry. If a recent rumor is true, you may be able to pay for that Martian trinket by using PayPal. Speculation is going around that PayPal, in cooperation with NASA, the Space Tourism Society, and the SETI Institute, will be announcing a…

io9 George Dvorsky

This is the fastest and most adorable robotic cat yet

Many of us are familiar with the Pengaton’s Cheetah robot — the world’s fastest mechanical mammal. But that feline brute is rather big and, well, even a bit severe. Thankfully, there’s now a kinder, gentler version — the cheetah-cub robot. https://gizmodo.com/the-pentagons-robotic-cheetah-is-the-fastest-mechanical-5890576 Developed by EPFL’s Biorobotics Laboratory, cheetah-cub’s legs were designed to mimic feline morphology. It’s…

io9 George Dvorsky

WiFi gesture recognition lets you control objects through walls

Imagine, with the wave of a hand, adjusting the thermostat without getting out of bed, or turning up the music in the other room while in the shower. WiSee, a new gesture-recognition system, aims to harness the ever-present wireless Internet signals blanketing people’s homes to allow remote control of all their electronics. Since walls pose…

io9 Rachel Nuwer — Txchnologist

The Future of Civil Disobedience Online

Familiar political tools like petitions, fundraisers, mass letter-writing, call-in campaigns now have online equivalents. But what about protest tactics like street marches, picket lines, sit-ins, and occupations? Where is the room on the internet for civil disobedience? In the offline United States, civil disobedience is widely respected as a valid form of political activism. It…

io9 Molly Sauter

This is what it’s like to shake hands with the future

Meet Nigel Ackland, the recipient of the Bebionic 3 artificial hand — the world’s most advanced cybernetic limb. He was just one of over 30 remarkable scientists, technologists, and futurists who spoke at the recently concluded Global Future 2045 Congress held this past weekend in New York. I got back from GF2045 late last night…

io9 George Dvorsky

This is the scariest chart you’ll see this week

These are the top 10 countries to request user data from tech companies in 2012. Guess who’s leading the pack? In other national security news, The Atlantic reports “defenders of Edward Snowden’s leaks got a bit trickier Wednesday afternoon, with revelations about his embarrassing past. Turns out, Snowden was once a teenager and, worse, that…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Scientists Clone a Mouse From a Single Drop of Blood

Would it be evil to build a functional brain inside a computer?

A project to build a robot with the intelligence of a three year-old

Why “Networked Matter” Is One Futurist Concept You Need to Know

Take a psychedelic trip on Tokyo’s driverless transit system

How can you tell you’re living in the future?

What do you do when your work becomes obsolete?

How could we engineer humans to have more empathy?

By 2100, there could be 11 billion people on the planet

We are way off target if we hope to feed everyone by 2050

Millionaire in the machine

Modern life moves way too fast, and we all take our pleasures sadly

New echo-detecting app could allow humans to ‘see’ like bats

Would you copy your mind to a robotic body-double?

It looks like PayPal is making a move to be the first bank in space

This is the fastest and most adorable robotic cat yet

WiFi gesture recognition lets you control objects through walls

The Future of Civil Disobedience Online

This is what it’s like to shake hands with the future

This is the scariest chart you’ll see this week

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