Futurism

Somali pirates continue to use rocket launchers and grenades to attack ships

The pirates of Somalia are getting even more bold and heavily-armed than ever. Earlier this week, twelve pirates were arrested after they attacked a merchant vessel with rocket propelled grenades. If contemporary piracy is going to emulate historical piracy, you can bet that today’s pirates will be tomorrow’s mercenaries for powers in the developed world.…

io9 Annalee Newitz

10 Landmarks in Science Fiction History That Could Happen in Your Lifetime

The Golden Age of science fiction is long over. But some of the genre’s greatest moments haven’t arrived yet. There are major landmarks in the history of science fiction that are just on the horizon — and some of them could arrive in your lifetime. Technology may have caught up to science fiction in some…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

A House Shaped Like a Flying Saucer, Perched Atop a Volcano

This is the famous “Volcano House,” which belonged to broadcaster Huell Howser until his death recently. Now, it’s been donated to Chapman University — which means if you go to Chapman, you might be able to take a sabbatical and live there, while pretending you’re a supervillain with your own volcano lair. The flying saucer-shaped…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

New video of Machine Perception Lab’s creepy robot baby shows that it is indeed creepy

We’ve known about Machine Perception Lab‘s super-realistic robot baby for quite some time now, but we’ve never actually seen it in action — at least until now. As this new video shows, roboticists appear to be getting perilously close to crossing the uncanny valley — while scaring the crap out of the good children of…

io9 George Dvorsky

How to Rebuild a Broken Ecosystem — Yes, You Can Do It, Too!

A couple of months ago, people wandering in the ruins of the Sutro Baths on San Francisco’s Ocean Beach noticed something odd. An otter was swimming around in what was, 120 years ago, a giant luxury pool at the water’s edge. Now the place is so eroded that it looks more like part of the…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Bruce Sterling’s Advice for New Science Fiction Authors: “Trying to ace your way through collapsing industries is a drag”

There’s a must-read interview with legendary Cyberpunk author Bruce Sterling over at FortyKey, where Cory Doctorow, Paul Di Filippo and a bunch of other people ask him questions about writing and the future. In particular, Di Filippo asks him what his strategy would be for breaking in as a new science fiction writer in 2013,…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

William Shatner is sending messages to outer space — and getting a response!

More proof that we live in the future! William Shatner tweeted at an astronaut in space — who responded right away, in Star Trek language. Wrote Shatner: To which the Canadian Space Agency’s Chris Hadfield responded immediately: The future is pretty awesome sometimes. [via The Atlantic]

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Just how much about your future could someone tell from your DNA?

These days, we’re all obsessed with unlocking the secrets of the human genome, and also with tracking and analyzing every aspect of our lives. The new movie Life Tracker takes both of those ideas to their most absurd extreme — there’s a service that can analyze your DNA and figure out exactly when you’ll die…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

The Most Futuristic Predictions That Came True in 2012

Yesterday we told you about the biggest scientific breakthroughs of 2012. But now we turn our attention to those developments that make us realize just how futuristic things are quickly becoming. https://gizmodo.com/the-biggest-scientific-breakthroughs-of-2012-5971542 And the past year provided no shortage of futureshock. We watched a cyborg compete at the Olympic Games, and marveled at the news…

io9 George Dvorsky

Could the U.S. economy stop growing forever?

We take economic growth for granted — it’s one of the defining characteristics of our economy that it grows, year after year. Any period when the economy doesn’t grow is called a recession, and this is a kind of temporary economic emergency. Top image: Kanu101/Flickr. But sociology/economics professor Robert J. Gordon argues that we shouldn’t…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Could a captive tornado power an entire city?

The Thiel Foundation’s Breakout Labs recently announced its plans to fund a radical new approach to producing cheap and clean energy. Called the Atmospheric Vortex Engine (AVE), the highly conceptual power plant would generate a controlled tornado that drives multiple turbines. With controlled being the key word, here. The idea was devised by Canadian engineer…

io9 George Dvorsky

Why We Should Let the Robots Take Over

Wired’s Kevin Kelly has penned an article in which he argues that we should let robots take our jobs — a welcome development that will help us to “dream up new work that matters.” Moreover, it will be through this process that humanity can liberate itself from dangerous and demeaning work, and allow us to…

io9 George Dvorsky

Meet the cheap facial-recognition system that will identify you everywhere you go

You are being watched — especially when you go to the airport. But now you might be recognized, too. A company called Flight Display Systems has been demonstrating a $9,275 facial recognition device (pictured here) that can be installed inside airplane doors to check the identity of every person entering the plane, and alert staff…

io9 Annalee Newitz

China arrests 500 people for believing in tomorrow’s Mayan Apocalypse

Here in the United States, we’re mostly treating tomorrow’s scheduled End of Days as a bit of a joke — but in China, it’s deadly serious. At least, serious enough for the Chinese government to round up and detain 500 members of the Church of Almighty God, a Chinese religious sect, for spreading the notion…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Will humans continue to evolve during multigenerational space missions?

Scientific American has posted an interview and podcast with Portland State University anthropologist Cameron Smith about the ways in which humans might evolve during extended missions in space. Given the intense timeframes involved, Smith speculates about the various ways in which Darwinian pressures will continue to shape human evolution. Just because we’re in space, he…

io9 George Dvorsky

A virus that reprograms your pacemaker to deliver an electric shock

What’s likely to become a health threat you never expected next year? 4Chan griefers could actually deliver death or injury from the safety of their forums with a virus designed to infect medical devices. Many of these devices, such as pacemakers, can be reprogrammed wirelessly. And that means bad guys could reprogram your pacemaker (or…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Will we ever have cyborg brains?

Over at BBC Future, computer scientist Martin Angler has put together a provocative piece about humanity’s collision course with cybernetic technologies. Today, says Angler, we’re using neural interface devices and other assistive technologies to help the disabled. But in short order we’ll be able to radically enhance human capacites — prompting him to wonder about…

io9 George Dvorsky

When will we finally have a world government?

Political scientists and science fiction writers alike have long been taken with the idea that humans would one day form a global government. Yet few of us take this prospect very seriously, often dismissing it as an outright impossibility or very far off in the future. Given the rapid pace of globalization, however, it would…

io9 George Dvorsky

I wrote a science fiction story, and parts of it came true by the time it got published

My story “Intestate” is up now at Tor.com — it’s one of the weirdest things I’ve ever written, sort of an attempt to do something like The Royal Tenenbaums except with mad science. But perhaps the strangest part is how much has changed since I was writing “Intestate,” back in the heady days of 2011.…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

Within five years, IBM’s smartphone will hear, see, smell, taste, and feel

At the end of each year, IBM Research lists “innovations that will change our lives in the next five years.” This year’s “IBM 5 in 5” is particularly intriguing in that their braintrust is heralding the age of “cognitive computing” — a technological era in which computers and handheld devices can better approximate and even…

io9 George Dvorsky

Somali pirates continue to use rocket launchers and grenades to attack ships

10 Landmarks in Science Fiction History That Could Happen in Your Lifetime

A House Shaped Like a Flying Saucer, Perched Atop a Volcano

New video of Machine Perception Lab’s creepy robot baby shows that it is indeed creepy

How to Rebuild a Broken Ecosystem — Yes, You Can Do It, Too!

Bruce Sterling’s Advice for New Science Fiction Authors: “Trying to ace your way through collapsing industries is a drag”

William Shatner is sending messages to outer space — and getting a response!

Just how much about your future could someone tell from your DNA?

The Most Futuristic Predictions That Came True in 2012

Could the U.S. economy stop growing forever?

Could a captive tornado power an entire city?

Why We Should Let the Robots Take Over

Meet the cheap facial-recognition system that will identify you everywhere you go

China arrests 500 people for believing in tomorrow’s Mayan Apocalypse

Will humans continue to evolve during multigenerational space missions?

A virus that reprograms your pacemaker to deliver an electric shock

Will we ever have cyborg brains?

When will we finally have a world government?

I wrote a science fiction story, and parts of it came true by the time it got published

Within five years, IBM’s smartphone will hear, see, smell, taste, and feel

This Amazon Smart Plug Deal in the Spring Sale Makes Alexa Smart Home Setup Almost Too Easy and Cheap

Anker’s 100W Power Bank Hits Its Lowest Price of the Year on Amazon, Packing 25,000mAh and 3 Ports

Beats Solo 4 at 40% Off Is Now Apple’s Lowest-Cost Headphone Pick During Amazon’s Spring Sale

Now the Oscars Aren’t Just Moving to YouTube, They’re Moving Out of Hollywood

Fitbit Versa 4 Drops to a Record Low as Google Makes Another Push into Fitness Smartwatches Following the Pixel Watch

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

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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