Futurism

A Beautiful Look at the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, When The Future Was Magical

If there was a high point for Space Age excitement about all things futuristic and shiny, it might well have been the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, at which we would be promised such great things as the Bubbleator Time Machine. Women dressed in skimpy outer space outfits posed in the Girls of the Galaxy revue,…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Does Newt Gingrich want to make Neuromancer come true?

U.S. Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich calls himself a futurist, and never tires of prognosticating. Beloved of Future Shock author Alvin Toffler, who coined the term “futurist,” Gingrich co-authored a “conservative futurist” book in 2006 called The Art of Transformation (available in paperback for $70.00 on Amazon). He’s also a fan of alternate history, and has…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Today’s real-life example of a dark and terrible future

It’s the kind of thing you’d expect to happen in a really dystopian movie about a collapsed civilization. Yesterday, a Tennessee fire department drove out to a woman’s home and watched it burn to the ground because she hadn’t paid a $75 fire department fee. According to Firehouse.com: The South Fulton Fire Department made national…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Moving Platforms let you get on high-speed train while it’s still moving

Imagine boarding a tram in Manhattan, which then leaves the city to connect with a high-speed train. You leave the tram for the train, and next thing you know you’re in downtown San Francisco…all without ever stopping at a station. That’s the basic idea behind Moving Platforms, which wants to take high-speed trains and remove…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

The Next 50 Years: Why I’m Optimistic Because Everything Will Be Terrible

With everything rolling towards the abyss, our only hope for a bright future seems to be the Singularity, a technological transformation of what it means to be human. But in a talk for TEDx Brussels, science fiction and horror writer John Shirley argues that there are really two Singularities — and yes, everything will be…

io9 John Shirley

Toyota’s Insane Concept Car Has Giant Touch-Screen Doors

Meet the Toyota Fun-Vii, a futuristic concept car that Toyota’s president described as “a smartphone on four-wheels.” Smartphone screens have certainly been growing, from 3.5-inches, to 4-inches, to 4.5-inches but holy crap, is this the logical conclusion? Toyota’s concept of the future is a whimsical one, where people would get out of their cars and…

Tech News Brent Rose

Engineers have created an LED display you can wear like a contact lens

Thanks to the advent of smart phone technologies, many of us already carry the internet with us everywhere we go. But now, scientists have created the world’s first wirelessly powered, computerized contact lens with an integrated LED display. That’s right — the same access to information afforded us by the technology in our pockets could…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

A map that shows where science might take us by 2021

io9 pal and Institute for the Future policy wonk David Pescovitz has been working with a bunch of other cool futurists — including space hacker Ariel Waldman — on a quick guide to the future of science. They’ve grouped the ideas together in clusters, suggesting different innovations and discoveries that will grow out of new…

io9 Annalee Newitz

The Arctic could be a tropical rainforest by the 23rd century

Most climate change predictions have only examined the next hundred years. But now a new, even more long-term model suggests that temperatures could rise as much as ten degrees Celsius by 2300 — creating conditions not seen for 34 million years. This is one of four scenarios predicted by an international team of climate scientists,…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

How to Prepare For The Next Great Depression

Some economists are referring to our current economic malaise as the “Lesser Depression” — but it could be getting worse soon. Europe is unraveling, China’s October output fell off a cliff and the U.S. Supercommittee is about to push a round of austerity. It’s not too late to start unleashing your inner survivalist, in case…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Why the U.N.’s Development Index is destroying the future

Every year the U.N. releases its Human Development Index, a widely-respected ranking of nations based on levels of health care, education, economic growth, and other factors. But now, says one analyst, the long-respected ranking system has to be overhauled. Its definition of “development” is outdated because it doesn’t take into account whether any of that…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Now you can control plants with your iPhone

Has your fast-paced, technology-driven life got you feeling out of touch with nature? There could soon be an app for that. Created by London-based designer Samuel Wilkinson, “Biome” is a futuristic-looking flora terrarium whose climate conditions, water level, and nutrients are all controlled via an application that runs on tablets and smartphones; it’s sort of…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

The next Cold War will be fought with greenhouse gas

The world stands on the brink of annihilation. Powerful nations threaten each other by building ever more destructive weapons that could reduce farmlands to charred rubble. Sounds like the quaint old Cold War of the twentieth century, right? Wrong. It’s the future scenario that many environment groups predict for the next century. Instead of nukes,…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Will Ray Kurzweil make Roland Emmerich’s Singularity movie even more unrealistic than 2012?

Roland Emmerich has pushed bad science to its limit before, most notably with the amazing 2012. But for his upcoming movie Singularity, he’s actually enlisting the help of Ray Kurzweil, author of The Singularity is Near, to help him revise the script. On the one hand, this means the movie will accurately reflect Kurzweil’s theories…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Why We’re All Wrong About the Future of User Interfaces

Designer Bret Victor has posted an absolutely brilliant rant about the future of interaction design, which everybody must read. You’ve heard a lot of hype about ubiquitous touchscreens and gestural controls — but Victor has a very eloquent yet simple explanation of why these things are not the future. In a nutshell, because these “pictures…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

High-tech robotic head owes a debt to Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion

Projection people aren’t an entirely new phenomenon, but this Mask-bot — a new yammering robo-visage from German and Japanese researchers — was built to give robots emotive faces and to replace conference calls with talking heads. https://gizmodo.com/the-manchester-airports-virtual-assistants-are-wigging-5766228 Is this more or less unnerving than telepresence machines like Telenoid R1? We’ll let you be the judge.…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

DARPA is one step closer to its flying Humvee

When you or I ask for a flying car, we get “Terrafugia’s Transition,” a roadable aircraft. When DARPA asks for a flying car, they get a Hummer like the one pictured up top — a Hummer that is capable of taking off and landing vertically; traversing off-road terrain with ease; and withstanding small-arms fire, all…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Technology has proved it can transform the world overnight — so why not be optimistic?

Is optimism just a crazy notion, or does technological innovation totally justify our faith? In the comments on our article about optimistic stories that could still come true, commenter Corpore-metal points out some of the ways that technology has transformed the world — even if we’re never going to have a utopia. I’d say that…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Predicting The Future Is Hard — Here’s Why We Should Try Anyway

The history of futurism is littered with goofy anachronisms and humiliating misses. But that doesn’t necessarily mean science fiction should take its eye off the chronological horizon, says Little, Big author John Crowley. In an essay in the latest Lapham’s Quarterly (theme: The Future), Crowley explores why (as he sees it) many science fiction writers…

Books & Comics Kelly Faircloth

Optimistic Science Fiction Stories that Could still Come True

Many of science fiction’s most rosy ideas of the future seem less and less likely, or they’ve already failed to materialize on schedule. But the future could still be a beautiful place. There are still plenty of optimistic science fiction stories that haven’t been disproved yet. They don’t involve science that’s been debunked, or events…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders and MaryKate Jasper

A Beautiful Look at the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, When The Future Was Magical

Does Newt Gingrich want to make Neuromancer come true?

Today’s real-life example of a dark and terrible future

Moving Platforms let you get on high-speed train while it’s still moving

The Next 50 Years: Why I’m Optimistic Because Everything Will Be Terrible

Toyota’s Insane Concept Car Has Giant Touch-Screen Doors

Engineers have created an LED display you can wear like a contact lens

A map that shows where science might take us by 2021

The Arctic could be a tropical rainforest by the 23rd century

How to Prepare For The Next Great Depression

Why the U.N.’s Development Index is destroying the future

Now you can control plants with your iPhone

The next Cold War will be fought with greenhouse gas

Will Ray Kurzweil make Roland Emmerich’s Singularity movie even more unrealistic than 2012?

Why We’re All Wrong About the Future of User Interfaces

High-tech robotic head owes a debt to Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion

DARPA is one step closer to its flying Humvee

Technology has proved it can transform the world overnight — so why not be optimistic?

Predicting The Future Is Hard — Here’s Why We Should Try Anyway

Optimistic Science Fiction Stories that Could still Come True

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

ASUS ZenScreen 15.6-Inch Portable Monitor Is Now Cheaper Than Black Friday in Amazon’s Big Spring Sale

Early Wildfires Are Surging Across the US—and Trump’s New Fire Agency Isn’t Ready

INIU Brings Another Power Bank to the Spring Sale as SnapGo Keychain Portable Charger Drops to Its Lowest Price

Attorney Hit With Historic Fine for Citing AI-Generated Cases

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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