Future Speculations

The city of 2050. Sensor networks Experts predict that everything, from street furniture to roads to the homes we live in, will be connected to the network. All these objects will produce vast amounts of data and some cities may build Nasa-style control centres to make predictions about city life, including where crimes may be committed. Smart buildings Buildings will have taken on a life of their own, controlling heating, lighting and security with little human intervention. Architects envisage buildings becoming far more sustainable, producing their own power and reusing rain water.

Buildings may be able to store energy in huge batteries, while homes put excess electricity back into the smart grid. Robo-taxis It is likely cars will be self-driving. Traffic lights will no longer be necessary. Farmscrapers Forget the skyscrapers that dominate our city skylines. Shopping Going to the shops may be very different in 2050. 3D printing is likely to be available in many shops allowing people to create bespoke items. Shields up! Scientists work to produce 'Star Trek' deflector device. The deflector shield is aimed at protecting spaceship occupants from harmful radiation given off by the Sun.

NASA's Curiosity mission to Mars revealed that astronauts on a round-trip would face high radiation levelsScientists at the UK's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory are working on a radiation shield for astronautsA model has been tested inside a fusion reactor which produces a plasma like that of the solar windThe team are hoping to test their concept in space in the next five years London (CNN) -- You've answered the call for volunteers, signed up for the Mars trip and you are looking forward to boldly going to space, the final frontier, to explore a strange new world. But wait. Recent evidence from NASA's Curiosity rover mission to the Red Planet has revealed that astronauts on the round-trip would be exposed to high levels of radiation from cosmic rays and high-energy particles from the sun contained in solar storms.

Radiation 'potential showstopper' Early results 'pleasing' 2045 Initiative. Body-Double: Lifelike Android Demoed at Futuristic Conference. NEW YORK — An extremely humanlike robot made a public appearance today (June 15) here at the Global Futures 2045 International Congress, a futuristic conference focused on the technological singularity.

Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro, director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka University, Japan, described some of his efforts to develop lifelike androids. But there were two Hiroshi Ishiguros onstage: the living, breathing one and a robotic lookalike. The bot’s human resemblance was striking, even down to its tiny movements and blinking eyes. Ishiguro has developed some impressive robots over the years. The one onstage was the "Geminoid," an android resembling a real person that was "tele-operated" — controlled remotely — by a colleague offstage.

Ishiguro joked that he could use the Geminoid to give lectures in his stead. People could easily accept the android as his own body, Ishiguro said. [5 Reasons to Fear Robots] Russian tycoon wants to move mind to machine. NEW YORK (AP) — Can the City That Never Sleeps become the City That Never Dies? A Russian multimillionaire thinks so. Dmitry Itskov gathered some of humanity's best brains — and a few robots — in New York City on Saturday to discuss how humans can get their minds to outlive their bodies.

Itskov, who looks younger than his 32 years, has an aggressive timetable in which he'd like to see milestones toward that goal met: — By 2020, robots we can control remotely with our brains. — By 2025, a scenario familiar to watchers of sci-fi cartoon show "Futurama:" the capability to transplant the brain into a life-support system, which could be a robot body. . — By 2035, the ability to move the mind into a computer, eliminating the need for the robot bodies to carry around wet, messy brains. — By 2045, technology nirvana in the form of artificial brains controlling insubstantial, hologram bodies.

View gallery Is immortality desirable, and if so, what's the best way to get there? Dr. Dr. Dr. Scientists build soft, transparent contact lens displays with nanomaterials. Of the contact lens display prototypes that we've seen so far, few if any are focused on comfort -- a slight problem when they're meant to sit on our eyeballs. A collaboration between Samsung and multiple universities may solve this with display tech that's meant to be cozy from the start. By putting silver nanowires between graphene layers, researchers have created transparent conductors that can drive LEDs while remaining flexible enough to sit on a contact lens. Current test lenses only have one pixel, but they're so soft that rabbits can wear them for five hours without strain. Scientists also see the seemingly inevitable, Glass-like wearable display as just one development path -- they're working on biosensors and active vision correction.

All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Moto X: Motorola reveals plans for ink and even pills to replace ALL your passwords. The Moto X is expected to launch later this year and will be 'more contextually aware than other phones'The Biostamp electronic tattoo is made of silicon and contains an electrical circuit, antennae and sensors that bend and move with the wearer's bodyProteus Digital Health's 'vitamin authentication pill' is powered by acid in the wearer's stomach and creates an 18-bit signal picked up by mobile phoneMotorola is trialling the technologies as authentication alternatives to non-secure traditional passwords By Victoria Woollaston Published: 11:42 GMT, 30 May 2013 | Updated: 10:56 GMT, 31 May 2013 Motorola has announced it is looking at alternatives to traditional passwords in a bid to make logging into online sites, or accessing mobile phones, more secure.

Among the ideas discussed at the D11 conference in California on Wednesday were electronic tattoos and authentication pills that people swallow. The neck tattoo isn't the first time Motorola has discussed the wearable technology. Alcubierre drive. Hypothetical FTL transportation by warping space Objects cannot accelerate to the speed of light within normal spacetime; instead, the Alcubierre drive shifts space around an object so that the object would arrive at its destination more quickly than light would in normal space without breaking any physical laws.[3] Although the metric proposed by Alcubierre is consistent with the Einstein field equations, construction of such a drive is not necessarily possible.

The proposed mechanism of the Alcubierre drive implies a negative energy density and therefore requires exotic matter or manipulation of dark energy.[4] If exotic matter with the correct properties cannot exist, then the drive cannot be constructed. At the close of his original article,[5] however, Alcubierre argued (following an argument developed by physicists analyzing traversable wormholes[6][7]) that the Casimir vacuum between parallel plates could fulfill the negative-energy requirement for the Alcubierre drive. where. Antimatter. In modern physics, antimatter is defined as a material composed of the antiparticle (or "partners") to the corresponding particles of ordinary matter. In theory, a particle and its anti-particle (e.g., proton and antiproton) have the same mass as one another, but opposite electric charge and other differences in quantum numbers.

For example, a proton has positive charge while an antiproton has negative charge. A collision between any particle and its anti-particle partner is known to lead to their mutual annihilation, giving rise to various proportions of intense photons (gamma rays), neutrinos, and sometimes less-massive particle–antiparticle pairs. Annihilation usually results in a release of energy that becomes available for heat or work. The amount of the released energy is usually proportional to the total mass of the collided matter and antimatter, in accordance with the mass–energy equivalence equation, E = mc2.[1] Formal definition[edit] History of the concept[edit] Notation[edit] Kardashev scale. Measure of the evolution of a civilization according to its energy consumption Energy consumption in three types of civilization as defined by Sagan's extended Kardashev scale The Kardashev scale (Russian: Шкала Кардашева, romanized: Shkala Kardasheva) is a method of measuring a civilization's level of technological advancement based on the amount of energy it is able to use.

The measure was proposed by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev in 1964[1] and came to bear his name. The scale is hypothetical, and regards energy consumption on a cosmic scale. Various extensions of the scale have since been proposed, including a wider range of power levels (types 0, IV to V) and the use of metrics other than pure power (e.g., computational growth or food consumption). Kardashev first outlined his scale in a paper presented at the 1964 Byurakan conference, a scientific meeting that reviewed the Soviet radio astronomy space listening program. Categories defined by Kardashev[edit] Type I[edit] 27 Science Fictions That Became Science Facts In 2012.

We may never have our flying cars, but the future is here. From creating fully functioning artificial leaves to hacking the human brain, science made a lot of breakthroughs this year. 1. Quadriplegic Uses Her Mind to Control Her Robotic Arm At the University of Pittsburgh, the neurobiology department worked with 52-year-old Jan Scheuermann over the course of 13 weeks to create a robotic arm controlled only by the power of Scheuermann’s mind. 2. Once the robot figures out how to do that without all the wires, humanity is doomed. 3. Photo Courtesy of Indigo Moon Yarns. At the University of Wyoming, scientists modified a group of silkworms to produce silk that is, weight for weight, stronger than steel. 4. Using an electron microscope, Enzo di Fabrizio and his team at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa snapped the first photos of the famous double helix.Source: newscientist.com / via: davi296 5. 6.

ReCell by Avita Medical is a medical breakthrough for severe-burn victims. 7. 8. 10. The Most Futuristic Predictions That Came True in 2012. Print - 110 Predictions For the Next 110 Years. · People will be fluent in every language. With DARPA and Google racing to perfect instant translation, it won't be long until your cellphone speaks Swahili on your behalf. · Software will predict traffic jams before they occur.

Using archived data, roadside sensors, and GPS, IBM has come up with a modeling program that anticipates bumper-to-bumper congestion a full hour before it begins. Better yet, the idea proved successful in early tests—even on the Jersey Turnpike. · Climate-controlled jackets will protect soldiers from extreme heat and cold. The secret to all-weather clothing, according to former MIT student Kranthi Vistakula, is Peltier plates, which can be used to warm you up or cool you down by sending an electric current across the junction between two different metals. . · Nanoparticles will make chemotherapy far more effective. . · Electric cars will roam (some) highways. . · Athletes will employ robotic trainers. . · Bridges will repair themselves with self-healing concrete.

Quantum entangled batteries could be the perfect power source. Two European theoretical physicists have shown that it may be possible to build a near-perfect, entangled quantum battery. In the future, such quantum batteries might power the tiniest of devices — or provide power storage that is much more efficient than state-of-the-art lithium-ion battery packs. To understand the concept of quantum batteries, we need to start (unsurprisingly) at a very low level. Today, most devices and machines that you interact with are governed by the rules of classical mechanics (Newton’s laws, friction, and so on). Classical mechanics are very accurate for larger systems, but they fall apart as we begin to analyze microscopic (atomic and sub-atomic) systems — which led to a new set of laws and theories that describe quantum mechanics.

The increasing amount of energy that can be extracted from a quantum battery, as you increase the number of entangled copies. Now read: IBM creates breathing, high-density, light-weight lithium-air battery. Leak.jpg (JPEG Image, 580 × 964 pixels) 100-Year Starship Project, Led By Ex-Astronaut Mae Jemison, Sets Sights On Distant Stars. By: Jeremy Hsu, InnovationNewsDaily Senior Writer Published: 05/21/2012 05:34 PM EDT on InnovationNewsDaily Star Trek's bold vision of the starship Enterprise manned by a diverse crew may no longer just be science fiction — especially with the first woman astronaut of color heading the real-life project. The U.S. military has chosen Mae Jemison's nonprofit foundation to receive half a million dollars in seed funding to help turn the 100-Year Starship into reality. The 100-Year Starship project faces the challenge of transforming the $500,000 from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) into an organization that does more than merely survive the next century.

It must also spur the technological revolutions needed for human space travelers to survive the long journey to distant stars. "We don't have to be the ones to actually send a starship out," said Mae Jemison, head of the Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence. Making leaps in technology Surviving the next century. Your Next Home May Be Constructed With A 3D Printer. I’m a believer. 3D printing is going to change everything from how we create to how we consume. Once they become more affordable, you’re going to see people printing everything from new toys to new livers.

Of course, 3D printers have so far only been seen creating small-scale projects, but what about large-scale projects like housing? It can do that too. The first technology to emerge on the scene was a technology called Contour Crafting. It was invented by Behrokh Khoshnevis, a professor of Industrial & Systems Engineering at the University of Southern California. Here’s a video of Khoshnevis talking about Contour Crafting and how it can aid in construction of cheap, yet sturdy, housing in poor nations and low-income neighborhoods.

Another school in the UK has also come up with their own take on cheap construction – 3D Concrete Printing. Like most 3D printing projects, this technology is still primarily in the realm of scientists and researchers. FgDzZ.jpeg (JPEG Image, 1100x7500 pixels) The 1958 Documentary That Inspired the Jetsons. 10 Tech Concepts for 2011 - Technology Terms. 6 Optogenetics Until now, researchers looking to stimulate specific neurons had to rely on bursts of electricity—an imprecise and difficult-to-control technique. That's why the new field of optogenetics is so exciting. By combining fiberoptics and designer viruses, researchers can now stimulate neurons with a high degree of precision. This could allow, for example, the development of implants that can take over the functions of a brain region that might have been damaged by a wound or stroke. 7 Mechanophores America's infrastructure needs renewal, but we can't just rebuild everything at once: We need effective ways to figure out which structures are closest to failure. 8 Cellphone Diagnostics While trained medical care is a rare commodity in the developing world, cellphones are increasingly common. 9 Homomorphic Encryption Researchers at IBM recently cracked a decades-old problem: how to encrypt data so that other people can sort and search it without actually revealing the contents.

Michio Kaku | Professor of Theoretical Physics, CUNY. 23 incredible new technologies you’ll see by 2021. The Carl Sagan Portal. Red dwarf star: Distant rocky planet 'could be future human home' TIME's report on our robotic future: 5 incredible predictions.

Scientists could be months away from discovering antigravity. A Drug That Could Give You Perfect Visual Memory. Univ. This Prototype Hoverbike Could Land In A Year! » MTV Geek. 25 Scary Facts About Government Brainwashing. 302986_1221545993_large.jpg (JPEG Image, 1222x626 pixels) - Scaled (82. 302986_1228356417_large.jpg (JPEG Image, 1365x626 pixels) 140674_1246483397_large.jpg (JPEG Image, 1200x751 pixels) - Scaled (82. The End of America - Watch the Documentary Film for Free | Watch Free Documentaries Online.