A provisional deal on new rules governing open Internet (net neutrality) and the abolishment of roaming surcharges was reached in the wee hours of 30 June after marathon negotiations between the European Council, Commission and Parliament, led by the Latvian presidency of the Council. Continue reading… “Roaming surcharges in the EU to disappear in June 2017, deal reached on net neutrality rules”
Owning a car, in just a few short decades, could be a lot like owning a horse — mostly for hobbyists and really unnecessary for transportation purposes. Continue reading… “The death of car ownership?”
Almost as old as human civilization itself, building houses of brick has been perfected over the millennia. Placing over 700 bricks an hour, the fastest human bricklayers are pretty fast. Continue reading… “Man Vs Machine: Bricklaying robot can place 1,000 bricks an hour”
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Was once famously asked by American sci-fi novelist Philip K. Dick. And the answer appears to be, no, they don’t. Dog-headed knights atop horses, or camel-birds and pig-snails, and of Dali-esque mutated landscapes is what they dream of.
Continue reading… “Google’s AI has dreams that are amazing and disturbing”
Jules Verne introduced holography to literature in 1893 with The Castle of the Carpathians and ever since the halls of science fiction are well-decorated with dreams of holograms, nd how else would we know that Obi-Wan was Leia’s only hope? Continue reading… “A Hologram you can touch made with superfast lasers”
Two robots, Frois and Yukirin, married this past weekend in Tokyo, even sealing their union with a kiss. Continue reading… “Tokyo hosts first Robot wedding”
Google released last week a research paper chronicling one of its latest forays into artificial intelligence. The researchers programmed an advance type of “chatbot” that can learn how to respond in conversations based on examples from a training set of dialog. Continue reading… “The purpose of living is ‘to live forever’, according to Google’s artificial-intelligence bot”
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory geneticist Gholson Lyon, recently pointed out in an article about Apple’s DNA-related ambitions that we don’t yet have a “killer app to interact with [our DNA] quickly and easily. Continue reading… “Are API’s for the human genome coming soon?”
Audi researchers have managed to do something that at first blush sounds impossible, or at least, highly illogical: Without using any petroleum whatsoever, they’ve created a small batch of synthetic gasoline. Continue reading… “Audi made synthetic gasoline without using any petroleum”
It seems that one of the least likely jobs to be automated would be hiring and recruiting. Computers lack the human skills that the process needs, like making conversation and reading social cues. Continue reading… “Would an algorithm hire better than a human?”
Futurist Thomas Frey: If it weren’t for their glowing eyes, I would have sworn they were live fashion models dancing in the store window.
Moving smoothly to match the music playing in the background, each of the seven perfectly proportioned mannequins swayed to a carefully choreographed set of moves designed to draw attention to the clothes they were wearing.
The eerie feeling that they were watching me as much as I was watching them was not a mistake. They were indeed looking at me. Continue reading… “The Great Mannequin Vs. Fashion Model Showdown”
Oregon State University researchers have discovered a new link between cognitive functioning and gut bacteria. In recent years the science involving bacteria in the gut and its link to health and cognitive functioning has boomed. Parkinson’s disease has even been linked to changes in gut bacteria. Published in the journal Neuroscience, a new study shows that diets high in fat and sugar are probably impacting cognitive functioning, because of their impact on the type of bacteria that thrive on high-fat and high-sugar diets. Continue reading… “Amazing connection between gut bacteria and cognitive functioning”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
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