May 2017 – Page 4 – Impact Lab

AI, Artificial Intelligence, Education, Future, Machine Learning

Artificial intelligence is the next giant leap in education

May 4, 2017

Glancing around school classrooms in 2016, it’s easy to miss just how far technology has transformed learning over the last decade. The desks, whiteboards and rows of chairs are the same, but so much else has changed that can’t be seen.

A third of Britain’s schools are asking students to bring their own tablets and laptops into the classroom now, coding has been on the national curriculum for three years, and more and more education is happening outside school through apps and digital services.

Continue reading… “Artificial intelligence is the next giant leap in education”

Artificial Intelligence, Crime, Legal Issues, Machine Learning, new technology, Science & Technology News

The rise of the online courtroom

May 2, 2017

The digital revolution has not escaped the courts. The courtroom of tomorrow may no longer involve litigants and their lawyers pitching up armed with reams of papers to do battle before robed, bewigged judges. In fact, for many it may not involve a court at all. Judges could be replaced by computers and the courtroom with the internet to meet the needs of the 21^st-century litigants.

Last month Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary Liz Truss unveiled the Prisons and Courts Bill. Aside from wide-ranging plans to reform prisons, the Bill contained proposals to enable people and businesses with claims worth up to £25,000 to use an online digital process instead of going to court.

Continue reading… “The rise of the online courtroom”

Alternative Transportation, Architecture, Automation, Automobiles, Breakthrough Thinking, City Planning, cutting edge, Elon Musk, Engineering, Future, Latest News

Elon Musk’s boring tunnels don’t look boring at all

May 2, 2017

Elon Musk’s new Boring Company tunnels look pretty, well, not boring.

The company on Friday published an animated concept video on YouTube that shows how tunnels underneath a city could work. In the video, a car drives onto a metal platform that then lowers itself underground. The platform, with the car on top of it, speeds along at 124 mph, while other platforms carrying cars do the same. When the car reaches its destination, the platform lifts it back to the earth’s surface.

Continue reading… “Elon Musk’s boring tunnels don’t look boring at all”

Science & Technology News

Facebook wants to beam Internet from planes

May 2, 2017

After Facebook’s Aquila internet-beaming drone crashed during a test flight last year, the company’s engineers realized it would take years before its key strength—the ability to beam internet signals via millimeter wave technology—would be ready.

The reasons for the delay are as much regulatory as they are technical, according to Yael Maguire, the head of Facebook’s Connectivity Lab. Speaking at the company’s annual f8 developers conference here on Wednesday, he explained that it could take up to 10 years before Facebook can realize the full potential of the drone, which has the wingspan of a Boeing 737 but weighs less than a Toyota Prius. Besides building a reliable plane, the company also has to secure the permits to use the millimeter wave spectrum that will connect it to the ground.

Continue reading… “Facebook wants to beam Internet from planes”

Breakthrough Thinking, Global Warming, Hacking, Hot Issues, Latest News

Japan’s massive new borehole project to reach Earth’s mantle

May 2, 2017

Not since the drilling of the Russia’s Kola Borehole have scientists ventured this deep.

Japanese scientists have announced a plan to drill through the Earth’s crust and reach the mantle. The major initiative would be a first for humankind. Despite multiple previous attempts and multiple boreholes of significant depth, we’ve never managed to drill far enough to see what lies beneath the Earth’s rocky crust. Instead, our knowledge of the mantle is mostly based on indirect observations, like the speed at which seismic waves propagate through the planet’s internal geometry.

Continue reading… “Japan’s massive new borehole project to reach Earth’s mantle”