Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the MIT Media Lab.
In 1984, Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the MIT Media Lab, delivered his first TED talk and, “with surprising accuracy,” made five predictions for the future. Of course, 30 years ago, naysayers argued sensory computing wasn’t the future; people would never use their fingers as some alternative stylus. (Video)
Continue reading… “The latest crazy prediction for the future by MIT Media Lab founder”
IBM’s new processor, TrueNorth.
Scientists have developed a new kind of computer chip that was inspired by the architecture of the brain. The chip uses no more power than a hearing aid and may eventually excel at calculations that stump today’s supercomputers.
Continue reading… “TrueNorth – A new computer chip that functions like the brain”
The body is a machine.
Dr. Aubrey de Grey is cofounder and Chief Science Officer of the SENS Research Foundation and to him the body is a machine. Just as a restored classic car can celebrate its hundredth birthday in peak condition, in the future, we’ll maintain our bodies’ cellular components to stave off the diseases of old age and live longer, healthier lives.
Continue reading… “Can the body be maintained indefinitely?”
South Koreans prepare to release balloons filled with chocolate pies and cookies over to North Korea.
Last week, North Korea got a sweet surprise from its neighbor, South Korea. About 200 South Koreans along with North Korean defectors packed 770 pounds of Choco Pies into plastic bags, which they attached to 50 giant balloons and released into North Korea from a park in the border city of Paju, according to organizers of the event. It was an act of rebellion against the alleged North Korean ban on the chocolate confections.
Continue reading… “South Korea sends 10,000 balloons filled with Choco Pies to North Korea”
We are heading down a path that will allow us to supercharge the brain.
You might be able to enter a flow state that allows you to learn a new skill twice as fast, solve problems that have mystified you for hours, or even win a sharpshooting competition with just a jolt of electricity.
Project Loon aims to bring internet access to the two-thirds of the world.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, last month, thumbed his nose at Google for its various “moonshot” projects, currently housed at Google’s semi-secret X Labs. When Nadella was asked if Microsoft could learn a thing or two from X Labs, he said that there’s always something to learn from “from people who market themselves well.”
Continue reading… “Top 9 ways Google is changing the world”
As soon as 10 years from now these RoboBees could artificially pollinate a field of crops.
Honeybees pollinate nearly one-third of the food we eat but they have been dying at unprecedented rates because of a mysterious phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder (CCD). The situation is so dire that in late June the White House gave a new task force just 180 days to devise a coping strategy to protect bees and other pollinators. The crisis is generally attributed to a mixture of disease, parasites, and pesticides.
Continue reading… “RoboBees will pollinate crops instead of real bees”
Solar Pocket Factory
Two young inventors based in the Philippines, Shawn Frayne and Alex Hornstein, are taking their passion for clean free energy and developing a way to make it accessible and cheap for everyone. These guys are working hard to provide a product that could be used by practically anyone to make homemade solar panels. (Videos)
Continue reading… “DIY ‘Solar Pocket Factory’ can 3D print a solar panel every 15 seconds”
Scientists launch a new landmark project to map the genetic causes of disease.
Within 20 years, chemotherapy will be obsolete. Scientists have predicted the end of chemotherapy after launching a landmark project to map 100,000 genomes to find the genes responsible for cancer and rare diseases.
Futurist Thomas Frey: Much of the world around us has been formed around key pieces of infrastructure. Most see this as a testament to who we are as a society, and part of the cultural moorings we need to guide us into the future.
Continue reading… “2050 and the Future of Infrastructure”
The idea is to anticipate how your eyes will naturally distort whatever’s onscreen.
Thanks to technology that corrects vision problems, those of us who need glasses to see a TV or laptop screen clearly could ditch the eyeglasses.
Continue reading… “Vision-correcting electronic display could free users from eyeglasses”
The drone can pick out the location of an individual phone within 30 feet.
A mobile phone can be the device that saves you in an emergency, even if you aren’t able to make a call. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne have developed a drone that can pinpoint the location of a mobile phone by picking up its Wi-Fi signal. (Video)
Continue reading… “A rescue drone that finds survivors by tracking their mobile phone signals”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.