Science & Technology News – Page 227

Great New Product, New Inventions, Science & Technology News

Motorized fin gives surfers a boost

December 19, 2019

The Boost Surfing Fin temporarily replaces a third-party board’s existing fin, via an included adapter

Surfers use up a lot of energy, both paddling out to the lineups where the waves roll in, and then paddling even harder to catch one of those waves. The Boost Surfing Fin is designed to help, by giving users … well, an electric boost.

Developed by California-based Boost Surfing, the Fin non-permanently replaces a third-party board’s existing fin. It’s made of a combination of ABS plastic and fiberglass, tipping the scales at a claimed 1.7 lb (771 g).

When users want a boost, they activate the Fin’s brushless 800-watt motor via a board-mounted or wrist-mounted wireless remote. That motor responds by putting out up to 20 lb (9 kg) of thrust – this takes the board to a top speed of 11 mph (18 km/h) for either eight or 20 seconds, depending on the selected boost length. Plans call for sensors to shut off the motor if the user falls off the board, so it won’t continue on without them.

Continue reading… “Motorized fin gives surfers a boost”

brain-computer interfaces, Future, New Viewpoints, Robotics, Science & Technology News

Would you want immortal life as a cyborg?

December 19, 2019

Transhumanism can mean uploading one’s mind into cyberspace. But some transhumanists hope to slowly morph into “immortal cyborgs” with endlessly replaceable parts.

Five years ago, we were told, we were all turning into cyborgs:

Did you recently welcome a child into the world? Congratulations! An upstanding responsible parent such as yourself is surely doing all you can to prepare your little one for all the pitfalls life has in store. However, thanks to technology, children born in 2014 may face a far different set of issues than you ever had to. And we’re not talking about simply learning to master a new generation of digital doohickeys, we’re talking about living in a world in which the very definition of “human” becomes blurred.

Continue reading… “Would you want immortal life as a cyborg?”

Robotics, Robots, Science & Technology News, Wearables

Guardian XO: A powered exoskeleton that makes you 20 times stronger

December 18, 2019

Imagine lifting 100 pounds as though it were only five. That’s the promise of the Guardian XO, a wearable robot that helps you lift heavy objects without straining or injuring your body. Bonus? It looks like a super cool powered exoskeleton from science fiction.

Designed for military applications and industries like construction that require a lot of manual labor, the Guardian XO from Sarcos Robotics has been in development for 20 years. The first alpha models will roll out in January to the US military and some industry customers, with commercial units shipping in late 2020. The XO can run for up to eight hours at a time, thanks to hot-swappable batteries. With 24 degrees of freedom, you can move normally while wearing the suit. It doesn’t get in the way when you’re walking, lifting your arms above your head or crouching down.

Sarcos Robotics says this is the world’s first battery-powered robot that can help you safely lift up to 200 pounds (90 kg). I got the chance to see it in action at the company’s headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah, where walking robots, powered prosthetics and exoskeletons line the hallways. Watch the video to see what it’s like to wear the Guardian XO.

Via CNet.com

Human Behavior, New Viewpoints, Science & Technology News

Scientists pinpoint the age you’re most likely to find meaning in life

December 18, 2019

What is the meaning of life? But if you’re still searching, take solace in the fact that scientists may have finally found the age when purpose becomes clear. Knowing the answer could be a boon to your physical and mental health — humans tend to thrive with a sense of purpose, their results suggest.

Interviews with 1,042 people aged 21 to more than 100 years old reveal that people tend to feel like their lives have meaning at around age 60. That’s the age at which the search for meaning is often at it’s lowest, and the “presence” of meaning is at it’s highest, according to a new paper published this week in the journal Clinical Psychiatry.

If you’re a twenty-something ruminating about your life’s purpose, that may seem like a long time to wait. But take heart: If this study tells us anything, it’s that the ennui-fueled search for meaning in your early life is normal, and, even after 60, it doesn’t actually ever end. Instead, people may readjust how they derive purpose as they age.

Continue reading… “Scientists pinpoint the age you’re most likely to find meaning in life”

Batteries, Energy, Inventions, Science & Technology News

Gates, Bezos bet on flow battery technology, a potential rival to big bets on lithium-ion

December 18, 2019

H/O ESS containers

The U.S. energy storage market is expected to grow by a factor of 12 in the next five years, from 430MW deployed in 2019 to more than 5GW and a value of more than $5 billion by 2024, says Wood Mackenzie Energy Storage Service.

Tesla and GM are making big bets on lithium-ion batteries for energy storage systems and electric vehicles, but billionaire investors and venture capital firms are investing in competing battery technology, such as flow batteries.

Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the group of private investors led by Bill Gates and fellow billionaires Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, Richard Branson and Jack Ma, invested in iron-flow battery maker ESS in November.

ESS, which makes long-duration, iron flow batteries, secured $30 million in a Series C investment round from Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), the group of private investors led by Bill Gates and fellow billionaires Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, Richard Branson and Jack Ma, among others.

Continue reading… “Gates, Bezos bet on flow battery technology, a potential rival to big bets on lithium-ion”

2020 Predictions, communication, Internet, new technology, Science & Technology News

These are the technologies that will transform the 2020s – From 5G to vertical farming

December 17, 2019

Renault autonomous car concept

Shared mobility, advanced plastic recycling and protein production are also going to be key to future prosperity.

2020 is set to be the year of 5G, shared mobility and new ways of recycling plastic, says research group Lux, along with new battery technology and artificial meat also set to make a big impact.

The provider of tech-enabled research has produced its “20 for 20” list of “the technologies and trends that will transform the way we live, work, and play over the next decade”.

5G networks will lead the way thanks to their role as an enabling technology for so many other parts of the every-expanding digital landscape. “From robotic surgery to self-driving cars, 5G will be critical to advances in the internet of things,” Lux says. “5G has officially left the realm of research and entered reality, with more than 2,200 patents being filed this year.”

Continue reading… “These are the technologies that will transform the 2020s – From 5G to vertical farming”

Employment, Human Behavior, Science & Technology News

Work is a fundamental part of being human. Robots won’t stop us doing it

December 17, 2019

Hardly a week goes by without a report announcing the end of work as we know it.

In 2013, Oxford University academics Carl Frey and Michael Osborne were the first to capture this anxiety in a paper titled: “The Future of Employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation?”.

They concluded 47% of US jobs were threatened by automation. Since then, Frey has taken multiple opportunities to repeat his predictions of major labour market disruptions due to automation.

In the face of threats to employment, some progressive thinkers advocate jettisoning our work ethic and building a world without work.

If machines can do our work, why not reduce the working week drastically? We should be mature enough to decide what truly matters to us, without tying our identity to a job, or measuring happiness in dollars and professional status. Right?

Not quite.

Continue reading… “Work is a fundamental part of being human. Robots won’t stop us doing it”

Big Problems, Employment, Money Talk, Science & Technology News

The retirement crisis is real and frightening, as these six charts show

December 17, 2019

An uncertain retirement may be lurking just over that ridge.(Dennis Curran)

Is the “retirement crisis” just a scare story? That’s what conservatives would like you to believe as they rail against proposals from progressives in Congress to expand and increase Social Security.

Andrew Biggs, a former Social Security official, wrote recently in the conservative National Review that there’s no need to expand Social Security benefits because “Americans’ retirement incomes and retirement savings have never been stronger.”

That may be true, in the aggregate. But the question is: whose retirement incomes and savings? Monique Morrissey of the labor-supported Economic Policy Institute presents evidence that, just as income inequality for those in their working years has soared, so has inequality in the distribution of retirement resources.

The trends…paint a picture of increasingly inadequate retirement savings for successive generations of Americans—and large disparities by income, race, ethnicity, education, and marital status.

Continue reading… “The retirement crisis is real and frightening, as these six charts show”

Military, Science & Technology News, Weapons

Here’s the Pentagon’s terrifying plan for Cyborg supersoldiers

December 16, 2019

The U.S. military wants soldiers that have superhuman eyesight, controllable augmented muscles that turn untrained novices into expert killers, and more.

Cybernetic enhancements that fuse humans and machines are coming, and the U.S. Military wants to be prepared.

A new report from the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center—a scientific research division of the Army with a focus on biological and chemical weapons—detailed what the field of cybernetics might look in 2050. The report, titled Cyborg Soldiers 205: Human/ Machine Fusion and the Implications for the Future of the DOD, reads like the framework for a dystopian novel set in a near future where injured soldiers are cybernetically enhanced, but come home to an America terrified of cyborgs.

“The primary objective of this effort was to determine the potential of machines that are physically integrated within the human body to augment and enhance the performance of human beings over the next 30 years,” the researchers said.

Continue reading… “Here’s the Pentagon’s terrifying plan for Cyborg supersoldiers”

2020 Predictions, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Science & Technology News

120 AI predictions for 2020

December 16, 2019

Me: “Alexa, tell me what will happen in 2020.”

Amazon AI: ”Here’s what I found on Wikipedia: The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship…[continues to read from Wikipedia]”

Me: “Alexa, give me a prediction for 2020.”

Amazon AI: “The universe has not revealed the answer to me.”

Well, some slight improvement over last year’s responses, when Alexa’s answer to the first question was “Do you want to open ‘this day in history’?” As for the universe, it is an open book for the 120 senior executives featured here, all involved with AI, delivering 2020 predictions for a wide range of topics: Autonomous vehicles, deepfakes, small data, voice and natural language processing, human and augmented intelligence, bias and explainability, edge and IoT processing, and many promising applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies and tools. And there will be even more 2020 AI predictions, in a second installment to be posted here later this month.

Continue reading… “120 AI predictions for 2020”

AI, Coding, Employment, Science & Technology News

The No.1 job of 2019 pays $140,000 – and its hiring growth has exploded 74%

December 16, 2019

Call it hire power.

On Tuesday, career and job site LinkedIn released its annual “Emerging Jobs” list, which identifies the roles that have seen the largest rate of hiring growth from 2015 through this year. No. 1 on the list: Artificial Intelligence Specialist—typically an engineer, researcher or other specialty that focuses on machine learning and artificial intelligence, figuring out things like where it makes sense to implement AI or building AI systems.

Hiring for this role has been tremendous, growing 74% annually in the past 4 years alone. “AI has infiltrated every industry, and right now the demand for people skilled in AI is outpacing the supply for it,” Guy Berger, the principal economist at LinkedIn, tells MarketWatch. “This is the third year in a row a role related to machine learning or artificial intelligence has topped the list, and we can only expect demand to increase.”

The pay is impressive too, with AI roles often commanding six figures. Jobs site Indeed notes that artificial intelligence engineers in San Francisco, for example, rake in $120,000 to upwards of $160,000. Sometimes AI roles can garner pay of $250,000 or more.

Continue reading… “The No.1 job of 2019 pays $140,000 – and its hiring growth has exploded 74%”

Engineering, Internet, quantum computing, Science & Technology News

Quantum states in conventional electronics may beat end of Moore’s law

December 15, 2019

Graduate students Kevin Miao, Chris Anderson, and Alexandre Bourassa monitor quantum experiments at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering

Scientists at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering have found a way to produce quantum states in ordinary, everyday electronics. By harnessing the properties of quantum mechanics without exotic materials or equipment, this raises the possibility that quantum information technologies can be created using current devices.

For decades, the computer industry has benefited from Moore’s law, which is a rule of thumb that predicts that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit will double about every two years. As this has held up, computers have gone from giant machines that were part of the buildings that housed them to tiny devices that can fit on a thumbnail, yet can outperform any supercomputer from previous generations.

Continue reading… “Quantum states in conventional electronics may beat end of Moore’s law”