GDP growth
The is growth of the U.S. economy still so slow and weak? One reason is that average American consumers account for the vast majority of the spending in the economy and they are still strapped.
Continue reading… “Why America’s economy stinks: Because business owners are greedier than ever”
How will AI and robotics impact the economic and employment picture in the future?
A majority of people who responded to the Pew Research 2014 Future of the Internet canvassing anticipate that robotics and artificial intelligence will permeate wide segments of daily life by 2025. They anticipate there will be huge implications for a range of industries such as health care, transport and logistics, customer service, and home maintenance. But even as they are largely consistent in their predictions for the evolution of technology itself, they are deeply divided on how advances in AI and robotics will impact the economic and employment picture over the next decade.
Continue reading… “Pew Research: AI, robotics, and the future of jobs”
The worldwide market for submarine electrical cables has surged over the past decade.
Eighty wind turbines are now under construction in the German North Sea. They will eventually generate enough power for some 400,000 homes. That power will travel via advanced cables buried along several miles of ocean floor, part of a growing move toward undersea transmission of electricity.
Super-concentrated sunbeams from BrightSource Energy Plant are deadly for birds flying overhead.
In February, the $2.2 billion BrightSource Energy Plant opened up in the Mojave Desert with good intentions: to harvest clean, sustainable solar power, by using 300 mirrors to reflect sunbeams onto a steam-producing water boiler. But a design flaw has turned the plant into a death trap for birds flying overhead.
Continue reading… “Design flaw turns solar plant into a death trap for birds”
Piecemeal labor has taken on a shinier veneer under new rubrics: the sharing economy, the peer economy, the collaborative economy, the gig economy.
Jennifer Guidry was in the driveway of her rental apartment just after 4 a.m. on a Friday while most of the neighbors in her leafy Boston suburb were still asleep. Her blond hair pulled back in a tidy French braid she was vacuuming the inside of her car. A Navy veteran and former accountant, Ms. Guidry uses the early time to mitigate the uncertainty of working in what’s known as the sharing economy.
Continue reading… “Workers find freedom and uncertainty in the sharing economy”
The robots are here.
Robots are here now. There is proof of this concept in the amount of working automation in labs and warehouses right now. The video below combines two thoughts that reach an alarming conclusion: “Technology gets better, cheaper, and faster at a rate biology can’t match” + “Economics always wins” = “Automation is inevitable.”
Continue reading… “Humans need not apply for most jobs in the future”
The simple test can diagnose cancer and pre-cancerous conditions from the blood of patients.
British scientists have developed a revolutionary new blood test that could detect any type of cancer. It is hoped the breakthrough will enable doctors to rule out cancer in patients presenting with certain symptoms – saving time and preventing costly and unnecessary invasive procedures and biopsies.
Continue reading… “Scientists develop new blood test that could detect any type of cancer”
Companies will get rid of the traditional worker and replace them with entrepreneurs.
There are many theories and studies that shred light on the future state of the American job market, like futurist Thomas Frey, who in 2012 predicted that two billion jobs would disappear by 2030. Whether or not you agree with this statement, what is true is that change is inevitable. (Infographic)
Continue reading… “In the future everyone will be an entrepreneur”
Futurist Thomas Frey: The year is 2024. It seemed like a piece of nostalgia to open a new bank account and get a free toaster, but this wasn’t any ordinary toaster, and it certainly wasn’t any ordinary bank. The new Internet of Things Toaster was one of the coolest gadgets of all times, and the Global Bank of Bitcoin was a charter member of Bitcoin’s new Central Bank based in Luxembourg.
Continue reading… “Establishing the Central Bank of Bitcoin”
IXION Windowless Jet Concept
It depends on what you think about the IXION Windowless Jet Concept, it either has no windows, or it has all the windows. Cameras on the exterior of this as-yet-unbuilt jet would provide jaw-dropping 360-degree views of what you would be seeing if your airplane were a transparent glass tube shuttling through the sky. (Video)
Continue reading… “IXION Windowless Jet Concept could be the airplane of the future”
Shapeways has announded full color plastic material.
The leader when it comes to on-demand 3D printing services is Shapeways. They lead in both, total business, as well as the variety of products and printing materials they offer to consumers. The company seems to be on a road of continued improvements, making sure they stay well ahead of the competition.
Continue reading… “Shapeways launches new full color 3D printable plastic material”
Kilobots
Mike Rubenstein of Harvard University and his colleagues have created the world’s largest robotic swarm using small, simple bots. For the first time, an army of more than 1000 robots has autonomously formed complex 2D shapes like stars or letters of the alphabet. (Video)
Continue reading… “A swarm of 1,000 mini-robots assemble into shapes (Video)”