Futurist Thomas Frey: Doctors today are constantly selling.
No, it didn’t start out that way, but a system has evolved that richly rewards members of the physician’s food chain if sales continue.
Continue reading… “Disrupting Healthcare – When Devices Replace Medicine”
IBM’s Watson is a cognitive computing system originally designed to vanquish human competitors on Jeopardy in 2011. Watson has been winding its way into more and more healthcare and health-related use cases. But like most novel technologies, a number of people still don’t understand exactly what Watson is or does — or what IBM’s roadmap for the technology is.
Continue reading… “The evolution of IBM’s Watson supercomputer and where it’s taking healthcare”
Futurist Thomas Frey: I had great difficulty completing this column. This is partly due to the complex nature of the technology and partly because its implications may indeed be so far reaching that I’ll sound over-reaching in describing it.
Continue reading… “Computing’s Next Big Transformation – Semantic Intelligence”
Back to the Future flying Delorean
Back to the Future has filled our heads with visions of soaring Deloreans, but in reality, the automobile industry has some pretty glaring flaws it needs to address before we can attempt flight. It seems like everything in our daily lives is becoming connected. But very often the car is left out of this conversation, and it would benefit greatly from a healthy dose of mobile connectivity.
Continue reading… “The car of the future doesn’t fly, it fixes your flat”
There is a 50% probability that human-level machine intelligence will have been attained by 2050.
Machines already have superhuman strength, speed and stamina. One day machines will have superhuman intelligence. Assuming that scientific and technological progress continues, human-level machine intelligence is very likely to be developed. And shortly thereafter, superintelligence.
Continue reading… “Top 5 ways the superintelligence revolution could happen”
Space elevator
The Japanese construction giant Obayashi has announced they will have a space elevator up and running by the year 2050. If successful it would revolutionize space travel and potentially transform the global economy. (Video)
Continue reading… “Japanese company Obayashi plans to have a space elevator up and running by 2050”
Inexpensive renewable sources will provide more energy than the world needs in less than 20 years.
Leading consultants were skeptical about cellular phones in the 1980’s. McKinsey & Co. noted that the handsets were heavy, batteries didn’t last long, coverage was patchy, and the cost per minute was exorbitant. It predicted that in 20 years the total market size would be about 900,000 units and advised AT&T to pull out.
Continue reading… “We are headed into an era of unlimited and free clean energy”
MIT BioSuit
Science fiction writers must feel like the future is getting too close with all the news about a 3D printer winging its way to the International Space Station (ISS), skintight spacesuits, and plans for construction of a space elevator.
Baby X, a 3D-simulated human child.
Zoltan Istvan writes In Singularity or Transhumanism: What Word Should We Use to Discuss the Future? on Slate:
“The singularity people (many at Singularity University) don’t like the term transhumanism. Transhumanists don’t like posthumanism. Posthumanists don’t like cyborgism. And cyborgism advocates don’t like the life extension tag. If you arrange the groups in any order, the same enmity occurs.”
Continue reading… “Peering into the future of AI and robot brains”
Facebook recently acquired Oculus VR for $2 billion.
Virtually reality was the stuff of science fiction not very long ago. Now, virtual reality is increasingly emerging into the real world. A new infographic produced by collaboration specialist PGi explores the current state of virtual reality and the possibility that it will soon be appearing in the world of work. (Infographic)
Continue reading… “Virtual reality technology is the future of work”
Technology will have a profound effect on the way convenience stores conduct their business.
Steve Jobs once cautioned, “you can’t connect the dots looking forward.” You can only connect them looking backwards, so you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”
Talking to your digital twin could one day be like looking in the mirror.
“When you and I die, our kids aren’t going to go to our tombstones, they’re going to fire up our digital twins and talk to them,” says John Smart, futurist and founder of the Acceleration Studies Foundation. Smart uses many names for the technology he predicts — digital twin, cyber-self, personal agent — but the concept stays the same: a computer-based version of you. (Video)
Continue reading… “We could all have ‘digital twins’ that make decisions for us within 5 years”