In what is sure to be an ongoing trend, the future keeps arriving faster than I can write about it. Check out this amazing project. If it’s legit – and an endorsement from Stanford suggests it is – we’ll soon have glasses that can record and share video. These guys have already developed Facebook glasses … Continue reading
The future, being what it is, has a tendency to become the present. And so it is that although this blog is just half a year old, many things have changed since I last discussed them. Here’s a quick look at the state of the future as it stands today. Driverless Cars and the Law … Continue reading
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. – Arthur C. Clarke In last week’s post, we looked at the emerging technologies that allow a direct interface between your brain and a computer (or machine) – a BCI. Check out last week’s links if you’re interested in the “how.” Intracranial wiretaps, hands-free driving and monkey-robot … Continue reading
The setting: your home. The time: 7:30pm, in the not-too-distant future. Your room is dim and cool, and the hum of a city evening drifts through the open windows. Your computer screen’s high-frequency flicker casts shadows all around. The metal object in your hand resembles an old-school headphone jack. It’s small and surprisingly heavy. You … Continue reading
What’s the most complicated thing you’ve ever folded? Paper airplane? Road map, perhaps? I’ve folded my fair share of origami cranes in my day. Then there’s this guy, whose ornate paper dragons and hermit crabs beggar belief. But here’s something on a whole other level: a fully-functional, self-folding, flying robot inspired by pop-up books. Harvard’s … Continue reading
Today, I’m dusting off two quickie-but-goodie items from my accumulated stash of articles. They’re two different perspectives on the same question, a question that lies at the very heart of this blog: Can we ever know what the future holds? Continue reading
We have more communication options today than ever before. For most of human history, there were a grand total of two: speak in person, or write on something. Today, you could text, Skype, IM, email, Facebook, and call half a dozen people all around the world within seconds, from a mobile phone in the middle … Continue reading
Don’t look now, but you’re surrounded by hidden messages. Colorful arrows line the sidewalk, menus hover over the diner down the street, and a grand star map looms overhead – even when it’s the middle of the day and overcast. They’re all written out in invisible digital ink, and you can see them all – … Continue reading
Google Wallet May Be Lame… Many of Google’s projects have earth-shaking potential (see here and here), but at first glance, Google Wallet doesn’t seem to fit the bill. Here’s a news article if you need to catch up. The short version is, it replaces all your credit cards with a smartphone. You load your bank … Continue reading
Ever received an email from your toaster? Neither have I, but in a future featuring the Internet of Things, it could become commonplace. What is the Internet of Things? Like the internet itself, it’s about connections. Way back in the ’70’s, ARPANET connected a handful of university mainframes. The internet it grew into connected individual … Continue reading
Cosmic Revolutions 