Imagine you could build the city of the future, from scratch, right now. What would it look like? What would it do? It’s not a hypothetical question. According to this Salon article, software developer Plan IT intends to do exactly that: “Plan IT Valley” will be a new city located in northern Portugal, and is …
Just came across this bizarre story on Nextnature.net: Tired of spending time, money and energy on preparing meals, [Rob Rhinehart] decided to find a new way to survive without actual food. He created a unique mixture called “Soylent”, which contains nothing but the elements the body needs: iron, vitamins, fat, calcium and dozens of other …
Welcome to Cosmic Revolutions’ Topic Guides, where we wrap up a series of articles on a common theme. This week, let’s look at one of the biggest tags at Cosmic Revolutions: Sustainability. Sustainability is all about whether we humans survive as a civilization, and how well. Earth’s resources are finite, meaning the our growth potential …
The best way to solve the world’s hunger problem is a hotly debated topic. In the next few paragraphs, I’ll take a look at one fairly conventional idea, and explore another proposal that’s a bit more out of the box. But in the end, I’d like to poke at some of the assumptions underlying both …
It’s no secret that the internet has given us new ways to communicate. But if you think the information revolution has come and gone, I’ve got news for you: it’s just getting started, and we’re already seeing a dramatic transformation in the way we learn about the world. It’s also causing a shift in some …
Last week, we looked at some reasons why even the most rational individual might feel a touch of dread at the thought of a car that drives itself. This week, let’s zoom out a bit, and imagine a future society where driverless cars are the norm. I think this is a very plausible scenario, but …
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 …
Three times a week, I go to the gym on my way home from work. And three times a week, I ask myself the same question: isn’t this a waste? I don’t mean the exercise. A longer lifespan, plus reduced risk of Alzheimer‘s and cancer, is all the justification I need. No, I’m talking about …
Here’s a tasty morsel of future news: The first 3-D scanning apps are making their way to an iPhone near you. 3-D modeling software has been around for years, but it’s generally been complicated, and expensive, enough that only professionals ever bothered. Now that design firm Autodesk is making their “123D Catch” app available for … Continue reading
This may come as a surprise, but the future of transportation has been around for two centuries already. Of course, back when ol’ Baron Karl first put two wheels together and rode them around 1817 Mannheim, he just thought he’d made a kind of a re-usable horse. He certainly had no idea his invention would … Continue reading
Do you talk about politics? Do you share opinions on Twitter? If your answer to both questions is “yes”, then your tweets are helping to drive analysis of the political landscape. Twitter is calling their new project the Twitter Political Index, or Twindex. It works by searching out all the public tweets about each candidate, … Continue reading
I came across a very intriguing post on NPR’s 13.7 blog this week, suggesting that the internet has made us all immortal – sort of. In the post, physicist Marcelo Gleiser describes how he searched the internet for his stepmother after she passed away. He found a lot, including photos of her, activities she liked, … Continue reading
I’ve been wondering why my post about the alleged iPhone 5 has been getting so many hits lately. It’s always the most-Googled article I’ve ever posted, but the past few weeks it’s been getting clicked through the roof. Now I know why – check out The Chic Gadget: iPhone 5 Announcement on September 12 On … Continue reading
Some parts of being a kid never change. Best friends, schoolyard bullies, and after-school snacks will be around for another century at least (speaking from my experience here in the US). But new technology forces us to adapt, and children are not exempt. At the risk of sounding like an old fogey before my time, … Continue reading
Where else but Japan would such a dream come true? Thanks to company Suidobashi, for the relatively bargain-basement price of around $1.5 million, you can own and pilot a real-life Mecha like the one below. Click here for another video, which, as a bonus, demonstrates some sort of hovering drone as well. The little flying … Continue reading
I started this blog in late October last year, unsure exactly where I was going with it, or whether it would last beyond the week. As of today, I’ve posted more than 50 ruminations about the future world, and Cosmic Revolutions is attracting a regular audience, growing slowly but steadily. Since some of my readers … Continue reading
Everything these days needs a battery. Phones, cars, pacemakers, solar panels. They all need portable electricity storage, but because of the different sizes, shapes and functions, they each need a specially designed battery. What if there was some kind of flexible, modular power storage that could be made to fit any shape? Enter the paintable … Continue reading
iCoolhunt is a social, location-based game that encourages people to seek out blossoming trends around them. These “coolhunters” can then capture, share, analyze and discuss their discoveries on the website. It’s certainly a novel way to think about the future. I especially like the way it creates a community focused on discovering – or even … Continue reading
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