The word “metadata” has been popping up in the news a lot lately, thanks to the revelation that the U.S. National Security Agency has been collecting it from millions of Americans for years. And this is no flash-in-the-pan political scandal that will be forgotten next year; as our ultra-connected, electronic future continues to emerge, we’ll … Continue reading
Picture this: it’s the near future, and you’re on a first date. You’re at an average restaurant in the suburbs, somewhere in the US. Your date, like half the people in the restaurant, is wearing a flat pin the size of a postage stamp on one lapel. As if you didn’t have enough reasons to … 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
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
In an earlier post, I observed that the current explosion of cheap data storage would allow people to record photos and videos without limit. Anyone with a camera will soon be able to archive every moment of their lives. What would such continuous recording mean for those of us caught in the footage, willingly or … Continue reading
Cosmic Revolutions 