future
Exploring the future of science today, while looking back on the achievements from yesterday. Science fiction is science future.
Ghosts Amongst the Stars
The old man sat on the rock near the top of the small hill as he had for many years now and watched the first stars begin to peek out of the deepening purple sky. The boy at his side, watched solemnly, as he had for most of his young life. They sit in silence.
By Futurism Staff8 years ago in Futurism
Freeman Dyson's Vision of the Future
Professor Freeman J. Dyson has been discussing mind-boggling concepts in a calm, matter-of-fact, one-should-expect way since 1956. 'One should expect that within a few thousand years of its entering the stage of industrial development, any intelligent species should be found occupying an artificial biosphere which completely surrounds its parent star.' It is his hobby he says disarmingly, something that grew up alongside his career as one of the finest mathematical physicists of the last century. To his former colleagues at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Studies, Dyson was known for his understanding of what goes on in the core of a star or in the interaction of high-energy beams of subnuclear particles—contributions that earned him the American Institute of Physics' Heineman Prize and the Royal Society's Hughes Medal.
By George Gott8 years ago in Futurism
Is Technology Making Us Dumb?
It won’t be long before computers can think faster and better than humans. Artificial Intelligence exists, and it is getting smarter at an incredible rate. As so many focus on how well machines can think, alarmingly few people are concentrating on how well humans are thinking (or rather, how they aren’t thinking as well as they used to). A side effect of epic proportions has accompanied our ventures into superior technology. We have become inseparable from our computers and, as time goes on, we are relying on them for more and more of our daily cognitive functions. The brain needs exercise. When you don't use it often enough, your abilities deteriorate. The resources at our disposal are enabling us to perform more advanced tasks faster than ever before, but when it comes to plain old thinking, is technology making us dumb? The answer is two sided. On one hand, our ability to locate information is exponentially higher. On the other, we are retaining far less than we ever have.
By Chelsea Pullano8 years ago in Futurism
The Five Holy Wounds of a Second Coming
9:00 am –– Thursday, April 14th 2033 There wasn't any room for the light. It could echo and bounce with no destination beyond entropic, move along little light. Presenter understood this, he felt most at home in the shadows, and their molesting reach dimming the flesh, dimming the speckled reminders. Pushing his sweat damaged linens off his gaunt frame, Presenter’s now upright body took aim at its beckoning stage. Joints cracked, or were they bones? Doesn't matter. He moved onwards, rising from the bed. The cracked and crusted eye sockets of his pale face were wiped and cleared, christened with the softness of the escaping sunlight. He wet his eyes with a yawn and unburdened himself with a throat clearing cough; reluctant to focus his sight, the parabolic flight of expulsion went unknown. Firmly composed, a blasé pace took Presenter over the refuse and across the threshold; entering the open concept kitchen, obeying his mandate.
By Joseph Somers8 years ago in Futurism
Can Technology Help Mankind's Moral Compass?
Guide, like most new technologies, began in a billionaire's dream of reason. The PR-generated story of Guide's origin posited it as a passion project of Metra's cofounder and longtime CEO. Its aim was simple, universal: help people act more rationally.
By Ken Baumann8 years ago in Futurism
3D Bioprinting is the Future of Transplants
Imagine a world where there was no organ donor waiting list. A world where you would be able to get the organ you needed straight from a printer. According to Quartz, a Philadelphia-based company, BioBots, has released a printer that lets users 3D print human tissue and (potentially) human organs. In May of 2014, BioBots publicly launched at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York and printed a replica of Van Gogh’s ear for everyone to see. Currently, the printer works with a liquid mixture of different cells called “bio-ink.” This liquid is pressed through an extruder and fused together on the printer bed using blue light. A representative from the company told Quartz that the system could print out an object that has blood vessels and organ tissue at once, and the goal is to use this to create livers for drug testing and skins for cosmetic testing. This would eliminate the need for testing on humans and animals. However, BioBots isn’t the only company to create 3D printing for organs.
By Futurism Staff8 years ago in Futurism
How Pixar’s 'Wall-E' Predicts the Future
Self-driving cars. Humans glued to the screens of their devices. Trash everywhere. One company to rule them all. Sound familiar? Either you just watched the 2008 Pixar hit Wall-E, or you simply looked at the ever-changing world around us. Debuting at a time when the economy hit its lowest point since the Great Depression, the dystopian society surrounding everyone’s favorite hardworking robot scared many with its foreboding predictions. But before humans actually admit that Wall-E predicted the future and director Andrew Stanton’s garbage-covered, humanless Earth of the year 2805 becomes a reality, we must take action for the sake of our planet.
By Jake Aronskind8 years ago in Futurism