Welcome to my Science-Fiction Future

A chronicle of how tomorrow becomes today

[cluboftigerghost]

Dean Ellis https://ift.tt/2PtmpWg

[exclusively-positive-press]

This lamp absorbs 150 times more CO2 than a tree

It’s still in the “so crazy it just might work” stage, but these microalgae-powered lamps, invented by French biochemist Pierre Calleja, could absorb a ton of carbon from the air every year. That’s as much as 150 to 200 trees. [x]

[cal-is-a-cuddlefish]

NEAT

[gelunnucifera]

YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND. This is ingenious.

The design is a light bulb surrounded by a glass casing. The glass is filled with (water based) media and microalgae. The top is permeable to gasses so that gas exchange can occur. All of the wiring is linked to the grid underground.

Since the light source is inside, it gets scattered and “dimmed” by the water and algae. This makes it less glaringly bright and scatters the light wider, which is good for a street light. It is not longer white light as well, which helps make it easier on the eyes while still providing light.

At the same time, it provides the light for photosynthesis in the algae, so they are continuously exchanging CO2 for O2, not just in the day. It also provides a source of heat, which helps keep the algae from going dormant during cold weather (as in the snowy picture above).

And notice how I did not specify permeability - that’s because NOx’s (NO and NO2) are also permeable and can be used as nitrogen sources to microalgae. In fact, algae are relatively low maintenance. As autotrophs, they don’t require super complex media, not does it really need to be changed/added to. (I’m actually fairly certain that there would still be algae in these tanks a year later; it may need to be cleaned or something, but there would be some living algae.)

[partlysmith]

solar punk sensibilities with cyber punk aesthetic

[century-of-the-fruitbat]

Swamplamp

[radical-eve]

[futurismnews]

The Rights of Synthetic Lifeforms is the Next Great Civil Rights Controversy

[futurnow]

cocoon - a multi purpose design concept by nau

[scifigeneration]

Five ways nanoscience is making science fiction into fact

by Josh Davies

Russian author Boris Zhitkov wrote the 1931 short story Microhands, in which the narrator creates miniature hands to carry out intricate surgeries. And while that was nearly 100 years ago, the tale illustrates the real fundamentals of the nanoscience researchers are working on today.

Nanoscience is the study of molecules that are one billionth of a metre in size. To put this into perspective, a human hair is between 50,000 and 100,000 nanometres thick. At this tiny size, materials possess properties that lie somewhere between a lump of metal and that of a single atom. This unique environment means they can become very reactive and be used as catalysts.

The ideas behind nanoscience are often easier to understand when considered simply in terms of how a single material’s properties change. But the field is not limited to just that: we are now moving into the realm of healthcare therapies, and vehicles smaller than a speck of dust. What were once regarded as science fictions are rapidly becoming fact.

Keep reading

[complex-systems-science]

Artificial intelligence finds its way into business through sales Artificial intelligence (AI) had a coming out party of sorts in 2016. Even though it has been in development for decades, this year, with the perfect combination of cheap computing power and access to increasing amounts of data, it seems AI’s time has come. Source: http://ift.tt/2gMkB7u

[spaceintruderdetector]

http://www.digitaltrends.com/features/dt10-cyborgs-are-here-the-next-steps-will-make-you-nauseous/

[johnliberto]

Objects and concepts for Oculus First Contact, some are based off designs by Robogabo, and models made by Chris Emond and Sean Binder

[the-future-now-deactivated20170]

Netflix algorithms could help NASA identify planets that support life

Researchers at the University of Toronto Scarborough have developed a new approach to identifying stable planetary systems.

It’s based on the machine learning artificial intelligence Netflix uses.

Machine learning is a type of artificial intelligence that allows computers to learn new functions without being programmed.

This is how Netflix can make scarily accurate predictions of what you’re interested in watching without you telling it.

Now researchers are looking to implement the same idea in the realm of astrophysics.

They will use previously collected data to predict a system’s stability and determine information like a planet’s mass or how elliptical its orbit is. Read more

follow @the-future-now

[the-future-now-deactivated20170]

Amazon is ushering in the future of shopping — and the implications are massive (x) | follow @the-future-now

[thatsmrbio]

[thegamefreaks]

MLG: Gears of War $300k

Images by Matthew Hamilton

[fragments-of-a-hologram-dystopia]

How novelist Ken Liu is bringing Chinese sci-fi to the Western world

With a translating career that started as a favour to a friend, Liu has become the unofficial link between China’s booming science-fiction scene and readers in the West

[prostheticknowledge]

AI Experiments

Yesterday, Google released a load of creative coding experiments using artificial intelligence and neural networks to demonstrate how the technology can be applied:

With all of the exciting A.I. stuff happening, there are lots of people eager to start tinkering with machine learning technology. That’s why we’ve created A.I. Experiments, a site that showcases simple experiments that let anyone play with this technology hands-on, and resources for creating your own experiments. 

You can explore more here

Not only that, Google also released Art and Culture Experiements, which lets you interact with art data in various ways:

With Google Arts & Culture experiments, try out new ways to explore art. Get inspired with machine learning experiments developed in collaboration with resident artists and creative coders at the Lab 

More Here

[the-future-now-deactivated20170]

Sex and dentistry: I made a fellatio prosthetic for my mouth

To my right, a woman with pink hair is struggling to keep a cup of goopy blue silicone in her mouth. To my left, a man is fashioning tiny nipples from alginate. Around us all are eyeless dummies with mouths gaping in silent laughter at the scene.

[the-future-now-deactivated20170]

I was groped in virtual reality

In between a wave of zombies and demons to shoot down, I was hanging out next to BigBro442, waiting for our next attack. Suddenly, BigBro442’s disembodied helmet faced me dead-on. His floating hand approached my body, and he started to virtually rub my chest.

“Stop!” I cried. I must have laughed from the embarrassment and the ridiculousness of the situation. Women, after all, are supposed to be cool, and take any form of sexual harassment with a laugh. But I still told him to stop.

This goaded him on, and even when I turned away from him, he chased me around, making grabbing and pinching motions near my chest. Emboldened, he even shoved his hand toward my virtual crotch and began rubbing.

There I was, being virtually groped in a snowy fortress with my brother-in-law and husband watching.

I wasn’t as experienced a player as BigBro442. Everywhere I ran, he appeared beside me, ready to grope as soon as the zombie wave was over. I’d had enough. With a final parting obscenity, I yanked the headset off my face and stood back in the sunny, familiar room of my brother-in-law’s home.

What had just happened? I hadn’t lasted 3 minutes in multiplayer without getting virtually groped. What’s worse was the feeling.

follow @the-future-now​

[the-future-now-deactivated20170]

Update: Jordan Belamire, the author of the above story, is now facing a cruel wave of backlash and abuse over it. 

“The groping that happened to me in VR was disgusting, but the verbal backlash is way worse,” Belamire, 30, said in an email on Monday. “As understanding as I can be toward angry comments, the waves of negativity can get overwhelming.” Talk about a demeaning, victim-blaming, male privilege mess.

[the-future-now-deactivated20170]

Renewable energy just surpassed fossil fuels in new installations

A clean energy record has been broken. In 2015, 153 gigawatts — more than 50% — of all installed power capacity was made up of renewable energy, including wind and solar power. In other words, new green power surpassed installations for fossil fuels like coal. One type of renewable energy is leading the charge.

follow @the-future-now