Lifeboat Foundation

While some automakers look to electrify conventional trucks, General Motors has taken a much more radical approach in its development of next-generation commercial vehicles.

Meet the Silent Utility Rover Universal Superstructure, or SURUS for short.

Unveiled on Friday ahead of the fall meeting of the Association of the United States Army, where it will be presented on Monday, the SURUS is essentially a modular platform designed for heavy-duty trucks that will enable near-silent running, zero harmful emissions, and autonomous operation.

Continue reading “SURUS: GM’s modular platform for silent, self-driving trucks” »

[*This article was first published in the September 2017 issue of Paradigm Explorer: The Journal of the Scientific and Medical Network (Established 1973). The article was drawn from the author’s original work in her book: The Future: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2017), especially from Chapters 4 & 5.]

We are at a critical point today in research into human futures. Two divergent streams show up in the human futures conversations. Which direction we choose will also decide the fate of earth futures in the sense of Earth’s dual role as home for humans, and habitat for life. I choose to deliberately oversimplify here to make a vital point.

The two approaches I discuss here are informed by Oliver Markley and Willis Harman’s two contrasting future images of human development: ‘evolutionary transformational’ and ‘technological extrapolationist’ in Changing Images of Man (Markley & Harman, 1982). This has historical precedents in two types of utopian human futures distinguished by Fred Polak in The Image of the Future (Polak, 1973) and C. P. Snow’s ‘Two Cultures’ (the humanities and the sciences) (Snow, 1959).

What I call ‘human-centred futures’ is humanitarian, philosophical, and ecological. It is based on a view of humans as kind, fair, consciously evolving, peaceful agents of change with a responsibility to maintain the ecological balance between humans, Earth, and cosmos. This is an active path of conscious evolution involving ongoing psychological, socio-cultural, aesthetic, and spiritual development, and a commitment to the betterment of earthly conditions for all humanity through education, cultural diversity, greater economic and resource parity, and respect for future generations.

Continue reading “Contrasting Human Futures: Technotopian or Human-Centred?*” »

AI is only loosely modeled on the brain. So what if you wanted to do it right? You’d need to do what has been impossible until now: map what actually happens in neurons and nerve fibers.

Dubai’s police department has added a flying motorcycle to its arsenal. Capable of flying with or without a pilot, the bike will be used to help rescue missions and monitor traffic. Due to safety concerns, the bike won’t fly higher than 20 feet. Dubai officials plan to start using the vehicle within the next two years.

The flying motorcycle is just the latest piece of absurd technology the Dubai government has introduced in the last year. The bike will join the ranks of Dubai’s jetpack firefighters, flying taxis, and robot police officers.

Dubai’s push for new government technology is part of their plan improve services ahead of their world fair, Expo 2020, which is expected to attract 25 million visitors to the city.

Continue reading “Dubai police add hoverbikes to go with their robocops and flying taxis” »

In a big step on the journey to our robot-laden future, California is moving to permit companies that are developing self-driving cars to test them in the state with no human safety driver at the wheel.

The state that’s home to the biggest concentration of autonomous vehicles is poised to take a big step to help advance the technology — and fend off efforts by other states to attract test programs.

An international, interdisciplinary research team of scientists has come up with a machine-learning method that predicts molecular behavior, a breakthrough that can aid in the development of pharmaceuticals and the design of new molecules that can be used to enhance the performance of emerging battery technologies, solar cells, and digital displays.

The work appears in the journal Nature Communications.

“By identifying patterns in molecular behavior, the learning algorithm or ‘machine’ we created builds a knowledge base about atomic interactions within a molecule and then draws on that information to predict new phenomena,” explains New York University’s Mark Tuckerman, a professor of chemistry and mathematics and one of the paper’s primary authors.

Continue reading “Scientists develop machine-learning method to predict the behavior of molecules” »

This week, Neill Blomkamp, the Academy Award-nominated director of District 9, unveiled a short film that he made with the Unity Technologies game engine. At Unity’s event in Austin, Texas, Blomkamp’s Oats Studios showed off Adam: The Mirror, a 6-minute film that was a sequel to Adam, a short film that Unity built as an internally produced showcase demo last year.

Evoking the theme of transhumanism, or the notion that we can live beyond our physical bodies, the film shows an android coming to life and realizing that it was a human trapped in a robot’s body. The film was meant to show off the power of the Unity engine when it comes to making high-quality 3D graphics. But to Blomkamp, it’s also an example of how a game engine can help democratize film, making life easier for independent film makers just as Unity has done for indie game developers.

Continue reading “District 9 director Neill Blomkamp hopes game engines can democratize film” »

Building a house by hand can be both time-consuming and expensive. Numerous homebuilders have chosen to automate part of the construction (i.e., by printing the home’s parts) instead.

A new Ukrainian homebuilding startup called PassivDom uses a 3D printing robot that can print parts for tiny houses. The machine can print the walls, roof, and floor of PassivDom’s 380-square-foot model in about eight hours. The windows, doors, plumbing, and electrical systems are then added by a human worker.

When complete, the homes are autonomous and mobile, meaning they don’t need to connect to external electrical and plumbing systems. Solar energy is stored in a battery connected to the houses, and water is collected and filtered from humidity in the air (or you can pour water into the system yourself). The houses also feature an independent sewage system.

Continue reading “A Robot Can Print This $32,000 House in as Little as 8 Hours” »

Your face is your password, but will this become a mainstream feature for the social network?