My emotional relationship with our robot future is ever changing. On the whole, I’m skeptical that rapid robotic advancement is going to be net positive in the long run (and I’m far from alone on that score). However…we don’t seem to be doing a great job with decision-making on our own these days, so who knows. Sometimes, however, I toss the deep thoughts (it’s easy—I have television and internet) and base my emotional responses to new robots exclusively on the following metric: are they cute? I’ve recently fallen in love with this adorable and not-yet-terrifying underwater robot that mimics a … [Read more...]
Home Sweet Doomsday Home
Where will you sleep during the end of the world? Your bed? In your unprotected, above-ground house? Nonsense. Let me tell you of a much better—and vastly more stylish—way to keep on keepin' on when the bottom drops out of human civilization. Here's a fun fact about me: I’m obsessed with the doomsday luxury shelter. Everything about the concept fascinates me. The engineering, the operating logistics, the market, the advertising, the class and culture issues, the psychology of those who buy them, and—most of all—what happens inside if you ever actually have to use one. The luxury … [Read more...]
The Future is For Optimists
Optimism is hard. For most of us, thinking good thoughts about the future doesn’t come naturally. Even trying to be optimistic about the next few months feels like running uphill (and I hate running). These days, optimism in one particular subject—the effect of technology on our collective future—can feel downright impossible. There’s a good reason you don’t see happy movies about the future. Off the top of my head, the only one I can recall is The Fifth Element, and that’s more fantasy than sci-fi. Even the new Star Trek (from what I’ve read) has traded cerebral hope about the good of … [Read more...]
The Roundup: Sound Tattoos and Buddhist Whales
I’m back with another roundup of my favorite mini-future developments. No robots, no immortality, no space travel, and no VR nightmares. I’m talking about the little tech innovations and weird trends that seem to pop up at a crazy pace. Edible rocks and designer cats and glow in the dark hair, that kind of thing… Let’s go. 1) The First Cryogenically Frozen Human Being No, the story about Walt Disney’s head is not true (much as I would like it to be). And yes, it’s possible someone has had their own head placed in a freezer before, but this is the first time everything is on the up … [Read more...]
The Future and the Futurist
I recently came across a great article about (and interview with) Neal Stephenson, one of our most celebrated working science fiction authors. His 1992 novel Snow Crash remains a classic of the genre. But more remarkable is that people still study the novel for practical reasons—specifically, its depiction of a virtual reality universe that people disappear into for significant amounts of their lives. In the novel, Stephenson coined the term “metaverse” for that world’s virtual-reality + internet + 3D virtual space universe. The novel appeared during the early-1990s, a high water mark … [Read more...]
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