henke on 22/4/2014 at 06:33
Good thread! I was thinking about making a similar one as a counterpoint to dethtoll's "Humanity is fucked" thread a few months back, but never got around to it. Loved reading about space elevators, nicked! :D Lots of other swell things on the horizon too.
In vitro meatBack in August, the first (
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-23576143) lab-grown burger was eaten at a news conference in London. Once the technology behind this is perfected it'll make meat cheaper to produce, thus ending world hunger, AND no more animals will have to die to put juicy steaks on our plates! Win-win!
Life on Jupiter's moon EuropaNot long ago scientists figured out that there's probably water under Europa's icy surface. Not only that, but the planet is spinning fast enough to generate heat down near the bottoms of these oceans. AND meteors frequently hit the surface of Europa. Meteors might carry bacteria! Oxygen + heat + bacteria = there's probably something swimming around down there! (maybe we can eat it in case the lab-burgers don't work out)
SubJeff on 22/4/2014 at 08:55
You should watch Europa Report. I'm not going, thanks.
Bulgarian_Taffer on 22/4/2014 at 09:18
Where is my flying car?
When I was young, I was promised flying cars. I don't see any flying cars around. It's disappointing that the future we were promised never came to be. The future is no longer what it was. Currently our world resembles more the world of Flintstones, rather than that of Jetsons. I can understand why this happened - cars and airplanes are different machines from an engineer standpoint and it's still hard to merge both concepts - although there have been some good attempts (terrafugia). But I'm disappointed.
Still, there are some good things that appeared. The e-book readers did happen, as well as some other cool things like smartphones and tablets.
As a passionate space enthusiast I guess that my biggest disappointment is that we stopped going beyond Low Earth Orbit since 1972 and there are no signs that we will leave LEO anytime soon. Nobody predicted that people won't return to the Moon for 40 years. That's so sad. I was promised lunar bases and missions to Mars since I was a kid. Yes - there have been some cool missions in my lifetime. Mars rovers Spirit, Opportunity and the latest Curiosity were awesome missions. Cassini to Saturn was great too, I could add to the list the Chinese Chang'e 3 rover, the Huygens landing on Titan, the Deep Impact cometary probe ... and the upcoming cometary landing - something that never happened before!
But still, I'm not satisfied. My generation needs an Apollo.
You are right that the bright future never happen. But I'm trying to look philosophically at this point. Yes, the bright future never happened, but the apocalyptic future never happened as well. Of course, both futures are still possibilities. It's up to us what future we will create for our children.
faetal on 22/4/2014 at 09:37
Given annual road traffic accident stats, do you really *want*to see flying cars?
Bulgarian_Taffer on 22/4/2014 at 09:44
Quote Posted by faetal
Given annual road traffic accident stats, do you really *want*to see flying cars?
Yes, I do want.
While it's true that we, humans, can hardly orient in 2D-Space and naturally there would be more incidents if we're forced to drive in a 3D space, I would say that this is not an entirely unsolvable problem. The flying cars of the future need to have a lot of autonomy. Which could be achievable with current computer technology
faetal on 22/4/2014 at 09:49
I agree on system autonomy playing a larger part in personal transport, but the collateral damage difference with vehicles falling from the sky would be a worry.
Bulgarian_Taffer on 22/4/2014 at 10:04
Quote Posted by faetal
I agree on system autonomy playing a larger part in personal transport, but the collateral damage difference with vehicles falling from the sky would be a worry.
Still, this is not something that worries me a lot.
Years ago I had the chance to fly with a motorized deltaplane (I think this is the Bulgarian term, in English I've seen another name - flex-wing trike). I was told these machines are safe, there are a lot of safety measures incorporated (it can glide without power, and there's a backup parachute). Parachutes can always be added as a safety measure to soften the landing.
demagogue on 22/4/2014 at 10:29
Incidentally, one of the best performing AI systems these days are automated cars, i.e., you type in the destination and the car drives for you, then you read the newspaper or whatever. They're already performing very well right now, and they're predicting they'll become road-sanctioned in a few years, and within the decade they're supposed to be everywhere. Well, anyway the tech will apparently allow it, whatever the market thinks.
I think if airborne cars were to become a thing, they'd be similarly automated, like you're saying, so human error could be taken out of the equation as much as possible.
Bulgarian_Taffer on 22/4/2014 at 10:31
Exactly.
By the way, have you heard about the humanoid robot of NASA - Robonaut 2? If you're interested in AI, you should google it. A very cool robot. Currently flying aboard the ISS. Not my robot from Asimov books, but still cool
faetal on 22/4/2014 at 11:01
I'm sure you're both right. I'm probably biased having been involved in a high speed collision.
I was interested to hear about the google cars operating in 2 US states. Apparently the only 2 accidents recorded occurred while being driven by people. That doesn't mean that there might not have been other incidents not recorded however, I guess we'll see what the score is if they get rolled out to the general population.
