FOR WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer J. Scott Coatsworth: Get out your crystal balls and let’s jump ahead about 10 years. What does everyday tech look like in 2030? Writers: This is a writer chat – you are welcome to share your own book/link, as long as it fits the chat, but please do so as part of a discussion about the topic. Join the chat: FB: http://bit.ly/1MvPABV MeWe: http://bit.ly/2mjg8lf
FOR WRITERS & READERS Today’s topic comes from QSFer J. Scott Coatsworth: I’ve always loved stories about the future. Flying cars, jet packs, phasers and light sabers and all that. But now we seem to be running willy-nilly into into these things with few safeguards and so much greed, I’m not so sure. We’re getting driverless cars, but they may kill people or be hacked. We’re getting AI, but they might take over the world. So what futuristic tech scares the dickens out of you now that it’s almost here – and why? Join the chat
FOR READERS Today’s reader topic comes from QSFer Hank T. Cannon: What kind of sci-fi tech makes you go “OOOOOOOOOOOH!!!”? For a long time, for me it was transforming vehicles. The Veritech’s from “Robotech,” the cars from the short-lived “Pole Position” cartoon, and of course “M.A.S.K.” among others. I think, from a nostalgia perspective, “Mighty Orbots” is my favorite of them all, if only because of the specific mention of matter manipulation tech in the transformation and unity process. Writers: This is a reader chat – you are welcome to join it, but please do not reference your own works … Read more
The world’s first flying car will be available to pre-order next month. A Chinese company called Terrafugia is preparing to unleash a vehicle called the Transition which can turn from an automobile into an aircraft in just a minute. The most striking aspect of the Transition is its folding wings, which extend to allow flight and can be retracted when driving on roads. It is fitted with a parachute system as well as a ‘boost’ mode to give a ‘brief burst of extra power while flying’. The Chinese news agency Xinhua said pre-sales will begin in October. Terrafugia previously said … Read more
A billion operations per second isn’t cool. Know what’s cool? A million billion operations per second. That’s the promise of a new computing technique that uses laser-light pulses to make a prototype of the fundamental unit of computing, called a bit, that could switch between its on and off, or “1” and “0” states, 1 quadrillion times per second. That’s about 1 million times faster than the bits in modern computers. Conventional computers (everything from your calculator to the smartphone or laptop you’re using to read this) think in terms of 1s and 0s. Everything they do, from solving math … Read more
You can run from Boston Dynamics’ humanoid robot Atlas, but it wouldn’t do you any good — the robot can run after you. In a video shared to YouTube yesterday (May 10) by the robot maker, the uncannily human-like Atlas demonstrates running ability that is eerily reminiscent of a person’s. The robot jogs methodically across an expanse of grass, against a backdrop of trees punctuated by a few isolated buildings. The scene is almost peaceful and idyllic, except for the pervasive whirring and clanking of Atlas’ motors, gears and joints, and the sense of growing unease that comes with witnessing … Read more
FOR WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer J. Scott Coatsworth: For all you sci fi prophets, how will people pay for things in the future? More and more people are using mobile phone payments, and BitCoin is making people crazy with its wild fluctuations in value. So… What will money be like in the future? This is a legacy chat. Join the chat
The artificial intelligence (AI) community has a clear message for researchers in South Korea: Don’t make killer robots. Nearly 60 AI and robotics experts from almost 30 countries have signed an open letter calling for a boycott against KAIST, a public university in Daejeon, South Korea, that has been reported to be “develop[ing] artificial intelligence technologies to be applied to military weapons, joining the global competition to develop autonomous arms,” the open letter said. In other words, KAIST might be researching how to make military-grade AI weapons. By Laura Geggel – Full Story at Live Science
A “flying car” company funded by Google co-founder Larry Page seems to finally have a prototype that looks something like a personal aircraft people might actually use. The company, Kitty Hawk, released a video and statement debuting the vehicle, called Cora, today (March 13). Cora looks a bit like a tiny, one-seater airplane, but its wings are studded with small, upward-facing propellers that allow it to take off and land vertically. According to the video, the Cora is fully automated and fully electric, and requires no piloting skills to operate. That’s a far cry from another device Kitty Hawk unveiled … Read more
People’s future porn habits have been revealed – at least according to YouPorn’s artificial intelligence system. By the end of 2018, your favourite porn search terms will apparently include “girl time flanty,” “pussy firking” and “anal dangcuble”. In fact, “girl time flanty” will be the third-most popular search, according to YouPorn. We’re not sure what flanty means – or firking and dangcuble, for that matter. The site explained that its “data science and machine learning teams trained a recurrent neural network to look at our search trends,” and provide predictions for the end of the year. It seems society will … Read more