Archive for the ‘futurism’ category: Page 1068
Jan 6, 2017
Aging does not have to mean what it means to many people today
Posted by Steve Hill in categories: futurism, life extension
The researchers at CellAge see aging differently to many people and they have a vision.
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Jan 5, 2017
Japanese company replaces office workers with artificial intelligence
Posted by Aleksandar Vukovic in categories: futurism, robotics/AI
A future in which human workers are replaced by machines is about to become a reality at an insurance firm in Japan, where more than 30 employees are being laid off and replaced with an artificial intelligence system that can calculate payouts to policyholders.
Insurance firm Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance is making 34 employees redundant and replacing them with IBM’s Watson Explorer AI.
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Jan 5, 2017
Here’s How Much Human Faces and Bodies Will Change Over the Next 100 Years
Posted by Shane Hinshaw in category: futurism
Jan 4, 2017
2020 presidential debates: Zuckerberg vs. Kanye vs. a robot
Posted by Zoltan Istvan in categories: futurism, robotics/AI
A very seductive hypothesis: did Cambridge Analytica use its psychographics profiles to find the audience for our post-truth world? Did they target gullible voters on behalf of Trump’s campaign? Why is a Cambridge Analytica employee reading about the Need for Cognition Scale?
In a remarkable paper (summarised here), Fording and Schram analysed some survey results from January 2016 and highlighted the disproportionate support for Trump among “low-information voters”. They define those as voters who either score low in political knowledge or low on the so-called Need for Cognition Scale. The latter criterion means that they tend to make decisions based on heuristics rather than by thinking through the issue methodically. Of course, the two factors correlate: if you don’t think much about politics, you are unlikely to know a lot about it and vice-versa.[1]
Fording and Schram went on to assess the preference for Trump or Clinton segmented through those criteria. Because the data was collected in January, this is not expressed as a vote preference, but as a “warmth index” (or a difference of warmth), in the Y-axis.
Continue reading “Microtargeting of low-information voters” »
Jan 1, 2017
Why Google co-founder Larry Page is pouring millions into flying cars
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: futurism, transportation
Tiny electric airplanes could transform air travel.
On its own, swapping conventional aircraft engines for electric motors could have significant benefits, reducing the cost of air travel and emissions per flight. But the bigger opportunity here is to make air travel practical in situations where no one would think to take an airplane today.
Back in October, Uber published a white paper describing its vision of the future small VTOL aircraft could make possible. Uber envisions a network of on-demand aircraft carrying passengers among many landing spots distributed throughout a metropolitan area. For example, right now it takes at least an hour to drive from San Jose, California, to San Francisco — and closer to two hours during rush hour. In contrast, Uber estimates, the same trip could take 15 minutes in a VTOL airplane.
Continue reading “Why Google co-founder Larry Page is pouring millions into flying cars” »
Dec 31, 2016
Meet The Woman Who Wants To Grow Clothing In A Lab
Posted by Shane Hinshaw in category: futurism
Dec 30, 2016
Space Colonies Will Start Out Like the Wild West, Grow Family-Friendly
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: futurism, space
As humans explore other worlds, the colonies they develop may change over time. While the first settlements may rely on individuals, as the outposts grow more self-sustaining, families will likely become the colonists of choice, a panel of experts said.
“The socioeconomic origins of colonists are going to change over time,” science fiction author Charles E. Gannon told Space.com.
Earlier this year at Dragon Con in Atlanta, Gannon was part a panel of scientists and science communicators who discussed how future space colonies might look and act, and how such developments might affect the rest of humanity on Earth. Gannon was joined by nuclear physicist Ben Davis, forensic anthropologist Emily Finke, science teacher Lali DeRosier and moderator Kishore Hari, a self-described “professional nerd.” [NASA’s Wild Space Colony Concepts in Images].
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