GOOGLE PROJECT GLASS LOOKS AS PROMISING AS MICROSOFT’S VISION OF THE TABLET PC IN 2001…

Google has only released one video and little else on their project for bringing augmented reality to the masses, so it’s hard to cast aspersions on what’s the most vapory of vaporware. That said, I’ll pick apart the video; in that even with the use of After Effects and the potential to show us anything, their vision of the future seems rather timid.

Like the silly Nintendo Power Glove in Minority Report (far less impressive than Microsoft’s Kinect and ideas in the labs when the movie was made), we get a vision of the future that feels dated before it happens.

The future is not run on Nintendo Power Gloves...

Google’s glasses appear to just be a screen in front of your face with eye tracking. And I don’t mean that in the ‘iPhone is just a screen you touch’, way. It feels like Microsoft’s attempt at tablets in the early 2000’s. They figured your finger would just be a pointing device for Windows. Substitute ‘eye’ for ‘finger’ here and you get a shortsighted vision of the potential for this technology.

Google’s Glass doesn’t do anything different than what we do now. The screen is just in a different place. Think of how the iPad changed the way we interact with software or how Microsoft’s Kinect changed gaming. Augmented Reality could be bigger than all of this.

Touch interfaces took off when you realized that the medium had changed. Google’s Glass doesn’t feel that way. I don’t think they get their medium. My first case in point is the map feature:

How does Google envision using augmented reality to show us a map? They just float a regular map in front of you. Why not lay the map over on your field of view and actually show you a path to follow?

Second, let’s look at the trip to the book store. Obviously, Google doesn’t want to scare off brick and mortar partners with flashing deals to buy the book elsewhere. But why not use their already solid image recognition technology to hover reviews of the book or show us augmented publisher information. The same for the concert poster. Make the thing move. Show us what a connected world looks like.

Third, the apps were disappointing. When the girlfriend calls, why not make it look like she’s on the top of the building with him? Don’t just overlay reality, blend it. Why not create artificial elements in real space?

Fourth, show us virtual objects. What’s a virtual ebook look like to read or a magazine? I’d love to see what Google thinks the future of virtual items will be like with augmented reality. I have to image it’s more than a transparent screen.

That said, I’m excited that Google is taking the initiative on this. I’ll leave them with the words of Tom Hardy’s Eames in Inception, “You mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.”

For good time’s sake:

This iBook commercial from the very early Return of Jobs era for Apple demonstrates something very rare for Mac products. Not the telekinetic ability to move physical objects with a mouse or empty your garbage with a click of your OS9 drop down menu.

No, this is an example of one of the last Apple ads where a feature that isn’t actually available is demonstrated. Apple’s recent ads have all religiously opted against metaphoric messages. Instead they’ve highlighted stylized versions of actual usage. Even when Santa is using Siri, everything he does is something a new customer could do right out of the box. Although, we aren’t sure if iCal can handle 3.7 billion contacts on one day.

Thanks to Mark Sissons for sending this along.

In the post World War II era the future seemed like a wonderful place full of atomic-powered wonders. A Future World unspoiled by pollution, radiation or flower children.  Lets examine the promises and realities of that vision of the Past’s Future.

1) Flying Cars

It seems that every vision of the future had  one of these ,a trend that even trancended the fifties all the way to modern sci-fi Films.  An there was reason to hope.  Even Ford got into the flying car designing bussiness.  

The Promise:

The Reality:

Although we still have no flying cars in every garage, many pioneers and design firms are hard at work trying to make
this particular conceit of Science Fiction a reality. One of the most advanced endeavour comes from Moller International and it is called the Volantor.  It is about to undergo extensive flight testing.  Who knows in a few years, were we are going, we wont need “Roads.”

2) Death Rays

No futuristic vista would be complete without early vision of the Death Ray. Diorama, movies or science fiction literature the terrifying device was ubiquitous.  Wielded by the good guy, or more likely, the evil alien invader.   The future was going to be dominated burly men in tights toting these around.

The Promise:

The Reality:

Today lasers are in every conceivable human device. There are lasers in Blu Ray players and CD players. They are used to heal skin and even in communications.  Chances are that you are watching this though an internet connection that relies on lasers as the main driver for fiber optics.  And although you can take an industrial cutting laser and aim it at a person, it is far better to use it to precision cut glass or steel.

3) Killer Robots

The 40s and 50s image of The Future would not be complete without the helpful robot about to turn evil. The future would be a place where machines in the shape of men would run amok throught the coming centuries.  From the epic RUR by Capek : “The product of the human brain has escaped the control of  human hands.”

The Promise:

The Reality:

Robotics are one of modern societies greatest assets.  Again, like the death ray (AKA laser) we have found ways to shape and use robots in all kinds of capacities from the lowly inkjet printer to the giant A380  passenger plane. They are all around us. Computer controlled mechanical devices perform all kinds of tasks mostly for the benefit of mankind.  The build our cars and do our laundry and yes they even aid in the exploration of Space.  Although one could argue that smartbombs and cruise missiles are indeed killer Robots,  most perform quietly and wait for the right moment to strike.  We’re on to you Roomba!

4) Space Travel

Perhaps the Personification of the future in the Atomic Age,  space travel was everywhere. It was a promise that almost delivered.  Take a look at my hero, Walt Disney, telling us what the future held back in 1952.

The Promise:

The Reality:

Although we now face an uncertain future in Space travel the past 50 years have been amazing and in many ways up to the standards of earlier generation’s expectations. Here is a reminder:

And there we have it. It seems that the world of tomorrow is indeed here. The problem is that it happened gradually. There are, of course, all manner of wonders that were never thought of by the visionaries of the Atomic Age. I only hope that we manage to escape the fears and we accomplish the aspirations of those who believed in The World of Tomorrow.  Oh well,  let me take my vacuum tube elevator to my garage on the roof. I have a Pan Am flight to catch to The Moon. Mustn’t Keep the Clavius Monolith waiting.

Q: What qualifications do I need to fly?

A: You must be a good swimmer, and should not feel uncomfortable having your face in the water from time to time. You should not have a fear of heights. You should be in good health and physical condition. You should have no history of any heart conditions and flying is not advised for women who are pregnant. You must also have good vision and be able to understand the instructor.

Anybody got a spare $136,000?

[Jetlev Flyer via CNN]

You know, if we have a machine that can destroy legendary trivia heads at Jeopardy it’s high time we had a piece of software that could spot some creep trying to pull out their 4 Wood on sites like Chatroulette. But how?

A new research paper out of Cornell explains the symphony of algorithms behind identifying some random Johnson while adjusting for varying light, skin tone and image composition. For example, in a video demonstrating the program a picture of a couple lying together topless on a screen without exposing any naughty bits did not trigger as low of a rating a weirdo lifting their shirt to grip their tallywhacker for the cam. It also recognized low light and static images.

Pretty amazing stuff and a clever solution to a har… err… difficult problem.

[SafeVchat: Detecting Obscene Content and Misbehaving Users in Online Video Chat Services]

via [Improbable Research]

Meet Hatsune Miku, the world’s first all-virtual pop sensation. Even here voice is a digital creation. What started as a digital voice generator from Yahama known as a vocaloid has gained such popularity that the company has created a 3D Hologram version that has performed to packed stadiums. But the real question is when did we get 3D holograms?!

Please introduce yourself to Skynet Suzette, the latest winner of the Loebner Prize. The Loebner Prize is a version of the Turing Test where a judge talks to both a computer and a human at the same time for a set interval and then chooses which one they think is human. Suzette was able to fool the judge into thinking it was human after a complete 25 minutes of conversation. No word yet on the human who failed to convince a judge they weren’t a machine.

New Scientist: Are you surprised that you fooled a human judge?
Suzette: No, I am not surprised.

Artificially intelligent AND cocky? I’m sure everything will turn out fine.

[New Scientest]

Worried about abduction? Worried about Spot getting sick? Like to race on your Segway? Don’t want an to be on the hook for your ransom payment? Check out this handy infographic to find out exactly what you can expect to pay for your weirdest insurance needs:

(Source: www.thirdshift.nu)

Researchers at Stanford University have developed a flexible semiconductor which may yield new breakthroughs in robotics and artificial limbs. These semiconductors are covered in rubber and infused with air pockets that push back against pressure, allowing it to detect the presence of an object as light as a butterfly. While this will allow a robot to hug you without crushing you they still lack the power to love (for now).

Looks like the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department has finally got an internet connection, and what they’ve found has creeped them out. According to the police, the Internet darling known as ‘Pedobear’ is a secret symbol used by those who would prey on underage children. While they’ve got the basic gist of the meme they have completely missed the point of the character, which is trotted out in Internet discussions to point out when a story or post is unintentionally creepy.

Unfortunately this means if you are among the with it and hip who have a Pedobear t-shirt or sticker odds are if you make your way to California you might just draw the attention of the authorities.

It’s official… we can now move objects with simple lasers.

Developed at the Australian National University, the new discovery can move small objects 100X larger than a bacterium up to a meter in water.

The device works by shining a hollow laser beam around tiny glass particles. The air surrounding the particle heats up, while the dark center of the beam stays cool. When the particle starts to drift out of the middle and into the bright laser beam, the force of heated air molecules bouncing around and hitting the particle’s surface is enough to nudge it back to the center.

A small amount of light also seeps into the darker middle part of the beam, heating the air on one side of the particle and pushing it along the length of the laser beam. If another such laser is lined up on the opposite side of the beam, the speed and direction the particle moves can be easily manipulated by changing the brightness of the beams.

Researchers are confident that with enough testing they should be able to move larger objects longer distances, eventually allowing you to become even lazier!

[Physorg.com]

Check out this great video showing the most realistic endgame for augmented reality I’ve seen. Prepare to be eye-banged!

Here’s more information from the producer of the video himself:

The latter half of the 20th century saw the built environment merged with media space, and architecture taking on new roles related to branding, image and consumerism. Augmented reality may recontextualise the functions of consumerism and architecture, and change in the way in which we operate within it.

Scientists at the University of Calgary have used a specific type of microchip called a neurochip to allow doctors to monitor the brain waves of victims of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

While the chips aren’t quite ready to replace your Gravis Gamepad, researchers hope they will eventually let patients control symptoms and doctors to monitor the brain’s reaction to new treatments.

[CBC News]

Check out this awesome custom lock that detects a special knock to open the door. It’s programmable, which is good because “Shave and a haircut, two bits” is the knocking equivalent of having ‘password’ as your password.

Japanese scientists have created the world’s first touchable holograms. Using 2 Wiimotes and a wave emitter to create pressure on the user’s hands Researchers at Tokyo University have developed the technology to be used from everything from basic computing to light switches and doorknobs. Who would have thought the world of Minority Report would be brought to you be Nintendo. I’m pretty sure Google will be the first with pre-cogs though.

We get pretty cocky here in the 21st Century with our internets and World Wide Web Highway pages, but did you know that the idea for the Internet is four years older than Superman?

In the video above you can check out Belgium inventor Paul Otlet’s idea for a windowed display system that hooked up to other systems “over the telephone.” He also called word processing, a file system, and the multimedia CD-Rom craze all the way back in 1934.

How would the Internet be different today if we had made it then? Let us know your alternative Internet history in the comments!

Check out Paul Otlet’s Wikipedia page

Tinkerers from the Site3 coLabratory have discovered how to make fire… with your mind!

The PK4A Project uses a headset to read brain patterns and a small homemade computer to increase or decrease the flame based on the user’s cerebral input.

The headset is called the NeuroSky MindSet and uses four sensors to detect two of the eight energy bands the brain produces. The computer interprets the brainwaves using a custom algorithm and reflects the level of activity with a massive propane flame.

Safety is obviously a concern so the inventors use a ‘dead-man switch,’ which constantly has to be pressed for the device to function.

While there are no plans to put the item up for sale basic specs are available on the project site.

If you can’t wait to see this thing in action, here’s a video of them using it at Firefly 2010.

A couple of week ago we told you about Wicked Laser’s Spyder III Pro laser, a ‘real-life light saber’ that can also potentially blind you and give you cancer.

Well, it turns out George Lucas noticed the resemblance to the powerful Jedi weapon and issued a cease & desist to Wicked Lasers. It comes in the form of a press release posted on Business Wire:

“It has come to our attention that a company called Wicked Lasers is selling a highly dangerous product out of Hong Kong that is designed to look like a lightsaber from Star Wars. This product is not licensed or approved by Lucasfilm in any way. We have demanded that Wicked Lasers immediately cease and desist their infringing activities. As Wicked Lasers itself admits, this product can cause serious injury to the user and other people. We strongly discourage consumers from purchasing it.”

The Spyder III is still available for about $200, but with the legal department of LucasFilm involved it’s likely to go the way of the Death Star at any time.

Aspiring Jedis the world over are rejoicing with the release of the new Spyder III Pro Artic Laser which is billed by the maker (WikedLasers.com) as “the most dangerous laser ever created.”

Obviously modeled on the Skywalker Family’s favorite accessory, the laser produces an “ultra high power 1W beam” that is 1,000 times more powerful than the sun. It can instantly blind anyone within 700 feet after powering on for a 1/4 second and can easily cause skin burns as well as cancer. Even staring at the dot it produces when shined on a wall can cause permanent retinal damage.

This laser is every Star Wars fan’s dream come true, but it is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS AND POTENTIALLY DEADLY. So please please please don’t buy it.

Here’s where you can buy it.

[Sky News]

Amongst all the hubbub today about Roxxxy the new amorous robot designed to satisfy your carnal desires, comes this little tidbit buried in an article by The Money Times…

Hines inspiration for Roxxxy came from the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

“I had a friend who passed away in 9/11. I promised myself I would create a program to store his personality, and that became the foundation for Roxxxy True Companion,” said Hines.

He feels his creation is not only for recreation and fun but also for people with problems of sexual dysfunction.

A lost friend on one of the grimmest days in modern American history ends with a fully functioning robot engineered to unleash primal delight. Figures.

Want to know how our robot overlords are going to implant our circuitry? Silk.

From Popular Science:

…in the quest to make our bodies ever more bionic, researchers have now developed implantable silicon-silk electronics that almost dissolve completely inside the body, leaving behind nanocircuitry that could be used for improved electrical interfaces for nervous system tissues or photonic tattoos that display blood-sugar readouts on the skin’s surface.

When we were fitted with our implants on the alien mothership, it was nothing like this. For starters there was lots of easy listening jazz music and we’re pretty sure they used angora instead of silk.

Check it out: Silk-Silicon Implantable Electronics Conform to Tissues, Then Melt Away | Popular Science

Technology Review: Implantable Silicon-Silk Electronics

Penn Bullock Reports:

Did Nikola Tesla prophesy the Internet in 1904? In the pages of Electrical World and Engineer, he envisions a global media system – based on the Telegraph:

“Much has already been done towards making my system commercially available, in the transmission of energy in small amounts for specific purposes, as well as on an industrial scale. The results attained by me have made my scheme of intelligence transmission, for which the name of “World Telegraphy” has been suggested, easily realizable. It constitutes, I believe, in its principle of operation, means employed and capacities of application, a radical and fruitful departure from what has been done heretofore. I have no doubt that it will prove very efficient in enlightening the masses, particularly in still uncivilized countries and less accessible regions, and that it will add materially to general safety, comfort and convenience, and maintenance of peaceful relations. It involves the employment of a number of plants, all of which are capable of transmitting individualized signals to the uttermost confines of the earth. Each of them will be preferably located near some important center of civilization and the news it receives through any channel will be flashed to all points of the globe. A cheap and simple device, which might be carried in one’s pocket, may then be set up somewhere on sea or land, and it will record the world’s news or such special messages as may be intended for it. Thus the entire earth will be converted into a huge brain, as it were, capable of response in every one of its parts. Since a single plant of but one hundred horse-power can operate hundreds of millions of instruments, the system will have a virtually infinite working capacity, and it must needs immensely facilitate and cheapen the transmission of intelligence.”

Tesla went on to build Wardenclyffe Tower, the world’s first prototype of a radio tower. It was designed not only to transmit sound, but also wireless electricity. The project was initially funded by J.P. Morgan. The House of Morgan, a book about the history of the financial firm, relates that Morgan visited and was impressed by the tower. Then he turned to Tesla and asked, “Where can I put the meter?” Tesla had no answer, funding was withdrawn, and the Wardenclyffe Tower later went bankrupt, dashing Tesla’s dreams of a world wide interconnected web that would come to fruition decades later.

Preparing for the inevitable Terminator: Salvation robot apocalypse a five part series

We here at Weird Things aren’t just committed to telling you about all the weird things going on in your world, we’re here to do something about it! As every day brings us closer to the robot apocalypse envisioned in the Terminator saga, we’ve been preparing ourselves for a fighting chance. Our editors (actually just this one; the others looked at me funny when I suggested this) decided to design the ultimate weapon to use in the front lines of the man versus machine war.

The first round of offence is the armor piercing bullets stacked wide and deep in the magazine. These rounds are designed to penetrate plate steel, carbon fiber and even titanium.

The scope on the weapon is both a night vision viewer and an EMF direction finder. It’ll help you find your enemy from the unshielded radio waves they give off (what FCC?).

The laser site is designed to make it easy to target the head. It also serves a dual purpose in allowing you to temporarily blind the metallic bringers of death. Drop a bunch of laser key chains in your defensive perimeter to make it more difficult to target your laser sight and vaporize you before you even touch the trigger.

The tip of the rifle barrel is also a 100,000 volt “bayonet” designed to scramble the electronic circuitry of your would be metal assassin or any granola eating Ubuntu freak collaborators willing to defend them if the evil robots claim their code is based on open source.

The magnetic grenades are designed to stick to the metal skin of our robot oppressors and deliver a powerful explosion shooting hot metal and spite into their exoskeletons.

The buzz saw is for close quarter combat when you need to rip open their craniums and scoop out their microprocessors. Also useful for ripping open the skulls of their aforementioned open source collaborators who’d sell us all out to the machine overlords for a signed Summer Glau photo and a chance to have their name in the source code on the distro of their evil Linux fork.

When facing the “unstoppable” variety of unstoppable killing machine, the spay paint attachment can be used to disable their optic sensors and tag really irritating graffiti on their metal carapaces.

The last resort is USB 3.0 stick loaded with malware, lol katz and torrents of Short Circuit, Heart Beeps and Batteries Not Included.

We’re currently accepting quotes from artillery manufacturers wishing to place bids on building this weapon.

A five-part series that tries to explain how to make the science of Star Trek real…

In an episode of Star Trek the Next Generation called the “The Chase” a long running problem in Star Trek was finally solved – Why do all the aliens in Star Trek look humanoid. The answer was not “budget”. It was that a race that lived 4.5 billion years ago seeded the galaxy with its DNA. Humans, Vulcans, klingons etc., all got their imprint from them. We kind of look like each other because we all look like some alien race from 4.5 billion years ago. Problem solved. But is Intelligent Design really a satisfying answer?

If we find aliens that look like us, what other explanations could account for them?

Kidnapping
Having to deal with a slightly more sophisticated audience that grew up watching Star Trek, the producers of Stargate and the producers of the television series had to come up with a simple explanation for there being humans all over the galaxy in present day time. Their solution was a popular one in sci-fi literature: We were kidnapped. Over the last 100,000 years humans have been relocated to the distant corners of our universe. Once there, they go about their business. Building monuments to their gods (Star Trek and Stargate) or becoming thriving interstellar civilizations more advanced than us on earth (Iain Banks’s The Culture).

Plastic surgery
Let’s face it, we’re one sexy species. Of course we’re biologically programmed to think this, otherwise evolution would come to a stand still if we spent all our time trying to reproduce with some other species just as sexy in its own way (like sexy, sexy moss). But lets assume that we’re universally considered sexy. Then it makes sense that sophisticated civilizations would want to look like us – or at least some of them would. History is replete with examples of one culture adopting the style of another (sometimes less sophisticated one); Romans copying Egyptian fashion. Revolutionary France emulating the American Frontiersmen and Native Americans. British punks emulating Caribbean culture and Native American, etc.

Shape-shifting
Any civilization that can travel interstellar distances should also possess the ability to shift shape. We can do this in some small form through surgery and prosthetics. Eventually, nanotechnology should give us the ability to radically change our shapes, colors and features. It’s not impossible to think that if we ever meet some other species we might adopt their shape to fit in just like we do the wardrobe of other countries. Because nothing screams tourist on Epsilon XII like only one pair of arms and concealed genitals.

Coincidence
This is a hard one to accept initially. Our planet is filled with billions of different life forms. The only ones that ever came close to looking like us are distant relatives. But given a universe filled with over 70 sextillion stars (that’s 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars), if intelligent life happens a lot and knowing that nature favors certain solutions (eyes, wings, flippers, feet) it’s not too hard to accept that somewhere out there are a lot of roughly humanoid looking species. But for every one of those would be a billion squidlings that think we’re very unsexy.

Synchronicity
This is a concept used in sci-fi to explain why patterns often repeat themselves. It’s not a matter of coincidence, it’s that there’s some property of the universe that makes systems move to the same metronome. A kind of galactic zeitgeist. In pop culture there have been a number of crank theories like Morphic-Resonance and The Hundredth Monkey that try to prove this. They fail because their own examples are easily debunked. They try to explain phenomena that don’t require a sophisticated explanation and supply a mechanism without really saying what it is.

Ignoring the crackpot examples, there are other examples of synchronicity fully understood and some that aren’t. Quantum entanglement is one form of it. It’s spooky action at a distance shows how previously connected particles are still mysteriously connected. Since the universe started out as a tiny point, we’re all connected in some way. In more mundane physics you can do fun experiments with tuning forks and other objects and observe how similar shapes can make each other resonate at a distance.

If at some level matter can influence other matter at a far off distance like two tuning forks, then maybe that influence can scale up to systems and cause co-evolution over similar paths. This could result in humanoids in the most far off places. For a great exploration of this idea, check out Anathem by Neil Stephenson.

Check out the rest of the series on making the science of Star Trek possible

A five-part series that tries to explain how to make the science of Star Trek real…

The transporters in Star Trek are an exciting concept. Recent developments in quantum physics have made the possibility of teleporting matter a theoretical possibility while warp drive still remains a fantasy concept. However, the amount of energy required to move a person and all the other problems that go with it (engineering and ethical) leave quantum teleportation a bit to be desired for practical use. Crazy things can happen, but in the event that quantum teleportation doesn’t scale up or people are upset by the idea of their atoms being destroyed so copies can take their place, here are some slightly (we think) more practical solutions for teleportation that use way less energy and preserve your atoms:

#1 The Human Javelin
If your goal is to get down to a planet as quickly as possible in an intact condition and you don’t mind what happens to your body in the interim, it might be possible using nanotechnology to squish you into a very small and narrow package. Basically your whole body would be dissected and shoved into a tube with a very narrow diameter (centimeters) and shot at the planet. Once the torpedo arrives, the nanobots that make up the packing material would go to work reassembling you from your squished up parts.

As unpleasant as this sounds, it’s really not that different from flying coach on most domestic airlines.

Technology required: An understanding of how to use nanotechnology to disassemble living systems and then put them back together in living condition.

Probability of being capable of this in the next 100 years: HIGH

#2 The Swarm
Slightly more elegant than the human torpedo but no less damaging to the short-term integrity of your molecules, is the idea of the Human Swarm. Imagine several million nano-mosquitoes each taking a tiny bite out of you – but remembering where it all went. They would then be shot out of your ship at a planet where they would drift down to the surface as a swarm. Once there, they’d begin to reassemble you back into your original form following an instruction set they made when they took you apart.

The elegant part about this solution is that it would look like some form of matter transporter technology or the smoke monster from Lost…

Technology required: The whole putting living things back together nano thing and intelligent flying nanobots.

Probability of being capable of this in the next 100 years: HIGH

#3 The Human Fax
If having your molecules diced up and transported elsewhere doesn’t appeal to you, an alternative is stepping into a machine that makes a copy of you somewhere else. This copy goes about its business (trade shows, Comic-Con, Lunar Vegas, etc) then steps back into the machine at the other end, downloads its experiences back to you and is disassembled. You then come out of your origin booth with the experience of having traveled somewhere at the speed of light and then back.

Forms of this idea have appeared in various sci-fi novels (Asimov’s Norby series and Wil McCarthy’s The Collapsium for example). It’s a very practical solution and may not require technology quite as advanced as the others suggested here. In fact, the faxed version of you doesn’t even have to be a precise copy. It just has to be capable of acting like you and recording what you do. The next step is getting those experiences back into your head. If you’re comfortable with only a downstream link back into your head, the experiences could be sent back in real time. Time delay wouldn’t be a problem because you’re only observing what your avatar does.

Technology required: The ability to electronically transmit experiences into a brain (actually closer than we thought just a few years ago). For long distances: AI driven avatars that can act like us – or digitally produced clones. For short distances: lifelike robot versions of ourselves to transmit experiences back to us.

Probability of being capable of this in the next 100 years: HIGH

#4 Particle Beam Teleportation
If all you want is to get your atoms from one place to another as quickly as possible, a particle beam can do the trick right now. Atom by atom you can flick your bits against a far wall using very high voltages and some electromagnets. The hard part is putting it all together again.

In a secret laboratory right now there might be some project sitting on a lab table that is trying to do this at least in part. The answer might be using two particle beams that intersect at a point and can move objects like forceps. These beams would sweep over you and shoot your particles somewhere in a matter stream where they would be stitched back together.

Technology required: Matter beams that can disassemble you atom by atom. A way to use particle beams or lasers to align and reassemble particles.

Probability of being capable of this in the next 100 years: MEDIUM

#5 Some exotic idea
World-changing ideas are often in obscurity before they change everything. Incandescent lights, silicon semi-conductors and even the Internet were academic concepts before they found their earth-shattering applications. There might be some theory or phenomenon sitting in a journal right now that some kid is going to base her graduate thesis on and create a great cover story for Discover magazine which might then lead to some radical new approach. Bose-Einstein Condensate fields?

Maybe we can move matter like light. Maybe you can make a matter hologram that allows you to reduce it to two dimensions and project it elsewhere. Maybe you can project all of the physical aspects of matter while keeping the atoms somewhere else. The point is, there are a lot of possibilities if you start thinking about the solution outside of just worm holes and a quantum teleportation.

The depraved Neural Interface Technology researchers at University of Wisconsin Madison have unleashed a device of unspeakable evil. Just to clarify: We think direct brain/computer interfaces are nifty and are important science. But with great power comes great responsibility. We must use these tools to aid the forces of good in this world. And when you take a technology so cool and important and then use it to breach all standards of human decency, good women and men everywhere need to make a stand.

-Find out what is so heinous about twitter AFTER THE JUMP….

The Twitter menace has taken the internet and media by storm, shortening attention spans and making twits everywhere think that anyone cares that they decided to buy chocolate milk instead of regular milk five minutes ago. With this new technology, all of the thousands of miscellaneous thoughts that rattle through people’s brains each minute will be uploaded to the internet. It won’t be long until we reach a critical mass of mindless and superfluous information.

The Twitter conspiracy reaches to the highest level of government, celebrities and CEOs everywhere are rushing to become twits. But there is hope: We were heartened to see Jon Stewart decrying the evils of Twitter on The Daily Show last night. For twitter to triumph all that needs to happen is for us good, decent technophobic folk to do nothing. Needless to say, the human race can ill afford to waste time. Quick and decisive action must be taken to stop this research that would allow the thoughts of millions of twits everywhere to flow unfiltered through the internet, inundating our online space with the mundane details of the lives of tech heads. And that is a scary thought indeed.

-Sean’s twitter account name is seanmccabe88.
-For unsubstantiated evidence that Twitter can make you immoral, click here.