Category Archives: Futurism

In Brief Volvo announced new partnerships with both Nvidia and Autoliv in an attempt to become a major player in the autonomous car industry. This is just the latest company to move toward driverless cars, which can only be good for our driverless future. Volvos New Partnerships

After a recent announcement that Volvo will attempt to challenge Tesla in the electric vehicle market, the car manufacturer hasnow also made a gambit to join the autonomous vehicle competition. The Swedish car giant has teamed up with Nvidia for the project, specifically utilizing Nvidias Drive PX, which is capable of processing data from 12video cameras as well as lidar, radar, and ultrasonic sensors.

This news comes in the wake of an announcement from the CEOof Volvo, Hakan Samuelsson, thatthe company intends to square off with Tesla at the expense of diesel engines.Samuelsson explained in an email to Reuters,We have to recognize that Tesla has managed to offer such a car for which people are lining up. In this area, there should also be space for us, with high quality and attractive design.

The software that will govern the driverless system is provided by Autoliv, who Volvo ispartnering with under the new name Zenuity for this venture. Although some parts of the collaboration will be exclusive for Volvo, other aspects that Autoliv will develop couldbe sold to other car makers.

Volvo and Nvidia have teamed up before for Volvos autonomous car pilot program, Drive Me, but this the first time they have teamed up for a commercially available vehicle, which the companyaims to launchin 2021.

The ever growing hype around driverless car technology which has the potential to make our roads safer and fasterhas encouraged several other notable players in the motor vehicle and computerindustries to start developing their own variants of the technology. Volvo is another racehorse in stable of big-name, big-money ventures.

Also joining the race for the future of transport are: Tesla, who arguably pioneereddriverless technology and have a potential industry changer in their hotly anticipated Model 3; Google, who have also entered the fray by launching as Volvo did a separate company called Google Auto LLCto develop their driverless cars; and Ford, who have goneas far to test their cars in snowy conditions last year.

There is, therefore, a huge amount of competition among car makers, which is exciting for our driverless future as it will lead to the best autonomous cars possible on our roads. Competition breeds innovation, after all.

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Volvo Is Rivaling Tesla With Their Own Driverless Car - Futurism

In Brief A Youtuber claiming affiliation with the hactivist group Anonymous released a video stating that NASA is on the verge of announcing the discovery of intelligent life. The video takes quotes out of context and adds their own unproven assumptions. Anonymous Tip

Living in these uncertain times, it seems that false news stories generated to rack up the clicks disseminate faster than ever before. Some of these fake stories even make it beyondthe traditionally susceptible Great Uncles Facebook feed and are quickly gobbled up by traffic-hungry publications who are more concerned with riding a wave of sensationalism than earnestly informing the populace. Such a story had its grips on publications across the internet today, and the salacious topic fueling the frenzy was (of course) aliens.Click to View Full Infographic

A video was posted by a self-describedmember of Anonymous a loosely associated international hacktivist group who claimed that they hadexclusive evidence from NASA saying that we are on the verge of discovering alien life. The person in the Guy Fawkes mask with the digitally-altered voice goes even further, claimingthat theyre not just talking about microbial life, but advanced, space-faring civilizations.

Unfortunately, the facts just do not measure up to these claims which were taken out of context from actual hearings. Keeping in mind thatNASA is certainly making significant progress in discovering life on other planets,The Washington Post decided to do some actual journalism and reach out to NASA for a quote on the fake news. While were excited about the latest findings from NASAs Kepler space observatory, theres no pending announcement regarding Extra-Terrestrial life, a spokesman for the agency wrote.

One of the quotes pulled for the video was said by NASAs Thomas Zurbuchen during a congressional hearing back in April (the entire hearing is publicly available). Zurbuchen did indeed state We are on the verge of making one of the most profound, unprecedented discoveries in history, but he was discussing the discovery of possible habitable planets around distant suns, as well asorganic chemicals being found on a moon of Saturn.

Futurism will continue to follow all leads regarding the search for life beyond Earth but we will do so with the full backing of peer reviewed science and not by taking the word of a viral video.

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Did NASA Just Discover Alien Life? Spoiler Alert: No. - Futurism

Ethereum Goes Up

MGT Capital, the company run by John McAfee, said it would start to mine Ethereum the bitcoin rival that has surged nearly 4,000% this year in its latest bid to turn a profit. Although ethereumhas since dropped in value, its an alteration that was predicted by experts, given its unprecedentedly excessive rise. And as this latest announcement highlights, tech experts and investors alike are confident that its price will soon surge again.

MGT, which is publicly traded over the counter, has pitched itself to investors mostly as a cybersecurity company. Cybersecurity is where McAfee made his mark as the founder of the antivirus company that bears his name.

But McAfee has more recently started to tout cryptocurrencies. He said last month that investments in bitcoin would help put MGT back in the black by the end of the year.

Ethereum is like bitcoin in that it can be mined by computers that solve complex computations. MGT said Friday that it reached an agreement with Bit5ive LLC to buy up to 60 graphics-processor-based mining computers to help mine for ether.

We are more convinced each day of the growth and value of digital currencies, and our company is uniquely positioned to be a leading provider of processing power to relevant blockchains, McAfee said in the statement.

McAfees foray into the cryptocurrency space comes when others have been sounding the alarm after a huge run-up in prices.

In early June, billionaire Mark Cuban said it was evident that bitcoin was a bubble, tweeting, When everyone is bragging about how easy they are making $=bubble.

Days later, Goldman Sachs warned that bitcoin was looking heavy and that a drop to between $2,330 and $1,915 a coin was looking likely. Bitcoin put in a low of $2,076 just a day later after the scaling debate came back into focus as the bitcoin-mining firm Bitmain outlined its contingency plan for if a hard fork were to occur. Bitcoin has recouped those losses and now trades at $2,708.

Ethereum is up by 3,964% in 2017. As for MGT, its stock is up by 42% year-to-date.

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Ethereum is Up 4000% This Year, And The World's Elite Are All Buying In - Futurism

In Brief Engineering firm ThyssenKrup has just finished the first tests of its Maglev elevator that operates horizontally and vertically without cables. This in-building hyperloop could change high-rise building design and cut down wait time for elevators.

Engineering firm ThyssenKrup has created a Maglev elevator that operates horizontally as well as vertically, and without cables. The firm has completed the first public tests of the technology in a dedicated tower. Named Multi, the experimental elevator trades in cables for rails and magnetic fields. The fields push the cabins along the rails which work like linear motors, much like an in-building hyperloop.

The cabins can rotate to shift a cabin to the side when it stops at a floor. This allows more cabins to use the system seamlessly without getting in each others way. The cabins will also be able to plan their routes, which will reduce wait timesand prevent in-shaft traffic jams.

This tech may also solve an ongoing issue facing designers of modern high-rise buildings. If youve ever been in a very tall building, youve probably noticed that youre forced to take elevators from different banks to reach the highest floors. This is because standard cable elevator designs can only safely rise about 1,600 feet per single continuous stretch. The Multi system would put an end to that, making more space and style options possible.

ThyssenKrup has already signed up its first customer: the East Side Tower building planned for Berlin will feature the Multi. Before you get too excited, though, realize that the price tag of the system will probably keep it from becoming the new standard anytime soon:it costs up to five times as much as a standard elevator system. And, theres no up and out button the cabins will rely on the rails.

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First Ever Cable-Free Elevator Can Move Horizontally and Vertically - Futurism

In BriefCould Bitcoin destroy tyranny in the modern world? At leastone person thinks so. Bitcoin Frenzy

Recently, there has been a lot of hype and equally criticism of Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency has, just this far into 2017, jumped well over 100 percent in value, garnering suspicion and questions regarding its potential for long-term success. However, besides these doubts, Naval Ravikant, an investor and the CEO and co-founder of Angel List, has come to Bitcoins defense on Twitter:

Claiming that Bitcoin could free humanity from oligarchs and tyrants Ravikant asserts that the quick rise in value that is making many wary of Bitcoin is just superficial. But how could a cryptocurrency free humanity of tyranny?

Well, through the potential power of blockchain. The blockchain ledger, which includes cryptocurrencies, essentially streamline the financial world. They eliminate a need for a middle-man, so-to-speak, so institutions like banks would no longer be necessary for a society based in blockchain. And while that might seem like a small difference, think about how many different aspects of a modern society rely on even the simplest financial transactions.

Are Ravikants opinions of Bitcoin extreme or off-base? Its impossible to say, as some consider the cryptocurrency to be a bubble about to burst, but the potential blockchain itself has to change the way that societies operate is very real. Its not just a passing phase, as many thought with the emergence of seemingly joke cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin. It is something that, if adopted on a wider scale which has already begun in countries like Japan the authorities whocurrently control consumption and financial transactions would no longer be relevant.

Money makes the world go round. Peace, suffering, conflict, power; so much of modern life centers around transactions. From information to finances, all of these transactions rely on some middle step, some outside authority or management. This has made countless people over the years dependent on these outside power structures, creating control and dominance differences that have the potential to create what could be construed as tyranny.

Now, this might be pushing current boundaries by saying that Bitcoin, just one specific blockchain, could make such a big change. So, one some level, Ravikant is stretching this. Bitcoin itself is still relatively unstable and there is some possibility that its most recent rise in value is a bubble that is certain to eventually burst. It is only one of multiple cryptocurrencies and blockchains, none of which are close to completely taking over any economic structures yet. However, if blockchains potential coupled with Bitcoins popularity eventually leads to such a revolution, perhaps tyranny and oligarchs would truly become obsolete.

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Why a Respected CEO Believes Bitcoin Is a Tool for Freeing Humanity - Futurism

In Brief A Reddit user seems to have chanced upon a Tesla Model 3 being test driven around San Matteo. You You Xue's photos give us an unprecedented glimpse of the car that could change the way the world thinks about electric vehicles.

New photos of the Tesla Model 3 the most anticipated electric car of the decade, if not all timehave been leaked by You You Xue, who claimed on Reddit that Xue came across the new model randomly in San Matteo, and jumped straight out of the car and started snapping photos! The car is due to be launched sometime this year.

Tesla has been extremely secretive about the project, going as far as to camouflage and cover the vehicle in every road test it has conducted to date.

The photos show us the interior of Teslas upcoming vehicle, including its dashboard with a 43-cm (17-inch) display, the steering wheel, charging ports, and wheels.

This has been the latest piece of information in a series of exciting updates concerning the Model 3. We know what the robots that will build the cars look like, that it will have an updated autonomous mode, and that production of the battery cell has begun at Gigafactory 1 in Nevada.

At this point, 2017 looks to be the year of Elon Musk, who is pushing the boundaries of almost any industry he enters: from space rockets, to solar panels, to autonomous vehicles the sky seems to be the limit for the modern technological prophet.

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These Leaked Tesla Model 3 Photos Offer You Views of This Decade's Most Anticipated EV - Futurism

In Brief A historic weekend "doubleheader" for Elon Musk ended Sunday afternoon after SpaceX launched two payloads into space within 48 hours of each other. The initial launch was also a first for the country of Bulgaria, which launched a telecommunications satellite.

As of 5 p.m. EST, this story is developing.

Elon Musks SpaceX took ascheduling delay and turned it into a historic opportunity: as the result of postponing the launch of a Bulgarian satellite from Monday to Friday of last week, SpaceX had two Falcon 9 rocket launches within 48 hours of each other. Fridays BulgariaSat-1 launch happened from NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The second one carrying a payload of 10 new satellites from Virginia-based telecommunications company Iridiumlifted off Sunday afternoon from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The two back-to-backlaunches a first for SpaceX were made possible by its reusable rocket technology. Fridays BulagariaSat-1 launch was only the second time the space venture company successfully reused a rocket booster, while Sundays marked the third. In a series of tweets after the launch, Muskseemed pleased with how far the reusable tech has come.

That being said, it could still be refined even more. As he explainedin his answer to a Twitter userssuggestion, hed like to see the rocket turnaround be so quick there isnt even time enough to touch up the paint job.

Apart from being weekend of firsts for SpaceX, it was also the first time Bulgaria launched a telecommunications satellite. For Iridium, todays payload was the second batchof its planned 70-satellite constellation, which is part of its NEXT mobile communications network. The first 10 of these low-orbit satellites were launched in January.

This weekends doubleheader was a confidence boost for the reusable rocket technology.Among other things, Musk hopes the tech will help lower the overallthe cost of going tospace. Hepreviously highlighted that launching satellites aboard SpaceXs reusable rockets is $300 million cheaper than conventional one-way-trip rockets.

Even before this weekends successes, interest in the reusable rocket tech has been steadily growing: to date, SpaceX has booked more than 50 missions including one from aerospace giant Airbus. Most arescheduled for this year or into 2018.There are a number launches both from private corporations like Iridium, as well as from government agencies, similar toBulgarias arrangement.

Perfecting its reusable rocket technology isnt just going to benefit SpaceX in the short term. Its most exciting potential application could actually be in the bigger rockets that could start ferrying human beings to Mars sometime in the2030s.

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SpaceX Just Transformed Space Flight, Launching Two Rockets in 48 Hours - Futurism

In Brief Renowned astrophysicist, author, and science communicator Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson appeared on CSPAN to discuss his feeling that we are not alone in the universe.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is one of the (if not the) most well-known astrophysicists. He is also an accomplished author and science communicator/entertainer, and the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York City. Also, he doesnt think that we are alone in the universe.

Appearing on C-SPANs In Depth, he explained how the chemistry of life makes it extremely unlikely that Earth is the only place in the universe where life has formed. He said, Whatever happened on Earth, its not likely to be rare or unique. Because carbon chemistry, on which life is based, is the most fertile kind of chemistry there is. And carbon is abundant across the universe.

However, Dr. Tyson does separate the questions of whether there is life elsewhere in the universe, and if intelligent life exists,from if we have been visited by any intelligent life. What the UFO community puts forth as evidence is weak on a level that, in any scientific circle, would be kicked out of the lab room.

The basis of this argument boils down to the foundations of the scientific method. Eyewitness testimony is nowhere near enough evidence to support a claim as fantastical as alien visitors. Current evidence of chemistry is enough to allow scientists to assert that there is life on other planets, but that evidence does not extend as far as intelligent life.

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Neil DeGrasse Tyson Says "We're Not Likely Alone in the Universe." - Futurism

In Brief Researchers from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne have managed to break a 100-year-old fundamental law in physics. The breakthrough could influence any technology that relies on resonant system to store information. Breaking Limits

Researchers working at the cole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne (EPFL) have successfully challenged a fundamental law thats limited the physics of storing electromagnetic energy for the past 100 years. This breakthrough, which the researchers have published in the journal Science, frees up physicists and engineers to develop technologies that rely on resonant and wave-guiding systems.

First formulated in 1914, the fundamental principle known as the Lorentz reciprocity posits an inversely proportional relationship between the length of time a wave could be stored to the bandwidth (or the range of frequencies transmitted in a given signal) of resonant or wave-guiding systems. For a resonator to store energy for a longer time, it has to decrease its bandwidth. In other words, limited bandwidth translates to limited data.

The researchers managed to find a work around to the 100-year-old limitation by developing a hybrid resonant/wave-guiding system using a magno-optic material. When a magnetic field is applied, it can contain the wave for a longer period of time, while also maintaining a large bandwidth.

The researchers broke the time-bandwidth restriction by a factor of 1,000 butthey think it may be possible that theres no limit to how high it could go. It was a moment of revelation when we discovered that these new structures did not feature any time-bandwidth restriction at all. These systems are unlike what we have all been accustomed to for decades, and possibly hundreds of years said lead author Kosmas Tsakmakidis in a press release. Their superior wave-storage capacity performance could really be an enabler for a range of exciting applications in diverse contemporary and more traditional fields of research.

By breaking the restriction, the EPFL research will have a major impact on wide range of engineering and physics applications. The reported breakthrough is completely fundamental were giving researchers a new tool. And the number of applications is limited only by ones imagination, Tsakmakidis explained.

These applications could also extend to telecommunications, optical detection systems, and broadband energy harvesting, the press release noted. Essentially, any technology that uses waves to store information now has accessto a wider bandwidth. That could be anything from on-chip spectroscopy, light harvesting and energy storage using broadband to broadband optical camouflaging such asan invisibility cloak.

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Researchers Break a 100-Year-Old Fundamental Limitation of Physics - Futurism

In Brief Today, SpaceX sent Bulgaria's first telecommunications satellite into space using a Falcon 9 that's already been launched before. This is the first of two launches scheduled for the SpaceX weekend doubleheader. Ready for Launch

After being postponed from its originally scheduled Monday launch, Bulgarias first-ever telecommunications satellite is now in orbit. The launch was a success thanks to SpaceXs Falcon 9 reusable rocket, which blasted off to space on Fridayfrom the Launch Complex of NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

This marks the first part of SpaceXs first-ever weekend doubleheader, as Elon Musks venture space company has scheduled two launches just about 48 hours apart. The launch appeared to go off without a hitch,as this photo taken by a Twitter user John Kraus shows.

Image credit: John Kraus/Twitter

For his part, SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk seemed satisfied with todays launch, if his tweets wereany indication. What may have been even more exciting thanwatching the Falcon 9 lift off was following its descent backtoEarth as it attempted to landon one of SpaceXs barge platforms. The rocket made a solid thud as it hit the surface of the Of Course I Still Love You droneship, which is stationed somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.

Musk expected the landing wouldnt be too gentle, adding that the Falcon 9 was going to experience its highest ever reentry force and heat in todays launch, he posted on a tweet before the launch. Good chance rocket booster doesnt make it back.

Fortunately, it was able to make it in one piece although it may havehit the surface of the platform a little to hard.

The good news was thatthe crush core, asMusk explained in a reply on the same thread as his initial tweet, would take only a couple of hours to replace:

So, despite a little bumpy landing, overall Fridays launch was deemed a success. But the excitement is far fromover:Sunday will usher in part two of this weekends doubleheader, whena payload of 10 satellites for telecommunication company Iridium is expected to launch from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

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SpaceX's Weekend Doubleheader Off to Great Start With Successful Opening - Futurism