Category Archives: Futurism

In Brief A pair of drivers from Belgium just set a new record for distance traveled on a single charge in a Tesla Model S, but CEO and founder Elon Musk says the vehicle could've gone even farther if it had the right set of tires.

Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk claims that aModel S P100D could travel a distance of over1,000 kilometers (~621 miles) if driven efficiently on a single charge as long as it had the right tires. Musks assertion was made after he retweeted a post by Electrekfeaturing a link toan article about a new Model S hypermiling record.

For the unfamiliar, hypermiling is done to test just how far a vehicle can go on a single tank of fuel or, in the case of electric vehicles, a single charge when driven to maximize efficiency.

In the article, a hypermiling duo from Belgium drove a Model S P100D currently the fastest Tesla caravailable in a 26-km (16-mile) closed loop for nearly 24 hours. Traveling at speeds of 40 km/h (24mph), they were able to run the car for 901.2 km (roughly 560 miles) on a single charge.

The previous record was set byCasey Spencer, who drove a Model S 85D ~885 kilometers (550.3 miles) on one charge.The Model SP100Dhas a higher energy capacity, which accounts for Musks confidence that it could go even farther under ideal conditions.

While the average driver wont be operating their Tesla under hypermiling conditions, the significance of this new record is clear: Teslas EVs are now more efficient than ever before. Thats a plus for anyone considering an electric car, as a primary obstacle to adoption has been concerns aboutlimited range, and the more EVs we can get on the roads, the fewer of their fossil fuel-powered counterparts will be contributing to carbon emissions.

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Elon Musk: With the Right Tires, a Tesla Could Travel 1000+ Kilometers on a Single Charge - Futurism

In BriefStephen Hawking wants humankind to land on the Moon by the2020s. Speaking at the Starmus Festival in Trondheim, Norway hespoke about the importance of a lunar mission as a stepping stonefor getting us to Mars and beyond. Another Giant Leap

Back in May, renowned physicist Stephen Hawking made yet another doomsday prediction. He said that humanity has 100 years left on Earth, which knocked 900 years off the prediction he madein November 2016, which had given humanity1,000 years left. With his new estimate, Hawking suggestedthe only way to prolong humanitys existence is for us to find a new home, on another planet.

Speaking at the Starmus Festival in Trondheim, Norway on Tuesday, Hawking reiterated his point: If humanity is to continue for another million years, our future lies in boldly going where no one else has gone before, he explained, according to the BBC. Specifically, Hawking said that we should aim for another Moon landingby 2020, and work to build a lunar base in the next 30 yearsprojects that could help prepare us to send human beings to Mars by 2025.

We are running out of space and the only places to go to are other worlds. It is time to explore other solar systems. Spreading out may be the only thing that saves us from ourselves. I am convinced that humans need to leave Earth, Hawking added.

Hawkings plea comesalmost 45 years since NASAs last lunar mission, and hes not the only one thinking about revisiting the Earths cosmic satellite. Even U.S. president Donald Trump wants toput ahuman onthe Moon by 2020. Various plans, both from government space agencies as well as private ones, are already in the works. NASAs mission to Mars, for example, notes that setting up an orbital lunar stationwould be a key step for a future mission to the Red Planet.

Other nations are also working towards the same goal:China and Europealsohope to reach the Moon by the 2020s, and other countriesare scrambling to set up their own lunar bases, too. Its an echo of the Cold War era space race except now, there aremore nations in play.

For private space agencies, the Moon seems to be more of a special tourist attraction than a permanent domicile:SpaceX is already preparing for its first privately-funded round trip to the Moon, while Jeff Bezos envisions an opportunity for a special delivery service to facilitate the construction of any permanent off world settlement. For Hawking, though, aiming for the Moon (again) isnot only about survival, but strengthening humanity while were still on Earth for however many years we have left here.

I hope it would unite competitive nations in a single goal, to face the common challenge for us all, he said. A new and ambitious space program would excite (young people), and stimulate interest in other areas, such as astrophysics and cosmology.

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Stephen Hawking: I Am Convinced That Humans Need to Leave Earth - Futurism

In Brief On Monday tech leaders met with administration officials as the American Tech Council to discuss modernizing the government. As technologies like artificial intelligence and autonomous cars quickly advance, the government has the opportunity to utilize these powerful tools as well as the challenge of regulating them. Technology Council

OnMonday the Trump administrations American Technology Council (ATC) met in order to discuss goals. The purpose of the council is to allow federal agency leaders to seek out the advice of leaders in the tech industry on a range of issues.

While the Trump administration differs from previous administrations in many ways, its focus on updating outmoded technologies and speeding up the governments transition to digital is something thats been shared by past administrations. The ATC itself, however, is new, as is the goal ofupdating technology in order to eliminate programs and services.

Chris Liddell, formerly of Microsoft and GM, heads up the ATC. Present for the meeting were representatives from Alphabet, Microsoft, Mastercard, IBM, Intel, Qualcomm, VMware, Oracle, and Adobe. Notably absent were Facebook and Tesla according to Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg had a conflict and could not attend. However, Elon Musk has pulled Tesla from the council in the wake of President Trumps decision to leavethe Paris Accord a decision that has been almost universally condemned in the tech community.

The other techleaders have remained on the council because they agree its important to create a more tech-savvy government. The White House says it will prioritize digitizing government services, improving cyber security, and transforming the way government buys technology. The White House is also interested in using new technologies like big data and machine learning to tackle issues like illegal immigration and federal resource fraud. How willing tech leaders will be to help the administration achieve these goals remains to be seen.

Technology not only has the potential to make the government more efficient and lower costs, but it also possess many challenges from an infrastructure and regulation standpoint. For example, an invention that transmits power wirelessly could allow electric cars to charge while on the road. Would building new highways incorporating this tech be a good investment? Autonomous cars and flying cars are become more widely available, but the government has not yet set up rules and regulations for their use. Not to mention the current lack of policy around automation and artificial intelligence both of which are rapidly becoming integrated into society.

Technology is quickly advancing, and every government would be wise to consider how best to utilize and regulate it. The ideas generated by theATC have the potential to shape policies that could impact national debt, cyber security, and the development of new inventions. Lets hope theminds that have revolutionized our tech can also improve our government.

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Trump is Asking Tech Leaders to Help Modernize US Government - Futurism

In Brief Plans for an electric-powered space tug are now under review by scientists. The space tug would transport cargo between the moon and Earth without expensive fuels, helping to lower the cost of space travel and make it more accessible. Cutting Cargo Costs

NASA seeks todelvedeeper into the mysteries of oursolar system with the help of astronauts, but cost remains a significantbarrier for any plans. Launching anything from Earth is costly, especially bulky loads of cargo the driving force behind theinflated the price of the Apollo moon program to $109 billion (in 2010 dollars). For spaceflight to ever be accessible to everyone, prices will need to drop substantially.

Fortunately, scientists are thinking of new ways to make space travel cheaper every day. Research describing one of these ideas was just published: an electric-powered lunar space tug. The reusable tug would fly between Earth and the moon, transportingcargo and possibly even technicians and other astronauts.It would be refueled at a low Earth orbit fuel depot and maintained by astronauts on the moon and the International Space Station (ISS) for as long as its in service.

A team from aerospace company Thales Alenia (which built several modules for the ISS) and the Polytechnic University of Turin are now studying the conceptual design for the tug. The greatest advantage the tug has is that it would run on Hall Effect Thrusters, which use electric propulsion. In this sense, the tug would be powered much like NASAs Dawn spacecraft and Japans Hayabusa 2.

This project is just one of many possibilities, asthe competition to find ways to explore space for less money is still heating up. This month SpaceX became the first privately owned company to use the same spacecraft to perform multiple orbital flights. Still, even SpaceX has competition: Bigelow Airspace, Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing are all competing for space travel contracts. This healthy competition is quickly changing the costs associated with space travel, and ultimately will open the opportunityup to commercial passengers, much in the same way competition between airlines helped makeflying commonplace in the last century.

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Electric Space Tug Could Make Moon Flights More Economical Than Ever - Futurism

In Brief China has started construction on the first of eight large-scale carbon capture and storage plants, as part of the country's efforts to decrease the country's carbon footprint. China is also leading the world in terms of the use of renewable energy. A Sense of Responsibility

As one of the worlds largest countries, China is also one of the worldslargest producers of greenhouse or planet-warming emissions. The countryisnt getting behind on efforts to change that status, though,as its now leading the fight against climate change. The most recent is aplan to open eight large-scale, carbon-capture storage facilities, construction on the first of whichis already underway.

The Yanchang Integrated Carbon Capture and Storage Project,located in the Shaanxi Province,will be Chinas first investment in a facility that turns carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from coal into gas fuel plants. Once fully operational, it would capture about 400,00 to 800,000 tons of CO2 every year, according to AFR Weekend. Thats about the same reduction that could be expected by taking 80,000 cars off the streets for a year.

Its one of eight large-scale CCS projects in varying stages of evaluation and subject to approval that China is considering, Tony Zhang, a senior adviser in Australia-based Global CCS Institute,told the Digital Journal. The non-profit institute provided China with technical and advisory support on the project.

Carbon-capture and storage (CCS) technology has recently been in the headlines, with the opening of the worlds first commercial carbon capture plant in Switzerland earlier this month. A similar facilityis expected to go live later this year in Houston, Texas. This approach to solvingthe climate problem attempts to make fossil fuel-based plants cleaner.

Its not the only proposed solution out there, though: recently, there has been a surge in renewable energy sources, as evidence by the growing reliance on solar and wind in a number of countries. These are also becoming a more economic solution in many parts of the world, as well as providing a wealth of job opportunities. CCS plants, on the other hand, may prove to be too costly for some countries.

For China, every effort counts. Aside from its investment in CCS, the country is also working on increasing its renewable energy sources its alreadythe worlds largest producer of solar energyas well as using more electric vehicles in a number of its cities. China is looking to decrease its CO2 emissions from 2016 to about one percent this year, according to a forecast by its National Energy Administration.

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China is Building Carbon Capturing Plants to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions - Futurism

A Universe of Earths

Planet hunters and science enthusiasts are rejoicing over NASAs latest announcement. Today, a team of astronomers working with data from the K2 mission released a new catalog of potential alien planets. In a press conference held at NASAs Ames Research Center, the team stated that they hadidentified 219 planet candidates, 10 of which are said to be rocky worlds that are in the habitable zones of stars that are similar to the Sunwhich is ayellow dwarf or G dwarf.

In short, it seems that we have 10 new planets that are Earth-like.

In science, Earth-like worlds are loosely defined as terrestrial worlds that have a chemical composition that is similar to our own planet andorbit in a relatively young stars habitable zone (the habitable zone is defined as the orbit around a star where liquid water could theoretically exist on a planets surface).

The team was composed of Kepler research scientists Mario Perez, from the Astrophysics Division of NASAs Science Mission Directorate in Washington, Susan Thompson, from the SETI Institute in California, Benjamin Fulton, from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, and Courtney Dressing, a NASA Sagan Fellow at Caltech.

To date, there are already 4,034 exoplanet candidates identified by Kepler and 2,335 of these have been confirmed. The 10 new exoplanets addto the 49 Earth-like exoplanets in habitable zones that were previously detected by Kepler, more than 30 of which have been verified.

Perhaps the most interesting of these new finds is KY 7711, which Thompson said is located near its star in an orbit that is very similar to the path that Earth takes around the Sun, meaning that it receives the same amount of heat, although it is approximately 1.3 times larger than our planet.

Typically, exoplanetsfall in one of two categories: super-Earths, which have a radius that is 1.5 times that of the Earth, rocky surfaces, and oftenlittle to no atmosphere; and those that are like mini-Neptunes, which are about twice the Earths radius with thick atmospheres and no rocky surface. Exoplanets falling in between these two categories (i.e. worlds that are Earth-like) are smaller and, thus, much harder to identify. But as this latest find reveals, they are out there.

The Kepler space observatory was launched 8 years ago, in March 2009. Its singular mission was to search for planets orbiting other stars in the hopes of finding alien worldsthat are similar to Earth. Fulton explained that, looking back, they wouldnt have expected to identify roughly 50 Earth-like exoplanets so soon.

Both the original Kepler mission and K2 have significantly contributed in the mission to search for potentially habitable exoplanets. Although not part of the original mission, Kepler also provided the first images of the TRAPPIST-1 system, arguably the most notable exoplanet system recently discovered.

Now, as the K2 reaches the end of its four-year run, Kepler scientists think that we are closing in on the end of an era in exoplanet research. But it also marks the beginning of a new one, with missions like the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) expected to launch soon. Both the TESS and the JWST would look into exoplanets in ways Kepler isnt able to, identifying new information about their composition and habitability.

Undeniably, though, it was Kepler that made all of these future missions possible. Whats exciting about today is we have taken our telescope and we have counted up how many planets are similar to the Earth in this part of the sky, Thompson said at the press conference. With the data I have, I can now make that count. From there, were going to determine how common other planets are. Are there places we could live in this galaxy besides what we call home?

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NASA Just Discovered 10 Earth-Like Alien Planets - Futurism

In Brief May 2017 was the second hottest May in recorded history. This year seems to be continuing the trend of being among the hottest ever.

Summer is rapidly approaching and bringing along with it the highest temperatures of the year, for most of the world. It already seems that this year will be keeping pace with recent years and offering up some of the warmest months in all of recorded history.

This past May has been recorded as the second hottest in history, being beaten only by May 2016, which was 0.93 degrees C (33.7 degrees F) higher than the mean temperature between 1951-1980. Every month this year has ranked in the top three warmest months in recorded history. According to The Weather ChannelFebruary, March and April 2017 ranked as second warmest, while January 2017 finished in third place.

Global climate change is clearly the culprit as human activity continues to contribute to global temperature rises. The Paris Climate Agreement set to address this issue by capping this temperature rise at 2 degrees Celsius. However, experts assert that not even this is enough to save our planet. Even more, there are threats to the effectiveness of even that agreement as the Trump administration recently announced its intent to remove the United States from it.There is still hope, though. Leaders across the United States have defied that intention with promises to uphold the accords, despite the administration. Solar power is also increasingly becoming more economically palatable and will soon become cheaper than coal, eliminating a major source of pollution.

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Last Month Was the Second Hottest May in Recorded History - Futurism

In Brief It looks like Elon Musk's tunnel project has the support of Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti, according to a recent tweet by the Boring Company's CEO and founder. The L.A. mayor looks to Musk's tunnels to improve traffic conditions to LAX.

Often, legislation can either be an express lane or a roadblock (pun intended) for technological innovation that improves transportation. Getting government to support this type of development, such as Elon Musks famous Boring Company, is definitely a step in the right direction.

In a recent tweet, Boring founder and CEO Elon Musk linkedan interview fromABC this past Sunday that featuredLos Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti. In the snippet, Garcetti was talking about potential solutions to improve the abysmal traffic to the citys airport. In particular, he mentioned Musks tunnel solution. Like many other cities have, Id love to see maybe even with the new tunneling technology that people like Elon Musk is looking at, whether we could have a quick and direct route from LAX to Union Station, Garcetti said.

While Musk noted Garcettis comment to be promising, the serial entrepreneur made an additional comment, saying that government permits are often harder to come by than developing technology. In order for a potentially disruptive technology like the Boring Companys earthquake-proof tunnel system which could potentially improve L.A. traffic to become a reality, there must be more effective and efficient policy making.

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Elon Musk Just Claimed That The LA Mayor is Open to His Controversial Boring Company - Futurism

In Brief Solar power is pacing to make it easier for the world to dump coal once and for all. Within the next four years, solar power will finally be cheaper than coal nearly everywhere, aligning economic and environmental interests. Solar Boom

Solar power is among the easiest ways for individuals to hop on the clean energy generation train. There are many incentives afforded to homeowners who are looking to make the switch to solar power. Even more, it is only getting cheaper to produce, install, and operate this technology. And with the advent of Teslas solar power generating roofing tiles, the process is getting a welcome aesthetic upgrade on top of all of the fantastic vertical integration their technology provides.Click to View Full Infographic

This boom is going to continue pushing solar power to the forefront of clean energy initiatives, as the cost of solar energy is expected to drop 66 percent by 2040. Furthermore, a report from Bloomberg states that in just four years time, solar power will finally be cheaper than coal almost everywhere. The report also claims that by 2040, up to 20 percent of Brazils power will be generated by the sun, and Germany will be at 15 percent.

The economic benefit of switching from coal to solar power will spureven greater growth as coal supporters will no longer be able to deny the cost saving potential of renewable energy. Thankfully, the rest of the world will also benefit from a significant decrease in the amount of fossil fuelsbeing burned, a major contributor to climate change.

The report, generated by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, states that greenhouse gas emissions will peak in 2026. But thanks to the clean energy revolution, these levels will be 4 percent lower in 2040 than they were last year the reigning hottest year on record.

With the decline of fossil fuels, we may likelyalso start seeing the decline of large utility systems. Tesla is a pioneer in this area with its vertical integration of solar panels and solar power storage systems. Their technology is already being used to decrease regional demand on fossil fuel burning plants in Southern California.

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As Cost Plunges, Solar Power is Ready to Surpass Coal - Futurism

In Brief By 2020, there will be at least 4 internet-connected devices for every person on Earth comprising the Internet of Things. The growth of the IoT is being powered by more 5G access and falling costs, and will equalize opportunities for more people. Internet Of Things

According to research from Business Insider, more than 24 billion internet-connected devices will be installed around the world by 2020. To give that some context, thats more than four devices for every person on the planet. Together, these devices comprise the Internet of Things (IoT), and its presence is permanently changing our world.Click to View Full Infographic

IoT is the connection between the physical world of humans and the digital world of data (and, to some extent, human ideas). Computers, smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, modern TVs, and wearables are all part of the IoTs that part is intuitive. However, even everyday appliances like thermostats and smoke detectors are now beginning to boast smart capabilities, which establishesthem as part of the IoT. Our entire transportation system, the way we work, and even how we socialize will all change because ofthe IoT.

Although there are many things that together are driving the growth of the IoT, there are a fewbasic trends that are easy to identify. Internet connectivity is expanding and will soon be almost everywhere. For example, in 2018 New York is setbecome the first state to bring broadband access to every household, even in rural areas.Another factor is that mobile technology is improving quickly, and the use ofremote and mobile devices is rapidly becoming more widespread. This means prices are falling, and access is growing. Nokia, for example, is bringing 5G technology to India.

Along these lines, more money is being invested into the IoT as companies and governments alike recognize its importance. The U.S. government invested $8.8 billion in IoT solutions in 2015, up $1.1 from the previous year. At the same time, the price of internet-connected sensors, which most IoT devices rely on, is falling. This means the price of IoT devices are dropping, and more people can afford more devices.

As the IoT grows, security challenges will arise, and possible privacy concerns that could affect our individual rights. However, overall the growth of the IoT will mean more access to opportunity for more people. The best way to respond to it is to plan ahead for these kinds of problems and be ready to tackle them.

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By 2020, There Will Be 4 Devices for Every Human on Earth - Futurism - Futurism