Category Archives: Futurism

Alien Plants

The idea of discovering and studying alien life has tantalized scientists for centuries. Astronomers have been studying planets in the Goldilocks Zone a distance from a sun in whichwater on a given planet is not constantly boiled off or frozen for any sign of life, whether that be microbial or intelligent. But what would alien plant life look like given their planets different sizes, atmospheres, and associated stars?

If these planets happen to be smaller than Earth, any plants on them would be far taller and thinner. The plants would also probably have large leaves than Earth plants because the lower gravity would permit the stems to support more mass. If the planet was more massivethan Earth, this might cause the plants to be shorter and broader with smaller leaves, as everything on the planet would be heavier.

A thin atmosphere would causeany breeze on the planet to be exceptionally weak this would mean that, evolutionarily, the plants would not grow to be particularly robust and would be tall and thin. A thick atmosphere would produce plants that would have to be much thicker and closer to the ground in order to withstand the powerful winds.

Our plants are green in orderto capture the blue and red light our Sun emits while reflecting the green light, which is minimal. Not all stars operate in this color spectrum, though. A star that emits a more green and blue light would likely produce plants that were bright red.

Given the potentially huge changes different environments could have on plants, a key aspect of planning for space exploration concerns accommodating for these changes. Interplanetary colonists will need to predict both what type of life we could find on these planets and how we would adapt to those environments.

Three potentially habitableplanets are housed in the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system, which about 39 light years away from Earth and is home to seven Earth-sized planets in total. The TRAPPIST-1 star is called an ultracool dwarf star it isaround the same size as Jupiter, and is much cooler and dimmer than our sun.

This means all seven planets circle their sun at a closer proximity than Mercury circles ours, making orbits and therefore years extremely shortOne year would be about two Earthweeks. This also means planets get hit by solar flares frequently, which is something that may hinder life.

The nature of the TRAPPIST-1 star means that it emits mostly infrared heat, capable of warming the air on the surface of the planet, but causing it to be much dimmer than we are used to. Plants that evolved in this system would have bigger leaves to capture as much of the light possible and may have developed a method to convert infrared radiation into energy.

This alien plant life would most likely grow on only one side of their host planets because the planets in the system are tidally locked which means only one side ever faces the sun.But wherever we find alien plant life, and whatever it looks like, the discovery will cause major advances in our understanding of botany, and of life itself.

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Scientists Imagine What Plants Would Look Like on Alien Worlds - Futurism

In Brief Elon Musk takes to Twitter, saying deep AI, not automation, is what humanity should be worried about. Musk is part of a group of tech leaders working to create protective technological measures to prepare for the advancement of deep AI. Deep AI Vs. Automation

In an apparent attempt at a joke, a Twitter user sent a Business Insider tweet featuring a driverless Tesla car to Elon Musk, asking him to confirm that the development in humanless automation would not result in a robotic apocalypse. Musk replied via tweet, reaffirming his oft-repeated position that it is not automation per se, but deep AI, that poses more of an apocalyptic risk to humanity:

Disruption may cause us discomfort, but its not a threat in and of itself. However, Musk and others do see the potential for deep AI to be world-shattering, at least for humans.

Its easy to understand why some are worried about this; AIs are learning how to encrypt messages efficiently. Jrgen Schmidhuber, considered to be the father of deep learning, believes that there will be trillions of self-replicating robot factories along our Solar Systems asteroid belt by 2050. He also thinks that robots will eventually explore the galaxy by themselves, motivated by their own curiosity, capable of deciding their own agenda without much human oversight. And, perhaps most disturbing, scientists working with Googles DeepMind AI tested whether or not AIare more prone to cooperation or competition and found that it can go either way, and AI are even capable of developing killer instincts, or a cooperative mindset, depending on the situation.

Musks solution to this potential threat is his famous neural lace concept. In brief, this ambitious project would use easily injectable electrodes to form a neural lace over the brain. The lace could both stimulate and interpret the brains electrical activity, and would eventually merge with the brain entirely, making human and AI part of the same organism.

The key isnt halting progress, or even fearing AI its learning how to merge with it successfully.

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Elon Musk Says Deep AI, Not Automation, Poses the Real Risk for Humanity - Futurism

In Brief University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers showed that the Milky Way exists in a part of the universe that's largely devoid of matter. Being in this void, however, could help settle the differences in measuring the rate of the universe's expansion. Riddled With Holes

If you picture what the universe looks like, you can imagine it as Swiss cheese. The sizes of holes, or voids, in the matter of the universe vary greatly. One example would be the cold spot that was found in the Universes radiation. Galaxies are connected by filaments of dark matterthat cannot be seen.

This means that the Milky Way exists in one of these voids, specifically the KBC void, which a 2013 study showed to be not as densely packed with matter as other voids. Its like our galaxy rests in a cosmological backwater the Outer Rim, so to speak. A new study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison which waspresented at the 2017 American Astronomical Society meeting confirms that the Milky Way does indeed reside in an enormous void.

However, the researchers claim that being in this huge KBC void also helps resolve the differences in measuring the rate the universe expands theHubble Constant, the number used to describe this cosmic expansion.

There are two ways to measure the expansion of the universe. One is a local determination using the Hubble Space Telescope, which relies on observations of supernovae that exploded in galaxies nearby. The other is a cosmic determination that relies on Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data the Big Bangs residual noise taken by the Planck observatory.

One possible explanation for the differences in the Hubble Constant measurement is due to differences in time. Hubbles observations rely on cosmic objects nearer in terms of time, while the CMB was emitted back when the universe was young. Simply put, being in a void with considerably lesser matter affects the measurement taken by observing supernovae explosions. On the other hand, the CMB technique doesnt distort the measurement at all.

No matter what technique you use, you should get the same value for the expansion rate of the Universe today, lead researcher Ben Hoscheit said in a press release. Fortunately, living in a void helps resolve this tension.

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Scientists Assert That Earth May Exist in a Massive Cosmic Void - Futurism

In Brief Dubai is introducing a robot to their police force to interact with citizens. Dubai's goal is to have their police force consist of 25% robots by 2030.

Disclosure: The Dubai Future Foundation works in collaboration with Futurism and is one of our sponsors.

Dubai is set to introduce the newest member of their police force:a 5-foot, 5-inch [165.1 cm], 222-pound [100.698 kg] robot whichwill be equipped with facial recognition technology and have the ability to broadcast live video feeds.The first model, which will begin patrolling the streets of thefuturistic city today, will not be on the front lines making arrests, but will be interacting with the community. Residents of Dubai will be able to report crimes, pay fines, and ask the robot questions (though what sort of questions is unclear).

The head of Dubais Police Tech divisiontold reporters at the Gulf Information Security Expo and Conference that by 2030, [Dubai is] keen to make robots around 25% of the total police force. Thoughthis may sound like the beginning of a dystopian novel, this is not the first robot in use by a police force.

Police departments in the United States use robots for training purposes and also utilize bomb-diffusing robots that were first created for the American military. In 2016, the Cleveland Police used robots to patrol the Republican National Convention, while police in Dallas outfitted a robot with a bomb to kill a sniper after losing numerous police lives. South Korea has robot prison guards, and Israeli police use robots in their counter-terrorism unit.

While this is not the first robot to be put into use by police, it is the first that will be ever present on the streets of a city that will eventually be able to make arrests and have all of the responsibilities of a regular cop. The rollout will happen over the next decade, so hopefully that will be enough time to work out any kinks including robots lack of human empathy. And, as these robots have recording capabilities, make sure none of them document any PDA on video.

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Dubai's Newest Addition to the Police Force: A Robot - Futurism

In Brief Isle de Jean Charles in the bayous of Louisiana is sinking into the Gulf of Mexico due to climate change, causing its residents to relocate. This is just one symptom of climate change and emphasizes the urgent necessity to fight it. Drowning Communities

Isle de Jean Charles, a small island in southeastern Louisianas bayous, is drowning as the Gulf of Mexico rises. Twenty-ninehomes remain, housing 100 people, but they are all being relocated because the flooding is unstoppable. The island has already lost 98% of its land since 1955, making it one of the most visible victims of climate change so far. The residents can either leave their homes or die in them, and they are leaving.

Now theres just a little strip of land left, resident Rita Falgout tells Quartz. Thats all we have. Theres water all around us. Im anxious to go.

Residents of places like Isle de Jean Charles can compete for a chance to relocate through the National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC), a program organized by the federal government. The goal of the program is to help states and communities recover from disasters and lower risks from future disasters. However, the looming threats from climate change are growing, and affecting more and more communities; Louisiana alone is losing the equivalent of one football fields worth of land every hour.

Climate change is affecting larger coastal areas in the U.S., from Alaska down to Florida and Louisiana. Climate-induced migration is now a concrete reality for citizens of our country, not an abstract idea for politicians to talk about. Research from a March 2016 study indicates that collapsing polar ice caps are likely to cause sea levels to rise by 6 feet (1.8 meters) by 2100; this will in turn force at least 13.1 million Americans living in coastal areas to become homeless. A less drastic rise of 3 feet would leave at least 4 million homeless.

The only solution to these problems is combating climate change before it is too late. States like Hawaii are sticking with the Paris Accord goals, and various cities, states, and businesses are also banding together to maintain a commitment to this important issue, regardless of the action the federal government does or does not take. We cant relocate everyone, and our window for making a difference is closing. Thankfully, the world isnt giving up.

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An Entire Town in the US Is Sinking Because of Climate Change - Futurism

In BriefWe have been trying to communicate and receive messages fromaliens for around 50 years. From radio waves to lasers, fromstrange signals to hydrogen speaking across the universe: whatprogress have we made? The Cosmic Chorus

The Universe is full of noises and Earth now also contributes to the cacophony. The first time we called out to the stars was on November 19,1962 with The Morse Message. This message was sent in Morse code from the Evpatoria Planetary Radar to Venus. What did we say? MIR the Russian word for both world and peace. This was followed a few days later on November 24 by LENIN and SSSR (Russias leader and the abbreviation for the Soviet Union, respectively). Later, in 1999, a team headed by Alexander Zaitsev, a rogue Search for ExtraterrestrialIntelligence (SETI) member, beamed Cosmic Call 1 to four nearby suns from the Yevpatoria RT-70 radio telescope in Crimea. He called his system Messaging to Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI).

He argued that his decision was due to the SETI Paradox, which he characterized as This paradoxical disparity of effort, a passionate desire to receive and no corresponding attempt to give.He also stated that he did not want to live in a cocoon, in a one-man island.'

Similar messages were subsequently sent out in 2001 (Teen Age Message), 2003 (Cosmic Call 2), and 2008 (A Message From Earth). These messages caused fierce debate within the scientific coommunity, prompting multiple meetings by the Royal Societyin 2010 on the topic of Towards a Scientific and Societal Agenda on Extraterrestrial Life.

SETI has sent authorized messages into the cosmos, including the Lone Signal in 2013 and A Simple Response to an Elemental Message in 2016. Other messages not related to or verified by SETI have also been sent, such as the the Hello From Earth message in 2009.

In response, we have heard very little back, causing some to dub the universe The Great Silence David Brin told Phys.org that the most obvious possibilities have now been ruled out, including gaudy tutorial beacons that advanced ETCs would supposedly erect.

A particularly exciting narrowband radio signal from space was detected by the Ohio State Universitys Big Ear radio telescope in 1977, which many have since dubbed the Wow! Signal, although it has now been shown to probably be caused by comets. A less notable example is Radio source SHGb02+14a, which was detected in 2003. The radio source was 1420 MHz and lasted for a minute each time it was observed, although the signal was extremely weak.

There are two aspects of our communication with aliens: how we send it, and what we say. There has been vigorous discussion about both facets of inter-galaxy communication.

The main means we currently have of broadcasting ourselves across the universe is through radio signals. Frequency modulated radio waves were used when we projected a message from the Arecibo radio telescope inPuerto Rico in 1974: it contained, in binary, pictorial representations of humanity, formulas for the elements and compounds that make up DNA, as well as representations of the Solar System. Other systems have been more manual: for example, the Pioneer 10 and 11 probes bolting Pioneer Plaques to their doors.

Future efforts will try to update this system, using either the more sophisticated radio signals we possess today, or turning to lasers to beam ourselves to other planets.METI will begin their search by beaming to Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to our sun.

Douglas Vakoch, the former director of Interstellar Message Composition at the SETI Institute and president of METI,said to Forbes, Its too late to conceal ourselves in the universe, so we should decide how we want to represent ourselves. But how can we know how what we choose to represent is what will be received when we have no comprehension of the technology aliens may be using, or of their specific culture?

The central debate over what we send to aliens stems from what they would think if they received a signal. Opinion is split among scientific heavyweights over whether aliens would be benevolent or malevolent. Carl Sagan believes that any contact would be benign because, as he stated in his novel Contact, written in 1985, In the long run, the aggressive civilizations destroy themselves, almost always. On the other hand,Stephen Hawking believes that if aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didnt turn out well for the Native Americans.

Other specialists such as Seth Shostak, an astronomer at SETI, thinkthat if we truly believed in a threat, we would be more careful about all radio use;he told phys.org, We cannot pretend that our present level of activity with respect to broadcasting or radar usage is safe. If danger exists, were already vulnerable.

An encounter with aliens is a real possibility, and one that would have earth-changing consequences. When we will meet them is anyones guess it may be in ten years, it may be never but it is important to have discussion surrounding how to deal with an encounter to prepare for every possible outcome.

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Humans Have Been Trying to Communicate with Space for Decades - Futurism

In Brief Russia has shown a great deal of interest in Ethereum-based blockchain technology. This could signal a move toward diversifying Russian interests with technology outside of fossil fuels. Russian Evolution

Youve likely heard of Bitcoin as the future of money, but it is not the only cryptocurrency in the running for cashless economy dominance. The second largest among them is found on the Ethereum blockchain and is called Ether. One of the critical differences between Bitcoin and Ether is that while Bitcoin is first and foremost a currency, Ether, however, can be a platform for a variety of decentralized applications. In short, Ether can do much more than Bitcoin.

The adaptive quality of the platform may be part of the reason why Russia, under President Vladimir Putin, seem to be showing great interest in Ethereum. Reporting from Bloomberg reveals that Putin has been thinking aboutdigital currency. The digital economy isnt a separate industry, its essentially the foundation for creating brand new business models, he said at last weeks St. Petersburg Economic Forum.

Russia could be looking at Ethereum as a way to expand the countrys economic profile of fossil fuels with technology. Bloombergs Leonid Bershidskysuggests that Putin is under the impression that, to wean the country off its oil dependence, they needed a major leap in some specific area of technology that wasnt yet dominated by Western, Chinese, or Japanese tech giants.

Russia is already testing an Ethereum-based blockchain system through its central bank. When Deputy Governor Olga Skorobogatova was asked if Russia is pursuing a national virtual currency, she did not deny the possibility. Currently, there are a few countries already experimenting with national cryptocurrencies.

Coindesk cites eight cryptocurrencies from a variety of countries in the Eurozone. Among them are Icelands Auroracoin, Pesetacoin and Spaincoin from Spain, Gaelcoin from Ireland, and Aphroditecoin from Cyprus. Cryptocurrenciesoffer a lot of benefits including both transparency and security. The level of encryption essentially makes counterfeit transactions impossible.

Russia is among the most powerful countries in the world. Adoption of this technology would be a major boon for the platform and could accelerate the expansionof its influenceacross the world.

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Bitcoin's Rival Just Caught Russia's Attention - Futurism

In BriefWashington governor Jay Inslee signed an executive orderWednesday that would allow self-driving car pilot test programs tooperate even without a human driver behind the wheel. Such an ordercould fast-track the development of AV technology. Eliminating the Problem

How difficult is it to test autonomous vehicles (AVs) on public roads? Uber can probablytell you all about it. Much of thedifficulty in obtaining the permits necessary forsuch tests comes from fear. Because self-driving technology is new, because the systems have been involved in incidentsin the past, and so on, people arent quite ready to trust the tech.

The governor of Washington state, however, has a different perspective. Governor Jay Inslee signed an order on Wednesday that would allow for autonomous vehicle tests without a human driver behind the wheel. According to the governors official blog, the order could allow these tests to begin within the next two months. Self-driving system developers can already apply for permits for pilot program tests through the states Department of Licensing.

Clearly, for Inslee, human drivers are far more dangerous than self-driving technology. One thing I know about radar, it doesnt drive drunk, it doesnt drive distracted, he said, according toThe Seattle Times.We humans are really good at a lot of things, driving cars isnt necessarily one of them compared to the automated processes that are digital and foolproof.

Executive Order 17-02, a copy which was obtained by The Seattle Times, quantifies the governors assertions: [R]oughly 94 percent of automobile accidents are caused by human error, and autonomous vehicle technology may reduce injuries and save countless lives.

Many people believe autonomous driving technology is still in the veryearly stages of development, and no company has yet achieved true Level 5 autonomy. However, developments have clearly shown that these driverless vehicles are already capable of so much, including actually saving the lives of passengers.

Washington doesnt want to be left behind in adopting such a game-changing technology. Washington state is already a leader in autonomous vehicle technology. We are an early-adopter that welcomes innovation and the safe testing and operation of AVs, Inslee said in the blog post.

Indeed, self-driving cars could potentially save the lives of as many as 300,000 to 400,000 peopleannually by eliminating human error, which is the cause of an estimated 94 percent of crashes. And thats just one benefit of the tech. As Inslee added, AVs could help save countless lives, reclaim time spent in traffic, improve mobility, and be an important tool in our efforts to combat climate change. As tests move forward in Washington, the rest of the world will soon find out just how valuable this technology can be.

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Driverless Autonomous Cars Will Be on US Roads in the Next 2 Months - Futurism

The End of Genetic Disease CRISPR-Cas9,the worlds best gene editing tool, has lent itself toa plethora of research and experiments. Scientists owea great deal to the person considered to be its founder if we could really credit one person specifically with its advent. Certainly, University of California Berkeley biologist Jennifer Doudna deserves consideration for thetitle as one of the worlds leading figure in whats being called the CRISPR Revolution. It was Doudnas work in 2012 that first suggested the possibility of using CRISPR-Cas9 for genome editing. Since then, it has certainly been put into good use human clinical trials of the technologys capabilities areexpected to begin soon in the United States.

On Thursday,speaking at WIREDs 2017 Business Conference in New York, Doudna made a bold claim about the future of CRISPR. I think its really likely that in the not-too-distant future it will cure genetic disease, she saidat the conference.However, Doudna remains aware thatthe use of such a powerful tool needs to be carefully considered especially since studies have shownit can haveunintended repercussions.

But globally we need to come up with a consensus on moving forward in a responsible way, Doudna added. This wasnt the first time she emphasized need for ethical responsibility in using CRISPR.

Doudna herself has certainly been careful to practice what she preaches: In 2015, she became part of a broad coalition of leading biologists that put parameters in place for the use of CRISPR. They agreed to a worldwide moratorium on gene editing to whats called the germ line. In other words, putting a prohibition onedits that would bepassed down to subsequent generations. However, because it isnt legally binding, it wasnt able tostop such experiments from taking place. In China, for instance, theres already work involving CRISPR to edit the genome of human embryos.

Recognizing the legal and ethical hurdles CRISPR still needs toovercome, Doudna went on tospeak about a much more plausible area for this gene editing tool to demonstratemore immediate success: its application for farming. When I think about where we are likely to see the biggest impacts in the shortest amount of time, I really think its going to be in agriculture, Doudna told the audience in New York.

Indeed, CRISPR has already been already been successfully used to grow and eat! one crop in particular. The first wasthat cabbage in Sweden, and now, agricultural giant Monsanto has even been given license by the Broad Institute to use CRISPR-Cas9 in seed development. Doudna also mentioned research by scientists from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York that could make harvesting tomatoes easier.

For me, that really illustrates the potential for this, Doudna said who is herself a tomato farmer. [CRISPR] allows plant breeders to do things that would have been very difficult, sometimes impossible in the past.

With the science, the ethics, and the legal ramifications of CRISPR still being ironed out, farming seems to a reasonable compromise for continue to experiment with the tech, and many experts are already working on its continued refinement.Given that dedication, itmight not be that long before the end of genetic diseases which is what Doudna hopes could be ultimately realized would be accomplished with the help of CRISPR.

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Berkeley Biologist: CRISPR Gene Editing Will Cure Genetic Disease - Futurism

The Search for Life

Fromhighly trained scientists toiling away at research institutesto amateur enthusiasts gazing upwardfrom their backyards, humanity boasts no shortage of people looking for life beyond Earth. Add to that the massive size of the universe estimates range in the trillions of galaxies and probability dictates that we should have already encountered another species by now.

And yet, we still have no evidence that we arent alone in the universe.

However, according to astronomy researcherChris Impey, this hunt for life beyond Earth may soon yield results. In an interview with Futurism, he revealed that he believes that we are less than two decades away from finding extraterrestrial lifebut it may not be the kind of life we were hoping for: I put my money on detecting microbial life in 10 to 15 years, but not at all detecting intelligent life.

While Impey is skeptical that intelligent life is within our sights, he does have a couple of suggestions as to where we should focus our search for extraterrestrial lifeforms, intelligent or not. The first is our own backyard, or, more accurately, our own solar system.

While Impey tells Futurismhe doesnt rule out the possibility that life still exists on Mars,he says that those lifeforms are likely below the surface and are, therefore, much harder to detect. As such, he asserts that we have a better chance of finding evidence of life that used to exist on the Red Planet: If we actually get Mars rocks back here to Earth from a place that we think could have been habitable in the past, then we might find evidence of prior life.

Other bodies in our solar system could potentially host life as well, according to Impey, including the water world Europa(one of Jupiters several moons). He thinksfuture missions targeting the satellite could yield helpfulif not entirely conclusiveresults, asserting that they should at least give us some better idea if that ocean could have life in it.

Of course, our solar system is just one very small corner of a very massive universe, so wed be remiss if we didnt look beyond it for signs of life. To narrow down the scope of our search, Impey suggests targeting the manyexo-Earths weve already uncovered. Instead of focusing on the planets surfaces, though, we should research their atmospheres.

In the next few years, well be able to use the James Web Space Telescope and other detection devices to look for biomarkers such as oxygen and methane in the atmospheres of these Earth-like planets, says Impey. This biomarker experimentcould find evidence of microbial life indirectly, he explains. The research should help us pinpoint the planets that are the closest to Earth as possible, not in distance, but in character, he adds, and since Earth is the only place we know life exists, finding the most Earth-like planets is our best bet for finding life.

Even if Impey is right, and humanity is still decades away fromfinding intelligent alien life, the discovery of microbial life on Mars, Europa, or one of the thousands of exoplanets weve identified would still be a huge development. It would mean Earth isnt unique, that something else living is out there.

We could use the knowledgewe glean from studying this microbiallife to narrow down our hunt for other, more complex organisms. By providing valuable insights into how other living beings are able to survive on worlds far different from our own, this microbial life could help in our quest to become a multi-planetary species. Even the discovery of past microbial life would be helpful, as it could serve as something of a cautionary tale, providing us with the opportunity to learn and ensure we dont meet the same fate.

As Impey notes, thanks to dramatic advances in technology, weve never been better equipped to discover life beyond Earth than we areright now: Every new SETI experiment done now is about as good as the sum of all previous SETI experiments put together.

However, even if all of the currently planned experiments and missions came up short, Impey doesnt envision humanity giving up the hunt for extraterrestrial life any time soon: The first SETI experiment was in 1959, so obviously it has been going on for over half a centurywithout any success. The people who do it dont seem put off by failure.

This interview has been slightly edited for clarity and brevity.

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Expert: We'll Find Alien Life in the Next 10 to 15 Years, but It Won't Be Intelligent - Futurism