Category Archives: Futurism

The Future of Taxis

Electric vehicles have been growing in popularity among fleet operators, and soon, Beijing may find itself earning a reputation as the hub of the electric taxi. The Chinese city is home to one of the most important taxi fleets in the world, numbering around 70,000, and under a new program for air pollution control that will begin implementation this year, those taxis will be going electric.

According to a report by National Business Daily, the transition to electric cars will cover all new taxis registered in the region. All newly added or replaced taxis in the city of Beijing will be converted from gasoline to electricity, according to a draft work program on air pollution control for Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, and surrounding areas in 2017, the report reads.

The city isnt the first to push for electric taxis. Previously, Shenzhen and Taiyuan both announced similar policies for their taxis, but the move is significant for a municipality of over 20 million people.

The total fleet conversion is expected to cost around 9 billion yuan ($1.3 billion USD), but the cost is worth it. Electric cars will potentially save taxi companies from gas expenses and could lower maintenance costs. They will also help save the city from pollution, as Beijings populace is exposed to hazardous air quality on a semi-regular basis.

The move to electric cars isnt cheap, though, which is why Liu Jinliang, chairman of Geelys ride-hailing arm Caocao, hopes the government will provide subsidies to taxi companies. National Passenger Cars Association secretary-general Cui Dongshualso hopes that the government will speed up the construction of charging facilities.

This new mandate, coupled with the Chinese governments recentrelaxation of restrictions on car manufacturingin an attempt to draw more electric vehicles, demonstrates the countrys seriousness in investing in electric cars. According to Electrek, the nationis now the worlds biggest electric vehicle market, with a fleet of over 600,000 electric cars more than both the U.S. and European markets combined. Soon, theyll be adding another 70,000 to that total.

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China Is Replacing 70000 Taxis With Electric Cars - Futurism

The Remarkable ISS

The International Space Station (ISS) may be an impressive technological marvel, but its also tangible proof of what humans can accomplish when we set aside political, religious, gender, or racial differences and focus on science.Built by Russia and funded by the United States, the $100 billion space station is the result of more than a dozen countries working together.

A remarkable amount of effort went into the successful creation of the ISS, which has now been in operation for more than 16 years. It currently orbits Earth at an altitude of 354 kilometers (220 miles), traveling at 28,163 kilometers per hour (17,500 miles per hour). The space station orbits our planet every 90 minutes, and an acre of solar panels keep the outpost running.

Right now, the ISS is home to several crew members from various nations, all of whom are focused on learning about how humans can live and work in space.It is arguably the most visible example of international cooperation and everything that can be achieved when nations collaborate.

Soon, a new addition to an ISS expedition crew will make history aboard the space station. When Jeanette Epps joins Expedition 56 in March 2018 as a flight engineer, she will become the first African-American to join the ISS as a crew member.

Epps holds a doctorate in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland and served as a fellow in NASAs Graduate Student Researchers Project, an initiative that hopes to increase engagement amongst students who want to pursue advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.

In a recent interview with New York Magazine, Epps shared her thoughts on joining the ISS:

There have been three African-Americans who have visited ISS, but they havent done the long-duration mission that I am undertaking. Ill be the one spending the longest time on the ISS. As a steward, I want to do well with this honor. I want to make sure that young people know that this didnt happen overnight. There was a lot of work involved, and a lot of commitment and consistency. It is a daunting task to take on.

While Epps will be the first African-American to board the ISS for a long-term expedition, numerous African-American women have lent their expertise to the success of NASA. As far back as the 1950s, African-American women were contributing to humanitys mission to explore the unknown, and soon, Epps will be able to add her name to the list of people breaking new ground in space exploration.

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The ISS Is Getting Its First African-American Crew Member in 2018 - Futurism

In Brief

A new dynamic charging technology could give unlimited range to electric vehicles (EVs).

The term dynamic charging refers to a technology that can both supply power and perform charging while driving. The system was created by Honda, who claims that they have already developed a system ready for testing which they plan to demonstrate at WCX 17 SAE World Congress Experience next month.

Their dynamic charging system apparently has a charging power of 180 kW (DC 600 V, 330 A) while driving at a speed of 155 km/h (96 mph).

The concept is great in theory, but the biggest barrier here is cost. It wont be cheap to build the infrastructure required for such a system. Dynamic charging requires charging hardware to be built into or over the roadessentially creating a track that will wirelessly charge EVs that drive over it. Nevertheless, this kind of technology could be applied to highways to increase on-road time of EVs and allow them to cover longer distances.

While dynamic charging isnt an essential part of the EV revolution now, it could be a critical element foradoption down the line. So expect to see moretrials and studies aiming to refine the technology for future use.

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Honda's New System Gives Electric Vehicles 'Unlimited Range' - Futurism

3,770,000,000 Years Ago

The origin of life has long been contentiously debated, often because researchers are trying to understandevents that occurredbillions of years ago. Adding to the debate is a recent discovery from deep in the exotic landscape of the Nuvvuagittuq (nuh-vu-ah-gi-took) belt in Canada where scientists have uncovered fossils they believe to be 3.77 billion years old. If theyre right, that would make their discovery the oldest fossil evidence on record.

Claims that speculate the age of ancient fossils always set the science world ablaze, mainly because very old rocks often undergogeological deformations. Everything from erosion to weatheringcan remove signs of life, making it highly unlikely wed find anything thousands, let alone billions, of years later. However, lead researcherMatthew Doddis confident that his teams Canadian discovery will hold up to the scrutiny.

The straw-shaped microfossils uncovered by the team were found in a part of Canada that once was a hydrothermal vent on the ocean floor. The microscopic microbes that created these fossils would have germinated around thevents to take advantage of their volatile chemistry to create fuel. When themicrobes died, iron in the water would latch onto their decaying bodies, eventually replacing their organic structures with stone that the researchers can now study.

After proper analysis, the youngest estimate of the microbes isaround 3.77 billion years. However, the microbes may be as old as 4.28 billion yearsthats only about260 million years after the Earth was formed.The research is published in the journalNature.

Our current understanding of the origin of life on Earth is that it dates back to 3.4 to 3.5 billion years ago. The present findings suggest that the first incidence of life occurred300 million years sooner than that, so if the age of the microbe fossils is verified, the implications would be tremendous.

In addition to the findings by Dodds team, the discovery of reportedly 3.7 billion year old fossils in Issua, Greenlandis awaiting verification as well. Those fossils indicated the existence of a photosynthetic bacteria, while Dodds team is suggesting their discovery is of a chemosynthetic bacterias fossil. The age and apparent diversity of these organisms suggests a much more profound outlook on the origin of life in the universe.

These fossils would challenge our fundamental understanding of the origin of life. We would have to revisit what we thought we knew about the potential for organic matter to flourish during a time when the Earth wasbombarded by asteroids, the environment was changing radically every hundred years, and the planets surface was sodden with molten lava. If life was able to develop under those conditions, were left with more questions than answers.

What we believed to be a steady process that required time and caution might just be something more sporadic, which would in turn suggest that life might be more of a cosmic phenomenon than just an Earth-based one. This could change how we think about the potential for life on other planets, or evenMars, which was teeming with oceansand warm 3.77 billion years ago.Not finding life on the Red Planet would tell us a lot, too, namely that life on Earth is due to some fluke or a phenomenon unique to our planet.

Now, all thats left to do is wait to find out if these ancient fossils are as ancient as their discoverers hope.

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Scientists Just Found Fossils Containing the Oldest Evidence of Life on Earth - Futurism

In Brief

Our access to information in todays digital world is unprecedented in human history. The internet is the hub of everything, and its already changed the way weconsume information, including how we watch video content. In fact,according to a Nielsen study, people now watch YouTube more than traditional television, and on-demand services are more popular than ever.

Given the enormous amount of available content on YouTube, subscription-based sites like Netflix, and innumerable other sources online, the process of finding something you really want to watch can take a long time. According to one study, the average Americanwill end up spending fullyearsworth of time during their life just in the pursuit of something to watch.

Much of that time is wasted on listless browsing in the hopes of stumbling across something interesting especially if youve just finished binge-watching the latest season of your favorite Netflix series. Wouldnt it be nice to have a site that curates the videos that best match your interests? Wouldnt it be even nicer if that site could generate new content based on what you like, so you can just sit back, relax, and not bother with browsing at all?

Thats precisely what Neverthink.TVoffers.

Neverthink.TV doesnt just compile videos into one site; it collects videos from the internet in real time and groups them into different channels, everything from gaming and artto fashion and food.

For example, if you like technology, Neverthink.TV collects tech news videos from the internet and collates them into one channel for youto watch. It plays the latest videos one by one, so essentially, the site is bringing back the experience of watching TV, except this time, youll only see videos that youre likely to find interesting.

Neverthink.TV will change the way you consume video content, but it will do so in a manner familiar. It combines the best part of the past with the best part of thepresent to create the viewing experience of the future.

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This Company is Disrupting the Way We Consume Videos - Futurism - Futurism

In Brief

We have come far in our pursuit of the perfect computer companion. From mastering gamestorunning our homes, artificial intelligence (AI)has been steadily improving.

However,Microsoft co-founder and richest person in the world Bill Gates isnt that impressed. While he does note that we have made some advancements, he stated in his redditAMAthat he believes that the big milestone is when computers can read and understand information like humans do.

Moreover, he stated that right now computers dont know how to represent knowledge so they cant read a text book and pass a test.

While Gates doesnt highlight this as a particular failure of AI, he does insinuate that we have much fartherto go in terms of the new technology. With that said, many companies have developed systems that are racing to the top, such as Alphabets DeepMind andGoogleBrain, Microsofts many projects, FAIR (Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research), and IBMs Watson, to just name a few.

But of the technologies and companies mentioned, the AIsystems lack the ability to represent knowledge. Essentially, knowledge representation is the ability of AI to glean information about the world that it can then use to solve complicated problems. It would mean artificial intelligence could reason about the world rather than just solely taking action within it, similar to how humans problem solve. This is what Bill Gates believes our current AI systems are lacking.

While we have programs that dont just best professional players in their games of choice but dominate them, our current AI is not capable of representing knowledge, a difficult task but an important one. However, the companies mentioned above are putting significant time and money into developing their technologies and are getting closer to this important milestone in AI. Perhaps we wont have to wait too much longer for thatperfect computer companion.

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Bill Gates: This Will Be the Biggest Technological Breakthrough of Our Lifetime - Futurism

An Astounding Discovery

In February, scientists from theEuropean Southern Observatory and NASAannounced the discovery of a new solar system TRAPPIST-1. It has seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a dwarf star, three of which are in the stars habitable zone.

Although TRAPPIST-1 is 40 light-years away, itsremarkable similarities to our own solar system make thediscovery very exciting to scientists. Of allthe solar systems we know of, weve never found one withseven planets let alone multiple Earth-sized planets. TRAPPIST-1sthree habitable planets have density measurements that make them appear to beEarth-like worlds.

Given what TRAPPIST-1s current configuration looks like, the planets located in the habitable zone or goldilocks zonecouldhave water at least theoretically. However, since itssolar systemssun is smaller than ours, theplanets would require a tighter orbitin order to support surface water.

Armed withinsights weve gathered about ourown solar system in recent decades, we have the knowledge and resources to study TRAPPIST-1 and possibly find life beyond our own planet.

Scientists also believe that some of the planets in TRAPPIST-1 are tidally locked to their star. That meansone side of the planet constantly faces their sun, bathing it inperpetual daylight, while the other side is always in the dark. While that doesnt sound much like the life we know on our planet, experts believe it wouldntcompletely negate the possibility of life: what reallymatters is the atmosphere.

We wont have to wait too long to gain further insight into kind of atmosphere these planets have: once the James Webb Space Telescope launches in October of next year, scientists will be able to study the planetsmore in-depth. Our knowledge of how tidally locked planets in our own solar system manage such extreme temperatures based on what weve already learned from Neptune and Jupiter will alsolend itself to a better understanding of how the TRAPPIST-1 planets work.

Granted, everything that we know about life stems from our understanding of life on Earthwhere we experience both day and night. Its wholly possibly that in planets where a diurnal cycle isnt the norm, lifedevelops very differently.

But as Dr. Jessie Christiansen, an astronomer at the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at the California Institute of Technology, notes while speaking to theChristian Science Monitor, we could liken this to conditions some creatures on our planet know well: the life aquatic. If you think about life in the deep ocean, Dr. Christiansen says, it has evolved without a true diurnal cycle.

Here on our own planet, we are still constantly surprised by life discovered in sea floors, icy climates, deep caves, and other extreme settings. So, that being said,the idea that life could exist in TRAPPIST-1 shouldnt be too hard to fathom.

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Soon, We'll Know if There's Life on TRAPPIST-1's Exoplanets - Futurism

In Brief

The scientific world was set ablazeof late as discussions ramped up aboutthe resurrection of the wholly mammoth. I know what youre thinking: Jurassic Park. Well, not quite but maybe not that far off, either. In an interview with Big Think,Dr. Michio Kaku, professor of theoretical physics at the City College of New York, wonders: what if we could clone the Neanderthal, or a dinosaur, based solely off their genomes?

It is a plausible question.George Church, geneticistand director of Harvard Universitys Church Labs, believes that we can clone a Neanderthal in our lifetime. So much so that he thinks all we need is one extremely adventurous human female. While he doesnt advocate for the project to be attempted straight away,he does encourage discussion on the matter. Church believes that with current stem cell technology and our completed sequence of the Neanderthal genome, we are equipped with thepotential to clone a Neanderthal.

The Neanderthals went extinct tens of thousands of years ago, so cloning one from recovered DNA would be impressive enough of a feat but what about something from 65 million years ago? Dr. Kaku addresses this, admitting that cloning a dinosaurwont be as easy ascloning a Neanderthal or a mammoth (which wouldntvery easy to begin with) but that doesnt mean its impossible.

Dr. Kakunotes thatproteins found within the soft tissues of recovered dinosaur femursresemble those of chickens, frogs, and reptiles confirm the theory of their relation. He posits that through theuse of a supercomputer, a genetic sequence could be produced, which would create theoretical potential for cloning through epigenetics.

When it comes to cloning mammoths or dinosaurs, the limitations are mostly technical at this point. With Neanderthals, however, theres an addition element: ethics.Dr. Kaku asks important questions about what scientists would doafter bringing a Neanderthal child to life: Should he or she be placed in captivity like some kind of zoo animal? Would they face a lifetime of study?What if the Neanderthal is naturally aggressive should it be drugged or confined at all times? Many bioethicists debate the ethics of de-extinction, but there are also those thattout genetic diversity.Others believe the act is far too inhumane to even attempt.

Listen to Dr. Kakus argument below and decide where you stand on the should-we-or-shouldnt-we of prehistoric cloning.

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Forget Mammoths, We Could Bring Dinosaurs and Neanderthals ... - Futurism

This is good news not just for Indias future energy security but also for its peoples short-term energy needs.

The plant was built in only eight months, comprises 2.5 million individual solar modules and cost $679m to build. It is estimated that it will produce enough electricity to power about 150,000 homes at full capacity.

Installed solar capacity and cost in India. Image: Bridge to India

A signatory of the Paris Agreement, India is forecast to meet its renewable energy commitments three years early and exceed them by nearly half. The country is aiming to generate nearly 60% of its electricity from non-fossil sources by 2027.

Solar is a particular focus: it makes up only 16% of renewable energy capacity now but is set to contribute over half of the renewables target by 2022: 100 gigawatts of 175 GW. Large installations will be key to achieving this, and the government is planning 33 solar parks in 21 states, with a capacity of at least 500 megawatts each.

Prioritizing solar is not just an investment in the future, though. India is one of the worlds fastest growing economies, and its energy use has doubled since 2000, according to the International Energy Agency.

Last year, the country declared that it had a power surplus for the first time ever, though The Hindu reported that 300 million people still dont have access to electricity and power cuts continue to be rampant. The issue, it appears, is that capacity remains unused in the grid because some state power companies simply cannot afford to buy sufficient electricity.

The Indian government has recently launched an energy blueprint, and raised its investment target for solar energy to $100 billion in an attempt to address both these near-term issues as well as securing its energy supply far into the future.

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India Just Broke a World Record With Its New Solar Farm - Futurism

In Brief

Heres your first official look at Handle, Boston Dynamics newest robotic creation.

The robot stands a little over six feet tall and has four working limbs two front legs and a pair of hind wheels that allow it to stand upright. It can travel roughly 24 kilometers (15 miles) on a single charge and cancarry items up to about 45 kilograms (100 pounds) in weight.

Handle applies dynamics similar to those found in its quadruped and biped predecessors from Boston Dynamics. Unlike those, though, it only has 10 actuated joints, which makes it less complex, yet it is also more robust, with the same jointed movement ability as humans.

The addition of wheels allows Handle to move very efficiently across virtually all flat surfaces. Because it has both legs and wheels, the robot essentially has the best of both worldsand can go and move anywhere with ease. It can even carry heavier objects with better stability.

Earlier, a leaked video from Boston Dynamics gave us a glimpse of what Handle could do by demonstrating its impressive flexibility and balance. But its nothing compared to what was just revealedin their official demonstration.

While its an impressive display of technological advancement, seeing all we have achieved in the field of robotics in the form of this robot may also leave you withunsettling feeling that humans have just created something that is simultaneouslycool and slightly terrifying.

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New Boston Dynamics Robot is Terrifying Science Fiction Brought to Life - Futurism