Category Archives: Futurism

"Ordinarily, taking a telescope and pointing at the sun would be incredibly dangerous."Black Hole Sun

Famed astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy has truly outdone himself with his latest picture of the Sun.

McCarthy, who calls himself just a normal guy with a telescope on his Instagram account, stitched a whopping 150,000 images of the Sun together to form a massive 300 megapixel image he titled Fire and Fusion.

The result is a glorious swirling mess of hot gases that almost appear almost organism-like an angry ball of energy that gave life to everything around us billions of years ago.

What makes it all the more impressive was the fact that it was taken from a backyard, rather than by an orbital telescope or space probe that had to travel almost 100 million miles to get up close.

Believe it or not, McCarthy risked a lot to get his shots.

Ordinarily, taking a telescope and pointing at the Sun would be incredibly dangerous, McCarthy told NPR in a recent interview. It can lead to blindness and potentially starting a fire.

So what Ive done is I applied different filters within the telescope that only lets in a very narrow portion of that light, and that allows me to capture details on the sun that would be otherwise impossible, he added.

To McCarthy, its all about highlighting the wonder in ordinary life.

Sometimes, we take the beautiful things in our life for granted, he added. We all see the Sun every single day.

READ MORE: We meet a man who photographs the sun [NPR]

More on the Sun: This Photo of the Sun Is Unlike Anything Youve Ever Seen

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This Photo of the Sun Is so Absurdly Detailed That It Looks like a Living Organism - Futurism

It took 10 whole days to fuel it up due to how dangerous the propellant is. Ready to Launch

The James Webb Space Telescope is all fueled up and ready to go.

NASA announced on Monday that the controversial spacecrafthas been loaded with a propellant itll use for its thrusters to move around while in orbit, according to ablog post from the agency. These thrusters will be crucial as the craft makes precise course corrections shortly after launch.

The loading of propellants into the Webb observatory is complete at the Arianespace launch facilities in Kourou, French Guiana, Randy Kimble, the Webbs integration, test and commissioning project scientist, said in a separate update. This is an important step in the path toward launch.

The telescope is slated to launch later this month from Europes spaceport in French Guiana. The craft will be placed on an Ariane 5, a European heavy-lift launch vehicle operated by the European Space Agency, which will yeet it to its new home in orbit.

Fueling the telescope itself was an incredibly delicate procedure, as the propellants are extremely toxic. In fact, it took 10 days in order to pressurize the Webbs propellant tanks all the way.

While the telescope is expected to provide the clearest and furthest views into space ever, it has attracted a ton of controversy due to its namesake: former NASA administrator James Webb.

Hes believed to have played a role in ostracizing LGBT+ employees in the agency, and played a large role in developing methods of psychological warfare for the US government. However, NASA said that it discovered no strong reason to change the telescopes name after an investigation.

Still, the Webb will be the most advanced orbital observatory in history when it launches. Its so sophisticated that some even believe itll discover evidence of human life which almost makes up for its terrible name. Almost.

READ MORE: NASAs James Webb Space Telescope Fully Fueled for Launch [NASA]

More on the Webb: Influential Astronomers Call Out NASA for Telescope with Offensive Name

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The Mighty James Webb Space Telescope Is All Fueled Up for Launch - Futurism

NASAs Mars itty bitty scouting helicopter has outlived its life expectancy seven times over and when it does finally cross the cosmic rainbow bridge, things are probably gonna get emotional.

This heartwrenching insider scoop comes from Christopher Hamilton, an associate professor of planetary sciences at the University of Arizona whos witnessed other tearjerker endings at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

Ingenuity, the four-pound helicopter that acts as a scout for the Perseverance Rover, was only supposed to last for 30 days when it was first took to the Martian skies more than seven months ago. As Hamilton toldUnited Press International, Ingenuitys surprisingly-long lifespan will make its final transmission, whenever it comes, that much more bittersweet.

When the day comes that Ingenuity makes its final flight on Mars, the cosmologist told UPI, there will be a mixture of emotions sadness that such an exceptional spacecraft has reached the end of its journey, but also triumph in that Ingenuity opened a new paradigm in Mars exploration.

This little chopper that could is special for more reasons than its lifespan. It was also, asUPI noted, designed as an experiment into whether such a tiny and high-tech robot could survive Mars notoriously thin atmosphere at all. Seven-and-a-half months and 17 flights around Mars Jezero Center crater later, Ingenuity has demonstrated that ability in spades.

Much of Ingenuitys worth lies in the fundamental things it can do that terrestrial rovers cannot, chief of which being that it can fly and take high-resolution photos while the Perseverance Rover can only move on the ground. In doing so, Ingenuity has shown the way for the Rover in ways JPL drivers on Earth could not.

What was planned as a what-if experiment turned into an important complement for Perseverance, an article in IEEE Spectrum magazine noted.

And whats more, the researchers who have worked with Ingenuity have become very attached to the little rotorcraft on an emotional level.

The whole team, we all love it! Olivier Toupet, a Mars Rover driver at the JPL, toldSpectrum. We didnt know we were going to love it.

As the publication pointed out, Ingenuitys timeline has been repeatedly extended, first from 30 days to a few months, and now indefinitely. Thats been a big surprise, Olivier said.

Extended missions are nothing new for the JPL, the rover driver noted, but the limits of Ingenuitys design mean that it could last for months or years more or die at any moment.

Ingenuitys achievements cannot be overstated, and it will be remembered as one of the great pioneering vessels of all time, Hamilton told UPI. One day, Ingenuity will make its last flight on the Red Planet, but it will not be the last aircraft to fly on Mars its just the beginning.

If thats not enough to make astrophysicists cry, I dont know what is.

READ MORE:NASAs eventual farewell to tiny Mars helicopter could be emotional [UPI]

More on this cute little guy:NASA Mars Helicopter Flies Super High, Spots Rover Way Down on the Ground

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NASA Scientists Are Gonna Bawl Their Eyes When the Tiny Mars Chopper Dies - Futurism

Switzerland is one of a handful of countries that supports physician-assisted suicide. However, one company wants to take the doctors out of the process and allow patients to kill themselves at the push of a button.

Exit International, a nonprofit dedicated to assisted suicide advocacy, has developed a 3D-printed suicide chamber dubbed Sarco, according the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). The capsule just recently cleared legal regulatory approval in Switzerland, and is set to launch in the country as soon as next year.

Sarco allowspatients to lay comfortably inside. When theyre ready to die, they press a button that fills the chamber with nitrogen gas, resulting in what the nonprofit says will be a painless death via oxygen deprivation with 30 seconds.

There is no panic, no choking feeling, Dr. Philip Nitschke, founder of Exit International, told the SBC.

The chamber can be transported to different locations, too, allowing patients to choose where they might want to die such as a beach, forest, or their own home.

While the thought of an honest-to-god suicide booth is fascinating in its own right and evokes numerous touchpoints in popular culture perhaps the most eyebrow-raising part is the companys goal of de-medicalizing the suicide process.

In order to obtain a medically assisted suicide in Switzerland, you currently need to have a doctor confirm your mental capacity and then prescribe you liquid sodium pentobarbital, a drug can kill you in two to five minutes.

However, Exit International wants to create an AI-powered online mental capacity test. If you pass, it gives you a code that allows you to access Sarco. Thats still in the conceptual stages, though.

We want to remove any kind of psychiatric review from the process and allow the individual to control the method themselves, Nitschke told the broadcaster.

Assisted suicide and euthanasia are still incredibly controversial issues. While some might bristle at the Sarco suicide capsule, itll give folks a new option to go out on their own terms and, at the end of life, thats a compelling concept.

You can click herefor a list of resources from the Suicide Prevention Resource Center.

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Assisted-Suicide Chamber Approved by Authorities in Switzerland - Futurism

Eye drops that could potentially replace reading glasses for millions of people were approved by the Food and Drug Administration in October,and hit the market this week.

The drops, called pilocarpine and marketed as Vuity by pharma outfit Allergan, could come to the aid of some 128 million Americans who are farsighted. According to the company, one drop in each eye can sharpen closeup vision for six to 10 hours, CBS News reports.

The drops work by using the eyes existing ability to reduce its pupil size.

Reducing the pupil size expands the depth of field or the depth of focus, and that allows you to focus at different ranges naturally, George Waring, principal investigator of a clinical trial for the drug involving 750 participants, told CBS.

The drops arentthe cheapest, but arent prohibitively expensive, either, at $80fora 30-day supply.

It isnt a miracle drug, however. Reported side effects include headaches and red eyes. The company is also warning not to use the drops while driving at night.

The drops are also mostly effective for middle-aged people. Those above the age of 65 wont see as much of an effect, according to CBS.

The value proposition is a matter of convenience wearing reading glasses can be a pain for millions of people, so ditching them is intriguing.

Its definitely a life changer, trial participant Toni Wright told CBS. I would not need my readers as much, especially on the computer, where I would always need to have them on.

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FDA Approves Eye Drops That Replace Reading Glasses - Futurism

"It's a nightmare."Total Collapse

A group of scientists say that the Amazon Rainforest is on the brink of collapse and could transform into a dry savannah in just five years.

Luciana Gatti, a senior climate change researcher at the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research, is one of the many echoing this dire prediction. Speaking to New Scientist, she asserts that the Amazon could be just five years away from a total environmental disaster.

We are about to collapse, she told the magazine. We are in an emergency, we need action now.

Its a nightmare, she added.

Gatti was one of 200 climate experts who took part in the Science Panel for the Amazons (SPA) bleak assessment report of the worlds largest rainforest, published last month.

The comprehensive report identified a variety of different factors pointing to the rainforests collapse, with the primary drivers being the rising global temperatures due to climate change and the massive deforestation efforts by Brazil, where much of the Amazon is located.

One scientist told New Scientist that it would take just between 20 to 25 percent deforestation to reach an ecological tipping point due to the level of warming the forest is experiencing.

This is a recipe for savannisation a process that describes a forest drying up due to reduced rainfall, and transforming into a dry, arid savannah grassland, according to the magazine.

So, we have five years. What if anything can we do?

There is a narrow window of opportunity to change this trajectory. But action must be exponential, Mercedes Bustamante, a biologist at the University of Brasilia and SPA member, told New Scientist.

At minimum, this would mean halting all deforestation efforts immediately. This would also need to be followed by an aggressive reforestation campaign in order to restore the rainforest.

Our assessment: good luck getting any of that done within five years. Its cynical, but the truth is any effort to prevent the Amazon rainforest from collapsing needed to be done decades not years ago.

That doesnt mean we shouldnt try to push world leaders to end deforestation completely. Efforts by world leaders at the recent UN climate summit shows that nations can agree on at least slowing down deforestation. However, we also shouldnt expect the situation to get any better before it gets much, much worse.

READ MORE: The Amazon is turning into savannah we have 5 years to save it [The New Scientist]

More on the Amazon: Facebook Vows to Stop Selling the Amazon Rainforest

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Amazon Rainforest on the Verge of Becoming a Dry Savannah, Scientists Say - Futurism

Scientists have accidentally discovered that men spread COVID-19 more than women and children.

The Colorado-based study,CBS News reported, was intended to look into COVID transmission at performing arts events. But when measuring the number of aerosols emitted by its 75 participants, researchers found something surprising: the adult male subjects spewed way more particles than adult women or children.

And the explanation is likely simple. Adult men just tend to have larger lungs than women or children.

Adults tend to emit more particles than children, John Volckens, a mechanical engineering professor at Colorado State University, told CBS. The reason men tend to emit more particles is because we have bigger lungs.

He also added that people speaking or singing at higher volumes will spread more aerosols because the energy they exert to project their voices translates to more particles coming out of your body. In other words, loud guys are gonna be the ones spreading the most COVID.Quiet down, lads!

Overall, though, the takeaway was clear. The enclosed spaces where people are talking, singing, or shouting loudly are the sites of the highest rates of COVID transmission.

The CSU researchers also found that in particular, singing loudly does as the cases of choir superspreader events seemed to suggest emit more aerosol particles than just talking loudly.

Using lots of cool instruments in an aerosol testing chamber, researchers brought in singers, brass instrument players, and actors to measure aerosol emission. The next phase of the study will focus on which instruments are more likely to spread COVID-19 than others, researchers toldCBS.

Lest we forget the difficult path weve trod so far, let us have a moment of (ironic) silence for the monthsthat global and national health authorities spent ignoring the overwhelming research showing that COVID-19 is transmitted via aerosol droplets that float in the air, and especially so in poorly-ventilated indoor spaces.

Without that knowledge, we could never have gotten this incredible burn on the least-fair sex.

READ MORE: Study shows men spread COVID particles more than other populations[CBS News]

More on men and COVID:Catching Coronavirus Makes it Harder for Men to Have Kids

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Ugh, Men! Study Finds That Dudes Spread Way More COVID - Futurism

This guy did it first.Jetsla Motors

Its been over two years since Tesla CEO Elon Musk promised or maybe joked? that the upcoming and long-awaited Roadster will be available with a futuristic add-on: a SpaceX packagethatwould allow the next-generation hypercar to accelerate using rocket power developed in-house by SpaceX or even hover.

We havent heard many updates on that ambition from Musk lately, but YouTuber Matt Mikka, from the channel Warped Perception, took matters into his own hands. The tinkerer attached three jet thrusters to the back of his Tesla Model S in a recent video, allowing him to drive the 4,500 pound vehicle on jet power alone.

Its not exactly the next step in renewable energy transportation. The system uses about one to 1.5 gallons of hydro diesel fuel per minute, according to Mikka but it appears to be a compelling proof of concept for Teslas plans with its next-gen Roadster.

The engineer even went as far testing his futuristic new invention in the real world. Once merged onto the highway and making sure nobody was behind him Mikka let it rip, allowing all three jet engines to run at full power.

At one point, Mikka was able to keep his Model S moving at around 60 mph on just two of the three engines (one flamed out), with the vehicle itself in neutral.

The test didnt go by without hiccups.

Oh man, I dont know what that smell is, Mikka said ominously, before refueling at a gas station with kerosene.

The Model S was able to shave almost a second off of the Model S 0 to 60 mph time in a sprint using the three thrusters.

Now, wejust have to wait for Musk to make good on his promise, and compare the numbers.

READ MORE: Jet Powered Tesla [YouTube]

More on jet engines: Airbus Tests Jetliner Powered by 100 Percent Renewable Fuel

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Someone Strapped Three Jet Engines to a Tesla and, Uh, Wow - Futurism

He's joking, right?ClosingTime

Well, its finally happened: Elon Musk is quitting the companies hes helped build to become a full-time influencer.

Or at least thats what he claimed in a likely-facetious-but-maybe-also-slightly-self-aware tweet that had more than a few people wondering if he was being serious.

Thinking of quitting my jobs and becoming an influencer full-time [what do you think], the worlds wealthiest man tweeted to his audience of 65 million.

The prolific meme stealer has been known to use Twitter as a sounding board for some of his more audacious ideas. So we wouldnt put it past us if Elon was thinking about becoming a full-time influencer.

Plus if you consider the fact that he recently crowdsourced his decision to sell a big chunk of his Tesla stock, is staring down the barrel of bankruptcy with one of his biggest companies, and is being sued for $160 million by one of the worlds largest banks, it might start to make sense that hed wants out.

Theres also the intriguing possibility that the tweet represented a flash of self-awareness. After all, Musk is already a massive influencer in his own right, who can literally change market conditions with just a tweet.He arguably memed both the private spaceflight and electric vehicle industries into existence. Sure, hes not exactly a Kardashian, but its hard to argue that he isnt already one of the worlds most visible influencers.

Besides, maybe he really does want to get big doing TikTok dances remember his cringey EDM song? Or maybe hell start a thirst trap Instagram page for people who are into questionable haircut decisions? The possibilities for his influencer career are endless!

Of course, this is likely just a big joke from Musk, who enjoys stirring the pot 280 characters at a time. But at the same time, we wouldnt be too surprised if he moved back to LA to join an influencer house.

More on Elon Musk: Elon Musk Now Feuding with *Checks Notes* Pete Buttigieg

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Elon Musk Says He's Thinking of Quitting SpaceX and Tesla to Become an "Influencer" - Futurism

Editors note:Dr. Kevin P. Lee is CLII Founding Director, Campbell Law School.

RALEIGH The holiday season is a time for reflection. For the futurists, this means reflecting on the moral meaning of technology.

It has been quite a year!

Questions about Facebooks operations raised concerns about the evolving nature of networked technology. Some of these issues deal with human rights, such as the apparent disregard for the psychological wellbeing of young female users. While the right to be free from manipulation is well established, there is no precedent for brainwashing and traumatizing minors through voluntary use of a social media network.

Similarly, revelations about Facebooks interventions into democratic elections raised some prickly questions about the nature of the social media forum, the proper role of it in democratic discourse, and the proper scope and limits of free speech.

Finally, the use of private personal information continued to challenge established conceptions of privacy and the types of injuries that breaches of privacy can cause.

These developments suggest some important aspects of information technology that will continue to challenge traditional social and legal norms. They disrupt the legal system, both in its foundational assumptions and in the mechanisms by which it functions.

Dr. Kevin Lee (Photo via Campbell Law School)

Foundational questions about the moral nature of human beings are posed by the natural sciences, which reveal that binary information plays a role in human identity. New metaphors, like information exhausts, are gaining ground in some places to describe the information trails that people leave behind trails that define space and time and thus render the old metaphors of privacy law obsolete.

Similarly, the role of democratic discourse is undergoing some fundamental revisions. Part of this involves the ability to use social media to stir up powerful emotions. The need for an understanding of political emotions seemed critical this year, since our politics achieved a near fugue state in which our national identity seemed to be forgotten. The philosopher, Martha Nussbaum, has observed that modern political theories do not have robust accounts of moral psychology. Nonetheless, moral feelings play a powerful role in explaining political action and crafting consensus.

The ability to distinguish decent passions from obscene took center stage this year. It is a skill that needs to be taught with some urgency. Nussbaum argues that justice needs love, but experience teaches that ill-directed love can quickly lead to unchecked demagoguery.

The rule of law itself seemed to evolve this year. Although the evidence suggests that law always evolves. Harvard Law Professor, Morton Horowitz, argued long ago, that law was transformed by evolution of society from the founding era, which had a roughly Lockean understanding of natural law, to legal positivism in the twentieth century. Also administrative regulations were an early 20th century development.

But, while these previous evolutionary trends occurred gradually, the changes that are happening now are deep and rapid. The rule of law, traditionally conceived of as stable, even eternal, has been a bedrock for a modern democratic society. Law is needed for a healthy society, and therefore rapid changes in society can create a demand for more rules. And, where the standard sources of order are unable to generate rules with sufficient effect or at an adequate rate, other nontraditional forms of rules will develop. Smart contracts, DAOs and NFTs appear to contend as new, distributed, ways to generate rules that meet the social demand for ordered systems. They could represent the next step in the evolution of law.

All of this suggests that contemporary information technology is evolving within the context of new narratives through which human beings attempt to understand themselves.

The new technologies enter those narratives, transforming the goals and purposes that humans believe are the meaning of their lives. Armed with new self-understanding, they will refine their beliefs and try to refine their lives. Perhaps this reveals something about the meaning of technology: It is not separate from the human story, but a fundamental part of it.

That is to say, to be human means, in part, to augment ourselves (and especially our cognitive abilities) in order to achieve lives in which we can hold ourselves to high esteem, not only for our material effectiveness, but also for the discernment of wise and judicious purposes.

The story of technology is our story our human story. And for this reason, there can be no absolute boundary between the science and the humanities. Sciences are always human, since they are always know by human minds and contribute to the narratives of human self-understanding.

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What is the moral meaning of technology? A futurist wonders after a tumultous year - WRAL Tech Wire