Category Archives: Futurist

For the first time, scientists haveengineered and switched on a working neural net that allows biological and silicon-based artificial brain cells to communicate back and forth.

Researchers in Switzerland, Italy, and the U.K. connected a series of neurons: two high-tech artificial neurons and one biological neuron cultured from a mouses brain, that were able to communicate back and forth over the internet in a highly similar way to how neurons pass along signals in the brain.

The research, published Tuesday in the journal Scientific Reports, is in its early days. After all, one mouse neuron in a petri dish is hardly the same as an internet-connected human brain. That cell is housed in a lab at Italys University of Padova, from which it signals back and forth with the artificial neurons at University of Zurich via University of Southampton-build nodes called synaptors, named after synapses, the connections between individual brain cells.

For now, its a simple network. But, it could be an important first step toward smarter and more adaptive prosthetics and brain-computer interfaces and potentially lay the groundwork for a world where neural implants create real brain networks.

On one side it sets the basis for a novel scenario that was never encountered during natural evolution, where biological and artificial neurons are linked together and communicate across global networks; laying the foundations for the Internet of Neuro-electronics, Themis Prodromakis, a nanotechnology researcher and director at the University of Southamptons Centre for Electronics Frontiers said in a press release.

On the other hand, it brings new prospects to neuroprosthetic technologies, paving the way towards research into replacing dysfunctional parts of the brain with AI chips.

Originally posted here:
Artificial and Biological Neurons Just Talked Over the Internet - Futurism

SpaceX Village

Business Insider spotted an, uh, intriguing job listing on SpaceXs careers: a project coordinator for a SpaceX Village situated next to the companys Boca Chica launch site for its colossal, in-development Starship rocket.

The puzzling, since-removed listing advertised amenities including volleyball tournaments, rock climbing, kayaking, and a spaceport lounge (restaurant and bar).

Gotta ask: what are you doing Elon? Its not clear, per BI, whether the purpose of the village is to house SpaceX employees in posh environs or to create a tourist attraction as a parallel revenue stream for the launch site.

Further complicating things, BI also reports that SpaceX is attempting to snap up land for the village from an existing retirement community on the site a process thats become acrimonious.

SpaceX has already bought out about half the residents, though others reportedly dont plan to move and have secured a law firm to help fight SpaceXs incursions.

One resident told BI that she found the job listing shocking and saddening, and described a community meeting at which Musk personally tried to convince residents to leave the area.

Elon was three feet from me, and he looked right down at me and he said, You wont want to live here, itll be inhospitable,' she told BI.

READ MORE: Elon Musks rocket company to build a SpaceX Village in Boca Chica [Business Insider]

More on Elon Musk: Elon Musk Disses Bill Gates

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What in Tarnation Is This "SpaceX Village" by the Starship Launch Site - Futurism

Mad Mike

For years, a daredevil named Mike Mad Mike Hughes has been trumpeting his plan to launch himself in a homemade rocket in order to prove that Earth is flat.

This weekend, Hughes finally launched himself in his homemade rocket and crashed a minute later, dying in the wreck.

Had he survived Saturdays launch, the 64-year-old Hughes eventual plan had been to float his home-brewed rocket miles-high from the ground, using a balloon, then launching it to a height of 62 miles in order to film evidence that the Earth is actually flat a common conspiracy theory online.

I dont believe in science, he told the Associated Press in 2017, as he was planning an earlier launch.

It was a grim end for the amateur rocketeer, but in retrospect, one with an eerie foreshadowing by Hughes himself.

Sometimes, I feel like the cartoon character Wile E. Coyote, when he suddenly runs off a cliff, Hughes told the LA Times back in 2003. But its the price I pay for a life thats not boring.

READ MORE: Daredevil Mad Mike Hughes Killed In Crash Of Homemade Rocket [NPR]

More on rockets: SpaceX Is Going to Blow up a Falcon 9 Rocket Just After Launch

Read more here:
Guy Builds Rocket to Prove Earth Is Flat, Crashes It, Dies - Futurism

A new report by researchers at Imperial College London suggests that nearly two-thirds of new COVID-19 cases have gone undetected.

In a statement, lead researcher and author of the report Sangeeta Bhatia explained how they reached the (reasonably worrisome) figure:

We compared the average monthly number of passengers traveling from [outbreak epicenter] Wuhan to major international destinations with the number of COVID-19 cases that have been detected overseas. Based on these data, we then estimate the number of cases that are undetected globally and find that approximately two thirds of the cases might be undetected at this point.

Only a small subsection of confirmed cases show serious symptoms such as pneumonia, previous research has shown. Scientists are racing to understand the way the virus spreads, trying to figure out if the virus can be transmitted by patients who dont show any symptoms.

This estimate comes as news of the deadly virus rapidly spreading across the globe continues to pile up, with over 78,000 confirmed cases and over 2,300 deaths. New cases, particularly in Italy, South Korea, and Iran, have caused number of cases and deaths worldwide to spike in the last couple of days. Even the global market has felt the effects, causing investors to fear a global economic slowdown.

The spread outside of China has the scientists worried. We are starting to see more cases reported from countries and regions outside mainland China with no known travel history or link to Wuhan City, noted co-author Natsuko Imai in the statement. Hence why their report demonstrates the importance of surveillance and case detection if countries are to successfully contain the epidemic.

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Report: Two-Thirds of Coronavirus Infections May Be Undetected - Futurism

Leah Fasten

Inez Fung

Professor of atmospheric science, University of California, Berkeley

Prediction for 2030: Well light up the world safely

Ive spoken to people who want climate model information, but theyre not really sure what theyre asking me for. So I say to them, Suppose I tell you that some event will happen with a probability of 60% in 2030. Will that be good enough for you, or will you need 70%? Or would you need 90%? What level of information do you want out of climate model projections in order to be useful?

I joined Jim Hansens group in 1979, and I was there for all the early climate projections. And the way we thought about it then, those things are all still totally there. What weve done since then is add richness and higher resolution, but the projections are really grounded in the same kind of data, physics, and observations.

Still, there are things were missing. We still dont have a real theory of precipitation, for example. But there are two exciting things happening there. One is the availability of satellite observations: looking at the cloud is still not totally utilized. The other is that there used to be no way to get regional precipitation patterns through historyand now there is. Scientists found these caves in China and elsewhere, and they go in, look for a nice little chamber with stalagmites, and then they chop them up and send them back to the lab, where they do fantastic uranium--thorium dating and measure oxygen isotopes in calcium carbonate. From there they can interpret a record of historic rainfall. The data are incredible: we have got over half a million years of precipitation records all over Asia.

I dont see us reducing fossil fuels by 2030. I dont see us reducing CO2 or atmospheric methane. Some 1.2 billion people in the world right now have no access to electricity, so Im looking forward to the growth in alternative energy going to parts of the world that have no electricity. Thats important because its education, health, everything associated with a Western standard of living. Thats where Im putting my hopes.

Dvora Photography

Anne Lise Kjaer

Futurist, Kjaer Global, London

Prediction for 2030: Adults will learn to grasp new ideas

As a kid I wanted to become an archaeologist, and I did in a way. Archaeologists find artifacts from the past and try to connect the dots and tell a story about how the past might have been. We do the same thing as futurists; we use artifacts from the present and try to connect the dots into interesting narratives in the future.

When it comes to the future, you have two choices. You can sit back and think Its not happening to me and build a great big wall to keep out all the bad news. Or you can build windmills and harness the winds of change.

A lot of companies come to us and think they want to hear about the future, but really its just an exercise for themlets just tick that box, do a report, and put it on our bookshelf.

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So we have a little test for them. We do interviews, we ask them questions; then we use a model called a Trend Atlas that considers both the scientific dimensions of society and the social ones. We look at the trends in politics, economics, societal drivers, technology, environment, legislationhow does that fit with what we know currently? We look back maybe 10, 20 years: can we see a little bit of a trend and try to put that into the future?

Whats next? Obviously with technology we can educate much better than we could in the past. But its a huge opportunity to educate the parents of the next generation, not just the children. Kids are learning about sustainability goals, but what about the people who actually rule our world?

Courtesy Photo

Philip Tetlock

Coauthor of Superforecasting and professor, University of Pennsylvania

Prediction for 2030: Well get better at being uncertain

At the Good Judgment Project, we try to track the accuracy of commentators and experts in domains in which its usually thought impossible to track accuracy. You take a big debate and break it down into a series of testable short-term indicators. So you could take a debate over whether strong forms of artificial intelligence are going to cause major dislocations in white-collar labor markets by 2035, 2040, 2050. A lot of discussion already occurs at that level of abstractionbut from our point of view, its more useful to break it down and to say: If we were on a long-term trajectory toward an outcome like that, what sorts of things would we expect to observe in the short term? So we started this off in 2015, and in 2016 AlphaGo defeated people in Go. But then other things didnt happen: driverless Ubers werent picking people up for fares in any major American city at the end of 2017. Watson didnt defeat the worlds best oncologists in a medical diagnosis tournament. So I dont think were on a fast track toward the singularity, put it that way.

Forecasts have the potential to be either self-fulfilling or self-negatingY2K was arguably a self-negating forecast. But its possible to build that into a forecasting tournament by asking conditional forecasting questions: i.e., How likely is X conditional on our doing this or doing that?

What Ive seen over the last 10 years, and its a trend that I expect will continue, is an increasing openness to the quantification of uncertainty. I think theres a grudging, halting, but cumulative movement toward thinking about uncertainty, and more granular and nuanced ways that permit keeping score.

Ryan Young

Keith Chen

Associate professor of economics, UCLA

Prediction for 2030: Well be moreand lessprivate

When I worked on Ubers surge pricing algorithm, the problem it was built to solve was very coarse: we were trying to convince drivers to put in extra time when they were most needed. There were predictable timeslike New Yearswhen we knew we were going to need a lot of people. The deeper problem was that this was a system with basically no control. Its like trying to predict the weather. Yes, the amount of weather data that we collect todaytemperature, wind speed, barometric pressure, humidity datais 10,000 times greater than what we were collecting 20 years ago. But we still cant predict the weather 10,000 times further out than we could back then. And social movementseven in a very specific setting, such as where riders want to go at any given point in timeare, if anything, even more chaotic than weather systems.

These days what Im doing is a little bit more like forensic economics. We look to see what we can find and predict from peoples movement patterns. Were just using simple cell-phone data like geolocation, but even just from movement patterns, we can infer salient information and build a psychological dimension of you. What terrifies me is I feel like I have much worse data than Facebook does. So what are they able to understand with their much better information?

I think the next big social tipping point is people actually starting to really care about their privacy. Itll be like smoking in a restaurant: it will quickly go from causing outrage when people want to stop it to suddenly causing outrage if somebody does it. But at the same time, by 2030 almost every Chinese citizen will be completely genotyped. I dont quite know how to reconcile the two.

Sarah Deragon

Annalee Newitz

Science fiction and nonfiction author, San Francisco

Prediction for 2030: Were going to see a lot more humble technology

Every era has its own ideas about the future. Go back to the 1950s and youll see that people fantasized about flying cars. Now we imagine bicycles and green cities where cars are limited, or where cars are autonomous. We have really different priorities now, so that works its way into our understanding of the future.

Science fiction writers cant actually make predictions. I think of science fiction as engaging with questions being raised in the present. But what we can do, even if we cant say whats definitely going to happen, is offer a range of scenarios informed by history.

There are a lot of myths about the future that people believe are going to come true right now. I think a lot of peoplenot just science fiction writers but people who are working on machine learningbelieve that relatively soon were going to have a human-equivalent brain running on some kind of computing substrate. This is as much a reflection of our time as it is what might actually happen.

It seems unlikely that a human--equivalent brain in a computer is right around the corner. But we live in an era where a lot of us feel like we live inside computers already, for work and everything else. So of course we have fantasies about digitizing our brains and putting our consciousness inside a machine or a robot.

Im not saying that those things could never happen. But they seem much more closely allied to our fantasies in the present than they do to a real technical breakthrough on the horizon.

Were going to have to develop much better technologies around disaster relief and emergency response, because well be seeing a lot more floods, fires, storms. So I think there is going to be a lot more work on really humble technologies that allow you to take your community off the grid, or purify your own water. And I dont mean in a creepy survivalist way; I mean just in a this-is-how-we-are-living-now kind of way.

Noah Willman

Finale Doshi-Velez

Associate professor of computer science, Harvard

Prediction for 2030: Humans and machines will make decisions together

In my lab, were trying to answer questions like How might this patient respond to this antidepressant? or How might this patient respond to this vasopressor? So we get as much data as we can from the hospital. For a psychiatric patient, we might have everything about their heart disease, kidney disease, cancer; for a blood pressure management recommendation for the ICU, we have all their oxygen information, their lactate, and more.

Some of it might be relevant to making predictions about their illnesses, some not, and we dont know which is which. Thats why we ask for the large data set with everything.

Theres been about a decade of work trying to get unsupervised machine-learning models to do a better job at making these predictions, and none worked really well. The breakthrough for us was when we found that all the previous approaches for doing this were wrong in the exact same way. Once we untangled all of this, we came up with a different method.

We also realized that even if our ability to predict what drug is going to work is not always that great, we can more reliably predict what drugs are not going to work, which is almost as valuable.

Im excited about combining humans and AI to make predictions. Lets say your AI has an error rate of 70% and your human is also only right 70% of the time. Combining the two is difficult, but if you can fuse their successes, then you should be able to do better than either system alone. How to do that is a really tough, exciting question.

All these predictive models were built and deployed and people didnt think enough about potential biases. Im hopeful that were going to have a future where these human-machine teams are making decisions that are better than either alone.

Guillaume Simoneau

Abdoulaye Banire Diallo

Professor, director of the bioinformatics lab, University of Quebec at Montreal

Prediction for 2030: Machine-based forecasting will be regulated

When a farmer in Quebec decides whether to inseminate a cow or not, it might depend on the expectation of milk that will be produced every day for one year, two years, maybe three years after that. Farms have management systems that capture the data and the environment of the farm. Im involved in projects that add a layer of genetic and genomic data to help forecastingto help decision makers like the farmer to have a full picture when theyre thinking about replacing cows, improving management, resilience, and animal welfare.

With the emergence of machine learning and AI, what were showing is that we can help tackle problems in a way that hasnt been done before. We are adapting it to the dairy sector, where weve shown that some decisions can be anticipated 18 months in advance just by forecasting based on the integration of this genomic data. I think in some areas such as plant health we have only achieved 10% or 20% of our capacity to improve certain models.

Until now AI and machine learning have been associated with domain expertise. Its not a public-wide thing. But less than 10 years from now they will need to be regulated. I think there are a lot of challenges for scientists like me to try to make those techniques more explainable, more transparent, and more auditable.

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The professionals who predict the future for a living - MIT Technology Review

August 9, 2011, 11:46 PM

4 min read

Aug. 9, 2011 -- Ray Kurzweil, a prominent inventor and "futurist" who has long predicted that mind and machine will one day merge, has been making arrangements to talk to his dead father through the help of a computer.

"I will be able to talk to this re-creation," he explained. "Ultimately, it will be so realistic it will be like talking to my father."

Kurzweil's father, an orchestra conductor, has been gone for more than 40 years.

However, the 63-year-old inventor has been gathering boxes of letters, documents and photos in his Newton, Mass., home with the hopes of one day being able to create an avatar, or a virtual computer replica, of his late father. The avatar will be programmed to know everything about Kurzweil's father's past, and will think like his father used to, if all goes according to plan.

"You can certainly argue that, philosophically, that is not your father," Kurzweil said. "That is a replica, but I can actually make a strong case that it would be more like my father than my father would be, were he to live."

Said to look and sound like Woody Allen's nerdier younger brother, Kurzweil has been working on predicting the future for decades. At age 17, he was invited to appear on the CBS show "I've Got a Secret" to demonstrate how a computer program he invented could compose music.

Kurzweil went on to invent optical scanners, machines that read for the blind and synthesizers. Still inventing today, Kurzweil has developed a reputation for himself from just making predictions, mostly about how fast our technology is advancing.

While holding a smart phone he said, "This is a billion times more powerful than the computer I used as a student."

To Kurzweil, the implications of the advancement of smart phone technology are beyond epic. He believes it will one day help him talk to his dead father and eventually eliminate death all together.

"I think all human beings are and should be fearful [of death], but realizing that death is a real tragedy," he said.

Does the inventor think he can beat death? "I believe I can," he said. "It is not a certainty."

One example he gives of how technology can overcome death is by taking computers and putting them inside our bodies -- microscopic robots that can fight viruses from inside our blood stream.

Again, referring to the smart phone, Kurzweil explained, "this will become the size of blood cells and we will be able to put intelligence inside of our bodies and brains to keep ourselves healthier."

Kurzweil predicts this will become a reality within a few decades. To be sure he lives long enough to see it, the inventor exercises extreme measures to stay healthy -- taking 200 vitamins a day and undergoing monthly blood transfusions.

His eccentricities are the subject of the hit documentary, "Transcendant Man." It celebrates his role as a prophet of the Singularity movement, the idea that technological advancement is so fast that soon humans and computers will merge. However, some skeptics see a doomsday scenario where the computers become so smart they won't need or want humans anymore -- think "The Terminator."

"'The Terminator' is not an impossibility," Kurzweil said. "I think that symbolizes the downside of artificial intelligence ... but technology has a big downside in general. There is a bigger downside to not pursuing it."

As for bringing his own father back to life through a computer avatar, Kurzweil didn't seem to mind the lack of intimate human contact.

"Creating an avatar of this sort is one way of embodying that information in a way that human beings can interact with," he explained. "It is inherently human to transcend limitations."

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Futurist Ray Kurzweil Says He Can Bring His Dead Father ...

What used to be viewed by many as one of the least exciting areas of an organization is now one of the most dynamic places to work. Human resources is evolving into more than just hiring and firing and having a huge impact on the employee experience and the future of work. I have explored this in my recent book on Employee Experience. Here are just a few of the ways HR is evolving:

From hiring and firing to enabling, empowering, and creating experiences

It used to be that HR was just the place you went to get hired or fired, but those days are long gone. Today, HR is responsible for a wide range of employee activities, most of which center around enabling, engaging, and empowering employees. HR workers are the major players in creating employee experience, which works with an organization's culture and growth and ensures that employees feel valued and supported along every step of their workplace journey.

From the "police" of the organization to the coaches, mentors, and thought leaders

Instead of being the people within the organization who enforce the rules, HR representatives are now thought of as mentors and thought leaders. Employees used to be scared of interacting with HR employees for fear that they would get in trouble for doing something wrong, but today that mentality has shifted towards viewing HR employees as the people to go to with suggestions or feedback of how to improve employee experience and to gain insights into how to better your career.

From maintaining status quo to destroying status quo

HR was long thought of the department that kept the organization humming along and that was resistant to change. If you wanted to try something new, create a new program, or change your work schedule, it would likely get held up in HR. Now, however, HR is often responsible for obliterating the status quo to keep the organization moving forward. Instead of holding things back, HR is the driving force in building a cohesive work environment where employees are happy and growth can happen.

From not technologically advanced to relying heavily on technology

The new HR embraces technology to expand its role. Using new tools like big data and analytics, HR can better understand employees and make more strategic decisions, as opposed to the old role of using emotion and tradition to make decisions. Internal data is available on just about everything, from how employees are performing to how often they visit certain areas of the office. HR representatives use this data to find trends and create the best possible strategy and employee environment.

From not defining strategy to shaping and leading strategy

It used to be that HR just did as it was told and didn't have much impact in the overall strategy of the organization. Today, human resources employees help shape and lead strategy, especially as organizations realize the impact employee experience can have on growth and revenue. Fulfilled and happy employees play a huge role in the overall success of an organization, which means HR now helps shape and lead the overall strategy.

From no seat at the table to a key seat at the table

Today, HR is evolving into a more central role in the organization where it has a key seat at the decision-making table. Many C-level executives come from HR backgrounds and work directly with the department to make sure its needs are met. HR is more involved than ever with other departments and often has its hands in many baskets through the company.

From payroll, compensation, and benefits to employee experience

HR now does much more than just work through payroll and compensation. Instead of focusing on the basic needs of employees, it focuses on building a great experience where employees want to come to the office and do their best work. With a great corporate culture, employees show up to work for more than just the paycheck, which means HR also has to work on more than just payroll.

From cost center to profit-enabling center

In many cases, the change in HR's role within an organization is due to executives realize its profit-creating potential. The old HR was often considered to be a cost center, but by driving strategy and employee experience, the new HR provides the opportunity to create profits and growth. This has helped the HR department get a larger budget because executives can see that investing in HR leads to stronger employees, a better workplace experience, and often to higher profits

From a clearly defined workforce to a dynamic and changing workforce

The workforce is changing right alongside HR, and the department has to be ready to meet those changes. As the workforce changes, so too does HR's approach to employee experience. More employees are also working in HR to gain experience they can use in other areas, which means the department is constantly getting new points of view, which it can use to create a more cohesive work environment.

From focusing on employee inputs to focusing on employee outputs

As HR evolves, it is having more interaction with employees and playing a larger role in the day-to-day activities and responsibilities of workers. Instead of focusing on employee inputs and what it takes to get the job done, HR today is more focused on employee outputs and how it can encourage employees to do their best work possible.

From treating employees like "resources" to treating employees like water and air

Employees are now viewed as HR less as resources and more as vital parts of the organization that they can't live without. It used to be that without employees, HR wouldn't have anyone to hire or fire--employees were simply things HR needed to do its job. Now, employees are seen as more vital--they are what drives everything HR does, and they play a huge role in the department's success. What HR does now depends on what employees want and is tailored to their needs.

From performance appraisals to real-time recognition and feedback with employee check-ins

HR is now more involved in the everyday employee experience than ever before. Much of this comes from real-time employee feedback with regular check-ins instead of the old way of annual performance reviews. With more applicable feedback, HR hopes to create a dialogue with employees where they feel comfortable hearing ways to improve and are open to making suggestions of their own

From filling gaps in jobs to unlocking human potential

In many cases, HR is now focused on making sure employees get the professional development skills they need to better their careers. Instead of simply plugging employees into positions in the organization, HR works with people to find their best skills, unlock and develop talents that might be below the surface, and shape a position in the organization that meets their skills and interests.

From a "one size fits all" model across the organization to "one size breaks all" approach

The evolving HR department no longer applies a one-size-fits-all solution to the organization and instead uses a one-size-breaks-all approach. HR now realizes that each department and employee is different and that a different approach needs to be taken to meet individual needs. This is often implemented by spending time with individual employees and departments to find how HR can best support them and drive their strategies.

From siloed from lines of business to working closely to understand business needs

HR used to work in its own corner of the office without much interaction with other departments. The result was often a siloed organization filled with red tape if other departments ever had to collaborate with HR. As things evolve, HR has begun working closely with other departments to best meet their needs. There is often a lot of overlap between HR and other departments, and open communication and good working relationships make it easier to join together for great results.

From multi-year project design and roll-outs to fast design, implementation, and iteration

The new approach helps HR quickly design and implement new programs and ideas and stay ahead of workplace trends. Technology is changing things quickly, and HR no longer has the luxury to sit back and create perfectly formulated plans. Instead, the department must act quickly to put plans into action while they are still relevant. The result is an agile department that has to stay close to employee sentiment and trends to build an environment that reflects the current needs of the organization.

From human resource job titles to people, talent, and experience titles

Many companies have moved from traditional HR titles like Chief Human Resources Officer to Chief Experience Officer or Talent Manager. New titles show the expanded scope of HR and how it is involved in many more areas of employee experience.

Published on: Nov 21, 2017

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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What Does The Future Of Human Resources Look Like? | Inc.com

Unique Forms of Continuity in Space by Umberto Boccioni. 1913. (Photo: Wikipedia)

Fascinated by new industry and thrilled by what laid ahead, the early 20th-century Futurists carved out a place in history. Growing out of Italy, these artists worked as painters, sculptors, graphic designers, musicians, architects, and industrial designers. Together, they helped shape a new, modern style of art that still has staying power today.

The Futurists were revolutionaries, members of an avant-garde movement that sought to free itself from the artistic norms of the past. Through frequent, well-laid-out manifestos, they were able to spread their ideas widely and enjoyed great success prior to World War I. This group firmly looked forward and couldnt get enough of what they saw. For the Futurists, the past was something to look down on. Airplanes and automobiles symbolized the speed they craved and the dynamism with which they saw the world.

Today, the Futurist movement is known for its embracing of speed, violence, and youth culture in an attempt to move culture forward. Though the movement is probably most widely associated with Umberto Boccionis sculpture Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, theres a lot more to explore.

Italian futurists Luigi Russolo, Carlo Carr, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Umberto Boccioni and Gino Severini in front of Le Figaro, Paris, February 9, 1912 (Photo: Wikipedia)

Futurism was founded in Milan by the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. He published his Manifesto of Futurism in 1909, first in the La gazzetta dellEmilia and then in Frances daily newspaper Le Figaro.

This initial manifesto laid out the Futurists disdain for the past, stating We want no part of it, the past, we the young and strong Futurists! In the text, its also clear that Marinetti wishes to reestablish Italy as a new cultural center. Italy, which was only unified in 1870, was still basking in the glory of the ancient Roman Empire and the Italian Renaissance. For the Futurists, this wasnt enough.

In fact, Marinetti was through with the past, writing, We will free Italy from her innumerable museums which cover her like countless cemeteries. Futurists saw much more beauty in the great industrial discoveries of the 20th century than classical painting and sculpture. In the manifesto, they outright state that modern industrial inventions are much more appealing: We declarea new beauty, the beauty of speed. A racing motor caris more beautiful than theVictory of Samothrace.

The manifesto also promoted violence and the necessity of war, but interestingly did not discuss or outline any rules for the visual arts. That would come later, with the 1914 Technical Manifesto for Futurist Painting. It was just one of many manifestos that they would produce, as the Futurists wrote about all sorts of topics, from architecture and religion to clothing.

Surrounding Marinetti during this early stage was a core group of artists that would shape Futurism and, particularly, the visual arts. Composer Luigi Russolo, as well as painters Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carr, Giacomo Balla, and Gino Severini formed the original Futurists.

Dynamism of a Cyclist by Umberto Boccioni. 1913. (Photo: Wikipedia)

As the early manifesto did not directly address the artistic output of Futurism, it took some time before there was a cohesive visual. A hallmark of Futurist art is the depiction of speed and movement.

In particular, they adhered to principals of universal dynamism, which meant that no single object is separate from its background or another object. The sixteen people around you in a rolling motor bus are in turn and at the same time one, ten four three; they are motionless and they change places. The motor bus rushes into the houses which it passes, and in their turn the houses throw themselves upon the motor bus and are blended with it.

This is best exemplified in Giacomo Ballas Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash, where the motion of walking the dog is shown through the multiplying of the dogs feet, leash, and owners legs. Urban scenes such as this were typical subject matter for the Futurists, who saw the city environment as the apex of their ideals.

Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash by Giacomo Balla. 1912. (Photo: Wikipedia)

Umberto Boccioni explained the principals of Futurist art by distinguishing it from another avant-garde movementImpressionism. While the impressionists paint a picture to give one particular moment and subordinate the life of the picture to its resemblance to this moment, we synthesize every moment (time, place, form, color-tone) and thus paint the picture.

The Futurists were also highly influenced by Cubism, which was first brought to the group by Gino Severini. Severini came into contact with the style while visiting Paris in 1911 and introduced its use of broken color fields and short brushstrokes to the Futurists. The core artists used these techniques to create even more dynamic scenes of everything from cyclists to dancers to cities under construction.

Eventually, Boccioni took his work from two dimensions to three dimensions and created the acclaimed sculpture Unique Forms of Continuity in Space. Aerodynamic and fluid, its emblematic of the painters new obsession with sculpture and its ability to suggest motion. Interestingly, the sculpture was never cast in bronze during Boccionis lifetime. His original plaster cast is located in So Paulos contemporary art museum. Several bronze casts were made beginning in 1931, with one of the original casts acquired by New Yorks MoMA.

Dynamic Hieroglyphic of the Bal Tabarin by Gino Severini. 1912. (Photo: Wikipedia)

Brooklyn Bridge by Joseph Stella. 1919-1920. (Photo: Wikipedia)

The beginning of World War I signaled the end of the original Futurist group. Boccioni created only one painting during the war and was drafted into the Italian army. It was a huge blow for the group when he was killed in 1916 during a training exercise.

After the end of the war, Marinetti revived the movement. This period was later called Second Futurism which became associated with Fascism. Similar to many Fascists, they felt that Italy was a country divided between the industrialized north and agricultural south and wished to build a bridge to bring them together. Marinettis Futurist Political Party was actually absorbed into Benito Mussolinis Fascist Party, though Marinetti would later disagree with some of their principals and withdraw from political life.

Post-World War I Futurism was dedicated to new types of expression. In particular, Aeropainting became a popular style in the 1920s. It combined the love for flight with aerial landscapes and was often used in propaganda. Not limited to landscapes, Aeropainting was actually varied in its subject matter and remained popular until 1940.

After the defeat of Mussolini and Marinettis death in 1944, Futurism as a formal movement was dead. However, it remained highly influential for subsequent 20th-century art movements like Dada, Surrealism, andin terms of designArt Deco.

Today, works by Futurist artists can be found in major collections around the world and are essential to understanding early 20th-century culture.

Speeding Motorboat by Benedetta Cappa. 1923. (Photo: WikiArt)

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What is Futurism? Italy's Art Movement that Love Speed and Technology - My Modern Met

Big Picture

While dust devils arent exactly uncommon on Mars the Red Planet is, after all, a very dustyand windy place the whirlwinds often fade almost as quickly as they appear. That makes capturing an image of one in action a rare treat.

But in October 2019, NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter managed to snap a photo of a massive active dust devil and you can now see it for yourself.

The Reconnaissance Orbiter took the photo using its High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE), a powerful camera thats been snapping photos of the Martian surface since 2006.

On Monday, the University of Arizona team that built and manages HiRISE published details on the newly photographed dust devil, which formed on Amazonis Planitias volcanic plains.

The core of the dust devil is 50 meters (164 feet) wide, according to the HiRISE team, and based on the length of its shadow, they believe it is probably about 650 meters (2,132 feet) tall.

Though the dust devil is a big one, its far from the biggest.

In March 2012, HiRISE took a photo of an active dust devil that was a mind-blowing 20 kilometers (12 miles) tall. But despite its impressive height, that dust devil was barely wider than this newly spotted one: just 70 meters (229 feet).

In other words, Martian colonists already had a lot to worry about and now they can add towering swirls of dust and debris to the list.

READ MORE: NASA captures rare view of dancing Mars dust devil, and its a monster [CNET]

More on HiRISE: SpaceX Working With NASA to Find Mars Landing Sites for Starship

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NASA Snaps Photo of Epic Dust Devil on the Surface of Mars - Futurism

China released an app over the weekend that lets residents check to see if theyve come in close contact with Covid-19, the coronavirus thats killed more than a thousand people in the nation.

According to Chinese state-run media agency Xinhua, app users must scan a QR code on one of several popular Chinese apps, such as WeChat, to make an inquiry. Next, they register their phone number and enter their name and government-issued identification number, with each phone number good for three inquiries.

The app then lets the user know whether theyve been in close contact with anyone infected with the coronavirus, suspected of being infected with it, or exposed to it.

As for how China defines close contact, according to the Xinhua story, it includes working with, going to school with, or living in the same house as a person. People who traveled in a fully enclosed air-conditioned train compartment together are also considered to have been in close contact, as are people who sat within a few rows of one another on an airplane.

If the app determines that a person has been in close contact with the coronavirus, it advises that they stay home and contact health authorities.

Xinhua wrote that the General Office of the State Council, the National Health Commission, and China Electronics Technology Group Corporations worked together to develop the app.

The app uses data collected and shared by several government agencies, including the National Health Commission, the Ministry of Transport, China Railway, and the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

While China is regularly criticized for the mountain of data it collects on citizens, this is one example of how that collection can benefit the public.

In China, and across Asia, data is not seen as something to be locked down; its something that can be used, provided its done in a transparent way, with consent where needed, Carolyn Bigg, a technology lawyer at the law firm DLA Piper, told BBC News.

From a Chinese perspective, this [app] is a really useful service for people, she continued, adding that its a really powerful tool that really shows the power of data being used for good.

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App Checks Whether You've Come in Contact With Deadly Coronavirus - Futurism