Category Archives: Transhuman News

By Andrew Busby, CEO of Retail Reflections

They havent seen a customer for months, and if reports are to be believed, its likely that other, unwanted visitors have likely moved in.

But, for now, lets assume that the local pest control have done their job, spring and summer lines are on the rails, and the windows are screaming, come in and buy!, what else do retailers need to consider before the curtain goes up once more, in front of an expectant audience?

Because, all the while stores have lain dormant, an online predator has been on the rampage, greedily devouring the market as rapidly as possible. Its time for a physical fightback.

Well, not quite, because of course, with a few notable exceptions, retailing today is all about a joined-up proposition. Easy and convenient, providing a seamless journey whatever the start point and whatever the destination.

So, just what does a successful reopening look like?

If we dont feel safe, were not going to return. Its that simple. And while supermarkets have inexplicably relaxed their Covid safe measures, we need to do our grocery shop, so will apply a different level of risk assessment in that instance.

However, for many of us, shopping is all about browsing, the complete antithesis of stocking up on the weekly grocery. So, were going to want to browse in safety.

Just how seamless is your multichannel offering? Can you effectively manage all your offline and online orders? Automated ordering fulfilment and shipping has never been as critical as it is now.

Reducing order processing and delivery times by automating repeatable order management tasks takes the uncertainty out of multichannel operations and allows e-commerce firms to get items out of the door faster. Brands like Shopify and Brightpearl have grown tremendously over the last year because of their ability to support retail automation. And, additionally, are you offering different delivery options? Because kerbside collection has just gone mainstream.

Or rather, where it is. Lets face it, the last time it saw the light of day was many weeks ago. Is it in the right place? Do you know how long its been there? Are you on top of your online returns? Because, things are about to take off once again.

Time to take a fresh look at your stores. Shrewd retailers will quickly realise that the journey from safe to smart stores is a logical path to tread. Time to really understand how your customers shop your stores. Time to exploit the work from home generation and offer live video streaming.

For years weve talked about digitally enabling the business and it often felt like it was a solution trying to find a problem. Covid-19 is that problem, and is the perfect reason to reimagine the entire store experience.

After a year of lockdown and social distancing restrictions, weve become a cynical, judgmental lot, and not only that, weve become rather accustomed, after just a few clicks, to stuff simply turning up on our doorstep the next day.

So, yes, were going to venture out of our bunkers and into the shops, but in so doing, casting something of a critical eye on all that we encounter. And if the experience isnt positively memorable, well simply revert to clicks once more.

Even before the global pandemic hit us, retailers were facing a myriad of challenges from all quarters; consumer confidence, shifting behaviours, online promiscuity, lack of loyalty, rising costs the list goes on and on. Well, it just got even longer, but simultaneously, many opportunities are now presenting themselves.

It would be too easy to label stores as an expensive overhead in the face of an online tsunami but the truth is rather different. It all depends on the lens through which you view them. Sales driver and brand enabler? Or a costly anchor holding your business back?

Those who see the former are the ones more likely to succeed.

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It'll be alright on the night: IBM futurist offers top tips for the reopening of non-essential retail - Retail Times

The Cybertruck could be an off-the-grid dream come true.Cyber Camper

Teslas Cybertruck is shaping up to be the ultimate off-road warrior and it might be just as good as providing off-the-grid power as well.

CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to confirm that the Cybertruck will be able to power a camper or even a tiny home with its battery. When asked whether a user would be able to plug my tiny house into the Cybertruck to power it, Musk answered with yes.

Tesla has already released renders of what looks like a Cybertruck with its own stylish trailer but it didnt quite look like a camper, as Electrek points out.

Well have to wait and see what Tesla has in store for the Cybertruck. In December 2019, Musk said that his electric car company is planning a sick attachment for the Cybertruck, but didnt elaborate.

The beastly truck will be able to tow up to 14,000 pounds of cargo and will feature a massive battery, giving the vehicle up to 500 miles of range, according to Tesla.

That also means there will be plenty of power left over in the bank to power anything from lights to kitchen appliances.

The RV community is pretty excited by the prospect. While the truck is set to only debut later this year, YouTuber Motorhome man already designed himself a killer fifth-wheel camper trailer for the Cybetruck in December 2019.

READ MORE: Elon Musk: Tesla Cybertruck electric pickup will be able to power a camper [Electrek]

More on the Cybertruck: Xbox Exec Suggests Tesla x Halo Collaboration

As a Futurism reader, we invite you join the Singularity Global Community, our parent companys forum to discuss futuristic science & technology with like-minded people from all over the world. Its free to join, sign up now!

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Elon Musk: Cybertruck Will Be Able to Power Off-Grid Tiny Homes - Futurism

A striking new 66-storey tower unlike anythingToronto has seen before is set to rise at a landmark location in the city's downtown core but only if all goes well for the developers proposing it.

H&R REITrecently launched a website for its forthcoming 55 Yonge project, designed by BDP Quadrangle and PARTISANS. The firmsays thatarezoning application was submitted to the City of Toronto this month, but detailed documentshave yet to appear in the city's public development portal.

Still, the website itself contains plenty of juicy details (and more importantly, renderings) for us to get excited about in the meantime.

The 66-storey office and apartment building proposed for 55 Yonge Street has a truly unique shape. Image via H&R REIT.

Proposed for a site atthesoutheast cornerof Yonge and Colborne Streets, just north of Wellington, the mixed-use tower in question would replace two adjacent buildings of five and 12 storeys respectively.

Both office buildings are already owned by H&R REIT,but the firm would still need permits to demolish and replace them with the significantly proposed development.

The involvement of ERA Architects in the project suggests there may also be heritage elements to consider. As pointed outby Urban Toronto, the building which currently stands at 55 Yonge was completed in 1958 by "noted CanadianModernist architect Peter Dickinson."

The new building would lie just east of the TTC's King Subway Station between King and Wellington Streets East. Image via H&R REIT.

The tower itself would be used for commercial andresidential purposes with two full storeys of retail as well as lobby spaces at the ground level.

Rising up from the retail/lobby portion of the building (which itself would sit above two storeys of underground parking) is a uniquely-shaped podium containing 13 levels of office space, effectively replacing the offices that currently stand at 53 and 55 Yonge.

In total, the building is designed to include roughly13,000 square metres of retail space, 16,700 square metres of office space and 482 purpose-built, residential rental units (a mix of studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom suites.)

The new building has been designed to create what developers call a "more inviting pedestrian experience."Image via H&R REIT.

A spacious open-air terrace, fully-equipped gym andpool areamong the amenities planned for both office and residential tenants of the building, according to H&R REIT'sown website.

The floors of office space, specifically,are said to be "state of the art" and designed "for the contemporary worker in a post-COVIDworld, supported by efficient layouts and a hospitality-driven environment at the street level."

"In the heart of Toronto's financial district, directly adjacent to King Station on the TTC's Yonge subway line, 55 Yonge is a landmark 66-storey residential and office tower designed by collaborating architects BDP Quadrangle and PARTISANS for H&R REIT," reads the project's website.

Developers say the new 55 Yonge willrespond toToronto's rapid growth, while achieving a cohesive and contemporary high-rise design.Image via H&R REIT.

As for when this glorious new tower will be built, well... that's anyone's guess.

Even H&R REIT itself admits that "the rezoning application process can take quite some time" and that "new development projects and the review processes they go through can be complicated."

Fortunately, the laggives everyone interested in the project time to weigh in with their thoughts, concerns and suggestions, which they can do so now via 55 Yonge's website.

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Futuristic new office and apartment tower proposed for downtown Toronto - blogTO

Theres basically no questionabout where Leonardo da Vincis Renaissance masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, is at any given moment. Barring unforeseen circumstances or the heist of the century the painting can be found in the Salle des Etats in the Louvre in Paris, France.

But when it comes to purely digital works of art like non-fungible tokens or NFTs, the answer to that question of where a given piece of art is actually stored is far more complicated.

In short, NFTs allow art collectors to prove ownership over a purely digital piece of art. That means the NFT can be an experience, a tweet, a techno song about NFTs, or even the burning of an original Banksy livestreamed on the internet.

NFTs have quickly risen to become one of the most lucrative ways for certain artists to sell their art online, all thanks to the power of the blockchain, a public ledger that allows the buyer to prove once and for all that they are the original owner of said art despite the existence of thousands of copies online.

But that raises an important question. What does the buyer actually get? Would their new-fangled piece of art, or rather the deed over said art, survive if the NFT exchange where the buyer got their piece were to fold?

In many cases, the answer appears to be no. The problem is the simple fact that the work of art itself isnt actually the NFT the NFT simply points to it.

Exactly where the art is depends on the NFT. In the most straightforward cases, the token itself is a document stored on Ethereum, a popular blockchain, that includes a simple URL to a server where the art is stored it would be far to cumbersome and expensive to store it on the Etherum blockchain itself, as CoinDesk points out.

In those cases, that effectively means that if a given NFT exchange were to fold, the original artwork would vanish with it.

To UK-based software engineer Jonty Wareing, that should give art collectors pause.

In short: Right now NFTs are built on an absolute house of cards constructed by the people selling them, Wareing argued in a Twitter thread. In other words, when the startup that sells you a given NFT shuts down, those files will disappear along with them.

A promising alternative is the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). Just like a public blockchain ledger, IFPS attempts to decentralize where the content itself is being stored.

Rather than referring to one instance or file, like how your browser is pointing you to the HTTP address of this very webpage, IFPS points to a number of different copies of that artwork around the world.

If one were to call up said artwork, youd be connected to the nearest copy on the server closest to you.

Even then, IPFS only serves files as long as a node in the IPFS network intentionally keeps hosting it, Wareing argues in a follow-up tweet. Which means when the startup who sold you the NFT goes bust, the files will probably vanish from IPFS, too.

And as art engineer Micah Elizabeth Scott points out in a reply on Twitter, there already have been instances where some NFTs with IPFS resources are no longer being hosted anywhere.

More worryingly, Nifty Gateway, a popular NFT exchange, may already be losing NFTs on IPFS. Btw weve been tracking this for 7 days now and most of the files we check from Nifty Gateway on IPFS fail, Check My NFT, a voluntary asset ratings service that can check how well NFTs are stored, tweeted in response to Wareing.

Futurism has reached out to Nifty Gateway for comment. Well update this story is we hear back.

An NFT is also only a single deed on one given blockchain, meaning that if the entire blockchain were to vanish, the NFT would disappear along with it. That may not be as much of an issue for well-established blockchains like Ethereum, but many NFTs are being sold based on younger blockchains, as Fortune reports.

Generally speaking, there is currently no system in place to guarantee that any given NFT will persist over the years. The same cant be said about the Mona Lisa, or any physical piece of art for that matter.

NFT exchanges, however, are open to the idea of a USDA-certified-organic-style persistence seal, as CoinDesk reports.

As of right now, the hype surrounding NFTs is immense. But the trend brings up some tough questions that anybody who is willing to put down seven figures should be able to answer first.

Then again, perhaps NFTs are the embodiment of the hype itself.

When we talk about owning digital artwork, the thing we want is the glory of being the one who supported the artist, open-source advocate William Entriken told CoinDesk.

READ MORE: Its an NFT Boom. Do You Know Where Your Digital Art Lives? [Coindesk]

More on NFTs: Elon Musk Says His Techno Song NFT Isnt For Sale After All

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NFTs Have a Huge Persistence Problem - Futurism

The obvious lesson for filmmakers in the new science fiction thriller Chaos Walking is that sound recording is especially important to a story about hearing.

The men of the Prentice Town emit clouds of smoke from their heads as they think. The smoke usually carries spoken versions of their thoughts not things they actually say with their lips. Sometimes the smoke carries pictures of people they are thinking of.

They live on an Earth-like planet in the future. When they first arrived, perhaps twenty years before, there were women in their party. But the men, led by fur coat-sporting Prentice (Mads Mikkelsen), killed all the women. The explanation for this is spoken in dialog during the movie, and I couldnt hear it. The volume was too low.

When the movie is mostly about characters whose thoughts we can hear, the quality of the sound reproduction is paramount. But Chaos Walking has talking mixed low, and enough talking on top of talking that just about anyone will have trouble making out what is going on in the film.

The story is based on a novel that is usually shelved with adolescent series books. Peter Ness, the author of the books about these characters, co-wrote the screenplay.

But he wasnt responsible for the sound. One has to blame director Doug Liman, who we know from his movies Go, The Bourne Identity, and The Edge of Tomorrow. He is a capable if not a brilliant Hollywood director. Chaos Walking is not one of his more satisfactory films.

Even if we cant hear all the dialogue, though, we can still enjoy the story. In it another large space ship has traveled 80-some years from Earth to bring more settlers to the heavily-forested planet on which Prentice Town is one of the current colonies.

The heat shield on a landing capsule from that ship does not function correctly (or something) and settler Viola (played by the chilly Daisy Ridley) has to survive the crash. She is found hiding (in a barn, of course) by Todd (Tom Holland).

The ruling party from town want to control Viola (for reasons lost in the sound recording). Especially anti-woman is firebrand Aaron (David Oyelowo). There is an American in the castpop singer Nick Jonas. Not that his character is in any way important to the plot.

Of course double-talking Todd helps Viola to escape the posse Prentice has gathered. Much of the film is a record of their traveling adventures. The only interesting scene is a fight between Todd and a one-armed representative of the blackened natives of the planet.

This seems as if it would be a great opening for a discussion of dispossession by conquest, among other issues. But the movie seems to ignore this big chance, if I heard it right.

The escaping pair land in a different village, one sufficiently hospitable that Prentices gang attacks it. And then the pursuit continues, eventually leading us to a technology repair scene (acrophobia prompting) and a duel at the climax.

No, theres probably enough story here, even if many of its elements will be familiar to movie-goers.

But the other problem with the film is that the cast doesnt include any likable actors. One doesnt sympathize with Ridley or Holland. The only actor one likes in the movie is the dog. Now guess what happens to him.

Read this article:
REVIEW | Futuristic 'Chaos Walking' hard to hear, though story is interesting - Manhattan Mercury

There may be far more water trapped inside Mars than we initially thought.

According to a new paper published by researchers at Caltech in the journal Science today, Mars may still hold anywhere between 30 and 99 percent of the ancient water from its lakes and oceans within its crust, with less water escaping through the planets atmosphere than previously thought.

Its an exciting prospect, suggesting that most of the water may not have disappeared into space as the planets atmosphere thinned out over the last three billion years.

Back then, scientists have theorized that Mars had enough water to cover the whole planet by an ocean 330 to around 5,000 feet deep, about half of the Atlantic ocean, according to a NASA statement on the new research.

Some of this water did escape into space via the Martian atmosphere but not all, according to the researchers.

Atmospheric escape doesnt fully explain the data that we have for how much water actually once existed on Mars, lead author and Caltech PhD candidate Eva Scheller said in the statement.

By analyzing data from a number of NASAs missions, the researchers studied how much water there was over the planets history and compared it to how much water there is in the planets atmosphere and crust now.

The researchers suggest that the two processes combined water being trapped in minerals in the planets crust and atmospheric escape could account for a relatively high percentage of observed deuterium.

Deuterium is a hydrogen atom which is heavier, because it has a proton and a neutron, when compared to its lighter counterpart, which has just a proton. This heavier hydrogen is far less likely to escape into atmosphere than its counterpart.

The team concluded that much of this water is trapped in hydrous minerals, something you can find here on Earth as well. This could account to anywhere between 30 and 99 percent of Mars total water loss in its first one to two billion years, according to the researchers, with atmospheric escape accounting for the rest.

Rather than being recycled back into the atmosphere through volcanism, the water trapped in minerals on Mars are drying out permanently. In other words, water [on Mars] is now locked up in the crust or been lost to space, according to Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASAs Mars Exploration Program.

Theres a lot we still dont know about how much water there is on Mars right now, making it almost impossible to predict just how habitable the Red Planet is.

But we do know that Mars was likely far more habitable billions of years ago. Most excitingly, NASAs Perseverance Mars rover is exploring the Jezero crater, believed to have been an ancient lakebed several billion years ago.

It will be right there to investigate what might have been the mechanisms that caused water sequestration in these minerals in the crust, Scheller told MIT Technology Review.

READ MORE: Marss lost water may be buried beneath the planets crust [MIT Technology Review]

More on water on Mars: Scientists Just Found Three More Reservoirs of Liquid Water on Mars

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Mars' Oceans May Have Drained Into Its Interior - Futurism