Category Archives: Transhuman News

Virgin Hyperloop has released a new video showing what the experience of being shot inside a pod down a vacuum tube at breakneck speeds could one day look and feel like.

Its an ambitious vision of the future of transportation. The concept video goes through each step in the travel process, from check-in to disembarking.

The experience seems reminiscent of going to an airport to catch a plane. The interior of the shuttle, however, feels more inspired by rail travel, with wide open cabins and face-to-face seating.

The biggest difference, however, is that there are no windows except for what appears to be a generous skylight above. Thats because the magnetically levitating pod is racing through an vacuum tube at speeds of up to 760 mph.

To make it feel less claustrophobic, the design team is focusing on bringing the outside in. Bands of greenery and wood textures subvert the aesthetic of typical mass transit materials with something optimistic and fresh, John Barratt, CEO and president of design company Teague, which designed the pod interiors, said in a statement.

All lighting in the pod including the unassuming information displays are dynamic and adjust based on traveler activity and journey milestones, Barratt said.

Its a futuristic mode of transportation that wont begin commercial operations until at least 2030, according to Virgin.

But it has made some headway with the technology. A first passenger test of the system back in November managed to accelerate two Virgin Hyperloop execs to a speed of 107 mph in just 6.25 seconds.

It felt not that much different than accelerating in a sports car, Virgin Hyperloop co-founder and first passenger Josh Giegel told The New York Times at the time.

In the future, Virgin Hyperloop is hoping to transport thousands of passengers an hour inside large convoys of 28-passenger-capacity pods. The individual pods will be within milliseconds of each other during travel, according to the company.

The company is now trying to figure out a way to drive down costs to make it more affordable than flying. Its simple. If its not affordable, people wont use it, Jay Walder, CEO of Virgin Hyperloop, said in the statement.

Daily high-speed transport is currently not feasible for most people, but we want to change that notion, Walder said. Imagine being able to commute between cities that are currently hours apart in minutes and the endless possibilities that opens up.

READ MORE: Virgin Hyperloop outlines how it thinks journeys will actually work in 2030 [Gizmodo]

More on Virgin Hyperloop: The First-Ever Passengers Just Rode a Functional Hyperloop

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Here's What Traveling By Hyperloop Could Look Like - Futurism

Spacetime Modification Weapon

According to documents obtained by The War Zone, the US Navy performed experiments on far-fetched technologies including a spacetime modification weapon which, researchers claimed internally, could revolutionize power and propulsion systems.

The mysterious technologies were meant to take advantage of the Pais effect, patented by American aerospace engineer Salvatore Cezar Pais and which could end up pushing the boundaries of conventional science if, that is, they are ever proven to actually work.

Pais says the tech could enable a propulsion system that defies gravity, as well as even more eccentric claims. In a January 2020 correspondence with The War Zone, Pais even laid out plans for a hybrid aerospace-underwater craft that he claimed was able to engineer the fabric of our reality at the most fundamental level.

Needless to say, these dubious theoretical devices have yet to be demonstrated in any meaningful way but, at the same time, the fact that the US military is funding their development does lend them a veneer of credibility.

According to the newly obtained documents, the Navy took Paiss ideas seriously enough to pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into their development.

The spacetime modification weapon, based on a Pais patent for a Plasma Compression Fusion Device, is supposed to release extremely high energy levels and make the Hydrogen bomb seem more like a firecracker, in comparison, according to the documents.

The experiments sound inconclusive, though. The elusive Pais effect was neither observed nor disproven, according to The War Zone.

In other words, it remains unclear whether the Navy still believes Pais is onto something or whether his work is a neglected line item in the Defense Departments vast budget.

READ MORE: Navy UFO Patent Documents Talk Of Spacetime Modification Weapon, Detail Experimental Testing [The War Zone]

More on Pais effect: Navy Scientist Known For UFO-Like Tech Patents Fusion Reactor

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The Navy Reportedly Experimented With a "Spacetime Modification Weapon" - Futurism

Hard Deadline

General Motors, the largest legacy automaker in the United States, announced on Thursday that it plans to stop selling all gasoline or diesel-powered cars, pickup trucks, and SUVs by the year 2035.

Its a huge commitment for an automaker, especially because the vast majority of GMs sales currently come from gas-burning cars rather than electric vehicles, Axios reports. In GMs case, success will depend on rapidly improving and ramping up production for electric vehicles. And for everyone else, seeing that increased attention on zero-emission transportation is great news for the future of our planet.

GMs CEO Mary Barra specifically announced that the company aims to be carbon neutral by 2040. And given that 75 percent of its emissions come from vehicle tailpipes, according to Axios, ceasing gas-burning car sales seems like a reasonable place to start.

General Motors plans to be carbon neutral by 2040 which means removing emissions from all our products, including every vehicle we produce, and all of our global operations in the next twenty years, Barra wrote on LinkedIn.

GMs decision is particularly significant because most of the deadlines to stop selling gas-burning cars have been set by governments, like the state of California banning new gas-powered car sales by 2035 or President Bidens call to electrify all federally-owned vehicles.

Now that the call is coming from the automotive industry itself especially one of the largest companies in the industry its possible that we could finally start to see some real momentum in the push to decarbonize the ways we get from point A to B.

READ MORE: GM plans to end sales of gasoline powered cars by 2035 [Axios]

More on electric cars: California Is Banning All Sales of New Gas-Powered Cars in Just 15 Years

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GM Commits to Ending Sales of Gas-Powered Cars by 2035 - Futurism

Splash Zone

Ever since they discovered that the Moon wasnt bone dry, scientists have been trying to figure out where all that lunar water came from.

Past guesses include bombardment by water-carrying asteroids or that solar winds blasted the Moon with ionized molecules that eventually formed water. But it turns out the moisture may have actually come from the Earths magnetosphere, according to research that was recently accepted for publication by the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters. The study actually aligns with the solar wind hypothesis, but explains how that lunar water keeps being replenished instead of evaporating away a dynamic system that could have implications for the future of human exploration on our planets natural satellite.

The idea that lunar water comes at least in part from solar winds is now pretty widely accepted among experts in the field, according to a UCLA press release on the study. But models suggest that those same solar winds should actually evaporate half of the Moons water on a roughly monthly basis, coinciding with the full moon.

But the new analysis shows that the lunar water doesnt actually vanish. Instead, its replenished by planetary magnetic winds, created by the interactions between solar winds and the Earths magnetic field, that blast the Moon with even more ionized particles.

Its a fascinating and almost poetic revelation that the Earth helps supply its natural satellite with water. But aside from abstract scientific awe, learning about the impacts of Earths magnetosphere could help space agencies better protect astronauts from cosmic radiation, according to the press release.

And, its worth noting, water is turning out to be abundant on other worlds and figuring out how it arrived at the Moon can help us figure out what happened on distant planets as well.

READ MORE: First evidence that water can be created on the lunar surface by Earths magnetosphere [UCLA Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences]

More on lunar water: NASAs Big Moon Surprise Is That Lunar Soil Contains Water

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Study: The Moon's Water Came From Earth's Magnetic Field - Futurism

Indigenous futurism. Narrative medicine. Cyberpunk and digital dystopias. Soil contamination. Environmentally sustainable mega-cities.

These and other topics will be explored in Pacific Standard Time: Art x Science x L.A. in 2024. The Getty Foundation announced Wednesday the 45 Southern California cultural and educational institutions that will collectively receive more than $5 million in exhibition research grants. Pacific Standard Time: Art x Science x L.A. will include dozens of concurrent exhibitions as well as performances, publications and other programming, all exploring the intersection of art and science.

The funding comes at a critical time when most of these cultural institutions have been closed for 10 months, resulting in unprecedented financial challenges. In November, the American Alliance of Museums released a survey reporting that nearly a third of museums in the U.S. were concerned about permanent closure within 12 months should they not receive additional financial relief.

It feels like a very important moment to us, Getty Foundation Director Joan Weinstein said. Being part of PST is also being part of a community. And in this current crisis were not going to have a resilient community without this network of museums, large and small, working together.

Csar Garca-Alvarez, director of the Central-Alameda art space the Mistake Room, said in Wednesdays announcement that the Gettys pandemic-era support allows institutions like ours to take on major projects that not only encourage us to think big but also gift us opportunities to build meaningful community partnerships for the future.

The grant recipient projects sound both far reaching and specific to our time, exploring sci-fi-like ideas about artificial intelligence, space exploration and biomedical technologies along with more urgent issues such as social justice, climate crises and global health and medicine.

Boyle Heights-based Self-Help Graphics & Art received $110,000 for Sinks: Places We Call Home, exploring how industrial waste and soil contamination affect communities of color. Artists Beatriz Jaramillo and Maru Garcia will deep-dive into the local landscape, working with Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County scientists and Self-Help Graphics to investigate the effects of practices at nearby manufacturing sites. The project will include community participation and virtual reality elements.

Also exploring pollution, climate crisis and environmental justice: the Hammer Museum in Westwood received $215,000 for Breath(e): Towards Climate and Social Justice. The museum will bring together contemporary artists and activists along with scientists, architects and designers to probe the effects of pollution and other environmental issues on underserved communities who have been subject to various forms of discrimination. It also explores proposed solutions for saving our planet.

Most people know George Washington Carver as an agricultural scientist. Fewer know that he was also an artist who created weavings and still-life paintings using sustainable materials from the Earth such as dyes and paints made from clay and peanuts. The intersection of Carvers science and art and its effect on contemporary artists is the subject of the Exposition Park-based California African American Museums exhibition, World Without End: The George Washington Carver Project, for which the museum received $120,000.

Concept art for Planet City, SCI-Arcs Pacific Standard Time: Art x Science x L.A exhibition in 2024.

(Liam Young; VFX supervision by Alexey Marfin)

How to squeeze the worlds population into one, super-dense megalopolis in order to regenerate the globes natural resources? Thats the topic of the Southern California Institute of Architectures Planet City, which received $100,000. The downtown L.A. school will present the work of artists, futurists and scholars and will showcase a model of its futuristic city as well as an interactive video game transporting visitors there.

Its no surprise, in the midst of a pandemic, that the Mistake Room is mulling ideas about global health and medicine. It received $110,000 for Bodies, No Longer Ours, which will present more than a dozen international artists exploring the world of narrative medicine and how visual art can be used to explore and better understand illness and healing.

The Autry Museum of the American West in Griffith Park received $175,000 for two exhibitions. Out of Site: Survey Science and the Hidden West questions the relationship between visual imaging technologies and the Western lands they illuminate or erase. Indigenous Futures, or How to Survive and Thrive After the Apocalypse presents artworks that reflect a commingling of science fiction and Native cultures. It aims to challenge historical myths from films such as Star Wars and Avatar while assessing the very real impact of colonization, including environmental degradation and toxic stereotypes.

The USC Libraries ONE Archives will present Sexual Science and the Imagi-nation, for which it received $100,000. The exhibition will present illustrated magazines, paintings, drawings and costumes from the genres of science fiction fandom and the occult, from the late 30s through the 50s, exploring their importance to American LGBTQ history.

This being Los Angeles, the influence of science on cinema was not overlooked: The Mid-Wilshire Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, which is planning a Sept. 30 opening, received $200,000 for two exhibitions. One will explore filmmakers experiments with color particularly innovations made by women in both the silent film era and the late 20th to early 21st centuries. The other presents storyboards, costumes and immersive digital components to plumb the history and influence of cyberpunk, a sci-fi subgenre, on film from the 80s to today.

George Lucas $1 billion Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which aims to complete construction of its Exposition Park building this year, received $100,000 for an exhibition that explores how art, including TV and film, comic books and avant-garde painting, has shaped our understanding of human evolution from 1850 to the present.

That such a well-funded museum would apply for a grant was not a consideration for the Getty, Weinstein said.

Were trying to fund all the good projects, period, she said. And I think the Lucas Museum will be important. Its about bringing them into the PST community and working with others, especially the small museums.

The Getty will announce a second round of grants in about two years to support the logistical execution of PST exhibitions and programming.

The newest PST, Weinstein said, offers a really unique opportunity to take up some really urgent scientific issues that intersect in so many ways with social issues. And doing it through the lens of art gives us new possibilities for imagining different solutions.

Plus, its such a great SoCal topic because of the history of science in this region. The museums really seized the topics and made it their own.

Heres the full list of grant recipients:

Academy Museum of Motion Pictures (for two exhibitions), Mid-Wilshire: $200,000

Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena: $100,000

ArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena: $110,000

Autry Museum of the American West (for two exhibitions), Griffith Park: $175,000

The Broad, L.A.: $90,000

California African American Museum, L.A.: $120,000

California Institute of Technology, Pasadena: $83,000

California State University Dominguez Hills University Art Gallery, Carson: $100,000

Center for Land Use Interpretation, Palms: $70,000

Craft Contemporary, Mid-Wilshire: $73,000

Fathomers, Burbank: $115,000

Fowler Museum at UCLA, Westwood: $110,000

Fulcrum Arts, Pasadena: $100,000

Hammer Museum, Westwood: $215,000

Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens (for three exhibitions), San Marino: $275,000

Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, L.A.: $120,000

Los Angeles County Museum of Art (presenting four exhibitions, three of which are grant supported), Mid-Wilshire: $335,000

Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach: $100,000

La Jolla Historical Society, La Jolla: $100,000

Library Foundation of Los Angeles and L.A. Public Library, L.A.: $90,000

Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Hollywood: $100,000

Los Angeles Filmforum, Hollywood: $85,000

Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Exposition Park: $100,000

Mingei International Museum, San Diego: $100,000

The Mistake Room, Central-Alameda: $110,000

Museum of Contemporary Art, L.A.: $175,000

Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego: $120,000

Museum of Jurassic Technology, Palms: $50,000

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (for two exhibitions), Exposition Park: $180,000

ONE Archives at the USC Libraries, University Park: $100,000

Orange County Museum of Art, Santa Ana: $100,000

The San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego: $120,000

Atkinson Gallery at Santa Barbara City College, Santa Barbara: $100,000

Southern California Institute of Architecture, L.A.: $100,000

Self-Help Graphics & Art, Boyle Heights: $110,000

Skirball Cultural Center, Brentwood: $90,000

UC Irvine Beall Center for Art + Technology, Irvine: $100,000

UCLA Art | Sci Center, Westwood: $90,000

UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Westwood: $100,000

UCLA Film & Television Archive and UCLA Cinema & Media Studies Program, Westwood: $120,000

UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture, Westwood: $110,000

UCR ARTS: California Museum of Photography at UC Riverside, Riverside: $110,000

UC San Diego Institute of Arts and Humanities, La Jolla: $120,000

Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College, Monterey Park: $110,000

The Wende Museum, Culver City: $100,000

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Getty grants fund science-themed 2024 'Pacific Standard Time' - Los Angeles Times

The investigators dispatched to China by the World Health Organization to investigate the coronaviruss origins are finally getting to work.

Two weeks after entering the country which was a whole can of worms in itself the team has emerged from the Wuhan hotel where it quarantined, the Associated Press reports. Now, finally, thescientists can get to work and try to figure out where, when, and how the COVID-19 outbreak first began.

For now, the teams plans are being kept under wraps, according to the AP. However, there are some locations the team will likely visit, including the Wuhan seafood market where the outbreak is widely believed to have originated and the mine shaft 1,000 miles away where scientists found the closest known relative to the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.

But the trajectory and ultimate outcome of the investigation still relies heavily on Chinas cooperation. As the AP notes, top officials have been reluctant to allow access to anything that might result in criticism against how China handled the coronavirus, especially during the earliest months as it grew from a local outbreak to a full-blown pandemic.

Wherever they end up going, the goal is to collect samples from key locations in and around Wuhan to try and eventually piece together COVID-19s history.

If history is any example, though, it will likely be years before we know how and when the coronavirus first began infecting people if we ever get a satisfying answer. Tracking down the origins of SARS, for example, took decades, and scientists still arent positive where Ebola came from. But that said, the formal beginning of the investigation is a crucial first step toward getting some answers.

Link:
WHO Team Hits the Streets to Investigate COVID Origins in China - Futurism

Pharma giant Johnson & Johnson finally shared data on how well its single-injection coronavirus vaccine works, and while it seems to clear the bar for FDA approval, it didnt blow experts out of the water like Moderna and Pfizers vaccines did.

Overall, the vaccine was 85 percent effective at preventing severe cases of COVID-19, The Washington Post reports, and Johnson & Johnson says that its vaccine seems to totally prevent coronavirus-related deaths and hospitalizations.

But the vaccine fared worse against the new, highly-infectious strains of SARS-CoV-2 that have emerged around the world it was 72 percent effective in the United States, 66 percent effective in Latin America, and just 57 percent effective in South Africa. But experts maintain that finally ending the COVID pandemic will take every weapon in our arsenal, meaning the logistical advantages of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine cant be overlooked.

The big deal is that the new vaccine works after only one shot. That means the process of actually administering it to a patient is much simpler than the other vaccines, which require a second injection weeks later. And as these new strains spread, moving quickly will be crucial.

Plus, The Washington Post reports, the new vaccine can survive for months at refrigerator temperatures making it vastly easier to transport and store with less risk of wastage.

Weve got to get the first dose to as many people as possible, Yale University virologist Akiko Iwasaki told STAT News. These variants that are more transmissible and potentially even more lethal are on the rise. I think time is really what were fighting against.

And, to be fair to the new vaccine, Iwasaki added that Johnson & Johnson was the only one of the three pharmaceutical companies to not include mild coronavirus cases in its data, an omission that may have skewed its results in the negative direction.

Back in July and August, I was hoping we would see a vaccine that was 60 percent effective in my mind, that would be great, Jonathan Temte, a vaccine expert at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health told The Washington Post. And now we have had two that have hit the ball out of the park and set expectations spectacularly high, and thats not fair because we dont need a home run all the times were up to bat.

Excerpt from:
The Single Shot Vaccine Is Far Less Effective, But Still Pretty Good - Futurism

The American Booksellers Association has announced the keynote lineup as well as the appearing authors for the2021 Winter Institute, which will be held virtually from Thursday, February 18, through Saturday, February 20.Registration is open now. Winter Institute is once again supported by lead sponsor Ingram Content Group.

Day one will feature a special opening day keynote address, to be announced soon.

On day two, bestselling authors Lauren Groff, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Colson Whitehead will discuss the state of literature and what the future holds for the novelist in the aftermath of political upheaval in the keynote Novelist as Citizen, moderated by Michelle Malonzo from Changing Hands Bookstorein Phoenix and Tempe, Arizona.

Day three will feature futurist and author Brian David Johnson and ABA CEO Allison K Hill in the conversation How to Think Like a Futurist, about the future of bookselling and how we can help shape it. Topics related to this keynote will be announced in the coming weeks for booksellers to use as prompts in the bookseller breakout sessions. Booksellers can send questions ahead of time via video or email to greg@bookweb.org; video questions may be played during the Q&A, but all questions will be answered during or after the keynote.

ABA has also invited a number poets to read during poetry interludes throughout the three days, including Amanda Gorman, who presented a poem at President Joe Bidens inauguration, as well as Ross Gay, torrin a. greathouse, Chris Martin, and Warsan Shire.

The lineup of more than 120 authors includes names such as S.K. Ali, Alison Bechdel, Sayantani DasGupta, Shannon Hale, Simon Hanselmann, Zakiya Dalila Harris, Erin Entrada Kelly, Jenny Lawson, Kwame Mbalia, Brittney Morris, Julie Murphy, LeUyen Pham, Natasha Pulley, and Nicola Yoon.

Booksellers can visit the Winter Institute landing page at that time to register for the event, which costs $35 per person. Booksellers will also have the opportunity to register for the February 17 Paz & Associates Introduction to Retail Bookselling workshop, which costs $149 and includes admission to Winter Institute. There is no cap on attendance to Winter Institute, and registration closes January 29.

Just before the event, each attendee signing up with a unique email address will receive a unique link to sign in; attendee links cannot be used by more than one person, so all booksellers who wish to attend should be sure to sign up individually and with a unique email address.Rep picks, keynote presentations, and educational sessions will be available as recordings in the weeks following Winter Institute, but all other Winter Institute programming (including the publisher and vendor expo, poetry interludes, discussion groups, virtual hangouts, and interactive chats) are only available to those attending live.

American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation services will be provided for education sessions, keynotes, and rep picks sessions; closed captioning will be available on these recordings following the event. American Sign Language (ASL) interpreting services are provided by Handwriter Ink and brought to you in part by Biblio.com and the Book Industry Charitable Foundation.

Questions about the event can be sent to winterinstitute@bookweb.org.

Booksellers should also mark their calendars for March 17-18, when the virtual IndieCommerce Institute will take place. Registration is slated to open at the start of February; watch BTW for details.

Link:
Sign Up for Virtual Winter Institute to See Notable Keynote Speakers and Chat With 120+ Authors - BTW