Category Archives: Transhuman News

This 18-year-old is putting the fun in non-fungible.NFT Toys

While NFT collectors are still spending appreciable amounts of money on JPEGs, others are finding creative ways to cash in on the trend in less digital ways.

Take 18-year-old Ricky da Luz, for instance, who Insider reports figured out that people go absolutely hogwild over physical representations of their Bored Ape NFTs. In fact, he's already sold collectors $700,000 worth of NFT busts, toys, and action figures.

With the help of his dad and six staff members, da Luz's venture, called IsmToys, has grown into a considerable business complete with all the jargon you'd expect from the web3 world.

"We're tripling down on helping Web2 companies enter the Web3 space, while also converting their audience into Web3 people," da Luz told Insider. "We link the toys to actual NFTs and the digital assets act as authenticators for the toys."

The company is selling commissioned creations that are one-to-one unique with a specific NFT for an average of $700, as well as other toys that are cheaper and not unique. Naturally, IsmToys mostly takes payment in Ethereum.

The NFT.NYC conference happening right now is also boosting sales, with da Luz claiming the company has taken in over 200 orders.

"I'm emotionally attached to my Ape, so having toys of my Ape is reinforcing my emotional attachment to my digital persona," a collector who goes by @nftgerry told Insider.

There we have it, folks while NFT collectors are pining to get "exclusive" rights over a digital drawing, others are already yearning to take the act of collecting back to its roots: a cluttered shelf of keepsakes.

READ MORE: This 18-year-old just raked in $700,000 of revenue selling Bored Ape toys and NFT holders say the physical replicas reinforce their attachment to digital identities. [Insider]

More on NFTs: Family Guy Actor Pays Huge Ransom for Stolen Bored Ape

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Teen Makes $700,000 Selling Action Figures of Bored Apes to Adult Children - Futurism

Finally, apes that aren't boring af.Ape Shit

Don't kill the cringe kill the part of you that cringes.

You'll have to if you want to enjoy Snoop Dogg and Eminem's newest music video for their new single "From the D 2 The LBC." The nearly-five-minute-clip debuted Friday and depicts the two iconic rappers blowin' smoke in the studio. The aforementioned smoke leads Eminem to have some pretty trippy hallucinations, including seeing himself and Snoop as Bored Ape cartoon characters based on the NFTs the musicians respectively own.

The entire project has a comic book or superhero vibe to it, with hand-drawn art showcasing the artists' creativity in a way we honestly didn't expect from an NFT-inspired project. The sunset backgrounds are pretty, and the entire vibe is pretty chill.

The pair performed the song live for Bored Ape Yacht Club members in New York last week and debuted the music video at the same time, according to Thursday's report in the Verge.

NFTs are volatile asset classes, but it's not clear if celebrities understand the danger for everyday investors. Still, seeing this duo do something interested with heretofore boring old Bored Ape illustrations is kind of nice.

Once an artist owns an ape, according to the Verge, they can make derivative works based on it. That's part of BAYC's monetization plan, even if nobody can say how, exactly, an Eminem and Snoop Dogg video will turn a profit for other investors. It's weird and most likely just a good way to lose a lot of money, but the song and the video slap.

The good news is the time spent enjoying them is 100 percent free, no crypto exchange required.

More on Bored Ape weirdness: Teen Makes $700,000 Selling Action Figures of Bored Apes to Adult Children

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Eminem and Snoop Dogg Make Music Video Where They Appear as Their Bored Apes - Futurism

Early this year in January, SuperGaming announced Indus: Battle Royale. A made-in-India battle royale for the world that will be available for Mobile, PC, and Console platforms. Considering Indias highly lucrative and rapidly evolving gaming industry, this is a big step for the future. Now the country has a battle royale game to call its own, and whats an added advantage is the games focus on presenting the world with a futuristic version of India. Since the announcement, Indus has made headlines for various aspects that have been unique in the game. And now in the latest episode of Inside Indus, the developers revealed everything about the concept of Indus: Battle Royale.

Indus is a battle royale game that will be available for PC, Mobile, and console platforms worldwide. The developers at Indus said that Indus is a made-in-India for-the-world battle royale for mobile, PC, and consoles with a 2022 release date. Its being developed with the focus of bringing our take on Indian culture with a futuristic twist for gamers across the globe.

In the latest episode of Inside Indus, the CEO Roby, the writers of Indus, Ankush and Rishi talked about the main underlying theme of the game which is called Indo-Futurism. In the video, the speakers also talk about the inspiration for the theme derived from the great Indus valley civilization. They also talked about what couldve happened to the Indus valley civilization? What if they had traveled into the future?

Keeping this as a base idea, the team brainstormed on a lot of ideas to make the story of the game seem as futuristic as possible and ended up getting inspired by the concept of Afro-futurism which was first presented in the movie Black Panther with the interpretation of Wakanda, a futuristic city with themes that combined Africas rich heritage with a hopeful future. This gave rise to Induss main theme of Indo-Futurism.

Indus is based in the year 2500 and unlike any other battle royale game, Indus is not set in a destroyed or gloomy state. It is set in an optimistic vision of India in the future and shows what couldve been and what still can be. This gives gamers a unique reason to come back to the game again and again. Indo-Futurism also sheds light on those scarcely represented parts of India that deserve local and global recognition.

Through Indo-Futurism, the development team aims to set a bar for Indian games in the global gaming market. Until now, we havent had huge success in this task but with Indus, the team hopes to represent Indias take on Sci-fi thats rooted in our culture like with Godzilla from Japan or the Fallout series from the US. The core pillars of Indo-Futurism are:

While the theme of the game explains the first two core pillars, the rest are extremely important considering science fiction. Science Fiction over the years has been regularly associated with dystopian-style stories. However, with Indus, the development team plans to shift the narrative towards hope and optimism.

As Indus is a futuristic world that has eliminated key societal issues with citizens who have a deeper understanding of their part in the world who emphasize the use of technology for the betterment of the planet while sticking to our roots and blissfully representing Indian mythology and elements of our culture like arts and traditions.

Despite all the Indianness involved, the game still has modern deadly weapons, mechanics, and gameplay that match the current battle royale genre feeling. The teams main aim is to present users with an example of what Indian science fiction can do and create a universe in which players and their friends can explore where they have stories to tell from Virlok.

What are your thoughts about the concept of Indus: Battle Royale revealed in the Inside Indus episode? Let us know in the comments below!

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Inside Indus' latest episode reveals how well the game's concept is related to a futuristic India - GamingonPhone

Maybe thereis something to the legend of the phoenix.

Scientists are perplexed by a mysterious star, believed to have been completely annihilated in a powerful supernova only to be found still alive, burning brighter than ever before.

According to a press release, the undead star in question was believed to have met its demise in a supernova back in 2012. And while there have been some cases of stars living through "partial" supernovas, no observed star has been known to survive a Type Ia explosion the most powerful of its kind which only goes to show how much there still is to learn about the life cycle of a star.

The researchers, whose work was published in The Astrophysical Journal, made their discovery by comparing images taken by NASA's Hubble Telescope before and after the supernova occurred back in 2012.

"We were expecting to see one of two things," said Curtis McCully, a postdoctoral researcher at University of California, Santa Barbara and lead author of the study, in the statement. "Either the star would have completely gone away, or maybe it would have still been there, meaning the star we saw in the pre-explosion images wasnt the one that blew up."

But what they actually found was striking. McCully added: "Nobody was expecting to see a surviving star that was brighter. That was a real puzzle."

The team speculates that the event, dubbed SN 2012Z, was actually a Type Iax explosion, which is a weaker explosion than a true Type Ia. Scientists have previously suggested that this less powerful death of a star is actually a "failed" thermonuclear meltdown and this new discovery could provide evidence for that suspicion.

As for the extra wattage? The team suggests that the failed explosion wasn't strong enough to blow too much of the star's material away, and a great deal of celestial shrapnel fell back onto itself as a result. A white dwarf also has a lot of concentrated weight, and, counterintuitively, when a star loses mass, it grows in volume, which is what they saw with SN 2012Z.

The research could help fill in some gaps and shed some light on why a star appeared to have cheated death.

"This star surviving is a little like Obi-Wan Kenobi coming back as a force ghost in Star Wars," said co-author Andy Howell from UC Santa Barbara, in the statement. "Nature tried to strike this star down, but it came back more powerful than we could have imagined."

More on star death: Scientists Spot Dying Star Brutally Tearing up Its Unfortunate Planets

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Scientists Puzzled by Star That Exploded in Supernova But Somehow Survived - Futurism

Bicycle helmets are not only an extremely practical accessory to wear while riding a bike, motorcycle, or scooter, they're required by law in some places. Preventable fatal bike accidents have increased by 44 percent since 2010 to a staggering 1,260 in 2020, according to the National Safety Council. A helmet can help reduce your odds of becoming a statistic.

The good thing is that helmets have gotten a lot better than the ones most of us wore in decades past. They're sleeker and more comfortable, so wearing them feels less like an obligation or chore. If you've taken up biking or riding a scooter as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, or have been an advocate for bipedal transport for years, these bike helmets will help get you where you want to go safely and in style.

Key Selling Point: This helmet's yellow color makes it easy for drivers, pedestrians, and other riders to see.

Visibility is this helmet's best feature, but we also like its sleek look, and the cutouts spaced throughout the top. These cutouts act as a ventilation system, which will keep your head from getting too sweaty and help prevent overheating.

You'll inevitably sweat during long rides, so it's great that you can detach this helmet's chin strap and wash it regularly. We're all familiar with the icky feeling of putting on a helmet and experiencing a slightly damp feeling on the sides and bottom of your face.

Ssense offers this exact same helmet in a variety of colors and patterns, so you can easily find one that matches your style. All of its helmets are available in small, medium, and large sizes, with specific head measurements on its site to help you find the one that'll fit you best.

Key Selling Point: This helmet is designed with custom foam padding that can more evenly distribute energy in case of impact.

Schwinn has one of the best reputations in the biking world, and this helmet is a good example of why that's well-warranted. The large-sized helmet has 12 vent holes on top to help keep your head cool, and an adjustable dial to help you adjust the chin strap quickly and easily. When you're done riding, the inner protective layer of Schwinn's helmet can be washed, which keeps it sanitary if you ride frequently.

The company says this helmet's waffle-shaped pads are flexible, so they'll absorb shock waves from an impact and diffuse them in different directions. This means the helmet provides cranial protection. This is certainly the most technically advanced bicycle helmet we've been able to find, and a great choice for city commuters and off-road riders alike.

Key Selling Point: LED safety lights to alert other people to your presence and current direction.

If you ride your bike at night, getting a helmet with some sort of lighting system is essential. The back of Cyclic's Hybrid Bike Helmet has a five LED lights on the back, so drivers will be able to see you clearly. For added safety, we recommend wearing reflective clothing, or riding a bike with a light on the front.

Lights are this bicycle helmet's standout feature, but it also incorporates the comfort and safety features found in our other recommendations. Cutouts on top of the helmet act as vents to keep your head from overheating, and its chin strap is made from moisture-wicking material that will prevent sweat from building up. Cyclic outfits its helmet with a visor to keep the sun from hitting your eyes, but it's removable, so you won't need to keep it on during nighttime rides.

If you bike a lot after the sun goes down, Cyclic's Bicycle Helmet can protect you in more ways than one.

Key Selling Point: This bike helmet's sleek look sets it apart from the rest.

Some people may not want to wear a bicycle helmet because it doesn't look cool especially if you've got a tricked-out ride, but this one from Bell might change your mind. Its sleek, curved design immediately catches the eye, especially if you opt for the red colorway. Naturally, the helmet's safety features match its aesthetics.

This bicycle helmet is made up of a hard outer shell (for protection) and a foam liner (for comfort), which are fused together. This prevents the inner lining from moving around as you ride on rough terrain, or look around. This is a big deal if you're planning to go off-roading and don't want to choose between strapping your helmet on too tightly, or dealing with it shifting around.

Key Selling Point: This helmet's fun look can help encourage younger riders to stay safe when they're out of your sightline.

If your kid is resistant to wearing a helmet while riding a bike, this one from Crash might change their mind. Young riders will enjoy its fun, multi-color design, and you'll appreciate its safety features. This helmet is designed for children, but it has all the same features as our recommendations for adults.

This helmet has air vents on the top, adjustable straps, and a two-layer design that protects a child's head while still feeling comfortable. Krash says this helmet is appropriate for children aged eight to 14, but recommends taking a head measurement before deciding whether it's the right size for them. Your kid may not want to wear a helmet, but the cool print on this one will hopefully make them a little more into the idea.

This post was created by a non-news editorial team at Recurrent Media, Futurisms owner. Futurism may receive a portion of sales on products linked within this post.

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Protect Yourself On The Road or Trail - Futurism

Image by RODNAE Productions

This ones a downer: getting high might also put you at a higher risk of landing in the emergency room.

A study published Monday in the journal BMJ Open Respiratory Research found that cannabis consumers were 22 percent more likely to end up in the ER or be hospitalized than those who didnt smoke weed.

The study,which examined the health records of over 35,000 people in Ontario, Canada, controlled for 31 potentially confounding variables including histories of substance abuse, asthma, and mental and physical disorders. The initial 35,000 was narrowed down to a control group of around 10,000, compared against just over 4,800 self-reported potheads.

The researchers do seem to have something of an axe to grind more on that in a moment but the findingsare striking, especially in the context of the widespread sentiment that cannabis is more or less harmless as legalization continues to spread.

"Cannabis use is not as benign and safe as some might think," study author Nicholas Vozoris told CNN in an email. "Our study demonstrates that the use of this substance is associated with serious negative outcomes, specifically, [emergency department] visits and hospitalizations."

Vozoris was more explicitin remarks to the Daily Beast, opining that "cannabis use needs to be discouraged and reduced in the population, so as to help prevent serious adverse health consequences from happening to individuals and to protect our fragile health-care systems from further strain."

That bit of moralizing aside, its worth noting that the study found "no significant association" between smokin dope and respiratory related ER visits, and that the increased likelihood for ending up in the hospital was for all causes.

In fact, according to Vozoris himself in the same CNN interview, "physical bodily injury" was the leading cause of hospitalization among the studied stoners so it's conceivable that hapless stoners are blazing up and then accidentally injuring themselves. That's not exactly harmless, but it does paint a very different picture from the specter of some serious, yet-unidentified pulmonary or cardiac risk factor.

It's also worth noting what the studydidn't control for: income. In other words, it's not unlikely that a confounding variable could be at play in the form of cannabis users skewing poor, which has itself been linked with higher hospitalization rates. And if we want to get really far into the weeds, it's not entirely clear whether residents of Ontario are representative of the broader population in the first place.

Needless to say, more research is needed. But in the meantime, maybe its safer to stick to the couch after a heavy bong rip instead of, yknow, driving your car or taking up parkour. But if you're really worried about your weed safety, its probably worth worrying more about counterfeit and unregulated THC cartridges instead.

More on weed:Smoking Weed Makes You Nicer and Less Greedy, Scientist Says

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Study Finds That Weed Puts You at Higher Risk for Hospitalization - Futurism

Image by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory

A high tech pair of robotic arms allowed a partially paralyzed man to eat with a knife and fork, an impressive demonstration that could allow others with disabilities to regain a significant degree of autonomy.

The arms, developed by a team of researchers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), work by reading its wearer's brain signals using a brain-machine interface (BMI). This interface then translates these signals into the movement of both robotic arms and with astonishing dexterity, given the micromotor sophistication and strength required to manipulate cutlery.

In experiments involving a patient who hadn't been able to use his fingers for around 30 years, an impressive video shows the appendages cutting a piece of cake with a knife and fork, then popping it into the man's mouth.

It's the culmination of 15 years of robotics and neural science research at the APL, whose efforts were sponsored until 2020 by the US Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA).

"This shared control approach is intended to leverage the intrinsic capabilities of the brain machine interface and the robotic system, creating a best of both worlds environment where the user can personalize the behavior of a smart prosthesis," said Francesco Tenore, co-author of a new study published in the journal Frontiers in Neurobotics, in a statement.

"Although our results are preliminary, we are excited about giving users with limited capability a true sense of control over increasingly intelligent assistive machines," he added.

It's a big step in the right direction, achieving impressive degrees of dexterity which is crucial to actually be of help in everyday life.At the same time, as the video shows, the process is still agonizingly slow and would almost certainly struggle with tougher foodstuffs than a tasty pastry.

"In order for robots to perform human-like tasks for people with reduced functionality, they will require human-like dexterity," explained David Handelman, first author and senior roboticist at APL, in the statement. "Human-like dexterity requires complex control of a complex robot skeleton."

READ MORE: Robotic arms connected directly to brain of partially paralyzed man allows him to feed himself [Frontier Science News]

More on BMIs: Scientists Express Concern at Elon Musk's Neuralink Brain Chip

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Robotic Arms Allow Paralyzed Man to Eat Cake With Knife and Fork - Futurism

Yet another startup says it's nearing tests for a system that could once and for all prove the technology can actually generate more energy than it consumes, The New York Times reports.

Seattle-based startup Zap Energy says its approach to fusion energy potentially an entirely green source of renewable energy is far simpler and cheaper than other attempts.

But critics are crying foul, arguing that we're merely stuck in yet another round of "fusion energy fever," according to the report.

Despite Zap Energy and several dozen other startups claiming fusion energy could be right around the corner, it's historically proven to be one of the hardest energy nuts to crack since the 1950s.

Scientists have yet to create a system that can reliably produce more energy than it needs to kickstart the reaction, which itself often proves highly volatile and hard to predict.

But that hasn't stopped these startups from repeatedly making hype-fueled claims about the steps they've taken towards practical nuclear fusion, year after year.

Zap Energy is hoping to scale things down and develop a kind of system that has already been ditched by other fusion companies in favor of much bigger and more complex reactors, according to NYT.

The company is hoping to produce a surplus of energy or at least break even by compressing a cloud of particles called a "shaped plasma gas" with a magnetic field inside a six-and-a-half foot vacuum tube, a process known as a "sheared flow Z-pinch."

But critics still aren't impressed.

"That these claims are widely believed is due solely to the effective propaganda of promoters and laboratory spokespersons," Daniel Jassby, a retired plasma physicist at Princeton University, told the newspaper.

If Zap Energy is indeed able to turn its ambitious plans into reality a big if, judging by the last 70 or so each of its reactors would be able to power at least 8,000 homes, the company claims.

The company still has some ways to go, and is still working on constructing a power supply beefy enough to compress the plasma, according to the NYT.

Only once the reactor kicks into action,after all, will we be able to evaluate if there's any truth to their claims.

Updated to more accurately reflect Zap's timeline and goals.

READ MORE: A Big Step Toward Fusion Energy Is Hailed by a Seattle Start-Up [The New York Times]

More on fusion: Startup Claims Fusion Power "Breakthrough" Using Massive Gun

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Startup Says It's Honing in on Simple Solution for Practical Fusion Power - Futurism

Time's running out.Time Bomb

In some of the week's worst environmental news, a stranded oil tanker off the coast of Yemen could make the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill "look like a beach party," according to a Bloombergop-ed published yesterday.

The tanker holds 1.1 million barrels of oil and is pretty much a done-in rust bucket doing its best to stay afloat. In May, Al Jazeera reported that the tanker's "structural integrity is on the verge of collapse" and that disaster is only a matter of time. When it spills or blows, Bloomberg says international trade could be halted for weeks.

Most of the international efforts to help Yemen during its bloody civil war have understandably been directed at reducing loss of life, but a two-month truce between opposing sides has opened a small window for the United Nations to address the time bomb that is the FSO Safer.

Bloomberg says the UN has estimated that a Red Sea cleanup would cost around $20 billion, but preventative measures are far less costly. An emergency operation to offload the oil might cost $80 million, with an additional $64 million to replace the ship.

Right now, though, fundraising efforts are short by about $20 million, with the UN even reportedly using crowdfunding the close the gap.

There's no beating around the bush this sounds like a total global disaster both environmentally and economically.

Hopefully somebody in charge does something, because neither human nor environmental systems can tolerate much more disaster right now.

More on worrisome trends: Scientists Say "No Need to Panic" As Sunspot Pointed at Earth Doubles In Size Again

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Stranded Oil Tanker That Could Start Leaking Any Time Now, Experts Warn - Futurism