Robotics company “Festo” has built a new, highly dexterous robot arm made of soft components, and trained it in 3D virtual environments on how to handle objects in the real world. For safety reasons, I predict house robots will need to be soft and as lightweight as possible to work around humans.
https://gizmodo.com/this-remarkably-agile-robot-hand-teaches-itself-how-to-1832960417
Uber has been found not criminally liable for last year’s accident where one of its self-driving cars fatally struck a homeless woman.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47468391
A British computer program can accurately predict when individual humans will die.
https://www.livescience.com/65087-ai-premature-death-prediction.html
The Apple Watch has led to about 500 people getting diagnosed with heart problems.
http://news.trust.org/item/20190316134851-5cktc/
After we build the first AGI, I guess the plan is to have it read “Cyc”: ‘Cyc is the world’s longest-lived artificial intelligence project, attempting to assemble a comprehensive ontology and knowledge base that spans the basic concepts and “rules of thumb” about how the world works…’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyc
How much more efficient would the world be if it were full of intelligent machines that never forgot anything and had no biases?
https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2019/03/04/institutional-memory
China’s state-run news agency unveiled a nearly lifelike, CGI TV news anchor named “Xin Xiaomeng.”
https://www.odditycentral.com/news/china-unveils-worlds-first-ai-female-news-anchor-and-she-looks-eerily-realistic.html
After Colorado made IUDs free in clinics for poor women, teen births dropped 20%.
http://www.nber.org/papers/w25656
I bet the parents would have cloned their dead son if the technology existed. Using his sperm for IVF is the second-best option.
https://apnews.com/c1759a1b1fa04abbb591fe169f9d7ce8
Sheep sperm that was frozen for 50 years was just used to impregnate several female sheep. The birth rate was as high as that of sperm frozen for only one year. There’s no known “shelf life” for frozen mammalian sperm and eggs.
https://phys.org/news/2019-03-ram-sperm-frozen-years-successfully.html
China just cloned one of its finest police dogs.
‘A police officer [said] that preserving the police dog blood has always been a challenge for breeders, as traditional breeding methods would dilute the original, and the next generation’s genes will be largely beyond control.’
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1142709.shtml
The number of neurons in an animal’s cerebral cortex positively correlates with its intelligence. This is true across species and among humans.
https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/03/25/neurons-and-intelligence-a-birdbrained-perspective/
The size of your brain positively correlates with your IQ. (Your hat size provides a rough approximation of your brain size.)
https://www.gwern.net/docs/iq/2019-lee.pdf
Contrary to what some believe, standardized test scores like the SAT and GRE do positively correlate with IQ and career attainment.
http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2019/03/annals-of-psychometry-35-years-of.html
fMRI tests show how strongly subconscious thoughts can influence our effortful thinking and choices. How much “free will” do humans really have?
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-39813-y
Long-term marital satisfaction is partly determined by your genes, in particular, by a gene that codes for your brain’s oxytocin receptors.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0213083
Many people are mentally ill because the stresses and demands of postmodern life don’t mesh with human nature, which adapted to suit the hunter-gatherer lifestyles we had for the first 95% of our species’ existence.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/susceptibility-to-mental-illness-may-have-helped-humans-adapt-over-the-millennia/
The FDA has approved the use of ketamine to treat depression.
https://apnews.com/6bf8d3dbe4c2411894635f11418b74dc
This population analysis of the genomes of people living in Iberia is interesting, but also hits home that the region has been a melting pot of different ethnic groups for so long that there’s little value in trying to trace back anyone’s lineage.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47540792
A German study shows that wind turbines are not as cheap and don’t make as much electricity as thought only a few years ago. Many people forget that wind turbines (and solar panels) slowly wear out and lose efficiency until they have to be replaced.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0211028
Now that China has banned imports of garbage, there’s no cheap solution to America’s recycling woes.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/03/china-has-stopped-accepting-our-trash/584131/
Coastal marshes could turn into gigantic carbon sinks as the planet warms, offsetting the impact of climate change. There are so many things we don’t yet understand about how the planet’s climate works as a system.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47472602
Houseplants are orders of magnitude less efficient at filtering toxins from interior air than standard HVAC systems.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/03/indoor-plants-clean-air-best-none-them/584509/
The first broadcast TV quality videos were wirelessly transmitted from a research sub to the surface, using pulses of blue light to convey the signal.
https://apnews.com/fbdafe93e00c432a94b3a190a890ff21
A Star Trek fan used a machine learning program to digitally enhance clips from Deep Space Nine, effectively converting them into HD footage. I predict that techniques like this will be used to clean up footage of old films and TV shows, and it will become possible to enhance the audio as well. Eventually, there will be highly accurate colorizations of black-and-white footage.
https://io9.gizmodo.com/a-fan-made-attempt-to-create-hd-deep-space-nine-using-1833301127
A small community of “digital hoarders” have amassed enormous amounts of data on all kinds of eclectic things (what about preserving human DNA for future resurrection?). I’m sure the vast majority of these hoarders are men. Thanks to their obsessions with highly specific subjects, I wonder if it’s useful to think of these people as “specialized processors” that could someday be optimized for doing relevant types of work as part of something like a Matrix of minds.
https://gizmodo.com/delete-never-the-digital-hoarders-who-collect-tumblrs-1832900423
MySpace just lost 12 years’ worth of user music uploads.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47610936
One cost-effective way to upgrade tanks is to remove their old turrets and drop in new ones that have new systems and weapons that can be independent of the rest of the tank’s.
https://www.janes.com/article/87012/eos-elbit-systems-develop-fully-integrated-medium-calibre-turret
Ukraine developed a pretty extensive upgrade package for the T-54 lineage of Soviet tanks (and China’s “T-59” clone). T-54 mass production started in 1950!
http://www.army-guide.com/eng/product1907.html
Vietnam decided to pay a little extra and buy brand-new T-90 tanks from Russia instead of bothering to upgrade its T-59s and T-54s.
https://www.janes.com/article/87529/russia-completes-delivery-of-t-90s-sk-tanks-to-vietnam
The U.S. Army uses a special paint on its armored vehicles that reduces their thermal signature and makes it easier to spray off residues from biochemical weapons.
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/27088/army-tanks-and-other-vehicles-get-new-paint-jobs-to-help-hide-from-thermal-optics
Electric car engines don’t get nearly as hot as gas-powered engines, so electric tanks would probably have reduced thermal signatures (and be quieter).
https://www.quora.com/Do-the-motors-or-engines-of-fully-electric-cars-get-hot
https://www.quora.com/When-will-we-see-electric-powered-tanks
America’s dream of returning its WWII battleships to service is thwarted by miles of leaky pipes and hoses, and by countless crumbling seals and manifolds. Also, no one remembers how to operate their equipment, so training crews is very slow and expensive (but what if the Navy had intelligent machines that never forgot anything and that would work for free, replacing old pipes, hoses and seals?).
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/i-served-battleship-these-are-all-reasons-they-wont-ever-make-comeback-49322
At last, ISIS has been defeated.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/23/middleeast/isis-caliphate-end-intl/index.html
Venezuela might be finally going full-blown “Planet of the Apes.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-47522208
A CIA cargo plane briefly landed in Venezuela and then returned to the U.S.
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/26951/cia-linked-plane-makes-brief-trip-to-venezuela-as-american-diplomats-evacuate
The U.S. started sending spy planes to loiter off Venezuela’s coast.
https://www.janes.com/article/87205/usaf-begins-surveillance-flights-off-venezuela
Russia has sent troops to Venezuela to back the country’s unpopular socialist government.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/28/europe/russia-venezuela-military-personnel-intl/index.html
Part of why the U.S. military gobbles up so much money is that it is enormously wasteful and can’t keep track of its own assets.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/pentagon-budget-mystery-807276/
The F-35s belonging to the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps have awful readiness levels.
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/27047/the-navys-operational-f-35c-is-fully-mission-capable-less-than-five-percent-of-time
The F-35 can dangle a baguette-sized device behind it on a long tether that emits signals to jam enemy radars or to simulate the radar signatures of U.S. planes, tricking missiles into colliding with them instead of the parent F-35.
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/27185/f-35s-most-sinister-capability-are-towed-decoys-that-unreel-from-inside-its-stealthy-skin
The U.S. military has retired the last of its EA-6B electronic warfare planes. The earliest versions of the plane entered U.S. service 56 years ago.
https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2019/03/08/the-saltiest-warfighter-in-the-marine-corps-the-ea-6b-prowler-retires/
Britain’s RAF has retired the last of its Tornado fighter planes.
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/26961/the-royal-air-force-has-said-goodbye-to-the-tornado-after-an-amazing-40-year-career
The U.S. Air Force is phasing out the last of its revolvers, which are modifications of a Smith & Wesson design from 1899.
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/26810/the-usaf-is-finally-ditching-the-last-of-its-cold-war-revolvers-for-new-semi-auto-pistols
Russia’s sophisticated AN-94 rifle is a dud: It’s primary selling point–the “two-shot” feature that could allegedly put two bullets through the same hole, letting it “drill through” NATO bulletproof vests–fell flat in a recent gun range test.
https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2019/03/28/nikonov-an-94-assault-rifle-just-how-accurate-is-its-famed-hyper-burst/
The USS Wasp was a shunk-down version of the larger Yorktown-class WWII aircraft carriers, and it was built smaller to stay within gross warship tonnage limits America agreed to under the Washington Naval Treaty. The Wasp fared badly in the War.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/uss-wasp-worst-us-navy-aircraft-carrier-world-war-ii-49107
‘The irony is that while battlecruisers [of the World Wars] are gone, they are still with us today. Battlecruisers were eggshells armed with hammers, which exactly describes modern warships.’
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/battlecruiser-scam-why-these-warships-will-never-be-battleship-47877
The SpaceX “Dragon” capsule docked with the ISS and made a safe return to Earth. It could soon be ferrying astronauts in and out of space.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/03/08/homeward-bound-spacex-capsule-headed-splash-down-key-step-toward-human-spaceflight/
India shot down a target satellite, demonstrating the capability for the first time.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/india-shoots-down-satellite-announces-itself-to-be-a-space-power/2019/03/27/a1e73426-5068-11e9-af35-1fb9615010d7_story.html
It’s possible that the “sonic attacks” on U.S. diplomats in Cuba were caused by loud crickets. It’s also possible there were no sonic attacks at all.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/03/25/704903613/doubts-rise-about-evidence-that-u-s-diplomats-in-cuba-were-attacked
Noisy machines like air conditioners and vacuum cleaners could be encased in special plastic housings that would eliminate almost all of the sounds they make. The casings would be shaped to reflect the sound wave back to their sources to cancel them out.
https://journals.aps.org/prb/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevB.99.024302
The bewildering array of different product brands and variations of all kinds of things found for sale on U.S. store shelves are driven by marketing and not by quality differences between them.
https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2019/03/05/why-arent-all-dishwasher-detergents-the-same/
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/12/dayquil-screed/383768/
While medicinal pills very slowly lose potency, most stay safe and effective for years past their expiration dates.
https://www.livescience.com/65052-why-do-medicines-have-expiration-dates.html
After years of delays and legal challenges, a company has gained FDA approval to sell genetically engineered salmon in the U.S. There’s no scientific evidence that genetically engineered foods are less safe for people to eat than “natural” foods.
https://apnews.com/1be7085378684f4990e240870e7c546c
CRISPR might allow us to control which sexes of farm animals are born, which could massively reduce the number of animals killed per year.
https://www.wired.com/story/crispr-gene-editing-humane-livestock/
Here’s a good breakdown of recent junk science stories that dominated the headlines thanks to their shock value:
http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/a-surge-in-pseudoscience/
The “Miracle on the Hudson” plane incident might have ended in disaster had it not been for the plane’s computer overriding some of the pilots commands.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-unsung-hero-left-out-of-sully
Richard Feynman’s “Imagination in a straitjacket” comment perfectly accords with my Rule for Good Futurism #6: “Be very skeptical of predictions that hinge on future discoveries that fundamentally change the laws of science.”
https://youtu.be/IFBtlZfwEwM
Though electric cars still have higher up-front costs than gas-powered cars, some electric car models have lower lifetime costs because electricity is cheaper than gas and they need less maintenance. (The purchase cost gap should vanish by 2026.)
https://qz.com/1571956/new-york-city-says-electric-cars-cheapest-option-for-its-fleet/