Author Archives: jrenstro

The Cheese Stands Alone, and Clean, Forever

Posted on January 22, 2012 by jrenstro

Ever thought about what superpower you’d have if you could choose one? I’d always considered teleportation to be the obvious answer. But then I had a student who said his superpower would be the ability to produce cheese from his … Continue reading →

Posted in Could this Happen? | Tagged antibacterial, aqua teen hunger force, bacteria, camembert, cheese, fungi, fungus, hospital, mold, mould, polymer, PVC, roquefort, sanitation, self-replicating, sugar, Zurich | 1 Comment

An Apple a Day…Keeps Viruses Away?

Posted on January 8, 2012 by jrenstro

What’s scarier than robot soldiers and stealth drones? The Borg Queen, grey goo, and spiders, for starters, but those are subjects for another time. I’m talking about viruses that can or will be able to infect militaristic AI. Sometimes, viruses … Continue reading →

Posted in Could this Happen? | Tagged anti-virus, attack, baltar, battlestar galactica, botnet, BSG, chip, closed, computer, conficker, cyber, cyberwar, cylon, enemy, hybrids, Independence day, iran, malware, Mark Gasson, mcafee, network, norton, offline, online, robot, stuxnet, supercomputer, system, transmission, transmit, trojan horse, University of Reading, upload, virus, warfare, worm | Comments Off

The Worms Crawl In, the Worms Crawl Out

Posted on December 29, 2011 by jrenstro

The recent discovery of a habitable, earth-like planet has renewed buzz and speculation not only about the possibility of humans living on other worlds, but also about whom or what else is living out there. Are there Vorlons out there … Continue reading →

Posted in Could this Happen? | Tagged agar, discovery, elegans, gravity, interface, kepler, liquid, planets, radiation, reproduction, royal society, science, sesame street, soil, space, space colonization, space travel, star wars, stephen hawking, szewczyk, weightlessness, worms | 1 Comment

Uncle Sam Wants…Who?

Posted on December 21, 2011 by jrenstro

Imagine meeting the Terminator on the battlefield. You might try and run–that is, if it didn’t kill you while you were pissing yourself. What about an army of Terminators? A common image in science fiction: massive armies of identical robots … Continue reading →

Posted in Could this Happen? | Tagged alphadog, armed robotic vehicles, army, ARV, boston dynamics, clone, clone wars, cylon, DARPA, drone, iran, Iraq war, kurzweil, MIDARS, MULE, P.W. Singer, robot, santa, sentience, soldiers, star wars, stealth, TED, terminator, UAV, UGV | 1 Comment

Eye Eye, Matey

Posted on December 15, 2011 by jrenstro

Remember when Mom said she had eyes in the back of her head? She might not be speaking metaphorically. Scientists at Tufts University have found a way to develop cells into eyes. In a discovery reminiscent of Frankenstein (the movie, … Continue reading →

Posted in Could this Happen? | Tagged cellular, chemical, electric, eyeball, eyes, Frankenstein, limb regeneration, luke skywalker, membrane potential, molecular, pan's labyrinth, prosthetics, regrowth, starfish, tadpole, tufts unviersity | 1 Comment

Who Needs Fingers?

Posted on December 7, 2011 by jrenstro

This blog’s for you. Welcoming couldthishappen.com’s first guest blogger, Spanky! You’re involved in a high-stakes poker game of epic proportions. Your entire life savings sits in front of you on the table (approximately $55). You’ve got what could be a … Continue reading →

Posted in Could this Happen? | Tagged bionic, contacts, display, emissions, eye, eyeball, governator, hands free, information, lens, pixel, pupils, radio wave, robot, smartphone, terminator | 7 Comments

Is That a Nightstick in Your Pocket or are You Just Happy to See Me?

Posted on December 2, 2011 by jrenstro

So we’re not fighting a war against the cylons or any kind of AI just yet. Nor do we have armies of robots fighting for us, yet. But we’re getting there. South Korea has announced that it will begin using … Continue reading →

Posted in Could this Happen? | Tagged armies, dalek, guard, hubo, humanoid, OFRO, r2d2, robot, robot theme park, robotland, soldiers, south korea, warden | Comments Off

Take That, Tryptophan

Posted on November 25, 2011 by jrenstro

Everyone knows what it’s like: you eat your weight in turkey, go to sleep Thursday night, fall into a Tryptophan-induced coma, and wake up bleary-eyed, thinking that it must be days later because somehow, even though you swore you’d never … Continue reading →

Posted in Could this Happen? | Tagged adenosine, alien, cell activity, cryogenics, ellen ripley, hibernation, hypothermia, metabolism, orson scott card, somec, suspended animation, torpor, tryptophan, Tucson trauma center | 2 Comments

I Think, Therefore I Do

Posted on November 17, 2011 by jrenstro

When the Nintendo Wii first came out, I was baffled. I kept trying to play it like any other video game, using just my thumbs. You mean, I have to actually turn the joystick like it’s a wheel? Swing it … Continue reading →

Posted in Could this Happen? | Tagged ai, Asimo, Babylon 5, BMI, brain chip, brain wave, brain-machine interface, chip, cognitive enhancement, DARPA, Honda, implant, neural implant, prosthetic, telekinesis, telepathy, Toyota, Wii | 1 Comment

Installation Complete

Posted on November 9, 2011 by jrenstro

What if you could download information directly to your brain instead of interfacing with phones, computers, and televisions? What if you could install a brain implant that would allow you to speak perfect Chinese, as in Neuromancer? What if you … Continue reading →

Posted in Could this Happen? | Tagged boost, borg, brain enhancement, brain pal, brainpower, cognitive enhancement, designer brain, download, matrix, mental steriods, neural plug-in, neuromancer, scalzi | 7 Comments