Author Archives: jrenstro

Make Your Next Car a Beamer

Posted on November 4, 2011 by jrenstro

Ever taken a much-needed break and found yourself thinking that a beer would be the perfect thing–if only you didn’t have to get up and get it? There might be a solution…in space. We may not be ready to beam … Continue reading →

Posted in Could this Happen? | Tagged beam, Bessel beam, electric, electromagnets, IAC, lasers, magnetic field, me up, millennium falcon, NASA, optical tweezers, optical vortex, particles, rings of light, solenoid beams, space, spacecraft, star trek, star wars, tractor beam, vacuum | Comments Off

I Know What You Saw Last Summer

Posted on October 26, 2011 by jrenstro

One afternoon at the end of freshman year of college, I got called into the President’s Office where an icy administrator confronted me about a food fight that my friends and I had been planning over email. He knew everything. … Continue reading →

Posted in Could this Happen? | Comments Off

Where We’re Going, We Don’t Need Roads

Posted on October 22, 2011 by jrenstro

Wouldn’t it be great if all it took to time travel was reaching a speed of 88 miles an hour and harnessing 1.21 gigawatts of energy? I won’t be greedy. I’d settle for a hoverboard. Maybe the hoverboard won’t be … Continue reading →

Posted in Could this Happen? | Tagged back to the future, discrete flux tube, electro-magnetic, flying car, friction, hoverboard, levitation, liquid nitrogen, magnet, magnetic field, Minority Report, quantum levitation, quantum locking, quantum trapping, superconductor | Comments Off

In Event of Cosmic Radiation, Please Take the Stairs

Posted on October 13, 2011 by jrenstro

Even though the privatization of space flight might make it possible for (extremely rich) people to realize their dreams of travelling to space, I’m waiting for the day when I can step into an elevator and push the button for … Continue reading →

Posted in Could this Happen? | Tagged arthur clarke, carbon, carbon nanotubes, elevator, foundations of paradise, macromaterial, NASA, space, space elevator | 3 Comments

Anime Killed the Hollywood Star

Posted on October 2, 2011 by jrenstro

Jumpstarted by Milli Vanilla’s Grammy-sized betrayal and carried on by scads of “artists” since, voice alteration and reproduction, be it lip-synching or Auto tune, has become a mainstay of the entertainment industry. If you’re one of those people who think … Continue reading →

Posted in Could this Happen? | Tagged AKB48, animation, anime, auto tune, avatar, character, computer-generated, Connie Willis, digital, Hatsune Miku, Hollywood, holograms, images, Japan, remake, video game | 1 Comment

Cylons Shouldn’t Sweat

Posted on September 26, 2011 by jrenstro

In 1950, Alan Turing sought to answer the question “can machines think?” He designed a test that involved a computer having a typed conversation with a human. If a third party couldn’t consistently tell the computer from the human, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Could this Happen? | Tagged ai, artificial intelligence, battlestar galactica, BSG, computers, Hanson, mind, researchers, robots, scientists, sentience, soul, think, Turing, Turing Test | Comments Off

Just What Do You Think You’re Doing, Dave?

Posted on September 16, 2011 by jrenstro

I’d rather be stuck in an elevator with Freddy Kruger than with HAL. Cool as a cucumber, mind-bogglingly capable, and unfailingly and often maddeningly reasonable, HAL appears to be the perfect spaceship computer. Among other things, HAL can speak, recognize … Continue reading →

Posted in Could this Happen? | Tagged 2001, ai, arthur clarke, artificial intelligence, chip, chips, clarke, computer, computers, HAL, IBM, kubrick, neuron, space, space odyssey, stanley kubrick, synapse | Comments Off

Doing the Time Warp

Posted on September 9, 2011 by jrenstro

Have you ever noticed that humans seem to be waiting for aliens to visit us, rather than the other way around? The reason for this is the commute. At its closest, Jupiter is roughly 390 million miles away. Alpha Centauri, … Continue reading →

Posted in Could this Happen? | Tagged b5, Babylon 5, battlestar galactica, BSG, dimension, drive, faster than light, FTL, hawking, hyper drive, hyperspace, interstellar, jump, millennium falcon, space, space travel, star trek, star wars, time travel, travel, warp, wormhole | 1 Comment

Now You See Me…Now You Don’t

Posted on August 31, 2011 by jrenstro

If you could have one super power, what would it be? For me, teleportation is the clear winner. Flying, communicating with animals, and producing cheese from my fingertips would also be awesome. Every time I ask this question to friends … Continue reading →

Posted in Could this Happen? | Tagged cloak, cloaking, cloaking device, D&D, device, disappear, dungeon and dragons, harry potter, hide, invisible, metamaterials, star trek, star wars, technology | 2 Comments

You Think They’ll Have that on the Tour?

Posted on July 8, 2011 by jrenstro

I don’t know about you, but even when all hell breaks loose in Jurassic Park and the Velociraptors chase children and overturn cars and the T-Rex shakes the ground and makes Godzilla look like a flea, I’m still thinking, what … Continue reading →

Posted in Could this Happen? | Tagged breeding, cell, clone, cloning, Crichton, dinosaur, DNA, extinct, fossil, genes, genetic, genome, Jurassic Park, nucleus, Pleistocene Park, prehistoric, sample, samples, sequence, woolly mammoth | 3 Comments