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Category Archives: Could this Happen?
Mind the Gap
Futurama’s Tube Transport system, available in every city except Los Angeles, uses electromagnets and air pressure to propel passengers to their destinations. The Jetsons had a similar transportation system, as do worlds in sci-fi written by Robert Heinlein, Arthur Clarke, … Continue reading
Posted in Could this Happen?
Tagged aeromovel, atmospheric railways, bounce tube, bradbury, bullet train, clarke, electromagnets, et3, ETT, futurama, heinlein, Japan, jetsons, maglev, magnetic levitation, medhurst, pneumatic tube, transportation, tube, tube transport, vacutube
7 Comments
Forget the Red Pill
Tomorrow, I’ll be lounging in a hammock on a Thai beach drinking Mekhong whiskey, resting up for a Full Moon Party. On Wednesday, I’m scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef. On Saturday, I’ll be on Mars, peering up at Olympus … Continue reading
Posted in Could this Happen?
Tagged 3-d, afghanistan, avatar, battle school, BIE, body immersion environment, brain simulated environment, BSE, cave, Cave Automatic Virtual Environments, computer model, ender's game, environment, goggles, holodeck, immersion, immersion therapy, interactive, iraq, lab, matrix, modify, neuroscience, PTSD, star trek, therapy, vritual reality
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From Replicant to Replican
Given that it might be awhile before we have functioning nanofactories and molecular assemblers, what are we supposed to do if we simply can’t wait to replicate things? The answer involves an object most of you probably already own–a computer … Continue reading
Posted in Could this Happen?
Tagged 3-d, 3d, 3D printer, archiving, arthur clarke, blade runner, build box, CAD, Cornell University, file, Frankenstein, french culinary institute, harrison ford, laser sintering, plastic, polymer, power, printer head, printing, rapid prototyping, replicant, replicator, star trek, wired.com
2 Comments
Monkey See, Monkey Make
In 1964, Arthur C. Clarke called the replicator “the invention to end all inventions.” Just a few years later, the replicator became a staple on Star Trek, providing the crew with food, water, spare parts, and later on, breathable air. … Continue reading
Posted in Could this Happen?
Tagged arthur clarke, diamondoids, eric drexler, mechanosynthesis, molecular assembler, molecular position fabrication, molecules, nanofactory, nanotechnology, parallel positional assembly, picard, programmable positional assembly, ralph merkle, replicator, self-replicating, star trek, subatomic particles, tribbles
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The Cheese Stands Alone, and Clean, Forever
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?
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
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The Worms Crawl In, the Worms Crawl Out
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?
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
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