thebigzowie

Posts Tagged ‘next 100 years’

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Cool Vacations In Outer Space

In Extraterrestrial, Fun Technology, Uncategorized, Wild Stuff on October 8, 2011 at 12:23 am

Has the holiday chaos got you thinking about the perfect winter getaway? Before long the trip of your dreams might just be thousands of miles above you.

Ah, the holidays. There’s nothing like scuffling at 6 a.m. with bleary-eyed shoppers over the last Nintendo Wii, or watching the kids wail as they sit on Santa’s lap, or spending some “quality” time with the in-laws for even the most spirited of souls to start dreaming of another place – preferably one that’s far, far, far away.

Like outer-space faraway.

Well cheer up, yuletide wipeouts. The day is fast-approaching when we can all spend a little post-holiday R&R in a hotel that’s, literally, out of this world.

Seriously. With almost no fanfare, the wealthy owner of a Las Vegas-based hotel chain is fast expanding his business into space. He’s already launching experimental inflatable hotel modules – and making money out of the deal without even booking his first zero-G guest.

Who’s this modern-day Willy Wonka? Bob Bigelow, the 60-year-old owner of the Budget Suites of America hotel chain and a reclusive innovator who exhibits almost a childish glee. He can afford to: Budget Suites pays the bills and then some, enabling Bigelow to spend $500 million on a pet project called Bigelow Aerospace. The venture’s slogan is “Getting you excited again about space.”

An $8 million escape to space

Believe me, there’s more than a whiff of 1969-style enthusiasm here.

This summer, a Russian rocket launched carrying an inflatable space habitat. Called Genesis-1, it’s essentially a retooled NASA design for which Bigelow acquired the patents in 2001. Bigelow then spent $75 million and years cutting through red tape before getting the greenlight to launch objects into orbit via Russia. Read the rest of this entry »

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Millennial Kids Are Taking Over America

In Accelerated Learning, Culture, Quality of Life on September 28, 2011 at 8:26 pm

 

Move over Gen-X’ers, the Millennial kids are taking over America. The most detailed study to date of the 18- to 29-year-old Millennial generation finds this group probably will be the most educated in American history. But the 50 million Millennials also have the highest share who are unemployed or out of the workforce in almost four decades, according to the study, released today by the Pew Research Center.

“It’s a very consequential generation,” says Pew’s Paul Taylor, the report’s co-editor. “It has made its mark in some fairly dramatic ways.”

Pew’s analysis includes its own data, such as a new survey of 2,020 adults, including 830 Millennials, conducted by landline and cellphone last month. It also analyzes data from other sources, such as the Census, which shows 40% of those 18-24 were in college in 2008, a higher percentage than any previous generation at those ages.

Pew’s report also includes comparisons of Millennials with other generations, based on more than two decades of Pew surveys.

David Morrison of Twentysomething Inc., a Philadelphia-based consulting and research firm, says Pew’s data are important because so much research on Millennials is market-based. “Pew’s data is not just the gold standard but is also quite unusual in that it’s willingly shared,” he says. “Most (research on Millennials) is company-driven and proprietary to the organization.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Microsoft’s Virtual Boy Astounds Us

In Culture, Fun Technology, Wild Stuff on July 10, 2011 at 5:00 am

project natal virtual human

He will answer your questions and if you make fun of him he blushes and walks away.

In fact Milo is just like any other boy his age only with one important difference – he is a computer programme.

The four-year-old has been unveiled by Microsoft as the world’s first real virtual character who is convincing enough to be considered‘human’.

The player’s voice commands and physical movements are picked up by an infra-red sensor which works with artificial intelligence to interpret the player’s intonation and meaning, and respond accordingly.

On demonstrations his conversation is utterly believable and he replies to questions just like a real four-year-old.

At one point he throws the player a pair of goggles, and so enthralled is she that she bends down to pick them up, even though there is nothing to grab.

When asked if he has finished his school project, Milo sulks off with his head down, not looking at the camera to show that he has been chastised.

Microsoft claims the game marks a major shift away from joystick-based entertainment and brings Science Fiction into life.

And whilst the demonstrations are astonishing, one problem the company has to get over is just how creepy it is. Read the rest of this entry »

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FAA Approves Flying Cars!

In Freedom, Fun Technology, Quality of Life, Travel on July 7, 2011 at 9:21 pm

terrafugia flying car

Late next year, you’ll be able to buy your own flying car — er, “roadable aircraft” — thanks to a thumbs-up from the Federal Aviation Administration. As long as you have $194,000 and a sport pilot license.

The agency approved the Transition plane-car this week, giving it a Light Sport Aircraft rating. The test prototype has been flying for about a year, but plane-maker Terrafugia will unveil its production-class plane next month at the Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual convention in Oshkosh, Wisc.

The Transition drives like a car, uses normal high-octane gasoline, has front-wheel-drive and even comes with airbags. Its fuel economy is about 30 miles per gallon. But unlike your Prius, it can unfold its wings and fly. You’ll only need a one-third of a mile strip for a runway, meaning you could conceivably use your own street. It is powered by a rear propeller and flies about 115 miles per hour.

The ideal customer is a sport pilot who gets tired of flying to regional airports only to have to wait for a cab, rent a car or use public transportation. Now he or she can just fold up the wings and motor on to the next errand.

It won’t be ideal for cargo trips — it only holds about 460 pounds, including fuel and passengers — but for sport pilots on short jaunts, it’s a one-vehicle solution. Read the rest of this entry »

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Our Future Is A World Made Of Glass!

In Culture, Fun Technology, Quality of Life, Wild Stuff on July 1, 2011 at 5:04 pm

This last April, Corning, the American manufacturer of glass, ceramics and related materials, showed a dramatic video presentation of their future to institutional investors and analysts in New York.

It provided a breath-taking look into a modern world our parents could not even have dreamed was possible.

The video depicts a family using futuristic glass technologies such as touch-operated kitchen counter tops, smart appliances, mirrors, tables, car information console and auto-dimming sunroof, interactive glass road signs, an interactive bus stop map, wafer-thin glass books and phones, and much more.

When you’re watching the video it should immediately strike you as to how real it all seems. Real and natural – the adults and children using the technologies to communicate and connect are doing so in the most natural way: it’s something they’re all accustomed to doing as part of their lives.

That’s the aspirational aspect of this video. Some of the technologies demonstrated aren’t in production (or even in existence) yet. So how did Corning make this and make it so realistic and credible?

Read the rest of this entry »

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Science “Gods” Create New Life

In Life, Science, Wild Stuff on June 5, 2011 at 6:27 pm

In May of last year, scientists created new life from essentially four chemicals and in that single act, assumed godlike powers of creation.

Dr. Craig Venter, a biologist at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville Maryland, who has been working on synthetic life for a decade, told The Times:

“It is our final triumph. This is the first synthetic cell. It’s the first time we have started with information in a computer, used four bottles of chemicals to write-up a million letters of DNA software, and actually got it to boot up in a living organism.

Though this is a baby step, it enables a change in philosophy, a change in thinking, a change in the tools we have. This cell we’ve made is not a miracle cell that’s useful for anything, it is a proof of concept. But the proof of concept was key, otherwise it is just speculation and science fiction. This takes us across that border, into a new world.”

Julian Savulescu, Professor of Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford, said:

“Venter is creaking open the most profound door in humanity’s history, potentially peeking into its destiny. He is going towards the role of a god: creating artificial life that could never have existed naturally. The potential is in the far future, but real and significant. But the risks are also unparalleled.” Read the rest of this entry »

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What’s Up With America??

In Freedom, Quality of Life on April 28, 2011 at 1:23 am

Captain AmericaAmerica has become the world’s greatest empire, intended or not, according to George Friedman.

Who’s George Friedman? Among other things he may be considered America’s chief strategist. He is, CEO and CIO (Chief Intelligence Officer) of STRATFOR, a global intelligence company he founded in 1996.

Since its inception, STRATFOR has published a daily intelligence briefing which is read by the key leadership of most countries and larger companies across the globe. STRATFOR’s client list is confidential, but the company’s publicity list includes Fortune 500 companies and international government agencies.

“I invite readers to consider two themes,” he relates in Author’s Note of his 2011 published book: The Next Decade.

“The first is the concept of the unintended empire. I argue that the United States has become an empire, not because it intended to, but because history has worked out that way. The issue of whether the United States should be an empire is meaningless. It is an empire.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Atlas Shrugged – Fiction Or Future?

In Culture, Financial Markets, Quality of Life on April 22, 2011 at 8:39 pm

Atlas Shrugged the movie, has burst onto the scene to become a stunning box office success amid cheers and jeers, from both the ranks of the left and right. One shouldn’t be surprised by the polarizing effect this movie is having on conversations across America.

Based on an epic bestselling novel, Ayn Rand’s masterpiece of heroic “retro- fiction” may seem eerily familiar to Americans in these trying times of economic uncertainty.

She intended her books to be the clarion call of reason to the minds of rugged individualists, who in her view were beset by government incompetence and a society falling into moral ruin from the many living off the genius of the few. She coined the term Objectivism as her philosophy on a purposeful life in society.

Ayn Rand understood the peril of relentless societal decay, growing up after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. She immigrated to America in 1926 and coincidentally,  just two years ahead of the last most devastating economic event in our own history. Read the rest of this entry »

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Man Becomes Immortal By 2045

In Culture, Life, Mind-Body, Science, Wild Stuff, Wonder on April 18, 2011 at 11:27 pm

On Feb. 15, 1965, a diffident but self-possessed high school student named Raymond Kurzweil appeared as a guest on a game show called I’ve Got a Secret. He was introduced by the host, Steve Allen, then he played a short musical composition on a piano. The idea was that Kurzweil was hiding an unusual fact and the panelists — they included a comedian and a former Miss America — had to guess what it was.

On the show (see the clip on YouTube), the beauty queen did a good job of grilling Kurzweil, but the comedian got the win: the music was composed by a computer. Kurzweil got $200. (See TIME’s photo-essay “Cyberdyne’s Real Robot.”)

Kurzweil then demonstrated the computer, which he built himself — a desk-size affair with loudly clacking relays, hooked up to a typewriter. The panelists were pretty blasé about it; they were more impressed by Kurzweil’s age than by anything he’d actually done. They were ready to move on to Mrs. Chester Loney of Rough and Ready, Calif., whose secret was that she’d been President Lyndon Johnson’s first-grade teacher. Read the rest of this entry »

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Virtual Sex Steaming Up “Second Life”

In Culture, Freedom, Life, Quality of Life, Social Media, Wild Stuff on April 13, 2011 at 1:13 am

virtual characterCBS Early Show correspondent Tracy Smith dropped in on ex-plumber, Second Life millionaire Kevin Alderman to find out how he turned an alter-ego avatar into big income.

It’s the oldest profession in history of the world and now, with the reality of virtual worlds becoming visceral and comfortably private, the fantasy of exploring diverse sexual appetites has become practically carefree, and for some, quite lucrative. What is happening to our world?

Apparently digital entertainment has ushered in a new era of guiltless moral promiscuity. For some, that solves a lot of problems. For others, it poses a lot of serious questions about the future state of society and the blurry line of what freedom really means given the uber-pervasive nature of digital media. Read the rest of this entry »

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