Tag: Futurology
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Facebook robots spark new panic over AI
In the past year Amazon started testing drone deliveries, a robot passed a university entrance exam, and Facebook’s AI started talking to itself. Are robots poised to take over the world?
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Tesla unveils ‘electric car for the people’
Electric cars have long been seen as the preserve of super-rich technophiles. But now Tesla is unveiling its first mass-market electric car. Is this a pivotal turning point for the industry?
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Brains, bionics and the future of bodies
Around the world, researchers are looking at how machines can be used to improve our bodies and minds. They have big plans for man-machine hybrids. Should we be excited or scared?
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How to talk to aliens (without being killed)
A new in-depth article has shed light on the scientists trying to contact aliens. But what if extraterrestrials are unfriendly? Should we really be drawing attention to ourselves?
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Scientists hail evidence of parallel universes
Yet another sign has been discovered that supports the increasingly popular “multiverse theory” — the idea that there is an infinite number of universes. Would that make physics pointless?
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The plan to merge human brains with computers
This week Elon Musk launched a new company which will meld minds and machines. Meanwhile, a paralysed man used electrical brain implants to move his hand. Is “the singularity” approaching?
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Quantum computers: technology’s next frontier
IBM has announced plans to build the world’s first commercially available quantum computer. The technology could completely change how the world works. Would it be a good thing?
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Two tourists to fly around the Moon in 2018
A private rocket company has announced that two private citizens have bought a flight around the Moon next year. Tickets cost $250,000. A waste of money, or a pioneering trip of a lifetime?
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Britain to ‘strike back’ against cyber attack
Yesterday the Queen opened the National Cyber Security Centre, which is designed to improve the UK’s resilience to cybercrime. How much should we worry about this 21st century menace?
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Cynics ridicule Uber’s plan for flying cars
The human race has been trying to produce flying cars for a century. Now Uber says it will engineer them within three years. But will the future really be that different from the present?
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Robots are ‘electronic persons’, says EU
Lawmakers should give robots rights and a legal status, according to a group of MEPs. Is it immoral to harm a robot? Or should human needs always come before those of machines?
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Focus on ‘gadget fatigue’ as tech fest starts
The Consumer Electronics Show begins tomorrow. Tech giants and self-starters will wow viewers with their gizmos. But amid this frenzy, some are asking whether we have reached ‘peak gadget’.
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Parents hope ‘frozen’ child will live again
The UK courts have allowed the body of a teenage girl to be frozen, in case she can live again one day. There is no minimum age for the process — and the youngest ever patient was just two.
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How relying on computers leads to ‘disaster’
As Google launches its new smart home assistant, the economist Tim Harford warns that we are becoming too reliant on automation. When it fails, he says, the consequences are disastrous.
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Daring. Crazy. Visionary. A colony on Mars
A billionaire inventor has announced detailed plans to establish a colony on Mars. The risk of death will be ‘high’. But for our species to survive, he says, we must become ‘interplanetary’.