Is Elon Musk's Plan to Send People to Mars Feasible?

http://www.livescience.com/56331-how-feasible-is-spacex-mars-plan.html

D-Wave Systems previews 2000-qubit quantum processor

http://www.kurzweilai.net/d-wave-systems-previews-2000-qubit-quantum-system

Driverless future? Not so fast say Americans

Well, mainly older Americans:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-gridlock/wp/2016/09/28/driverless-future-not-so-fast-say-americans/

Virtual Reality Sex Suits Are Finally Here & For Dirt Cheap!

And the long slide into teledildonics begins...

http://allday.com/post/10195-virtual-reality-sex-suits-are-finally-here-for-dirt-cheap/

Researchers Develop Shape-Programmable Miniscule Robots

http://scitechdaily.com/researchers-develop-shape-programmable-miniscule-robots/

Here's how much of the US would need to be covered in wind turbines to power the nation

http://www.businessinsider.com/wind-turbines-to-power-earth-2016-9

IBM shows how fast its brain-like chip can learn

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3123452/hardware/ibm-shows-how-fast-its-brain-like-chip-can-learn.html

The Robot Taxi Takeover Is Already Beginning in Singapore

And so it begins!

http://time.com/4505497/robot-taxi-driverless-car-singapore/

Microsoft announces new AI-powered health care initiatives targeting cancer

http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/20/12986314/microsoft-ai-healthcare-project-hanover-cancer

Companies offer to build cheapest solar plant ever

http://fuelfix.com/blog/2016/09/20/companies-offer-to-build-cheapest-solar-plant-ever/

Ford Targets Fully Autonomous Vehicle For Ride Sharing In 2021

https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2016/08/16/ford-targets-fully-autonomous-vehicle-for-ride-sharing-in-2021.html

Self-Driving Cars Gain Powerful Ally: The Government

http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/2016/09/19/Barack-Obama-Self-driving-yes-but-also-safe/stories/201609200027

and

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/20/technology/self-driving-cars-guidelines.html

These six plant extracts could delay aging

http://www.kurzweilai.net/these-six-plant-extracts-could-delay-aging

Paralyzed man regains use of arms and hands after experimental stem cell therapy

http://www.kurzweilai.net/paralyzed-man-regains-use-of-arms-and-hands-after-experimental-stem-cell-therapy

‘Perfect’ low-cost, defect-free graphene directly from graphite

Since this is a major material for nanotech, this is likely a big deal:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/perfect-low-cost-defect-free-graphene-directly-from-graphite

Solar Industry Experiences Record-Breaking Growth

http://www.ecowatch.com/solar-energy-record-growth-2003130851.html?xrs=RebelMouse_fb

"A new solar installation was completed every 82 seconds in the first half of 2016, equaling more than 1,000 installs every day. This frequency is what will take the current total of 1.1 million solar systems, which took 40 years to reach, to 2 million systems by 2018."

GTA is teaching self-driving cars how to navigate better in the real world

http://thenextweb.com/artificial-intelligence/2016/09/12/gta-teaching-self-driving-cars-steer/#gref

and

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602317/self-driving-cars-can-learn-a-lot-by-playing-grand-theft-auto/

BTW, "Darmstadt" is German for "Intestine City." Ew.

Self-Driving Cars Could Help Save the Environment—Or Ruin It. It Depends on Us

I hadn't thought about this perspective:

http://time.com/4476614/self-driving-cars-environment/?xid=newsletter-brief

Google's DeepMind artificial intelligence has figured out how to talk

http://www.businessinsider.com/google-deepmind-wavenet-speech-2016-9?r=UK&IR=T

And for sound examples:

https://deepmind.com/blog/wavenet-generative-model-raw-audio/

3 Big Trends Shaking Up the Energy Industry

Yup, these are the three biggies. Once all three are in place, I think internal combustion engines will die a relatively rapid death:

http://singularityhub.com/2016/09/05/3-big-trends-shaking-up-the-energy-industry/#.V9C37M3tAXI.facebook

Pollution particles 'get into brain'

Yikes:

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37276219

A cheap, long-lasting, sustainable battery for grid energy storage

http://www.kurzweilai.net/a-cheap-long-lasting-sustainable-battery-for-grid-energy-storage

"University of Waterloo chemists have developed a long-lasting, safe, zinc-ion battery that costs half the price of current lithium-ion batteries."

Google’s secret plan for quantum computer supremacy

http://www.kurzweilai.net/googles-secret-plan-for-quantum-computer-supremacy

How AI may affect urban life in 2030

No, unfortunately this isn't a list of changes, just announcing that it is being studied:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/how-ai-may-affect-urban-life-in-2030

Can a whole country run on renewable energy?

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/01/world/eco-solutions-renewables-spc/index.html

100% by 2040? Now that's more like it.