Electric Vehicles Are on the Rise: Here’s How to Sustain Their Growth

If it weren't for California, Tesla and the Prius wouldn't exist:

https://singularityhub.com/2017/04/30/electric-vehicles-are-on-the-rise-heres-how-to-sustain-their-growth/

The race to build the world’s first sex robot

Virtually EVERYONE will want a sexbot, or at least the spin-off servant robot, so the pressure to develop them will be relentless:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/27/race-to-build-world-first-sex-robot

Regarding the critics at the end, just as cell phones, nuclear power and pretty much every other technology have changed society mostly for the better but also some for the worse, so to it will surely be with sex robots. Yeah, it's slavery...but it doesn't harm the slave in any way (until robots become sapient).

New Research Shows That Time Travel Is Mathematically Possible

Maybe one day....

https://futurism.com/new-research-shows-that-time-travel-is-mathematically-possible/

You Shouldn’t Get Too Excited About Flying Cars

Someone's peed in my popcorn:

http://fortune.com/2017/04/27/uber-kitty-hawk-flying-cars/?xid=newsletter-brief

But when one of their criticisms is fear of pilots getting sick, they're clearly not thinking it through: self-driving flying cars!

MIT Develops a System That Can 3D Print the Basic Structure of an Entire Building

https://scitechdaily.com/mit-develops-a-system-that-can-3d-print-the-basic-structure-of-an-entire-building/

AI will upload and access our memories, predicts Siri co-inventor

http://www.kurzweilai.net/ai-will-upload-and-access-our-memories-predicts-siri-inventor

Creating clean air through artificial photosynthesis

A new way to fight global warming:

https://nano-magazine.com/news/2017/4/25/scientist-invents-way-to-trigger-artificial-photosynthesis-to-clean-air

‘Negative mass’ created at Washington State University

This is just plain weird:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/negative-mass-created-at-washington-state-university

The first 2D microprocessor — based on a layer of just 3 atoms

Down to just three atoms thickness. Getting there!

http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-first-2d-microprocessor-based-on-a-layer-of-just-3-atoms

What’s wrong with UBI?

More on problems with a universal basic income:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/whats-wrong-ubi-calum-chace

Waymo begins first public on-demand self-driving service test in Arizona

You can use self-driving cars right now! If you live in Phoenix:

https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/25/waymo-begins-first-public-on-demand-self-driving-service-test-in-arizona/

Watch this Larry Page-backed flying car take to the sky above a lake

Yeah, I want one. See the video:

https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/24/watch-this-larry-page-backed-flying-car-take-to-the-sky-above-a-lake/

A Real Life, All-Electric Flying Car Just Took Off

https://futurism.com/a-real-life-all-electric-flying-car-just-took-off/

Expert: Human Immortality Could Be Acquired Through AI

https://futurism.com/expert-human-immortality-could-be-acquired-through-ai/

The best showcase of nanotechnology so far may be this race of tiny cars

Just as robot car competitions led us to the cusp of self-driving cars for the masses, so to perhaps this nanocar race could lead to efficient nanoscale transportation:

https://qz.com/964349/the-nanocar-race-will-feature-the-worlds-smallest-cars-compete-on-a-gold-track-at-absolute-zero/

Torching the Modern-Day Library of Alexandria

As a writer who also values free information, I'm of two minds about this. But clearly having a freely accessible library that is the modern-day equivalent of the Library of Alexandria on steroids would be a boon to mankind, and destroying it would be a tragedy:

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/04/the-tragedy-of-google-books/523320/?utm_source=hpfb

Elon Musk’s Neuralink wants to turn cloud-based AI into an extension of our brains

Here's the announcement:

https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/20/elon-musks-neuralink-wants-to-turn-cloud-based-ai-into-an-extension-of-our-brains/

And here is a loooooong but entertaining article on the evolution of thought and why Neuralink's goal is so significant:

http://waitbutwhy.com/2017/04/neuralink.html

Velodyne Announces a Solid-State Lidar

Another step forward in making affordable self-driving cars:

http://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/sensors/velodyne-announces-a-solidstate-lidar

Scientists Just Discovered an Alien Planet That’s The Best Candidate for Life As We Know It

Cool and encouraging...but it's likely to be tidelocked, which may cause all the planet's water to end up as ice on the side facing away from the star, as I understand it:

https://futurism.com/scientists-just-discovered-an-alien-planet-thats-the-best-candidate-for-life-as-we-know-it/

Neuroscientists Can Now Read Your Dreams With a Simple Brain Scan

Based on similarities between patterns in people reporting what they were dreaming about, scientists can figure out some details about what you were dreaming:

https://singularityhub.com/2017/04/19/neuroscientists-can-now-read-your-dreams-with-a-simple-brain-scan/

Clinical Trials of a New “Cancer Vaccine” Show That It May Actually Work

Live long enough and you're almost certain to get cancer, so finding a way to reliably defeat it is critical:

https://futurism.com/clinical-trials-of-a-new-cancer-vaccine-show-that-it-may-actually-work/

Edible CRISPR Could Replace Antibiotics

This could very well be the solution to the problem of bacteria resistance to antibiotics:

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/604126/edible-crispr-could-replace-antibiotics/

These are Tesla’s stunning new solar roof tiles for homes

These would look far more subtle, but I understand that solar tiles lose a lot of efficiency because no air passes under them:

https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/28/these-are-teslas-stunning-new-solar-roof-tiles-for-homes/

Intersolar North America: SmartFlower unfurls its dual-axis tracker

I find this system particularly appealing (and it can come with storage, too!):

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2016/07/13/intersolar-north-america-smartflower-unfurls-its-dual-axis-tracker_100025392/

https://www.smartflowerpacific.com/

And here it is in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIpMSp_zzno

More Americans Work in Solar Power Than for Apple, Facebook, and Google Combined

Nice!

https://futurism.com/more-americans-work-in-solar-power-than-for-apple-facebook-and-google-combined/

FEDOR Is a Gunslinging Robot That’s Just a Skin Suit Away From Westworld

The birth of the Terminator (no matter what the article says)!

https://futurism.com/fedor-is-a-gunslinging-robot-thats-just-a-skin-suit-away-from-westworld/

Watch the whole video. It only appears at the end.

Elon Musk: 100 Tesla Gigafactories Could Power the Entire World

Surely that's doable over the next decade or so:

https://futurism.com/elon-musk-100-tesla-gigafactories-could-power-entire-world/

How to condense water out of air using only sunlight for energy

A game-changer for those living in deserts:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/how-to-condense-water-out-of-air-using-only-sunlight-for-energy

Will Tech-Driven Deflation Export Japan’s Economic Woes to the World?

Advances in automation may cause worldwide deflation and an economic death-spiral:

https://singularityhub.com/2017/04/14/will-tech-driven-deflation-export-japans-economic-woes-to-the-world/

Solar energy has plunged in price—where does it go from here?

https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/04/whats-next-for-solar-energy/

No one is prepared to stop the robot onslaught. So what will we do when it arrives?

Some good detail on the automation of jobs:

https://qz.com/940977/no-one-is-prepared-to-stop-the-robot-onslaught-so-what-will-we-do-when-it-arrives/

With a good point about Trump's ignorance:

"Larry Summers, who held Mnuchin’s job in the Clinton administration, compared his successor’s views on robots with “what global climate change denial is to atmospheric science or what creationism is to biology.”"

Scientists Hacked a Cell’s DNA and Made a Biocomputer Out of It

This is what I think when I think biotech:

https://singularityhub.com/2017/04/12/scientists-hacked-a-cells-dna-and-made-a-biocomputer-out-of-it/

The Dark Secret at the Heart of AI

This is how Skynet came to be!

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/604087/the-dark-secret-at-the-heart-of-ai/

The first concern that came to my mind was what this could mean for uploading a human brain to a computer substrate, and the second was what this could mean for the prospect of copying A.I.s. Not knowing what's going on could perhaps make it impossible to implement these goals. That would suck.

Tesla Just Unveiled Its Newest Solar Panels

This is getting appealing:

https://futurism.com/tesla-just-unveiled-their-newest-solar-panels/

It will be 25 years before self-driving cars take off in America, says early Uber investor Bill Gurley

It may take a long time before self-driving cars can handle the most extreme last few percentage of driving situations, and China will almost certainly beat us to the punch (but I think 25 years is far too pessimistic, regardless):

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/06/bill-gurley-uber-investor-self-driving-cars-25-years-away-in-us.html

Astronomers detect atmosphere around Earth-like planet

Nice to know another variable falls on the side of greater chances of extraterrestrial life existing:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/astronomers-detect-atmosphere-around-earth-like-planet

Crystalline material could replace silicon to double efficiency of solar cells

With so many promising technologies just ahead, it's hard to know when to make the move to solar. This is a case in point:

https://m.phys.org/news/2017-04-crystalline-material-silicon-efficiency-solar.html

Majority Of Republicans Said ‘No’ When Obama Wanted To Launch A Strike On Syria

Hypocrisy runs so deep in the GOP that only a colonoscopy could find its source:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/republicans-strike-syria-trump_us_58e6f71de4b051b9a9da355d 

And here is Trumps healthy dollop of hypocrisy:

http://time.com/4730219/syria-missile-attack-donald-trump-tweets/?xid=newsletter-brief

By The End Of This, Republicans Are Going To Wish Hillary Won.

Ah, so I'm not the only one who sees Trump's win as setting the stage for a much bigger Democratic win:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/04/06/1650568/-By-The-End-Of-This-Republicans-Are-Going-To-Wish-Hillary-Won

Is Universal Basic Income Possible in America?

Another perspective on the UBI:

http://bigthink.com/21st-century-spirituality/is-universal-basic-income-possible-in-america

Where’s the Smartphone Headed and What Comes After? Here’s What’s in the Works.

 A list of ideas of where the smart phone is headed:

http://bigthink.com/philip-perry/what-comes-after-the-smart-phone-these-tech-companies-have-something-in-mind

We Just Created an Artificial Synapse That Can Learn Autonomously

A rather significant step forward in A.I. development, I would think:

https://futurism.com/we-just-created-an-artificial-synapse-that-can-learn-autonomously/

Old Mice Made Young Again With New Anti-Aging Drug

This could be a game-changer! It DEFINITELY would be...if we were mice:

https://singularityhub.com/2017/04/05/old-mice-made-young-again-with-new-anti-aging-drug/

Scientists Grafted Eyes onto a Blind Organism’s Back, and It Could See

Attaching functional eyes to a tadpole's tail:

https://futurism.com/scientists-grafted-eyes-onto-a-blind-organisms-back-and-it-could-see/

It gives new meaning to the term hindsight....

Personal Jetpacks Are Here!

Not quite as impressive as the Martin Jetpack (http://www.martinjetpack.com/), but this one is at least a "real" jet pack, and a lot smaller:

https://futurism.com/videos/personal-jetpacks-are-here/

Magnetically storing a bit on a single atom — the ultimate future data storage

Finally, a one-atom bit...but just for a bit:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/magnetically-storing-a-bit-on-a-single-atom-the-ultimate-future-data-storage

Detroit Is Stomping Silicon Valley in the Self-Driving Car Race

This is somewhat surprising. I suspect the self-driving developers will end up partnering with the car manufacturers:

https://www.wired.com/2017/04/detroit-stomping-silicon-valley-self-driving-car-race/

MIT Engineers Develop New Technique for Highly Conductive Graphene Wafers

https://scitechdaily.com/mit-engineers-develop-new-technique-for-highly-conductive-graphene-wafers/

How to settle any “is this real AI?” debate — Measuring Artificial Intelligence

The problem with the "artificial intelligence" moniker (and how to fix it...sort of):

https://hackernoon.com/how-to-settle-any-is-this-real-ai-debate-measuring-artificial-intelligence-ee8f939e8e4

Machine learning lets scientists reverse-engineer cellular control networks

Hacking biology:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170322132114.htm

For $250,000, You Can Have a Flying Suit Like Iron Man’s

Quite cool, if currently limited:

https://futurism.com/for-250000-you-have-flying-suit-like-iron-mans/

A Company in Japan Just Broke the World Record for Solar Panel Efficiency

https://futurism.com/company-japan-just-broke-world-record-solar-panel-efficiency/