The Robot Revolution Is Coming. Just Be Patient.

This questions the impact of the coming robot revolution:

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-11-16/the-robot-revolution-is-coming-just-be-patient

Dark Future: Here’s When We’ll Have the Black Mirror Tech That Lets Us Read Memories

"In 2014, scientists successfully reconstructed faces based on subjects’ brain activity."

"It is a form of mind reading."

https://futurism.com/black-mirror-crocodile/

Dark Future: Here’s When We’ll Have the Sentient Digital Avatars from Black Mirror

I've long thought something like this would work well as an alternative for people who are psychologically incapable of living in society due to no fault of their own:

https://futurism.com/black-mirror-uss-callister/

Digitized to Democratized: These Are the 6 Ds of Exponential Technologies

How everything changes once something can be digitized:

https://singularityhub.com/2017/12/29/what-are-the-6-ds-of-exponential-organizations/#sm.0001p9abvhotbf0jwc02kzluw8213

Neurologists May Have Discovered a Key Ally in the Fight Against Brain Aging

Eat yer damn salads!

https://futurism.com/neurologists-discovered-key-ally-fight-against-brain-aging/

Nuclear Sphere: Weird Globe Could Revolutionize Fusion Energy

This could be vastly more efficient than regular hydrogen fusion:

https://www.livescience.com/61298-new-fusion-reactor-uses-boron-and-hydrogen.html

How a Machine That Can Make Anything Would Change Everything

Nothing new but still interesting. If nanofactories don't occur until the 2040s, as mentioned here, that's disappointing. I think Drexler and Kurzweil had the date in the 2020s:

https://singularityhub.com/2017/12/25/the-nanofabricator-how-a-machine-that-can-make-anything-would-change-everything

The University of Tokyo Has Built a Robot That Sweats While Exercising

https://futurism.com/university-tokyo-built-robot-sweats-while-exercising/

The Power to Give Anyone, Anywhere the Skills They Need Is Within Reach

https://singularityhub.com/2017/12/21/the-power-to-give-anyone-anywhere-the-skills-they-need-is-within-reach/

Top 7 Breakthroughs of 2017 That Prove We’re Living in the Future

https://futurism.com/top-7-breakthroughs-2017-prove-living-future/

This Self-Driving AI Is Learning to Drive Almost Entirely in a Virtual World

A virtual world can also be sped up to run numerous extreme scenarios in a short period of time:

https://singularityhub.com/2017/12/18/this-self-driving-ai-is-learning-to-drive-almost-entirely-in-a-virtual-world/

Why Highly Intelligent People Suffer More Mental and Physical Disorders

Not actually a technological issue, but interesting science nevertheless because so many of my bright friends have some psychological issues, particularly with depression and anxiety:

http://bigthink.com/design-for-good/why-highly-intelligent-people-suffer-more-mental-and-physical-disorders

The Amazing Brain: Amputee Monkeys Mentally Control Robotic Arms

Cue the cyborgs!

http://bigthink.com/robby-berman/the-amazing-brain-amputee-monkeys-mentally-control-robotic-arms

Will Artificial Intelligence Become Conscious?

I'm a "small-c" proponent myself, since it makes sense to me as an emergent property of a complex brain:

https://singularityhub.com/2017/12/15/will-artificial-intelligence-become-conscious/

Robots are being used to shoo away homeless people in San Francisco

And now there are so many robots that people are trying to limit them:

https://qz.com/1154649/a-knightscope-security-robot-is-being-used-to-shoo-away-homeless-people-in-san-francisco/

Electric Car Range May Soon Triple, Thanks to New Research

This would surely be enough to put electric vehicles into first choice place:

https://futurism.com/electric-car-range-soon-triple-thanks-new-research/

Georgia Tech’s New Prosthetic Arm Enables Amputees to Control Each Individual Finger

It's getting there...

https://futurism.com/georgia-techs-new-prosthetic-arm-enables-amputees-control-individual-finger/

3D-printing biocompatible living bacteria

Printing living tools. Pretty cool:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/3d-printing-biocompatible-living-bacteria

Flying Cars May Hit the Skies Sooner Than We Anticipated

https://futurism.com/videos/flying-cars-hit-skies-sooner-anticipated/

California Is Working to Ban Gas-Powered Cars by 2040

Once again, yay California:

https://futurism.com/california-working-ban-gas-powered-cars-2040/

A New CRISPR Technique Reverses Diseases in Mice

Editing the epigenome as a way to avoid dangerous mutations. Nice:

https://futurism.com/new-crispr-technique-reverses-diseases-in-mice/

Is the World's First Nuclear Fusion Plant Finally on Track?

Fusion power has always been 30 years away. For once, it may be here sooner:

https://www.livescience.com/61132-first-fusion-plant-plasma-core-half-completed.html

Guanidinium Helps Stabilizes Perovskite Solar Cells

https://scitechdaily.com/guanidinium-helps-stabilizes-perovskite-solar-cells/

Why Humanoid Robots Are Still So Hard to Make Useful

That "ad" looks so out of a science fiction movie:

https://singularityhub.com/2017/12/07/why-the-most-useful-robots-still-dont-look-much-like-us/

In Just 4 Hours, Google’s AI Mastered All The Chess Knowledge in History

It LEARNED to beat the best chess player in the world. It wasn't fed the moves:

https://futurism.com/4-hours-googles-ai-mastered-chess-knowledge-history/

“I always wondered how it would be if a superior species landed on Earth and showed us how they played chess,” grandmaster Peter Heine Nielsen told the BBC.

“Now I know.”

Light-Based Computers May Soon Become a Reality

http://bigthink.com/philip-perry/light-based-computers-may-soon-become-a-reality

Scientists Just Took a Giant Leap Forward in the Quest to Create Artificial Life

https://futurism.com/scientists-took-giant-leap-forward-quest-create-artificial-life/

Inhibiting One Enzyme May Allow Us to Extend the Human Lifespan

https://futurism.com/inhibiting-one-enzyme-may-allow-us-to-extend-the-human-lifespan/

Oxford Study Says Alien Life Would Evolve and Adapt Just Like Life on Earth

https://singularityhub.com/2017/12/04/oxford-study-says-alien-life-would-evolve-and-adapt-just-like-life-earth/

Two conflicting views on whether there will be an intelligence explosion

The Impossibility of Intelligence Explosion:

https://medium.com/@francois.chollet/the-impossibility-of-intelligence-explosion-5be4a9eda6ec

The Possibility of a Deep Intelligence Learning Explosion:

https://medium.com/intuitionmachine/the-possibility-of-an-intelligence-explosion-b4617a95c9b9