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

Forget Cyborgs — Biohybrid Robots Are Almost Here

Not creepy in the slightest....

https://www.livescience.com/61058-biohybrid-robots.html

Lab-Grown "Clean Meat" is Almost Here. Will You Eat It?

Ethical vegetarians and vegans rejoice!

http://bigthink.com/21st-century-spirituality/lab-grown-clean-meat-is-almost-here-will-you-eat-it

Quantum Computers Bust Problem Conventional Computers Can't Solve

https://www.livescience.com/61054-quantum-computer-50-qubits.html

Biodegradable nanobots could help treat cancer

A crude version of what nanotech has been promising:

https://nano-magazine.com/news/2017/11/24/biodegradable-nanobots-could-help-treat-cancer/

Automation could kill 73 million U.S. jobs by 2030

Ah, but when A.I. is good enough, there won't be ANY jobs humans can do better:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/11/29/automation-could-kill-73-million-u-s-jobs-2030/899878001/

9 Robot Animals Built From Nature’s Best-Kept Secrets

There are some very cool and creepy designs here:

https://singularityhub.com/2017/11/28/9-robot-animals-built-from-natures-best-kept-secrets/

Soft robot muscles with origami skeletons can lift 1,000 times their own weight

Not as effective for the robot uprising, but surely useful:

https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/27/16705062/soft-robot-muscles-origami-skeleton-mit-harvard

New Video Shows a Creepily Human-Like Robot Doing a Backflip

The robots are coming...and they are already able to perform feats of agility that most humans can't do:

https://www.livescience.com/60968-atlas-robot-does-backflip.html

Thought-Controlled Prosthetic Hand Restores 100 Realistic Touch Sensations

The full sense of touch changes everything for prosthetics:

https://singularityhub.com/2017/11/27/thought-controlled-prosthetic-hand-delivers-100-realistic-sensations/

8 Ways AI Will Transform Our Cities by 2030

https://singularityhub.com/2017/11/25/8-ways-ai-will-transform-our-cities-by-2030/

5 Wild Biotech Products That Will Touch Our Lives in the Near Future

https://singularityhub.com/2017/11/24/5-wild-biotech-products-of-the-future/#sm.00001g3d7gpenudfdw2drrty4172v

“All-Solid-State” Battery Offers Better Performance and Improved Safety

https://scitechdaily.com/all-solid-state-battery-offers-better-performance-and-improved-safety/

CRISPR Can Now Hitch a Ride on Nanoparticles to Battle Disease

The potential here is tremendous:

https://singularityhub.com/2017/11/22/crispr-can-now-hitch-a-ride-on-nanoparticles-to-battle-disease/

New Mind-Controlled Prosthetics Are Poised To Transform Humanity

https://futurism.com/new-mind-controlled-prosthetics-poised-transform-humanity/

This Humanoid Robot May be Your Next Assistant

Full-body waldoes should open the world to a wide variety of capabilities, like virtual surgery and safer hazardous environment work:

https://futurism.com/humanoid-robot-may-next-assistant/

Lie-detector avatar in testing for travel use

This seems a little 1984-ish, but it's will surely become part of future air travel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6sRtiBdUbE

For the First Time, a Robot Passed a Medical Licensing Exam

This is potentially huge:

https://futurism.com/first-time-robot-passed-medical-licensing-exam/

Damn, China again!

The Robot Revolution Is Coming. Just Be Patient.

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

The Three Way Race to the Future of AI. Quantum vs. Neuromorphic vs. High Performance Computing

https://www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/the-three-way-race-to-the-future-of-ai-quantum-vs-neuromorphic-vs

Scientists Have Found the First Ever Anti-Aging Genetic Mutation

Not exactly anti-aging, but a 10% life extension isn't bad:

https://futurism.com/scientists-found-first-anti-aging-genetic-mutation/

A Device to Increase Human Memory Has Been Implanted, and It Works

"The improvement they achieved in subjects’ scores was startling: Short-term memory improved by 15% and working memory by roughly 25%."

Is this the first real cybernetic improvement to the human brain?

http://bigthink.com/robby-berman/a-device-to-increase-human-memory-has-been-implanted-and-it-works

Biohackers are using CRISPR on their DNA and we can’t stop it

Welcome to the wild world of homegrown gene splicing!

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23631520-100-biohackers-are-using-crispr-on-their-dna-and-we-cant-stop-it/

Iron-Air Batteries Promise Higher Energy Density Than Lithium-Ion Batteries

They don't last for many charges yet, but it's another battery option to add to the mix:

https://scitechdaily.com/iron-air-batteries-promise-higher-energy-density-than-lithium-ion-batteries/

Boston Dynamics CEO Believes Robotics Will Become “Bigger Than the Internet”

Watch the TED Talk video:

https://futurism.com/boston-dynamics-ceo-believes-robotics-bigger-internet/

How Physicists Smashed the Quantum Light Measurement Limit

http://bigthink.com/philip-perry/how-physicists-smashed-the-quantum-light-measurement-limit

In a Major First, Scientists Edit DNA Within the Human Body

And now the test of the amazing potential begins:

https://gizmodo.com/in-a-major-first-scientists-edit-dna-within-the-human-1820469921

Humans Have Regenerative Abilities—Scientists Just Need to Turn Them On

We could all use some of this eventually:

http://bigthink.com/videos/chris-loose-humans-have-regenerative-abilities-scientists-just-need-to-turn-them-on

Growing Human Mini Brains in Rats Isn’t an Ethical Concern…Yet

Umm...are we talking ultimately giving human-level intelligence to non-human animals?

https://futurism.com/human-mini-brains-rats-ethical-concern/

Inside the mechanical brain of the world’s first robot citizen

Certainly not there yet, but the video is still interesting:

https://qz.com/1121547/how-smart-is-the-first-robot-citizen/

Are We on the Verge of a New Golden Age?

This would coincide nicely with a surge in growth in A.I., robotics and nanotech:

https://www.strategy-business.com/article/Are-We-on-the-Verge-of-a-New-Golden-Age?gko=f0fed

CRISPR 2.0 Is Here, and It’s Way More Precise

This is getting powerful:

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609203/crispr-20-is-here-and-its-way-more-precise/

IBM Just Announced a 50-Qubit Quantum Computer

Still not ready for prime time, though...

https://futurism.com/ibm-announced-50-qubit-quantum-computer/

Anti-Aging Stem Cell Therapy Shows “Remarkable” Results in Human Trials

Looking forward to becoming a vampire!

http://bigthink.com/stephen-johnson/anti-aging-stem-cell-therapy-shows-remarkable-results-in-human-clinical-trials

JinkoSolar lighting up solar efficiency record scoreboard

Small but significant increases:

https://electrek.co/2017/11/08/jinkosolar-lighting-up-solar-efficiency-record-scoreboard/

Andrew Ng Says Enough Papers, Let’s Build AI Now!

Is it possible we’re ready to create true A.I. now?

https://medium.com/@Synced/andrew-ng-says-enough-papers-lets-build-ai-now-6b52d24bcd58

Buh-Bye, ‘Traditional’ Neural Networks. Hello, Capsules.

Another approach to machine learning:

http://bigthink.com/robby-berman/buh-bye-traditional-neural-networks-hello-capsules

NASA has found another 20 promising planets for humans to colonize

Just because this is cool to know:

https://qz.com/1117466/nasa-has-found-another-20-promising-planets-for-humans-to-colonize/

What AI Can Now Do Is Remarkable—But How It’s Learning Is More Significant

https://singularityhub.com/2017/11/03/what-ai-can-now-do-is-remarkable-but-how-its-learning-to-do-it-is-even-more-significant/

Saudi Arabia Is Building a $500-Billion New Territory Based on Tech and Liberal Values

Participating in this could be a wonderful experience. So ironic it's being built by stultified Saudi Arabia:

http://bigthink.com/design-for-good/saudi-arabia-is-building-a-utopian-city-to-herald-the-future-of-human-civillization

Artificial Intelligence: Beyond the Turing Test

Imitating human behavior vs. having human cognition:

https://futurism.com/videos/sponsored-artificial-intelligence-beyond-turing-test/

IBM’s New, Cutting Edge Tech Could Make Computers 200 Times Faster

“[T]his prototype technology is expected to yield 200x improvements in both speed and energy efficiency, making it highly suitable for enabling ultra-dense, low-power, and massively-parallel computing systems for applications in AI,”

https://futurism.com/ibms-new-cutting-edge-tech-could-make-computers-200-times-faster/

The Web Began Dying in 2014. Here's How.

How Google, Facebook and Amazon are taking over the Internet:

https://staltz.com/the-web-began-dying-in-2014-heres-how.html

Wind Power Set a New Renewable Energy Record in Europe Last Week

"Denmark regularly gets more than 100 percent of its energy from wind (and hit 109% last weekend), while wind frequently provides Germany more than half of its electricity."

https://futurism.com/wind-power-set-a-new-renewable-energy-record-in-europe-last-week/

The Rise of Conscious AI is Just Decades Away

A rundown on the state of A.I.:

https://futurism.com/conscious-ai-decades-away/

Here’s How to Get to Conscious Machines, Neuroscientists Say

An interesting approach:

https://singularityhub.com/2017/11/01/heres-how-to-get-to-conscious-machines-neuroscientists-say/

Apple's Future Computer: The Knowledge Navigator

Their prediction of computers and Internet access...from 1987:

https://futurism.com/videos/apple-computer-future/

Not too far off!

The era of easily faked, AI-generated photos is quickly emerging

https://qz.com/1115353/new-research-from-nvidia-shows-that-the-era-of-easily-faked-ai-generated-photos-is-quickly-emerging/

MIT researchers trained AI to write horror stories based on 140,000 Reddit posts

Not ready for prime time yet, but it's getting there:

https://qz.com/1115179/mit-used-data-from-reddit-to-train-an-ai-to-tell-horror-stories/

Scientists break new ground in memory technology

Impressive: "a novel thin, organic film that supports a million more times read-write cycles and consumes 1,000 times less power than commercial flash memories" and "the researchers are also looking at fabricating multi-state memories to produce neuromorphic memory devices (that resemble the brain) for artificial intelligence (AI) applications":

https://www.nanowerk.com/nanotechnology-news/newsid=48404.php

Amazon Is Quietly Building the Robots of Sci-Fi—Piece by Practical Piece

Amazon is uniquely positioned to build the kinds of robots we REALLY want:

https://singularityhub.com/2017/10/29/amazon-is-quietly-building-the-robots-of-sci-fi-piece-by-practical-piece/

The Real Story of Automation Beginning with One Simple Chart

A good look at the statistics behind trends in automation and its effects on economics:

https://medium.com/basic-income/the-real-story-of-automation-beginning-with-one-simple-chart-8b95f9bad71b

Technology That Sucks CO2 From Ambient Air is Already Used Commercially in Switzerland and Iceland

This needs to scale, but it's a brilliant solution (at least until we have advanced nanotech to do the job even more efficiently and larger scale):

http://bigthink.com/design-for-good/technology-that-sucks-co2-from-ambient-air-is-already-used-commercially-in-switzerland-and-iceland

Researchers watch video images people are seeing, decoded from their fMRI brain scans in near-real-time

Here comes mind reading:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/researchers-watch-video-images-people-are-seeing-decoded-from-their-fmri-brain-scans-in-near-real-time

Solar power crushes its own record for cheapest electricity ‘ever, anywhere, by any technology’

Wow: "The lowest price for solar power last year is the highest price now." That's not for the US, but still...

https://thinkprogress.org/stunner-lowest-price-solar-power-f3b620d04010/

DARPA’s New Brain Device Increases Learning Speed by 40%

"Advancements in technology seem to be bringing us closer to a future in which quickly leveling-up intelligence is a real possibility." Leveling-up. Hah!

https://futurism.com/darpas-new-brain-device-increases-learning-speed-by-40/

Daimler, Parent Company of Mercedes, Unveils an Electric Truck Ahead of Tesla

First electric truck:

https://futurism.com/daimler-parent-company-of-mercedes-unveils-an-electric-truck-ahead-of-tesla/

IBM scientists say radical new ‘in-memory’ computing architecture will speed up computers by 200 times

200 times? Wowsers:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/ibm-scientists-say-radical-new-in-memory-computing-architecture-will-speed-up-computers-by-200-times

Scientists Want to Create a Universe in a Lab, And They Actually Could

So much for the necessity of God:

https://futurism.com/scientists-may-create-universe-actually-could/

Is Technology Really Going to Destroy More Jobs Than Ever Before?

Another person missing the point that history isn't a guide to job loss from automation when the automation in question is the development of artificial intelligence more capable than any human:

https://futurism.com/technology-destroy-jobs/

AlphaGo Zero trains itself to be most powerful Go player in the world

Alpha-Go just keeps on getting smarter:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/alphago-zero-trains-itself-to-be-most-powerful-go-player-in-the-world

Armed Ground Robots to Fight in the Ukrainian Conflict, Ushering in a New Age of Warfare

It's happening whether we want it or not:

http://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/robot-wars-are-here-as-ukraine-plans-to-use-them-against-russia

There’s No Fire Alarm for Artificial General Intelligence

A long article, but has some interesting insights about how badly people can underestimate how quickly new technologies can arrive:

https://intelligence.org/2017/10/13/fire-alarm/

Nanoelectronics breakthrough could lead to more efficient quantum devices

https://nano-magazine.com/news/2017/10/18/nanoelectronics-breakthrough-could-lead-to-more-efficient-quantum-devices/

New Simple Device Uses Sound Waves to Store Quantum Information

You think computers are too noisy now?

https://scitechdaily.com/new-simple-device-uses-sound-waves-to-store-quantum-information/

Controlled by a synthetic gene circuit, self-assembling bacteria build working electronic sensors

Self-healing materials. I like it:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/controlled-by-a-synthetic-gene-circuit-self-assembling-bacteria-build-working-electronic-sensors

Robotic Farm Completes 1st Fully Autonomous Harvest

This is one of those images of "the future" that is now arriving:

https://www.livescience.com/60567-robotically-tended-farm-completes-first-harvest.html

A long interview with Ray Kurzweil from 1999

He notes that there will be more technological change by 2020 than there was in the entire 20th century. It doesn't feel that way...but perhaps it's true:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97c2ezJ_1U8&feature=youtu.be

“Skyrmions” Could Provide a Way to Bypass the Limits to Moore’s Law

https://scitechdaily.com/skyrmions-could-provide-a-way-to-bypass-the-limits-to-moores-law/

How AI Learned to Bluff and Beat Humans at Poker

A.I. beats yet another master player at yet another game, this time learning how to capitalize on the weaknesses of its human opponents:

http://bigthink.com/david-ryan-polgar/poker-is-harder-for-ai-to-master-than-chess-ai-has-now-learned-to-bluff-and-beat-humans

The World’s 1st Molecular Robot Has Just Been Created by UK Scientists

http://bigthink.com/philip-perry/the-worlds-1st-molecular-robot-has-been-created-by-uk-scientists

It's worth watching the Michio Kaku video. He postulates that mature nanotech may be 100 years out, but that's likely highly pessimistic.