Toggle light / dark theme

Future Observatory

Posted in 3D printing, automation, big data, biological, bionic, bioprinting, biotech/medical, bitcoin, business, chemistry, climatology, complex systems, computing, cosmology, counterterrorism, defense, driverless cars, drones, economics, education, energy, engineering, environmental, ethics, existential risks, finance, food, futurism, general relativity, genetics, geopolitics, government, hardware, health, human trajectories, information science, innovation, law, life extension, lifeboat, media & arts, mobile phones, nanotechnology, neuroscience, nuclear energy, nuclear weapons, particle physics, philosophy, physics, policy, polls, posthumanism, privacy, robotics/AI, science, scientific freedom, security, singularity, space, space travel, supercomputing, surveillance, sustainability, transparency, transportation

www.FUTURE-OBSERVATORY.blogspot.com JANUARY/30/2014 HEADLINES. By Mr. Andres Agostini

lba
Cancer Researchers Identify New Drug to Inhibit Breast Cancer

Cancer Researchers Identify New Drug to Inhibit Breast Cancer

Russia, US to join forces against space threats
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_01_29/Russia-US-to-join-f…eats-1145/

The rise of artificial intelligence
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-ne…317g3.html

MIT and Harvard release working papers on open online courses
http://www.kurzweilai.net/mit-and-harvard-release-working-pa…-282009765

13 Quotes That Show Why Libertarian Tech Billionaire Peter Thiel Is A Scary Genius
http://www.businessinsider.com/peter-thiel-quotes-2014-1?op=1#ixzz2rr4DD75T

Quantum cloud simulates magnetic monopole
http://www.nature.com/news/quantum-cloud-simulates-magnetic-monopole-1.14612

North Korea possesses two-thirds of the world’s rare earths
http://www.impactlab.net/2014/01/24/north-korea-possesses-tw…re-earths/

Recent discovery of quantum vibrations in microtubules inside brain neurons corroborates controversial theory of consciousness
http://www.impactlab.net/2014/01/21/recent-discovery-of-quan…ciousness/

The internet population in China hit 618 million in 2013 with 81% connected via mobile internet
http://www.impactlab.net/2014/01/20/the-internet-population-…-internet/

The Bitcoin ATM Has a Dirty Secret: It Needs a Chaperone
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2014/01/bitcoin_atm/

Can Science Save Modern Art?
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3025595/asides/can-science-save-modern-art

Welcome to the 2020s (Future Timeline Events 2020–2029)

2070–2079 timeline
http://www.futuretimeline.net/21stcentury/2070-2079.htm

Lemur Studio Design develops mine detector in a shoe
http://www.gizmag.com/lemur-studio-saveonelife/30569/

CERN experiment produces first beam of antihydrogen atoms for hyperfine study
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-cern-antihydrogen-atoms-hyperfine.html

Architects build the jellyfish house around a floating pool

wiel arets architects build the jellyfish house around a floating pool

Monitoring Drugs Flowing in the Bloodstream
http://www.mdtmag.com/news/2014/01/monitoring-drugs-flowing-bloodstream

$1.7 million personal submarine lets you ‘fly’ underwater
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/17-million-personal-submarine-le…nderwater/

Computing with silicon neurons: Scientists use artificial nerve cells to classify different types of data
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140128094539.htm

10 technology trends to watch in 2014
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/10-technology-trends-to-watch-2014/

The year ahead: Hot ICT tech trends in 2014
http://www.marsdd.com/2014/01/28/year-ahead-hot-ict-tech-trends-2014/

5 Futuristic Trends That Will Shape Business And Culture Today
http://www.fastcoexist.com/3025012/futurist-forum/5-futurist…ture-today

Stephen Hawking says there is no such thing as black holes, Einstein spinning in his grave
http://www.express.co.uk/news/science-technology/455880/Step…-his-grave

Google’s Ray Kurzweil predicts how the world will change
http://jimidisu.com/?p=6013

Celebrating water cooperation: Red Sea to Dead Sea
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/01/celebrating…03800.html

7 Trends For 2014
http://blogs.sap.com/innovation/innovation/seven-trends-2014-01242649

8 Quick Ways to Unlock Your Creative Potential
https://www.openforum.com/articles/8-quick-ways-to-unlock-yo…strecent-3

Exploring Mars Habitability – Opportunity Updates Our Understanding of Our Planetary Neighbour

Exploring Mars Habitability – Opportunity Updates Our Understanding of Our Planetary Neighbour

DAILY QUOTE: By Michael Anissimov utters, “…One of the biggest flaws in the common conception of the future is that the future is something that happens to us, not something we create…”

RECOMMENDED BOOK:

Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies — and What It Means to Be Human by Joel Garreau
ISBN-13: 978–0767915038

Regards,

Mr. Andres Agostini
www.ThisSuccess.wordpress.com
href=“www.xeeme.com/AAgostini”>www.xeeme.com/AAgostini

Written By: — Singularity Hub

Basaltlake-coring_greenland
Even the most adamant techno-optimists among us must admit that new technologies can introduce hidden dangers: Fire, as the adage goes, can cook the dinner, but it can also burn the village down.

The most powerful example of unforeseen disadvantages stemming from technology is climate change. Should we attempt to fix a problem caused by technology, using more novel technology to hack the climate? The question has spurred heated debate.

Read More

The Future of Management Wargaming, Now! By Mr. Andres Agostini

This is an excerpt from the conclusion section of, “…The Future of Management Wargaming , Now…!” that discusses some management theories and practices. To read the entire piece, just click the link at the end of article:

In addition to being aware and adaptable and resilient before the driving forces reshaping the current present and the as-of-now future, there are some extra management suggestions that I concurrently practice:

a) “…human knowledge is doubling every ten years [as per the 1998 standards]…”

b) "...computer power is doubling every eighteen months. the internet is doubling every year. the number of dna sequences we can analyze is doubling every two years…”

c) “…beginning with the amount of knowledge in the known world at the time of Christ, studies have estimated that the first doubling of that knowledge took place about 1700 A.D. the second doubling occurred around the year 1900. it is estimated today that the world’s knowledge base will double again by 2010 and again after that by 2013…”

d) “…knowledge is doubling by every fourteen months…”

e) “…more than the doubling of computational power [is taking place] every year…”

The Future of Skunkworks Management, Now! By Mr. Andres Agostini
SIMPLICITY
This is an excerpt from the conclusion section of, “…The Future of Skunkworks Management, Now!…” that discusses some management theories and practices and strategies. To view the entire piece, just click the link at the end of this post:
SOLUTION
Peter Drucker asserted, “…In a few hundred years, when the story of our [current] time is written from a long-term perspective, it is likely that the most important event those historians will see is not technology, not the Internet, not e-commerce [not so-called ‘social media’]. IT is an unprecedented change in the human condition. For the first time ─ literally ─ substantial and growing numbers of people have choices. for the first time, they will have to manage themselves. And society is totally unprepared for it…”
SYSTEM
Please see the full presentation at http://goo.gl/FnJOlg

Applied Omniscience in Transformative and Integrative Risk Management! By Mr. Andres Agostini
OMNISCIENCE
This is an excerpt from the presentation, “…Applied Omniscience in Transformative and Integrative Risk Management!…” that discusses some management theories and practices. To read the entire piece, just click the link at the end of article:

Please see the graphic at http://lnkd.in/dUstZEk

William Pentland, Contributor

I write about energy and environmental issues.

Massive reserves of “freshwater” are buried beneath the seabed on continental shelves around the world, including off Australia, China, North America and South Africa.

This is the conclusion of a new study by a team of Australian scientists that appears in this week’s issue of the journal, Nature.

Based on an analysis of seafloor water studies conducted for oil and gas exploration purposes, the study showed that an estimated that 500,000 cubic kilometers of low-salinity water is trapped in aquifers under the ocean floor.

“The volume of this water resource is a hundred times greater than the amount we’ve extracted from the Earth’s sub-surface in the past century since 1900,” said Vincent Post, a groundwater hydro geologist from Flinders University in Adelaide and the new study’s lead author.

This new freshwater resource could give regions suffering with limited access to freshwater more options for combating the impact of droughts and alleviating the impact of water scarcity on future generations.

Read more

(Excerpt)

Beyond the managerial challenges (downside risks) presented by the exponential technologies as it is understood in the Technological Singularity and its inherent futuristic forces impacting the present and the future now, there are also some grave global risks that many forms of management have to tackle with immediately.

These grave global risks have nothing to do with advanced science or technology. Many of these hazards stem from nature and some are, as well, man made.

For instance, these grave global risks ─ embodying the Disruptional Singularity ─ are geological, climatological, political, geopolitical, demographic, social, economic, financial, legal and environmental, among others. The Disruptional Singularity’s major risks are gravely threatening us right now, not later.

Read the full document at http://lnkd.in/bYP2nDC

In our on-going ambitions to colonise space — and our search for exo-planets in goldilocks zones, it is often overlooked that the most Earth-like area known to us is in our own Solar System, and very nearby — the upper reaches of the Venusian troposphere.

Whilst the surface of Venus invokes classical images of Hell — a dark sea of fire and brimstone, where temperatures raise to an incredible 450°C — hot enough to melt lead, tin and zinc, and pressurised to such an extent (92 bar) that in these conditions the atmosphere ghosts in and out of an ocean of supercritical carbon dioxide — sulphur dioxide tints the air, and sulphuric acid rains down on volcanic plains. One just needs to look to the skies…

At about 50 km to 60 km above the surface, the upper reaches of the Venusian troposphere, the environment is quite different. At these high altitudes the temperature is in our comfort zone of 0°C to 50°C, and the air pressure similar as habitable regions of Earth.
Havens over Hell - Ecosystems of the Venetian Tropopause

An atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide (96.5%) and abundant solar radiation, the conditions are ideal for photosynthesis. One could imagine solar energy powered crafts could easily sustain ecosystems where the ideal conditions for photosynthesis ensure an abundant source of food and oxygen for inhabitants. The solar energy here is abundant and in all directions — the high reflectivity of clouds below causes the amount of light reflected upward to be nearly the same as that coming in from above, with an upward solar intensity of 90% — so aircraft would not need to concern about electricity or energy consumption. Indeed, that energy would not even be needed to keep the craft airborne — as the oxygen store would also double up as a natural lifting agent for such aircrafts, as in the Venusian atmosphere of carbon dioxide, oxygen is a lifting gas — in the same way helium is a lifting gas on Earth. With temperature, pressure, gravity, and a constant source of food and oxygen via plant growth all accounted for, not to mention close proximity to Earth, waste & water recycling would be the main challenge for the permanence of such Venusian aircraft — where the initial establishment of a balanced ecosystem is key. The engineering challenge would be far less than that of establishing a colony or base on Mars. Just don’t look down!

News this past week on Fukushima has not been exactly reassuring has it. Meanwhile the pro-Nuclear lobby keep counting bananas. Here I’ve gathered together some of the recent news articles on the unfolding crisis. Interested to hear some comments on this one.

Fukushima leak is ‘much worse than we were led to believe’ / Aug 22, 2013, BBC NEWS http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23779561
Serious: Japan hikes Fukushima radiation danger level / August 21, 2013 RT NEWS http://rt.com/news/japan-fukushima-level-three-762/
Japan’s nuclear crisis deepens, China expresses ‘shock’ / Aug 21, 2013/ reuters http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/21/us-japan-fukushima…2B20130821
Worse than Chernobyl: The inner threat of Fukushima crisis / Aug 20, 2013/ RT http://rt.com/op-edge/chernobyl-fukushima-crisis-catastrophe-715/
Japan nuclear agency upgrades Fukushima alert level / Aug 21, 2013 / BBC NEWS http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23776345
Fukushima apocalypse: Years of ‘duct tape fixes’ could result in ‘millions of deaths’ / Aug 18 2013 / RT http://rt.com/news/fukushima-apocalypse-fuel-removal-598/
Fukushima’s Radioactive Water Leak: What You Should Know / National Geographic, Aug 2013 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2013/08/13080…ater-leak/

The shift that has happened in 40 years which mainly has to do with climate change. Forty years ago, I could say in the Whole Earth Catalog, “we are as gods, we might as well get good at it”. Photographs of earth from space had that god-like perspective.

What I’m saying now is we are as gods and have to get good at it. Necessity comes from climate change, potentially disastrous for civilization. The planet will be okay, life will be okay. We will lose vast quantities of species, probably lose the rain forests if the climate keeps heating up. So it’s a global issue, a global phenomenon. It doesn’t happen in just one area. The planetary perspective now is not just aesthetic. It’s not just perspective. It’s actually a world-sized problem that will take world sized solutions that involves forms of governance we don’t have yet. It involves technologies we are just glimpsing. It involves what ecologists call ecosystem engineering. Beavers do it, earthworms do it. They don’t usually do it at a planetary scale. We have to do it at a planetary scale. A lot of sentiments and aesthetics of the environmental movement stand in the way of that.

Continue reading “We are as Gods…” and watch the video interview