Lifeboat Foundation

Hayley Tsukayama — WashingtonPost

United Way Worldwide announced Monday that it will begin taking donations in Bitcoin, the digital currency.

Bitcoin users can now use the currency for donations to the United Way’s Innovation Fund, a part of the United Way dedicated to updating the organization through “technology, relationships and efficiency.” Coinbase, one of the leading Bitcoin payment platforms, is partnering with the charity to let those interested donate directly from their digital Bitcoin wallets to the fund. According to a page on the United Way’s Web site, anyone from around the world can donate to the fund using Bitcoin.

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by Brian Krassenstein — 3Dprint.com

When it comes to 3D printing, new breakthroughs and new achievements are being realized almost on a daily basis. From 3D printable human tissue, to a 3D printed life-size castle, and now a 3D printed automobile, the technology never seizes to amaze.

This week, at the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) in Chicago, Arizona-based automobile manufacturer Local Motors stole the show. Over the six day span of the IMTS, the company managed to 3D print, and assemble an entire automobile, called the ‘Strati’, live in front of spectators.

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FUTURISM UPDATE (September 22, 2014)

THE INDEPENDENT: A SpaceX cargo ship rocketed toward the International Space Station yesterday, carrying the first 3D printer for astronauts in orbit. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/postcard-from-cape-c…47380.html

3D PRINTING: 3D Re-Printer Concept – All-in-one Plastic Recycling 3D Printer http://3dprint.com/15103/3d-re-printer/

Continue reading “FUTURISM UPDATE (September 22, 2014)” »

by Mariella Moon

We’ve seen several attempts at making jetpacks that fly, but over at Arizona State University, a team is developing one for those who prefer staying closer to the ground. The DARPA-funded project (naturally) is called 4MM or 4 minute mile, and it aims to develop a jetpack that can provide soldiers that extra boost needed to run a full mile within four minutes. Sure, soldiers are physically fit, but the jetpack will make sure each one can do a 4-minute mile, even if they’re not particularly fast runners, and even if they’re carrying heavy equipment and armor.

Thus far, testers have been shaving seconds off their running time even while carrying the 11-pound jetpack, though the ASU researchers still have a ways to go to achieve their goal. Since being able to move fast without much rest can save your life in the battlefield, Harvard’s Soft Exosuit inventors should totally get together with these ASU researchers to make the ultimate getaway suit.

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by Brian Krassenstein — 3Dprint.com

The ability to 3D print objects of all shapes, and many sizes, has enabled individuals to take at least some control of their lives away from the large manufacturers and corporations out there. We can now become the makers of what we consumer. 3D printing has been touted as a way to cut back on waste. Additive manufacturing is clearly a much better fabrication method than that of subtractive manufacturing. These new processes are certainly saving materials for the large manufacturers out there who may be printing in metals, or other materials instead of using milling techniques. For those of us who use ordinary FDM-based desktop 3D printers to make trinkets and little doo-dads, let’s be honest, we are probably causing more plastic waste than we were prior to purchasing these machines. How many 3D prints have you had which have failed and you simply end up throwing away? Half of the stuff you print, you likely would never have purchased anyway, right?

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FUTURISM UPDATE (September 21, 2014)

GE INTELLIGENT PLATFORMS: High-performance Automation for a Connected World http://www.ge-ip.com/future-of-industrial-automation

CNN: View from Russia: Could Putin be in Obama’s ‘broad coalition’ against ISIS? http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/18/opinion/isis-obama-putin-n…?hpt=hp_c1

Continue reading “FUTURISM UPDATE (September 21, 2014)” »

Nidhi Subbaraman — BetaBoston

The candidate for best robotic hand looks like a beanbag and claims to grip anything.

A Boston builder of robot hands, Empire Robotics, is showing its first commercial grippers today: the enchanting and entirely fingerless VersaBall. Interestingly, this first demonstration is in partnership with Universal Robots, who happens to be local bot maker Rethink Robotics’ competitor.

Continue reading “Empire Robotics shows its hands … and they’re fingerless” »

FUTURISM UPDATE (September 20, 2014)

DARPA: President Obama Highlights New DARPA Program Aimed at Developing Novel Therapies Customized to Individual Patients http://www.darpa.mil/NewsEvents/Releases/2014/08/26.aspx

Rising Tides – Mitigation versus Consternation http://www.21stcentech.com/rising-tides-mitigation-consternation/

Continue reading “FUTURISM UPDATE (September 20, 2014)” »

By Angela Chen — The Chronicle of Higher Education

When the world ends, it may not be by fire or ice or an evil robot overlord. Our demise may come at the hands of a superintelligence that just wants more paper clips.

So says Nick Bostrom, a philosopher who founded and directs the Future of Humanity Institute, in the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford. He created the “paper-clip maximizer” thought experiment to expose flaws in how we conceive of superintelligence. We anthropomorphize such machines as particularly clever math nerds, says Bostrom, whose book Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies was released in Britain in July and arrived stateside this month. Spurred by science fiction and pop culture, we assume that the main superintelligence-gone-wrong scenario features a hostile organization programming software to conquer the world. But those assumptions fundamentally misunderstand the nature of superintelligence: The dangers come not necessarily from evil motives, says Bostrom, but from a powerful, wholly nonhuman agent that lacks common sense.

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