Original content

What happens if data disproves your viewpoint?

Submitted by Daryl Weade on Thu, 03/20/2014 - 10:13

Data.gov icon Even as an (very) amateur futurist (you have to start somewhere), you run across information that challenges perceptions - both your own and those you see every day. One of the biggest lessons I've learned through my research/writing is that any lack of objectivity skews your viewpoints on the future. I can and should include my beliefs, values and desires, but too much subjectivity and any forecasts are little more than daydreams or nightmares.

How will personal drones impact our society?

Submitted by Daryl Weade on Wed, 03/19/2014 - 14:42

Camera drone in flight Noah Smith offers his assessment of the social impact of drones on Quartz. He asserts they will cause the most societal upheaval in 700 years since the adoption of the gun. For military power, Smith is forecasting a shift in battlefield technology towards the use of piloted and eventually autonomous drones and robots.

Your Drone is Ruining my Buzz

Submitted by Daryl Weade on Wed, 03/19/2014 - 14:37

Camera drone Jester slid the door open and headed for the pool. Nothing like baking in the sun to cure a hangover - if your shades are dark enough and the splif is big enough. His feet danced a bit on the hot concrete, but it still felt good when the rays hit his back.

Sucking in some smoke, he held it in his lungs an extra few seconds before coughing it out. The chemicals hadn't hit yet, but his body knew to relax - help was on the way.

On course to collapse or a future of abundance?

Submitted by Daryl Weade on Tue, 03/18/2014 - 14:58

Deserted farm News this week from a NASA sponsored study on the possibility of civilization collapse and how it might happen. The study was led by applied mathematician Safa Motesharrei and looked at five factors leading to historical collapses of past civilizations such as the Roman empire: population, climate, water, agriculture, and energy.

2030: A Day in the Life of Tomorrow's Kids

Submitted by Daryl Weade on Mon, 03/17/2014 - 11:51

So much energy goes into the future, both preparing for it and finding ways to retail it, but there aren't many good resources for the kids who will inherit it. 2030: A Day in the Life of Tomorrow's Kids is just that - a resource to help today's kids understand a bit of what their future might hold.

It's a nice resource and at only 30 pages long, it manages to cover a wide range of material, including clothing, communications, living space, careers, our populations, housing developments, transportation, recreation and education. The final page includes a nice list of books, reports and websites the reader can access for additional information.

Will our future include bread runs to feed our smart-toasters?

Submitted by Daryl Weade on Mon, 03/17/2014 - 10:53

Brad the Toaster It'll start out that way, of course. We'll buy these networked, AI driven toasters to pop some bread in which they'll char to perfection every time. There will be toast contests with our friends, an app keeping track of how many slices we consume over time and how many steps it takes to burn the calories - more with butter - even more with jam.

Like most things, the toaster will lose its newness. The shine will wear off as the dust collects. Every so often, it'll let us know how unhappy it is. How unused if feels. That's when we start buying bread just to give it something to do, so it will feign happiness and not annoy us with its app notifications - "It's time for some toast!"

Will we have a future of extreme inequality and bountiful resources?

Submitted by Daryl Weade on Thu, 03/13/2014 - 10:58

Robot speaking in public They say in every utopia there is a subclass for whom it is a dystopia. In mainstream futuristic media, the story often overlooks the economy unless it offers a political statement supporting their view and/or damning the opposition’s take on things. But the future is beginning to look a bit strange. On one side, the ability to provide ample resources in the first world has some questioning if poverty can even exist in countries like the US, Canada, and the original EU member states such as Britain, France and Germany. An article I recall from some time ago asked the question, “Can you be considered poor if you have a flatscreen TV in your home?”

Science fiction is the new R&D

Submitted by Daryl Weade on Tue, 03/11/2014 - 13:17

When I imagined Regarding Tomorrow as a social site, part of it was crowdsourcing member ideas to build towards greater accuracy of what the future might hold - specifically how new advancements might impact our cultures. Always on the lookout for information helping me to better understand what the site needs to offer, I ran across three tweets today, all very close to one another, that struck a chord as I consider my first major site refresh.

The first was from Ali Madad:

Design Fiction is where Science Fiction lives now. —@warrenellis #SXSW #MLSciFi
— Ali Madad (@amadad) March 10, 2014

Can we use inquiry based learning to identify when the Singularity arrives?

Submitted by Daryl Weade on Mon, 03/10/2014 - 16:21

Red robot Over the weekend, I was listening to This Week in Law's episode from January 31: Deep blue vs The Universe. They started the episode on the topic of the Singularity and James Miller and Stan Liebowitz discussed how we might know the Singularity has been achieved. Each had a different view on how far into the future this event might occur and what capabilities that intelligence should possess to be considered "intelligent." Both viewpoints were informative, but I found Dr. Liebowitz' statements extremely interesting in how he felt a contrast between an artificial intelligence and a human should be used to identify when the artificial process has reached or surpassed a comparable human capability. Dr Liebowitz shared this thought:

@24:25 - I see things computers can do that people can't, but things people can do that computers can't is what we're talking about.

If I get a robot, it better be funny

Submitted by Daryl Weade on Mon, 03/10/2014 - 12:10

Hey, marketers. Want me to buy a robot to help around the house? Make it funny. Make it personal. Make it raise my spirits. I can wash my own dishes and mop my own floors. I can get my own mail and cookies (and if I get my cookies, I get how many I want and not how many some @#&%@%$ app says I can eat). Yes, robots can simplify my life by managing regular chores. But can it lift my spirits in real-time?

I can't tell myself jokes or chat with myself about the news. And I'm a bit snarky on a good day - really snarky on a bad day. Of all the robots I could hang with, barring the ScarJoBot my wife will never agree to, Bender would be a hoot (and earned the top spot on this list of funny robots).