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Dec 17, 2015

Ethics on the near-future battlefield

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, cyborgs, ethics, food, genetics, military, neuroscience, robotics/AI

US army’s report visualises augmented soldiers & killer robots.


The US Army’s recent report “Visualizing the Tactical Ground Battlefield in the Year 2050” describes a number of future war scenarios that raise vexing ethical dilemmas. Among the many tactical developments envisioned by the authors, a group of experts brought together by the US Army Research laboratory, three stand out as both plausible and fraught with moral challenges: augmented humans, directed-energy weapons, and autonomous killer robots. The first two technologies affect humans directly, and therefore present both military and medical ethical challenges. The third development, robots, would replace humans, and thus poses hard questions about implementing the law of war without any attending sense of justice.

Augmented humans. Drugs, brain-machine interfaces, neural prostheses, and genetic engineering are all technologies that may be used in the next few decades to enhance the fighting capability of soldiers, keep them alert, help them survive longer on less food, alleviate pain, and sharpen and strengthen their cognitive and physical capabilities. All raise serious ethical and bioethical difficulties.

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Dec 17, 2015

Microsoft’s Latest HoloLens Is Here, and It’s Amazing

Posted by in categories: augmented reality, computing

Of all the recent advances in computing and consumer technology, This is BY FAR the one I’m most fascinated! Amazing tech.


The HoloLens headset from Microsoft is the world’s first untethered wearable that generates holograms before your eyes. It’s been nearly a year since we first strapped on a prototype, and as the tech goliath prepares to unleash a first batch of units to developers in the coming months, I was invited to check out just how far the technology has come.

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Dec 17, 2015

China’s dark-matter satellite launches era of space science

Posted by in categories: cosmology, particle physics, science

“The detector could help to clear up some mysteries. In 2013, the AMS announced it had seen hints of dark matter but so far it has detected too few high-energy particles to say for sure. Though DAMPE lacks the equipment to resolve the conundrum directly, it could reveal if the signal is caused by a different astrophysical source, such as pulsars, says Capell.

Although it will collect fewer incoming photons, DAMPE is better at pinpointing their energy than are existing γ-ray telescopes, such as NASA’s Fermi-LAT, says Miguel Sanchez-Conde, a physicist at the Oskar Klein Centre for Cosmoparticle Physics in Stockholm. This capability should allow DAMPE to see sharp spikes in radiation predicted by some dark-matter models.”

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Dec 17, 2015

Tesla throws shade at hacker who built a self-driving car

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, transportation

Samsung Pay lets users ditch the physical gift cards in favor of the digital version.

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Dec 17, 2015

Samsung’s mobile payment app gets virtual gift cards

Posted by in category: futurism

Samsung Pay lets users ditch the physical gift cards in favor of the digital version.

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Dec 17, 2015

Sway A Revolution in Transportation

Posted by in category: transportation

Sway Lithium PLUS electric three-wheeler–an urban creative capable of reaching speeds of up to 70mph. Just lean into turns and maneuvers allows riders to zip from point A to B without any lag.

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Dec 17, 2015

Bionic eye will send images direct to the brain to restore sight

Posted by in categories: cyborgs, neuroscience, transhumanism

A blind Australian is to have their vision restored with bionic eyes that send images straight into the brain using smart glasses and brain implants.

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Dec 17, 2015

B-roll: HoloLens (Channel 9)

Posted by in categories: augmented reality, computing

Intended for broadcast journalists, this broadcast-quality footage highlights Microsoft HoloLens. Microsoft HoloLens is the world’s first fully untethered holographic computer, powered by Windows 10, enabling high-definition holograms to integrate with your world.

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Dec 17, 2015

Ordering an Uber ride through Facebook Messenger feels like the future

Posted by in categories: futurism, transportation

It feels futuristic to have Uber built directly into an app like Facebook Messenger. Here’s how it works.

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Dec 17, 2015

Updated: Budget agreement boosts U.S. science

Posted by in category: science

NIH leads the pack as Congress hikes basic research at several agencies.

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