The Future Is Now

A collection of some of the best links from around the web, manually curated.

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Knowing the unknown

Someday in the future, robots will remember that this was the moment the humans enabled them to take over the world. If not, it’s still a big deal worth reflecting on: Researchers at MIT work to build robots’ awareness of their own limitations. Once they know what they can’t do, a whole lot more is possible for us with them, and probably eventually for them with us.

From Weekly Filet #107, in April 2013.

The Web We Lost

We, users of the web, are well advised to «know our shit». An important article on the state of the web (see also the follow-up to the article).

From Weekly Filet #97, in December 2012.

Cyborg America: inside the strange new world of basement body hackers

They can’t wait for cyborg body enhancements to become available. So they build and implant them by themselves. This is a thrilling (in all possible senses) report on «body hackers». They have magnets implanted in their fingertips to feel electrical waves, wear permanently attached computerised glasses and control a robot arm with their own arm across the Atlantic. Their next challenge: Implant an LED-display under the skin of the forearm to display heart rate, body temperature, and blood pressure. What makes this such a compelling read: Here you have the somewhat crazy DIY-wannabe-cyborgs, but then again this is pretty much the direction medical technology, nanotechnology and the likes of Google are leading us to.

From Weekly Filet #80, in August 2012.

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