Futurist
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Under Armour's latest $300 3D-printed sneaker arrives March 30th
Last year Under Armour debuted a limited run (96 pairs) of Architech shoes with a 3D-printed midsole, and now it's continuing the line with the Futurist. Once again, that 3D printing is used to create a "dynamic lattice network" for cushioning but this time it's matched to a compression lace system that adds an external sleeve with a zipper and a UA SpeedForm upper for a very secure fit. Its "heel stability solution" is supposed to be steady enough for strength training, but versatile enough for whatever workout you're willing to attempt in this limited edition $300 sneaker.
Futurist Ray Kurzweil: Nanotech is the key to better EV batteries
Living up to his billing as an inventor/visionary, Ray Kurzweil kicked off an engineering conference in Detroit this week by imagining what might power cars of the future. Sure, he mentioned the self-driving cars his employer Google is working on, but a more interesting response was to a question from our AutoblogGreen colleagues. Pressed on the future possibilities of electric cars and hydrogen fuel cells, Kurzweil first mentioned the "modest" progress batteries have made so far and suggested nanotechnology will provide a solution. He believes that being able to "manipulate energy and matter at a molecular level" will lead to revolutionary applications.
Ray Kurzweil becomes a Googler, named Director of Engineering
Come December 17th, futurist extraordinaire Ray Kurzweil will be joining Google's ranks as Director of Engineering to work on projects that involve machine learning and language processing. Specifics regarding those projects, however, haven't yet surfaced. The technologist took the announcement to pat himself on the back about predicting the arrival of self-driving cars and smartphones that can answer questions more than a decade ago, and says he's "thrilled to be teaming up with Google to work on some of the hardest problems in computer science so we can turn the next decade's 'unrealistic' visions into reality." If things pan out how the Google greenhorn predicts, we might just see computers as crafty as Homo sapiens by 2029. [Image credit: Ed Schipul]
Newspaper thinktank predicted the iPad in 1994
It's not often (well, ever) that I consider the possibility someone might be from the future, but maybe Roger Fidler was. In 2007 the Paleofuture blog pointed to the video below, where Fidler and his team at Knight-Ridder describe an electronic newspaper running on what might as well be an iPad... except that the video was made way back in 1994. Most futurists are off the mark, or make forecasts for technologies that are so far off in the future, you'll never know if they are right, but the Knight-Ridder team's predictions for the "electronic tablet" were just eerie. Granted, they forecast it for the turn of the century -- and in their version of the future, people still wore collarless denim shirts -- but it's otherwise freakishly accurate. "We may still use computers to create information, but we will use the tablet to interact with print, video and other information," the video explains. It also goes on to describe personal "profile pages," "interactive maps" and sharing links with friends. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. It even seems like Fidler is channeling Steve Jobs at some points, saying "Nobody needs a manual for their daily newspaper" and that tablet newspapers need to be kept simple. Amazingly, he even seems to describe iAds. Of course, the Knight-Ridder tablet wasn't the first futurist's take on a pad-shaped newsreader, but at least this one doesn't also come with a neurotic killer computer in space. If you were watching this video in 1994, you were watching 13 minutes of the future. Read on to see the clip. Bonus points to Fidler & co. for the classic PowerBook Duo, Newton and other Apple history in the background. [via The Inquisitr; hat tip to Bronwen Clune]
Futurist Jamais Cascio discusses Superstruct
Superstruct is the world's first massively multiplayer forecasting game. What does this mean? As a player of this alternate reality game, you envision your life as it would be in 2019 and collaborate with other players to come up with innovative solutions to global 'superthreats'. These superthreats may bring us to a tipping point that determines whether the human race either solves its looming problems and continues existence, or society collapses under the weight of its troubles. The excellent sci-fi centric io9 has an interview with futurist Jamais Cascio, a member of the Superstruct game design team. Cascio discusses his work on "21st Century Ideas" (essentially a toolkit of solutions to the game's superthreats), the influence of Children of Men on the game and its setting, and some of the innovative creations he's seen from players in the relatively short time since the game launched. It's definitely worth a read if you're interested in a game grounded in futurist speculation. If this piques your interest in Superstruct, don't wait to find out more -- the game will only run for another 5 weeks. Be sure to check out Massively's primer on Superstruct to help you get started, as well as Jane McGonigal's Avant Game blog for more info about the game.
