In the early 1990s, AT&T launched an eye-catching ad campaign that predicted future technological innovations (imagining, among other things, online libraries, videoconferencing, and smartwatches).
In 2011, AT&T paid homage to that campaign with a similar video that attempted to predict the technology of 2020. Now that the year is finally upon us, check out their video below (or click here) to see how it held up:
Here’s a fascinating development I will present without much additional commentary besides saying: this is the sort of science that really makes it seem as though the future is upon us! (And, incidentally, the sort that I argue will have hugely disruptive consequences for our society a few decades down the line.)
From The New York Times:
[T]wo neuroscientists at the University of Rochester say they have managed to introduce information directly into the premotor cortex of monkeys. The researchers published the results of the experiment on Thursday in the journal Neuron.Although the research is preliminary, carried out in just two monkeys, the researchers speculated that further research might lead to brain implants for people with strokes.
See the full article here; the scientific results are available here.
I’ll admit, I’m a sucker for robots in general. (And, for that matter, for 7-foot-long arms.) But this one is particularly impressive: the Guardian GT, by Sarcos Robotics. Sarcos bills the bot as a “human-controlled, force-multiplying robotic system with one or two highly dexterous arms mounted on a track or wheeled base, allowing a single operator to do more, safely”; it “multiplies individual effectiveness and adds leverage to human capabilities.”
You can learn more about the Guardian GT at wired.com. They write:
Behold the Guardian GT from Sarcos Robotics, which in all honesty is full-tilt bonkers. Bonkers in the sense that unlike the clunky Power Loader, these 7-foot-long arms replicate human motions with incredible smoothness and accuracy, each limb lifting 500 pounds, then turning around and manipulating the most delicate of objects. Watching it in action is both hypnotic and highly unsettling.
An accurate characterization, I’d say.
