Tag: technology

"Firefighter Rescue Robot Eats Human Bodies"

That’s Technovelgy.com‘s headline, not mine…but I had the same idea the first time I saw the picture.

But did it contain a miniature Racquel Welch?

News item: Some 40 years after the release of the classic science fiction movie Fantastic Voyage, researchers in the NanoRobotics Laboratory of École Polytechnique de Montréal’s Department of Computer Engineering and Institute of Biomedical Engineering have achieved a major technological breakthrough in the field of medical robotics. They have succeeded for the first time in …

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This sounds like the setup for a science fiction story…

…but it’s real: A web-based “expert system” that helped users prepare bankruptcy filings for a fee made too many decisions to be considered a clerical tool, an appeals court said last week, ruling that the software was effectively practicing law without a license. (Via KurzweilAI.Net.)

The return of Commodore

My first computer was a Commodore 64, bought ca. 1981 for (if I remember correctly) $895 Canadian, plus $595 for the 1541 floppy disk drive. (It came with a plastic Apple core on a string to wear around your neck, the Apple II being the main competitor for the C64 when it launched.) I used …

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Ethics for robots

Says the BBC: An ethical code to prevent humans abusing robots, and vice versa, is being drawn up by South Korea. The Robot Ethics Charter will cover standards for users and manufacturers and will be released later in 2007. It is being put together by a five member team of experts that includes futurists and …

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Books that influenced today’s technologists…

…are rounded up in a survey by IEEE Spectrum. Robert A. Heinlein is well-represented, but even J.R.R. Tolkien gets a mention. (Via The Website at the End of the Universe.)

Something else I should have had on my fictional ocean planet:

A 127-mph submarine!

Hard on the heels of my column about ray guns…

…comes this story, headlined “Star Trek-like ‘Tricorder’ becomes science fact”: A press release at Purdue University has unveiled the startling news that a portable sensing system to analyze chemical components is now a reality. About the size of a large car battery, the unit is, at less than 20 pounds, much smaller than the refrigerator …

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Rise of the ray-guns

“Set phasers on stun!” Captain Kirk used to order his crew, the usual preference of the United Federation of Planets being to avoid killing aliens, no matter how bad their make-up, if at all possible. Alas, in the real world, we don’t always have that option. Aside from the Taser, which zaps people with an …

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Stick it where the sun shines:

A Swiss entrepreneur says his thin-film solar panels will provide power more cheaply than fossil fules within five years: Even though solar technology has made significant gains since the 1970s when it cost $100 per watt (now it’s $3 to $4 per watt), that sweet spot of beating out fossil fuels is $1 per watt. …

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"Gentlemen, we can rebuild him."

Here comes the bionic eye, the best hope yet of restoring sight to the blind: Profoundly blind people could get their best shot yet of restored vision with a more advanced “bionic eye”, researchers have announced. Trials of the new retinal prosthesis will begin shortly, following the success of a prototype that has enabled six …

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Something like this, I did use in my new novel

A staple of underwater adventure movies since at least the original Thunderball is now available for anyone who wants one…and can even be used in a pool. The Seadoo Sea Scooter Dolphin has handles and a propeller: you just hold on, and it pulls you through the water. It’s designed for use by anyone, in …

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