In Brief Before Tesla CEO Elon Musk rolled out the new Model 3 on Friday, he briefly went over the "production hell" that the electric car has represented. Tesla has simplified the design of the autonomous vehicle to meet production and pricing goals.

Designing the Model 3 to meet pricing and production goals has been a nightmare, Teslas CEO Elon Musk revealed during a press briefing Friday night.

The major challenge we faced with the Model 3 is not really the product, TechCrunch reported that Musk said at the briefing. Its going to be pretty great, but its going to be quite a challenge to produce this car.

Musk went on to describe the six months of production hell Tesla is facing in order to meet its production target of rolling out 500,000 Model 3 vehicles per year a goal that Musk hopes to meet within the next year or so.

To a greater degree than Teslas earlier vehicles, the Model 3 has been built for mass appeal. This has required 10,000 unique components in the car, Musk emphasized. If the manufacturing of any of these parts is particularly cumbersome, it will slow the entire production line down.

To avoid this, Tesla engineers had to simplify some of the cars components. Among other changes, [w]eve intentionally gone for a very simple interior with a single screen, Musk said at the briefing.

But one feature that the Model 3 does not cut corners on is autonomous driving. Musk said that the vehicle is equipped with the same sensor devices that are used in the Model S and Model X, and that Tesla plans to continue to build on this foundation.

Ultimately, the simpler design of the Model 3 has allowed Telsa to manufacture the vehicles at about 1/5 the cost of Model S cars. The affordable pricing will tap into a demand that not even the Model 3s reservations have truly revealed yet, Musk postulated.

If we did anything to even not put the brake on demand, it would go bananas, Musk said according to TechCrunch reports.

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Musk: Next Six Months Will Be Production Hell for Tesla - Futurism

In Brief 2017 has been a stellar year for cryptocurrencies as a whole, but Bitcoin is still the de facto leader in terms of popularity and market cap. However, several characteristics inherent to Litecoin could give it the ability to challenge Bitcoin's domination in the crypto market.

While Bitcoincurrently leads the cryptocurrency market in terms of adoption and market cap, some argue that other, newer cryptos are actually a better investment. Once proposed alternative isLitecoin. Sometimes referred to as the silver Bitcoin, this altcoin could prove superior based on four factors.

First, Litecoins algorithm is far simpler than Bitcoins, which makes it easier to run on graphics processing units (GPUs). This results in a lower barrier to entry for Litecoin miners in comparison to Bitcoin.

Second, Litecoin has a faster block generation speed. Processing a Litecoin block takes two-and-a-half minutes as opposed to Bitcoins 10. This decreases transaction fees, making the Litecoin cryptocurrency more attractive to investors.

Third, Litecoin is about to launch a lightning network that will improve its already superior ability to adapt to changes. This network will make it easier for Litecoin to scale as it gains more traction.

Fourth, Litecoins lifetime cap is higher than Bitcoins (84 million coins as opposed to 24 million).Once this cap is reached, miners will no longer be a part of the process, and this could decrease the security and stability of the blockchain supporting each currency.

While cryptocurrencies in general areincreasing in popularity, the individual variants are constantly vying for market dominance. Perhaps Litecoin will come out on top, or perhaps it wont the primarycharacteristic shared by all cryptocurrencies right nowis volatility, and only time will tell how the crypto market ultimately plays out.

Disclosure: Several members of the Futurism team, including the editors of this piece, are personal investors in a number of cryptocurrency markets. Their personal investment perspectives have no impact on editorial content.

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This Altcoin Is Ready to Challenge Bitcoin's Domination of the Crypto Market - Futurism

In Brief The United States Navy has announced that the LaWS laser defense system is up and running. The weapon is designed to take out drones and ships and has future potential in missile defense.

The U.S. Navy has announced that the worlds first functional laser weapon is ready for action. The weapon, known as the Laser Weapons System (LaWS), can be found mounted on the USS Ponce, which is currently deployed in the Persian Gulf.

The weapon was designed to strategically take out flying unmanned vessels. It alsohas the ability to surgically destroy engines of manned watercraft without endangering the lives of any onboard personnel. The Geneva Convention restricts the use of laser weapons against humans, but the high precision of the laser could allow it to target a ships engine without the use of missiles. That type of precision weapon work is something that you dont really get with conventional weapons because there tends to be more collateral damage, Inez Kelly, a U.S. Naval Forces Central Command science adviser, told CNN.

This technology could be the beginning of replacing missiles for the purpose of destroying enemy targets. On top of sparing lives, the cost comparison of a single shot from LaWS and a missile is astounding: while missiles can cost up to millions of dollars, a single LaWS round only costs about one dollar.

The weapon is currently only approved for drones and water vessels, but the Navy is alsotesting other applications under the cover of classified status, of course.

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The World's First Functional Laser Weapon is Ready to Protect You - Futurism

In Brief The United Arab Emirates Space Agency has finally unveiled the first of its missions to Mars: sending a probe to study the planet's atmosphere. This plan puts in motion a major goal of the space agency since its foundation back in 2014.

While, in the United States, NASAs plans to go to Mars are in financial trouble, other nations seem to be stepping up their own goals for the Red Planet. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Space Agency has finally announced its plans to send a probe to Mars. The Al Amal (which means Hope in Arabic) Probe is set to reach the Mars orbit by 2021, which is the 50th anniversary of the UAEs independence.

The objectives of the mission are to build highly qualified UAE human resources in the field of space technology, to develop knowledge, scientific research and space applications that benefit mankind, to create a sustainable knowledge-based economy, to promote diversification and encourage innovation, the announcement said.

The probe will study the Martian atmosphere to understand how it developed into its current state. This mission would be taking us to another level so it would be adding to the level of Science or knowledge about Mars and its atmosphere to the scientific community, Salem Humaid AlMarri, assistant director general for Scientific and Technology Affairs, told EuroNews. This knowledge, the UAE Space Agency hopes, will help us to better protect the Earths atmosphere.A crucial part of UAEs Al Amal mission, which already has a total funding of $5.44 billion, is academic progress. Working with scientists from the University of Colorado, the Al Amal teams are expected to learn everything they need to construct the space probe.

Disclosure: The Dubai Future Foundation works in collaboration with Futurism and is one of our sponsors. This post was not paid for or edited by DFF.

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The UAE Will Launch Its First Mission to Mars in 2021 - Futurism

Advancing Fusion Research

There are already a number of researchers involved in developing stable nuclear fusion. The goal may seem simple enough in theory:harnessing the same energy that powers the Sun but attaining it has proven to be rather difficult. For one, sustaining a stable nuclear fusion reaction is tricky, as it requires playing with variables that arent that easy to manipulate. Thats why Google Research is working in tandem with nuclear fusion company Tri-Alpha Energy to help simplify the process.

Their solution is a computer algorithm, dubbed the Optometrist algorithm, that can speed up experiments involving plasma, the core ingredient in a fusion reaction. Its also the most challenging aspect to manipulate. The whole thing is beyond what we know how to do even with Google-scale computer resources, Ted Baltz, a senior software engineer fromthe Google Accelerated Science Team, wrote in a Google Research blog.

We boiled the problem down to lets find plasma behaviors that an expert human plasma physicist thinks are interesting, and lets not break the machine when were doing it, Baltz added. This was a classic case of humans and computers doing a better job together than either could have separately.

The Optometrist algorithm was applied to Tri-Alpha Energys C2-U machine, where it was able to perform experiments that usually took a month to finish in just a few hours. The result, which was published in the journal Scientific Reports, was a 50 percent reduction in system-induced energy losses that increased total plasma energy. It was only for about two milliseconds, but still, it was a first! Baltz wrote. The next step is reaching that critical threshold necessary for nuclear fusion to occur and to stabilize.

Fusion research hasgarneredsignificant attention in recent years as scientists have recognized itspotential as arenewable and clean energy source. Nuclear fusion could generate four times the amount of energy nuclear fission produces (one fission event yields about 200 MeV of energy, or about 3.2 10-11 watt-seconds). Its no wonder, then, that fusion is considered the holy-grail of energy research.

Recent questions in fusion research have been concernedwith finding ways to stabilizethe plasma that powers it not an easy feat, since it requires temperatures of over 30 million degrees Celsius to sustain. Thus far, some researchers have proposedbuilding better fusion reactors,and others arelooking at the possibility of using a different base for plasma. Instead of the usual hydrogen, deuterium, or helium, physicists from the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratoryhave been tinkering with argon-based plasma.

Where does Googles algorithm fit in? Well, it couldsignificantly shorten the amount of time needed for each of these experiments. Results like this might take years to solve without the power of advanced computation, Baltz said. By running computational modelsalongsidehuman experiments, the Optometrist algorithm can breeze through every possible combination for nuclear fusion to work.

Tri-Aplha Energy has already ditched the C2-U machine in favor of the more advanced Norman, which already achieved first plasma earlier this month. Theyre set to build a power generator for demonstration pending more successful experiments withthe Norman.

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Google's New Algorithm Wants to Help Researchers Stabilize Nuclear Fusion Reactions - Futurism

Crime Prevention

Authorities in China are exploring predictive analytics, facial recognition, and other artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to help prevent crime in advance. Based on behavior patterns, authorities will notify local police about potential offenders.

Cloud Walk, a company headquartered in Guangzhou, has been training its facial recognition and big data rating systems to track movements based on risk levels. Those who are frequent visitors to weapons shops or transportation hubs are likely to be flagged in the system, and even places like hardware stores have been deemed high risk by authorities.

ACloud Walk spokesmantoldThe Financial Times,Of course, if someone buys a kitchen knife thats OK, but if the person also buys a sack and a hammer later, that person is becoming suspicious. Cloud Walks software is connected to the police database across more than 50 cities and provinces, and can flag suspicious characters in real time.

China is also using personal re-identification in crime prediction: identifying the same person in different places, even if theyre wearing different clothes. We can use re-ID to find people who look suspicious by walking back and forth in the same area, or who are wearing masks, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics professor of bodily recognition Leng Biao told The Financial Times. With re-ID, its also possible to reassemble someones trail across a large area.

China is, in many ways, the ideal place to use this kind of technology. The government has an extensive archive of data from citizen records and more than 176 million surveillance cameras. In other words, China has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to big data, and can train its AI systems very effectively, without any meaningful legal hurdles. Click to View Full Infographic

These arent the only ways that China is extending its AI capabilities. The government just revealed a massive, well-organized and funded plan to make China the global leader in AI by 2030. The nation deploys facial recognition in schools to counter cheating, on streets to fight jaywalking, and even in bathrooms to limit toilet paper waste. It should come as no surprise that the Chinese government would also employ these technologies to prevent crime and maybe even predict it.

If we use our smart systems and smart facilities well, we can know beforehand . . . who might be a terrorist, who might do something bad, Chinas vice-minister of science and technology Li Meng said to The Financial Times.

However you feel about Chinas Minority Report style plans, AI is making the world safer. Although AI is certainly a potential surveillance tool, it can also be used to protect privacy, keep healthcare records private, secure financial transactions, and prevent hacking. AI is responsible for smart security cameras, robot guards, and better military technologies. AI is also the reason self-driving cars are about to eliminate at least 90 percent of traffic fatalities. In other words, while you might object to certain applications, its hard to argue against AI technology on the wholeif youre concerned with the future of safety and privacy both online and off.

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China's Minority Report Style Plans Will Use AI to Predict Who Will Commit Crimes - Futurism

In Brief The key to recalling memories from the void of Alzheimer's disease may be to use lasers to activate certain neurons in the brain. If this research undertaken on mice could be applied to humans, it could help the millions suffering from the disease. Lighting the Way Ahead

Scientists at Columbia University discovered during a study published in the journal Hippocampusthat the memories of mice with Alzheimers disease can be recovered optogenetically meaning with the use of lights. This could shift our understanding of the disease from the idea that it destroys memories to the concept that it simply disruptsrecall mechanisms.

The results were garnered by comparing healthy mice with mice given a disease similar to human Alzheimers. First, parts of mices brains were engineered to glow yellow during memory storage and red during memory recall. Then, the mice were exposed to the smell of lemon followed by an electric shock associating the two memories.

A week later, they were given the smell of lemon again: the healthy mices red and yellow glows overlapped and they expressed fear, showing they were accessing the right memories. However, the Alzheimers brains glowed in different areas, and the diseased mice were indifferent, showing they were recalling from the wrong sections of the brain.

The team, lead by Christine A. Denny, then used a fiber optic cable to shine a blue laser into the mices brains. This successfully reactivated the lemon and electric shock memory and caused the mice to freeze when they smelt it.

The research could possibly revolutionize Alzheimers research and treatment, helping the 5 million Americans who are suffering fromthe disease. Ralph Martins at Edith Cowan University in Australia told New Scientist that it has the potential to lead to novel drug development to help with regaining memories.

However, the crucial question is whether mice brains and the artificial Alzheimers disease that the team exposed them to are sufficiently similar to the human variant for the results to be medically significant. In particular, humans loose more neurons than mice during the course of Alzheimers, and it would be extremely difficult to target specific memories because our brains are far more complicated.

While further studies must be done, thesefindings are one of many promising avenues that are currently being developed in Alzheimers research. Artificial intelligenceis being applied to the condition and has successfully predicted who will develop Alzheimers 10 years out, the leukemia drug nilotinib has been shown to help combat the condition and finally,a metabolic enhancement for neurodegeneration treatment has also reversed some of its symptoms.

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New Evidence Suggests Alzheimer's Doesn't Destroy Memories, it Only Blocks Them - Futurism

In Brief Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have found that the brain's white matter is of lower quality in individuals with depression. This is the largest of its type to date, and it could help produce a better treatment for the world's leading disability. White Matter Matters

A new study published in Scientific Reportshas revealeda link between depression and the structure of white matter in the brain, which we use to process our emotions and thoughts. The research, which was conducted by the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, analysed data from 3,461 people in the U.K. Biobank database, making it the largest study of its kind in history.

The scientists used diffusion tensor imaging which is based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to create highly detailed maps of the fibers in the brain. When they compared depression sufferers to healthy individuals they realized that there were substantial differences in the integrity (or quality) of the white matter.

Heather Whalley, who led the team, said in a Biobank press release that there is an urgent need to provide treatment for depression and an improved understanding of it[s] mechanisms will give us a better chance of developing new and more effective methods of treatment. Our next steps will be to look at how the absence of changes in the brain relates to better protection from distress and low mood.

Depression is epidemic in todays society, with 40 million adults 18 percent of the populationbeing affected in the U.S. alone. However, only a third of people suffering from anxiety related disorders receive treatment. Research like this study is pivotal to improving the quality of millions of lives by uncovering thephysical causes of the disorder.

The studyadds toa growing body of research that supports theunderstanding that depression as a physical condition rather than a chemical or purely psychological one. This has instigated a fundamental change in the way depression is treated.

For example, researchers at UCLA have begun to use magnetic pulses to target the specific parts of the mind that are associated with depression actually changing how the brain circuits are arranged, how they talk to each other as the press release stated.

In order to fight depression these types of research are crucial let us all hope one of them leads to a cure capable of helping millions.

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New Study Reveals That The Brains of People With Depression Look Different - Futurism

A New Age in Human Evolution

By now, most of usknow what CRISPR gene editing is. At the very least, we have heard of this revolutionary technology that allows us to alter DNAthe source code of life itself. One day, CRISPR could allow us to delete genes in order to eradicate genetic diseases, add in new genes in order to vastly improve various biological functions, or even genetically modify human embryos in order to create an entirely new class of humansof super humans.

But first, we have a lot of research to do.

And that brings us to today.Reports from MIT were just released which assert that the very first attempt at creating genetically modified human embryos in the United States has been carried out by a team of researchers in Portland, Oregon.

So far as I know this will be the first study reported in the U.S., Jun Wu, who played a role in the project and is a collaborator at the Salk Institute, said to MIT.

According to MIT, the work was led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov, who comes from the Oregon Health and Science University. Although details are scarce at this point, sources familiar with the work assert that the research involved changing the DNA of one-cell embryos using CRISPR gene-editing. Further,Mitalipov is believed to have broken records in two notable ways:

This is notable because, despite the fact that it has been around for several years now, CRISPR is still an incredibly new toolone that could have unintended consequences. As previous work published in the journal Nature Methods revealed, CRISPR-Cas9 could lead to unintended mutations in a genome. However, the work was laterreviewed by researchers at another institutionand the findings were brought into question. It remains to be seen whether the original study will be corrected or retracted, but this development highlights the importance of peer review in science.

In this regard, Mitalipovs work brings us further down the path to understanding exactly how CRISPR works in humans, and reveals that is it possible to avoid both mosaicism (changes that are taken up not by only some of the cells of an embryo, as opposed to all of them) and off-target effects.

It is important to note that none of the embryos were allowed to develop for more than a few days, and that the team never had any intention of implanting them into a womb. However, it seems that this is largelydue to ongoing regulatory issues, as opposed to issues with the technology itself.

In the United States, allefforts to turn edited embryos into a babyto bring the embryo to full termhave been blocked by Congress, which added language to the Department of Health and Human Services funding bill that forbids it from approving any such clinical trials.

Yet, the potential of the CRISPR-Cas9 system as a gene editing technology is undeniable. As previously mentioned, it has seen success in developing possible cancer treatments, in making animals disease-resistant, and ithas even shown promise in replacing antibiotics altogether.

This new work adds to the promise of CRISPR, and stands as an important step toward the birth of the first genetically modified humans.

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Scientists Just Successfully Edited the First Human Embryo Ever in The US - Futurism

In Brief On Monday, Russian airline S7 began using a blockchain platform for their ticket sales. The move is evidence of both Russia's interest in the technology and a worldwide shift toward a future supported by blockchain.

Russian magazine Kommersanthas reported that the airlineS7began selling tickets using an Ethereum blockchainon Monday. The countrys largest private financial institution,Alfa-Bank, is supporting the move, which was made to simplifypayments and decrease settlement times between airlines and agents a process that usually takes two weeks.

The decision may have been made to get ahead of another Russian airline, Aeroflot, which recently released a request for proposals on how to incorporate cryptocurrencies into their own services.

S7s decision to utilize Ethereum represents two wider trends in the world of blockchain. First, Russias interest in the technology. This is reflected by the central banktesting an Ethereum-based blockchain systemand Vladimir Putin optimistically announcing that blockchain is essentially the foundation for creating brand new business models at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum.

Second, the move shows a worldwide increase in the integration of blockchain into everyday transactions. The system has been adopted by shipping companies such as Maerskand retailers like Walmart to keep track of shipments, and if S7s integration is successful, citizens outside of Russia could soon find themselves booking their own travel on the blockchain.

Disclosure: Several members of the Futurism team, including the editors of this piece, are personal investors in a number of cryptocurrency markets. Their personal investment perspectives have no impact on editorial content.

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An Airline Just Started Using an Ethereum Blockchain to Issue Tickets - Futurism

In BriefA Finnish research team has taken a step towards the future offood by developing a method for producing food from electricity. Ifscaling it up proves to be successful, it could be a tool in thefight against world hunger and climate change. The Electric Bioreactor Farm

Finnish researchers have created a batch of single-cell protein that is nutritious enough to servefor dinner using a system powered by renewable energy. The entire process requires only electricity, water, carbon dioxide, and microbes. The synthetic food was created as part of the Food From Electricity project, which is a collaboration between Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) and the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.

After exposing the raw materials to electrolysis in a bioreactor, the process forms a powder that consists of more than 50 percent protein and 25 percent carbohydrates the texture can also be changed by altering the microbes used in the production.

The next stage, according to Juha-Pekka Pitknen, principal scientist at VTT, is to optimize the system because, currently, a bioreactor the size of a coffee cup takes around two weeks to produce one gram of the protein. Pitknen said in a LUT press release,We are currently focusing on developing the technology: reactor concepts, technology, improving efficiency, and controlling the process.

He predicted that it would take about a decade before a more efficient incarnation of the system would be widely available Maybe 10years is a realistic timeframe for reaching commercial capacity, in terms of the necessary legislation and process technology.

The potential impact of food produced using electricity and otherwidely available raw materials is enormous. Currently, there are two main ways that it could be used.

First, as a means of feeding starving people and providing a source of food in areas that are not suited to agricultural production. Pitknen said that, in the future, the technology can be transported to, for instance, deserts and other areas facing famine, providing a source of cheap and nutritious food to those who need it most.

The machine also works independently of environmental factors, meaning that it could feed people consistently Jero Ahola, a Professor at LUT, said in the press release that it does not require a location with the conditions for agriculture, such as the right temperature, humidity or a certain soil type.

Second, as a means of decreasing global emissions by reducing the demand for food livestock and the crops necessary to feed them. Currently, the meat industry accounts for between 14 and 18 percent of global emissionsof greenhouse gases, as well as taking up swarths of land that could be applied for other ends.

The food from electricity project could decrease the amount of unsustainable farming needed to fill our bellies as it provides us with a smaller, cheaper, and renewable method of getting our nutrients. Other solutions to this problem include lab-grown meat or turning to insect farming, whichproduces less waste and requires less energy.

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A Team of Scientists Just Made Food From Electricity and it Could ... - Futurism

In Brief While Bitcoin has been suffering some hard knocks of late, Goldman Sach's senior Sheba Jafari has reassured clients by referring to a 1938 economic theory that sees turbulence as a necessary aspect of growth.

It is a turbulent time for Bitcoin the cryptocurrency has risen to highs of $2,850 and sunk to lows of $1,836 just in July alone. But now, an influential voice has entered into the equation Goldman Sachs, whose chief technician Sheba Jafari has claimed, in a report to clients on Monday, that soon Bitcoin will rise to $3,600.

Jafari wrotethat anything above 3,000 (June 13th high) will suggest potential to have already started wave V, which again has a minimum target at 2,988 and scope to reach 3,691.

Wave V refers to the Elliott Wave theory, described in his 1938 book The Wave Principle, which is a means of technically analyzing financial cycles using stages of growth and fluctuation. Wave V indicates the final period of growth in which news is almost universally positive and everyone is bullish.

Despite Bitcoins variable month, which also involved asevere hackand a potentialcrypto civil war being avoided, 2017 has been an astonishingly successful year for the cryptocurrency and cryptocurrencies as a whole, for that matter.

Bitcoin has risen from $997 to todays rate of $2,512, which is an increase of 151 percent. Correspondingly, it is being used ever more for real world applications. It is now accepted as a legal form of tenderin 260,000 stores in Japan, and many countries,such as South Africa, are now considering how to regulate it which is a testament to the cryptocurrencys growth and potential legitimacy.

Disclosure: Several members of the Futurism team, including the editors of this piece, are personal investors in a number of cryptocurrency markets. Their personal investment perspectives have no impact on editorial content.

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Goldman Sachs Chief Technician Predicts Bitcoin Will Rise to $3600 - Futurism

Glen Hiemstra, the Seattle-based founder of Futurist.com, basks in the red glow of a corridor at the Seattle Public Library during the Association of Professional Futurists gathering. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)

Professional futurists are gathering in Seattle, for the second time in 15 years. But dont expect to recognize them by their business cards.

Many modern-day futurists tend to call themselves something else for example, foresight specialist, which is Jonelle Simunichs title at Arup, an engineering and consulting firm based in San Francisco.

I tell people Im a futurist, and they say, So, what, youre like a psychic?' Simunich told GeekWire today during the 15th-anniversary gathering of the Association of Professional Futurists.

The annual gathering isstructured as a series of seminars for about 40 futurists, rather than your typical trade convention. The group that became APF had its first gathering in Seattle in 2002. It didnt even have a name yet, Cindy Frewen, who chairs the associations board.

This year marks the first time we have ever been in the same place twice, Frewen told attendees at the Seattle Central Library.

One of the Seattle-based organizers of the event, Glen Hiemstra, isnt shy about the futurist job description. In fact, he owns the internet domain name for Futurist.com. Hiemstra acknowledges that APFs members use a wide variety of job titles, but he insists that being a futurist has a special cachet.

The simple way to describe it is, No. 1, help people anticipate the future, and second, help them design and envision the future. Hiemstra told GeekWire. People call futurists when they want to look further ahead than they usually do.

But when it comes to looking further ahead, even futurists need a little help sometimes. Thats the aim of this weeks gathering:

Tom Frey, founder of the Colorado-based DaVinci Institute, said being a futurist isnt just an exercise in navel-gazing. We spend a lot of time being thinkers and doers, and not just talking about it, he said.

For example, Frey has been working a concept for micro-colleges to train workers for high-tech jobs ranging from coding to drone maintenance in a matter of months. The first such micro-college, DaVinci Coders, has been in operation for five years.

So whats the future of futurism? One clear trend is the synergy of entangled trends for example, how pandemics could be made worse by climate change. That is one of the things that is actually going to make this harder, said Sarah Chesemore, the Gates Foundations senior portfolio officer for vaccine delivery.

Another example has to do with the rise of autonomous vehicles and its potential effect on the health care system. Frey said his calculations suggest that self-driving cars could reduce health care expenses by more than 15 percent. Thats half a trillion dollars that now gets spent repairing people after car accidents, he said.

The rise of big data is another biggie. Traditionally, futurists have not used a lot of algorithm-based forecasting, Hiemstra said. But todays bigger data sets have so much predictive power, for issues ranging from crime patterns to disease outbreaks, that theyll have to become part of the futurists toolkit.

And what about the future of Seattle? At GeekWires urging, Hiemstra took a swing at predicting the future of whats currently a tech boomtown.

Its hard to imagine this boom continuing beyond 10 years, but its very clear were going to be a denser and still an economically vibrant place, he said. Thats going to mean that we have to be not just environmentally sustainable, but environmentally productive as a city. What that means is, moving from sustainable buildings to buildings that produce more energy than they use.

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Professional futurists converge on Seattle to pick up hints about what lies ahead - GeekWire

In Brief NASA has bought supersonic aircrafts a step further by completing the preliminary design review for a Quiet Supersonic Transport. It is one of many projects that could herald a second golden age of flight. A Thump in the Flight

NASAs Quiet Supersonic Transport (QueSST) an experimentalX-plane the organizationhas been developing with Lockheed Martin to decrease the strength of sonic booms has passed an initial design review. It flew successfully in an 2.5-meter by 2-meter (eight-foot by six-foot) supersonic wind tunnel at NASAs Glenn Research Center.

Theplane is the first stage in NASAs wider plan to make the Low Boom Flight Demonstration (LBFD) airplane, and it completed its objective comfortably. A NASA statement said the QueSST design is capable of fulfilling the LBFD aircrafts mission objectives, which are to fly at supersonic speeds 1.4 times the speed of sound but create a soft thump instead of the disruptive sonic boom associated with supersonic flight today.

The next stages in the plan are to hire a contractor to build the piloted, single-engine plane, with initial flight testing ideally occurring in 2021. The next test will focus on ascertaining the consequences the atmosphere has on supersonic speed and quantifying the effect the plane will have on people on the ground through a combination of measurement and survey findings.

NASAs experimental plane is one of many test aircraft that are looking to push the boundaries of aviation in different directions.

In terms of pure speed, Lockhead Martin hasconfirmed that the SR-72 reportedly capable of mach 6 speeds will be made for surveillance purposes, while British-based Skylonis planning to use a 5.4 mach plane to deliver payloads into space.

Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen is also looking to apply planes to cosmic ends, but has developed the biggest plane ever rather than one of the fastest. After testing is complete, the Stratolaunch will be used to ferry spacecraft into orbit where they will require less energy to reach space when compared to a ground take off.

Eviation Aircraftwill target the green aviation industry by producing an all-electric prototype which could be the first stage in decreasing the carbon footprint of the aircraft industry. The plane is produces zero-emissions and is capable of flying 965 km/h (600 mph).

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NASA Developed an X-Plane that Can Go Supersonic Without a Boom - Futurism

The Virtual World

With the release of theOculus Riftin March 2016, the age of virtual reality (VR) truly began. VR techhad been generating buzz since the 1990s, but the Rift was the firsthigh-end VR system toreach the consumermarket, andearly reviews confirmed that it delivered the kind of experience users had been hoping for.

Virtual reality was finally real.

Research into VR exploded in this new era, and experts soon started to find innovative ways to make virtual experiences more immersivemore real. To date, VR technologies have moved beyond just sight and sound. Weve developed technologies that let userstouch virtual objects, feel changes in wind and temperature, and even taste foodin VR.

However, despite all this progress, no one would mistake a virtual environment for the real world. The technology simply isnt advanced enough, and as long as we rely solely on traditional headsets and other wearables, it never will be.

Before we cancreate a world that is truly indistinguishable fromthe real one, we will need to leave the age of virtual reality behind and enter a new era the era of neuroreality.

Neuroreality refers to a reality that is drivenby technologies that interface directly with the human brain. While traditional VR depends on a user physically reacting to external stimuli (for example, swinging a controller to wield a virtual sword on a screen)a neuroreality systeminterfaces directly with the users biology through abrain-computer interface (BCI).

Notably, this technology isnt some far-flung sci-fi vision. Its very real.

To rehash the basics: BCIs are a means of connecting our brains to machines, and they can be either invasive (requiring an implant of some sort) or non-invasive (relying on electrodes or other external tech to detect and direct brain signals). Experts have predicted that advances in BCIs will lead to a new era in human evolution, as these devices have the potential to revolutionizehow wetreat diseases,learn,communicatein short, they are set to utterly transform how we see and interact with the world around us.

In fact, some companies arealreadyinnovating in the newly emerging field of neuroreality.

Founded by physicistDan Cook in 2013, EyeMyndsgoal is to create a VR system that allows the user to navigate a virtual world simply by thoughtno immersion-breaking controller required.

When youre in the virtual worldwhether youre playing a game or something elseyou dont want to have to keep thinking about what youre doing with your hands, Cook told Digital Trendsin November. Its much better to have pure brainwave control. It will be a much more satisfying experience and will allow for a much greater level of immersion. You can forget about your live human body, and just focus on whats going on in front of you.

Cook likens the experience to dreaming. In a dream, you can run around without moving your physical legs. That dreaming and imagining creates brain signals that we can read,he toldThe Guardian. With what we want to do, you wont need eyeballs to see, or ears to hear, or hands and feet. We can bypass all of that.

EyeMynds system is non-invasive, meaning it wouldnt require the user to undergo any sort of device implantation. Instead, they would wear a headset that includes EEG sensors to track their brainwaves.

Cooks isnt the only company exploring the use of brainwave-detecting external tech to make the VR experience feel more seamless.Boston-based startup Neurable, bioinformatics company EMOTIV, and social networking giant Facebook are all working on non-invasive devices that would allow users to navigate the virtual world through thought alone.

However, as Joy Lyons, chief technology officer of audio tech startupOSSIC, told Vice at the 2016 VRLA Summer Expo, the ideal hardwarefor creating a new reality isnt an external headset, no matter how advanced. Its a chip in the brain.

Earlier this year, serial entrepreneur Elon Musk founded Neuralink, a company with the goal of developing cutting-edge technologythat connects a persons brain to the digital world through an array of implanted electrodes. Shortly before Musks announcement, Braintree founder Bryan Johnson announced a similar venturethat he is investing $100 million to unlock the power of the human brain and make our neural code programmable. Johnsons company,Kernel, is working to create the worlds first neuroprosthesis

Musk himself has predicted that well eventually be able to create computer simulations that are indistinguishable from reality, and if these brain interfaces come to fruition, they could act as the platform through which we experience those simulations, allowing us to not only see a realisticworld but touch it and trulyfeel it.

In a detailed report announcing the launch of Neuralink, Tim Urban described the potential impact of this proposed tech on our understanding of reality. Instead of relying on external hardware like goggles, gloves, and headphones to trickour senses into believing that what we encounter in the virtual world is real, we could program realities that trigger the same parts of our brains that would be engaged if the experiences actually were real.

There would be no more need for screens of course because you could just make a virtual screen appear in your visual cortex. Or jump into a VR movie with all your senses, asserted Urban. Youll be able to actuallyexperiencealmost anything for free.

The same part of your brain that is stimulated when you taste pizzacould be triggered to engage when you bite into a slice in this new reality, and the same part that lets you smell the ocean air in reality could be simulated and provide that feeling while standing on the shore of a virtual Atlantic ocean.

The difference between the real world and the virtual one would be undetectable. For all intents and purposes, a difference would not exist.

Figuring out the tech to actually make this happen wont be easy, and overcoming the non-tech related obstacles will present an additional challenge (such as developing a comprehensive map of the human brain and all our neurons). Elective brain surgery is an extremely controversial subject, and past experiments havent yielded such promising results. Neuralink and like-minded companies will need toengage in years of research before their devices will be ready for human implantation, and even then, theyll have regulatory hurdles to overcome.

Still, BCI research is progressing rapidly, so while asystem of electrodes that can effectively project an entirely new world directly into our brains might seem like a sci-fi pipe dream, it really shouldnt. After all, just two decades ago, the virtual reality experience delivered today by the Rift felt woefully out of reach, and now, anyone with $600 can bring it home with them (and the price is dropping at a remarkable rate).

AsCooktoldThe Guardian, we arent as far as we may think from the day when navigating virtual worlds using just our thoughts is the norm:Ten years from now, this will seem obvious.

Disclosure: Bryan Johnson is an investor in Futurism; he does not hold a seat on our editorial board or have any editorial review privileges.

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Neuroreality: The New Reality is Coming. And It's a Brain Computer Interface. - Futurism

In BriefNew research reveals that ultracold molecules could be thevehicles through which the qubits needed for quantum computers arecreated. A team from the MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms(CUA) was able to store information hundreds of times longer thanever before using these molecules, and an array of 1,000 of themcould carry out calculations far beyond the capabilities ofexisting computers. Ultracold Molecules Qubits, the building blocks of quantum computers, are, for the most part, still a work in progress. Researchers have many different theories as to how they can be created, and theyve attempted to do so using various kinds of molecules, individual neutral atoms, ions held in ion traps, and superconducting materials all with varying degrees of success.

Now, a team from the MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms (CUA)has just brought the world one step closer to quantum computing by creating qubits that are able to retain the information they store hundreds of times longer than anyone has previously achieved.

The CUA teams research utilizes very simple two-atom molecules made of potassium and sodium, which were cooled to temperatures just a few ten-millionths of a degree above absolute zero. The team was able to perfectly control the molecules, achieving the lowest possible state of rotation, vibration, and nuclear spin alignment. This control, combined with the chemical stability of the molecules, helped make a second-long period of coherence possible.

We have strong hopes that we can do one so-called gate thats an operation between two of these qubits, like addition, subtraction, or that sort of equivalent in a fraction of a millisecond, MIT professor of physics Martin Zwierlein said in anMIT News brief. If you look at the ratio, you could hope to do 10,000 to 100,000 gate operations in the time that we have the coherence in the sample. That has been stated as one of the requirements for a quantum computer, to have that sort of ratio of gate operations to coherence times.

The most amazing thing is that [these] molecules are a system which may allow realizing both storage and processing of quantum information, using the very same physical system, added Columbia University assistant professor Sebastian Will.That is actually a pretty rare feature that is not typical at all among the qubit systems that are mostly considered today.

If the team is right, an array of 1,000 of these molecules could carry out calculations so complex, no computer existing today could verify them. In theory, such a computer could factor massive numbers very rapidly, the difficulty of which provides the foundation for theencryption systems that protect todays financial transactions.

The researchers emphasize that their discovery is an early step on the path to quantum systems and that creating actual quantum computers using this technology could take a decade or more of development. However, theyre already looking ahead to the next milestones in the process.

The next great goal will be to talk to individual molecules. Then we are really talking quantum information, Will said in the brief. If we can trap one molecule, we can trap two. And then we can think about implementing a quantum gate operation an elementary calculation between two molecular qubits that sit next to each other.

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Researchers Just Achieved One of the Major Requirements for ... - Futurism

In BriefMore than 80 percent of bitcoin miners have expressed supportfor BIP91, a protocol update that represents a compromise betweenwhat miners and developers want for the future of thecryptocurrency. If fully adopted, it could help Bitcoin avoid the"civil war" that many have been predicting. This Way or That Way?

Like a season premiere of the popular HBO seriesGame of Thrones, the financeworld is eyeing July 31 with both anticipation and slight trepidation.

Anongoing disagreement between miners and developersover the future of Bitcoins blockchainhas had many Bitcoin analysts, investors, and enthusiasts fearing a potential split in the cryptocurrency at the end of this month. However,as a moderate solution seems more likely to be accepted, fears of a network hard fork are beginning to die down.

As previously reported, the Bitcoin crisis is the result of a clash of ideas for the future of the popular cryptocurrency and its blockchains transactional capacity. Miners wanted to increase Bitcoins block limit, while developers proposed moving data off the main blockchain network.

The more moderate solution, which was activated on July 22, isBitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 91. This protocol update prevents a hard fork from occurring by providing a compromise between what miners and developers want.Last week, more than 80 percent of bitcoinminers expressed support for BIP91, passing the threshold required for implementation.

This is definitely good news,but the potential for chaos hasnt been entirely avoided. Its only July 25, so five days remain before the required July 31 lock in. More than 51 percent of miners must begin usingthe BIP91 protocol by then for it to be fully adopted.

For now, though, it seems less and less likely that a hard fork is coming between July 31 and August 2. As if anticipating future smooth sailing, bitcoins value has risento $2,729 as of this writing. Thats a $570 increase over last weeks value.

Still, some are quick to point out that this current period of peace couldbe temporary.

Segwit2X locked-in on July 21st with +90% miner support so many people could now be tempted to assume that the scaling debate is over and Bitcoin is now good to scale to the masses, Juan Manini-Rios, CEO of SHA256 Trading, wrote in a Medium post. Unfortunately, that is not the case at all and a Bitcoin fork is still almost certain.

For AQR Capital Management former managing director Aaron Brown, a currency split may not be that bad for Bitcoin. It is the rule, not the exception, that currencies evaporate due to hyperinflation, government default or expropriation, or a losing a war, he told MIT Tech Review. People do not use them because they have faith in their long-term survival, but because they can facilitate transactions today.

Disclosure: Several members of the Futurism team, including the editors of this piece, are personal investors in a number of cryptocurrency markets. Their personal investment perspectives have no impact on editorial content.

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A Bitcoin Civil War Has Been Avoided, at Least Temporarily - Futurism

In Brief China's new quantum communication network in the city of Jinan is expected to change cryptography for the better. As computers become more powerful, current encryption methods become less reliable. Quantum cryptography will be a key technology for addressing this. Securing the Internet

For a country notorious for its restrictive internet policies, China seems to be taking the lead on developing next-generation internet communications. The city of Jinan is set to become the hub of this quantum communications network that will boost Beijing-Shanghai internet when the project is launched by the end of August. It is set to become the worlds first unhackable internet communications network.

Unlike encryption methods that hide the key under difficult mathematical problems, quantum communication and cryptographyuse entanglementto do the trick. Concretely, the key is embedded in photons (light particles) and sent ahead of the encrypted message a method called quantum key distribution (QKD).

Communication becomes unhackable this way because any attempt to intercept the key would be obviousto the sender and the intendedrecipient. Whats even more impressive is that China has the technology to extend quantum communications up to 400 kilometers (about 250 miles), as previously demonstrated in a quantum cryptography research in Hefei.

As technology becomes increasingly more complex, computers are becomingincreasingly more powerful. This puts current encryption methods in danger, as number-crunching becomes easier with powerful computing power. Number-based keys need to be prolonged and constantly updated to keep up. QKD potentially solves all of this.

Yet, for the most part, it seems China is leaving the West behind in pursuit of this technology. For a long time people simply didnt think it was needed, Myungshik Kim from Imperial College, London,told the BBC. The mathematical difficulty of the current coding system was so high that it was not thought necessary to implement the new technology.

Recent security breeches and hacks, of course, reveal the error of this thinking. Thats one reason why China is pursuing quantum communication, but the tech has a number of other possible applications as well.

We plan to use the [Jinan] network for national [defense], finance, and other fields, and hope to spread it out as a pilot that if successful, can be used across China and the whole world, Zhou Fei, Jinan Institute of Quantum Technology assistant director, previously told the Financial Times.

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China's New Quantum Communication Network Will Be Unhackable - Futurism

In Brief A nine-year-old child from South Africa has reportedly been "virtually cured" of HIV, as signs and symptoms of the dreaded infection hasn't been seen since the child received treatment shortly after being born in 2007. But how was this child cured? Nine Years and Counting

At the on-going Paris conference of the International AIDS Society (IAS), a team of scientists is presenting details of a remarkable development that could improve HIV treatment. The case is that of a nine-year-old South African child who was infected with HIV at birth. After receiving a burst of treatment soon after being born, the child has since been free of any symptoms or activesigns of the menacing virus without any further treatment.

HIV, which is known to affect more than36.7 million people worldwide, is one of the deadliest viruses around today since it was discovered, its taken the lives of more than 35 million victims, according to the World Health Organization. This South African case, however, is a glimmer of hope.

[T]his new case strengthens our hope that by treating HIV-infected children for a brief period beginning in infancy, we may be able to spare them the burden of lifelong therapy and the health consequences of long-term immune activation typically associated with HIV disease, Anthony Fauci, directorNational Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), told The Guardian.

While the doctors report detectingtiny fraction of immune cells that still have the virus integrated into them, the childs immune system remains healthy, and there is no sign of HIV infection.

The South African child was part of a NIAID-funded trial in 2007for treating infants with HIV. Scientists and doctors, however, haveyet to understand why and how the 40-week treatment (which was also given to 142 other children) worked for this child, whose identity remains anonymous.

We dont believe that antiretroviral therapy alone can lead to remission, Avy Violari, pediatric research head at the Perinal HIV Research Unit in Johannesburg, told the BBC. We dont really know whats the reason why this child has achieved remission we believe its either genetic or immune system-related.

Still, the mere fact that something like this is possible is a cause for hope. Unlike other cases where supposedly cured infants later on demonstrated latent HIV in the immune system, this South African case is the third reported virtually cured child. Speaking to The Guardian, Caroline Tiemessen from Johannesburgs National Institute of Communicable Diseases said, By further studying the child, we may expand our understanding of how the immune system controls HIV replication.

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Scientists Assert That A Child has Officially Been Virtually Cured of HIV - Futurism

In Brief Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Apple's Siri have teamed up to make a "movie" that is actually an extended ad depicting the utility of the latest iteration of Siri, integrated with everything from Lyft to FaceTime to iTunes.

If youve read the title, then youre probably aware of an upcoming film circling an unlikely duo. The movie is called The Rock x Siri: Dominate The Day, and is actually an ad styled after the kind of crazy, possibly comedic action move Dwayne Johnson has become famous for. Like last years extended commercial collaboration between Taylor Swift and Apple Music, this project is Apple plus celebrity mojo plus, this time around, Siri.

According to Johnsons Facebook post, the movie is the dopest and funnest, and Siri is the greatest co-star of all time. She certainly received top billing on the poster no photo though. Check out the full movie here:

The Dominate the Day theme plays on Johnsons unlikely all-talented persona depicting him as a chef, fashion designer, fresco painter, jumbo-jet pilot, musician, and bonsai artist all with the help of Siris FaceTime-, iTunes-, and Lyft-integrated help. The idea is that you too can accomplish an unbelievable list of things with the help of Siri, even if youre not The Rock.

Dominating your actual day is optional.

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New Action Movie Stars The Rock and SiriReally - Futurism