Daily Archives: April 30, 2020

Futurism, Italian Futurismo, Russian Futurizm, early 20th-century artistic movement centred in Italy that emphasized the dynamism, speed, energy, and power of the machine and the vitality, change, and restlessness of modern life. During the second decade of the 20th century, the movements influence radiated outward across most of Europe, most significantly to the Russian avant-garde. The most-significant results of the movement were in the visual arts and poetry.

Futurism was first announced on February 20, 1909, when the Paris newspaper Le Figaro published a manifesto by the Italian poet and editor Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. Marinetti coined the word Futurism to reflect his goal of discarding the art of the past and celebrating change, originality, and innovation in culture and society. Marinettis manifesto glorified the new technology of the automobile and the beauty of its speed, power, and movement. Exalting violence and conflict, he called for the sweeping repudiation of traditional values and the destruction of cultural institutions such as museums and libraries. The manifestos rhetoric was passionately bombastic; its aggressive tone was purposely intended to inspire public anger and arouse controversy.

Marinettis manifesto inspired a group of young painters in Milan to apply Futurist ideas to the visual arts. Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carr, Luigi Russolo, Giacomo Balla, and Gino Severini published several manifestos on painting in 1910. Like Marinetti, they glorified originality and expressed their disdain for inherited artistic traditions.

Although they were not yet working in what was to become the Futurist style, the group called for artists to have an emotional involvement in the dynamics of modern life. They wanted to depict visually the perception of movement, speed, and change. To achieve this, the Futurist painters adopted the Cubist technique of using fragmented and intersecting plane surfaces and outlines to show several simultaneous views of an object. But the Futurists additionally sought to portray the objects movement, so their works typically include rhythmic spatial repetitions of an objects outlines during transit. The effect resembles multiple photographic exposures of a moving object. An example is Ballas painting Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash (1912), in which a trotting dachshunds legs are depicted as a blur of multiple images. The Futurist paintings differed from Cubist work in other important ways. While the Cubists favoured still life and portraiture, the Futurists preferred subjects such as speeding automobiles and trains, racing cyclists, dancers, animals, and urban crowds. Futurist paintings have brighter and more vibrant colours than Cubist works, and they reveal dynamic, agitated compositions in which rhythmically swirling forms reach crescendos of violent movement.

Boccioni also became interested in sculpture, publishing a manifesto on the subject in the spring of 1912. He is considered to have most fully realized his theories in two sculptures, Development of a Bottle in Space (1912), in which he represented both the inner and outer contours of a bottle, and Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (1913), in which a human figure is not portrayed as one solid form but is instead composed of the multiple planes in space through which the figure moves.

Futurist principles extended to architecture as well. Antonio SantElia formulated a Futurist manifesto on architecture in 1914. His visionary drawings of highly mechanized cities and boldly modern skyscrapers prefigure some of the most imaginative 20th-century architectural planning.

Boccioni, who had been the most-talented artist in the group, and SantElia both died during military service in 1916. Boccionis death, combined with expansion of the groups personnel and the sobering realities of the devastation caused by World War I, effectively brought an end to the Futurist movement as an important historical force in the visual arts.

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Futurism | Definition, Manifesto, Artists, & Facts ...

From smartphone apps that can do seemingly everything to driverless cars and eerily humanlike robots, the past decade has seen dramatic advances in science and technology. What amazing advances are we likely to see in the next 10 years?

To find out, HuffPost Science reached out to seven top futurists -- and they gave us some pretty surprising predictions. Keep reading to learn more.

Dr. Michio Kaku, professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York and author of "The Future of the Mind:"

"In the next 10 years, we will see the gradual transition from an Internet to a brain-net, in which thoughts, emotions, feelings, and memories might be transmitted instantly across the planet.

Scientists can now hook the brain to a computer and begin to decode some of our memories and thoughts. This might eventually revolutionize communication and even entertainment. The movies of the future will be able to convey emotions and feelings, not just images on a silver screen. (Teenagers will go crazy on social media, sending memories and sensations from their senior prom, their first date, etc.). Historians and writers will be able to record events not just digitally, but also emotionally as well.

Perhaps even tensions between people will diminish, as people begin to feel and experience the pain of others."

Dr. Ray Kurzweil, inventor, pioneering computer scientist, and director of engineering at Google:

"By 2025, 3D printers will print clothing at very low cost. There will be many free open source designs, but people will still spend money to download clothing files from the latest hot designer just as people spend money today for eBooks, music and movies despite all of the free material available. 3D printers will print human organs using modified stem cells with the patient's own DNA providing an inexhaustible supply of organs and no rejection issues. We will be also able to repair damaged organs with reprogrammed stem cells, for example a heart damaged from a heart attack. 3D printers will print inexpensive modules to snap together a house or an office building, lego style.

We will spend considerable time in virtual and augmented realities allowing us to visit with each other even if hundreds of miles apart. We'll even be able to touch each other.

We will spend considerable time in virtual and augmented realities allowing us to visit with each other even if hundreds of miles apart. We'll even be able to touch each other. Some of the 'people' we visit with in these new realities will be avatars. They will be compelling but not quite human level by 2025 -- that will take to the 2030s. We will be able to reprogram human biology away from many diseases and aging processes, for example deactivating cancer stem cells that are the true source of cancer, or retard the progression of atherosclerosis, the cause of heart disease.

We will be able to create avatars of people who have passed away from all of the information they have left behind (their emails and other documents, images, videos, interviews with people who remember them). These will be compelling but not fully realistic, not until the mid 2030s, so some people will find this 'replicant' technology to be in the 'uncanny valley,' that is, disconcerting."

Dr. Anne Lise Kjaer, founder of London-based trend forecasting agency Kjaer Global:

"The World Health Organization predicts that chronic diseases will account for almost three-quarters of all deaths worldwide by 2020, so the evolution of M-Health (mobile diagnostics, bio-feedback and personal monitoring) is set to revolutionize treatment of conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Apps designed by medical professionals will provide efficient real-time feedback, tackle chronic conditions at a much earlier stage, and help to improve the lifestyles and life outcomes of communities in the developed and developing world.

This improvement to our physical well-being is exciting, but what excites me even more is the parallel development of apps that meet our under-served mental health needs."

Dr. James Canton, CEO of the San Francisco-based Institute for Global Futures and author of "Future Smart: Managing the Game-Changing Trends that will Transform Your World:"

"Wearable mobile devices will blanket the world. By 2025, there will be a massive Internet of everyone and everything linking every nation, community, company and person to all of the world's knowledge. This will accelerate real-time access to education, health care, jobs, entertainment and commerce...

Humans and robots merge, digitally and physically, to treat patients who may be around the world. Robo-surgeons will operate remotely on patients. RoboDocs will deliver babies and treat you over the cellphone.

Artificial intelligence becomes both as smart as and smarter than humans. AI will be embedded in autos, robots, homes and hospitals will create the AI economy. Humans and robots merge, digitally and physically, to treat patients who may be around the world. Robo-surgeons will operate remotely on patients. RoboDocs will deliver babies and treat you over the cellphone.

Predictive medicine transforms health care. Early diagnosis of disease with medical devices that sniff our breath, and free DNA sequencing that predicts our future health will be common. Personalized genetic medicine will prevent disease, saving lives and billions in lost productivity... The next generation Bitcoin will replace traditional hard money, creating a new paradigm for digital commerce and business that will create a legitimate new economy."

Jason Silva, host of National Geographic Channel's "Brain Games:"

"The on-demand revolution will become the on-demand world, where biological software upgrades, personalized medicine, artificially intelligent assistants will increasingly transform healthcare and well-being. Additionally, increased automation will continue to make our day-to-day lives infinitely richer. Self-driving cars will be ubiquitous, transportation itself will be automatic, clean, and cheap. We will move into a world in which access trumps ownership and the world is at our fingertips."

Dr. Amy Zalman, CEO & president of the World Future Society:

"Researchers now have at their disposal increasingly acute ways of looking into our brains and bodies to understand our attitudes and behavior. A few years ago, Harvard researchers showed that leaders actually have less stress, not more, than non-leaders... At Ben-Gurion University, a study of judges showed that they handed out stricter judgements before lunch -- when they were hungriest.

I find the potential application of these kinds of insights awe-inspiring. A more accurate understanding of how we humans function -- how we trust, cooperate and learn but also fight and hate -- is a tool that public policy-makers and we citizens can use to build better governance and better futures."

Mark Stevenson, author of "An Optimist's Tour of the Future:"

"The technologies arent the most important bit -- although they are super cool. Its what society does with them, and right now its institutional change thats the sticking point. What you really want to look at, in my opinion, is new ways of organizing ourselves. So, my next book covers, for instance, the renewables revolution in a small Austrian town, open source drug discovery in India, patient networks like PatientsLikeMe and schools that are throwing out the curriculum in order to get on with some actual learning."

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7 Top Futurists Make Some Pretty Surprising Predictions ...

Pack It Up

U.S. President Trumps proposed 2021 budget could spell doom for the countrys Mars exploration missions, including its last Mars rover.

Its an unusual move for a President who has repeatedly urged NASA to send a crewed mission to Mars and even offered the space agency unlimited funding to do so.

But the proposed budget cuts would debilitate several ongoing missions, Scientific American reports, and would even mean shutting down the iconic rover Curiosity, which has been exploring Mars since 2012.

Many scientists responded to the budget with dismay. NASA Planetary Science Division director Lori Glaze,however, took a pragmatic view.

Last year required many difficult decisions: invest in the future, continue what weve been doing or find some balance in between, Glaze told SciAm. All strong organizations do this. Mars exploration is no different.

But other experts are more cynical. George Washington University space historian and policy researcher John Logsdon told SciAm that the budget cuts were meant to punish NASA for going over budget on its Perseverence mission, which will attempt to land a new rover on Mars in 2021 and eventually return soil samples to Earth.

It would be really shortsighted if that penalty undercut the growing momentum toward finally moving forward on a Mars Sample Return effort, Logsdon told SciAm. There has to be a better way of enforcing cost control on NASAs science efforts without jeopardizing their reason for existence.

READ MORE: Mars Needs Money: White House Budget Could Prompt Retreat from Red Planet [Scientific American]

More on Trump and Mars: Trump Offered NASA an Unlimited Budget it it Sent Humans to Mars

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The White House Is Trying to Shut Down NASA's Last Mars Rover - Futurism

You know that file you got from Ancestry or 23andMe that contains a digital copy of your entire genetic code? Imagine that you upload it to a site, and five minutes later it spits out a report. Bad news it says your risk from the coronavirus is a glaring red HIGHER, meaning that according to a potpourri of genetic markers, youre more likely to have a severe, potentially deadly case of COVID-19.

Thats the idea behind a free genetic analysis offered by Sequencing.com, a genetic testing company thats offering personalized, DNA-based coronavirus warnings.

A person who looks to be low risk on a non-genetic level or seems like they could be pretty okay if they get COVID-19, we know that their genes are putting them on the path to a more severe disease, Sequencing CEO and clinical geneticist Brandon Colby told Futurism.

One of the major challenges of the coronavirus pandemic has been identifying whos at a greater risk for a disease that remains difficult to treat. At first, the outbreak seemed to be most dangerous for the elderly or people with underlying health conditions. But over time, more reports emerged of younger, healthier people coming down with severe and sometimes fatal cases.

Colbys goal is to personalize coronavirus testing by providing reports catered specifically to a individuals genetic code. With that, the screenings could bring to light warnings signs that might have previously flown under the radar for patients who otherwise seem healthy.

Colby told Futurism that he hopes the reports will convince people with high genetic risk factors to exercise greater caution. And if they do start to feel sick, he says, the report could spur them to seek treatment immediately.

That person may have genes that put them at high risk, and thats really the power of this report, Colby told Futurism. Without this report, that would have been a major question.

While clinical trials about how to best treat COVID-19 are only beginning to emerge, geneticists have already learned much about the structure, genetic code, and biological mechanisms of the virus that causes it, SARS-CoV-2. Colby and his team used that research to develop their predictive reports.

Because SARS-CoV-2 is so genetically similar to SARS-CoV-1, the coronavirus that causes SARS, the Sequencing team also pulled from the far more expansive body of research on that virus as well, since the same genes seem to be linked to a greater risk of infection and more severe symptoms of both diseases.

This research is still preliminary and this analysis is based on preliminary genetic associations, Colby said. If the pandemic was not such a crisis, then this would be something that we would want more research to come out upon. We would probably put this up there in a beta format, and that would be very clear.

But due to the crisis, the urgency, we are utilizing these preliminary studies and making sure that people understand that these are preliminary, he added. Were utilizing what information we currently have available to make it useful at a time when its needed.

Supplementing their research with existing studies on the SARS virus may make for a more robust tool, but genetic experts werent entirely convinced by the idea of an online genetic test for COVID risk.

I think the key here is that there are both genetic and environmental factors that contribute to an individuals personal susceptibility, Boston University geneticist Shoumita Dasgupta, whos unaffiliated with Sequencing, told Futurism. We know this from other pathogens as well. Neither one alone will be enough to be completely protective, but the combination of public health measures and biomedical research on genetic risk factors can together help us navigate our way out of this situation.

Genetics rarely gives you a 100 percent foolproof predictive ability, Dasgupta added.

Certainly, comparative genomics can give insight from how genes work in other systems, but since viruses evolve quickly, its possible that those components may work together slightly differently in the novel coronavirus, Dasgupta added.

Because genes cant possibly tell the whole story, Sequencings report also weighs non-genetic risk factors, like age, smoking habits, and existing medical conditions, which Dasgupta described as a good start. Colby told Futurism that even more environmental factors, like stress, will be included in a major update to the reports expected to go live on Friday.

Colby said that his team will add new findings as they encounter them, making the reports more accurate and robust. Anyone who got a genetic profile from Sequencing might get a notification in the future that their report has changed as new research comes in, especially after that new update.

Even with the knowledge that these reports are based on preliminary findings and could change just as the pandemic continues to change and surprise us, Colby hopes that the personalized reports and warnings will inspire people to better protect themselves.

If you dont know that youre at very high risk, you think, Hey Im 30 years old, I dont have any health problems, I dont smoke, Im gonna go shopping today. Im gonna go outside and potentially expose myself, that decision may be altered once you go and see these reports, Colby said.

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Free DNA Test Claims to Warn Whether COVID Is Likely to Kill You - Futurism

Bending Rules

A controversial new study suggests that it may be possible to bend the laws of the universe but just a little bit.

Scientists at the University of New South Wales found what seem to be discrepancies in whats called the fine structure constant, a number thats thought to remain perfectly unchanging and describes how subatomic particles interact with each other. Its a bold claim, but if it holds up it would fundamentally alter our understanding of the universe.

The fine structure constant describes the force that influences subatomic particles with electrical charge, like how protons and electrons within an atom are drawn to one another. The study, published Friday in the journal Science Advances, found that the number seemed to change when they analyzed extremely distant quasars but only when they looked in certain directions, meaning that the laws of physics may break down at the edges of the universe.

And it seems to be supporting this idea that there could be a directionality in the universe, University of New South Wales physicist John Webb said in a press release, which is very weird indeed.

As it stands right now, our models for the universe assume that it expands outward in all directions like an ever-growing blob of galaxies and other starstuff. If this new study is correct, however, it instead presents a universe with a dipole structure, not unlike the North and South poles of a magnet.

Because its such a bold finding, even Webb himself isnt convinced by his own work but argues that its definitely worth exploring with more and better measurements.

READ MORE: New findings suggest laws of nature downright weird, not as constant as previously thought [University of New South Wales]

More on physics: New Theory Could Solve Universes Biggest Paradox

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The Laws of Physics May Break Down at the Edge of the Universe - Futurism

On Monday, the Prime Minister of New Zealand declared that the country had successfully eliminated the coronavirus among its residents.

If the claim holds up, that would be a remarkable success story though, in reality, there are several technicalities about what it means to have eliminated the countrys outbreak.

Chief among them is that there are still new cases of COVID-19 being identified and reported in New Zealand, health officials said at a press conference attended by CNN. But because those new cases remain in the single digits, the countrys leaders are still calling it a job well done.

Ashley Bloomfield, New Zealands Director General of Health, said at the conference that the small number of new infections does give us confidence that weve achieved our goal of elimination, which that never meant zero but it does mean we know where our cases are coming from.

Our goal is elimination, Bloomfield added. And again, that doesnt mean eradication but it means we get down to a small number of cases so that we are able to stamp out any cases and any outbreak that might come out.

Of course, that could change, as experts suggest that countries that previously got a handle on their coronavirus outbreaks could expect a second wave in the future.

So as we have said elimination means we may well reach zero but we may well then have small numbers of cases coming up again, that doesnt mean we have failed, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said at the conference. It just means that we are in the position to have that zero-tolerance approach to have a very aggressive management of those cases and keep those numbers low and fading out again.

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New Zealand Claims to Have Eliminated COVID-19 - Futurism

Theory of Everything

Scientists are doubling down on a peculiar model that attempts to quantify and measure consciousness.

The model, known as Integrated Information Theory (IIT), has long been controversial because it comes with an unusual quirk. When applied to non-living things like machines, subatomic particles, and even the universe, it claims that they too experience consciousness, New Scientist reports.

This could be the beginning of a scientific revolution, Munich Centre for Mathematical Philosophy mathematician Johannes Kleiner toldthe magazine.

IIT relies on a value called phi that represents the interconnectivity of a node, whether its a region of the brain, circuitry, or an atom. That value represents the nodes level of consciousness. The cerebral cortex, for instance, has a high value because it contains a dense cluster of widely-interconnected neurons.

But when IIT was first presented, calculating phi was impossibly convoluted. New Scientist reports that calculating the phi of a human brain would have previously taken longer than the universe has existed, but a February paper by IITs creators, currently awaiting peer review, attempts to simplify the process significantly.

Many academics remain unconvinced by IIT, in part because of its complexity but mainly because of its far-reaching implications for a conscious universe.

I think mathematics can help us understand the neural basis of consciousness in the brain, and perhaps even machine consciousness, but it will inevitably leave something out: the felt inner quality of experience, University of Connecticut philosopher and cognitive scientist Susan Schneider told New Scientist.

READ MORE: Is the universe conscious? It seems impossible until you do the maths [New Scientist]

More on cosmic consciousness: New Study Links Human Consciousness to a Law That Governs the Universe

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These Mathematicians Think the Universe May Be Conscious - Futurism

As various teams race to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus, one group at Oxford University says that if everything goes perfectly theirs could be available as soon as September.

The vaccine was demonstrated to be effective in macaques, primates often used in biomedical research because theyre similar to humans, but has yet to be tested in people, The New York Times reports. But with scheduled clinical trials involving 6,000 participants, it will soon become clear whether the vaccine is actually as promising as it currently seems.

The scientists at Oxfords Jenner Institute for vaccine research had a bit of a head start, the NYT reports. Theyre working on an accelerated timeline because they had previously shown that a vaccine similar to the one theyre now developing that inoculated against a different coronavirus was safe for use in humans.

Thats the first crucial benchmark for regulatory approval, but not by any means a guarantee that the new vaccine will work.

It is a very, very fast clinical program, Emilio Emini, a vaccine program director at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, told the NYT.

Even on top of accelerated testing, the group would need to get an emergency approval from the U.K. government if it wants to hit that September target.

But if everything goes to exactly as planned, the NYT reports that the group would be able to send out millions of vaccines by then allowing the start of inoculation programs several months ahead of current timelines.

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This COVID-19 Vaccine Could Be Ready by September - Futurism

A University of Hawaii Futurist Studies professor discusses navigating out of the COVID-19 crisis, how going to a bar or restaurant may change after the crisis in Honolulu Civil Beat's Reality Check, Hawaii's Banking Commissioner names resources for financial assistance for businesses and consumers, and a local author explains how to deal with isolation during the Governor's stay-at-home order.

Jim Dator, Professor Emeritus at the University of Hawaii's Futurust Studies doesn't have a crystal ball to predict the future, but he does give a glimpst into how the State could get through the coronavirus pandemic and come out better on the other side.

Jim Dator, Professor and Director of Hawaii Research Center for Future Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa

Many local eateries have been closed since March. Will going into a bar or restaurant be the same if the COVID-19 crisis eases? Honolulu Civil Beat's Politics and Opinion Editor Chad Blair joined us for a Reality Check.

Click here to read the full story by Stewart Yerton on the Honolulu Civil Beat website

Chad Blair, Politics and Opinion Editor, Honolulu Civil Beat

Hawaii's banks and financial institutions are still open to help its customers, both individuals and businesses, get through the coronavirus crisis. Hawaii Commissioner of Financial Institutions Iris Ikeda spoke to The Conversation's Jason Ubay about financial assistance for local businesses and consumers.

Iris Ikeda, State of Hawaii Commissioner of Financial Institutions / Jason Ubay, Producer, The Conversation

Acedia is the ancient word that describes how monks struggle with isolation. Author and poet Kathleen Norris discusses how, during the current stay-at-home order, it can also describe how many are feeling now.

Kathleen Norris, Author and Poet

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The Conversation: The Future After the Coronavirus Crisis - Hawaiipublicradio