Futurism

3-D printing is going viral. With 3-D fabrication technology at for the desktop, for LEGOs, and for nanoscale materials, it was only a matter of time before the paradigm found its way into space�and corporate science fiction. But this promising technology still has to prove itself in terrestrial infrastructure first.

At the Web 2.0 Summit, a look at the emergence of mobile technology and unforeseen twists in the story of the digital divide and the ongoing evolution of the public sphere.

To Kelly, the advance guard of the technium is to be found among the quadrillions of computer chips networked into vast electronic systems. But It may be difficult to discern whether the desires driving that process belong to technology, or are our own.

The Tokyo-based Shimizu Corporation is one of the world's leading construction and engineering contractors. It's also a prolific producer of corporate science fiction: fanciful, high-concept design projects that offer glimpses of astonishing futures. Its "Luna Ring" envisions such a future for the moon�and for Shimizu.

So, this video's got it all: off-the-grid filesharing, subcontinental slum-techno-chic, secret police in steampunk plague helmets, and a plot that remixes District 9 and Children of Men.

In 'What Technology Wants', author and Wired founder Kevin Kelly elaborates a theory of technology that emancipates tools from the bondage of human hands. In the weeks to come, I'll be blogging my reading of Kelly's challenging and provocative work.

Prepare the Juicer! This isn’t your grandfather’s bubblegum. In fact, this isn’t even the flavor-shifting Stride Shift. Scientists are inching closer and closer to creating a gum which offers the experience of a three-course meal, much like the gum seen in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by using manipulated nanoparticles. Researchers claim that time-release nanostructures within the gum might be ...

Is Google setting its sights on alternative green transportation? It would seem odd that a search company would be in the headlines as a cutting-edge developer of automobiles, but apparently, Google still has a few secrets up their wizard sleeves. Google has secretly been developing a self-driven, autonomous car which actually does what it’s supposed to do. Google has accumulated ...

“Have you filled out your robot census? No? You know that’s illegal right?” We’re not quite there yet, nor do we really have the need, but eventually, robots might have a census of their own. In fact, a small scale version is already underway. Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University launched a robot census to determine how many robots existed on the ...

I played guitar off-and-on for about ten years, but I gave up my musical aspirations once I realized my fingers just weren’t made for rapid chord progressions. All the practice in the world couldn’t solve my coordination issues, or change the fact that my fingers more closely resemble sausages than most human anatomy should. Some talents you just have to ...