Review: Future Diary Anime Series

 Review by Ninthgate_Show

So you're an antisocial, nonathletic, Japanese wallflower with really no ambition besides writing inconsequential sightings in your cell phone diary. No? Well, if you were, you would likely be Yukiteru Amano, the main protagonist in the anime Future Diary/ Mirai Nikki, one of most intense and disturbing sci-fi series in the last couple years.

What Stars Would We Visit First?

Once a really fast interstellar drive is produced and or human hibernation is perfected, there are a number of stars close to us that would be interesting. From the IO9 online blog:

• Astronaut Mae Jemison heads a group called the 100 Year Starship....(their goal) making interstellar travel a reality in 100 years. They've just produced this video, showing some of the stars that are "close" that are good candidates for visiting
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Flying Airport Would Never Land

Pretty bizarre idea huh? But leave it to Dvice to find the weird stuff. This isn't some 50s pie in the sky speculation either, but a contemporary idea. Huge nuclear powered lifting bodies would be in effect massive people movers that would allow planes from local airports to ferry passengers up from the ground, then return to their base to await another load or to ferry passengers back down from the high flying platform. Since none of the planes or the flying airport are using copious amounts of jet grade kerosene, there would be huge fuel savings.

Of course the article points out that we need to solve some major technological barriers before something like this could be possible but what a sight to see one of these bad boyz fly over huh?

Complete Dvice article here

Corning's " A Day Made of Glass

Corning put together this video called "A Day Made Of Glass," which seems to be getting a great deal of attention on YouTube. The idea of the video is that the near future will be full of touchscreens, smart windows and appliances like stoves which are all made with glass! The neat thing is that the video shows everything from the house, to the car, to shopping and work-place all working together. IO9 blog of course has a somewhat different view of the milieu. Check out the IO9 blog comments here

A glance at the cereal shelves of the very near future!

In a never ending quest to get a peak around the corner and take a look at the near future, I submit this little treasure. In the very near future, this is what at least one section of you local super market will look like. From the Dvice blog:

• "intelligent cereal box," which "uses metallic-ink-based circuitry to animate the packaging, as well as communicate with nearby computers."
  

Talk about myopia! I didn't see this coming at all, but I am not at all surprised. Look at what Saunders has been screamin in our ears for years now. Here it is!

How Close Are We to a Real Ironman?

In a recent Dvice article I was reading a question by a writer that basiclly asks, since IM2 is now in the theaters, just how close are we to having an Iron Man powered exoskeleton? It seems, closer than you might have imagined.

1. HULC

Creator: Lockheed Martin

Powered by: Four lithium ion batteries, 48-hour operation

What it does: ...system allows a soldier to travel 10mph while carrying a 200lb payload

2. HAL-5 (hybrid assistive limb)

Creator: Tsukuba University (Japan) (even now seeing limited use)

Powered by: Waist-mounted 100-volt battery pack

What it does: uses electrodes resting on the operator's skin to analyze muscle movements, and then enhances the wearer's strength by up to five times what it'd normally be.

3. Trojan T Series

Creator: Troy Hurtubise

Powered by: Helmet-mounted, solar-powered battery packs

What it does: Not a true powered exo/suit. Batteries power radio and range finders and even air conditioning, sometimes called a Halo suit because of it resemblance to the video game "Halo" suits. In truth may be too cumbersome to be practical.

FEATURE

Related Sections: Future Tech Lists Military

5 real Iron Man prototypes in the making

Iron Man 2 hits theaters today, telling a tale about a man in a suit of armor who flies around like a jet and shoots energy bolts from his palms. In the real world, we're not quite there yet, but you may be surprised just how close we are to an Iron Man of our own.

Powered exoskeletons are mostly sought after to enable the soldiers of tomorrow, who will be able to lift hundreds of pounds and run for miles without breaking a sweat. Beyond that, though, they could save lives in the wake of a terrible disaster, or even perform smaller miracles such as helping the paralyzed walk again.

Continue reading to check out five exoskeletons that do all that and more.

Sci-Fi-Inspired Concept Ships

Shaun Saunders sends in a link to an article in Wired. From the article:

• The The conceptships.org website run by Igor Tkac showcases these artists' renditions of spaceships and other fantastical creations. From retro-futuristic aerial attack machines to automated deep-sea treasure hunters, here are some of the coolest. website run by Igor Tkac showcases these artists' renditions of spaceships and other fantastical creations. From retro-futuristic aerial attack machines to automated deep-sea treasure hunters, here are some of the coolest.

The pane at the right is just a sample. The Wired article has several to click on and of course you can head over to conceptships.org for more or hit the Conceptships blog which is just crammed with graphics of conceptual art of space transport, Battlestar Galactica art, future aircraft idea for the US military... and tons more. Worth a look.

pic Dan Blomburg

Le programme du jour or I want a box, just like the box...

This week I have found a short video that is a bit of a departure. Not cute and certainly not light entertainment, I give you Le programme du jour or The Daily Program. This short movie is the work of two students of the ESMA: Samantha Duris and Loïc Tari and was released under the creative commons project. Set in a dystopian future, where everyone has a life booth that is literally that. You do virtually everything in this one little box. Inside there is another box that you enter where a screen tells you everything you need to know and everything to do. One of the most disquieting moments is when the main character B42-347 is informed that he will go meet someone new and the box chooses himself.

Five Sci-Fi Scenarios That Will Come True

Shaun A. Saunders sends in this article from PCworld:

In the next 25 years, these technological advances, made famous in movies and on TV, will become reality. How accurate are our prognostications? Predicted technological advances may look great in the movies, but what about in your living room? Virtual think tank TechCast recently polled hundreds of futurists and technology analysts, and then calculated when emerging technologies are likely to be found in at least 30 percent of U.S. households or businesses. Here are its predictions for five familiar sci-fi scenarios.

Click here for the predictions:

Shaun also asked if you would add your predictions to the comments section. That should be interesting!

Is a personal helicopter in your future?

Now for something completely different. We have all seen the Japanese personal helicopter that has been making the rounds on the internet. Except no one has seen it fly. I can do one better. If your interested in personal aviation but don't see yourself straping on a jetpac for 20 seconds of flight time - here is the future of personal flight. Well if not the future, at least the damn thing flies! And it is certainly entertaining to boot!
Check it!

helicoptere personnel
by OXY67

What will happen in the next 100 years!

From the Ladies Home Journal December 1900, Shaun Saunders sends us a a fascinating look into the future past, which prognosticates what life will be like in the next century (for them) . Shaun Says

This is fascinating, both for where it is wrong (but shouldn't be) and where it is right....especially the section on coal burning, and walking 10 miles a day....and food animsls bred exsclusively for consumption - battery farming, in essence. And a free university education for every person...what a world, I wish it were here (except for battery farming)

Article link

Pictures from the future past

Shaun sent me a link of what I first thought were curiously quaint pictures depicting possible futures from the year 1910. These paintings, though grounded in the preconceptions of the era are eerily prophetic. Though these early prognosticators didn't know it, they were predicting e-mail, electronic news, ipods, drive-thru, Segways, various self propelled war machinery and many more. Take a look....its called paleo-future.