Strange Future Roundup 1

Starting a new feature post today: Strange Future Roundup... I'll post several things I find interesting as opposed to the usual one topic.

First up: The Ratborg

My favorite cyborg engineer, Kevin Warwick is at it again. I've been very interested in his recent creations using brain cells to make 'artificially' intelligent robots. I say 'artificially' because they're not really artificial at all. They're natural rat brain cells they just live in a robotic body. This technology is very exciting because it means we could potentially host 'brains-in-a-jar' and give them bodies... or at the very least make really cool robotic robots.

Second up: Jet Drill

Apparently the goal of this is to bore down to where there is magma so we can create lots of geothermal hotspots for energy. This is in so many science fiction movies I can't even think of them all. Hopefully we won't break the planet apart or anything... since y'know... this is the only planet we have.

Third: The Prosthetic Limbs

One of my friends from college wants to get into this line of work. She once said she wants to create prosthetic limbs so good that "normal people will want to chop off their limbs to get one."
This video is actually very exciting. Just look at those freakin' robot arms! SEXY!
Of course I doubt those limbs are very strong... and of course without the ability to sense where your limb is or any sense of touch at all it's gotta feel a bit like you're controlling a puppet arm. But hell... this is an amazing step!

all found on Technovelgy

Playing in Zero-G

Remember that... if you're ever on a space station and need to get somewhere fast, quickly give someone a high-five.

found on Technovelgy

Thank you Mr. Orwell

For inspiring politicians, governments, and scientists everywhere.

We've now invented the Telescreen.

Maybe next we can have a few world-spanning empires.
I honestly don't see a good enough reason for us to have this technology. I'm a huge supporter of all technology, good and evil, but this is one that should be buried and forgotten.

found on Technovelgy

Atomic Bombships

Once upon a time the military said "We want to use nukes and go to Saturn." NASA said "No way."

So the military worked on doing it anyway.

The ship would have been as big as a skyscraper and would literally use thousands of nuclear bombs to propel it on its journey to Saturn.

As it looked more promising, NASA basically said 'lol this looks promising, let us take over from here' and then they canceled the program and tried to destroy it.

But what if they hadn't?
First of all, there were hundreds of hurtles for them to overcome before it would have even been possible. And even if they did, who in their right mind would volunteer to sit on top of a giant rocket that was about to get nuked a couple dozen times?

Still, if they had, it would've no doubt ushered in a new era of space exploration. To hell with the moon, we'd be able to explore our entire solar system in person. The massive spaceships would have been large enough to carry the equipment to build colonies, biodomes, terraforming equipment. They were close to doing it back then, with todays advances we could have probably become quite the spacefaring civilization by now.

Instead we're still stuck on one rock. I guess if we destroy this one there's always - oh wait. This is the only planet we have. Nevermind.

Evolution of a Homer

I can't believe I've never seen this before!