I haven’t read the article that Boing Boing has linked to yet, but I wanted to post about it here now and summarize my own thoughts.

1. Time is a dimension like length, width and height. I think my idea comes from someone else’s idea, but here’s what I think: If we were born some impossible height way up in the sky, and we spent our whole lives falling (and never landing) we would never question the continuous downward movement of our bodies. This is what time is like. We are continually falling forward through time, and there’s no reason we can move side to side, or even backwards, or more quickly forwards, we just don’t have the technology for it.
2. Everything in the past is frozen there. It continues to exist, and can’t be altered. So why do we think the future has yet to exist, and is still available to change? I like Vonnegut’s idea in Timequake where people suddenly find themselves several years in the past, but because there’s only one possible course of events they’re forced to relive those years all over again, do the same things, think the same thoughts, feel the same feelings. They’re reliving the past, without even really knowing it. Or do we?
3. I have dreams that feel like they might be from the future. I also have deja vu, and I’ve had severe deja vu moments where I feel very certain that I know what’s going to happen next. This feeling persists for some time and there’s usually a sense of panic that washes over me. I’ve begun documenting these moments, but haven’t noticed a pattern yet. I always intend to write down my dreams, but usually put it off too long. Sometimes I’ll find myself in a moment and I feel a mild sense of deja vu, but it won’t just be deja vu, it will feel like a memory of a dream and I will feel certain that I had dreamt the moment, but without documentation it’s impossible for me to confirm it. How convenient.

The Agenda:
1. Who are you and why are you interested in The Future?
2. Opening of predictions from 6 months earlier
3. Discussion of topics with which to inspire thoughts of The Future
4. Submission of predictions to be opened in 6 months, 1 year and 5 years

Join us at 6:30pm, or any time thereafter, in the front room of The Victory Cafe in Mirvish Village on Thursday, September 30, 2010.

Tip:
Think about the Future in advance.
Write down predictions every day as you think of them and bring them with you.
Try not to talk about The Past while at a Future Meeting.

Finally: Bring a friend!

Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=150279738342139

The Future Is Past!

The June meeting has been pushed back to July 7 but that’s okay, it’ll be good anyway.

There is a bit of a twist though. The meeting will be taking place at Murray’s private residence so communication with him will be required if you intend to attend. This is best accomplished through Facebook.

The agenda is the same as usual:

1. Who are you and why are you interested in The Future?
2. The opening of predictions
3. The submitting of predictions to be read at a later date

I will be attending via skype from Thunder Bay and I’m very excited about that.

Location:

The Agenda:

6:30 Dinner

7:00 Opening Committee

8:00 General Meeting

Futuristic Greenhouse Domes might be the only way to grow food on Mars

There’s a story on New Scientist about the feasibility of growing plants in space and on Mars. The conclusion is that while some organisms can survive space travel (even in the vacuum of space!) they will not survive the harsh UV rays of the Sun that fall on the red planet. Plus, the dirt on Mars probably doesn’t have the organic material that would be friendly to growing plants.

All of this means that if we’re going to send humans to Mars we’re going to have to bring some potting soil with us, and some classically-styled UV shielding greenhouse domes. I’m okay with that. But there’s still the ethical question of potentially destroying life that may already exist there.

I hate to be the one to say it but, if there are microorganisms alive on Mars… uh, does that matter? Yes, yes, it matters, I know, and there are a lot of people who would be really, really excited about studying the bacteria or whatever may be over there, but we might have already contaminated Mars with Earthling organisms, so…

So maybe I’m just being selfish and I don’t want the scarce possibility of microbial life on Mars to prevent Humans from going there. But is that so wrong? Throughout human history we have ventured forth into the unknown wilds, wiped out the species that have stood in our way or posed a threat. It’s all in the name of progress.

Historically that progress has been in pursuit of new reserves of natural resources, or the conquering of other people. Mars doesn’t have that, and the advancement of “science” isn’t a motivating factor for most people. So my prediction is that we’re not going to go to Mars unless there’s a decent middle-class business case for doing it. Kind of like how the desert of Arizona used to be an inhospitable, you know, desert.

Retire comfortably in a place that would otherwise be incredibly uncomfortable

Sun City, Arizona is one of those places where if the money ran out they wouldn’t be able to water the lawns, or run the air conditioning and all the golf courses would dry up and blow away. They had to destroy an ecosystem to build it but now it’s home to over 40,000 delighted old people. Which is great, because I’m sure that for a lot of them this is what they’ve wanted for most of their lives. If we can live here, we can certainly live on Mars, we just have to be willing to spend the money and kill the microbes to do it.

Yeah, that’s right, I’m actually saying lets build some retirement communities on Mars. Under glass domes.

It’s as straight forward as ever, but it’s been a while since we’ve had a meeting, so there will be a lot of predictions to be read.

Here’s the Agenda for the evening:

6:30pm Dinner

The dinner portion of the meeting will be an opportunity to discuss the future of the future meetings. There have been some new ideas about the format and structure of the meetings that we feel are worth discussing. If you would like to be involved in the discussion, please arrive at 6:30

8:00 pm General Meeting

1. Introductions: Who are you and why are you Interested in The Future
2. The Reading of Predictions
3. Discussion of Topics About Which We May Make Predictions
4. The Submission of Predictions to be Read in The Future

The way a typical meeting goes is we order food and drink and talk like normal humans do, but with The Future as a central point in our conversations. It’s fun!

Bring your friends!

I’ve reserved the front room of the Victory Cafe for us from 6:30 onward, so let’s have dinner, then wait until 8 or so before opening any predictions.

Please find us on facebook to RSVP, or vote in the poll below.

This is your new Robotic Vocalizer

How efficient is human speech? It seems to work well for us, because we need to breathe anyway, so we might as well use our exhalation to make sounds to communicate.

But for Robots?

Robots don’t use respiration in the functioning of their body, so what is the point of making Robots that use air to vocalize?

The point isn’t entirely to creep us out. Once this kind of thing is perfected it could be used to augment or replace damaged humans who are no longer able to use their own bodies to make intelligible sounds.

The Waseda Talker is one project with the goal of refining Robotic speech, but if you watch the videos at the end of the page they really haven’t managed to produce anything but moaning sounds (which, depending on the purpose of the Robot, might work out just fine)

I guess the ultimate goal of these project is to develop a ‘more natural’ kind of speech for Androids. So far the results haven’t been too convincing though. Human speech is so complex that there aren’t really any other animals that can do it. Walking, grasping, climbing, running, seeing, these are all things humans and animals are able to do quite easily and replicating that behavior in Robots has been challenging, but not impossible. Only humans can speak with any subtlety and I predict it will be decades before we can get Robots to replicate that.

As I said earlier though, Robots don’t need to pass air in and out of their bodies the way humans do, so perhaps this is the wrong approach to developing mechanical vocalization.

Oh, I just had a thought. Robots do need to circulate air, as a way of cooling their machinery and computers. Interesting.

A couple of questions I expect Science Fiction authors to contemplate from now on:

1. What will the Robot accent sound like? It won’t be the stereotypical “Heh-low I am a Ro-Bot” if this method of generating speech is generated, but it also won’t be the same as any human accent.
2. What does robot breath smell like? Will it be like the air coming out of your computer? Will it smell of lubricant and dust?

I’ve included a couple of videos of creepy Robot vocalization prototypes after the cut.

When would be a good date in the month of April? Please vote for EACH evening that you are NOT available to attend a Future Meeting. I’ll try to schedule the meeting for a conflict-free date!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CNVFWMJ

All the tablet is going to be I believe is access to the web. Can you tie some new business models to it? Maybe, but then you’ve got to count upon millions upon millions upon millions of people using that device. The issue with the tablet, the reason that I think there’s so much desire for it, is that it is the last effort, the last hope that old media properties think that they have that there’s something that will return control to them.

itwire – NASA Boss says: Let’s go to Mars

According to the Houston Chronicle newspaper, Bolden thinks that the United States can land U.S. astronauts on Mars and return them safely back to Earth sometime in the 2030s, possibly even by the early part of that decade.

Willamette Week – David Levine just got back from Mars

Portland science fiction writer David Levine has never been to Mars. However he was recently in Utah – which can sometimes feel as foreign as Mars. What was he doing in Utah? Living on a simulated Mars habitat of course. For two weeks last month David spent his days collecting Mars rocks and eating re-hydrated food at the Mars Desert Research Station – all for the sake of promoting space and future space travel. We spoke with him recently about his trip

more about the same project.

The "Gyre" Sea Tower with ports for cruiseships and a spire as deep as the Empire State Building is tall

NewScientist – Our world may be a giant hologram

The holograms you find on credit cards and banknotes are etched on two-dimensional plastic films. When light bounces off them, it recreates the appearance of a 3D image. In the 1990s physicists Leonard Susskind and Nobel prizewinner Gerard ‘t Hooft suggested that the same principle might apply to the universe as a whole. Our everyday experience might itself be a holographic projection of physical processes that take place on a distant, 2D surface.

Space.com – NASA Awards $50 Million to Commercial Spaceship Builders

NASA chief Charles Bolden announced the winners of the space agency’s commercial crew development competition to encourage progress in privately built spacecraft during a morning briefing at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

ScienceRay – Mexican Colonization of Mars

Not sure what to think about this article. What it’s actually saying is that the US is teaming up with Mexico to train people and test technologies for future manned exploration of Mars in the Mexican desert. So it’s not really as unusual sounding as the headline makes it out to be. The strange thing though is that the article in incredibly poorly written. I don’t know if that’s because it was babelfish translated into english or what, but it’s hard to follow the whole thing.

Trends Updates – Gyre Skyscraper on the Sea

Gyre is meant to be a research station and an off shore resort, replete with gardens, shops and restaurants. Its shape is what is touted to make it a sturdy structure that can withstand ocean winds. Four arms extend from the center spire (1.25 kilometers in diameter). They keep the structure afloat and create a harbor large enough to accommodate huge ships.

A little while ago somebody made a prediction about self-contained buildings that operate on the same kind of principle as a cruise ship. This is kind of a similar thought. Unfortunately, because it has solar panels and wind turbines and water turbines they’re touting it as a sustainable tower in the sea. But can anything like a giant building floating in the sea be sustainable? Not even close, but it sure looks cool, and it’d be fun to visit.