Futurist Foresight
A very useful 3D printing resource list.
1. Thingiverse - the most popular and the biggest database of free files designed for 3d printing
2. Willit 3D Print? - “website using javascript and webgl, where you can analyse your 3D design (STL or AMF files) before you 3D print it”
3. RepRap Calculator v2 - “useful set of calculators for RepRap users”
4. GCode Viewer - “viewer for GCode files, which contain commands sent to a CNC machine such as a RepRap or MakerBot 3D Printer”
5. 3D Printing Price Check - “the purpose of this site is to provide you with price estimates for many 3D printing services and their material options”
6. MakerBot Customizer - “simple way to make customized 3D Things
that you can share, download and print”7. Sketchfab - “web service to publish interactive 3D content online in real-time without plugin”
8. 3Dfile.io - “extremely simple 3D file or DWG drawing sharing app which creates online view links from the files you upload”
9. Sunglass - “powerful collaboration, issue tracking and version browsing for 3D projects”
Please reblog or send tumblr message if you know some useful online (but not portable like iPhone apps) 3d printing tools not mentioned above. ~personalfactory.tumblr.com
In our Future Tech page we have combined, from various sources, broad and specific areas of technological advancement to monitor, warfare is one of those categories.
Today, we examine cyberwarfare, as the new arena for conflict. From independent groups like Anonymous to government sponsored hacks against other governments.
“Cyberwarfare refers to politically motivated hacking to conduct sabotage and espionage. It is a form of information warfare sometimes seen as analogous to conventional warfare[1] although this analogy is controversial for both its accuracy and its political motivation.
Government security expert Richard A. Clarke, in his book Cyber War (May 2010), defines “cyberwarfare” as “actions by a nation-state to penetrate another nation’s computers or networks for the purposes of causing damage or disruption.”” - Wikipedia
The clip below looks at the stuxnet worm cyber attack that affected Iran´s nuclear program:
The infographic below examines the history of cyberwarfare (by Lewis University):
In our Future Tech page we flagged gamification (of Science (Under the Big Data category) and Media (Under the Media Category)) as a tech trend to watch. The infographic (by Big Door) has an interesting look at it.
So what is Gamification?
“Gamification is the use of game design techniques, game thinking and game mechanics to enhance non-game contexts. Typically gamification applies to non-game applications and processes, in order to encourage people to adopt them, or to influence how they are used. Gamification works by making technology more engaging, by encouraging users to engage in desired behaviors, by showing a path to mastery and autonomy, by helping to solve problems and not being a distraction, and by taking advantage of humans’ psychological predisposition to engage in gaming. - Wiki
The clip below of Gabe Zichermann, a gamification thoughleader sheds more light on the matter:
This article:
Gamers solve molecular puzzle that baffled scientists is a clear example of the gamification of science:
“The feat, which was accomplished using a collaborative online game called Foldit, is also one giant leap for citizen science — a burgeoning field that enlists Internet users to look for alien planets, decipher ancient texts and do other scientific tasks that sheer computer power can’t accomplish as easily.”
- Robotics
- Utility Fog
- Telematics
- Swarm Robotics
- Robotic Surgery
- Embodied Avatars
- Domestic Robotics
- Self-Driving cars
- Smart Toys
- Appliance Robotics
Biotech
- Biomarkers
- PGS (Personal Gene Sequencing)
- Telemedicine
- Personalised Medicine
- Stem-Cell Treatments
- Regenerative Medicine
- Artificial Limbs / Hybrid Assisted Limbs
- Wetware (Biofeedback)
- Artificial Retinas
- Organ Printing
- Synthetic Blood
- Smart Drugs
- Synthetic Biology
- Gene Therapy
- Nanomedicine
- Reversal of Aging
- Anti-Aging Drugs
- Synthetic / In-Vitro Meat
- Human microbiome is mapped
- Quantum biology reveals the physics of life
- Epigenetics informs real-time genome tweaking
- Organisms become programmable
- New lifeforms created from scratch
- Electronic eye glasses
- Utility fog
- Swarm robotics
- Exoskeletons
- UAVs
- Domestic Robots
- Self-Driving Vehicles
- Smart Toys
- Appliance Robots
What is robotics?
So what exactly is Quantum Computing and why is it important?
“A quantum computer is a device for computation that makes direct use of quantum mechanical phenomena, such as superposition and entanglement, to perform operations on data. Quantum computers are different from digital computers based on transistors. Whereas digital computers require data to be encoded into binary digits (bits), quantum computation utilizes quantum properties to represent data and perform operations on these data.” - Quantum Computing - Wikipedia
What this means is that the processing speed of computing rises enormously. Instead of storage on transistors, data is stored on atoms. With the increase in processing speed, larger and more advanced artificial intelligences (AI) become possible.
- Cyberwarfare
- Metamaterial Cloaking
- UAVs (Unmanned Arial Vehicle)
- Exoskeletons
- Robotics - Though this is a separate broad category by itself.
- Space - particularly with regards to spacecraft like the X37-B of Boeing.
The clip of P.W Singer (a Senior Fellow and Director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution) looks at the future of warfare, particularly with regards to the use of robotics.
The infographic below, of the United States Future Force Warrior program is an example of government funding towards the future soldier today:
Infographic by Column Five Media
UAVs are also known as drones and are controlled remotely. Though these robotic drones are in vogue now, the first attempt at creating drones occurred in 1916. And saw true operational use after being developed by the Israeli Defense Force after the 1973 Yom Kippur war. Subsequently the US military started buying them from Israel in the 1990s.
Though mostly used for military purposes, these drones have numerous uses for photography, surveillance, research, exploration as well as search and rescue.
“In 2007 a team of 8 students from the University of Adelaide School of Mechanical Engineering designed and manufactured a UAV named iSOAR. The iSOAR aircraft was specifically designed for civilian applications such as bushfire monitoring, shark spotting, and traffic surveillance.” - As seen in this clip:
One of the most used and most familiar UAVs in use currently is the Predator drone:
Innovation news daily´s superb infographic on UAVs:
