After a Falcon 9 rocket exploded violently and unexpectedly on the launch pad in 2016, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk became suspicious that the cause was something almost unimaginably dramatic: a “sniper” on the roof of a rival’s building. Footage of the event shows the rocket erupting into a gigantic ball of fire in an instant,… Continue reading Elon Musk Became Fixated on the Idea That a Sniper Shot His Rocket, Causing It to Explode
Author: Futurism_Magazine Online News
Small Towns Are Rising Up Against AI Data Centers
Unless you’re living in a shack off the grid, you’ve probably noticed that artificial intelligence is being shoehorned into every corner of existence, from kitchens to doctors officers to alarm clocks. And as AI creeps further into our lives, so do the hulking data centers that power it — but not everyone’s stoked about their… Continue reading Small Towns Are Rising Up Against AI Data Centers
Electric Car Battery Mining Operation Allegedly Hid Evidence It Was Leaching Dangerous Chemical Into Water System
One of the common misconceptions about electric vehicles is that they’re a net positive for the environment. While EVs are almost certainly better for the planet than gas-powered ones, they still have a substantial impact because of factors like battery manufacturing and coal-generated electricity. Mining the precious metals needed to build high-tech EV batteries is especially… Continue reading Electric Car Battery Mining Operation Allegedly Hid Evidence It Was Leaching Dangerous Chemical Into Water System
Anthropic CEO Admits We Have No Idea How AI Works
The CEO of one of the world’s leading artificial intelligence labs just said the quiet part out loud: that nobody really knows how AI works. In an essay published to his personal website, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei announced plans to create a robust “MRI on AI” within the next decade. The goal is not only to… Continue reading Anthropic CEO Admits We Have No Idea How AI Works
Project Says It’s Recreating Dinosaur Skin to Make T-Rex Leather, But Is It Really?
A group of companies and bioresearchers say they’ll use “leather” made from the lab-grown skin of a T-Rex to fashion luxury, “cruelty-free” purses. The project — led by genomic engineering outfit The Organoid Company, biotechnology group Lab-Grown Leather, and creative agency VML — will purportedly use the fossilized collagen of a Tyrannosaurus rex as a… Continue reading Project Says It’s Recreating Dinosaur Skin to Make T-Rex Leather, But Is It Really?
Scientists Direct Cyborg Cicadas to Play a Horrendous Droning Rendition of “Pachelbel’s Canon”
“Some of them were like, ‘okay, use my abdomen.’” Pachelbel’s “Canon in D” is like the Doom of the music world. It’s been performed on everything from train horns to rubber chickens to strange juggling bells — it would truly be easier to find an instrument the Canon hasn’t been played on. Recently, a new… Continue reading Scientists Direct Cyborg Cicadas to Play a Horrendous Droning Rendition of “Pachelbel’s Canon”
Physicist Says He’s Identified a Clue That We’re Living in a Computer Simulation
What if gravity were informed by the way matter was arranged in the universe — and a sign that we were living in a reality composed by a giant computer? In a new paper published in the journal AIP Advances, University of Portsmouth physicist Melvin Vopson offered a new interpretation of gravity, arguing that it could… Continue reading Physicist Says He’s Identified a Clue That We’re Living in a Computer Simulation
Visa Announces Plans to Give AI Agents Your Credit Card Information
Visa — yes, the multinational credit card titan — is wading into the world of AI agents. On Wednesday, the finance monolith announced it would be teaming up with some of the AI industry’s leading developers to connect its vast payments network to their AI systems. The end game? Letting an autonomous AI model —… Continue reading Visa Announces Plans to Give AI Agents Your Credit Card Information
Worldcon Is Getting Eviscerated for Using AI to Select Panelists
In a world where even our refrigerators have been imbued with AI, it seems nothing good is safe from the perfidious and error-prone tech. Not even the beloved World Science Fiction Convention, often known affectionately as Worldcon, is immune to the AI takeover. Worldcon is the longest running sci-fi gathering on the planet, starting in 1939… Continue reading Worldcon Is Getting Eviscerated for Using AI to Select Panelists
There Are Reportedly Serious Concerns About John Fetterman’s Health Following His Stroke
Image by Anna Moneymaker / Getty / Futurism Beyond the obvious characters at the very top of the establishment, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more contentious political figure than Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman. Sporting a Carhartt hoodie and Steve Austin-style goatee, Fetterman rocketed to the national spotlight in 2022 during a closely-contested race for Pennsylvania… Continue reading There Are Reportedly Serious Concerns About John Fetterman’s Health Following His Stroke