Blogs

Surprising as this may sound, nature is full of automatic processes, as will shortly be shown. And computers and mechanical devices are automating social processes on an ever-increasing scale, from assembly lines and the new 3-D printers to self-service devices like ATMs, kiosks and vending machines, from robots to computerized flight programs. As you read this, you may receive a pop up meeting reminder on Outlook or a message texted on your mobile phone indicating it’s time to submit your tax returns. That’s the efficiency of automation.

One of the ultimate goals of those researching solar power is the creation of the artificial leaf. Plants take the energy from light and combine it with what plants can pull from the air and ground to create the energy that fuels growth with a waste byproduct oxygen. And we love them for it because without oxygen I wouldn't be writing this blog entry to you.

Over at the IEET, the Institute for Ethics (where actual ethics are rarely discussed) and Emerging Technologies (where the technologies are rarely actually emerging), futurologist Dick Pelletier has penned another of his incomparably desolating consolations, this one entitled (I kid you not), Overpopulated Earth?

If you've ever used an ATM machine, pumped your own gas, paid for a bridge toll using E-ZPass, or had a gas meter read remotely, you've participated in the coming “internet of things.”

A company in Canada, D-Wave Systems, is making some of the big industry players sit up and take notice.

Playing makes things real and brings an imaginary world alive. Children understand this intuitively. When they give you cup of tea in play, the tea is real and you have to drink it. Although they know it is not the actual hot liquid they are dealing with. Play is a perfect tool to bring the future alive, yet still be in a safe environment.

I know it is April 1 and the traditional day for publishing a nonsense or "non-science" article.

But this is not one of them. So no April Fools.

ROPITS is the creation of Hitachi Ltd., the Japanese electronics and engineering company.

Over the coming years we will be seeing a mass disassembling of traditional schools, with pieces reassembling around some new system architecture. Some of the missing elements are testing centers, micro-credits, and credit banks. Here is a brief overview of how and why this transition is about to occur.

This has been a quite a week for my family. We sold our house of 18 years and will be moving into the heart of the city of Toronto in the next two months. As a "Baby Boomer" this is a downsizing exercise and an opportunity for renewal.