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The March of Technology


deanb
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Initially I agreed, but then I just thought of an amazing idea to go with it: your phone hardware is part of your subscription plan, and you get to just incrementally upgrade the various parts as part of that subscription. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

So the FAA has issued a policy statement that essentially interprets its mandate as including licensing US companies' moon landings.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/03/us-usa-moon-business-idUSKBN0L715F20150203?utm_source=twitter

 

To me the most interesting thing is that it kind of jury-rigs an ability of private companies to claim territory on the moon.  Essentially, while they wouldn't technically "own" the territory, they would be granted an exclusive license to operate in certain places, resulting in de facto ownership if not actual legal ownership.

 

Something tells me that here in the next few decades that 1967 UN space treaty is going to get some pretty major modifications, as we move out of the realm of this stuff being theoretical possibility and into practical reality.

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My understanding of the space treaty was it only precluded the ability for countries to lay claim, which always felt to me the obvious thing there being that private companies would be the ones setting up shop on the moon, or at least smaller communities/NGOs n what not. I figure first colony would likely be purposefully made up of global workforce anyway, for the look of it all n such. But like ISS is a (semi) global pool of astronauts n cosmonauts on board.

 

@Thursday: Good. In the grand scheme of things it's fuck all to the actual make-up of a child, and eventual person, and eventual off-spring, so I can't see it being objected to by most. I highly doubt you'll end up with women trying to lay claim to kids that carry a slither of their vestigial DNA.

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My understanding of the space treaty was it only precluded the ability for countries to lay claim, which always felt to me the obvious thing there being that private companies would be the ones setting up shop on the moon, or at least smaller communities/NGOs n what not. I figure first colony would likely be purposefully made up of global workforce anyway, for the look of it all n such. But like ISS is a (semi) global pool of astronauts n cosmonauts on board.

 

@Thursday: Good. In the grand scheme of things it's fuck all to the actual make-up of a child, and eventual person, and eventual off-spring, so I can't see it being objected to by most. I highly doubt you'll end up with women trying to lay claim to kids that carry a slither of their vestigial DNA.

 

It would be like claiming you are part of a person because you donated blood, or a kidney.Yes, technically speaking, your DNA is inside another person and it is keeping them alive, but that doesn't make you *part* of them. Unless you have grafted on a whole arm of course. Then you sort of are that person... for... reasons...

 

mgs2.5_130_779.jpg

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@Dean: I think you're right that it only applies to nations, but private entities derive their property rights from nations, so without a nation (or international treaty) to back up their claim they can't legally own anything.  So sure they could go set up a base on whatever and start mining it without any legal changes from the way things stand now, but if another company wanted to do the same thing they can't say "no, those are my minerals" unless there's a legal framework within which to assert their ownership.  That's why the FAA thing is interesting, because it means the US would be recognizing an exclusive right in the company that got the license, and so the US legal system would be available to adjudicate violations of that exclusive license.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Ooh, 1tbps 5G connections

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-31622297

(obviously more than likely only possible in ideal lab conditions than what you'll get in walking down the street, and it'll still take a while for Youtube to stop buffering).

 

Shame they've still to work out how to get 3G across most of Britain.

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  • 1 month later...

An interesting read about AI, not so much the actual technology of it but the implications of true Strong AI.  Thought it was appropriate given Age of Ultron coming out soon.

 

Part 1

Part 2

 

I for one welcome our new machine overlords.

 

In the realm of the more concrete, there's this robot chef replacement that's intended to go on sale in 2017:

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-32282131

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Apparently they're actually doing better than that looks:  it comes down a little bit off target on purpose and then is supposed to correct at the end, the idea being that if it screws up there will hopefully be less damage to the boat.

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  • 2 weeks later...

 

They're still misspelling it as "Hololens" and they've accidentally announced IE replacement as "Edge" instead of "Spartan".

 

Also this is basically MS Bob 2.0, it'll never take off but it's a hand step forwards. the screen where you need it is kinda handy though. Don't need to buy multiple monitors, just one headset n blast out as many screens as you want.

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As noted, they throw out the cool stuff in favour of enterprise. May change with the new management, but in the past if it didn't tie in with Office Microsoft just didn't understand how /they/ could make money from their R&D stuff. Note taking tablet device us clearly hugely profitable (i type from Samsungs third "Note" device) just MS management couldn't figure where Courier fit with Office.

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