Tag Archives: robotics

Everyone wants to know what’s coming.
At Singularity University, faculty are constantly bombarded with questions about what’s next. At Singularity Hub, we’re trying to keep our wits about us as our staff, editors, contributors, faculty, and Peter Diamandis himself show us what might be over the horizon. We’re ever-optimistic about the impact of exponential technologies, of course, but the times they are a-changing in very big ways.
Our seven most viral hits of 2016 is a curation of what resonated with our readers on social media, and every single story is not about an amazing new technology of today, but what’s coming next. Not only that, but in an unusual break from content that spreads online, the articles were almost entirely about why what’s coming next is really freaking awesome.
How could you not crave more context? The predictions! The promises! The hell with self-driving cars, just cure our diseases and make everything free already.
Here are the stories you spread far and wide on social media in 2016.
1. Why the World Is Better Than You Think in 10 Powerful Charts
By Peter Diamandis
If 2016 was not your year, Peter Diamandis gives us all reason to look past today’s individual tragedies and toward the greater trends. Almost universally, humanity is on the up and up.
2. The End of Meaningless Jobs Will Unleash the World’s Creativity
By S. Vollie Osborn
There is a lot of uneasiness about the future of work. Probably because “work” is the basis of our livelihoods, economic systems, and every company’s reason for being. Still, some futurists—most notably Ray Kurzweil himself—tend to be exceedingly excited about automation and the various new ways in which technology is encroaching on our jobs.
"As technology has replaced jobs requiring repetitive labor, we’ve seen an explosion in the diversity of creative output in the world."
3. Why the Cost of Living Is Poised to Plummet in the Next 20 Years
By Peter Diamandis
Seventy-five percent of the average American’s expenditures go toward housing, transportation, food, healthcare, and entertainment. In this post, Peter Diamandis laid out how the costs contained within all of those categories (and then some) are trending toward zero.
4. Ray Kurzweil Predicts Three Technologies Will Define Our Future
By Sveta McShane and Jason Dorrier
Any one of the revolutions in genetics, nanotechnology, or robotics is enough to make the head spin. Start thinking practically about what happens when those revolutions converge and it becomes pretty clear that we need to better prepare for some very big changes in the way we do things as humans and societies.
"The genetics revolution will allow us to reprogram our own biology. The nanotechnology revolution will allow us to manipulate matter at the molecular and atomic scale. The robotics revolution will allow us to create a greater than human non-biological intelligence."
5. See a Vision of the Jobless Future in This Beautiful Short Film
By Andrew J. O’Keefe II
We love reading about the future, but even better is seeing it. Futuristic shorts resonate with us for the same reason we love sci-fi generally here at Hub: we want to accumulate as many varied views of the future as possible. Sci-fi is an incredibly powerful tool for the human psyche; these stories give us imagined contexts to compare our present to every time we’re caught off guard by a new technological development.
6. Medicine Will Advance More in the Next 10 Years Than It Did in the Last 100
By Vivek Wadhwa
Human longevity is a new frontier for science and private businesses alike. With ridiculously swift advances in everything from cheap home genetics kits to bionic exoskeletons, there has never been a better time to be alive. And soon we will pass the need to simply solve for existing problems in medicine and focus on augmenting ourselves to perform better and last longer than ever before possible.
"Within a few years, our genome, microbiome, behavior and environment will all be mapped and measured, and prescriptive-medicine systems based on artificial intelligence will help us feel better and live longer."
7. We Might Live in a Virtual Universe — But It Doesn’t Really Matter
By Maxim Roubintchik
The philosophical intelligentsia of Silicon Valley have long loved the idea that our very existence has possibly always been virtual (and the idea has gained some popularity after the king sophist Elon Musk mused on it earlier this year). In a logic train loved by many, contributing writer Maxim Roubintchik made the following point:
"Our perception of reality is already different from reality itself. What we call reality is our brains’ attempt to process the incoming flood of sensory data."
Debates about virtual or “real” existence are just as fun as debates about human and machine consciousness precisely because reality and consciousness are both pretty damn difficult to define.
Don’t wait until the end of next year to catch the most popular posts. Sign up for the Singularity Hub newsletter to catch our best.
Image Credit: Shutterstock, NASA, The Guardian/YouTube, PeteLinforth/Pixabay Continue reading →

New advances in technology constantly push humanity into uncharted territory.
Sometimes this territory brings us questions we might not have imagined needing answers so soon, like, "Is editing the DNA of human embryos moral?"
Other questions are more familiar, only with an updated context. For example, the question of choosing which life to save in a life-or-death scenario is nothing new in philosophy, but now we're trying to find a more concrete answer so we can ethically program self-driving cars.
These ethical questions technology presents us are not just fascinating, but increasingly, they're practical and urgent too. Exploring them in detail and landing on some kind of consensus can help us chart a course in our rapidly accelerating and evolving world.
After yet another year of breakthroughs in science and technology, here are a few of the unanswered ethical conundrums kicked up in 2016 and a collection of articles exploring their answers.
Artificial intelligence is biased.
Artificial Intelligence's White Guy ProblemKate Crawford | The New York Times
It's Too Late—We've Already Taught AI to Be Racist and SexistJordan Pearson | Motherboard
Artificial Intelligence Will Be as Biased and Prejudiced as Its Human CreatorsNathan Collins | Pacific Standard
Everyone is still fretting robots taking our jobs.
Robots, Jobs and the Human Fear of ChangeSteve Cousins | TechCrunch
Our Automated Future Elizabeth Kolbert | The New Yorker
Technology is making it harder to separate fact from fiction.
How Technology Disrupted the TruthKatharine Viner | The Guardian
New Digital Face Manipulation Means You Can't Trust Video AnymoreAndrew O'Keefe | Singularity Hub
Gene editing could be the end of disease, but for those in opposition, it feels like the end of morality.
The Ethical Dilemma of Gene SequencingGrace Wilson | Mother Jones
The Coming Genetic Editing Age of Humans Won't Be Easy to StomachZoltan Istvan | Motherboard
Self-driving cars will face an old moral dilemma if forced to choose which lives to save.
Should a Driverless Car Kill the Kid or the Retiree?Jacopo Barigazzi | Politico
Self-Driving Cars Will Teach Themselves to Save Lives—but Also Take ThemCade Metz | Wired
Autonomous Cars and Their Ethical ConundrumTim Bajarin | Recode
Putting artificial intelligence on an altruistic path is going to take a lot of collective effort, and we're just getting started.
Tech Titans Join Forces to Stop AI From Behaving BadlyWill Knight | MIT Technology Review
New Research Center to Explore Ethics of Artificial IntelligenceJohn Markoff | The New York Times
Do No Harm, Don't Discriminate: Official Guidance Issued on Robot EthicsHannah Devlin | The Guardian
We're unsure whether technology is an equalizer or polarizer.
Hell Is Silicon Valley People Who Won't Grow UpKara Swisher | Recode
A Big Shift Is Coming, and It Could Uber-ize Entire IndustriesJason Dorrier | Singularity Hub
2016: The Year Facebook Became the Bad GuyOlivia Solon | The Guardian
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Harvest CROO (Computerized Robotic Optimized Obtainer) began in 2012 on Gary Wishnatzki’s vision of creating a solution to the dwindling labor force in agriculture. With the expertise of co-founder and Chief Technical Officer, Bob Pitzer, they began developing the first Harvest CROO machines. In Previous rounds, $1.8 million was raised through qualified investors. Many of these investors are members of the strawberry industry, including Sweet Life Farms, Sam Astin III, California Giant, Inc., Main Street Produce, Inc., Sweet Darling Sales, Inc. Innovative Produce Inc., DG Berry, Inc., Central West, and Naturipe Berry Growers. In Round C, Harvest CROO is seeking to raise $3 million to build the next version, the Alpha unit, which will be the predecessor to a production model. To learn more about Harvest CROO, including current career opportunities for experienced engineers, contact info@harvestcroo.com or visit www.harvestcroorobotics.com

The post Strawberry Picking Robot by Harvest CROO Robotics appeared first on Roboticmagazine. Continue reading →