Real Life Star Trek: DARPA Rewards VULCAN Engine Contracts
Filed under: Future Weapons, Outer Space, Science, Science Fiction, Technology, The Future
Right before the release of J.J. Abrams Star Trek reboot, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency kicks off their VULCAN Engine Program by rewarding four contractors with funding to begin first phase development of the proposed super engine system.
When we hear the word Vulcan, our thoughts wander to the Star Trek character Spock, his home planet, and his people. The VULCAN Engine Program is appropriately named since it is a “propulsion system demonstration effort to design, build, and ground-test an engine capable of accelerating a full-scale hypersonic vehicle from rest to Mach 4+.”
This could be our first steps towards a “warp drive” propulsion system like the one that propels the Enterprise across vast distances in space.
Read the DARPA News Release here (via DARPA’s news room.)
DIY Star: How to Make a Star
You can make a star. The process is called inertial confinement fusion, and its taking crazy personal science experiments to a whole new level. If you attempt this in your garage or home, please wear protective glasses. You also might want to consider a helmet.
Recipe verbatim from the Lawrence Livermore National Ignition Facility website:
- Take a hollow, spherical plastic capsule about two millimeters in diameter (about the size of a small pea)
- Fill it with 150 micrograms (less than one-millionth of a pound) of a mixture of deuterium and tritium, the two heavy isotopes of hydrogen.
- Take a laser that for about 20 billionths of a second can generate 500 trillion watts – the equivalent of five million million 100-watt light bulbs.
- Focus all that laser power onto the surface of the capsule.
- Wait ten billionths of a second.
- Result: one miniature star.
In this process the capsule and its deuterium-tritium (D-T) fuel will be compressed to a density 100 times that of solid lead, and heated to more than 100 million degrees Celsius – hotter than the center of the sun. These conditions are just those required to initiate thermonuclear fusion, the energy source of stars.
By following our recipe, we would make a miniature star that lasts for a tiny fraction of a second. During its brief lifetime, it will produce energy the way the stars and the sun do, by nuclear fusion. Our little star will produce ten to 100 times more energy than we used to ignite it.
That ought to do it. Please don’t use your homemade star for any destructive purposes.
Robots On Facebook
Filed under: Androids, Anti-Android Research & Development Team, Artificial Intelligence, Psychology, Robot Psychology, Robots, Robots Deserve Rights 2, Science Fiction, Social Media, Technology, The Future
A major breakthrough in human/robot relationships arrives as Facebook allows one of its first robot members. Read more here.
Robot twitterati could be next.
Social media users worry they will not be able to discern between their “human” and “robot” friends. Jackie Topovowitz from the organization Anti-Android Research & Development Team (AARDT) said, “We cannot blur the line any more between man and machine. The simple fact is, robots should be taught to be subservient to humans. Allowing them to interact with people on social networks puts us on equal footing, and we cannot let that happen.”
Members of the group Robots Deserve Rights 2, (RDR2), say the comments made be AARDT are robo-racist. Jeffrey Gottchalk said, “we welcome robots to online social networks with open arms. This is a positive step forward in robot rights.”
What do you think? Do robots have a fundamental right to social media?
New Documentary Shines Light on Interstellar Exile Problem
Filed under: Alien Intelligence, Alien Invasion, Aliens, Astro Biology, Foreign Policy, Interstellar Politics, Politics
The documentary District 9 is a long overdue film about the serious issue of alien refugees. The resources of the universe cannot support the rapid growth of the universal population, and this is not the first, nor the last, case of alien civilizations being cast off of their home worlds due to overcrowding, pollution, and planetary apocalypses.
Theorists say Earth could be next in this disturbing trend of planetary exile. So far we’ve been lucky in that most of the alien refugees hoping to make our world their new home are not hostile, but analysts say we must be careful to not appear to weak as we accept more and more alien exiles.
“You can liken it to the position the Obama administration is finding themselves in with international relations,” says political correspondent Dan McGruffy. “President Obama is being simultaneously praised and criticized with his open arms approach to foreign policy, the fear being that we will appear weak. At the same time, there is no doubt that America needs to heal damaged relationships with foreign nations. The same problems arise with interstellar exiles. We do not want to appear harsh and insensitive while making it clear we will defend our resources. The question arises, who does Earth belong to? Earthlings? Or the universe? Do we have a fundamental duty to provide life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to all beings? The bottom line is, as our population grows and we continue to accept more alien exiles, we risk accelerating the depletion of Earth’s resources, and we might find ourselves exiled as well.”
What do you think? Is it our duty to provide for interstellar exiles? What is the appropriate response to their needs?
Is Glow-in-the-Dark Genetic Engineering the Solution to the Energy Crisis?
Filed under: Biology, Discoveries, Genetic Engineering, Science, The Future
The video says it all. What’s next? Can you imagine a world full of glow in the dark humans?
Some say this could be a solution for the energy crisis and global warming.
“If humans glowed in the dark, they wouldn’t need lights. Lights in our homes, cities, et cetera eat up a tremendous amount of energy,” says Physicist Peter Pablano. “Glow in the dark powers could save the climate, since the reduction in energy consumption would lead to a massive reduction in carbon emissions.”
What do you think? Should the Obama administration push forward with a policy of genetically engineering the American populace to glow in the dark as part of their energy policy?