Commerce (trade) – marketing, retailing, and purchasing
A company out of the UK, called Green Fuels, is selling a series of equipment allowing consumers to make their own biofuel from waste cooking oil combined with methanol. Creates up to 100 liters per day with their largest offering.
Intra-Body Communication: Use Your Body to Download Data
Using the body to complete a loop through which data can flow is a brilliant method for allowing humans to use tactile manipulation to identify, select and receive data. A bit more like hunting and gathering than any of our current interfaces. I do wonder how this, combined with multitouch interfaces and cheap LCDs will change our interaction with our environment?
I also wonder what the medical repercussions may be? Current belief of wi-fi contributing to autism (Wi-Fi linked to childhood autism – debunked by Ars Technica, so the research continues) is a concern and any time we send electrical impulses through the body, there is a need for consideration of the risks involved.
From the site: “BUG is a collection of easy-to-use electronic
modules that snap together to build any gadget you can imagine. Each
BUGmodule represents a specific gadget function (ex: a camera, a
keyboard, a video output, etc.). You decide which functions to include
and BUG takes care of the rest, letting you try out different combinations quickly and easily. With BUG
and the integrated programming environment/online community (BUGnet),
anyone can build, program and share innovative devices and
applications. We don’t define the final products – you do.”
Combining this technology with open source software and OS will allow all of us more freedom in what capabilities our tech will include. The freedom to pair hardware parts to software to more hardware will open up our ability to create an environment to match our needs/wants.
It will also mean we can select what type of inputs to provide our robots/house software/sex dolls. It will also mean lawbreakers will possess a massive range of technologies to perpetrate crime.
Suicide-Gene Test Could Spawn Customized Drugs
Wired has an article on the beginning of identifying psychological risks based on genetic studies, this one to identify risk of suicide. Interesting start to how government and insurance will view the results or eventually require or limit requirements for such testing.
South Korea to build city dedicated to robots
I wish there was more detail provided, but searches only show a post from 2007. Looks like a campus/city dedicated to robotic development. Yet, I get the impression robots will be implemented into every aspect of the city. A large-scale roll out of technologies into a real-world scenario.
