Aaron Saenz
From This Author
Graphene Shows Promise for Repairing Broken Bones
When you were a kid, did you ever sign a classmate’s cast after they broke an arm or a leg? Your name would be on display there for the rest of the semester. Broken...
The Pediatric AI That Outperformed Junior Doctors
Training a doctor takes years of grueling work in universities and hospitals. Building a doctor may be as easy as teaching an AI how to read.
Artificial intelligence has taken another step towards becoming an...
How Today’s Jungle of Artificial Intelligence Will Spawn Sentience
From time to time, the Singularity Hub editorial team unearths a gem from the archives and wants to share it all over again. It's usually a piece that was popular back then and we...
Welcoming Your New Robot Overlords
Last year at the second annual Bay Area Art & Science Interdisciplinary Collaborative Sessions (BAASICS), I was invited to give a brief presentation on any future-related topic I wished. As a Singularity Hub alum...
“Helping a Billion People” Began Last Night – Singularity University Opens 4th Summer Program
Singularity University's fourth Graduate Studies Program began last night with excitement and aplomb. SU is the world's premier educational institution in the field of understanding, and harnessing, exponential growth in science and technology. Cofounders...
Singularity University 2012 – The Graduate Studies Program is Near and We Have Insider Coverage
Monday June 18th marks the start of Singularity University's 10 week Summer Graduate Studies Program. Based in NASA AMES in the heart of Silicon Valley, SU has become the premier institution in educating the...
Founders of Leap Motion: Our Amazing 3D Tracking Will Be Everywhere
In the past few weeks the Leap Motion device has sent shudders of delight through gadget lovers and computer designers alike by promising a new kind of ultra-accurate, and very cheap, optical 3D tracking...
Screwed by ZionEyez? Vergence Labs Will Give You A Pair of Their Video Glasses for Free!
***As always: the opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, and may not reflect the opinions of Singularity Hub, its advertisers, or its owners, and have not been reviewed or endorsed...
Submit to the Robots! …Or At Least To Their Film Festival. RFF 2012 Coming July 14th to NYC
**Update** The submission deadline for RFF 2012 has been extended from June 7th to June 15th!
It's about time that the future of cinema reflected the future of the world. The second annual Robot Film...
Exclusive Interview with COO of Drchrono: iPads + Medicine = The Future
Meet Drchrono, the free app for your mobile device that could revolutionize healthcare in the modern world. Founded by Daniel Kivatinos and Michael Nusimow, Drchrono is a software platform that eliminates the need for...
Singularity Song Sweeps Seattle’s Airwaves
Some people spread the word about the Technological Singularity by giving lectures and drawing graphs. Oscillator X uses a killer dance beat. The Washington-based duo of Kyle Ward and John Mendenhall recently released their...
Talking With the Founders of Vergence Labs: First Steps Towards Merging Man and Machine
There are few fuels as potent as youth and genius, and Vergence Labs is sitting on a powder keg. The fledgling startup in Palo Alto is comprised of Erick Miller and Jon Rodriguez a...
Face.com Brings Facial Recognition to the Masses, Now with Age Detection: Interview With CEO
Looking at someone's face can tell you a lot about who they are. Running a picture through Face.com's systems let's you turn those instincts into cold hard data. The Israel-based company has made a...
Speech Jamming Gun From Japan Silences People From Up To 34 Meters Away
Usually when someone says they're going to silence you with a gun, you should start worrying about bullet holes. Japan's SpeechJammer gun, however, can keep you quiet without aerating your shirt. This prototype device...
If You’re Not Advertising Online, How Screwed Are You? Great Infographic On Growth of Digital Ads
A dozen years ago the world didn't even have social media. Now it's a major portion of many marketing budgets...and it's only one of many ways in which digital ads are changing how companies...
Singularity University To Incubate Synthetic Biology Startups With New Program
Synthetic biology is poised to become one of the big technologies of the 21st Century – a game changing area of science that could alter everything we know about health, energy, and humanity. But...
Smart Phones, WebCams, and Computers are Changing Cinema – Watch The Disposable Film Festival Here
Let's be frank: these days a trip to the movies often ends in more disappointment than intellectual stimulation and wonder. Last night, however, my film-watching experience blew me away. I attended the Disposable Film...
The Next Stop on Your Journey Towards Longevity: The Personalized Life Extension Conference
What do you do after pushing the world for 25 years to invest in nanotechnology? Try to live forever, of course. Christine Peterson, co-founder and former president of the Foresight Institute, is also a...
Archetype Futuristic Viral Video to Become Feature Film. Aaron Sims Uses Youtube, Web to Conquer Hollywood
Sometimes dreams do come true, just ask special effects guru and burgeoning director Aaron Sims. His short film, Archetype, looks like a blockbuster Hollywood movie, and now it has a chance to become one....
Robot Begs to be Allowed to Live – Don’t Miss The Impressive “Kara” Video Demo from Quantic Dream
How human does a robot have to act before the world will think it's alive? Video game studio Quantic Dream, makers of the 2010 hit Heavy Rain, unleashed an intriguing demo at the recent...
Flying Robots Rock the James Bond Theme Song to Amaze Onlookers at TED 2012
My confidence in humanity's superiority over robots has been shaken...but not stirred. Flying drones can play the James Bond theme song from the series of famous action films. In one of the most fun...
Need a Little Robotic Help Around the House? Say Hello to Romeo
Good help is hard to find. So why not just build it? Project Romeo is a €10 million project aimed at creating a robotic helper for those who can no longer live on their...
Why Outsourcing Science May Be The Best Hope for Its Future
No human is an island, so why should research scientists be any different? YCombinator backed startup, Science Exchange, helps researchers hire the expertise, equipment, and labor of other scientists from around the world. Think...
The Crowd-Funding Phenomenon Continues – Comic Raises $1.2M on Kickstarter (+Q&A with Creator Rich Burlew)!
After years and years of giving his work away for free, Rich Burlew just raked in more than a million. That's the power of the crowd. Burlew started his Kickstarter campaign to raise money...
Raspberry Pi is Ready to Buy! $35 Computer is so Popular it’s Crashing Websites with Sales
You want a $35 computer? You got a $35 computer. The Raspberry Pi Foundation has finally launched its Model B Linux computer through two major electronics retailers: RS and Farnell. Since the announcement on...
Happy Future Day! March 1st, 2012 Marks the Start of this Soon to be Great Tradition. Celebrate Change!
March 1st, 2012 – Today is the best Future Day that's ever been. It's also the only Future Day that's ever been, but that's besides the point. Future Day is the new holiday focused...
Ekso Bionics Sells its First Set of Robot Legs Allowing Paraplegics to Walk
Mark down February 14th, 2012 as the day when exoskeletons became an established medical therapy. Ekso Bionics, formerly Berkeley Bionics and creators of the HULC army exoskeleton, have delivered their first commercial lower body...
Transforming Skin Cells into Neurons Leads to New Insights for Alzheimer’s
Researchers at UC San Diego have created a new weapon in the fight against Alzheimer's: living neurons in the lab. Lead by Laurence Goldstein, director of UCSD's Stem Cell Program, the team of scientists...
Chronicle Movie’s Real Superpower? Cameras.
What if three young high school students became more than just ordinary teenagers, and what if an action-packed blockbuster movie was about more than it seemed? I just got back from watching Chronicle, the...
Starting March 1st, A Red License Plate in Nevada Means the Driver is a Robot!
*UPDATE: Nevada DMV director Bruce Breslow wrote into the Hub, see his comments below.*
An extended campaign in Nevada by Google has led to a new host of provisions which will allow automated cars to...
The First Kickstarter Project to Raise $2 Million is an Adventure Video Game!
The future of video games is in the hands of the crowd...and it looks like it's going to be a great adventure. In the last week, Double Fine Adventure has become the highest grossing...
Canadian Man Excavates His Basement Using R/C Trucks Over 7 Years!
One man's incredible hobby is another man's vision of the future. Since June of 2005, farmer Joe Murray has been excavating a basement in his home in Saskatchewan Canada using only radio controlled vehicles....
Free Facial Recognition With KLIK: Point Your Phone At Friends, It Knows Who They Are
I never forget a face. Neither, apparently, does my iPhone. KLIK, the exciting new app from Face.com, can automatically recognize faces through the smart phone's camera. Just open the app, take a photo, and...
Special FX Guru Aaron Sims Unveils ‘Archetype’ – New Short Film on Robots With Memories
What good is a killing machine that's developed a conscience? In Aaron Sims' exciting new short film Archetype, RL7 is a devastatingly powerful military robot that seems to be remembering its past life...as a...
Ray Kurzweil for President (Seriously?)
Ray Kurzweil has made a name for himself by forecasting important trends in consumer technology, global politics, and computer intelligence. Yet even Kurzweil couldn't predict the latest disruptive event in his life: Ray's running...
Want to Prepare Your Kids for the Singularity? Read Jonathan Mugan’s The Curiosity Cycle
In the future your children won't just be competing against other children, they'll be pitted against robots and computers too. What's a parent to do? Teach them about the best parts of being human:...
The Era of Robotic Warfare Has Arrived – 30% of All US Military Aircraft are Drones
Some herald it as the cure for terrorism, others deride it as mindless video game warfare, but few doubt that the American era of drone warfare has arrived. From short range surveillance craft like...
Google’s Eric Schmidt On Collective Intelligence: “In God We Trust…But All Others Bring Data”
There are few people in the world with a resume like Eric Schmidt. Just finishing his decade long run as Google's CEO, Schmidt is also a former Apple board member, former Stanford Business School...
Flying Robotic Swarm of Nano Quadrotors Gets Millions of Views, New Company
These acrobatic robots can launch themselves through rings, duck and weave around obstacles, and even fly through your bedroom window. Hell, they can construct your bedroom window. Flying quadrotors first developed at UPenn's GRASP...
40 Years After Moon Mission Made it Famous, NASA Recreates Iconic Picture of Earth – Blue Marble 2012
If you want to see a pretty part of Earth, step outside. If you want to see all the pretty parts of Earth, step into outer space. NASA recently released the first piece of...
Kickstarter: We’re Succesful, We’re Growing, We’re Changing Whole Industries
Five hundred years ago, most Western artists lived off the charity of wealthy patrons. Today, you are that patron, and with Kickstarter you'll be funding a lot more than just art. The Manhattan based...
Need a New Assistant? Evi Makes a Bid to Replace Siri on iPhone and Android
When the iPhone 4S arrived last fall, one of the most talked about, and lauded, features was Siri, the virtual assistant. Able to understand real human language, Siri could answer questions, send text messages,...
Raspberry Pi Founder Eben Upton Walks You Through the Launch of the $35 Computer
In just a few weeks UK's Raspberry Pi Foundation will be ready to launch one of the most anticipated products of 2012 – a $35 computer. The Raspberry Pi Model B is a bare-bones...
On the Internet of Things IBM Tracks Your Pork From Farm to Fork. Starting with China
IBM has set out to prove it can revolutionize the food industry with data, starting with China. Six industrial slaughterhouses and 100 markets in Shandong Province are part of a large scale test in...
2012 a Big Year for MakerBot – New 3D Printer, $Millions in Funding, and Huge Growth Ahead
Three years ago they had three employees and were still trying to keep their equipment from breaking down. Now MakerBot employs 75, has millions in funding, and 7500+ of their printers in use. The...
Why Don’t We Have Abundant Solar Power? Blame Financing, and Industry, not Science
In the world of renewable energy resources, solar power is the epitome - abundant, reliable, and green. For decades scientists and engineers have been working tirelessly to improve the efficiency at which photovoltaic cells...
Is the iPad the Future of Education? Students in Palm Beach Florida Find Out
Failing national school system? iPad might have an App for that. The Palm Beach School District in Florida finished their Pilot Program for iPad integration last year. Now, their exhaustive Wiki on that trial...
Ripsaw and Riptide – High Speed Tanks Rampage Across Land and Water
For more than a century the tank has been a centerpiece of war – the seemingly unstoppable juggernaut that brought devastation in the Blitzkrieg, or that rolled over human rights in Tiananmen Square. Now...
Q&A with Dutch Futurist Marcel Bullinga as His Latest Book Looks to 2025
If the global community of futurists were an ice cream shop, Marcel Bullinga would be the banana split: big, colorful, fun, and a little nutty. The Dutch author and public speaker has a presentation...
China’s Newest Train Hits 500 km/h! Only a Taste of What’s To Come
What did China get for Christmas? A train set that goes 500 km/h. The experimental bullet train, which can reach top speeds over 310 mph, was debuted on December 25th in Qingdao in Shangdong...
