A great big enthusiastic “Hola!” from Juan Valdez, welcoming you all to the 17th edition of the Carnival of Tomorrow. Each little glimpse into the future in this edition is like one of those ripe, red, perfect coffee beans that Juan picks at exactly the right time. So pour yourselves a steaming hot cup of whatever suits you, sit back, and join us as we drink in all the wonders in store.
We want to start the first Carnival of the year 2006 with a bold (and somewhat self-fulfilling) predicition. So here it is:
In the future, words of wisdom and hot beverages will not be at odds with one another. What a wonderful world that will be!
UPDATE (01/06/06 at 9:02 PM): The future has arrived. I just got a tall Americano from my neighborhood Starbuck’s, and on the cup were the following words, not blocked by any kind of sleeve or other impediment:
The most successful innovations are the ones we stop noticing almost immediately. We often don’t appreciate the things we’d least like to give up.
– Virginia Postrel
Author of The Substance of Style and a columnist for The New York Times.
The future is wonderful indeed.
Reason at Fight Aging! provides some inspirational words for starting a new year:
The future is what we make of it, and there’s nothing special or reserved in the act of making a difference….[N]othing stops any one of us from taking a single step towards a better future. Those steps will add up. If you don’t like the present state of affairs insofar as the future of your health and lifespan is concerned, there’s a simple solution: stand up and join those who are doing something about it!
Hear, hear! And taking his own advice to heart, Reason then proceeds to outline a by-the-bootstraps approach to funding aging research.
What color is the future? James Waterton of the Daily Constitutational says that it may well be saffron, and that India is perhaps the player to watch in the East. This is an older post recently linked by James Bennett at Albion’s Seedlings.
Waterton also has a more recent post at Samizdata explaining his skepticism of the Chinese economy – at least in its “current nominally Communist incarnation.”
If you enjoy Waterton’s analysis as much as we did, keep an eye on Samizdata, where word has it he will be doing all his blogging from now on.
While we’re picking up interesting materials from the archives, check out this Classical Values entry from last June in which Justin introduces us to the Ray Kurzweil of 1627 (and of 1733.)
Mark at Curmugeons Corner pointed us to this article about how the U.S. Marines are developing a low-cost space vehicle.
[T]he Small Unit Space Transport and Insertion (SUSTAIN) concept that, if successful, will give the US a “…heretofore unimaginable assault support speed, range, altitude and strategic surprise” capability. SUSTAIN is an RLV that will carry a squad (13 men) into space and land it anywhere on Earth within two hours with, among other requirements, “flexible launch on demand… to any orbital inclination.”
The fuzzy dice of the future, available today. GeekPress has details.
Mike Treder at Responsible Nanotechnology has a neat piece on the house of the future. Yes, it pretty much is a nanohouse. How did you guess?
Jack William Bell says that golf may be on the decline as the in-game for business executives and would-be executive ladder-climbers. So what’s the back nine of the future? You may be surprised.
Sure, wind power is great, but what about all those defenseless birds? Genetically engineering birds to be smarter and not fly into windmills is one possible solution. Al Fin presents another.
Speaking of alternate energy sources, (one of our favorite subjects at the Carnival of Tomorrow, right up there with brains) Jay Manifold at A Voyage to Arcturus” directs us to speculation about a truly alternative energy source.
Last month, Jay directed us to an explanation for the baffling lack of flying cars here in the 21st century.
Anemaat said cars had not flown yet because “in the past there has always been a compromise made, and they built a bad plane and a bad car. But now, with new materials, technology and electronics, we think we can build a better vehicle that is a good car and a good plane.”
Don’t miss the computer animation of their proposed model.
Getting back to beverages (Remember? We started this thing talking about beverages), Øyvind Arnesen details what must be the most useful Geek Project to date. (Hat-tip: Triticale.)
It’s kind of like tying a string to your finger, only more…emphatic. Randall Parker reports on the (extreme?) new solution for those who are sometimes forgetful with their personal belongings.
Rand Simberg explains that regulation of space tourism is not necessarily something to get all worked up about.
Tony Arcieri at Singularity Now has issued a challenge for Singularitarians: let’s start planning how we want to make this thing happen right. Coincidentally, The Speculist has started a series on God and the Singularity which commences with some thoughts on how we convey an idea of goodness to the coming new intelligences. Dean Esmay has also had some interesting recent thoughts on the subject.
Finally, is it the end of the world, or not? Chris Hall has thoughts. But Josh Cohen at Multiple Mentality is pretty sure that he’s on to an answer to the question.
If you would like to contribute to or host an upcoming Carnival, please write:
mrstg87 {@ symbol} yahoo {dot} com
or
bowermaster {@ symbol} gmail {dot} com