Futurology

all that will do is push the destruction to the sides of Miami. It won’t stop the flooding, it just pushes it to places that aren’t protected by floodwalls.

skipperdude

And then as the water inevitably continues to rise, we will just build more, and more, and more, right? Surely humanity can stave off the irreversible effects of climate disaster interminably, by simply throwing money at the problem.

SquarePeg37

Not a chance in hell they could build that for $5 billion.

Double that, maybe.

anthropicprincipal

It’s almost comical to be fighting climate change by making a massive amount of concrete (cO2)

Dutoitonator

The Dutch, as world experts in dams/water containment already told Miami they’re screwed. The water not only comes in from the ocean but up from underneath them as there’s lots of porous coral beds beneath the city.

KillaKAMO

I’m already picturing the twin M134 Miniguns I’m mounting on either side.

William_Harzia

This is so cool.

But… what applications does it actually have? I’m really struggling to see many uses for it, or situations where it’s better than a person doing the same job.

I really want robots like this to work, so I’ll at least suggest that it could be useful carrying supplies for mountain rescue?

SophiePanda777

Well it’s about time. Price is actually way better than I was expecting.

chaosfire235

that is way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way more than I thought it was going to be.

Like can’t you get a full-sized automotive industrial robots for like $30,000?

Does this price tag include a lifetime guarantee of free service and technical support?

a lot of the promotional material in the last couple years has implied that they would be useful in normal human environments like construction sites. But I can’t see how it could ever be worth that much and those roles with its current capability

ataraxic89

I seriously thought this was supposed to be a realistic robot dog… so disappointed.

Nikolai_Roze

Neat concept, article was pretty cursory though. I’d love to know more about how they might actually perform their mission

Frikx2

On the one hand something like this is fantastic. People who have inherited diabetes, celiac disease or a genetic propensity for obesity will have enormous gains in quality of life and life expectancy.

On the other hand. Chefs. Gastronomy. A whole pursuit of life, culture and self expression is in danger of becoming something of a bygone era.

Dat_Lion_Der

Dude is full of it. He’s a billionaire that’s riding the coattails of a tech sale windfall in the late late 90s / early 2000s and being a terrible business partner to his partners and screwing them out of tons of money. Nothing he’s done since has been successful. And he pays his employees like shit. Typical rich asshole. The tech he uses at Viome is just licensed from the US govt and isn’t that game changing or the govt wouldn’t have let him have it… so there is nothing he did or is doing that is unique/proprietary. Plus, other companies are looking at your poop now too.

Forgive me if I ignore whatever comes out of this blowhard’s mouth.

DankestMage99

AI dictating what happens in my body? No thanks! I would rather die of cancer

dikembemutombo21

Yes, please, for the love of all that is holy.

Everyone I know who likes this sub likes it for the cool tech possibilities and somewhat-optimistic look at what the future holds, but it’s now constantly dominated by “Scientists Agree Global Warming Is Bad” and “UBI Would Be Pretty Sweet, Right?”.

Beyond just being off-putting, I also think it leads to a degradation of the quality of the discussion. Every post about future technology is now just 80%, “Yeah, but what’s it matter cause we’ll all be DEAD FROM CLIMATE CHANGE” and “Cool but we all know the rich will never allow it to happen!!1111!!”.

Focusing on these topics appeals to a lot of Climate and Economics Doomers, who are vastly overrepresented on the internet and it makes it increasingly impossible to have a decent conversation around here.

suckerinsd

Yes please!

When I joined reddit, this sub used to be my favorite, thinking about possibilities, seeing the future, and how it will affect us. How we will wander the stars, live forever, evolve as humans, sci-fi becoming reality. Open questions and people answering.

Nowadays it feels like it’s become more of a political sub, due to the amount of climate change news and anything regarding ubi, among other things. This started probably when the sub became a default one.

I’m just a lurker, and the community is good as it is right now, but would love the old futurology sub back. The old sub is still here, but much more dispersed.

bullstreeter

What about the *constant* barrage of UBI posts?

Eleutherlothario

Just please, please remove threads that are not future focus. Not everything happening next week fits here. Some posters need to read the subreddit’s paragraph on the right.

Semifreak

In my opinion, I just think there are WAY too many posts about climate change. Its gotten to the point where there is just hardly anything new being posted besides the apocalyptic event that is the climate. That drop in subscribers isn’t at all surprising.

Avieyra3

I found some worms in a box of cereal a while back, didn’t realize they were working for General Mills…

FriesWithThat

silk is extremely water and growth area expensive and cant be reliably recycled into more silk.

​

this is nice and all, but its not viable enmasse until synthetic silk can be made.

scarface2cz

Find me something that protects against fruit flies.

One bad onion from Aldi is enough to bring a swarm home. I hate those things so much.

wizardinthewings

It also causes my fking avocados and Mangos to never ripen. Had them for 1 1/2 months, still the same. Looks great in the store but you can only use them as decoration, they’re uneatable.

AllNamesAreTaken92

Do you want spidermen? Cuz that’s how you get spidermen.

TYLERvsBEER

I read *IKEA* and was already thinking of build it yourself windmills…

Attygalle

The only reason the EU wants green energy is to prevent Russia from making money on their natural gas for heating European homes. Look at Russias top exports and where they export it.

Im only half joking. Sure being green is good but I think their reasons arnt purely altruistic.

Rambo272727

Yeah, I’m sure the 30 years of planning this entire thing was a coincidence.

chrisfalcon81

I hope that at least the first world countries will build up a renewable structure… there is more than enough evidence that most renewables are not just sustainable but better than coal.

XaWEh

If something good is gonna come out of this pandemic then let it be this.

britishpilgrim

Damn must hurt thinking you power the world only to find your shitty practices are becoming obsolete.

Stepjamm

I’m torn.

Between not caring and actually celebrating that change is coming.

Kyalisu

Oil production can’t ramp up or down. Unreliable energy. Into the garbage it goes.

BinaryViperaBerus

That’s…._cool_, and all. But what I get from this video is that the things Spot can do are, 1) walk, 2) carry a camera, 3) mimic vaguely animal motions that aren’t particularly useful at all but do invoke an “isn’t that cute” reaction in humans.

ponieslovekittens

$74.5k! That’s not like for everyone but that’s not unattainable either. Just waiting for some youtuber to buy one

AugustinaStrange

As far as I can tell these things are fucken useless if they can’t hold a load on their back, and if they dont have a robotic arm they’re good for fuck all, DC electronics have a limited application because of weight, so you combine the weight of the unladen robot+batteries+mounted submachine gun & ammunition drum they’re certainly no match for a late 90s Hyundai with ply wood hillbilly armour.

interlopenz

I’m watching this and all I can see is the highly glossed PR machine in action for the production of an army of killing machines. This is horrifying.

culady

I wish they’d make a somewhat affordable micro version for home use. Like the size of a small cat.

28yaryaj

News tomorrow: ANU professor found dead with all research mysteriously gone.

Bon2341

Today’s pv cells have 20% efficiency. Assuming optimal 80% efficiency for electrolysis, this means 16% overall efficiency.

So that is quite an achievement, if it’s really low cost.
(The image shows Platinum, so I’m skeptical on that)

Honigwesen

> … silicon/titanium/**platinum** photoelectrode

Platinum scarcity is why fuel cells haven’t taken off.

jphamlore

This technology is advancing pretty fast… maybe it can save us from extinction.

LilianPumpernickel

Do you think existing pipeline infrastructure can be converted to hydrogen without too much cost, in other words it would be worth it? I am thinking after oil and gas, pipelines like Enbridge, will still have a market to transport fluids.

pintord