Category Archives: Biotechnology

News of The Future This Week: July 17, 2019

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Returning after an extended summer break.

“I poured spot remover on my dog.  Now he’s gone.”–Steven Wright

Is your dog gone? Not to worry, it seems that similar technology to human facial recognition might help you find it.

While you’re reading about all this week’s future-related  news, don’t forget that you can subscribe to Seeking Delphi™ podcasts on Apple Podcasts, PlayerFM, or YouTube (audio with slide show) and you can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Artificial Intelligence/Dogs–If you think being tracked by facial recognition is creepy, how do you think your dog will react to being tracked by its nose prints? A Chinese A.I. company is doing just that–for the expressed purpose of identifying lost dogs.

–If that sounds odd, a group of cognitive biologists and computer scientists wants to grant internet access to higher intelligence members of the animal kingdom like apes, elephants and dolphins.  And you thought human tweet storms were crazy?

 Transhumanism/Neuroscience–Elon Musk unveiled details of his Neurolink venture, and its plans to interlace the brain with a chip or sensors connected by hundreds of microwires.  The initial plan is to help individuals with neurological or sensory impediments;  the long range plan is…well…maybe the Matrix?  YouTube video of Musk’s presentation here.

–In a somewhat related sphere, Intel reports that its most advanced neuromorphic system now consists of 8 million neurons, and will reach 100 million by 2020.  (Compare that, though, to the 100 billion neurons in a human brain).

Space/Moon/Apollo 11–As the U.S. celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, a Gallup poll shows that for the first time public opinion swings in favor of a manned mission to Mars.  In the mean time, Fast Company reminds us that the Apollo program was unpopular enough, at the time, for Eisenhower to call JFK “nuts.

—The New York Times reported over the weekend that India’s population is “pumped” in anticipation of its first unmanned lunar launch, which was scheduled for this week.   Unfortunately, technical glitches have delayed the mission until at least late July.

–In the mean time, Engadget reports that France is creating a “Space Command” to defent its satellites.  The venture will be part of the country’s air force.

Ready for prime tme? Image: Boston Dynamics

Robotics–Boston Dynamics’ robots are getting ready to leave the lab.  The Verge asks whether the world is ready.

 

Longevity Extension–While telomeres and telomerase may not turn out to be the holy grail of aging, they certainly have their role in the diseases of aging.  Dr. Maria Blasco, one of the presenters at the second annual Ending Age-Related Diseases conference held July 11 and 12 in New York, is seen below in an impromptu news conference, talking about some of her work.

(Video credit: Mark Sackler for Seeking Delphi™)

Coming soon to the Seeking Delphi™ podcast, Matt Ward on disruptors.

 

Seeking Delphi™ podcasts are available on Apple Podcasts,, PlayerFM, or YouTube (audio with slide show) and you can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook 

Podcast Special Edition Mini-Cast: Preview of The 2019 Ending-Age Related Diseases Conference

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“As far as I’m concerned, ageing is humanity’s worst problem, by some serious distance.”–Aubrey de Grey

 

 

If we could prevent the diseases of aging, we could prevent aging itself.  We could empower “older” people to work like younger people for as long as they want to–if they want to.  In this Seeking Delphi™ special edition mini-cast, Life Extension Advocacy Foundation (LEAF) presidnet Keith Comito joins host Mark Sackler to discuss the upcoming Ending-Age Releated Diseases conference, to be held July 11 and 12 at  Cooper Union, New York, NY, USA.  The biggest names in ending research will be there to present, including Aubrey de Grey of SENS Foundation and George Church of Rejuvenate Bio and Harvard University.

LEAF has provided a special 10% discount code for our listenters: DELPHI2019. ; You can register and access the discout HERE.

You can Subscribe to Seeking Delphi™ on Apple Podcasts, PlayerFM  or YouTube

Follow Seeking Delphi™ on Facebook @SeekingDelphi

 

 

Click image for bio

Click image for link

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Special Edition Mini-cast: 2019 Ending-Age-Related Diseases Preview

YouTube slide show of 2019 Ending-Age Related Diseases preview

LEAF home page

 

In case you missed it:  Links to podcasts from Undoing Aging 2019 and X Prize Future of Longevity Impact Raodmap.

 

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News of The Future: June 4, 2019

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“Mars is there, waiting to be reached.”–Buzz Aldrin

“President Bush announced that we were landing on Mars today … which means he’s given up on Earth.”–Jon Stewart

Will we find microbes on Mars?  Can we make breathable Oxygen on Mars? I guess we’ll find out sometime between now and when we get there.  I’m not betting on Elon Musk’s aggressive timetable, and I’m certainly not expecting to go there myself.  But I do have a ticket to send my name there.

While you’re reading about all this week’s future-related  news, don’t forget that you can subscribe to Seeking Delphi™ podcasts on Apple Podcasts, PlayerFM, or YouTube (audio with slide show) and you can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Mars/Moon/Space–A team of researchers from Caltech has come up with a process by which breathable Oxygen might be generated from Carbon Dioxide for the benefit of future Mars explorers.  This is probably preferable to having it shipped there by Amazon.

–If you’re looking for life on Mars, you might want to look for pasta-shaped rock formations.  According to a University of Illinois scientist, a microbe that forms such growths lives in extremely harsh, low oxygen environments on Earth, and might be able to thrive on Mars.

–Neither you nor I are likely to be going to Mars anytime soon–if ever.  But you can send your name there.  NASA is inviting individuals to submit their names to be etched in a microchip headed there on the 2020 rover.  (Thanks to Eric Klein of the Lifeboat Foundation for providing me with the ticket below).

Future Transport–Back on Earth, Elon Musk’s latest promised gimmick will be to  produce a Tesla roadster powered by SpaceX rocket thruster technology–by next year.  Warning: do not exceed the sound barrier.

–The Canadian province of British Columbia is not taking climate change lying down.  They will phase out gas-powered vehicles, requiring 10% to be emission free by 2025 and banning gas-powered vehicles entirely by 2040.

–Wanna buy a flying car?  Listen to Seeking Delphi™ podcast #27.  Want an emission free vertical take-off-and-landing vehicle (VOTL)?  See the video below.

 

Sustainable Energy–If you’re seeking the holy grail of renewable, clean energy, there’s bad news.   Cold fusion, once and for all, is not it.  Google has blown more than a few bucks chasing that unicorn the last four years.

Biotechnology–Therapy delivering nanobots have moved one step closer to becoming reality.  IEEE Spectrum reports that South Korean scientists have propelled stem-cell carrying magnetic nanobots through a live mouse.

Seeking Delphi™ podcasts are available on Apple Podcasts,, PlayerFM, or YouTube (audio with slide show) and you can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook 

News of The Future This Week: May 24, 2019

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“Our aim is to develop affectionate robots that can make people smile.”– Masayoshi Son

What–he worry?  Ford’s delivery robot.

Will that thing to the left make you smile?  I have my doubts about that.  If you’re not familiar with the concept of the uncanny valley, you will be soon.  Welcome to the creepy future!

While you’re reading about all this week’s future-related  news, don’t forget that you can subscribe to Seeking Delphi™ podcasts on iTunes, PlayerFM, or YouTube (audio with slide show) and you can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Robotics–Just a few weeks after the CEO of Ford admitted they had underestimated the difficulty in deploying self driving cars,  IEEE Spectrum reported  on Ford’s self-driving vans, with door-to-door delivery robots.  Can the bots be considered unemployed before they are formally employed?

Future Business–Fast Company projects that the companies of the future will be sustainable and employee owned.   This mirrors the triple-bottom line approach espoused by John C. Havens in Seeking Delphi™ podcast #17.

NASA’s lunar gateway. Image: Maxar Technologies

Space/NASA–Up until now, NASA’s plans to return astronauts to the moon have been rather vague.  No longer.  A $1.6 billion infusion for its Artemis Lunar project has resulted in a firm target of 2024.  The plan includes an orbiting lunar space station.  Can they do it by 2024?  The New York Times reports that it’s unlikely.

–The Artemis 1 mission, won’t carry astronauts.  But it will carry yeast into orbit around the sun.  The mission will launch 13 cubesats next year, one of which will carry two varieties of yeast to test their survivability and growth in the radiation of deep space.   E.T. make bread?

–A team of USC students have accomplished a rocketry first.  They are the first students to design and build a rocket that reached the 100Km (62 mile) altitude that is defined by international law as the boundary of space.  The school’s report says it used a parachute to land safely after reaching it’s targeted height–but it doesn’t say where.  Oh well, to quote that old  Tom Lehrer song, “Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down?
That’s not my department says Wernher von Braun.”  [See Video below]

Elon Musk–Tesla might be in all sorts of financial troubles,  but Elon Musk has landed some funding for his The Boring Company.  His tunnel-digging enterprise has just landed its first paying customer, The Las Vegas Convention Center.  The center’s board of directors, as part of a $1.4 billion expansion plan, has allocated $46 million for two tunnels beneath the 200-acre site.  They will be cut to provide passage for electric vehicles and pedestrians.

Anti-Aging–George Church and his Rejuvenate Bio team have been relatively secretive about their efforts, to date, to reverse the effects of aging in dogs and mice.  But maybe we will learn more this summer, as Church has been confirmed as a speaker at LEAF’s Ending Age-Related Diseases conference in New York,  July 11-12.

–LEAF (Life Extension Advocacy Foundation) released the first installment of its LifeXten Show.  YouTube link below.

Seeking Delphi™ podcasts are available on iTunes, PlayerFM, or YouTube (audio with slide show) and you can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook 

Podcast Special Edition: X Prize Future of Longevity Impact Roadmap

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“The challenge is that the day before something is truly a breakthrough, it’s a crazy idea. And crazy ideas are very risky to attempt”–Peter Diamandis

 

Peter Diamandis addresses the Future of Longevity Impact Roadmap workshop at the X Prize Foundation, April 29, 2019.

If you want to know the raison d’etre of the X Prize, you need go no further than the Peter Diamandis quote above.  It’s all about pushing the boundaries of science and technology.  It’s about achieving the heretofore unachievable.

The Future of Longevity X Prize Impact Roadmap workshop was held at the X Prize Foundation headquarters in Culver City, CA, April 29-30. 2019.  It brought together dozens of diverse thought leaders across science, industry and longvity advocacy.   Sponsored by X Prize board member, and Longevity Vision Fund founder, Sergey Young, its aim was to brainstorm ideas for a longevity X Prize.     This Seeking Delphi™ special edition podcast features interviews and commentary from the workshop.

 

 

Special Edition Podcast:  Future of  Longevity Impact Roadmap

 

 

 

 

Ending Age-Related Diseases conference (click image for details)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sergey Young Bio

Steve Horvath Bio                        Horvath Epigenetic Clock

Keith Comito Bio

David Perlmutter Bio

X Prize home page

LEAF home page

 

In case you missed it:

 

Highlights of 2019 Undoing Aging

 

LINKS FOR UDOING AGING

2019 conference at Undoing-Aging.org

Program           Speakers             

SENS Research Foundation

Forever Healthy Foundation

Aubrey de Grey bio

Nir Barzilai bio

José Luis Cordeiro bio

Vadim Gladyshev bio

 

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News of The Future This Week: April 24, 2019

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“My opinion is it’s a bridge too far to go to fully autonomous vehicles.”–Elon Musk, 2013

“We’ll have a fleet of robo taxis by the end of next year.”–(paraphrased), Elon Musk, this week

Ah, you have to love Elon Musk. Or maybe not.  If he were a politician, the election opponents would be all over him for flip-flopping.  Ok, so we’ll allow him to change his mind in light of further technological developments.  The problem is, some pretty big names in field of autonomous vehicles don’t agree with him.  And as for his track record on Tesla promises…well, you know the drill.

While you’re reading about all this week’s future-related  news, don’t forget that you can subscribe to Seeking Delphi™ podcasts on iTunes, PlayerFM, or YouTube (audio with slide show) and you can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Autonomous Vehicles–Barely two weeks after Ford CEO Jim Hackett admitted that “the industry overestimated the arrival of autonomous vehicles,” Elon Musk shot back with a much rosier, prediction. He’s forecasting that Tesla will roll out a fleet of self-driving taxis by the end of next year, even as many other automotive executives are suggesting that 10 years is a far more realistic timeframe than one year.

–Tesla posted this video of an autonomous road trip (below)

Elon unveilled a Boring Company hyperloop test tunnel in California last year

Hyperloop/Boring Company–On another Elon Musk front, his The Boring Company made a major step towards a formal government approval of its first subterranean hyperloop transport system.  It filed a 505-page environmental assessment study on the impact of its proposed NY-Philly-Baltimore-DC underground transit loop.  Musk says an initial 16 tunnels for the route between Baltimore and D.C. could be completed in 15-23 months.  Judging by the number of state, local and federal agencies that have to sign off on the proposal, it’s likely to take a lot longer than that to get the needed approvals.

CRISPR/gene editing–One of the inventors of the gene editing process, CRISPR, has a strong message for us.  Jennifer Doudna says we’ll be eating CRISPR-edited foods within 5 years.

–On the other hand, Nature News reports that working with CRISPR-edited lab animals is proving to be a challenge. Key among those challenges is keeping them alive.

Space–China continues to ramp up its space efforts.  They plan to launch an asteroid-comet mission in 2022.  On a more disturbing front,  they are apparently using U.S. satellite technology to ramp up their global surveillance efforts.

—Meanwhile, a more restrained NASA has assembled and tested it Mars 2020 rover.

Gig economy–According to this opinion piece in OneZero, the gig economy may be broadening the rich/poor gap.

Surveillance/Existential Risk.–Techno-philospher Nick Bostrom may be best known as a dyed-in-the wool transhumanist, and the man who first proffered the suggestion that all of us may living in an simulation.   Now–going one step farther than Stephen Hawking’s suggestion that we might need a global government to keep tabs on the existential risks of technology–Bostrom has suggested that global surveillance of every single human might be the only thing that can save us.

Seeking Delphi™ podcast/coming attractions:  John C. Havens on IEEE’s new volume, Ethically Alligned Design, laying out their proposed framework for the safe and beneficial development of A.I. and other automated systems.

Seeking Delphi™ podcasts are available on iTunes, PlayerFM, or YouTube (audio with slide show) and you can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook 

News of The Future This Week: April 15, 2019

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“We are an impossibility in an impossible universe”–Ray Bradbury

If you’re fed up with all the doings on our messed up planet,  this is the perfect week to be reading about news of the future.  Most of it takes place off of terra firma.

While you’re reading about all this week’s future-related  news, don’t forget that you can subscribe to Seeking Delphi™ podcasts on iTunes, PlayerFM, or YouTube (audio with slide show) and you can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

 Space Commerce–Even before the dust settled on the failed Israeli moon lander,  the enterprise behind it announced they will try again.

–At least three companies are set to test new rockets  by 2021, in a quest to win one of two Air Force contracts to launch up to 25 satellites between 2022 and 2026.  But Northrop Grumman, United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin will have to compete with SpaceX’s already proven Falcon 9.

Image: Stratolaunch Systems

—Taking a different approach to rocketry,  Stratolaunch completed the first test flight of the world’s largest aircraft.  The 385-foot wing span behemoth is designed to carry rockets to a height of 35,000 feet for orbital launch.

 Aerospace–The European Space Agency and Oxford-based Reaction Engines report that the design for a hypersonic space plane engine has passed a prelimiarny test.   At a projected top speed of 25 times the speed of sound, the vehicle could cut transit times from London to New York to under 60 minutes.

Astronomy–Even as the first image of a black hole was released, Next Big Future reported on a new telescope technology that will probe even deeper into the secrets of the cosmos.  A space based gravitation-wave array will team up with ground based telescopes by around 2030.

—Despite the release of the first direct image of a black hole, New Scientist says there is still much about them we don’t know.

–Want to help name a dwarf planet?  You have until May 10 vote for the name of the largest unnamed object in solar system.

Image credit: Uber

Self-Driving Cars–Uber told investors that self-driving cars are critical to its future success.  It also warned that there is a lot that can go wrong.  You think?

–While Uber aims to dodge metaphorical potholes,  Tesla says it’s autopilot will soon be able to dodge literal ones.

Robotics–A new study of Major League Baseball pitch calls makes a strong case for robot umpires.

Undong Aging 2019–In case you missed it, here is the link to the Seeking Delphi™ Undoing  Aging 2019 highlight podcast.  YouTube slide show version below.

Seeking Delphi™ podcast/coming attractions:  Intel’s Katalin Bártfai-Walcott joins host Mark Sackler to discuss the future of ambient computing and digital twins.

Seeking Delphi™ podcasts are available on iTunes, PlayerFM, or YouTube (audio with slide show) and you can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook