En Derin

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

In a sleepy suburb of Sydney, Australia, long since taken over by mainly-one-story houses, sat a disused metal-sided shed. An ad hod affair, it was a rare leftover of what was once an industrial neighborhood, destined for demolition but instead converted into a strange new home.

The newly-reconstituted building dubbed ‘Tinshed’  by Raffaello Rosselli (images by Mark Syke) is made from the metal of the old abandonment. It is still pockmarked, with a haphazard surface that slips between gray, green, white and red – its panels overlapping in odd and seemingly chaotic patchwork patterns. Now, however, it these frame a few more oddities, like windows for the first time in the site’s life.

Inside, the building has immaculate flat white walls and crisp curved surfaces, reflecting its fresh purpose as a studio (on the first floor) dwelling and office space (on the second level). The juxtaposition of interior and exterior is fitting, as the entire structure is itself a strange addition to its surroundings.

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[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

We already know what kind of music trees make when left to their own devices, and now we can make them sound the way we want. After developing a method for converting digital files into 3D printable records, designer Amanda Ghassaei has laser-cut records onto pieces of wood. While vinyl may be cheaper and provide sharper sound, it’s hard to deny that these hand-crafted records are works of beauty.

Ghassaei created digital wavelength forms of songs by Radiohead and Joy Division, converted them into PDFs and used an Epilog 120 Watt Legend EXT laser cutter to etch about three minutes of sound onto each side of a slice of wood. The resulting wood records, which are twice as thick as vinyl, can be played on an ordinary turntable.

“With this project I wanted to try to extend the idea of digitally fabricated records to use relatively common and affordable machines and materials so that (hopefully) more people can participate, experiment, and actually use all this documentation I’ve been writing,” says Ghassaei.

Ghassaei has also cut audio onto acrylic and paper. Music with good midtones tend to sound best with this technique. Listen to more samples and get more details about the project at Instructables.

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[ By Steph in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

One hundred years from now, will we be living on other planets, teleporting from place to place, communicating to each other telepathically, or even becoming immortal by shifting human consciousness from our biological bodies to artificial ones? These predictions for the distant future seem outrageous and virtually impossible to achieve, yet steps are being made toward them at this very moment. The seeds of the potential future wonders of the world have already been planted, and in many cases, it’s not a question of whether they’ll happen, so much as when.

Teleportation

(images via: physical review focus, ail)

As unlikely as this may sound, teleportation isn’t entirely sci-fi. Physicists have already succeeded in teleporting photons – but right now, it’s not so much about teleporting matter from one location to the next, as it is information. Quantum teleportation is a complex topic involving concepts like ‘entanglement’, the connection that links the quantum states of two particles no matter who far apart they are. Teleporting a single particle is one thing, but what about human beings, Star Trek style?

As PBS’ The Nature of Reality column explains, “Remember that we wouldn’t be moving Kirk’s molecules from one place to another. He would interact with a suite of previously-entangled particles, and when we read the quantum state we would destroy the complex quantum information that makes his molecules into him while instantly providing the information required to recreate his quantum state from other atoms in a distant location. Quantum mechanics doesn’t forbid it. The rules of quantum mechanics still apply whether you’re talking about a system of two particles or human being made of 1027 atoms.”

The verdict? Teleportation is certainly possible, and scientists may soon begin working on attempts to teleport living matter, like viruses. Physicist Michio Kaku believes that the transport of a molecule will happen within the next ten years, followed by DNA, but that teleporting an entire human is probably still centuries away.

Artificial Intelligence Surpassing Human Intelligence

(images via: mashable)

How long do we have until human-level artificial intelligence is achieved? H+ Magazine surveyed experts, asking when they estimated AI would meet four major milestones: carrying on a conversation well enough to pass as a human, solving problems as well as a third grade student, performing Nobel-quality scientific work, and finally, surpassing human intelligence altogether. Robots can already see, hear, learn, solve problems and respond to questions, and some are even getting senses of smell and taste. The Eccerobot is creepily human in its movements thanks to artificial muscles and bones.

The general consensus was that we’ll have AI at the human level or beyond will happen by the middle of the century, or maybe even sooner – but may not surpass humans for a hundred years, if ever.

Space Settlements

(images via: space.com)

Applications are now open for a one-way ticket to a private space settlement on Mars. The Mars One project intends to land supplies on the red planet in 2016, and get settlers there by 2023; about 78,000 people have already applied. The company responsible, Lansdorp, insists that the technology needed to achieve this lofty goal already exists. And according to a group of astronauts, researchers and space flight firms who met in May 2013 for the first Human to Mars Summit, establishing a permanent, sustainable outpost on another planet might be a matter of saving the human species.

Supplies would be dropped off first, and then a crew of either humans or robots would construct the base. There are a lot of obstacles, not the least of which is the question of transportation between Earth and Mars, and whether Mars inhabitants could maintain their own food source, rather than relying on interplanetary deliveries.

Will it really happen? it’s hard to say. Private companies with an interest in space colonization are working with some of the same companies that have completed commercial cargo missions to the International Space Station. Lansdorp intends to make the technology developed during its mission available for sale, to fund Mars One and help speed up progress for additional colonies.

Body-Embeddable Electronics

(images via: io9, sync-blog)

In the future, it might be possible to hack other human beings thanks to all manner of body-embeddable gadgets. Many futurists and technology experts believe the trend for future devices isn’t to go smaller, but rather to integrate them into ourselves. Scientists have already developed tiny chips that can translate tiny bodily movements into energy to power gadgets, as well as devices that can be implanted into our bodies. Everyday electronics can already be implanted into human tissue, and medical devices are paving the way for recreational. Ready or not, the bionic human is on the horizon.

Researchers have also developed the first electronic sensor that can be printed directly onto human skin, creating a sort of ‘smart tattoo’ that could theoretically enable people to communicate with each other and our environments with thought commands. The devices, which are thinner than the diameter of a human hair, can detect electrical signals linked with brain waves, communicate wirelessly and receive energy.

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Future Perfect 7 Potential Wonders Of The World

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[ By WebUrbanist in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

With batteries running low, your eye roams the room for a place to plug in, but then you remember: you brought your own power supply. Portable, easy and green, this solar socket design is a stroke of genius, able to both generate and hold a charge.

A suction cup lets you stick the converter to any flat glazed surface, putting photovoltaic panels on the outside and a customary energy outlet on the other. And if you are worried about what happens at night or in overcast conditions: the device itself can store energy for in-place or mobile use.

Kyuho Song & Boa Oh have added a few other functional quirks to the design: rotate your charger plug and you kill the power, spinning a circular cut-off switch built into the face plate. There is a second manual on/off switch on the bottom as well.

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[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

Skyscrapers are the traditional small-footprint solution for growing square footage in big cities, but what are developers to do in growing places like Mexico City where new building construction is limited to just ten stories tall?

The only option, of course, is to reverse direction: build down instead of up. This his earth-scraper design by BKNR Arquitectura features a cental lightwell that doubles as a layered park, bringing illumination, ventilation and living greenery into the depths of the building.

Since the ‘base’ of the structure is an open void rather than a filled volume, the existing city square is maintained – it becomes a transparent platform, effectively, adding dimension without subtracting functionality. This configuration provides not only a window to the world below that you can also walk on, still also allows for public gatherings, music festivals, open exhibitions, marches and parades.

Below, the extensive building has multiple floors each of housing, shopping and office spaces, all arrayed around the exterior with views that face in rather than out – another inversion of expectations and conventions.

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