Common Mistakes When Thinking About the Future

I have written before about how unprofessional it is for journalists and bloggers to say, "it may sound like science fiction but...." This statement is a reflection of the popular disdain for science fiction and of anyone who looks at the future. After the decades of journalists writing about science fiction predicting that which is … Continue reading Common Mistakes When Thinking About the Future

Wellbeing as a policy objective

Ever since the 70s when the king of Bhutan suggested the idea of a Gross National Happiness metric to replace the Gross National Product, academics and politicians have explored the notion of softer research for measuring national progress. The UN developed their Human Development Programme which provided a much broader set of indices for nations … Continue reading Wellbeing as a policy objective

My Body, My Right?

I was scanning and found a few articles about elective amputation. Electing to amputate a limb? Well, official elective amputation is reserved for those with diminished use of a limb when even a dumb prosthetic, much less a modern prosthetic capable of reaching and grabbing, would actually be better than their own limb. However, there was some … Continue reading My Body, My Right?

Approaching Androids

An android is a robot that resembles a human, and their potential applications include customer service, communication technologies, education, and health care. Japan has produced a number of androids, but they still only look like humans. They still feel, smell, sound, and presumably taste synthetic. My latest trend alert shows where researchers are advancing in … Continue reading Approaching Androids