Innovations So many new discoveries are being made in science, when applied we may not recognize our world anymore. While many people, including myself, do not think electric cars are practical yet, there is no denying they are being improved but also problems created. First I would like to mention the fact it looks like we are going to see solid state batteries soon. It is said this will increase the range to about 700 miles. If it is being recommended they should only be charged to 80 percent capacity like the ones we have now, I presume the range will really be about 560 miles, but this is not too shabby. The down side in the area of construction is the rates will go way up on our car insurance since the electric car companies are making such larger parts. There are horror stories already such as a fender costing tens of thousands of dollars to replace because it is part of the entire body structure and not an individual part. Soon we are going to learn a lot more about the universe because of the development of super thin lenses. It was said they could make a refractor telescope 100 times the power of the incredible Webb Space telescope and do it much cheaper using lenses instead of mirrors. Will we be able to look in on close planets and actually see the surface and maybe features upon them when they are in other solar systems? The idea is to take the blur out of large refractive lenses using a second lens to do this. The work took about 2 years, and new machines to cut patterns into the lenses were developed. This pattern is used to focus the light to a single point behind the lens. The image is said to be almost perfect. The texture on the lens is responsible for focusing it, this makes it easier to make bigger lenses. We have seen scientists concentrating on trying to make clean energy. Unfortunately. there are a lot of pitfalls. We have found some of the energy while looking clean is not, such as anything using solar cells because they are dangerous when we get rid of them. Those huge windmills also have problems, they use a lot of oil as lubricant. The blades kill birds and are toxic to get rid of. On a smaller scale there is one technology which is being worked on to get electricity out of the air and so far a couple of small test devices have been made which run without batteries. One way of doing this is broadcasting electricity. We know we can, but range is a problem, and we have to find out if this can harm humans. A test cell phone worked using only the magnetic waves already in the air. It was far too basic for the public at this stage however. One of the most popular technologies being invented now is artificial intelligence. It is also one of the most dangerous, according to the scientific community. Some scientists are saying it makes the hydrogen bomb look like a toy. What are they so worried about? They are afraid artificial intelligence will get out of our control and start doing things which will harm us. If we are fans of science fiction movies there have been some which show I.A. creating robot soldiers behind our backs. Let’s not take things that far yet, and say maybe the A.I. would do something it thought was helpful to us but it hurt us in some way. They might, for example, develop a medicine that while looked incredible in curing people from a certain disease, have a side effect which while not harming us physically would stop us from reproducing, which we were incapable of detecting. It is amazing to see how suddenly only over a couple of years so many drones have come to be. While they are being used by people everywhere, the military drones seem to be in the news most often. One has only to look at how suddenly Ukraine is putting the fear of God into the Russian Navy using drones. Recently over one thousand civilian drones became capable of being controlled at once to make interesting patterns in the sky. I couldn’t help but think this is the way the military drones may be used to overwhelm any target. How could any nation protect itself from a massive wave of drones attacking? There are now many different types of drones. There are drones that fly, sail on water and even submerge. I am beginning to think drones are now the deadliest conventional weapons. Augmented Reality is going to change the world. We are seeing this already as many gamers who use it will tell you. But while in civilian use it is most used in games, the military has other plans for it. It can be used in a simulator which is has close to the real thing as we can get. Aircraft simulators, tanks and other simulators are becoming routine in the military. Another use which has arisen is using it to fly attack drones from a fixed location or in an airplane. It can make one feel they are actually there allowing them to get the feel of the device and make them better drone pilots. When we join chemistry with A.I., we can watch the results of an experiment which would have been dangerous to actually do. Look for Augmented Reality to get into many jobs in the future. We might even have truck drivers someday who can do this from home, and yet feel like they are actually driving. Something I never thought I would see, except maybe in a comic book is coming out. It is a flying motorcycle. Jetpack aviation is going to release the Speeder. It is a vertical takeoff and lander vehicle. It is said to be lighter than the same size motorcycle and is very easy to train someone to fly. It has a top speed of about 150 miles per hour. One use for robots which is being pursued is robotic firemen. The famous dog robot from Boston Dynamics was shone with an attachment spraying a fire. There is also a portable emergency robot which was created to assist human firemen in fighting fires. There are quite a few companies making robotic firemen. I would say there are a few professions I can think of where humans might be replaced. Another is trash collection. Trash collecting robots are being developed by different companies and universities. Watch out letter carriers.
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