Welcome to Thursday Things! It’s Thursday the 13th. Which, as we all know, is good luck.
“Oh, hey! Just hanging out here in the clouds, being the Sun.” Photo by Tanishq Tiwari on Unsplash
When I was in high school I read a book called 2081: A Hopeful View of the Human Future by Princeton physicist Gerard K. O'Neill, which presented an optimistic view of Earth’s future in sharp contrast with the “We’re all going to die!” doom and gloom in vogue coming out of the 70s. I’ve always been Team Optimism and this book was certainly influential in forming that attitude. So far I haven’t been proved wrong. We’re a little behind schedule in some ways, but I think we’ll make up for lost time and still get our flying cars, robot butlers, orbital habitats and cheap energy as we colonize the solar system. 2081 is still an excellent book and I highly recommend it, along with O’Neill’s earlier book The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space.
My book report was brought on by this story - Beaming solar power from space to Earth is becoming practical:
In the near future, solar power collected in space and beamed down to Earth could power military and civilian installations, vehicles and devices in remote places across the globe.
The foundational technology is already in hand, and the first small-scale demonstration project will be ready for launch in 2023, thanks to a broad collaboration between the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Vehicles Directorate at Kirtland Air Force Base, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, and private industry partners here and elsewhere.
Solar power satellites (SPS) were a key part of O’Neill’s thesis and I’ve been waiting since the 1980s for the powers that be to get it together and get them online. The basic technology has been around for decades, but now with cheaper orbital launches (thanks to Elon Musk and others) and improved materials and technology we may be closer to getting it done.
The basic idea is you put solar panels in orbit, convert the solar energy into microwaves (or some other radio wave), and beam the energy down to a receiving station on the ground. Cheap, almost infinite solar power. No messy fossil fuels. No acres and acres of solar farms blotting up the landscape. Just don’t fly into the beam and everything will be fine!
Let’s get to it!
Speaking of technology improving our lives, delivery robots are on the job in the UK. Though they sometimes end up face down in a canal. So there are still a few kinks to work out. But they look friendly, like a lunch box on wheels.
The 4 mph machines can carry items within a four mile radius. Customers book a delivery through a mobile app and, once ordered, the robots' entire journey and location can be monitored on a smartphone.
Welcome to the future. We have snacks!
“It’s hot out here. A swim in the canal might be nice.” Source: MK Citizen
Robots can also give you a massage - Are You Ready for a Robot Massage Therapist?
French company Capsix Robotics and researchers at the University of Plymouth in the UK are simultaneously working on their own massage robots, each of which takes a similar approach. The Capsix robot uses a robotic arm along with sensors and a camera which guide it along the curves of a patient’s body. As it applies pressure, it follows guidelines which were provided by professional physiotherapists to ensure proper massage techniques are used.
And, of course, robots can kill you. Russia to Hold Firing Tests of Its Combat Robot
To date, the shooting tests of the Marker robotic combat platform have shown that it can strike targets quicker and more accurately than professional shooters, while the combat robot is also capable of distinguishing between civilians and military personnel. It has been “trained” to determine the difference between unarmed targets and those that pose an active threat and to only fire at the latter
Well, that’s reassuring, to know that the Russians have programmed their killer combat robot to not fire at unarmed targets. I’m sure that will never go wrong.
What I really need is a robot butler that can bring me snacks, give me a therapeutic massage, and slay my enemies. Who’s working on that?
(Probably Elon Musk.)
Species going extinct isn’t always a bad thing. Case in point, the ‘terror crocodile’ of North America:
Giant "terror crocodiles" that reached more than 30 feet in length had teeth "the size of bananas," according to a newly published study.
The research details three species of Deinosuchus (“terror crocodile” in Latin), Deinosuchus hatcheri, Deinosuchus riograndensis (both which lived between Montana and northern Mexico) and Deinosuchus schwimmeri (from New Jersey to Mississippi), that could grow up to 33 feet in length and were vicious predators. Deinosuchus was likely the largest predator of the time, with a massive head and jaw and it likely outweighed dinosaurs when it lived, between 82 and 75 million years ago.
What did the terror croc eat? Anything it wanted to. Also, dinosaurs. I, for one, am glad it’s gone. (Or is it…)
Get all the details in Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology
“Ah, those were the days!” Photo by Saketh Upadhya on Unsplash
Thank you for reading Thursday Things. See you next Thursday!