One month ago today, a robot finally passed the “King’s Wise Men Self-Awareness Test” intended to test artificial intelligence. There are many measurements of self-awareness and some apply to animals as well as machines. For example, newborn puppies exhibit no evidence of self-awareness during the first 3 weeks of life. Like robots they move to […]
Up until now, the “Vibration” function of a cell phone has been pretty basic; i.e. your phone ringer is off, but if it’s in your pocket or otherwise touching you, you can feel it vibrate. If it’s on a table you can hear the buzz. The new frontier is, “communicate information through people’s skin,” […]
Sweet. My son and 14 yr old grandson are very tech savvy, but I scooped them this time. When they tried my (first ever) Virtual Reality Headset (Samsung VR Gear) that uses my Samsung S6 phone as its engine, they each just kept saying, “Wow, I want this!” The phone clips into the headset, and […]
I remember the first time I heard of a “cell phone” 20 years ago… “So, you would CARRY around a phone? Why?” I wondered. There was a phone in practically every room of my home, and phone booths everywhere. I had the same type of sensation when I first heard of driverless cars. Futuristic! After […]
In Veterinary Medicine Today, we tend to become a little blase about bacterial infections. Once in a while it is necessary to do a culture and sensitivity, but MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) is still pretty rare in animals, but increasing. The WHO warns of an approaching, “Post Antibiotic Era.” Further, MRSA appears to be a […]
This is interesting. Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, said in a recent interview that with the growth of AI, eventually, machines will keep humans as pets. http://mashable.com/2015/06/26/steve-wozniak-ai-humans-pets/ This brings up the fundamental question of control. My car won’t let me drive over a certain speed without locking the doors. It is not under my control. […]
Hi all, Let’s all agree: No one knows the future. The idea behind a Veterinary Futurist Society, is to share information about new products, services, or ideas that in some way relate to animals or veterinary medicine. Then (for fun) postulate where that trend might lead in the future. Exactly how this group evolves is […]