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Tech NewsSocial MediaProposed Human Rights Would Protect Your Mind From the Likes of Facebook
“It sounds impossible but it’s closer than you may realize,” Facebook’s Regina Dugan recently told audience members at the F8 developer conference. Dugan was referring to the social network’s plans to read users’ thoughts. Just in time to inject some practical considerations into that terrifying scenario, researchers have proposed four new human rights to protect … Continued
By Rhett Jones -
Tech News
DARPA Wants to Hack Your Brain to Make You Learn Faster
If the brain is just a bunch of wires and circuits, it stands to reason that those components can simply be re-wired in order to create a better, smarter us. At least, that’s the theory behind a new project from the military’s secretive DARPA research branch announced on Wednesday, which aims to enhance human cognitive … Continued
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Tech NewsDARPA’s Brain Chip Implants Could Be the Next Big Mental Health Breakthrough—Or a Total Disaster
How did a Massachusetts woman end up with two electrodes implanted into her brain? Why is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency developing a controversial, cutting-edge brain chip technology that could one day treat everything from major depressive disorder to hand cramps? How did we get to deep brain stimulation and where do we go … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgets
This Is Why You Should Take Lithium-Ion Battery Fires Very, Very Seriously
Back in June, after installing a new lithium-ion battery into its ape-inspired RoboSimian and plugging it into charge, researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory had their lunches cut short when the battery suddenly exploded in a spectacular fireball that completely torched the bot. Lithium-ion battery fires have obviously been a big issue over the past … Continued
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Tech News
DARPA Just Launched a Podcast
DARPA, the agency that helped invent things like email in the early 1970s and the internet itself in the late 1960s, just launched a podcast. Podcasts have been around since the 2000s, but better late than never, I guess. DARPA, of course, is known as the “mad science” wing of the US Department of Defense. … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech NewsHow a Hillbilly Delivery Man Is Trailblazing Our Cyborg Future
After losing his left arm to cancer in 2008, Jonny Matheny’s life changed radically. The self-styled West Virginia hillbilly, formerly a retail bread sales and delivery man, started traveling to medical research facilities around the country to volunteer as a test-subject for advanced prosthetics and experimental surgeries. Today, Matheny is something of a Model T … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech NewsPrivacy & Security
DARPA’s Cyber Grand Challenge Is a Glimpse of Our Human-Free Future
What if humans didn’t have to respond to major hacks or breaches in the networks they operated, and computers could just do it automatically? That’s a question being asked by DARPA, the US military’s boldest research arm, which set up a multi-million dollar challenge to answer that question. Last night in a Las Vegas ballroom … Continued
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Tech News
DARPA Has a Simple Plan to Clean Up the World’s Deadliest Weapons
Getting rid of chemical weapons is one of the military’s most unpleasant duties. But in the future, it may be no more difficult than incinerating garbage, thanks to a team of DARPA-funded scientists who think they can turn some of the world’s deadliest poisons into harmless dirt. Chemical weapons, including nerve agents and mustards, have … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech News
The High-Stakes Plan to Eliminate Deadly Superbugs
Bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics far more quickly than humans are discovering new ones. That’s why a DARPA-funded research team is exploring a fascinating new way we might win the war against germs: not with drugs, but with predatory bacteria that sound like monsters from science fiction. Lions, sharks, and Schwarzenegger flicks are more … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech NewsDARPA’s Mind-Controlled Arm Will Make You Wish You Were a Cyborg
When I asked Johnny Matheny if I could shake his hand, I was admittedly a little nervous. The soft-spoken Floridian lost his lower left arm to cancer eight years back. His new arm—an advanced, mind-controlled prosthetic developed by DARPA—can crush a human human skull like a child squeezing a clementine. Of course, Matheny is a … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech NewsDARPA’s Latest Concept Video Looks Like a Bad 90s Movie in an Awesome Way
DARPA is working on the next-generation of fighting vehicle. And instead of making them safer through extra armor, they’re betting that speed and agility are the future of ground war. “DARPA’s performers for GXV-T are helping defy the ‘more armor equals better protection’ axiom that has constrained armored ground vehicle design for the past 100 … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech NewsA Prototype of DARPA’s Badass Vertical Take-Off Aircraft Can Already Fly
Earlier this year, DARPA unveiled its latest concept design for a new vertical take-off and landing craft. Now, a working scale prototype has already made its first successful flight. Aurora Flight Sciences has been working on the new vertical take-off aircraft—which is called LightningStrike according to The Verge—since it was awarded the second phase of … Continued
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Tech News
There’s a Portable Drug Factory Inside This Fridge-Sized Box
Producing drugs is usually a time-consuming process that requires several large factories each handling a different step in the process. But for smaller on-demand batches, MIT has developed a portable pharmacy that’s only about the size of a commercial-grade fridge and promises much faster turnarounds. The new device isn’t designed to be a replacement for … Continued
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Tech NewsThe US Military’s New Robot Is Ready to Go Submarine Hunting
DARPA recently christened its brand new Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV). The autonomous vessel can travel on the high seas at speeds up to 27 knots for months on end without a single crew member. The 130-foot ACTUV can be remote-controlled, but its primary use is as an autonomous vessel that can operate … Continued
By Avery Ellis -
Tech News
DARPA’s Submarine-Destroying Drone Ship Is Called ‘Sea Hunter’
Say hello to Sea Hunter. That’s the new name for DARPA’s autonomous warship, which is designed to seek-and-destory submarines without a crew aboard. The ship used to be called ACTUV before it got its new name on Thursday in Portland, Oregon. We’ll admit that Sea Hunter sounds much better than ACTUV—which stands for Anti-Submarine Warfare … Continued
By Attila Nagy -
Tech News
DARPA Wants to Give Radio Waves AI to Stretch Bandwidth
The radio spectrum is a mess: It’s congested, expensive, and there’s no room for expansion. But DARPA has a plan to change that, by building a system where radio waves can work together using artificial intelligence, rathe than fighting for space. DARPA launched its latest Grand Challenge last week, and it plans to encourage researchers … Continued
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Tech News
Google Is Reportedly Selling Its Crazy Robotics Lab, Boston Dynamics
It’s been a little over two years since Google (now Alphabet) decided to scoop up robotics lab Boston Dynamics. Now it’s putting the company that built terrifying robots like BigDog and Atlas up for grabs. Bloomberg reports unnamed sources who say that Google parent Alphabet is giving up on Boston Dynamics. Some speculate the move … Continued
By Avery Ellis -
Tech News
The Defense Department Got Mad at Darpa For Creating Email
Ray Tomlinson, widely credited as the inventor of email, died this past weekend. He was 74. By all accounts, Tomlinson was a brilliant man. And he’s being mourned around the world as the person who brought us the @ in our inboxes. The format novak@gizmodo didn’t just invent itself. Tomlinson did that. But the fascinating … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech NewsDARPA’s New Vertical Take-Off Aircraft Concept Looks Totally Badass
Yesterday, DARPA unveiled the latest concept design for its new vertical take-off and landing craft. And hell this electric airplane look impressive. DARPA has in fact awarded the second phase of its design contract to the concept, which has been created by Aurora Flight Sciences. Called X-Plane, it will use a 4,000 horsepower engine—actually the … Continued
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Tech News
Atlas The Robot Can Enlist in the US Military Anytime She Wants
Back when Alphabet was known as Google, the company bought Boston Dynamics, makers of the amazingly advanced robot named Atlas. At the time, Google promised that Boston Dynamics would stop taking military contracts, as it often did. But here’s the open secret about Atlas: She can enlist in the US military anytime she wants. Technology … Continued
By Matt Novak