How to Jumpstart a Moon Colony From Your Bedroom

The next stage of human expansion will probably be into space, and the best place to start will be with a moon colony. Sure it's not as cool as Mars, but it's close by, which means easy rescue from Earth if things go wrong and a thriving tourism industry to support early colonization efforts. Maybe we can even build a space elevator to help people get there and back really quickly. Obviously we'd all love to visit the moon colony tomorrow, but it's not likely to exist for another 30 years at least. What can you put on your to-do list now to make sure the moon colony gets built faster? More »

How to Create Artificial Intelligence in Your Spare Time

One of the most popular futurist hobbyhorses is the idea that artificially intelligent machines will soon become ubiquitous and change the world forever. This is an old dream, which may have started with Isaac Asimov's idea that superintelligent computers would take over the geo-political management of Earth (see the final story in I, Robot) and create a more rational world. Early computer geeks like Alan Turing imagined that AI would simply be a perfected human brain, sentient but far more powerful and capable of solving problems humans can't. Most scientists and futurists agree that true AI has the potential to create a better world, but what can you put on your to-do list today that will help make AI a reality in fifty years? Actually, there's quite a lot. More »