Welcome to this week’s 21st Century Technology headlines. Each week I select a few interesting stories about technological innovation that can help us tackle the problems we face this century. As always I encourage you to comment, ask questions and provide input on topics I write abou

The title of this blog entry comes from a book by Peter H. Diamandis (of X-Prize fame) and Steven Kotler. Having just finished reading it I highly recommend all of you who are interested in the future to get a copy from the library, buy it or get it in e-book format. The authors ackno

When we think about the future of humanity and the forces of change impacting wealth, knowledge creation and economics, it is cities that lead the way. Cities are the economic drivers of  change, not countries. They are islands surrounded by rural hinterlands. They increasingly draw w

The Internet and wireless communications is changing the way we learn and problem solve for the majority of humans on this planet. Today we have 2.7 billion connected through the Internet. By 2020 we will add another 3 billion, more than doubling the user community. The vast majority

When I started studying robotics what was out there included industrial behemoths from companies like Cincinnati-Milacron. These were evolved numerical control devices, successors to tool and die equipment and paper tape controllers, used for manufacturing everything from screws to au

Stanford University’s Professor of Marine Sciences, Barbara Block, wants to preserve the ocean ecosystem by using smart buoys. The project is called the “wired ocean.” The buoys would be part of a network of ocean listening stations. The plan is to detect sea life fr

Even before Michael Jackson, Neil Armstrong showed us how to walk on the Moon. He was the first and watching that blurry image on my parent’s black and white television on July 20, 1969 is something I will never forget. I was a 20-year old, hurrying back from my parents cottage

A new study looking at atmospheric temperature changes from ice core samples shows that the Antarctic Peninsula, the part that juts out towards Argentina, has been warming naturally without human intervention for more than half a millennium and recent ice shelf collapses may be attrib

Welcome to this week’s 21st Century Technology headlines. Each week I select a few interesting stories about technological innovation that can help us tackle the problems we face this century. As always I encourage you to comment, ask questions and provide input on topics I write abou

In 2100 the workplace will look far different from what we see today although we can start peeking into the future by looking at a number of new technologies that are emerging. These innovations speak to a world where telepresence replaces being on the scene. The technology combines r