Hyperloop tube trains, killer AI, and virtual skydiving: Yes, it's the Pioneers Festival Pioneers Festival 2015 is under way in Vienna – the event where hundreds of breathless startups go in search of funding or to publicize their bright ideas. Pioneers is about future technology, but Dr Hermann Hauser, cofounder of Acorn Computers, kicked off the event with a journey into the past. The 1949 EDSAC 1 computer was …
People have been getting that one wrong since Metropolis was released. Writers especially are HOPELESS at predicting the rate of technological advance.
- Blade Runner was set in 2019
- Back to the Future 2 went forward to October 2015 (we have 3 months to develop proper flying cars sky, hoverboards, and Mr Fusion systems)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Space: 1999
Etc, etc.
Space: 1999
Oh be fair - there was a lot more wrong with [i]Space 1999[/i] than just the date it was set in. On the plus side if I remember correctly the Eagles did take off silently so they got some things right.
As a child I still loved the show - but I was old enough to be struggling with some of the plot holes and series two was pretty much hopeless in that respect. A woman who can turn into a bee and fly into an air duct. Um.
Here Here,
pronouncements on AI producing sentient machines by the year nnnn always say more about the speakers ignorance than about the state of tech.
Although in this instance not the biggest twat in the room! I thought the train bloke was a right plum, and then he tacked on 'renewable' and went full fuckwit. i don't see how the train couldn't work in the cloud pesrn'ly
Hyperloop - could actually work. But will need Billions to develop and Musk has already maxed out his credit trying to get into space.
Graphene - Is still a manufacturing breakthrough away from being practical. I hope it doesn't take 10+ years like OLED Televisions.
AI - So many predictions about this it is boring.
Hyperloop - could actually work
At "twice as expensive as flying", I don't see it being economically feasible. Yes, it has advantages over flying - should be faster, and largely unaffected by weather (though more affected by earthquakes), for example - and commercial air travel has such a terrible user experience that there's plenty of room for alternative methods to be more pleasant. But twice as expensive? That'd be mighty hard to justify to corporate bean-counters, and most tourist traffic will take the cheaper option too.
Looks like a non-starter to me.
I don't care either way, mind you. I don't plan to spend much time anywhere they're likely to build one of the things.
Was it just me that kept reading his name as Airborn? Pie in the sky anyway,especially any plans he might have of building anywhere in the UK or Europe. The biggest cost of a new rail line is getting the land rights, not to mention the cost and hyperloop IS a rail line in terms of land use. Worse, it can't be routed around the landowners stately pile etc., it needs a straight route. Good luck with acquiring a straight route between any two European cities.
"And thanks to its unique sales model it made about as much money as the interest intel earns on its tea kitty"
Fortunately, that's still enough profit for them to carry on developing and designing the world supply of ARM processors even it does mean the board have to forgo the purchase of private yachts the size of supertankers.
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