Science Fiction in the News:
Science and Technology News

Phil Nuyttnn's City Under The Sea
''Under the lower roof there was no water, but a clear and luminous atmosphere...' - Andre Laurie, 1895. (re: Andre Laurie)

IONITY Opens First 10 Fast-Charging Stations
'Recharge the batteries... in almost every town and village...'- John Jacob Astor IV, 1894. (re: John Jacob Astor IV)

Superstrong Multilayer Metal-Graphene Composite Material
Negligible increase in weight increased material strength by hundreds of times. (re: Frank Herbert)

Deepfakes Imperil Democracy (George Orwell, Right Again)
'All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary.' - George Orwell, 1948. (re: George Orwell)

String Art Courtesy Of Robot Artist
The number of different ways to span a thread between a larger number of hooks is astronomical. (re: Isaac Asimov)

Still Wondering If You'd Work For A Robot Boss?
'This is all coming to you courtesy of the simstim unit wired into your deck, of course.' (re: William Gibson)

World's First Autonomous Tram In Germany
What's it like for autonomous trams when they're turned off at night? (re: Isaac Asimov)

Sleeep PRO Earplug For Maximum Rest
'Merton... placed the electrodes of the sleep-inducer on his forehead.' - Arthur C. Clarke, 1963. (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

Inspired By Japan, Nap Pods For Hajj
It's always a good time for a nap. (re: Larry Niven)

Amphibio 3D Printed Gill Shirt
'... we can descend and live down there at one of those year-round aquatic resorts.' - Philip K. Dick, 1966. (re: Philip K. Dick)

How Do You Put An Asteroid Into Earth Orbit? Carefully!
'...she would have to be coaxed by another series of pats into a circular orbit.' - Robert Heinlein, 1939. (re: Robert Heinlein)

PD Aerospace Space Plane By 2023
'The sleek, tapered space shuttle lay immobile upon the private landing field...' - Frederic Arnold Kummer, Jr., 1940. (re: Frederic Arnold Kummer, Jr)

Foldimate Folds Your Clothes Perfectly
Look ma, my room is clean! I can hear you now. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Robots Help People Get Dressed, As Predicted In 1931
Yes, people of the future, robots will dress you. (re: Schachner and Zagat)

International Space Station Leak Plugged - With Finger
'These tag-alongs search out stray leaks' - Robert Heinlein, 1948. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Robot Snake Flies, Fights Fires
Just a prototype, but shows real promise. (re: Emmett McDowell)

IPAL Chinese Robot Babysitter
'But Nanny is different...' - Philip K. Dick, 1955. (re: Philip K. Dick)

ZKZM-500 LASER Assault Rifle
'The Iranian reached back into the locker and got a pair of laserifles.' - Poul Anderson, 1966. (re: Poul Anderson)

LA Subway Scanner, As Seen In 'Total Recall'
'I'm afraid to tell you this Mr. Quaid, but you have suffered a schizoed embolism...' (re: Philip K. Dick)

Sion Electric Car Covered With Solar Panels
'It drew its power from six square yards of sunpower screens on its low curved roof.' - Robert Heinlein, 1940. (re: Robert Heinlein)

PAL-V Liberty Flying Helicopter Car
'...lifted themselves to skimming flight upon whirling helicopters." - Jack Williamson, 1931. (re: Jack Williamson)

Space Drones - UK's Effective Space To Launch Rocket Tugs
'Twenty rocket tugs towed it from its Earth hangar out into space.' - Nat Schachner, 1937. (re: Nat Schachner)

DIY Autonomous Robot Detects Trash
'The search-bug detached itself and rolled forward.' - Philip K. Dick (re: Philip K. Dick)

Ancient Russian Walking Excavator Would Be Perfect RV
I don't need it to go fast, it just needs to amble along. (re: Jack Vance)

ELROI Satellite 'License Plate'
Robert Heinlein was thinking about this in 1941. (re: Robert Heinlein)

When Robots Beg For Their Lives
"Just what do you think you're doing... Dave.' (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

Do You Still Want A Folding Screen Phone?
'A paper thin polycarbon screen unfurled...' - William Gibson, 1986. (re: William Gibson)

'Snapchat Dysmorphia' Now A Thing, Say Plastic Surgeons
'The program raced up the screen one scan line at a time, subtly smoothing, deleting and coloring.' - Bruce Sterling, 1985. (re: Bruce Sterling)

Quiet Electric Cars Law Finalized By US Transportation Department
'... a sound tape to supply the noise'- Robert Heinlein, 1985. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Drone Assassin Fails To Kill Venezuelan President
'The spotter descends, and we think it searches the vicinity, looking for the victim's face...' - Daniel Suarez, 2012. (re: Daniel Suarez)

Stick-On Tape Speakers, As Predicted By Bruce Sterling
Flexible tape speakers, someday. (re: Bruce Sterling)

Bezos Invites You To New Life In Off-World Colonies
'A new life awaits you!' (re: Ridley Scott)

Amazon's Rekognition System Sees Criminals In Congress
'... the imprint of her image on the telephoto cell.' - Schachner and Zagat, 1931. (re: Schachner and Zagat)

Build Your Own Space Suit For Cheap
'I'm going to pump the air from this room... so that the interior will be like airless and pressure-less space.'- Otto Willi Gail, 1929. (re: Otto Willi Gail)

CIMON Space Sidekick For Weary Astronauts
I welcome our floating robotic assistants. (re: Philip Frances Nowlan)

SRI MicroFactory Of Microrobots Recalls Dick's Autofac
'Microscopic machinery, smaller than ants... constructing something...' - Philip K. Dick, 1955. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Embark Autonomous Trucks Still Need Humans
'...it resembled conventional human-operated transportation vehicles, but with one exception -- there was no driver's cabin.' - Philip K. Dick, 1955. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Rolls Royce 'Cockroach-Sized' Repair Robots To Crawl Inside Engines
'As if swarms of tiny animals were busily scurrying...' - Stanislaw Lem, 1954. (re: Stanislaw Lem)

Bot Tweets Venmo Drug Transactions
An alarming item to find on your twitter feed. (re: John Brunner)

'Power Clothing' - The Seismic 'Super Suit'
'The real genius in the design is that you don't have to control the suit; you just wear it...' - Robert Heinlein, 1959. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Rolls Royce eVTOL Flying Car
'The cab came floating down out of the sky at the intersection.' - James Blish, 1955. (re: James Blish)

Ontario Starts Guaranteed Minimum Income
'Earned by just being born.'- Philip Jose Farmer, 1967. (re: Philip Jose Farmer)

Is There Life In Outer Space? Will We Recognize It?
'The antennae of the Life Detector atop the OP swept back and forth...' - Frank Herbert, 1958. (re: Frank Herbert)

Space Traumapod For Surgery In Spacecraft
' It was a ... coffin, form-fitted to Nessus himself...' - Larry Niven, 1972. (re: Larry Niven)

Tesla Augmented Reality Hypercard
'The hypercard is an avatar of sorts.' - Neal Stephenson, 1992. (re: Neal Stephenson)

A Space Ship On My Back
''Darn clever, these suits,' he murmured.' - Jack Williamson, 1933. (re: Jack Williamson)

Biomind AI Doctor Mops Floor With Human Doctors
'My aim was just not to lose by too much.' - Human Physician participant. (re: Larry Niven)

Fuli Bad Dog Robot Is 'Auspicious Raccoon Dog' Bot
Bad dog, Fuli. Bad dog. (re: Ray Bradbury)

Las Vegas Humans Ready To Strike Over Robots
'A worker replaced by a nubot... had to be compensated.' - John Twelve Hawks, 2014. (re: John Twelve Hawks)

You'll Regrow That Limb, One Day
'... forcing the energy transfer which allowed him to regrow his lost fingers.' - Frank Herbert, 1972. (re: Frank Herbert)

Elon Musk Seeks To Create 1941 Heinlein Speedster
'The car surged and lifted, clearing its top by a negligible margin.' - Robert Heinlein, 1941. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Somnox Sleep Robot - Your Sleepytime Cuddlebot
Science fiction authors are serious about sleep, too. (re: Larry Niven)

Real-Life Macau or Ghost In The Shell
Life imitates art imitates life. (re: Masamune Shirow)

Has Climate Change Already Been Solved By Aliens?
'I had explained," said Nessus, "that our civilisation was dying in its own waste heat.' - Larry Niven, 1970. (re: Larry Niven)

First 3D Printed Human Corneas From Stem Cells
Just what we need! Lots of spare parts. (re: Larry Niven)

VirtualHome: Teaching Robots To Do Chores Around The House
'Just what did I want Flexible Frank to do? - any work a human being does around a house.' Robert Heinlein, 1956. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI) Workshop
SF writers have thought about this since the 19th century. (re: Jules Verne)

Nanorobots Roam Your Bloodstream, Cleaning It
Too bad they won't have lasers, though... (re: Isaac Asimov)

Galini 3D Printed Sleeping Pod Tiny Houses
'The houses are prefabricated units...' - Clifford Simak, 1952. (re: Clifford Simak)

MIT Boffins Create Psychopath AI On Purpose
There's a lesson in this for neural net AI engineers everywhere. (re: Roger Zelazny)

Skin Electronics 3D Printed
'June's body is a tracery of lambent lines, like some arcane capillary circuitry...' - Paul Di Filippo, 1985 (re: Paul Di Filippo)

Artificial Sensory Neurons For Prosthetics, Robots
Great for humans and robots! (re: Roger Zelazny)

China Uses Artificial Intelligence To Grade Student Papers
Looks like the City Fathers are starting to take over China's education system. (re: James Blish)

Electronic Tongues Will Rule The Kitchen
'Install taste buds in the end of one tentacle...' - Anthony Boucher, 1943 (re: Anthony Boucher)

Self-Healing Circuits From Carnegie Mellon
'It even had an inter-skin layer of gum that could seal the punctures...'- Raymond Z. Gallun, 1951. (re: Raymond Z. Gallun)

Swarm Of Mindless Robots Works Together
'Very tiny pseudo insects that... can unite to form a superordinate system.' - Stanislaw Lem, 1954 (re: Stanislaw Lem)

SpotMini Robot Dog, Autonomous And On Sale In 2019
Great, an autonomous slamhound. (re: William Gibson)

RoboFly Is Laser-Powered, Adorable
Don't swat this fly! (re: Raymond Z. Gallun)

MSG Sphere Las Vegas, ala Star Wars
'The smoky globe, hung in the vault, was shot with colored light...' - Samuel R. Delany, 1966. (re: Samuel R Delany)

Tetraplegics Dominate Avatar Races
Well, just speaking brain-to-computer... (re: Pournelle and Niven)

MIT Ampli Blocks Build Biomedical Devices
Damn it Spock, I'm a doctor not an engineer! (re: Gene Roddenberry)

UberAIR Asks For Skytaxi Landing Prototypes
I'd rather just call one to my front yard, please. (re: Various)

Boring Tunnel Almost Ready
Your underground future is almost here! (re: Various)

Handheld Human Skin Printer
It outputs a thin wad of uniflesh. (re: Frank Herbert)

Healthy Fast Food Courtesy Of Robot Chefs
'The electric cook was stirring empty nothing in a pan, with a zeal worthy a dozen eggs.' - Elizabeth Bellamy, 1899. (re: Elizabeth Bellamy)

Mass Production Of In Vitro Meat From One Sample
They're Assimilating Our Culture, That's What They're Doing (re: Larry Niven)

Amazing 'Hybrid' Solar-Powered Sea Slug Does Photosynthesis
Thank goodness for Star Trek. (re: Gene Roddenberry)

Retinal Prosthesis Uses Organic Printing Inks
We can rebuild you - well, your eyes, maybe. (re: Frank Herbert)

Should You Submit Your DNA To A Database?
Consumer DNA services are often inaccurate. (re: Andrew Niccol)

Squid-Like Robots Soon To Be 3D Printable
'It was a chemotactic artificial jellyfish designed to slither...' Rucker and Sterling, 1994. (re: Rucker/Sterling)

Humans Evolve Deep Diving Abilities
Sounds like '60s sci-fi to me. (re: Irwin Allen)

Researchers Create Bowls, Coils, Ripples Of Living Tissue
'... biological robots were not living creatures.' - Arthur C. Clarke, 1972. (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

IBM's Grain Of Sand Computer
'Our ancestors... thought to make the very sand beneath their feet intelligent...' - Stanislaw Lem, 1965. (re: Stanislaw Lem)

Liquid Metal Shape-Changing 'Soft Robotics'
'A mimetic poly-alloy... 'What the hell does that mean?'' John Cameron, 1991. (re: Philip K. Dick)

The Hammock Caravan And Italo Calvino's Octavia
'Now I will tell you how Octavia, the spider-web city, is made.' (re: Italo Calvino)

Super-Resolution Microscopy Provides '4D' Views
View the magnified interior of living cells. (re: James Hogan)

Have I Seen The Tesla Roadster Story Before?
'Only it wasn't a vessel. It was an automobile...' - Theodore Sturgeon, 1941. (re: Theodore Sturgeon)

Watch 'Do You Trust This Computer' For Free Today
Thanks for making this available, Elon. (re: Various)

Self-Driving Car Ticketed
This just missed making my day. (re: Various)

Elon Musk Tweets Versions Of Clarke's Operation Cleanup
'Fortunately, the old orbital forts were superbly equipped for this task.' - Arthur C. Clarke, 1978. (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

Burner Generates Temporary Phone Numbers
'Interesting phone system he's got, by the way...' - John Varley, 1984. (re: John Varley)

Walmart’s Autonomous Robot Bees
Are you allergic to autonomous robot bees? (re: Various)

EA Created AI That Taught Itself To Play Battlefield
Harmless fun for computer scientists. (re: Keith Laumer)

Is Teleportation A Death Sentence?
'A long trail of dead, he thought, left across the stars...' - Clifford Simak, 1963. (re: Clifford Simak)

New Brain Scanner Lets You Move Around
'In Bob Arctor's living room his thousand dollar custom-quality cephscope crafted by Altec...' - Philip K. Dick, 1977. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Can An Entire Brain Be Simulated In A Computer?
'The miles of relays and photocells had given way to the spongy globe of platinum iridium about the size of the human brain.' - Isaac Asimov, 1941. (re: Isaac Asimov)

Physicists Try To Turn Light Into Matter
If E=mc squared, then... m=E/c squared! (re: John W. Campbell)

Save Your Brain's Connectome, Upload Yourself Elsewhere
'You've got remote storage. How regular is the update?' - Richard Morgan, 2003. (re: Richard Morgan)

TMS Decreases Belief In God, Increases Belief In Immigrants
'... Setting up the same currents, the same basic ideas, in them all.' - Edmond Hamilton, 1938. (re: Edmond Hamilton)

Loomo Mini Transporter Robot Companion You Ride On
'Slowly the [robot] horse raised its head, wiggled its ears, blinked twice, gave a tentative whinny.' - Christopher Stasheff, 1969. (re: Christopher Stasheff)

Soft Robotics - Now With 3D Printed Sensors!
'A series of chemelectric afferent nerve-analogues, which permitted it to gauge to an ounce the amount of pressure necessary to snap a bone...' - Roger Zelazny, 1966. (re: Roger Zelazny)

AI Tool Lynx Insight And The Cybernetic Newsroom
'The structure,... was once a great homeostatic newspaper, the New York Times. It printed itself directly below us...' - Philip K. Dick, 1963. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Espresso Telescope Searches For Exoplanets
'These instruments were the wonderful ones our astronomers had perfected.' - Edmond Hamilton, 1936. (re: Edmond Hamilton)

Dune Fans! Metal-Organic Frameworks Make Science Fiction Real
'Dew collectors,' he muttered, enchanted by the simple beauty of such a scheme. - Frank Herbert, 1965. (re: Frank Herbert)

Manned Maneuvering Unit From 1984
'The glittering little rocket bolted to the black iron behind him.' - Jack Williamson, 1933. (re: Jack Williamson)

Astronaut Gets Younger In Space
'So what we're looking for now is not an antibiotic - an anti-life drug - but an anti-agathic, an anti-death drug...' - James Blish, 1957. (re: Neil R. Jones)

Blockchain Used To Verify Election Results
'Any adult could punch into the phone his or her code, followed by a yes or no.' - John Brunner, 1975. (re: John Brunner)

IJOP Integrated Joint Operations Platform China's Minority Report?
'All day long the idiots babbled, imprisoned in their special high-backed chairs...' (re: Philip K. Dick)

HushMe Bluetooth Device Reinvents The Hush-A-Phone
'Talking into a hush-a-phone which he had plugged into the telephone jack...' - Robert Heinlein, 1940. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Ultrathin Brain Needle Developed At MIT
Putting drugs into a selected cubic millimeter within the living brain. (re: Larry Niven)

Tesla Semi Truck Now At Work
Why wait? Tesla Semi now hard at work. (re: Poul Anderson)

Illustris: The Next Generation Of Universe Simulation
'This digital device was ... A machine able literally to contain the Universe Itself...' - Stanislaw Lem, 1965. (re: Stanislaw Lem)

Scaly Yet Soft Robotic Snake
Love those robotic sneks. (re: Emmett McDowell)

Cool Tinsley Lunar Unicycle Update
Great update of a timeless classic. (re: Various)

NASA's 'Armstrong' Soft Wearable Upper Extremity Garment
'Exact same articulation as your shoulder joint, and it holds your muscles out of the way...' - Samuel R. Delany, 1966. (re: Samuel R. Delany)

Kuri Robot Roams Your Home, Taking Pictures
'Small devices with cameras and sound equipment which could move freely...' (re: Niven and Pournelle)

Tiny Rubbery Robot To Take 'Fantastic Voyage'
I think that I will wait for other volunteers for this one. (re: Isaac Asimov)

Svalbard Seed Vault (aka Doomsday Vault) Gets Upgrades
'But they existed in the Life Bank, as did virtually every plant and animal that existed on Old Earth.' - John Varley, 1977. (re: John Varley)

Disney Vyloo Robots With Personality
'Let's build robots with Genuine People Personalities...' - Douglas Adams, 1979. (re: Douglas Adams)

'Princess Leia Project' Images That Float In The Air
Help me, Daniel Smalley; you're our only hope. (re: George Lucas)

Americans! Stay Indoors To Save Energy
'Those funny old days, when men went for change of air instead of changing the air in their rooms!' - EM Forster, 1909. (re: EM Forster)

Self-Healing Skin For Robots
If you can't self-heal, you're not much good to us. (re: James Cameron)

A 'Genuine Nanorobotic Production Factory'
'Microscopic machinery, smaller than ants, smaller than pins, working energetically, purposefully - constructing something...' - Philip K Dick, 1955. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Neuromorphic Computer Offers Non-von Neumann Architecture
Fires faster than brain at 1/10K energy. (re: Isaac Asimov)

Evorus Your Crowd-Powered Conversational Assistant
'...the DS [Daily Schedule] was suddenly transformed into a valued confidante.' (re: Frank Herbert)

Mealworms Food Of The Future
Get your grubs on. (re: David Brin)

Alibaba's AI May Read Better Than You
'Mike ... could accept other languages and was doing technical translating - and reading endlessly.' - Robert Heinlein, 1966. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Musk's Boring Flamethrower
'Skeletons in tatters. Burned by a flesh gun'- Alfred Bester, 1974. (re: John Brunner)

Humanity Star LEO Advertisement?
'Everyone has noticed those enormous advertisements...' Jules Verne, 1889. (re: Jules Verne)

Nissan ProPILOT Slippers Are Self-Parking, Autonomous
Beyond science and fiction, that's what they are. (re: Terry Prachett)

Atomristors - Atomic Memristors - Using Thin Nanomaterials
'I could almost feel those little tunnel junction neuristors working, forming their own interconnections as I operated it.' - Robert Heinlein, 1966. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Bigelow Prepares Inflatable Lunar Hotel
'Suddenly, hitherto unheard-of sums of money became available for investment in civilian orbital stations.' - Carl Sagan, 1985. (re: Car Sagan)

Drunk Driver Of Tesla Claims Autopilot Was In Charge
'Mr. Garden, you are in no condition to drive.' - Philip K. Dick, 1963. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Medical Exoskeleton From Cyberdyne Gets FDA Approval
It's been a long road for HAL-5; I started writing about it in 2005. (re: Fritz Leiber)

Fungi-Infused Concrete Repairs Itself
'I noticed that curious mottled knots were forming, indicating where the room had been strained and healed faultily.'- J.G. Ballard, 1962. (re: J.G. Ballard)

Shiftwear Display Shoes
'He unlaced her shoe and glanced at its readout.' Bruce Sterling, 1988. (re: Bruce Sterling)

NASA SEXTANT First With X-Ray Nav In Space
'You need at least four beacons for an accurate fix.' - Harry Harrison, 1956. (re: Harry Harrison)

GM Introduces Cruise AV With No Steering Wheel
'The car had no steering wheel, and no one drove!' - Miles Breuer, 1930 (re: David H Keller)

Subsurface Martian Ice Slabs Piece Of Cake For Miners
'One shy little fellow with bloodshot eyes of old-time drillman stood up. 'I'm an ice miner,' he said.' - Robert Heinlein, 1966. (re: Robert Heinlein)

LG Rollable Version Of Niven's Poster TV
'A television that unrolled like a poster.' - Larry Niven, 1976. (re: Larry Niven)

Multi-Robot Farming On Highly Sloped Land
High Plains, indeed. (re: Larry Niven )

Aeolus Robot Brings Jetson's Rosie Closer
Domestic duties, robotically performed. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Sony's New, Cuter Aibo Robot Puppy
Engineered to be adorable. (re: Philip K Dick)

Earth-1 Transformer Gundam Car
Is it a Gundam? Or maybe a Transformer. (re: Various)

Self-Driving Domino's Pizza Car
Yes, but can it negotiate entry at your Burbclave? (re: Various)

I Want Massive Space Freighters!
Ah, the space freighters of old. (re: Edwin K. Stoat)

When Will The Feds Ban Human Drivers?
'The first laws came out forcing the old machines off the highways...' - Isaac Asimov, 1953. (re: Isaac Asimov)

Our World Formed In A Bubble?
'The Worldcraft bubble glittered, catching the light...' - Philip K. Dick, 1953. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Will You Live To See EM Pulse Scattering By Ships Nearing Light Speed?
'...half a million kilometers away, the Stardrive went on.' - Arthur C. Clarke, 1953. (re: Arthur C Clarke)

Jabil Integrated Textile Heart Monitoring
'Della's first present was an imipolex sweatshirt called a heartshirt…' Rudy Rucker, 1988. (re: Rudy Rucker)

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