The Metaphysical Impact Of Automation

Earlier this month, I crawled into Dr. Wendy Ju‘s autonomous car simulator to explore the future of human-machine interfaces at CornellTech’s Tata Innovation Center. Dr Ju recently moved to the Roosevelt Island campus from Stanford University. While in California, the roboticist was famous for making videos capturing people’s reactions to … Read More

The End Of Parking As We Know It

A day before snow decapacitated New York commuters, researchers at the University of Iowa and Princeton demurred the growth of urbanization as the leading cause for catastrophic storm damage. Wednesday’s report stated that the $128 billion wake of Hurricane Harvey was 21 times greater due to the population density of … Read More

The Legal Dilemma Of Intelligent Machines

Walking into XPONENTIAL 2018, I was dumbfounded by the keynote speech by Professor Zeynep Tufekci of the University of North Carolina. To paraphrase, ‘In the future, we will no longer need two pilots, planes will have just one captain and a dog. The dog will be there to bite the … Read More

Making Unmanned Systems More Energy Efficient

Last Tuesday, I chaired a UJA Tech Talk on “The Future Of Autonomous Cars” with  former General Motors Vice-Chairman, Steve Girsky. The auto executive enthusiastically  shared his vision for the next 15-25 years of driving – a congestion-free world of automated wheeled capsules zipping commuters to and from work. Girsky … Read More

CES 2018 Recap: Out Of The Dark Ages

As close to a quarter million people descended on a city of six hundred thousand, CES 2018 became the perfect metaphor for the current state of modern society. Unfazed by floods, blackouts, and transportation problems, technology steamrolled ahead. Walking the floor last week at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC), the … Read More

The Race To Own The Autonomous Super Highway: Digging Deeper Into Broadcom’s Offer To Buy Qualcomm

Governor Andrew Cuomo of the State of New York declared last month that New York City will join 13 other states in testing self-driving cars: “Autonomous vehicles have the potential to save time and save lives, and we are proud to be working with GM and Cruise on the future of this … Read More

Brain Surgery, The Robot Efficacy Test?

The internet hummed last week with reports that “Humans Still Make Better Surgeons Than Robots.” Stanford University Medical Center set off the tweetstorm with its seemingly scathing report on robotic surgery. When reading the research of 24,000 patients with kidney cancer, I concluded that the problem lied with the humans overcharging patients … Read More

The Five Senses of Robotics

Healthy humans take for granted their five senses. In order to mold metal into perceiving machines, it requires a significant amount of engineers and capital. Already, we have handed over many of our faculties to embedded devices in our cars, homes, workplaces, hospitals, and governments. Even automation skeptics unwillingly trust … Read More

Are America’s Machines Safe From Hacks?

This past Tuesday banks across the Ukraine were hit with the “Petya Ransomeware” computer virus. The malware quickly spread to Russia, Spain, and the United States forcing many to pay the criminal’s demand. This comes just weeks after the WannaCry cyber attack spread across 74 nations, completely freezing the British healthcare … Read More

NASA Spinoffs: Bringing Space Down To Earth

In a time of “America First” the benefits of space travel are clouded by the smoke of hyperbole. In reality, there have been over 2,000 inventions courtesy of NASA that are making our lives better here on Earth. Everyday we benefit as much from the journey as from the destination. These innovations include … Read More