Here’s another first at VCTB - the first time I’ve bothered reposting something I saw on YouTube.

Being an incorrigible science fiction reader, and leaning toward the harder end of the spectrum, I’ve heard plenty about nanofactories (or ‘replicators’, or ‘fabbers’ as they are sometimes called). But to actually see a visualisation of how one would work was pretty inspirational. Continue reading “A tour of a nanofactory”

If you read this site regularly, you’ll know that I do tend to be a bit wide-eyed and ZOMG!!! about new technologies and gadgets. I also describe myself as a futurist, which is a word with a highly contentious set of meanings, but can be broadly described as a person who tries to peer ahead into the coming years to see not only where we are heading as a species, but hopefully what obstacles (or power-ups) lie around the next corner, too. Continue reading “Looking beyond the gadgets”

Ok, I’m going to come right out and say it: I believe in global warming and climate change, and I believe its cause to be rooted in human activity. Continue reading “Mass-transit musings”

This evening, I’ve got my serious futurismist head on. Let’s talk about the Singularity. Continue reading “Don’t fear the future”

Okay, looks like this evening I veer somewhat into politics by way of futurism, but this is an issue that I can’t avoid posting about. Continue reading “Why Tony Blair loves nuclear power”

Where are we going, and why are we going there? Continue reading “Roadmap required”

Crikey. I know Stephen Hawking is a genius and everything, but I’m not sure whether he foresaw this happening. Continue reading “The great Hawking off-planet debate”

Barring the invention of a stupidly cheap and non-polluting superfuel (or better still but more unlikely, some kind of antigravity propulsion system), the age of cheap and ubiquitous air travel is going to have to end, by choice or otherwise. Continue reading “Armchair Travel”

Global warming is a contentious issue to say the least. Even the people I know who believe it is happening don’t seem to have given much thought to what it could actually mean in real terms. Continue reading “The realities of melting ice-caps”

What has been a regional concern in the south of the UK is starting to make world news. What an irony that the UK, thought of world-wide as a place where it hardly ever stops raining, should be about to experience a drought. Continue reading “The Great Southern Hosepipe-Kill”