Ask HN: Where do you find weird and wonderful future tech nowadays?
55 comments
https://hackaday.com/ and the podcast that goes with it.
Hackaday has been my browser homepage for nearly a decade, and really helped push me into engineering as a younger person. I can’t support them enough.
As someone who doesn't like working with hardware, I wish there was exactly this but for software. A curated list of fun, do-able, interesting projects with wide-ranging use cases.
Hackaday is amazing. Reading that site as a kid put me on track for my career today. Can’t thank them enough.
is there a best-of format for it?
Tech has gone mainstream so these stories are everywhere now. The Nytimes, WSJ, Washington Post all have tech sections and if you don’t read large national “papers”, you read about them at whatever news aggregator you have.
This is no longer niche news but part of everybody’s daily information diet.
This is no longer niche news but part of everybody’s daily information diet.
I don’t read the NYTimes technology section frequently, but whenever I have it’s always seemed more like a “Silicon Valley-themed politics” section to me. Not at all like any of the technology magazines/websites mentioned by the OP.
Just a smattering of articles from the last week:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/07/science/robots-pancake-ju...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/07/travel/biometrics-airport...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/06/technology/tesla-autopilo...
Which is the sort of thing they had in Wired and Omni. (We should be careful not to romanticize the omni/wired days. They weren't deep technical articles like HN has, but still interesting new tech that was somewhat hyped up.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/07/science/robots-pancake-ju...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/07/travel/biometrics-airport...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/06/technology/tesla-autopilo...
Which is the sort of thing they had in Wired and Omni. (We should be careful not to romanticize the omni/wired days. They weren't deep technical articles like HN has, but still interesting new tech that was somewhat hyped up.)
Two Minute Papers https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCbfYPyITQ-7l4upoX8nvctg
While good, I feel the channel is experiencing a kind of eternal September right now—the depth at which papers are reviewed has decreased to accommodate the influx of new viewers.
HN has really embraced our current techno-pessimistic culture, so all the things that get on trashed here are definitely worth looking into. And no, I'm not joking. In the old days, HN had split brain, so things would both get trashed and celebrated - the famous Dropbox thread (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863)? The top comment is gently dismissive, but overall the thread is also quite encouraging. Twitter is much better, since you can still get the split-brain effect there, rather than isolating yourself in a negative echo chamber.
So fining headlines isn't hard, I think the real value these days, which didn't exist prior to YouTube becoming huge, is that now you can actually really dive into these things in a way that was incredibly inaccessible before.
Take self-driving cars: You'll see the usual dismissive crap here, but then you can go on YouTube and you can watch Karpathy talk for hours about how they're building their system. Then you can go watch someone like Yannic Kilcher talk about Karpathy's presentation, explain pappers on which the work is based, etc. Then you can go watch AI DRIVR test the latest iteration in the real world. Because there's so much content, you can basically find content at every level, from basic pop-documentary explainers all the way to lectures and paper analysis, allowing you to gradually go deeper and deeper.
Rockets and Space? Scott Manley and EverydayAstronaut will explain missions, engines, everything. SmallStars has amazing visuals. EVs? Sandy Munro will tear down an entire car and show you every single little thing in there. Electric Flight? "Electric Aviation" will explain the engineering tradeoffs between Lillium's small ducted fans and Joby's large propeller design. Biology? iBiology let's you dive into any current reserach (Synthic Bio, Connectome scanning, using DNA as structural material). You can just keep going like that for anything, it's just plain amazing.
So fining headlines isn't hard, I think the real value these days, which didn't exist prior to YouTube becoming huge, is that now you can actually really dive into these things in a way that was incredibly inaccessible before.
Take self-driving cars: You'll see the usual dismissive crap here, but then you can go on YouTube and you can watch Karpathy talk for hours about how they're building their system. Then you can go watch someone like Yannic Kilcher talk about Karpathy's presentation, explain pappers on which the work is based, etc. Then you can go watch AI DRIVR test the latest iteration in the real world. Because there's so much content, you can basically find content at every level, from basic pop-documentary explainers all the way to lectures and paper analysis, allowing you to gradually go deeper and deeper.
Rockets and Space? Scott Manley and EverydayAstronaut will explain missions, engines, everything. SmallStars has amazing visuals. EVs? Sandy Munro will tear down an entire car and show you every single little thing in there. Electric Flight? "Electric Aviation" will explain the engineering tradeoffs between Lillium's small ducted fans and Joby's large propeller design. Biology? iBiology let's you dive into any current reserach (Synthic Bio, Connectome scanning, using DNA as structural material). You can just keep going like that for anything, it's just plain amazing.
Self-driving cars are a bad example for your argument because self-driving cars really are very restricted in their regions of operation. Yes, self-driving cars can work in Arizona where everything is flat, dry, and unobscured. But they just don't work in most parts of the country for half the year because of snow covering markings, emergent lane flocking that has nothing to do with actual lanes, and other winter driving fun. Autonomous cars won't work in these vast regions of the world until they can do the wrong thing the same way humans do.
The hype surrounding them is, and always has been, hype. No substance.
The hype surrounding them is, and always has been, hype. No substance.
I think you might be spending too much time in echo chambers. The hype probably underestimates the impact the tech will have (it is near impossible to predict higher order effects) and there's been an incredible amount of progress over the last few years.
The only social media I use is HN and IRC. The only chamber I need to yell into is right outside my door, full of snow with the roads covered. Any car using absolute positioning of self and road will drive in the wrong lane. Why? Because they humans aren't using the right lanes and what the humans are now flocking to as a lane is now the correct lane. And it's not like the sides of the roads remain absolute either. This is not some hour long transient situation. It's for 5 months at a time. Unless an autonomous car can follow the emergent pseudo-lanes (there's no real distinct visual markers either) and make the wrong decision like all the other humans it's going to hurt and kill people.
And that's why you only hear about autonomous car tests in arid warm regions. All the ones in cold climates so far have failed or used special roads with embedded sensors, or a car with many TB of pre-recorded ground penetrating radar scans mapped to road positions. And those absolute positioning based navigation systems would be deadly if mixed with emergent human lane behavior in winter.
I can understand why people who've never driven over a real winter can think autonomous cars are ready. But they'll have to achieve near human emulation of purely vision based driving to make the same errors humans do in winter. And that's a long, long way away.
And that's why you only hear about autonomous car tests in arid warm regions. All the ones in cold climates so far have failed or used special roads with embedded sensors, or a car with many TB of pre-recorded ground penetrating radar scans mapped to road positions. And those absolute positioning based navigation systems would be deadly if mixed with emergent human lane behavior in winter.
I can understand why people who've never driven over a real winter can think autonomous cars are ready. But they'll have to achieve near human emulation of purely vision based driving to make the same errors humans do in winter. And that's a long, long way away.
I'm from Canada, so I'm somewhat aware of winter, yes.
Technology will always arrive at different times at different places. Your area probably got high speed internet and electricity later than cities, and it'll get AEVs later as well. As any technology, it'll target areas with highest benefit:cost ratios first, then incrementally expand. Nothing particularly notable about that and when thinking about the overall development, a 5-10 year difference between tech being available in Toronto vs Yukon is not relevant. I mean, it sucks for people wanting the tech, but that's about it.
Driving in pseudo-lanes is probably much easier than what Tesla's FSD can already do (detect, keep track of, and plan around, dozens of cars and pedestrians), the reason you'll see it last is less tech challenge, but that getting it to work in a city is much more valuable.
Technology will always arrive at different times at different places. Your area probably got high speed internet and electricity later than cities, and it'll get AEVs later as well. As any technology, it'll target areas with highest benefit:cost ratios first, then incrementally expand. Nothing particularly notable about that and when thinking about the overall development, a 5-10 year difference between tech being available in Toronto vs Yukon is not relevant. I mean, it sucks for people wanting the tech, but that's about it.
Driving in pseudo-lanes is probably much easier than what Tesla's FSD can already do (detect, keep track of, and plan around, dozens of cars and pedestrians), the reason you'll see it last is less tech challenge, but that getting it to work in a city is much more valuable.
You don't. There isn't any. The reason why is explained here: https://thebaffler.com/salvos/of-flying-cars-and-the-declini...
Thank you. That was one of the most interesting article I've ever read from HN
Lately, I've taken a liking to low energy tech, permacomputing, solarpunk, etc. Writing on those topics is scattered among subreddits, certain blogs (e.g., 100 Rabbits) and forums, and various Medium and Substack posts.
Care to toss out names of subreddits?
r/solarpunk
r/permaculture
https://100r.co/site/off_the_grid.html
https://solarpunks.net/
https://medium.com/solarpunks/solarpunk-a-reference-guide-8b...
http://viznut.fi/texts-en/permacomputing.html
http://viznut.fi/texts-en/permacomputing_update_2021.html
https://www.sevarg.net/2020/05/23/on-working-from-home-and-j...
r/permaculture
https://100r.co/site/off_the_grid.html
https://solarpunks.net/
https://medium.com/solarpunks/solarpunk-a-reference-guide-8b...
http://viznut.fi/texts-en/permacomputing.html
http://viznut.fi/texts-en/permacomputing_update_2021.html
https://www.sevarg.net/2020/05/23/on-working-from-home-and-j...
seconding this. sustainable power and minimal, human-centric tech is the future.
The Internet is bigger than ever. Depending on the community the sources differ.
For ML, you have to read papers and fill in the gaps. Learn the basics enough to be able to slog through the vocabulary and math, then try to turn theory into reality.
For crypto, everything cool that happens in public happens on Twitter. There are news aggregators for crypto news, but it all happens on Twitter first.
It seems it takes more personal effort to get to the cutting edge these days. That could be because this edge is always getting farther away from the starting point, the blank slate of ignorant childhood.
For ML, you have to read papers and fill in the gaps. Learn the basics enough to be able to slog through the vocabulary and math, then try to turn theory into reality.
For crypto, everything cool that happens in public happens on Twitter. There are news aggregators for crypto news, but it all happens on Twitter first.
It seems it takes more personal effort to get to the cutting edge these days. That could be because this edge is always getting farther away from the starting point, the blank slate of ignorant childhood.
Adafruit and the surrounding community.
Also, there are several thriving tinkering communities on YouTube.
https://adafruit.com
Also, there are several thriving tinkering communities on YouTube.
https://adafruit.com
I've been playing Shenzen I/O and I like the idea of Arduino/Feather but I have no idea what I would actually make if I got a microcontroller.
Home automation or LEDs are always a good start in my opinion. Home automation because it's something that will affect your life and you'll notice, LEDs because they're pretty (e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29468919).
My theory is that it has basically gone underground (private groups on Slack, Signal, Discord, etc and maybe some public-yet-opaque activity on Twitter) along with much of the rest of the internet.
Weird and wonderful tech is by definition something that threatens the status quo, and having a public presence could attract unwanted attention by hostile journalists or even law enforcement. This has been called the dark forest theory of the internet. Being unsearchable also raises the the barrier to entry and keeps newbies out - besides not having to deal with them, this also keeps more in the pot for you if you ever figure out a monetization path.
Unfortunately I never got on the cool Discords or whatever in time to know the details of or network myself into these communities. But I’m pretty sure there are people printing pharmaceuticals in their garage with bacteria right now. DIYbio is fascinating (like the guy who made his own vaccine) but there’s no primer or news site about it - you’re going to have to dig hard and actually talk to people to get informed. I know for a fact there are people printing and inventing new firearms and things like electrical primers.
There are cool things (for a certain definition of cool - not necessarily positive) going on with cryptocurrencies - check out rekt.news for a sample of what’s going on. They are covering heists, but the details tell you a lot: did you know you can take out a loan of $100M right now with zero credit or identity checks? You just have to pay it back in the same transaction.
Weird and wonderful tech is by definition something that threatens the status quo, and having a public presence could attract unwanted attention by hostile journalists or even law enforcement. This has been called the dark forest theory of the internet. Being unsearchable also raises the the barrier to entry and keeps newbies out - besides not having to deal with them, this also keeps more in the pot for you if you ever figure out a monetization path.
Unfortunately I never got on the cool Discords or whatever in time to know the details of or network myself into these communities. But I’m pretty sure there are people printing pharmaceuticals in their garage with bacteria right now. DIYbio is fascinating (like the guy who made his own vaccine) but there’s no primer or news site about it - you’re going to have to dig hard and actually talk to people to get informed. I know for a fact there are people printing and inventing new firearms and things like electrical primers.
There are cool things (for a certain definition of cool - not necessarily positive) going on with cryptocurrencies - check out rekt.news for a sample of what’s going on. They are covering heists, but the details tell you a lot: did you know you can take out a loan of $100M right now with zero credit or identity checks? You just have to pay it back in the same transaction.
The DIYbio community at least is quite intentional about keeping a low profile. It's not hard to imagine how the mob could pick any random experiment to blow up about on a slow news day.
Discord is where I go to get help with any technology. It's not much different than being on IRC when I was younger though -- same sort of scenario.
My Discord is half a decade old now, hard to believe:
My Discord is half a decade old now, hard to believe:
> Created: <Day>, XX Oct 2016
This is correct. They keep a low profile.
HN, Indie Hackers Podcast, All-in podcast, Lex Friedman podcast, TikTok, and conversations with people I meet in virtual reality.
Visions of the future is really important here. That's kind of lost prominence in tech writing these days. (Did we all decide we had a big enough dose of the future for now? There's a lot of existing tech that's mind-blowing, and still hard to catch up with, I guess)
I'd probably start with Isaac Arthur.
I'd probably start with Isaac Arthur.
It feels like very few new things come out.. (I'm ignoring anything "as a service" and anything that requires an Internet connection).
I would expand upon this and say anything new and exciting gets ruined by companies slapping on SAAS models etc.
And yes I recognize that businesses need to make money I just despise the saaslife
And yes I recognize that businesses need to make money I just despise the saaslife
I totally agree with this one as it becomes totally useless once there's no internet connection.
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Sounds lame I know, but really (for when I want an overview or maybe to pass time): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerging_technologies and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerging_technologies#See_also ?
for the fantastical stuff, I'm a fan of Design Tech blogs and aggregators like https://www.yankodesign.com/
it's 99% just gorgeous renders, but still helps get the idea machine going :)
it's 99% just gorgeous renders, but still helps get the idea machine going :)
The hopeful future died with the dotcom bubble burst and 9/11 together.
Rex Research
http://www.rexresearch.com/
Sure, most of the stuff there is pretty crackpot, but the stuff that isn't...
http://www.rexresearch.com/
Sure, most of the stuff there is pretty crackpot, but the stuff that isn't...
Is there a list of this stuff.. presorted to remove the crackpottery?
I have no mental facilities that aid me in filtering anything out of this, but I wish I did. It looks like a blur of thermodynamics violating attention bait. :O
I have no mental facilities that aid me in filtering anything out of this, but I wish I did. It looks like a blur of thermodynamics violating attention bait. :O
> Is there a list of this stuff.. presorted to remove the crackpottery?
Not that I know of. A lot of these devices and inventions are still in the indeterminate realm between crackpottery and established tech, so it would take some work to make that list, eh?
FWIW, there are a few people who seem to me to try to do a good faith investigation of some of this (weird) stuff (E.g. http://jnaudin.free.fr/ )
Some of the things are pretty conventional (compared to free energy devices) such as the Vaneless ion wind generator: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaneless_ion_wind_generator
Not that I know of. A lot of these devices and inventions are still in the indeterminate realm between crackpottery and established tech, so it would take some work to make that list, eh?
FWIW, there are a few people who seem to me to try to do a good faith investigation of some of this (weird) stuff (E.g. http://jnaudin.free.fr/ )
Some of the things are pretty conventional (compared to free energy devices) such as the Vaneless ion wind generator: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaneless_ion_wind_generator
Black Mirror? /s
IEEE Spectrum -> https://spectrum.ieee.org/
IEEE Spectrum is still fairly decent.
MIT Technology Review is ok, it never grabs me and makes me want to read it frequently though.
MIT Technology Review is ok, it never grabs me and makes me want to read it frequently though.
Video Friday is cool
Neophilia is real and it's impossible to satisfy when everything is always new
It felt amazing in the 1990s when you were a teenager staring at the same 184 lego bricks for 6 months
But now you're older and blind to interesting new things because you're looking for new things in a bucket of new things
It felt amazing in the 1990s when you were a teenager staring at the same 184 lego bricks for 6 months
But now you're older and blind to interesting new things because you're looking for new things in a bucket of new things
I enjoy the Linux mobile space: https://linmob.net/ is a good blog to start.
That community happens to be interested in other topics such as decetralization and repairable hardware too.
That community happens to be interested in other topics such as decetralization and repairable hardware too.
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I honestly find a lot of interesting projects on Tiktok. Saw a laser harp driven by arduino last night that I am interested to explore.
I have also come across some DIY haptics for VR on there.
I have also come across some DIY haptics for VR on there.
Reareading science fiction, Vurt - Jeff Noon, Snow Crash Etc...
"future technologies" is pretty wide open.
aka could start a separate ycominator companion site
and still leave out a lot. ;)
One helpful approach I'd use would be to use a search engine(s) to help narrow down the focus a bit. aka "omni alternative";"tech podcast"
Yeah, typcially way to much info indepenent of what term(s) one uses; but great for getting a grasp on what's relate; prunning ideas dont want to conside; and new takes/views on "old" stuff.
Obviously, have to concept prune by default & necessity. Also bit more "customized overload", too
try search one day, wait for some time (day, week, month, year(s); do same search terms -- get an idea of how quickly things are evolving.
note: for given term(s)/topics, might seem to disappear, but things changed enough that the "search" is obsolete! try same search on multiple search engines!
A few prune/starter search category ideas:
1) Lot of self project blogging aggrigate & individual/group sites (vs. 80's & the dialup bbs). just try a term(s)/author and prune away!
general: www.indistructables.com / youtube / https://www.thingiverse.com/
directed: blinkenlights.net ; "tech magazine", grab a term/author/story & search
2) Searching foundational sites (gnu/mit/ieee/acm); sites containing citation/papers (csail robotics spinoffs) websites, aka cmu robotics, mit csail, georga tech, etc.) either for whats being done or reviewing what's cited in paper(s). aka hardware needs software & vise versa.
3) In the search vein, sometimes just doing search for things like the 1920's mechanical tv, ardrino punch card reader, and/or 3d printed project can turn up some fasinating stuff/ideas.
general: hackaday / makezine
directed: check out a project's url / citations / inspiration / etc.
general "thing a group/individual has done" : www.creativeapplications.net has limited set of examples on home page with archives stuff available to subscribers.
http://technovelgy.com/ what was once 'future tech'.
aka what Asimov ideas are still yet to happen? / What sci-fi writer ideas is SpaceX going to run into?
4) search term "open source projects":
https://medium.com/@likid_geimfari/the-list-of-interesting-o...
https://www.oshwa.org/open-source-hardware-journals/ https://opensource.com/tags/hardware
One helpful approach I'd use would be to use a search engine(s) to help narrow down the focus a bit. aka "omni alternative";"tech podcast"
Yeah, typcially way to much info indepenent of what term(s) one uses; but great for getting a grasp on what's relate; prunning ideas dont want to conside; and new takes/views on "old" stuff.
Obviously, have to concept prune by default & necessity. Also bit more "customized overload", too
try search one day, wait for some time (day, week, month, year(s); do same search terms -- get an idea of how quickly things are evolving.
note: for given term(s)/topics, might seem to disappear, but things changed enough that the "search" is obsolete! try same search on multiple search engines!
A few prune/starter search category ideas:
1) Lot of self project blogging aggrigate & individual/group sites (vs. 80's & the dialup bbs). just try a term(s)/author and prune away!
general: www.indistructables.com / youtube / https://www.thingiverse.com/
directed: blinkenlights.net ; "tech magazine", grab a term/author/story & search
2) Searching foundational sites (gnu/mit/ieee/acm); sites containing citation/papers (csail robotics spinoffs) websites, aka cmu robotics, mit csail, georga tech, etc.) either for whats being done or reviewing what's cited in paper(s). aka hardware needs software & vise versa.
3) In the search vein, sometimes just doing search for things like the 1920's mechanical tv, ardrino punch card reader, and/or 3d printed project can turn up some fasinating stuff/ideas.
general: hackaday / makezine
directed: check out a project's url / citations / inspiration / etc.
general "thing a group/individual has done" : www.creativeapplications.net has limited set of examples on home page with archives stuff available to subscribers.
http://technovelgy.com/ what was once 'future tech'.
aka what Asimov ideas are still yet to happen? / What sci-fi writer ideas is SpaceX going to run into?
4) search term "open source projects":
https://medium.com/@likid_geimfari/the-list-of-interesting-o...
https://www.oshwa.org/open-source-hardware-journals/ https://opensource.com/tags/hardware
Today, they're all gone or nothing like what they used to be.
What magazines, blogs, podcast, etc. do you use to discover possible positive future technologies?