Blog Post #1115
May 13, 2020
Free Flow Thinking: Icebergs, Dark Energy Stars, and it’s time for humanity to grow up
Yeah, okay. So, for those of you who are regular readers I know; I said I wasn’t posting a new blog today. Well, I wasn’t. I came across a couple of interesting articles, however, and I had a thought to express, so here I am.
By the way, I finished the revision to my Cybersp@ce screenplay and passed it along to a producer, who hopefully will ne reviewing it soon. As for my search for a literary agent, the quest is ongoing. C’est la vie.
Okay, so to get the ball rolling here, I came across this intriguing article about a captain who plans to tow a 70-stpry iceberg from Antarctica to Cape Town, South Africa. According to the article, iceberg water is among the purest water on the planet, and the people of South Africa are in dire need of water.
Yeah, I know the idea has been toyed with for decades, but it sounds like the man heading the effort up, Nicholas Sloane, a 56-year-old South African marine-salvage master, has done his research, and is ready to make this happen. In fact, it sounds like he and others expect this to become a regular thing.
Read the article below…it’s worth it.
Okay, so unless you’ve been waiting out World War III, the plague, or the Zombie Apocalypse in your underground bomb shelter for the last fifty years, you probably have heard of black holes, the remnant of a dying star that has collapsed, and whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape its gravitational pull.
Even Disney produced a movie entitled The Black Hole, several decades back.
So apparently there is a scientist
You can find all of Jeff’s published novels here: Works by Jeff W. Horton | The Horton Library
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Blog Post #1114
May 6, 2020
Technical Discussion: Living and Working on Mars Will Require a little MOXIE
Mars.
Everyone is in a hurry to get to Mars. Boeing, SpaceX, and NASA, all have plans on going to Mars. SpaceX has stated that they intend to send a cargo ship to Mars in 2022, followed by a manned mission in 2024 to land the first human beings.
During an interview in 2017, Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg made a very bold assertion.
Muilenburg was asked by The Street, “Who arrives to Mars first, SpaceX or Boeing?”
“Boeing,” Muilenburg responded. A video of the interview was posted on The Street...”
Dennis Muilenburg Interview:
During the interview Muilenburg remarked, “We are working jointly with NASA and our industry team right now. We are building that first rocket space launch system. It’s about 38 stories tall, the first article is being built right now. About 9.2 million pounds of thrust on that rocket, the biggest rocket ever,” says Muilenburg.
“If you want to put that in car terms, that’s about the equivalent thrust of 207,000 Corvettes and we are going to begin test flights starting next year.”
How did SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk respond to Muilenburg’s declaration?
“Do it,” said Musk curtly, in a reply to Muilenburg’s post on Twitter.
If I were to venture a guess as to who will make it to Mars first, let me just say that I’d hate to be betting against Elon Musk, the man who is a self-made billionaire several times over, a genius, and a visionary.
Whether it is SpaceX, Boeing, NASA, or another country’s government that gets to Mars first one thing is certain; anyone living or just visiting Mars will need oxygen to survive.
NASA plans to launch an experiment this year that could provide just that, the oxygen human beings will need to live and thrive on Mars, by extracting it from the Martian atmosphere.
From the NASA website:
MOXIE Makes Oxygen on Mars
“When we send humans to Mars, we will want them to return safely, and to do that they need a rocket to lift off the planet. Liquid oxygen propellant is something we could make there and not have to bring with us. One idea would be to bring an empty oxygen tank and fill it up on Mars.”
– Michael Hecht, Principal Investigator-NASA
“The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment is better known as MOXIE. NASA is preparing for human exploration of Mars, and MOXIE will demonstrate a way that future explorers might produce oxygen from the Martian atmosphere for propellant and for breathing.”
Tech Specs
Main Job To produce oxygen from the Martian carbon-dioxide atmosphere
Location Inside the rover (front, right side)
Mass 17.1 kilograms
Weight 37.7 pounds on Earth, 14.14 pounds on Mars
Power 300 watts
Volume 9.4 x 9.4 x 12.2 inches, (23.9 x 23.9 x 30.9 centimeters)
Oxygen Production Rate Up to 10 grams per hour, (At least 0.022 pounds per hour)
Operation Time Approximately one hour of oxygen (O2) production per experiment, which will be
scheduled intermittently over the duration of the mission.
5 Things to Know
1 MOXIE Makes Oxygen on Mars-Carbon dioxide makes up ~96% of the gas in Mars’ atmosphere. Oxygen is only 0.13%, compared to 21% in Earth’s atmosphere.
2 MOXIE Is a Test Model- MOXIE is the size of a car battery. Future oxygen generators that support human missions on Mars must be about 100 times larger.
3 MOXIE Helps Future Explorers- To launch off of Mars, human explorers need about 33 to 50 tons (30 to 45 metric tons) of fuel, about the weight of a Space Shuttle.
4 MOXIE Breathes like a Tree- MOXIE makes oxygen like a tree does. It inhales carbon dioxide and exhales oxygen.
5 Homemade on Mars- Homemade liquid oxygen on Mars could supply more than ¾ of the propellant humans need for exploration on the Red Planet.
For more information about MOXIE visit Nasa’s website at: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/instruments/moxie/
Does any of this seem vaguely familiar to you? It should, at least for fellow Sci-Fi fans who watched the original Total Recall released back in the 1980s. You may recall the scene in Total Recall, where Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character activates an alien machine, converting vast reserves of ice frozen under the Martian surface into oxygen, clouds and a breathable atmosphere.
Now if what I read is to be believed, MOXIE is scheduled to leave Earth within a few months. An encouraging development and potentially an event to get us primed for the series of launches between now and the early 1930s, when even NASA plans to send manned spacecraft to Mars. It’s now 2020 so SpaceX and Boeing better get going!
Oh, and if you’re interested, I found an excellent, consolidated listing of scheduled trips from Earth to Mars…
It sounds like the next decade or so will be very, very interesting. What a great time to be alive!
Mars Colonization Timeline
“Inspired from FutureTimeline.net and the Integrated Space Plan we have created a speculated timeline of human exploration and colonization of Mars. Predictions are based on a reasonably optimistic evaluation of technological and social progress of humanity. Only the most important and innovative events are mentioned. Timeline is regularly updated taking into account latest developments.”
https://www.humanmars.net/p/mars-colonization-timeline.html
Author’s Note:
I’ll be spending time over the next two weeks polishing the screenplay for my novel, Cybersp@ce, so I’ll be posting some posts from the archive, unless something significant happens during that time. Stay healthy and stay safe, and thanks for following my posts!
Jeff W Horton strives to write fun, exciting, revealing, and widely entertaining fiction with a slight Christian flavor.
You can find all of Jeff’s published novels here: Works by Jeff W. Horton | The Horton Library
Please follow Jeff:
- Blog: Subscribe to his blog! http://hortonlibrary.com. Tell your friends about it!
- Linked-In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-w-horton-a8378674/
- Follow Jeff on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorJWHorton
You might also want to explore Jeff’s website: at www.hortonlibrary.com, or visit him on the
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Barnes & Noble’s Website: https://tinyurl.com/1emwpg16
Blog Post #1111
April 22, 2020
Technical Discussion: Submitted for your approval; Mind-Boggling Technology that will Change the Course of Humanity’s Future
Tonight’s post, my friends, could end-up being one of my best, and most significant posts, ever. This post will introduce you to something you’ve probably heard nothing about, because I know I never had. Yet, in truth it is so incredibly significant, if true, that it could truly change the course of humanity’s future, assuming the Lord Jesus Christ doesn’t return beforehand. (Hey, I’m a Christian, for which I do not apologize 😊).
I’ve just learned that someone claims to have what would be, if true, the most incredibly advanced technology, by far, that anything we’ve ever known.
You can find all of Jeff’s published novels here: Works by Jeff W. Horton | The Horton Library
Please follow Jeff:
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- Linked-In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-w-horton-a8378674/
- Follow Jeff on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorJWHorton
You might also want to explore Jeff’s website: at www.hortonlibrary.com, or visit him on the
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Barnes & Noble’s Website: https://tinyurl.com/1emwpg16
Blog Post #1110
April 15, 2020
Technical Discussion: Ebola, The Hot Zone & Monkeys, and Future Pandemics (and how to prevent them)
EBOLA
From a World Health Organization Article dated February 10, 2020
Ebola virus disease
Key facts
- Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is a rare but severe, often fatal illness in humans.
- The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission.
- The average EVD case fatality rate is around 50%. Case fatality rates have varied from 25% to 90% in past outbreaks.
- Community engagement is key to successfully controlling outbreaks.
- Good outbreak control relies on applying a package of interventions, namely case management, infection prevention and control practices, surveillance and contact tracing, a good laboratory service, safe and dignified burials and social mobilization.
- Vaccines to protect against Ebola are under development and have been used to help control the spread of Ebola outbreaks in Guinea and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
- Early supportive care with rehydration, symptomatic treatment improves survival. There is no licensed treatment proven to neutralize the virus but a range of blood, immunological and drug therapies are under development.
- Pregnant and breastfeeding women with Ebola should be offered early supportive care. Likewise vaccine prevention and experimental treatment should be offered under the same conditions as for non-pregnant population.
The Ebola virus causes an acute, serious illness which is often fatal if untreated. EVD first appeared in 1976 in 2 simultaneous outbreaks, one in what is now Nzara, South Sudan, and the other in Yambuku, DRC. The latter occurred in a village near the Ebola River, from which the disease takes its name.
The 2014–2016 outbreak in West Africa was the largest Ebola outbreak since the virus was first discovered in 1976. The outbreak started in Guinea and then moved across land borders to Sierra Leone and Liberia. The current 2018-2019 outbreak in eastern DRC is highly complex, with insecurity adversely affecting public health response activities.
The virus family Filoviridae includes three genera: Cuevavirus, Marburgvirus, and Ebolavirus. Within the genus Ebolavirus, six species have been identified: Zaire, Bundibugyo, Sudan, Taï Forest, Reston and Bombali. The virus causing the current outbreak in DRC and the 2014–2016 West African outbreak belongs to the Zaire ebolavirus species.
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ebola-virus-disease
The Hot Zone & Monkeys
The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story is a best-selling[1] 1994[2] nonfiction thriller by Richard Preston about the origins and incidents involving viral hemorrhagic fevers, particularly ebolaviruses and marburgviruses. The basis of the book was Preston’s 1992 New Yorker article “Crisis in the Hot Zone”.[3]
The filoviruses—including Ebola virus, Sudan virus, Marburg virus, and Ravn virus—are Biosafety Level 4 agents, extremely dangerous to humans because they are very infectious, have a high fatality rate, and most have no known prophylactic measures, treatments, or cures.
Along with describing the history of the devastation caused by two of these Central African diseases, Ebola virus disease and Marburg virus disease, Preston described a 1989 incident in which a relative of Ebola virus, named Reston virus, was discovered at a primate quarantine facility in Reston, Virginia, less than 15 miles (24 km) away from Washington, D.C.
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hot_Zone
The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story (1999)
In my humble opinion, you cannot call yourself a true fan of the horror genre until you have read this true, biographical account of an outbreak in Reston Virginia of what turned out to be one of the most deadly viruses on the planet, Ebola. As you can see above, the most you can hope for should you ever contract this merciless pathogen is 50%. The brought side, if there is one, is that even with the worst case you still have a 10% chance of living.
Now with the above-average intellects most of you, my readers, possess, you are probably aware that a handful of Americans came down with Ebola in recent years. Now all were, to the best of my knowledge, medical personnel who’d been engaged in helping victims of Ebola in Africa during the latest outbreak there. This strain of Ebola is commonly referred to as Ebola-Zaire. As noted above there are four strains that have been identified so far. I’m only concerning myself with two for the purpose of this post, Ebola-Zaire (which has killed so many in Africa and the American medical personnel), and Ebola-Reston, which is written about in the book, The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story.
Ebola-Reston gained notoriety among those in the field when, in the year 1989, an outbreak of Ebola occurred in Reston, VA. You may well be asking yourselves about now, “Why didn’t I hear about this outbreak? How could I have missed it?” Well, that’s probably because only moneys died during this attack by Ebola. “So why is this important?” you may continue asking. Because, unless I’m mistaken, every monkey in primate quarantine facility in Reston, Virginia, less than 15 miles (24 km) away from Washington, D.C., I repeat, every monkey in this facility died.
Now, my astute readers, I’m confident a number of you are now thinking, if not actually vocalizing, “How would monkeys have spread the disease among themselves, given they were probably in cages, and the only way to spread Ebola is by physical contact with the blood?” Ah! A noteworthy observation, my dear friend. Well, that is because Ebola-Zaire, the most well-known strain of Ebola, is a virus that requires physical contact. What killed the monkeys in Reston, in exactly the same, ugly, violent manner in which Ebola-Zaire kills by the way, is air-borne.
Now if you’re paying attention as you read this, the hairs on the back of your neck just stood up and a cold chill traveled down your spine. That’s right, dear reader, Ebola-Reston is airborne mutation of Ebola. It is nearly genetically identical to Ebola-Zaire. Now as you might expect, by the time this all came out the human beings who worked in the facility did, in fact, contract Ebola-Reston, through the air. Very fortunately for them, it manifested much like the flu or, perhaps, like the milder versions of the Wuhan Virus now plaguing the world.
And lest I forget, there was a National Geographic film made “based” on the book. From what I could see in the trailer, however, I would recommend reading the book first because it doesn’t seem to jive with the book very much.
“Thanks a lot, scumbag,” you may now be thinking about your lowly author. “I was already depressed as hell about the effect the Wuhan Virus has had on the world, the victims, and the economy. Now I’m at the bottom of the barrel; thanks a lot!”
Now hold on a minute, valued and treasured reader, just as in my novels I intend to bring some light to the darkness. No, I’m not referring to prayer at the moment, though I do believe that is the most powerful weapon we have in or arsenal. While I strive to be a devout Christian, and I fail…often, I’m not here to push my views on you (unless you ask me to of course). No, I’m referring to a number of valuable technologies, some of which were mentioned in the report developed and distributed by scientists, doctors, and staff at Johns Hopkins a year-and-a-half ago, around October of 2018. The report suggests there are a number of steps that can be taken today, and some that can be developed or are already being developed, but are not yet ready for implementation, or even testing. This is important because if we learn the lessons from this recent pandemic, along with the Johns Hopkins report and others like it, perhaps we can channel the resources and monies needed to stop a pandemic in its tracks next time, whether it’s a strain of the Wuhan virus, a mutated for of tuberculosis, or a mutated form of Ebola-Reston which does kill human beings. Let’s write our congressmen, the president, and state and university leaders, insisting they pursue these technologies for stopping the next pandemic; as in business we must act now while the current pandemic is front and center of everyone’s mind. It pains me to repeat this, but the squeaky wheel gets the grease.”
Future Pandemics (and how to prevent them)
It is, I’m afraid, inevitable that yet another pandemic is on the horizon. There are many reasons for this, greater human contact with the natural habitats of the creatures carrying these pathogens, and greater travel worldwide are probably at or near the top of the list of reasons why it will happen sooner rather than later.
The study published by Johns Hopkins offer 15 different ideas for improving how we combat these pandemics. I’ll list them here, with a brief description of each, but I strongly encourage you to read this study, and direct others to do the same. It’s always better to read these yourself rather than allowing a talking-head, with his or her agenda always front-of-mind.
Oh yes, please review the following charts listing how various pandemics have taken so many lives. Check out the death-rate of the Bubonic Plague during the Middle Ages, and you may have some idea of what an airborne version of Ebola-Zaire could do to present-day humanity, if we don’t take action that is.
Technologies to Address Global Catastrophic Biological Risk
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
“Infectious disease emergencies can arise with little notice and have serious detrimental and lasting effects on health and society. In the past century, we have seen global emergencies like the 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed 50-100 million people; the emergence of the deadly SARS and MERS coronaviruses; and the 2013-2016 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, which resulted in more than 28,000 cases and 11,000 deaths and had devastating impacts on that region, as just a few examples.
As a subset of infectious disease emergencies, global catastrophic biological risk (GCBR) is a special category of risk involving biological agents—whether naturally emerging or reemerging, deliberately created and released, or laboratory- engineered and escaped—that could lead to sudden, extraordinary, widespread disaster beyond the collective capability of national and international organizations and the private sector to control. While rare, the risks of severe pandemics and GCB events are increasing because of factors like climate change, population growth and urbanization, and rapid affordable global travel. In addition, advances in biotechnology that enable easier and more targeted manipulation of biology increase the chances that microbes may be misused or will become the accidental cause of a pandemic.
Yet, while biotechnology does pose some societal risk, investment in the technologies described here, and others, is also an important component in helping to safeguard the world from a devastating biological event. When applied thoughtfully, technology can improve our ability to recognize and address emerging biological problems. Technologies to Address
Goals of the Report
- Pinpoint areas of need for technological solutions to address severe pandemics and GCB events;
- Identify technologies that have significant potential to reduce GCBRs; and
- Provide context for those technologies, demonstrating their promise, limitations, and conditions under which they might be developed and employed successfully
DISEASE DETECTION, SURVEILLANCE, AND SITUATIONAL AWARENESS
- Ubiquitous Genomic Sequencing and Sensing
- Drone Networks for Environmental Detection
- Remote Sensing for Agricultural Pathogens: (Satellites)
INFECTIOUS DISEASE DIAGNOSTICS
- Microfluidic Devices: Microfluidic devices are “lab on a chip”
- Handheld Mass Spectrometry:
- Cell-Free Diagnostics:
DISTRIBUTED MEDICAL COUNTERMEASURE MANUFACTURING
- 3D Printing of Chemicals and Biologics
- Synthetic Biology for Manufacturing MCMs:
MEDICAL COUNTERMEASURE DISTRIBUTION, DISPENSING, AND ADMINISTRATION
- Microarray Patches for Vaccine Administration:
- Self-Spreading Vaccines (Author’s Note: This one is a really cool concept)
- Ingestible Bacteria for Vaccination:
- Self-Amplifying mRNA Vaccines: SAM vaccines use the genome of a modified virus with positive sense RNA, which is recognizable to our human translational machinery.
- Drone Delivery to Remote Locations:
MEDICAL CARE AND SURGE CAPACITY
- Robotics and Telehealth:
- Portable, Easy-to-Use Ventilator
Here is the link again:
I encourage you to check it out, along with the book, The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story as well!
Contact your elected officials and tell them to allocate funding to prevent and/or stop future pandemics!
Contact President Trump:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Contact your US Representative:
https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
Contact your US Senator:
https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?OrderBy=state&Sort=ASC
Jeff W Horton strives to write fun, exciting, revealing, and widely entertaining fiction with a slight Christian flavor.
You can find my novels here:
You can find all of Jeff’s published novels here: Works by Jeff W. Horton | The Horton Library
Please follow Jeff:
- Blog: Subscribe to his blog! http://hortonlibrary.com. Tell your friends about it!
- Linked-In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-w-horton-a8378674/
- Follow Jeff on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorJWHorton
You might also want to explore Jeff’s website: at www.hortonlibrary.com, or visit him on the
Amazon’s Author Website for Jeff: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jeff-W.-Horton/author/B004NK5MJC?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true
Barnes & Noble’s Website: https://tinyurl.com/1emwpg16
Blog Post #1110
“Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi; you’re my only hope…”
Author Jeff W. Horton
April 9, 2020
Technical Discussion: “Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi; you’re my only hope…”
Unless you grew up under a rock buried deep in a cave in a remote corner of an isolated jungle in an uninhabited corner of South America, you’ve seen, or at the very least heard of, that most famous line spoken by Princess Leia, but recorded and dutifully played back by the droid, R2-D2; “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope…”
“Why,” you may justifiably ask, “in the world are you quoting a Star Wars character?” I’m glad you asked.
The message left by Princess Lei was, of course, a holographic message, something now very familiar in the Star Wars universe, where we discover that most communication is done via holographic images. But Star Wars has no patent on the concept, not by any means. In the popular movie, Avatar, holographic images are bounced around as if they were the old boring, green-screen terminals.
One of the sci-fi franchises where holograms were used extensively were, (drum roll please,) Star Trek, or to be more concise, Star Trek: The Next Generation. That series took holograms from the occasional usage or screen display to a whole new level, the Holodeck, an entire room, (or deck even?), where everything except for the participant, was holographic, made only of light. In Star Trek TNG, of course, the Holodeck somehow made such photon objects solid, not just visible to the eye; but hey, that’s what life is like in the 24th Century! You can go skiing in the Alps, enjoy a day at the beach, etc. Just try to think of something like the Oasis from Ready Player One, except without the need for the goggles and bodysuit, and you’ll have some idea of what the Holodeck could be like.
Okay, this is where you might want to go get a cup of coffee, because there’s about to be a plug. Yes, another shameless promotion, for one of my novels, Future Schism.
Future Schism is set in a post-apocalyptic future where the United States has been torn apart into the conservative Red province and the liberal Blue province, following a bloody and costly civil war, the inevitable result of an escalating culture war. In this future society, people in the Red province commonly communicate via holo-phones and watch holo-televisions.
“Okay, so holograms are popular in sci-fi, so is interstellar travel; yet we have neither in the real world,” you might shoot back, and, of course, you’d be absolutely correct, at least for now. The truth is, we’re probably much closer than you realize to holograms, or technology very similar to it, becoming a part of our everyday reality.
First there was 3-D, then 4-D and 5-D, next came 7-D and 9-D, and finally 12-D. Who knows how many more “Ds” there will be available in the marketplace before the power of the hologram takes its rightful place as king of the entertainment and communications world?
Below are a few links to recent articles about holograms and related tech. If you’re as big a fan of the tech as I am, I think you’ll be pleased with some of the technological developments and breakthroughs that are about to make holograms part of our daily life. Enjoy.
Volumetric Display
“A volumetric display device is a graphic display device that forms a visual representation of an object in three physical dimensions, as opposed to the planar image of traditional screens that simulate depth through a number of different visual effects. One definition offered by pioneers in the field is that volumetric displays create 3D imagery via the emission, scattering, or relaying of illumination from well-defined regions in (x,y,z) space.”
Wikipedia; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volumetric_display#Human%E2%80%93computer_interfaces
Essentially using tiny dust particles in the air, the technology 3d-prints images so they can be viewed from any direction. High Resolution DICOM medical data being displayed on a Voxon VX1 Volumetric Display
For more information on Volumetric displays, which are pretty cool, by the way, check out the below articles :
New Atlas:
Voxon’s US$10,000 hologram table – no glasses required
https://newatlas.com/vr/voxon-photonics-3d-hologram-volumetric-displays/
ResearchGate:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325566353_Volumetric_Displays_Turning_3-D_Inside-Out
Oh, by the way, if you haven’t seen the rather cool video, featuring a whale rising up out of the floor of a school’s gymnasium you owe it to yourself to see this. it’s spectacular…
click on the image above or the YouTube link below to see the whole clip, and others like it…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC7Hbji2ZpI
Is it real and if so, how is this possible? To find out, click on the link below…
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/12/09/magic_leap_neither_magic_nor_leaping/
Back to holograms…
So in addition to volumetric displays, there is another new and prmising holographic technology recently discovered, a new metahologram, which holds a lot of promise for use in communcations.
Below is an excerpt from an article on Photonics.com that talks about these new metaholograms, discovered in South Korea:
New Metahologram Design Created
A multifunctional meta-hologram design, developed by researchers at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), can be used to create different hologram images depending on the direction of the incident light that falls on the device. Conventional meta-holograms can display images when the incident light falls in one direction only. The POSTECH meta-hologram was created from a monolayer meta-holographic optical device.
To design directional sensitivity into their meta-hologram, the researchers included direction-controlled, spin-dependent holographic recordings in the monolayer structure. The metasurface hologram they designed consists of nano half-waveplates of low loss, hydrogenated amorphous silicon. The half-waveplates are designed and optimized for circularly polarized illumination, and can excite electric and magnetic resonances simultaneously, as well as antiferromagnetic modes, to ensure high transmission for the cross-circularly polarized light. The dual magnetic and antiferromagnetic resonances make the device more efficient than a conventional meta-hologram…
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/New_Metahologram_Design_Created/a65507
I’ve read articles suggesting we are on the verge of seeing holograms pop-up everywhere, from entertainment to the medical field, not to mention applications like holographic gaming and 3d modeling. Of course, someone must create and manufacture these holographic products we’re looking for. Enter two of the leading companies in the holographic industry.
Hypervsn
https://hypervsn.com/blog/holographic-technology-at-ces-2020.html
Looking Glass Factory
https://lookingglassfactory.com/unreal
Below are two more great article on where we are technologically with holograms and where we’re going:
What Can We Expect from Hologram Technology in the Future?
https://www.iqsdirectory.com/resources/what-can-we-expect-from-hologram-technology-in-the-future/
As seen in movies, new meta-hologram can be used as a communication tool
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200128114650.htm
It’s exciting to think that one day soon, we can sit and watch as our favorite football teams face-off in the super bowl, in our living room! Beam me up, Scotty!
As for me, I’m just looking forward to the day when my astromech droid fires-up a holographic message featuring a beautiful young woman begging me to come and save her. Oh, one can only hope…
Note from the author:
If you enjoy reading this weekly blog, why not invite your friends to have a look? It beats watching reruns of The Brady Bunch on TV during this Wuhan Virus Crisis, right? And besides, they might learn something interesting!
Also, if any of you know a good literary agent, how about sending them my way at jeff@hortonlibrary.com? I’ve been looking for an agent to help with mt latest and as-of-yet unpublished novel, Eternity. It would be very much appreciated!
Coming in next week’s blog post: Ebola, The Hot Zone, and Fighting Future Pandemics. Be sure to check it out!
Jeff W Horton strives to write fun, exciting, revealing, and widely entertaining fiction with a slight Christian flavor.
You can find all of Jeff’s published novels here: Works by Jeff W. Horton | The Horton Library
Please follow Jeff:
- Blog: Subscribe to his blog! http://hortonlibrary.com. Tell your friends about it!
- Linked-In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-w-horton-a8378674/
- Follow Jeff on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorJWHorton
You might also want to explore Jeff’s website: at www.hortonlibrary.com, or visit him on the
Amazon’s Author Website for Jeff: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jeff-W.-Horton/author/B004NK5MJC?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true
Barnes & Noble’s Website: https://tinyurl.com/1emwpg16
Blog Post #1109
April 1, 2020
Technical Discussion: Bob Lazar: Area 51 & Flying Saucers
I was told once that I should avoid shameless promotion of my novels when writing this blog and as a rule, I tend to follow that advice, only taking time to plug one of them when it seems particularly relevant, or to make a point. I believe tonight’s post to be relevant to one of my published novels.
My book, Cybersp@ce, which I’ve also adapted into a screenplay and have been working with an independent producer to get made into a movie, is primarily about cyber-warfare, or perhaps cyber-terrorism, depending on which position you favor. One of the elements of the storyline, however, revolves around the reverse-engineering of a crashed extraterrestrial spacecraft, which was disabled when caught in the middle of a violent electrical storm in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. Yes, I know, it’s been all over the papers, the movies, books, etc. but believe me, it is, I believe, still very much relevant.
Now I realize that it is generally believed that most people fall into one of two general camps about this. The first group believes that aliens have visited Earth, abducted people for experimentation or other horrific reasons, and may have even guided human development for millennia. The second group believes the first group is filled with lunatics, grow men living in their mothers’ basements, and people who just need to get a life; most believe that such travel across the vast distances of space is impossible and not practical. I believe this is a gross over-generalization and that in truth, most people fall somewhere in the middle of these two extremist positions.
In case you’re wondering, I fall in the category of cautious, yet ardent believers, that not only could extraterrestrials have visited the Earth, but that they have.
Now those of you who follow my posts or read my books may have noticed by now that I believe we need to devote considerable resources to discovering a new means of propulsion for our spacecraft, to finding a way to traverse the vast interstellar distances between stars and to other worlds outside of the Sol system. Any conventional means of travel is out of the question precisely because of the vast distances involved, not to mention the challenges encountered as you approach the speed of light, like the problem with time dilation. What’s the point of traveling the stars if your loved ones are dead and buried by the time you return to them on earth? The movie Interstellar did a great job of driving this point home.
Here’s my point. How many critics and naysayers debunked the Wright Brothers while they were working on the airplane, telling them and anyone who would listen, “If man was meant to fly he’d have wings!” How many people doubted Columbus, Copernicus, Galileo, and even Einstein? Just because we don’t possess the technology for ourselves to create wormholes or warp spacetime, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Einstein himself predicted the existence of wormholes. Magnetic wormholes have already been created in the lab in recent years. We know that massive objects like the Earth and the sun warp spacetime itself, as Einstein predicted and later proved during an eclipse. We know of the existence of dark matter, antimatter, and scientists are beginning to learn and understand more about quantum entanglement. Why then would it be too much to imagine that another, more advanced civilization, has already overcome these obstacles, and left their own star system in search of other sentient life?
Now before I go any further, I recommend you follow the link below. If the report discussed in the article is true, it proves that the military, the government, and a few select government contractors have long ridiculed and covered-up the truth about the government’s possession of alien spacecraft by burying the truth in the muck and mire of massive, ongoing disinformation campaigns. Much of what was once laughed off, however, has now been confirmed, such as the military’s interest in these spacecrafts and the confirmation that pilots have not only seen them, they’ve captured them on video footage
Follow the link below, and you may welcome away with a different opinion on this topic..
Explore the Recent Mysteries and Controversies about Area 51
A new documentary about Bob Lazar on Netflix, and purported notes of a meeting with Vice Admiral Thomas R. Wilson, former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, could be lifting the lid on Area 51.
Interesting Engineering:
https://interestingengineering.com/explore-the-recent-mysteries-and-controversies-about-area-51
In the article above are excerpts from a government report. The report documents a conversation where a general with oversight responsibilities over government contractors describes to another man how he was denied access to the truth about Area 51 and to the alien technology by three individuals from a major government contractor, who apparently held responsibility over the reverse-engineering project. When he complained about it and threatened to take action against the contractor, he in turn was threatened by his superiors with early retirement, and the loss of one or more of his general’s stars. The three contractors did share, however, one tidbit of fact with him; they told him that the alien spacecraft is real, while the alien abductions are not. They also denied Gee, I wonder who started the whole wave of alien abduction disinformation?
In my novel CyberSp@ce, the first in a series of three books, scientists had been working to reverse-engineer the technology recovered from the alien spacecraft and while some success had been realized, they were still largely in the dark as to how any of it worked, or even why it worked. That corresponds to some of what the general learned in his conversation with the contractor.
If physicist Bob Lazar, who claims to have worked at a “supposed” secret base called S-4 (visible on Google Earth by the way, southwest of Area 51 itself-look it up) where he worked to reverse-engineer the propulsion on at least one alien spacecraft. I’ve heard of Lazar’s claims for decades and, to be honest, he sounds credible to me. Keep in mind that he’s been the target of a great deal of disinformation as someone, whether it was someone in the government or someone working in the private sector for one of the large government contractors, sought to discredit him. For me, there’s simply far too much smoke for there not to be a fire.
Lazar claims to have seen the spacecraft fly, and describes the basics of how the propulsion system operated. The element 115, which Lazar says powered the propulsion system, was even been created in laboratories in the former Soviet Union. The ship used some type of gravity waves for propulsion, which Lazar does a far more elegant job of describing in the Netflix documentary about his experience at the S-4 base entitled, Bob Lazar: Area 51 & Flying Saucers. If this post has piques your interest at all, I strongly encourage you to watch it. While Lazar was not working in the area where he saw this device, he describes being show on one occasion a device that generated a force field of sorts, something else I’d very much want t have around my ship if I were traveling amid the vast amounts of radiation and debris in space.
Here’s a story on local news site in Las Vegas, which I suggest you also read.
I-Team: A look at how Bob Lazar interviews match up with Pentagon’s admission of studying UFOs
And here are a few links to completely un related sites, which describe wormholes, warped time and space, etc, which seem disconnected from Area 51, yet not as much as you might think.
Warping Spacetime
By Kip Thorne (A friend of Stephen Hawking)
https://www.cco.caltech.edu/~kip/scripts/PubScans/VI-47.pdf
Gravitational waves: ‘dents’ in spacetime
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Gravitational_waves_dents_in_spacetime
The Universe Remembers Gravitational Waves — And We Can Find Them
https://www.space.com/gravitational-waves-memory-space-time.html
“But why would our government cover-up something so monumentally important?” you might ask. And cover-up they have. Look, I’m sure that at one time there was good reason to keep such technology secret; perhaps there still is, but I’m beginning to doubt that. I don’t question that those in power at the time the craft was discovered in 1947 were dealing with Stalin and the ever-increasing nuclear threat posed by the fomer Soviet Union.
Keep in mind that only nine years earlier, in 1938, panic had gripped the public as many believed the Mercury Theater’s (including Orson Welles, by the way) performance of an adapted ersion of H.G. Wells War of the Worlds, to be a real newscast. Imagine what those in authority were thinking when a real spaceship had been discovered not in Grovers Mill, New Jersey, but in Roswell, New Mexico.
If those in government with access to the truth are starting to relax their death grip on the truth about Roswell and about the recovered extraterrestrial spacecraft now in their possession, and the military’s recent admission to studying and observing such craft seems to suggest they are, I hope they will open-up the study of such craft, in a controlled manner, to some of the great minds in our country, and the world, for the betterment of humanity. With resources gradually dwindling and the human population ever-growing, the need to travel the stars and establish new colonies is becoming more and more important.
Besides, who knows, maybe ET isn’t interested in abducting or killing us all; maybe they’re just looking to make new friends. And if they’re not friendly, wouldn’t you like to have some of their advanced technology in your hands as you fight them off? Just saying…
Jeff W Horton strives to write fun, exciting, revealing, and widely entertaining fiction with a slight Christian flavor.
You can find all of Jeff’s published novels here: Works by Jeff W. Horton | The Horton Library
Please follow Jeff:
- Blog: Subscribe to his blog! http://hortonlibrary.com. Tell your friends about it!
- Linked-In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-w-horton-a8378674/
- Follow Jeff on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorJWHorton
You might also want to explore Jeff’s website: at www.hortonlibrary.com, or visit him on the
Amazon’s Author Website for Jeff: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jeff-W.-Horton/author/B004NK5MJC?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true
Barnes & Noble’s Website: https://tinyurl.com/1emwpg16
Blog Post #1108
March 252020
Free Flow Thinking: Favorite TV Shows
Okay, I imagine we all need a break from all the ridiculous, dangerous panic that’s spread a hundred times as fast as Covid-19 and is a million times more dangerous; I know I do.
The gentlemen who runs the cablceompare.com website recently contacted me, asking if I’d like to post a link to this site on my weekly post, so here’s to you, sir.
Actually, it’s quite timely, as we all need to take a moment to relax, and reflect on what is really important, like God, family, country, and of course, our favorite cable television series! Just kidding, but I do think Id like to talk about something fun this week, so here we go.
The aforementioned site lists the eight most popular cable TV shows of the last decade. I’m including the list below, and I encourage you to follow the link to the website to learn more about each program.
The 8 Most Popular Cable TV Shows of the Last Decade
February 12, 2020
https://cablecompare.com/the-most-popular-cable-tv-shows-of-the-last-decade/
- The Walking Dead
- Game of Thrones
- Breaking Bad
- Burn Notice
- American Horror Story
- Mad Men
- True Detective
- It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
So now, I’m going to list my ten most favorite television series of all time, and I’ll tell you why I recommend it.
So here you go!
Coming in at number 10:
Number 10-
10 Wild Wild West-
Okay, so I realize that most of you never even knew there WAS a TV series called Wild Wild West. Maybe you saw the Will Smith version of the movie, but I have fond memories of watching Jim West, the protagonist, Secret Service agent uncover and then beat the bad guys, nearly being killed on a daily basis as he does so.
9 Highlander: The Series-
I really enjoyed this series when it was on the air. I plan to se if I can find it streaming and watch some of the episodes I missed. Adrian Paul, the actor who plays the protagonist, Duncan McCloud, had some real skill with the blade, or so it seemed. Like another series I like but didn’t include, The Originals (yeah, I know, go figure), the historical flashbacks were often interesting and enlightening. The frequent swordplay was pretty cool as well.
8 Star Trek (The original)
Now I know special effects have come a long way since the 1960s, when the original series was filmed. But at the time, they were WAY ahead of their time. And the plotlines were so unique, and interesting. I’ve always said that it’s all about the story. You can have the best special effects and the most dramatic explosions, but without a great plot or story, it’s going to suck.
7 StarGate SG-1
To this day I remain astounded at how good this little sci-fi series was, which ran, I believe, a total of 10 years? That’s a very, very long time for a sci-fi series. The fact that they were able to continually reinvent the series, and evolve and advance the storyline as they did so, was quite an achievement. Whether they were battling the Goa’uld or the Ori, the SG-1 team did it with style, class, and most of all, humor.
6 Star Wars Clone Wars (The Animated Series)
Okay, go ahead and laugh, get it out of your system. Yes, I rated this series rather high, but can you guess why? Remember what I said, it’s about the story! I’ve said for many years now that Star Wars Clone Wars, and the Knights of the Old Republic Xbox game, had a much, much, much, better plotline than all of the Star War movies put together! Okay, the beginning of each Clone War episode had those horrendous little sayings, “To win, you must first fight the battle!” type of lines. These must have been written by someone other than the screenwriters, because the plotlines were generally very well thought out, and original. At least I thought so, lol.
5 Band of Brothers
What can I say? It was essentially a weekly “Saving Private Ryan” series. What red-blooded American would not love that? It was a moving, and at times, disturbing program to watch, but I liked it.
4 The Witcher
What was his name again, Geralt of Rivia? I had the hardest time placing what actor played that role. When I learned it was no other than the “Man of Steel” himself, Henry Cavill, I just shook my head. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the series, mostly due to Cavill’s acting skill and the director, of course.
3 Altered Carbon
Okay, here we are, at Altered Carbon. Mixed feelings here. I came VERY close to placing it at number 2 instead of number 1 because frankly, I believe it probably has a better storyline than Game of Thrones. I didn’t like Season 2 of the series as much as Season 1, however. Maybe it’s because we spent so much time learning about this amazing world the characters lived in during Season 1. I really enjoyed Joel Kinnaman in the role as Takeshi Kovacs, the deadly, almost super-human like envoy from the ancient past, but I really like Anthony Mackie as well, who played Kovacs in Season 2.
By the way, the Altered Carbon series is definitely deserves an R or MA rating, so make sure the kids are in bed before watching, okay?
Oh, I really didn’t care for the anime version which just aired on Netflix. It was okay, just more anime than plot.
- Game of Thrones
GOT, hmmm. Where to begin? Politics, fighting, and sex; what’s not to like? And GOT had all three in great abundance, though probably heaviest on the politics and fighting. But it was this incredible blend they mixed in perfect measure, with a high fantasy feel, and the terrific acting, that made this one of the greatest of all time. Yes, the last season was butt-awful (in my opinion), because they produced it before the author had finished writing the novels. And man, was it painfully obvious someone else was doing the writing…ugh!
- Jesus of Nazareth
Hey, I make no apologies, I’m a Christian, remember? Well, at least I try to be, and certainly is refreshing to re-watch this series during trying times like these.
But seriously, this was one of the best made-for-television series I have ever seen. And the star-studded cast was nothing short of phenomenal. The names on the cast of characters is a virtual cornucopia of some of the biggest stars at the time.
Robert Powell … Jesus Christ
Anne Bancroft Magdalene
Ernest Borgnine The Centurion
James Farentino Simon Peter
James Earl Jones Balthazar
Ian McShane Judas Iscariot
Donald Pleasence Melchior
Christopher Plummer Herod Antipas
Peter Ustinov Herod the Great
Michael York John the Baptist
Olivia Hussey Virgin Mary
James Mason Joseph of Arimathea
Laurence Olivier Nicodemus
Anthony Quinn Caiaphas
Rod Steiger Pontius Pilate
This film had me feeling as if I was there, in Israel, as these events transpired, an incredibly successful job by director Franco Zeffirelli. I’ve probably watched that series more than any other ever. It was fantastic, moving, and it did a fantastic job of adhering, for the most part, to the Biblical text.
And before I forget, there is an honorable mention I’d be remiss if I don’t include it. It definitely belongs in the Top 10, but I had forgotten about it until now; the television series Shogun, based on the novel by James Clavell. It too had the feel of actually being in feudal Japan as the man who would become Shogun seeks to learn more about the West from a stranded, Dutch captain. It too, was based on a true story.
Well, that’s it, a very, very small and possibly inaccurate rating for television shows I’ve seen over the years. I suppose it’s painfully obvious by now that I’ve spent far too much time watching television and movies. Just say it, “get a life, Jeff!”
Jeff W Horton strives to write fun, exciting, revealing, and widely entertaining fiction with a slight Christian flavor.
You can find all of Jeff’s published novels here: Works by Jeff W. Horton | The Horton Library
Please follow Jeff:
- Blog: Subscribe to his blog! http://hortonlibrary.com. Tell your friends about it!
- Linked-In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-w-horton-a8378674/
- Follow Jeff on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorJWHorton
You might also want to explore Jeff’s website: at www.hortonlibrary.com, or visit him on the
Amazon’s Author Website for Jeff: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jeff-W.-Horton/author/B004NK5MJC?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true
Barnes & Noble’s Website: https://tinyurl.com/1emwpg16
Blog Post #1107
March 12, 2020
Technical Discussion: The COVID-19 Virus
How to Prepare for the Zombie Apocalypse:
- Implement social distancing. It’s a known fact that large gatherings attract zombies.
- Shut down the borders. After al, don’t we have enough zombies of our own to deal with.
- Close the schools and small businesses. After all, Zombies don’t read!
- Stock up on ammo for your rifles, shotguns, and your pistols, but be sure to keep a bowie knife, a baseball bat, a samurai sword, and explosives (of course). We won’t know whether you have to removed the head in order to stop a zombie until we try!
- Pack your truck, your mobile home, and anything else you can find with food, water, fishing poles, and tools, because you’re headed for the mountains and the great outdoors (where the zombies are not.)
- Did well’s for water, learn how to cure meat, and learn how to grow vegetables. There’s no telling how long the zombies can hang-on for.
- Don’t forget the bicycles! There’s no telling how long you’ll be able to find gas before it runs out. Zombies don’t need gas, of course, but they often live near where you’d have to go to get it!
Okay, okay, this COVID-19 is a serious matter, and we shouldn’t make light of it.
To be honest, I haven’t been all that bent out of shape about this virus. I wasn’t seeing much difference in the death rate of the flu and the death rate for COVID-19. I’d seen news reports that the actual death rate was somewhere around .2 or .02%, roughly the same or less than the flu.
Then I started to notice our government, the United States government, taking increasingly drastic measures in recent weeks in order to stop the spread of the virus or to “flatten the curve,” as all the media pundits now like to say.
I decided maybe it was time to look at some numbers for the death rate for myself, instead of letting someone do the extraordinarily complex math of diving the number of deaths by the number of those who’ve contracted the virus. While the number in Italy appears to be exceptionally high at around 7% (reportedly due to a high number of elderly citizens there), the rate in the United States is considerably lower, at 1.63 %.
Below are some of the numbers I put together, mainly to help put all of this in perspective (Can you now please leave me some toilet next time?):
But here’s the thing; how many people have actually contracted the disease, but then never reported it either because they never felt sick, or they didn’t want to be quarantined? Oh, I’m sure that governments attempt to compensate for the unreported, but how could they ever know for sure? On the other hand, how many deaths are likely to go unreported in today’s society? Not very many. Therefore, the number of deaths are always going to be closer to being accurate, than the number of the affected.
My point isn’t to suggest this is a global conspiracy, or that the numbers are intentionally wrong, it’s only to say that the death rate is likely to be much lower than reported. Case in point; I’ve seen several interviews on cable news channels where someone was diagnosed with COVID-19, yet had never noticed any symptoms. Even some older patients reported no or mild symptoms. I have to believe the number of unreported cases to be significant.
So, what do I make of this threat? I believe we should follow the guidelines our health care experts in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute of Health and, with a little added caution, the World Health Organization, which is part of the United Nations.
What I’m curious about, and I imagine you are too, is why do so many outbreaks of flu and viruses originate from China? Was it biological warfare testing? I’ve heard some doctors say it wasn’t from a Chinese lab, but I certainly wouldn’t put it past the Chinese to cover up such an incident. To be fair, I’m confident nearly every government in the world ahs lied to cover-up some disaster or another. Nevertheless, the stakes here are very high, so if there ever is an accident in a lab, it is that government’s responsibility to own-up t it right off the bat, in order to give the world enough information, and warning, to prepare.
Here are two, competing points of view about the possible origin of COVID-19. As for me, my money’s with the Chinese lab accident.
Don’t buy China’s story: The coronavirus may have leaked from a lab
https://nypost.com/2020/02/22/dont-buy-chinas-story-the-coronavirus-may-have-leaked-from-a-lab/
Why Do New Disease Outbreaks Always Seem to Start in China?
I’d just like to urge everyone to calm down about all of this and gain some perspective. Just think about everything we’ve been through as a nation, and everything we’ve all been through as individuals. We’re all going to die (unless Jesus comes back beforehand, of course) and that’s a certainty, it’s just a matter of when. Perhaps we’ll get cancer, die in a car crash, a brain hemorrhage, a heart attack, an asteroid striking the earth, or a zombie apocalypse. Who knows?
The point let’s try to get though this, without hogging all of the toilet paper!
Jeff W Horton strives to write fun, exciting, revealing, and widely entertaining fiction with a slight Christian flavor.
You can find all of Jeff’s published novels here: Works by Jeff W. Horton | The Horton Library
Please follow Jeff:
- Blog: Subscribe to his blog! http://hortonlibrary.com. Tell your friends about it!
- Linked-In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-w-horton-a8378674/
- Follow Jeff on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorJWHorton
You might also want to explore Jeff’s website: at www.hortonlibrary.com, or visit him on the
Amazon’s Author Website for Jeff: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jeff-W.-Horton/author/B004NK5MJC?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true
Barnes & Noble’s Website: https://tinyurl.com/1emwpg16
Blog Post #1107
March 12, 2020
Technical Discussion: The World in 500 Years
What does the future hold for me, for you, for our family, for our country, for our world? What wonders await us as a species say, in five-hundred years? If we knew, would the answer amaze us, or would it terrify us? Will our world be a marvel of technological advancements, like what we find in science-fiction films like Star Wars, or Star Trek?
Or perhaps the future is not so promising. If we were able to hop back into HG Wells time machine and travel five-hundred years in the future, maybe we’d find nearly the entire planet underwater, as in Kevin Costner’s film Waterworld, the result of the complete melting of the polar ice caps.
Then again, maybe our civilization simply unravels, as the world descends into a post-apocalyptic landscape like we see in the Mad Max series of films.
As for me, I’d prefer to believe we will address challenges as they present themselves, and rally as a species to not only survive, but to thrive. Just consider for a moment the pollution we once pumped into the atmosphere all over the world, beginning with the industrial revolution. We’ve done a decent job in parts of the world, cleaning-up our air, water, and land, since then.
Before looking at my predictions for the year 2520, let’s first look back at some of the incredible discoveries made over the last five-hundred-years or so.
Source: https://www.interestingfacts.org.uk/inventions-over-the-last-500-years/
“Inventions over the last 500 years
- The golden age of invention and discovery has occurred over the past 500 years.
- New scientific theories helped people invent things that would change our world. Here are a few examples…
- In 1455, Johannes Gutenberg invented the first printing press, which enabled them to print many copies of books, and so being able to distribute to many more people.
- In 1608, the telescope was invented by Hans Lippershey but it was Galileo who was the first person to use a telescope in the use of astronomy.
- In 1783, the French Montgolifer brothers invented the first hot-air balloon, and they promised their father they would never fly it.
- In 1800, two Italian scientists Luigi Galvani and Alessandro Volta invented the first device to give a continuous flow of electricity.
- In 1827, John Walker dipped a wooden stick into a mixture of chemicals and the first friction match came to light.
- In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell holds the patent for the telephone. He was the first to make it successful but there is evidence that others, such as Antonio Muecci invented it first.
- In 1878, Thomas Edison and Joseph Swan came up with the idea of the electric light bulb.
- In 1895, Wilhelm Rontgen discovered X-rays and earned him the first Nobel Prize for Physics in 1901.
- In 1903, brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright, took to the skies in their powered flight over the sands of “Kitty Hawk in North Carolina” which lasted all of 12 seconds.
- In 1928, Sir Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, but left if to others to turn it into a practical treatment that saved millions of lives.
- In 1957, the Soviet Union launched their first artificial satellite Sputnik 1 into space on the 14th October. Followed the next month by Sputnik 2 and a dog called Laika.
- In 1977, the first personal computer (PC) was invented.
- In 1979, Mobile phones were invented, but they were large like a house brick!
- In 1983, the Internet grew out of a network of computers that linked universities and the military across the USA. Today it is used for the World Wide Web, email, social media and much more.
One of the most renowned inventors of our time is Thomas Edison who is credited with more than 1,000 new inventions during his life! “
Author’s Note: I’d like to add a much-overlooked Nicolai Tesla, a less business-savvy competitor to Edison, and at his contributions, which in many ways equal or even excel Edison’s! For more info, take a look at my earlier blog post on Tesla:
https://www.hortonlibrary.com/archives/822
So, now that we’ve looked back five-hundred years, let’s take a look at the state of the world according to Jeff, five-hundred years into the future, in the year 2520.
By the year 2520 I predict we will have:
-Won the battle against germs (viruses and bacterial infections)
Technology is advancing at an incredible pace. Once quantum computers become commonplace, if they don’t take over the world, I expect we will eventually be able to catch-up to and eventually exceed the capacity of viruses and bacteria to adapt, immediately breaking down the genome of any new invader, developing a strategy 100% effective at defeating it, and updating our global immunity, at least enough for us to declare victory. That’s not to say an occasional stray won’t make it through our initial defenses, but it will be swiftly and immediately dealt with if it does.
-Perfected clean, endless, renewable energy
By the year 2520 coal, nuclear fission, even nuclear fusion will likely be a thing of the past. A breakthrough in the development of anti-matter energy in the year 2470 led to the world shifting from nuclear fusion to anti-matter energy stations. The breakthrough was a very timely one, since the world’s supply of Heluim-3, which has been extensively mined on the moon for centuries, is nearly exhausted.
-Interstellar travel
The world’s first wormhole drive, an engine capable of creating an artificial, stable wormhole, was built in the year 2075. The breakthrough came after studying an extraterrestrial spacecraft, which crashed on earth in the mid-twentieth century, for over a hundred years. Although earth scientists, unaware of the craft’s existence, had already theorized such a wormhole engine would be possible, the breakthrough shaved several hundred years off of the time necessary to develop such a device without the alien assistance.
-Extended lifespans
Human beings can now live for thousands of years, thanks to breakthroughs made in the mid-late 21st century.
-Human beings are now genetically engineered for specific functions
People who are genetically engineered to be more intelligent generally become leaders, scientists, or engineers. People who will be working extensively in space are engineered to be more resistant to radiation and their bodies are more durable. Soldiers, and those involved with physical labor, are engineered to be stronger, faster, and more t6echnical.
-No more independent nations
Countries are now states, part of a United Earth Government (UEG), which is run by a ruling council, represented by each of the genetically engineered sub-species.
-No more global warming
The elimination of fossil fuels, which began in earnest near the end of the 21st century, has virtually negated man’s impact on global temperature.
-A managed global climate
There are no more worries about global warming, damage to the ozone layer, acid rain, or even damage or loss of live from hurricanes or tornadoes, as such events, like all weather, are carefully scheduled, monitored, and managed by the Earth Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(EOAA).
-Remote Drivers.
Essentially a means of remotely controlling a synthetic or even cloned body, it enables a person to remotely control a body that could be light years away. It’s popular among business and government leaders, who avoid the cost and delay of interstellar travel by using remote drivers instead. We use all sorts of remote-control technology today, tools like WebEx, for remote controlling someone’s PC, for doing bridge conferences, etc. Remote Drivers will be the next best thing to being there…
-Anti-gravity.
Of course, we will have found a way to effectively negate the force of gravity by the year 2520. In fact, the pace of development was accelerated by the discovery and subsequent reverse-engineering of the extraterrestrial craft mentioned earlier.
-Force fields.
The third major breakthrough made by studying and then reverse-engineering technology from the crashed alien ship. Force fields make traveling and living in space considerably safer for human beings, much as it would nearly any sentient life form traversing the cosmos.
-Colonies spanning the galaxy.
By 2520 I expect there will be a number of colonies on other planets. I expect colonization will begin with Mars first, then some of the inhabitable moons orbiting the outer planets, perhaps Titan, or Europa. Once interstellar travel is possible, travel that is not subject to the time dilation imposed by traveling close to the speed of light, we will begin looking for planets in distant star systems to colonize. I doubt it will be Alpha-Centauri with its tri-star system, but one never knows.
-Formalized relations with a number of extraterrestrial species.
We will engage with them much as we have with each other, beginning with trade, technology exchanges, and before long joint-ventures.
While a few races of extraterrestrial beings encountered by the year 2520 will have expanded beyond the Milky Way, they have kept their galaxy-hopping technologies a closely guarded secret.
-Joined The Council of Interstellar Life (Or whatever its name may be…)
Earth has been a member for over a hundred years, having joined the Council in the year 2401. The council is made up of nearly every known species of sentient life with interstellar travel. It regulates trade and disputes related to establishing new colonies across the galaxy.
So, there you have it, a few of my predictions where we will be in the year 2520, should we survive as a species long enough to see that year arrive. As a Christian I believe the Lord Jesus Christ will come again one day. Since I don’t know when that will be, I’ll assume it will be after the year 2520, since if it happens before then, these predictions are moot!
Oh, yes; one comment about the Coronavirus, aka COVID-19. I think we all just need to take a deep breath on this thing and try to gain some perspective on this. Given how much more likely it is that you’ll die in a car wreck, or some other accident, or even the flu, this has all been way overblown by a news media with more time on its hands than it has breaking news. We’ve survived the Great Depression, WW I, WW II, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Cold War, the flu, SARS, the plague, Smallpox, and Tuberculosis; don’t you think we’ll get through this okay? Just relax, and let the experts do their jobs.
And seriously, enjoy the rest of your week!!
Jeff W Horton strives to write fun, exciting, revealing, and widely entertaining fiction with a slight Christian flavor.
You can find all of Jeff’s published novels here: Works by Jeff W. Horton | The Horton Library
Please follow Jeff:
- Blog: Subscribe to his blog! http://hortonlibrary.com. Tell your friends about it!
- Linked-In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-w-horton-a8378674/
- Follow Jeff on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorJWHorton
You might also want to explore Jeff’s website: at www.hortonlibrary.com, or visit him on the
Amazon’s Author Website for Jeff: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jeff-W.-Horton/author/B004NK5MJC?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true
Barnes & Noble’s Website: https://tinyurl.com/1emwpg16
Blog Post #1106
March 4, 2020
Technical Discussion: Paging George Jetson: Your Air Taxi Has Arrived!
Air Taxis. To the best of my knowledge interest in Urban Air Mobility vehicles, or UAM for short, first gained popularity with the somewhat recent announcement by Uber that it was working on a ride sharing air taxi service. Partnering with Hyundai, several models have already been built with Uber and Hyundai having scheduled demonstration flights back in January.
Before you head out with your smart phone, preparing to order your air taxi, take note that none I could find are in service today, at least any of the newer, UAMs with vertical takeoff and landing. It appears the earliest we’ll see any of these incredible new aircraft in service will be in 2023, when Wisk (see below) and Uber plan to launch their respective services.
A company named Wisk signed recently inked a deal to deploy an air taxi trial in New Zealand. Similar trials are being talked about or even scheduled in cities all over the world as I write this. Uber plans to begin offering its air taxi ride sharing service beginning in 2023.
The concept seems to be that these air taxis will enable passengers to avoid traffic congestion so common in urban areas like New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Atlanta. These UAM vehicles come in a variety of shapes and offerings. Some, for example, are touted as autonomous, requiring no pilot. Others are offered as autonomous with a remote pilot as backup. Then, of course, we have the UAMs with an actual pilot onboard (sign-me up with tis last option, thank you.)
There are currently two general categories of UAMs being built: passenger and cargo vehicles. Passenger models generally range from one to five passengers. Nearly all UAMs are electric, vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) passenger and cargo air vehicles, which are either autonomous, semi-autonomous, or piloted with a pilot onboard.
Perhaps to their astonishment, perhaps not, Uber and Hyundai are now finding a once vacant field of competitors suddenly becoming a bit crowded. A quick search turned up a handful of companies, many of them already heavy hitters in the aviation industry.
Below I have listed some of these companies, along with one offering from that company. Keep in mind, however, that most of the companies listed have at least one or more UAMs in each category.
Below are a couple of recent articles about air taxis that I found informative.
The Top 10 Air Taxi Stories of 2019
https://www.aviationtoday.com/2020/01/02/top-10-air-taxi-stories-2019/
Wisk signs deal to deploy an air taxi trial in New Zealand
https://techcrunch.com/2020/02/05/wisk-signs-deal-to-deploy-an-air-taxi-trial-in-new-zealand/
Hyundai to build air taxis for Uber’s future aerial ride share network
Boeing
Passenger Air Vehicle
Capacity: 2 & 4-passenger variants with cargo options
https://www.aurora.aero/pav-evtol-passenger-air-vehicle/
Bell
Nexus
Your commute, transformed.
Turn a 45-minute drive into a 10-minute flight. The safe, convenient Air Taxi is designed to let you make the most of your commute. Its sleek cabin offers a comfortable space for you to relax. Or work. Or socialize. All while saving your most precious resource: time.
Capacity: 4 Passengers
https://www.bellflight.com/products/bell-nexus
Volocopter
Volocity
“The VoloCity will become the first commercially licensed Volocopter, developed according to the high standards and requirements of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Our intensive testing programme has shaped the innovative design and outstanding overall performance of the VoloCity. Quiet, safe, and comfortable, the VoloCity engenders Urban Air Mobility.”
Capacity: 2 Passengers and hand luggage
https://www.volocopter.com/en/
Sabrewing
Rhaegal RG-1
“The Rhaegal is a new generation of regional cargo UAV that offers high-efficiency, all-weather operation with vertical landing and takeoff (VTOL) capabilities. It carries a payload of up to 1,000 lbs / 454 kg over a distance of 1000 nm / 1850 km with a cruise speed of 180 knots / 330 kph.”
| Payload weight (VTOL) 363 kg / 800 lbs | |
| https://www.sabrewingaircraft.com/cargo-uav/ |
Metro Hop
Metro Hop Cargo
“At Metro Hop, we believe that by focusing solely on urban parcel transport first, we will create a lucrative industry using piloted planes that already have a known path to certification. Once certificated, the Metro Hop Cargo planes can immediately begin operating commercially. In addition, we can accelerate the process of implementing subsequent technology and regulations for pilotless operations once an existing commercial fleet is in service and generating revenue.”
Payload: 450 Kg or approximately 992 lbs.
https://metrohop.aero/metro-hop-cargo
FLUTR Motors
“As the world’s roads finally reach full capacity, we have no choice but to reach to the skies.
A better way to get to the office, shops, school, anywhere is required.
It has to be fast, efficient, safe, easy to use, quiet, affordable and sustainable.
FLUTR was created to fulfill this desire which is decades old.
The skies belong to you, and the solution is coming soon.”
“We are engineering away all of the obstacles to widespread adoption of aerial transport and then managing them for the end user.
So that anybody can get from A to B, with the thrill of flying, and without the hassle of driving.”
Capacity: 2 passengers + luggage
Porsche and Boeing
“Boeing, Porsche and Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences are also developing a concept for a fully electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle. Engineers from both companies, as well as Porsche subsidiaries Porsche Engineering Services GmbH and Studio F.A. Porsche, will implement and test a prototype.”
“A 2018 study by Porsche Consulting forecasts that the urban air mobility market will pick up speed after 2025. The study also indicates that urban air mobility solutions will transport passengers more quickly and efficiently than current conventional means of terrestrial transport, at a lower cost and with greater flexibility.”
CityAirbus
CityAirbus is an all-electric, four-seat, multicopter vehicle demonstrator that focuses on advancing remotely piloted electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) flight. The CityAirbus full-scale demonstrator conducted its first take-off in May 2019.
Capacity: 4 passengers
https://www.airbus.com/innovation/urban-air-mobility/vehicle-demonstrators/cityairbus.html
Lilium
We’re putting the customer at the heart of everything we do, from the first moment you open the app, to the moment you arrive at your destination. Our air mobility service will be available in various cities around the world by 2025.
Capacity: 4 passengers and a pilot
Now I’ll be honest, there truly something very George Jetson about all of this, and yes, I’m dating myself here. For you millennials out there who have no idea who George Jetson is, he’s a Hanna Barbara cartoon character from a show called The Jetsons, a futuristic show with people living in the clouds, traveling from place to place by tiny little cars enclosed with a clear, glass-like roof all around. Anti-gravity is commonplace and as far as I recall, people rarely if ever drive around on the ground anymore. I’ll be honest, I imagine most adults over the age of thirty-five or so will be familiar with The Jetsons and are using it as a subconscious reference point in assessing the new air taxi craze.
There were two aircraft that stood out to me the most as I did my research for this blog.
Number 1-FLUTR
Reason: It looks cool and most importantly, it has a parachute in case everything else goes to hell in a handbasket!
Number 2-LILIUM
Reason: It uses jets instead of rotors, with a total of 36 engines. This provides redundancy in the event of failure. Also, it looks really, really, cool and flies that way as well. It’s the only one I thought didn’t look like an oversized drone.
Just try to imagine some of the challenges that will soon emerge for what will very quickly become a commonplace mode of travel. In the Jetsons, the prevalence of anti-gravity enables the government to station speed-limit signs that just linger motionless in the air, as if anchored in a non-existent ground. At the risk of straying off-course here, I wonder what happens to those signs during a hurricane? Perhaps they are high enough above the storm they are unaffected by it; hmmm.
How will the ever-increasing air traffic be managed? Will police in the police aircars be setting up speed traps behind drone-powered billboard signs, or will they park on unsuspecting building roof tops, ready to leap into the air at a moment’s notice?
How will intersections be managed? Perhaps tall towers, rising up above the cities will be positioned to direct air traffic and manage traffic in the sky?
And what about safety? On the ground our taxi might get a flat and have to replace the damaged tire with a spare from the trunk. Or perhaps they would call AAA. Hey, there’s an idea, an opportunity for AAA to expand and offer AAAA, American Air Automobile Association!
It’s clever really, this whole idea of air taxis. I mean, we know the vehicles are very stable in the air, probably the most stable aircraft I can ever recall seeing. I was flying drones with my son when he was only eleven or twelve years old, and we both managed to keep it in the air without a major crash!
Speaking of which, what happens when these things start falling out of the skies? Now they just need to invent force fields. Also, isn’t it eerie how much nearly all UAM vehicles look like oversized toy drones we fly in our parks and at our homes? Hmm…what a coincidence.
Jeff W Horton strives to write fun, exciting, revealing, and widely entertaining fiction with a slight Christian flavor.
You can find my novels here:
You can find all of Jeff’s published novels here: Works by Jeff W. Horton | The Horton Library
Please follow Jeff:
- Blog: Subscribe to his blog! http://hortonlibrary.com. Tell your friends about it!
- Linked-In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-w-horton-a8378674/
- Follow Jeff on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorJWHorton
You might also want to explore Jeff’s website: at www.hortonlibrary.com, or visit him on the
Amazon’s Author Website for Jeff: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jeff-W.-Horton/author/B004NK5MJC?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true
Barnes & Noble’s Website: https://tinyurl.com/1emwpg16
Blog Post #1105
February 26 2020
Free Flow Thinking: What Might the World Look Like in 100 Years (2120)
Have you ever wondered what life might be like down the road, say ten, twenty, even a hundred years from now? I have, I often do. Sometimes I try to imagine myself in the distant past looking forward, and consider how far we’ve come, technologically that is. Human beings have not really changed very much over the course of recorded history. People were just as ingenious and intelligent two-thousand years ago as they are today, given that the Roman Empire had specialized tools for removing cataracts very similar to pre-laser contemporary tools; the Roman version had been lost until recently rediscovered.
Of course, we’re at the point now that we can, and inevitably will, alter ourselves, likely for as long as we continue as a species. This means that a hundred years from now, the human race itself could be significantly different than it is today, for the first time in history.
So, let us climb aboard H.G. Wells time machine (I borrowed it from him recently), and set it for the year 2120, to see what marvels might await us…
You can find all of Jeff’s published novels here: Works by Jeff W. Horton | The Horton Library
Please follow Jeff:
- Blog: Subscribe to his blog! http://hortonlibrary.com. Tell your friends about it!
- Linked-In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-w-horton-a8378674/
- Follow Jeff on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorJWHorton
You might also want to explore Jeff’s website: at www.hortonlibrary.com, or visit him on the
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Barnes & Noble’s Website: https://tinyurl.com/1emwpg16
Blog Post #1102
February 5, 2020
Free Flow Thinking: Review of Relativity: The Special and the General Theory–A Clear Explanation that Anyone Can Understand
Link to Relativity: The Special and the General Theory–A Clear Explanation that Anyone Can Understand on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/0517029618/ref=rdr_ext_tmb
Given my predilection for all things space, I wanted to share just a little about an interesting little book I read—okay…tried to read, some years ago. I felt certain there would be some number of you who had never heard of much less read this book, and it is for you that I offer a brief, yet hopefully insightful, review.
So, the title of this little nugget is Relativity: The Special and the General The
Now there are probably a couple of assumptions about this book you have already made based on this title, and I’m here to tell you that you might as well just go ahead and discard those assumptions.
First, you probably thought this book was written by someone like your everyday university professor, perhaps in an effort to make it easier for the general public to understand the complexities behind relativity; and if you did, you’re most certainly wrong.
Second, you likely assumed that reading the pages of a book where the title includes –A Clear Explanation that Anyone Can Understand , would enable the average person to grasp the Special and General theories of relativity, and again if you did, you’d be wrong.
The cause of your mistaken assumptions is clear; I neglected to include the name of the author of this little jewel. It was written, of course, by no on other than the man himself, Albert Einstein. Perhaps now you can appreciate why the book might be difficult to grasp, at least it was for me. I’m quite sure the brilliant astrophysicist felt it was simple enough for anyone to understand, and that he’d dumbed-it-down about as much as any scientist with a towering intellect like his possibly could.
Now don’t get me wrong; this book is fantastic, and I highly recommend it. While I quickly found myself over my head in this book, I was able to grasp a number of key elements about Professor Einstein’s theories. I hit a wall, however, once he leaves the world of conceptual ideas and resorts back to the advanced math needed to prove his theories.
While I don’t recall exactly how far I was able to get in the book before giving up, I seem to recall making it to something like the sixth or seventh chapter of the book, before getting bogged down in the math used in theoretical physics. To his credit, the famous scientist did take great effort, in the beginning, to keep the math out of it as he relied on conceptual language to get across some of his ideas to the masses which worked, for the most part, at least for me. Yet, even when he stuck with the conceptual language, and the various analogies and metaphors he uses to get them across, I found myself having to read and re-read several of the pages multiple times before gaining even a fundamental grasp of the points Einstein was trying to make.
Now, perhaps you’re a genius, or perhaps just better informed than I am, when it comes to such things, and you’ll be able to complete your reading of this book and come away with a far-better understanding of the Special and General Theories of Relativity. I certainly hope this is so for if it is, I believe you will thoroughly enjoy this book even more than I did, and I really did enjoy it. I came away feeling privileged to understand even a little about relativity, and to share, if only for a moment, in the great wonder and awe men like Albert Einstein have always experienced and continue to experience in their work each and every day.
If you’re a science-fiction geek, as I am, you will certainly enjoy reading this little book, about some of the most fundamental, yet significant science so critical not only to our understanding of the universe and how the universe operates, but to our everyday lives as well. Don’t believe me? When the first GPS satellites were launched there was a persistent problem with drift, with the time on the satellites constantly drifting from what should be the identical time on the ground. The issue turned out to be one related to relativity. Below is an article that discusses some of this.
http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast162/Unit5/gps.html
Finally, a couple of tidbits from the book before I conclude.
Einstein offers two analogies to assist with explaining concepts related to relativity that I enjoyed.
First, imagine yourself riding on a train. You notice an observer standing near the railroad tracks on an embankment as you look out the window, just as lightning strikes in the distance. The timing of the lightning strike will differ slightly for the observer standing on the embankment and for you, the passenger on the train. Now imagine that you, as a passenger on the train, are not sitting still, but walking along inside the train car in the direction of the lightning strike when it occurs. The time of the lightning strike will differ slightly in each instance, which Professor Einstein explains in his book.
In another illustration Einstein uses to demonstrate relativity, he tells the reader to imagine there’s a person inside a box, hurling through the vacuum of space at a fixed speed. Depending on how fast it’s going, Newton’s third law, which states that for every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction, will create a form of artificial gravity for the man, making it feel as though he were still on Earth. For the man inside the box, there is gravity inside it. Again, according to Einstein, all things are relative.
I highly recommend this book, written by the amazing genius himself.
Rating: Highly recommended.
Jeff W Horton strives to write fun, exciting, revealing, and widely entertaining fiction with a slight Christian flavor.
You can find all of Jeff’s published novels here: Works by Jeff W. Horton | The Horton Library
Please follow Jeff:
- Blog: Subscribe to his blog! http://hortonlibrary.com. Tell your friends about it!
- Linked-In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-w-horton-a8378674/
- Follow Jeff on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorJWHorton
You might also want to explore Jeff’s website: at www.hortonlibrary.com, or visit him on the
Amazon’s Author Website for Jeff: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jeff-W.-Horton/author/B004NK5MJC?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true
Barnes & Noble’s Website: https://tinyurl.com/1emwpg16