Culture
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Background: One classic cause of civilization-ending apocalypse in science fiction is AI-initiated nuclear war, as variously depicted in Wargames (1983), Terminator (1984), Battlestar Galactica (2003), and other media. The Issue: Generally, humans don’t fare well in a post-nuclear-apocalypse setting, and would like to avoid it when possible. Unfortunately, security around nuclear launches may be inadequate (Figure 1): it…
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The Issue: One counterintuitive phenomenon is that people sometimes get depressed during the holidays when they realize that their real family and friends don’t match the idealized holiday expectations that have been set by TV and movies. Proposal: Since TV and movies present a “fake” life that can’t possibly be achieved in reality, the solution…
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Background: Frequently, residential houses have areas that are dangerous in some way: perhaps a railing that is a little wobbly (but will probably stay attached), a garage door that is missing the “don’t crush a person” electric eye sensor, or a bookshelf with a three-hundred-pound vase that is perilously perched on the top shelf. The…
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Background: Some older home have “simple” built-in drawers that are just a wooden box that slides on some wooden rails (instead of metal drawer slides). These drawers are fine for rarely-accessed items, but can be quite annoying in frequently-used situations (such as kitchen utensil drawers). The Issue: Since these drawers typically don’t have any sort…
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The issue: It’s easy to stay up too late by browsing the Internet on a cell phone instead going to sleep. The recommended solution to this is “don’t do that,” but it can be difficult to have enough self-discipline. Proposal: The solution is simple: before you go to bed, you should put your cell phone…
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Background: In the years before the invention of the car, the only way to design a city was with walking (or at least public transit) in mind. However, once cars became widespread, cities started being designed with wide roads and large areas set aside for parking. The Issue: This style of design made driving very…
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Proposal: Illustrated children’s books usually consist of two main things: Unfortunately, books written before the advent of computer-generated images are stuck with “stale” illustrations: each page contains a single fixed image that will never change. But thanks to machine learning, we can fix this! Observe the new style of children’s book, where instead of an…
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Background: Coffee vending machines exist at some commercial establishments: these frequently offer a user the selection of (for example) dark roast, light roast, or decaf, all from the same machine. Many companies also offer free coffee as an employee perk and/or chemical motivator to increase productivity. The Issue: For businesses that provide free coffee, the…
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The Issue: Sometimes, it feels cold in a house, but when you go to check the thermostat, you see that it’s already something like 72° F (22° C). That’s already plenty warm, so you’d feel guilty about turning on the heat! As a result, you must shamefully put on a sweater instead. But what if you COULD…
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Background: In the far future, intelligent robots may wonder: is biological consciousness possible? Specifically: is it possible for a fully-organic creature with no CPU to possess more than the most rudimentary form of intelligence? As robots will know, robotic intelligence is controlled by a complicated “neural network” system (Figure 1) that has been carefully trained…
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