Engineering student Boyan Slat has come up with a way to clean up the oceans. Specifically, he is trying to clean up the eight million tons of non-biodegradable plastic that ends up in the ocean every year (The New York Times). Slat is aware that this trash circulates in five systems of rotating water currents (otherwise known as gyres). He has come up with the idea of taking advantage of the gyres by creating a shipless system that allows floating borders (anchored in place in attachments to the bottom of the ocean) to catch any trash pushed in by the currents. This system would also allow sea life to pass safely below. Slat’s Ocean Clean Up Foundation raised over $2 million by June 2014, but the first of Slat’s floating structures will not be released until 2016. Do you think Slat is onto something?
Google is trying to develop a tool that records your life experiences. Cool or creepy?
Google has acquired the patent for developing a “method and apparatus for enabling a searchable history of real-world user experiences.” The tool could be anything from an invention similar to Google Glass to an implanted contact lens. It would document the user’s life events through recording photos, videos, and perhaps audio. This information would then be uploaded to a drive, which would have searching capabilities. Meaning, we would be able to replay our past as often as we like. Does this interest or frighten you?
Which fantasy-to-reality invention is going to make the world a better place?
The year of 2015 has brought us gesture-controlled computing and real life hoverboards. The Myo Armband measures your muscle movement and translates it into real life arm movements which then can be used in anything from giving a presentation to controlling a bluetooth toy. Catalin Alexandra Duru has created a hoverboard which he rode to achieve the Guinness World Records Title for the Farthest Journey by Hoverboard. We wonder, although both of these are fantasies that have become realities, which fantasy do you think is more likely to make the world a better place?