Fuel cell technology

         Fuel cell technology has been gradually getting greater acceptance in the datacenter world. Getting end-to-end control of the power production aspect of datacenter energy requirements allows a business to more carefully control expenses and model future spending more accurately.  But fuel cells, due to the nature of their production, are inherently expensive, which makes considerations o their use limited to only companies with significant budget for datacenter energy cost capital expenditures.

        In the white paper “No More Electrical Infrastructure: Towards Fuel Cell Powered Data Centers” Microsoft Research examines the potential cost savings of using fuel cells to power datacenters. While that may seem like an oxymoron, based on the clear issues of fuel cell costs, Microsoft makes a clear case for the economics of scale in the production of fuel cells on a level not currently contemplated.

           

           They do this by postulating the development of the rack-level fuel cell. In this model, rather than supplying an entire datacenter with power, the goal is to deliver power to a single rack. The Microsoft model postulates that doubling production volume would reduce the costs by 20 percent. For the small fuel cell that would be used in a rack system, their analysis used a cost of $3-5/W and a service life of 5 years.

Control devices via Microchips implanted in our brains

        The human brain remains biology’s great, unconquered wilderness, and while the idea of meshing the raw power of the human mind with electronic stimulus and responsiveness has long existed in both science fiction and — to some degree — in reality, we likely won’t be controlling our devices with a thought in 2020 as Intel has predicted.

           While it’s currently possible to implant a chip in the brain and even get one to respond to or stimulate gross neural activity, we simply don’t understand the brain’s nuance well enough to create the kind of interface that would let you channel surf by simply thinking about it.

          “Neural communications are both chemical and electrical,” Liebhold says. “And we have no idea about how that works, particularly in the semantics of neural communication. So yeah, somebody might be able to put electronics inside somebody’s cranium, but I personally believe it’s only going to be nominally useful for very, very narrow therapeutic applications.”

The end of scarcity

            The world said humans were not meant to fly. Hundreds of years of human invention had been unable to make it work. But in a small bicycle-repair shop, two brothers with no government funding and only a basic education had a vision, and a will to invent. And in 1903, thanks to the determination of these two unsuspecting inventors, humans flew.

            The distance of the first human flight was 120 ft. Years later, one of the inventors of that breakthrough would marvel that the wingspan of modern airplanes was longer than the entire distance his first plane had flown. The potential of technology is limited only by our imagination, and our will.

                 Abundance of water, food, clean air. peace: the end of scarcity in the supply of our basic needs is possible. Perhaps not by 2020, but it starts with the dream, the determination to turn dreams into reality, and the understanding of this truth, so well embodied in the invention and rapid evolution of human flight: that all things are possible. 

Space becomes an Investment Race

        The space race is on — but this time it is entrepreneurs taking the lead. Space is the new hot market. More so than at any time since the famous Apollo program in the 1960s, there is an excitement about the possibilities that space offers. Imaging, analytics, minerals, water extraction, exploration, tourism – these are all emerging growth segments in the space market. Meanwhile, there are already very solid and dependable cash flows being produced by the relatively mundane activity of satellite communications.

         Space is a very particular environment requiring very particular technologies and methods. For instance, the electronic components used in space are often built differently to those on Earth – and putting a satellite into orbit is a lot more difficult than putting up a cellphone mast. Space is also a new market to most. So, in this article, we lay out some of the basics of the business of space, so that interested investors can start to understand this new market in some detail before diving in.

         The successful splashdown of the Dragon capsule — the first private spacecraft to make a trip to the International Space Station (ISS) — was a major milestone in the entry of private companies into the business of space exploration.

The ‘Humanized’ internet

          The evolution of modern connectivity is often summarized as: the internet – the world wide web – mobile devices – big data/the cloud – the internet of things. For the next stage, it seems inevitable that even more personalization will be an important component. What we refer to as the internet of things will be central.

           However, more than simply connecting humans with devices, the next stage in connectivity will include “humanized” interfaces that constantly evolve to understand the user’s patterns and needs and, in a sense, self-optimize. This would include the functions and features on our devices, as well as the selection/curation of information we receive.

           It may not be the kind of artificial intelligence found in science fiction, but I expect this injection of personalization will bring monumental changes as our level of connectivity continues to grow. 

The End of the 19th-Century Grid

 

              One of the biggest changes we will see (or at least have made substantial progress towards) by 2020 is global electrification. In the US and Europe, most people take electricity for granted. But that is not the case in many parts of Latin America, Africa and Asia. More than 1.3 billion people still aren’t connected to the grid. More than 1.5 billion still don’t have regular access to electric light: they use oil lamps, which are a safety hazard.

         Even where the grid exists, it’s fragile: power blackouts are a major problem in many megacities. Power theft also plagues Brazil, India and South Africa. Safe, reliable power will have a transformative effect on these countries. Not only will there be near-term benefits such as greater productivity, but we will see long-term quantum leaps in educational achievement, healthcare and quality of life.

              These communities don’t have power now because our 19th-century grid is too expensive. The advent of new technologies is changing both the business models and use-case scenarios to make it possible. In a few years, the world will finally, truly, be wired. 

Solar Power Technology

           By 2020, solar technologies could account for a significant portion of global power generation, helping economies and businesses guard against rising energy costs and the impact of climate change. However, finding opportunities to further reduce the cost of solar technologies will be key to unlocking this potential.

          Because polysilicon, the primary raw material used by solar module manufacturers, is the single largest cost in the solar supply chain, it represents the most significant opportunity for cost reduction. Over the next several years, new lower-cost methods of polysilicon production will commercialize, providing the solar industry with a more affordable source of raw material.

       In turn, these cost improvements will trickle down throughout the solar supply chain, accelerating the adoption of solar energy around the world and helping the industry realize its global potential. 

The beginning of the end of exams

           The beginning of the end of exams (AI in schools) in 2019, artificial intelligence will start continuously assessing students, making exams increasingly unnecessary. Normally we hear about AI in the context of driver-less cars or Amazon warehouses, but AI in schools is already a reality. Adaptive learning platforms, such as Century Tech, use algorithmic decision-making to deliver lesson content based on a student’s ability and interests.

            Teachers use ‘AI teaching assistant’ tools to optimist seating plans for behavior and learning. Even Ousted, the education regulator, is trialing AI algorithms to predict which schools are likely to fail inspections. Recent advances make continuous assessment by AI not only possible, but practical on a large scale — even for subjects without binary “right” or “wrong” answers. Advances in natural language processing mean that AI can analyse the content, structure and style of prose in an essay.

         Instead of examiners spending hours marking one essay at the end of the year, all essays throughout the year could be marked quickly and independently by AI. Already, 60,000 schools in China (a quarter of the country’s total) are part of an on-going government-sponsored trial in which essays have been quietly marked by an AI algorithm.

World's first 8K TV channel

        Japan’s NHK will launch the world’s first 8K TV channel on December 1. It will broadcast movies such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, NASA content, concerts, and more in 8K.Japan’s public service provider NHK has been developing 8K image systems since 1995, with a stated goal of broadcasting the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in its full glory. NHK has been a driving force in developing 8K technology that it has previously referred to as “Super Hi-Vision”. 

        The company is now launching the ’BS8K channel’ to prepare for the big event.The NHK’s BS8K channel will broadcast 12 hours daily. On launch day, it will feature 8K footage of Earth shot by NASA from the International Space Station as well as Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey in a restored 8K version created from the 70mm film negative in collaboration with Warner Bros. The launch of NHK BS8K is a milestone but there is still a lot of work ahead for everyone involved.

        Sharp and Samsung have launched their first 8K TVs but these are not compatible with the 8K60 video format that NHK is using, instead being limited to 8K30. NHK is planning to eventually move to 8K120 HDR. All of that will be solved in time and perhaps consumers will start buying super-sized TVs that can take advantage of the very high resolution but the road ahead is long and full of uncertainty.