Quietly in a number of laboratories, an astounding technology is developing that directly connects the human brain to a computer. It's like a sudden leap in human evolution - a leap that could one day help paralyzed people to walk again and amputees to move bionic limbs. Join discussion...

Senior SETI astronomer Seth Shostak’s prediction that ET intelligences will be discovered within “two dozen years” seems to have the proviso “if we get the funding:” Join discussion...

At the end of the year 2008 we will see a lot of new predictions for the upcoming years. Of course Extend Limits will also give it’s future predictions for 2009 and further. For now it’s IBM with five key developmens for the next five years. Developments which will change our lives according to IBM. Join discussion...

A lump of rock more than 40 meters in diameter speeding through space at 28,000 mph, once considered the most dangerous object in the universe, is about to become the site for humanity’s next “giant leap for mankind.” NASA engineers have selected asteroid 2000SG344 – which in 2000 was given a significant chance of slamming into Earth with the explosive power of 750 Hiroshimas – as the perfect space object to study. The operation would take place before the 2030 Mars journey, a speculative trip bandied about ever since the first President Bush mentioned in 1989 that America should send men to the red planet. The asteroid mission represents a crucial step for America’s space program. A report to be published next month in the journal Acta Astronautica describes plans to use the soon-to-be-developed Orion space ship for a three-to-six month round-trip to the asteroid, with two explorers spending up to two weeks on the rock’s surface. As well as providing experience for longer Mars trips, samples taken from the rock could help scientists convert sub-surface ice into drinking water and breathable oxygen, understand more about the birth of the solar system, and how best to defend Earth against dangerous asteroid collisions. Join discussion...

We could discover ETs within two decades, experts say By Dick Pelletier Most people alive today may one day witness what could be considered the most amazing event ever in human history – proof that intelligent extraterrestrials exist. New ways of thinking about our place in the universe are unfolding as the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) speeds up. Experts estimate there are billions of Earthlike planets in our galaxy alone, and with more than 100 billion other galaxies in the universe, the odds are that we are not alone. With powerful new technologies, forward-thinkers believe chances are great that we will make contact with intelligent ETs in the next two decades. The following list describes these technologies: Phoenix Mission – After this NASA project landed on Mars, its robotic arm began digging into the permafrost to determine if the right chemistry had ever existed that would support life. Phoenix could become the smoking gun for the evolution of life elsewhere in the universe, experts say. Join discussion...

Terrorist WMD attack likely within decade, say analysts By Dick Pelletier The world faces an estimated 70 percent chance of a nuclear, biological or chemical attack in the next decade, according to national security analysts surveyed for a recent Senate Foreign Relations Committee study. More than half of the 85 analysts contacted believed one or two new countries would acquire nuclear weapons within five years, and five more will obtain them in ten. They counted technology sharing between terrorist groups among activities that posed the greatest dangers, and attacks by terrorists as more likely than those posed by rogue states. Committee Chair Senator Richard Lugar said that though the U.S. may be successful in building new democracies, we are not safe from small, fanatical terrorist cells that could possibly get their hands on nuclear materials. How great is this risk? During the Cold War, the possibility of a nuclear war that could kill every American made it imperative to do anything possible to avoid conflict. Today, the consequence of even a single nuclear weapon exploding in a U.S. city is almost beyond imagination. Join discussion...

Mathematics professor, computer scientist and five time Hugo Award-winning author, Vernor Vinge is a man who's never short of ideas. As well as creating a wealth of thought-provoking stories over the course of more than four decades, Dr. Vinge wrote a seminal paper in 1993 about accelerating change entitled "The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era". In it, he describes the likely development of a superintelligence which would bring about a period of extreme technological and social change. This event he dubbed the "Singularity" owing to its similarity to cosmological singularities, more commonly known as black holes. Just as nothing — not even light — can escape the event horizon of a black hole, Vinge surmised that it was impossible to anticipate what life might be like beyond the occurrence of the Singularity. Join discussion...

can imagine that some of you do not know anymore what or which to expect in the future development of the television. We already know for example laser TV, Interactive TV, OLED TV and 3d television. But the must inspiring and in my opinion promising is holographic TV. Let’s be fair it is also the most futuristic TV. But recent developments have showed that it might be in our home by 2015 - 2020. When we start talking about erasable and rewritable holograms, we are moving toward the possibility of holographic TV … It has now been shown that physically, it’s possible (Tung H. Jeong, retired professor at Lake Forest College) Join discussion...

September 21, 2050 - At a press conference today it was announced that the first tourist heading for Mars will be the 38-year-old US businessman Patrick Clifford. He will leave the earth in the launching window of June 2052 and set his foot on the surface of Mars in November, together with the other 6 astronauts assigned for the mission to further explore the planet. Patrick has now two years of training ahead of him to get ready for the trip. Not only will he spend five months in getting to Mars, but another 600 days there before he can go back home. Patrick was of course very excited: "This has been my dream since I was four, and seeing the first man on Mars 20 years ago made me realize that it was possible." Join discussion...

September 26, 2040 - Hurry up if you still have euro banknotes lying around in your drawers, Friday is the last day for you to cash them in. Officials said yesterday that they are very pleased with the transition in removing the banknotes and coins from the market. Due to the lack of demand for cash and the development of smartcards, the decision was taken five years ago to remove all euro banknotes and coins from the market. The major information campaigns and exposure in the media has given a great result, collecting more than 99,96% of the cash in circulation. The euro was established as a unit of exchange in 1999 by 12 European Union member states and entered circulation in 2002. After only 38 years on the market you will in the future only be able to see them in a museum. Join discussion...