Artificial intelligence – fuelled by big data – and blockchain tech, are some of the technologies that could impact our world, according to Sarwant Singh, senior parter at Frost & Sullivan. Speaking at the Global Community of Growth, Innovation and Leadership (GIL Europe) conference, held in London today, Singh discussed mega trends in the technological world in an attempt to examine their implications on businesses and societies. "I believe we are now entering the cognitive area," said Singh in reference to artificial intelligence, adding: "We'll move towards super intelligence [in the future]. It is not available today". By super intelligence, Singh was referring to the possibility that computers may eventually be able to function similarly to the human brain.

Chicks born with a bit of quail brain spliced in. Rats with their brains synced to create a mind-meld computer. For two days in June, some of neuroscience's most extraordinary feats were debated over coffee and vegetarian food at the Institute for Research in Cognitive Science in Philadelphia. The idea wasn't to celebrate these accomplishments but to examine them. Martha Farah, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania, assembled a group of scientists, philosophers and policy-makers to discuss the moral implications for the animals involved.

Robots are already putting a variety of jobs under threat from security guards to office managers, but soon they could be venturing into the sex industry too. Women and men could begin swapping human partners for androids within the next 10 years, according to predictions by a futurologist. Dr Ian Pearson, an inventor who has made a career out of predicting the future for PR firms, has produced a report on the future of sex. Sex with robots could soon replace human intimate relationships according to a recent report. It claims that intercourse with robots could overtake human intercourse by 2050.

I just asked a bot to tell me how much I spent on coffee this past month. And a few moments later, it replied. Certainly, I drink an awful lot of coffee. After asking the bot for a bit more information, I can happily say I spent at least some of that nearly two hundred dollars on chopped fruit and the occasional pastry. The bot didn't actually explain this, but it did give me list all payments to coffee shops, which made things clear.

You don't hear many people bellyaching about the servant problem these days. In 1904, when Saki wrote, "The cook was a good cook, as cooks go, and as cooks go, she went," this lapidary witticism would have fallen on kind ears. The bourgeoisie of that era talked about the unreliability of hired help with the same willed petulance that we reserve today for conversations about how it takes three remotes to turn on our TV. Indeed, in today's world, it seems as if you'd be less likely to hear about a domestic walking out than you would someone falling in love with his virtual assistant. I recently used a virtual assistant named Amy for 10 days. We did not fall in love, but I should point out that Amy is underage because she is still in beta.

Hay Newman continues, "ALPHA was developed by aerospace engineer Nick Ernest, a recent doctoral graduate of University of Cincinnati whose company Psibernetix works with the Air Force Research Laboratory. ALPHA has been victorious in numerous simulated battles against top fighter pilots, including a series in October against retired United States Air Force Colonel Gene Lee. Lee told University of Cincinnati Magazine that: 'It seemed to be aware of my intentions and reacting instantly to my changes in flight and my missile deployment. It knew how to defeat the shot I was taking. It moved instantly between defensive and offensive actions as needed.

Ask Apple's Siri digital assistant if she's evil, and she'll respond curtly, "Not really." Repeat a famous line from the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey," in which a computer on a spaceship kills nearly all the human crew, and Siri groans. And who can blame her? We humans have a morbid fascination with machines rising up to wipe us out or to enslave us as cocooned, flesh-and-blood battery packs. You can see that vision of the future streaming over Netflix whenever you want.

Some people finish a marathon, or climb Mt. Whitney, or get down to a certain weight, and that's it. They view that particular challenge as a sort of bucket-list accomplishment, and when they cross that finish line, they all but cross out fitness as a priority in their lives. They stop doing the things that helped them attain their goal and revert to poor habits. Soon enough, they're out of shape again (or have gained back all the weight).

You know who you are.) These researchers decided to watch people's brains with an fMRI in order to glean some hints that could be used for a better navigational algorithm.] I wrote earlier this year about some of the ways that AI is helping us to do our jobs better. One of these is in more efficient route planning to help service personnel get to jobs faster. It's the kind of travelling salesman problem that has been challenging people since the 1930s due to the computational difficulties involved.

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