Five years ago, when I was trying to name this column, I found that all the clever technology titles involving bytes, bits and so forth had already been taken. So I thought: since I'm interested in how technology will affect us in years to come, why not "Practical Futurist"? It seemed humorous at the time: how many futurists are known for practicality? But within months, people were referring to me as a futurist. And thus I learned my first lesson about the profession: the way you become a futurist is simply to call yourself one. So at the end of July I couldn't resist the opportunity to join more than a thousand fellow futurists at the World Future Society's annual meeting in Toronto, Canada.

BIG data is suddenly everywhere. Everyone seems to be collecting it, analyzing it, making money from it and celebrating (or fearing) its powers. Whether we're talking about analyzing zillions of Google search queries to predict flu outbreaks, or zillions of phone records to detect signs of terrorist activity, or zillions of airline stats to find the best time to buy plane tickets, big data is on the case. By combining the power of modern computing with the plentiful data of the digital era, it promises to solve virtually any problem -- crime, public health, the evolution of grammar, the perils of dating -- just by crunching the numbers. Or so its champions allege.

Ryszard Michalski, PRC Professor of Computational Sciences and Health Informatics, died from cancer on Sept. 20, Provost Peter Stearns announced Tuesday. He joined the Mason faculty in 1988. A memorial will be held at Bellarmine Chapel, 4515 Roberts Road, at 1 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 28. A reception at the same location will follow the service. All members of the university community are invited to attend.

In his new book, Who Owns The Future?, computer scientist, Jaron Lanier, argues that as technology has become more advanced, so too has our dependency on information tools. Lanier believes that if we continue on our present path, where we think of computers as passive tools, instead of machines that real people create, our myopia will result in less understanding of both computers and human beings, which could cause the demise of democracy, mass unemployment, the erosion of the middle class, and social chaos. Lanier encourages human beings to take back control of their own economic destiny by creating a society that values the work of all industries, and not just those with the fastest networks. By monetizing information, he foresees a more egalitarian society, which can still adhere to the principles of free market capitalism. What will the future economy look like if technology keeps advancing the way it does and we do nothing?

January 17, 2017 --Eugene "Gene" Cernan, the last human to walk on the moon, passed away Monday at the age of 82. The former astronaut played an important role in America's space program during the height of the Cold War. In addition to being one of only 12 people to have set foot on the moon, he was also only the second American to complete a successful spacewalk during a Gemini mission. On Dec. 11, 1972, Mr. Cernan and fellow astronaut Harrison Schmitt stepped onto the moon for the first time, an experience that he later said in his biography made him no longer belong "solely to the Earth," but "to the universe." But as he touched the moon, his transmission to Houston in the moment was more awestruck: "Oh, my golly. Before becoming an astronaut, Cernan was a pilot with the US Navy. He found himself on the backup crew for Gemini 9, along with Thomas Stafford, until the primary crew was tragically killed in a plane crash before launch. With Gemini 9, Cernan became the third person in the world to complete a successful spacewalk. His 2 hours and 9 minutes spent outside the capsule was a record stretch in 1966. Cernan's first trip to the moon happened in May 1969, during the Apollo 10 mission, though it would be over three years until he actually set foot on the lunar surface. Apollo 10 was a dress rehearsal of sorts, taking measurements from orbit and testing various essential procedures that would be needed for the first actual moon landing with Apollo 11. "I keep telling Neil Armstrong that we painted that white line in the sky all the way to the Moon down to 47,000 feet so he wouldn't get lost, and all he had to do was land," Cernan said in a 2007 interview with NASA. "Made it sort of easy for him." With Apollo 17, Cernan finally got his chance to explore the lunar surface. Over the course of the mission, Cernan and Schmitt travelled 19 miles (30 km) across the lunar surface on a rover, gathering over 220 pounds (100 kg) of moon rocks to bring home for further study. At one point, he traced the letters TDC, the initials of his daughter, on the lunar surface. But when the time came to leave, Cernan, the last man on the moon, was reluctant to leave. "Those steps up that ladder, they were tough to make," he said. "I didn't want to go up.

At the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference that concluded last week, the majority of panelists on a panel discussing digital health dismissed artificial intelligence in healthcare as overhyped. Deborah DiSanzo, general manager of IBM Watson Health, who presented her company's vision at the conference in San Francisco and Vinod Khosla, founder of investment firm Khosla Ventures, who spoke at a satellite conference beg to differ. IBM Watson Health, with its acquisition of Merge Healthcare, has amassed a vast volume of imaging data – 30 billion to be exact -- and is putting its machine learning power to work. In a question-and-answer session following her presentation, DiSanzo explained that Watson can actually prioritize the image stack in a CT scan for example, and tell radiologists which images to see first and not waste time in viewing images that have nothing in them. What's more, the technology can also pull in unstructured text data from an electronic health record to provide context and decision-making support to the radiologists, DiSanzo explained.

Amazon Alexa, the voice assistant of Amazon, was everywhere on CES 2017. Integrated in cars, refrigerators, assistant devices and more, there's an emerging trend which requires us to talk to devices. But are we actually going to talk to machines on a structural level? The first sales forecasts of the Amazon echo are good. Google's voice assistant also had significant sales numbers last Christmas.

During the last 36 years of its illustrious history, ince its inception in 1980, AI Magazine has played an the magazine has gone through several transformations. Now the magazine is going through another transition: David Leake, the longtime editor-in-chief is moving on after 17 years of distinguished service, though fortunately he will continue to advise us as editor emeritus. I am honored and delighted to follow David. I have been a member of the Editorial Board of AI Magazine for several years, associate editor since August 2015, and editor elect since February 2016; my tenure as editor-in-chief starts with this winter 2016 issue. I thank David, Managing Editor Mike Hamilton, former AAAI President Tom Dietterich, and AAAI for recruiting me for this challenge....

Former astronaut Gene Cernan, the last of only a dozen men to walk on the moon who returned to Earth with a message of "peace and hope for all mankind," has died. Cernan died Monday following ongoing heath issues, his family said in a statement released by NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs. NASA said Cernan was surrounded by his family. "Even at the age of 82, Gene was passionate about sharing his desire to see the continued human exploration of space and encouraged our nation's leaders and young people to not let him remain the last man to walk on the Moon," the family said. Cernan, commander of NASA's Apollo 17 mission, set foot on the lunar surface in December 1972 during his third space flight.