Sometimes the future shows up so fast it hits us in the face, like a brick wall in a VR headset. Other times the miraculous promises of technology--the rearrange ment of our very DNA, the blockchain- enabled toppling of Facebook--are frustratingly slow to arrive. But either way, the future is coming, and we should be ready. In the following pages we lay out a series of predictions, starting with some changes that are immediately upon us. Then, looking down the road, we get ever-bolder in our prognostications, year by not-so-far-off year. Hackers who disable power grids and detonate gas pipelines have been the villains of popular cyberparanoia for decades.

With the creation of a 17-member task force, India's goals range from "establishing tactical deterrence in the region and visualizing potential transformative weaponry" to "developing intelligent, autonomous robotic systems and bolstering cyber defence," the Times of India reported. According to the report, the task force is expected to make recommendations on how best to "make India a significant power in AI, in terms of both offensive and defensive needs, especially in aviation, naval, land systems, cyber, nuclear and biological warfare arenas." "The world is moving towards AI-driven warfare," Ajay Kumar, the secretary of India's Defense Ministry, told the publication. "India is also taking necessary steps to prepare our armed forces because AI has the potential to have a transformative impact on national security. The government has set up the AI taskforce to prepare the roadmap for it."

The evolution of artificial intelligence has sparked debate on every aspect of humanity's future. Today, for instance, the Prime Minister is arguing in a speech that we should use genetic information to create programmes that can diagnose illnesses early on. But so far there are very few practical solutions on how to prepare our children for life in an era of advanced robotics. So will the classroom of the future have a machine teaching children their times tables, instructing them in foreign languages? I was recently a consultant on a new Automation Readiness Index with the Economist Intelligence Unit, which found that there is much still to do in the UK -- and globally, too.

Change comes hard in much of Europe, particularly in the defense community. But no less than in the United States, European nations are wrestling with the implications of machine learning and artificial intelligence -- in the military as well as civilian society. During several trips to Europe in the last six months, we have noted a significant uptick in the number of NATO political and military leaders discussing AI's impact on the alliance's military capability. There seems to be a two-speed discussion going on. European defense industry officials we talked to had no qualms about harnessing AI to reduce manufacturing costs and improve customer satisfaction.

San Jose, which was considered the "holy grail of shipwrecks," was located with the help of an underwater autonomous vehicle An autonomous vehicle was used in 2015 to locate a Spanish galleon that sunk 300 years ago off the coast of Colombia with $17 billion in treasure, the research team that helped in the discovery said on Monday. The San Jose, which was considered the "holy grail of shipwrecks," was located with the help of an underwater autonomous vehicle operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The institution said it was holding the discovery under wraps out of respect for the Colombian government. REMUS 6000 being deployed off the Colombian Navy research ship ARC Malpelo. The treasure--which includes of gold, silver and emeralds-- has been the subject of legal battles between several nations as well as private companies. Several weeks ago, UNESCO, the United Nations cultural agency, called on Colombia not to commercially exploit the wreck, whose exact location remains a state secret.

UPDATED British Prime Minister Theresa May is to announce plans to commit millions of pounds to a new artificial intelligence strategy for early-stage cancer diagnosis. The aim is to reduce deaths from prostate, ovarian, lung, and bowel cancer by 10 percent within 15 years – saving an estimated 22,000 lives a year. In the first of a new series of speeches on the UK's industrial strategy, the prime minister will say, "Late diagnosis of otherwise treatable illnesses is one of the biggest causes of avoidable deaths. "The development of smart technologies to analyse great quantities of data quickly and with a higher degree of accuracy than is possible by human beings, opens up a whole new field of medical research, and gives us a new weapon in our armoury in the fight against disease." May is expected to ask the technology industry and cancer charities to work with the NHS to develop new algorithms that can use a mix of patient data, genetic markers, and lifestyle information to warn GPs of the risk of common cancers developing. News of the government's strategy comes on the same day that the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust announced that it has embarked on a new AI programme to improve the treatment of patients who have had a heart attack, in a project that could see wider use of AI to inform treatment decisions across the organisation. The Trust, which was named as the NHS' Global Digital Exemplar of the year, will use technology from healthcare specialist, Deontics. The new system will enable doctors on the Trust's acute cardiac unit (ACU) to access AI-driven evidence-based clinical treatment recommendations that are tailored to each patient's needs. Deontics uses cognitive computing and healthcare-specific logic to act like a "clinical sat-nav" for doctors, according to a joint announcement this morning. This enables them to make treatment decisions that are dynamically informed by relevant standards and guidelines, such as those issued by NICE, and the latest good practice from published papers and other reputable sources. These are then applied directly to the needs of individual patients. "Some of our most frail and elderly patients with acute coronary syndrome are getting some of our most powerful drugs," explained the Trust's chief clinical information officer, Mike Fisher. "Using AI-technology means we should reduce the potential for overprescribing drugs for patients at lower levels of risk.

Could artificial intelligence upend concepts of nuclear deterrence that have helped spare the world from nuclear war since 1945? Stunning advances in AI--coupled with a proliferation of drones, satellites, and other sensors--raise the possibility that countries could find and threaten each other's nuclear forces, escalating tensions. Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov settled into the commander's chair in a secret bunker outside Moscow. His job that night was simple: Monitor the computers that were sifting through satellite data, watching the United States for any sign of a missile launch. It was just after midnight, Sept. 26, 1983.

The NRA's news president is current Fox News Contributor Oliver North, but he is widely known for a Reagan-era scandal. Former U.S. Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North speaks before giving the Invocation at the National Rifle Association-Institute for Legislative Action Leadership Forum in Dallas, May 4, 2018. Incoming National Rifle Association president Oliver North has already grabbed national attention for his take on the root causes of America's mass shooting problem after a Texas high school student killed 10 people in a bloody rampage. The retired Marine lieutenant colonel blamed a "culture of violence" for recent school shootings and implied that the prevalence of prescriptions such as Ritalin for young people could also be a factor during an appearance on Fox News Sunday. But in 2012, North worked as a promoter, script consultant and voice actor for the popular first-person-shooter game Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

Although robotic flying taxi and drone deliveries would take years to become a reality, the US Department of Transportation has moved a step ahead to make this a reality soon. The numbers of companies are designing their systems and technologies and will very soon operate their devices. Amazon.com and Alphabet's Google unit are both developing drones to deliver products. As per the US law, the agency must certify that any business carrying people or cargo for hire is economically'fit, willing and able' to perform. "The FAA still must approve of a drone air carrier's safety in a separate process," stated the DOT.

Did you make yourself a coffee this morning? Cross your legs as you sat down at your desk? For some people the simple movements we take for granted aren't possible but thanks to advances in assistive technologies and AI-enabled prosthetics, it soon could be. This is a staggering number of people who could potentially benefit from the combination of technologies that are shaping the world of prostheses. Whilst commonly associated with gaming, Virtual Reality has many other uses – like benefiting the growing number of amputees.