The world is going to be a very different place in 2045. Predicting the future is fraught with challenges, but when it comes to technological advances and forward thinking, experts working at the Pentagon's research agency may be the best people to ask. Launched in 1958, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is behind some of the biggest innovations in the military -- many of which have crossed over to the civilian technology market. These include things like advanced robotics, global-positioning systems, and the internet. It's pretty likely that robots and artificial technology are going to transform a bunch of industries, drone aircraft will continue their leap from the military to the civilian market, and self-driving cars will make your commute a lot more bearable.

The Schiaparelli robot probe has not sent back a message it was expected to from the surface of Mars. The problem could mean that the lander has been lost. If so, it would bring a tragic end to humanity's newest hopes of finding alien life on the planet. But the European Space Agency warned against writing off the chances of finding the lander. There was still a decent chance that the lander might be heard from.

The European Space Agency appear to have determined that its Schiaparelli probe has landed on Mars. Scientists had initially worried that the hugely important robot – which is intended as a demonstration of the technology used for landing, as well as to test theories about the potential of life on Mars – was lost, because it didn't send back an initial message to say that it was safe. But scientists said that they had received a signal back from Mars Express, a craft currently orbiting around the red planet about the probe. But they didn't initially confirm that meant that the lander had arrived on the planet safely. From the International Space Station, Expedition 42 Flight Engineer Terry W. Virts took this photograph of the Gulf of Mexico and U.S. Gulf Coast at sunset This image of an area on the surface of Mars, approximately 1.5 by 3 kilometers in size, shows frosted gullies on a south-facing slope within a crater.

Today with the growth of the internet of things there is a surge in usage of fast internet, smartphones, portable devices, smart TV, smart wearable and connected cars among retail consumers. This indicates the rise of connected consumers. This has made the huge impact in the retail landscape and the retail experience is evolving from multi-channel to Omni-channel. The connected consumer requires connected retail. Omni-channel retailing means establishing a presence on many channels and platforms (i.e. Physical stores remain the foundation of retailing, evidenced by the fact that - in the internet era, 90% of retail sales still take place in physical stores. According to eMarketer, the total retail sales in the US topped 4.53 trillion in 2013, of this brick-and-mortar sales still command a vast majority of the retail market nearly 4.27 trillion. According to A.T. Kearney, 95 percent of all retail sales are captured by retailers with a brick-and-mortar presence in total retail. Two-thirds of consumers who purchase online use the store before or after the transaction. The role of the brick & mortar store is changing, NOT going away. Stores remain at the heart of retailers' relationships with consumers, even in today's "Omni Channel" world where online and physical sales appear to rule. According to a report, When it comes to product trial and tests, respondents indicate a clear preference for physical stores. Despite the growing popularity of e-commerce and digital retailing are capturing headlines in news media and inspiring spirited debates (blah, blah..) retailers plan how best to invest for future success, including a plan to build an another planet. The e-commerce retail market share is only 263 billion. It is only 5.8% of the market share. Small basket, single channel, ineffective delivery, can't see, can't feel or try made it as a hard business model. Is pure play e-commerce is an unprofitable business model? Investment on e-commerce is "river of no returns"? Are we nearing the end of the e-commerce bubble? Is M-commerce the future of retail? Drop out, make an app, go viral and make money?

The logo of Microsoft is pictured in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, August 8, 2016. New York: In a major breakthrough in the field of speech recognition, Microsoft researchers have created a technology that accurately recognises the words in a conversation like humans do. The team from Microsoft Artificial Intelligence and Research reported a speech recognition system that makes the same or fewer errors than professional transcriptionists. The researchers reported a word error rate (WER) of 5.9 percent, down from the 6.3 percent WER the team reported just last month. The 5.9 percent error rate is about equal to that of people who were asked to transcribe the same conversation, and it's the lowest ever recorded against the industry standard "Switchboard" speech recognition task.

At last week's White House Frontiers Conference, President Obama outlined a vision for the development of AI: A plan that involves the collaboration of the US government. The event, co-hosted by the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, was the first of its kind. Earlier that week, the White House had unveiled a report--Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence--which outlined how the government can be involved in researching, developing, and regulating future technologies. So how well does the American president understand AI? And how powerful will these policies be?

While IoT remains wildly insecure, thanks to the integrated solution operated by the WISeKey Vertical Platform, IoT devices would be able to organize themselves into trusted networks based on mutual authentication, identity and integrity. This trusted cybersecurity platform will only enable IoT devices which can provide a recognized identity and a valid integrity report to communicate with peer devices that are part of the trusted community. Adding AI at the chip level together with the WISeKey RoT it will allow the IoT to provide authenticated sensor data. Current IoT data do not provide value for their manufacturers unless it can be converted into actionable, contextualized information generated by IoT sensors fully identifiable. The majority of IoT devices are not built with embedded secured systems thus are very vulnerable.

One day, you could be using your own personal drone to help you find your vehicle again in a busy car park. That is if a patent granted to Amazon becomes a reality. The company has revealed plans for an'unmanned aerial vehicle assistant' could also be used by traffic police to help them catch speeding drivers. One day traffic police might become a thing of the past, as humans might be replaced by drones. That is if a patent granted to Amazon becomes a reality.

Since your racist uncle is not a reliable source, many Americans have turned to Alexa for information about the presidential election. It's hard to say whether that's good or bad, but Amazon has taken notice and released new commands for its AI assistant ahead of the next debate. You can now ask questions about the time and channel of the debate, where it's happening, and afterwards, who won. Alexa is also getting a host of new commands on election day, November 8th, "to help keep you up to date on all things Election 2016 including who is leading the election, which states the candidates have won and more," Amazon says. Examples of questions you can pose include "Alexa, who is winning the presidential election," "who is leading in the presidential polls," "which percent of the popular vote does Hillary have" and "which states has Trump won."

On Friday, video gamers will get to experience Civilization VI -- the newest game in a franchise that for decades has invited players to lead one of history's great peoples from the prehistoric era to the space age. As the title suggests, it's a simulation of humanity's actual journey, complete with all the wars, politics and cultural struggles along the way. I sat down this week with Sid Meier, the creator of Civilization. He declined to discuss the finer points of playing as Donald Trump. But he did discuss his own Civ playstyle, and he hinted at what future versions of Civ may hold as our real-world technology gets increasingly sophisticated.