FuturePath

Ezine Fall 2019

Inside: Nuclear [8] Quantum [12] Reality [18] Transportation [22] Computers [30]

Table Of Contents

Pg 4

Letter From the Editors

Pg 5

Meet The Editors

Pg 6

Reactors Past and Present

Pg 8

Nuclear Fear

Pg 12 Quantum Computers

Pg 16 Clasical Computers Vs Quantum Computers

Pg 18 Virtual and Augmented Reality

Pg 22 Reshaping Future of Transportation

Pg 26 Coexist or Takeover

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Pg 28

Future Of Technology

Pg 30

Iriparible Computers

Pg 34 Which OS Should you Choose?

Images courtesy of Anandtech and Entergy Nuclear.

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Letter from the Editors “The best is yet to come� is not just a cliche quote when it comes to the future! We are a group of tech enthusiasts that are about to present some amazing tech innovations to you. We are interested in solving future problems through technology and we present to you some of the most exciting, promising and mind-boggling breakthroughs in the world of tech. You may or may not have heard of quantum computing or augmented reality but these cutting edge technologies will surely excite your curiosity. Get ready for a journey into the future, exclusively brought to you by us, the Futurists.

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Ari Sharma has lived in Austin, Texas for 14 years and enjoys swimming, playing his Cello and hanging out with friends. When not doing homework, Ari can be found playing video games and commuting around the house on his RipStick. He feels one with all sorts of technology.

Trevor Yu is a freshman at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy in Austin, Texas. He plays soccer and piano. He also 3D prints and likes technology.

15-year-old Aidan Stokes attends the Liberal Arts and Science Academy. He is in between at least 5 different video games at any given moment. His other interests include competitive Ultimate Frisbee, music, and reading.

Yahir Gomez is a freshman at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy in Austin, Texas. He plays soccer and guitar. He also enjoys hanging out with his friends and exploring technology.

Didier Polgar is a freshman at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy in Austin, Texas. He has lived in Austin for 14 years. Didier enjoys playing music, and reading books.

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Reacto r s P a s t and P r e s e n t The history of nuclear power started in the early 1900s, but it certainly didn’t end there. A century of innovation and design has lead humanity through 3 different generations of nuclear energy, each better than the one before it, and we are currently on the brink of a 4th. Shown below are diagrams of a Molten Salt Reactor (Gen IV) and a Pressurized Water Reactor (Gen II)

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Pressurized Water Reactors 1. Pressurized

Loop (water)

Water Loop

4. Generator

Pressurizer

6. Fuel Rods

Loop (steam)

8. Condenser

2. Water

5. Turbines

3a. Water/Steam 3b. Water/Steam

7. Pump(s)

9. Heat Sink

Molten salt reactors

1. Online Refueling Tanks 2. Molten Salt Fuel Loop (Radioactive) 3. Molten Salt Coolant Loop (Non-radioactive) 4a. Water/Steam Loop (Steam) 4b. Water/Steam Loop (Water)

5 4a

4b

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4 3a

3b

5. Generator 6. Turbines 7. Online Processing Facility 8. Control Rods 9. Pump(s) 10. Condenser 11. Heat Sink 12. Emergency Fuel Drainage Tanks 13. Freeze Plug

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6 7 Information

provided by EmgagedInThermo, Touran, and Radioactivity

Nick 7 | Futurepath

The Scary Solution

Nuclear Fear

Enrico Fermi, creater of the first reactor, stands superimposed on a Molten Salt Reactor core.

Photos granted by Wikipedia, Alex Wellerstein.

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By Aidan Stokes As mainstream media frantically waves banners of doom, climate change and the necessary drastic action, scientists begin to notice a slow but steady rise in sea levels and global temperature averages. An increasing amount of the population becomes aware of the danger of greenhouse gasses, carbon emissions and the unsustainability of fossil fuels — nonrenewable energy.

There are realizations that this will never last — even if this generation gets to enjoy living a fossil-fueled life, its progeny will never experience such a world.

Panic over potentially world-ending events such as the slow death caused by climate change has, frankly, been around for a very long time, though in recent years awareness has increased at a rate hitherto unknown. Catapulted to the fore of everyone’s mind via the massive web of communications in our hyperconnected world, this issue has captured the attention of countries, education systems, and individuals alike in its violent throes. People are

scrambling to find better energy sources and cut down on carbon emissions, but the answer is right in front of their noses — they just don’t want to see it.

Nuclear energy has been around for about 80 years. In 1942, nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi created what was called the Chicago Pile 1 reactor — the first of its kind. In the following decades, nuclear energy was explored both for weapons use and as an energy source.

However, after a slew of major accidents at reactors such as 3 Mile Island, Fukushima, and (most notably) Chernobyl, the general American public was turned off of nuclear energy.

Dr. Michael Scott is the United States subject matter expert for the nuclear industry and outlook, and is employed by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. He said that currently there isn’t much of a market for nuclear energy for a couple of reasons.

“In the U.S., the electrical grid is basically fully buil[t],” Scott said.

“Demand growth is expected to be small.”

Another of the reasons for the absence of market is fear by the general public — planted by nuclear accidents, and warped to the point of panic. These incidents are given as examples of what will happen when nuclear

Alvin Weinberg, ORNL Director, logs 6,000 full power hours on his Molten Salt Reactor Experiment.

Photo by Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

power goes wrong. Yet those incidents were all outliers — nuclear power is one of the safest ways to get energy today. Dr. Rachel Slaybaugh is an assistant professor at Berkeley with a doctorate in nuclear engineering and engineering physics.

“By the numbers, nuclear energy is the safest form of electricity we have,” Slaybaugh said. “[Nuclear energy is] significantly safer than gas and coal.”

In part, this safety is due to the amount of awareness humanity has about the problems inherent with nuclear energy. It is true that it is very dangerous if not properly contained, but it’s the recognition of this that causes it to be as safe as it is. Entire departments are put to work finding the best ways to make nuclear energy safe, with the result being that fewer people die in nuclear related accidents than in accidents tied to

other energy industries, such as coal and oil.

“In Fukushima [there] was a huge tsunami, and so fourteen thousand people died from this tsunami, but zero people died from their reactor,” Slaybaugh said.

“The reactor didn’t actually hurt anyone, even though it was this catastrophic accident...

Fukushima, to some extent was an example of the safety of nuclear just because no one was harmed by radiation.”

Not only are the reactors we have today safe, new reactors are being developed that are both less dangerous and more efficient. One of these is the molten salt reactor (MSR) — a fourth generation reactor design already slightly explored in the 1960s, but dropped for the third gen pressurized water reactors.

Now, scientists are returning to the concept because of its significant merit.

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“You know how we worry about a nuclear meltdown?

It’s the opposite,” Slaybaugh said.

“Everything freezes, so it just stays in place... It’s pretty easy to deal with.”

The nature of the fuel itself in the MSR means that it’s very stable. The MSR is a liquid-fuel reactor, meaning that instead of solid control rods, the radioactive atoms are mixed with molten salt. As the salt heats up, it expands, which in turn, leads to it cooling itself down. Additionally, MSRs have a built in feature called a freeze plug that will immediately drain the radioactive salt into heat sinks, should their temperature exceed

extremes.

Former Naval Lieutenant Matthew Rerecich worked for the military as a nuclear engineer. He added that one of the biggest advantages of an MSR is the ability to perform without being put under high pressure.

“A molten salt reactor can run at atmospheric pressure or a little above, and the [salt] coolant has a lot of other properties,” Rerecich said. “If you poke a hole in the top of the reactor, it doesn’t all escape.”

Slaybaugh further discussed the draws of fourth generation nuclear power.

“What I would say is,

for a lot of the advanced reactors, the idea is that it’s simpler to make them very safe,” Slaybaugh said.

Certainly, while safety is the main feature, many fourth generation reactors also have the capacity to make much more energy.

While pressurized water reactors run at around 315 degrees celsius, MSRs could have an operating temperature anywhere from 500 to 1,400 degrees celsius. As nuclear reactors produce energy by turning water into steam, higher temperatures mean more steam, which means both more energy and more money.

This isn’t to say that advanced reactors don’t

The control room for Alvin Weinberg’s Molten Reactor Experiment.

The technology is all from the 1960s. Photo granted by Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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have their weaknesses.

“Some of the challenges are materials compatibility,” Slaybaugh said. “The molten salts are at a high temperature and salt is corrosive... so having a material that will last in those conditions is a real challenge.”

But there exists another danger which far outweighs this present one.

“You kind of have to take an even bigger step back and look at the risk that we’re already living with and the consequences we’re already building up for ourselves... The risk of nuclear power is real,” Rerecich said. “But it’s something that can [give] us a bigger step back from

the much bigger risk of a total ecological meltdown, which is worse than a nuclear meltdown, because it affects all of us... We’re well into the category of a mass extinction already.

And every year we proceed the way we do makes it worse.”

Rerecich gets to the heart of the matter — something big is coming.

Humanity is running out of places to go for energy, and while nuclear is one of the strongest options, people aren’t yet jumping at it.

“Everybody’s got their priorities,” Scott said.

“Sometimes it’s not about long term, it’s about short term.”

It’s time for humanity to take a step back, as Rerecich said, before it’s too late. Even for those whom nuclear terrifies, the choice has become either frying pan or fire. Yet nuclear has grown and matured, and will continue to do so. Never has the frying pan been less dangerous, more attractive or more necessary.

“The stakes are as high as they’ve ever been in human history,” Rerecich said. “So if we’re working on... speaking things that are true, and speaking against things that are untrue... doing what we can to act in a healthier way for the whole world... this is where the solution can begin.”

Below: Atomic Energy Commision chairman Glenn Seaborg (left) stands with ORNL director Weinberg at the MSRE controls. Photo by Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Above: The British protest the implementation of nuclear power outside of Buckingham National Palace. Photo granted by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

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Quantum Computing

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From Concept To Reality

IBM Q Dilution Refrigerator being displayed at the 2018 ASCE. The purpose of the dilution refrigerator is to cool the quantum chip to 15mK. Photo by Graham Carlow.

By Ari Sharma

Collaboration and Competition fueling the take-off of Quantum Computing Imagine some of the toughest problems facing our generation today. Climate Change devastating communities and causing severe weather around the globe.

Fossil fuels destroying our planet and leaving us with no choice but to explore alternative energy.

Incurable diseases and a pharmaceutical industry unable to keep up. While not a cure-all, a new revolution in technology is finally about to help tackle these in an innovative way. Welcome to quantum computing!

Quantum computing is a radically new way of thinking about computers and is based on the principles of quantum mechanics that were discovered in the 1920s. Quantum computing is being hailed as the future of computing and is bringing together engineers, mathematicians, and research scientists together to finally turn this into useful technology. There are various corporations and startups, primarily in the US, that are vying to be the first to make this into applied technology.

Dr. Brian LaCour is the director of ARL or Applied Research Lab at the University of Texas at Austin and has been involved with quantum research for the last decade. He said that one can compare quantum computers to classical computers as that is our baseline. “[Quantum computing] is a different way of thinking about information, but it’s not fundamentally new,” LaCour said.

“Vinyls, CDs, digital, they contain the same information, quantum computers take this information and manipulate it in a way that’s different from a classical computer. It programs the algorithm fundamentally different.”

Quantum computing changes the scaling behavior of algorithms, making certain tasks manageable that had previously been exponentially hard.

These computers look nothing like regular computers. The main component is a microchip with loops of wire around it with current flowing in two different energy levels: 0 or 1. The chip is placed inside a really large dilution refrigerator

that cools the wires to a hundredth of a degree above absolute zero, making them superconductors. When that happens, the energy levels behave as quantum bits or “qubits,” one of the main aspects that differentiate quantum computers from classical computers.

Dr. Scott Aaronson, Director of Quantum Information Center at the University of Texas at Austin has been involved with quantum computing research for most of his career.

“To understand quantum computing we need to look at the evolution of the field,” Aaronson said.

“While the principles of quantum mechanics existed in the 1920s, it was not until the early 1980s that Richard Fineman and David Deutsch publicly raised the idea of building a quantum computer.”

The field suddenly gained more interest in the publication of Shor’s algorithm in 1994 which is a quantum computer algorithm for integer factorization. It proved that this algorithm was exponentially faster than the most efficient 13 | FuturePath

An IBM quantum scientist works with multiple IBM Q systems. The systems are located in the IBM Q computation center at the Thomas J Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York. Photo by Connie Zhou. known classical factoring algorithm.

“It’s really after Shor’s algorithm that this becomes a whole field that everyone becomes interested in,” Aaronson said. “Over the next few years, the 90s, the theory of quantum error correction was invented, it convinced most people in this field that it is merely a staggeringly hard engineering problem, it doesn’t require any new physics, in principle, this can be done.”

Solving staggeringly hard computing and engineering problems are what IBM does. Now a leader in quantum computing, the IBM Research division was working on Quantum Computers as early as the 1960s. Dr. Bob Sutor, the Vice President of IBM Q Strategy and Ecosystem, knows that the reason for IBM’s success in the field is its computing expertise and knowing FuturePath | 14

the component parts that go into building largescale computers.

“Quantum computers are created from different types of components, some of which are custom,” Sutor said, “We make the actual chips ourselves, the quantum devices, we don’t outsource that we make ourselves. But then we put those on little circuit boards, we buy some of the tables, some of the microwave controlling parts we make ourselves from much of the refrigeration we buy, but we put it all together ourselves to build a quantum computer.”

Following somewhat of a classical computing model, there is the hardware side of quantum computers and the software side. IBM has been working on an open-source quantum computing development environment to crowdsource the tech and

development expertise of everyone around the globe.

“On the software side, we have been working on an open-source, quantum computing development environment called Qiskit,” Sutor explained. “ With it [Qiskit], you can start programming quantum computers.

And more and more people are adding it at all sorts of levels, building new compilers but also building kind of userfriendly libraries.”

Today IBM is in a competitive field and trying to keep a lead against other competitors like google and multiple startups.

Even then, there is a collaborative feel to this space and IBM has a strong outreach to students and techies all around. Sutor is part of this vision.

The applications of quantum computing are vast, and we are less than a decade away from

having these computers assist in materials design, discovering new drugs, designing superconductors, creating more efficient batteries, as well as being able to simulate complex situations such as climate change.

The future of Quantum Computing is promising but there are certainly some issues that come into play when scaling such sensitive technology as LaCour explained.

“Quantum devices right now are very noisy and everyone’s trying to figure out how to mitigate the noise of the devices,’ LaCour said.

“For it to be a scalable technology, the errors have to scale nicely as well. If they don’t, then it’s like trying to build a house of cards that will always fall down.”

LaCour believes that there will be an increasing need for a broader skillset to address these problems.

According to him, quantum computing is a multidisciplinary field and has people with physics, math, engineering, and chemistry working together. The trend in the field is to hire not just PhDs but people with science and engineering

backgrounds at all levels to fill the gaps.

Quantum computing has garnered a lot of press recently with google’s quantum supremacy experiment.

The experiment is just an extraordinarily large calculation that shows that its 53-Qbit Sycamore chip can make a calculation in 3 minutes and 20 seconds that would take 100,000 conventional computers, 10,000 years to complete.

IBM disputes the claim and Dr. Sutor at IBM doesn’t like using the phrase quantum supremacy, in fact, he believes that the future means quantum and classical computers working together.

He prefers using the phrase “quantum advantage” where quantum computers are used to solve real practical problems that classical computers cannot.

Quantum computers are going to help create new materials, enhance AI (Artificial Intelligence), simulate situations like global warming and chemical reactions on a computer.

The possibilities are endless and exciting advances in quantum computing are turning this technology from just a concept to reality.

Quantum Computers can simulate climate change in a lab. They can help us work through various scenarios. Photo by IBM

Relating organic chemistry to a language and applies state of the art neural machine translation methods to go from designing materials to generating products. Photo

by IBM research

This is the control panel for the cryostat used to cool the IBM Q system’s quantum chip to 15 mK. It is part of IBM’s most advanced quantum computers which will be accessed via the IBM Cloud. Photo by Connie Zhou.

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CLASSICAL Computers VS QUANTUM COMPUTERS By: Ari Sharma Classical Computers are computers as we know today but another revolution is on the horizon. Quantum Computers, based on principles from quantum physics, work on completely new paradigms that are being refined. Processing much faster than classical computers, Quantum Computers will help us solve some of the most challenging problems.

 INPUT (BITS) 1011

INPUT (QBITS) 1011 0100 1001 0101 1111

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OUTPUT (BITS) 1011

OUTPUT (QBITS) 1011 0100 1100 0011 1101

The diagram above explains how Quantum Computers are different from Classical Computers in terms of combinations that they are able to run, using a principle known as superposition.

0

0

1 Bit

Quantum Computers replace classical BITS with Quantum QBITS.

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1 QBIT

Information By: research.ibm.com, Linknovate.com

QBITS follow the super position principle and can exist as “0” and “1” at the same time in a string.

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The graph above shows the number of Quantum Computing Leaders in Major countries. These include Large Corporations, Small startups, Research Institutes, and Universities.

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Virtual and augmented reality The world revolves around technology.

Everyone relies on it, and without it, numerous things would be drastically different. Some examples of technology are smartphones, your computer, and even your microwave. Devices like these are what drive

the technological world.

Technology has improved a lot, and recently virtual and augmented reality have sprung into effect.

Augmented reality and virtual reality are a part of what is now known as spatial computing or immersive

By: Yahir Gomez reality. Augmented Reality is a technology that superimposes a computergenerated image on a user’s view of the real world, and virtual reality is a simulated experience that can be similar to or completely different from

Image by Peter H. Diamandis, MD. Virtual reality headset.

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Image by Michael Neidhöfer, virtual reality being used for gaming.

the real world. They are both different from each other. However, they have one thing in common... they both improve nearly every industry there is.

Many virtual and augmented reality experts are constantly working to try and improve this technology, but there is one that seeks to expand this technology to a whole new level.

industries.” Horn said.

Some people may think that every good thing has a bad side, for example, virtual and augmented reality. Even though people may believe that virtual and augmented reality have negative physical effects,

it is actually the complete opposite. “It is actually shown to be better for your eyesight than mobile phones and promotes a healthier lifestyle because it’s an inherently physical medium (it removes a lot of abstraction),” Horn said.

Augmented and virtual

Image by Scott Stein, virtual reality being used for gaming.

Erik Horn is the co-founder and chief creative officer of Fair Worlds. He dedicates him, and his company (Fair Worlds) on improving virtual and augmented reality and strongly believes that it is going to reshape literally every industry.

“We see it touching literally every industry the same way that the internet and mobile computing has. We only see it improving those 19 | FuturePath

Image by Oculus, virtual reality headgear

reality can affect you in general, and many other industries, all in positive ways, from providing a healthy lifestyle to generating business.

This is also one of the reasons why virtual reality has recently sprung into the market.

Virtual and augmented reality have both already began to affect the world in many positive ways, as the world begins to adapt to virtual and augmented technology and it begins to be used more often in many different ways, virtual and augmented reality start becoming very important.

Virtual and augmented reality are both very important to the world, and

Virtual reality is not just for generating business, or for learning certain things like in the Army, but it can also be used for entertainment purposes like Oculus and many other companies are doing. Oculus is a company dedicated to virtual and augmented reality hardware and software products. Oculus is very special in many ways, one reason being that they have created what is now called the “Oculus Quest” or VR headset. This allows you to enter the virtual world and experience it by playing video games, making it Image by Alex Owena very fun Hill, A way that virtual reality can affect the and exciting future. experience.

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they both come with many advantages.

Horn believes that virtual and augmented reality is important which is one of the reasons why he created Fair Worlds. He believes that this type of technology is amazing “I would not have started the company (Fair Worlds) if I did not believe this was important! I think it will touch every industry going forward in ways that we still do not understand.”

Horn said, and when asked about his opinions on it he reassured us that “I’m for

them! I think that these technologies are absolutely amazing in their power to bring a true sense of wonder to a jaded audience. They have been called “empathy machines” and I believe that.” Horn said.

For Erik Horn, spreading virtual and augmented reality may not be so easy. Ever since Facebook bought Oculus, it has turned off a great amount of Horn’s clients based on privacy concerns, “Facebook is the largest investor in the space right now (owns Oculus) and that is a large turn-off for a lot of our clients based on privacy concerns.” Horn said. One thing that really worries Horn, and many other virtual and augmented reality experts is that, If they do not find a solution for this severe issue, it could lead to the downfall of virtual and augmented reality.

H o r n w o r k e d m a n y ideas to spread virtual augmented reality to the rest of world. Virtual augmented reality does not seem to going extinct,

Erik has o n new help and the and b

e

Image by Tracey Block, Virtual and augmented reality benefits.

but the exact opposite as this technology has been spreading like wildfire in recent years. Even though some companies, such as Erik Horn’s, have experienced some privacy concerns with their clients (since Facebook bought Oculus), that is not stopping him, and many other experts as they continue to constantly improve virtual and augmented reality.

to get used more often for many more things. Virtual and augmented reality are only growing in usage, and If virtual and augmented reality continue to go down this path, the world could potentially be drastically different in the future, “Virtual and augmented reality is part of what is now called Spatial Computing or immersive reality. our day to day life interactions with screens is going to fade and Overall virtual and become one that is fully augmented reality have rendered in 3 dimensions shown to affect the world around us. It is a different in many positive ways way to tell stories and which is why it is starting interact.” Horn said.

Image by GettyImages/Deagreez, how virtual reality is spreading.

This is the Guadaloop pod.

They use air bearings that act as an air cushion that the pod levitates on.

Photo by Texas Guadaloop.

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Reshaping the Future of Public Transportation Public transportation concepts that can shape the future

THE FUTURE OF

By: Trevor Yu Right now public transportation consists of taxis, buses, subways and trains. In the near future, there might be a Hyperloop added into the mix. Self driving buses and on-demand services can takeover the industry as well.

Public transportation is being used by people all around the world. Many metropolitan cities in Europe have elaborate subway systems and bus routes. In those cities, the streets are generally filled with taxis and pedestrians.

Public transportation helps provide other options to transport yourself other than driving.

It makes getting around more efficient since you can fit more people into a smaller space. Getting to work or dropping kids off at school will get easier because public transportation takes cars off the road.

Since this industry makes commute so much easier, there are many ideas flowing around about how to improve it. Self-driving buses and self-driving cars will provide easier access and efficiency because it eliminates human error. There can also be

inter-city and inter-state transportation like the Hyperloop. It lets people travel far distances up to the speed of sound. It’s just a matter of time for whether scientists will be able to make it go up to speed because it is mathematically proven to be possible. Many people have different views on public transportation.

Some people think it’s useless to walk somewhere to get on a bus or subway.

Some people think it’s a great way to get away from traffic. It all comes down to preference.

Generally, the more rural a place gets, the less efficient public transportation can be.

“It’s not as efficient as running buses or trains or transit in a dense urban area,” Peter Partheymuller, a writer for the marketing department at Capital Metro said. “It’s not as efficient as running buses or trains or transit in a dense urban area.”

Since the population of rural areas isn’t as dense, buses on set routes pick up fewer and fewer people.

Most people think public transportation alleviates traffic.

has a hyperloop team called Texas Guadaloop that has competed since 2017. They won the innovation award in 2017 and 2019. Their unique system consists of “air bearings” that act like hockey tables. They shoot out air so that there is a thin layer of air that the pod is levitating on. Javier Bonilla, the head of business for Texas Guadaloop, said that the Hyperloop could potentially replace domestic plane flights that are around an hour long.

Bonilla also said that it’s This is where all the teams come test their more accessible and costfriendly than other means Hyperloop pods. The highest speed is 288 mph. of transport over long Photo by Texas Guadaloop. distances. Electric motors are a lot more efficient than “It alleviates traffic, but this space-efficiency which jet fuel or gasoline and they it’s not going to eliminate takes some simple algebra don’t use that much. This traffic,” Partheymuller said, and geometry. technology is much more “It removes cars from the Since public transportation is energy-efficient than flying road.” so much more efficient than in planes or driving. There Assuming that everyone personal transportation, are disadvantages to this

“[Public transportation] has the biggest effect on traffic.”

- Peter Parthymuller drives their own car and there is only one person in the car, a bus that fits 50 people takes 50 cars off the road. A bus is much more space-efficient because it can fit 40 to 50 people in the space of around three cars. Public transportation agencies like Capital Metro are trying to maximize

scientists are looking for innovative ways to improve this industry. Elon Musk’s Hyperloop is just one of the many ideas inventors and scientists have come up with. There is a Hyperloop pod competition held every year to see all the advancements in the design of the pod. In Austin, UT

system because nothing is perfect.

“Hyperloop lacks infrastructure and lacks safety precautions,” Bonilla said.

Right now, the fastest Hyperloop pod reached a speed of 288 mph without a vacuum tube. If these problems can be solved, Hyperloop will be a very

Texas Guadaloop works on their Hyperloop pod to get ready for the competition. Photo by Texas Guadaloop.

This Captial Metro bus serves people all around Austin. They provides a reliable way to get around town. Photo by Captial Metro. viable option for longdistance transport in the future.

Other emerging technologies in this field include self-driving services. They can be buses, taxis or on-demand services like Uber.

“Self-driving vehicles are very exciting and it holds a lot of potential,” Michael Walk, a research scientist and program manager at Texas A&M University, said.

Walk said that although selfdriving vehicles would get rid of the need for drivers, there will still need to be customer service staff on board. It takes away some jobs by creating new ones.

“Even if you don’t have a driver... they also have customer service for [everyone on board],” Partheymuller said.

There will also have to be people that monitor the safety of the passengers.

Self-driving vehicles will remove the human reaction speed and error from the equation and can lead to less traffic.

Public transportation is still outshined by personal transportation, but scientists, inventors and civil engineers are trying to improve this system. Things ordinary people can do to help are: raise awareness about the subject, fund research for transportation systems, give people incentives to ride public transportation services, go to meetings held by a local public transportation agency, contact local government workers to lobby for the promotion of public transportation and most importantly, use public transportation.

Walk said that in order for public transportation to become a bigger thing, we have to discourage

This is the vision for the Hyperloop.

Scientists are hoping to get to this point.

Photo by Hyperloop TT.

people from using personal transportation like coming up with pricing schemes that make you pay the more you drive.

If a city can incentivize their people to use public transportation and it’s well developed, public transportation will be the way to go for many cities.

If public transportation is going to take off, it’s going to have to serve rural areas and suburbs better. It’s so much more efficient than personal transportation in dense areas, but it’s much less efficient in suburban and rural areas.

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Coexist or Takeover?

Can emerging technologies takeover succesful technologies we have today?

Bullet Train

VS

Hyperloop

√ Takeover Coexist

Hyperloop will takeover the Bullet Train once it gets safer.

It’s a great idea if it can be safer. It’s pretty much a better version of the Bullet Train.

1. Safer 2. Proven to work 3. Pretty fast

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

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Not automated Not as fast as Hyperloop Less cost efficient Less energy efficient Uses fuel

1. Uses electricity 2. Can be fully autonomous 3. Has potential to be twice to three times as fast as a bullet train 4. More cost efficient 5. More energy efficient 1. Dangerous 2. Still testing the technology

Information provided by Javier (Head of Business, Guadaloop)

VS

NEXT

Uber/Lyft

Takeover Coexist

√

NEXT will coexist with Uber/Lyft until the infrastructure gets more developed. It’s a great idea if we can get the infrastructure needed. It’s pretty much a better version of Uber/Lyft.

1. Fully automated 2. Modular system

1. Developed infrastructure

1. Not proven yet 2. Needs more infrastructure

1. Not automated 2. Not modular 3. Less efficient

Information provided by NEXT-future-mobility.com

VS

Olli

Bus

Takeover √ Coexist Olli will coexist with the modern Bus until the infrastructure gets more developed. It’s a great idea if we can get the infrastructure needed. It’s pretty much a better version of the Bus.

1. Self driving 2. 3d printed 3. On demand technology

1. Well known widespread system

1. Still in experimental phase

1. Designated routes 2. Less efficient 3. Needs driver

Information provided by Peter Parthymuller (Capital Metro Employee)

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The Future of technology

By: Yahir Gomez

Virtual Reality Virtual reality is a simulated experience that can be similar to or completely different from the real world.

vs Augmented Reality A technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user’s view of the real world, thus providing a composite view.

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Through the Years This Timeline shows how Virtual Reality, and Augmented Reality came to be. by evolving from it’s root’s, photography.

1826 Photograpfy, created in the early 1820s, by Nicéphore Niépce, a Fench inventor.

1992

1980

Virtual Reality, created in the

Augmented Reality, created in the 1990’s, mid 1800’s, by Jaron Lanier, an

by Louis Rosenberg, American writer. an Inventor.

Information provided by: Medium.com

29 | FuturePath

Irreparable Computers

By Didier Polgar

The tech company Apple sets a disturbing trend against repairing their products

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Someo board attem circut the hub all the i processor

one removes the logic from a MacBook while mpting to fix a broken t. The logic board is b of the computer,and important circuts and rs are souldered onto it. Image courtosy of IFixit.

You walk into an Apple store to get your trusty old laptop fixed up, only to find that your computer is only slightly damaged but repairing it would cost more than that brand new computer over there. So naturally, you walk out of the apple store with your brand new computer. Then in a couple of years you come back to get your new computer repaired, only get a brand new one instead of repairing the old one.

Apple is a tech giant responsible for the creation of the iPhone, Macbook, iPad and other consumer electronics. They are a trend setter in the world of technology. Recently, Apple has been setting a disturbing trend of making it more difficult to get one of their devices repaired.

However, other companies have differing views on the idea of device repair. One such company is IFixit. IFixit encourages people to fix their own electronics in order to get a better understanding of how the device works.

Taylor Dixon is a tech writer who works at IFixit.

“We mostly encourage [repairing your own device] because it encourages people to get to know the device Apple Has stores all over the world which sell their products and have sections to atempt to repair broken products. Photo courtosy of Macworld

that they have,” Dixon said, “as opposed to all the electronics that we own being a mysterious black box that you don’t understand the way it works. That said, the real goal that IFixit has is to reduce waste. So, sending your phone off to be repaired is still much better than buying a new phone. We just think that as an added bonus, it’s cool if you’re carrying yourself.”

Of course there are some challenges in attempting to repair things yourself, such as not having the right parts.

“To get a hold of official Apple parts is impossible,” Dixon said, “unless you are an AASP. [IFixit sells] parts that are clones of Apple parts essentially.”

However, it is not easy to become an AASP. “You have to pay a bunch of money and forfeit control of your whole repair operation,” said Dixon.

IFixit is also a proprietor of the Right to Repair Bill. This bill would make it so that Apple, along with other technology companies, must make its parts available to everyone who needs them, much like the bill that was passed to make car parts available to the public.

Of course, having access to the parts is definitely not the only hurdle to clear. In Apple’s laptop computers, all the way from the 2016 MacBook Pro onwards, the RAM, CPU, and SSDs are soldered onto the logic board. This means that the storage is not replaceable, and if anything were to happen to the computer, you would lose all of your data.

Even Apple’s computers that don’t have the RAM, CPU, and SSD soldered on require the entire board and all the parts such as the RAM and SSD to be included in a ship back in order to replace the board.

Christopher Loveless, a former IT worker at St. Edwards University, thinks that this is a major flaw.

“With older machines, you can take that old hard drive out, pop in a new, faster hard drive, maybe upgrade the RAM, but that’s going to get you going for the next couple of years,” Loveless said. “But if everything is soldered onto the logic board, you’ve got to replace the entire logic board and with

This is the system for the buterfly switches, a part that often breaks on Apple’s newer macbooks.

Apple has promised that they are working towards a soulution,but it remains to be seen.Image courtesy of IFixit.

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repair costs—economically speaking it’s probably wiser to buy a new machine than to upgrade your old one.”

Apple often tries to convince people to buy new machines as opposed to repairing their existing devices, but this may be because of the price of the repairs.

James McClure, a former Apple employee, said that the pricing is calculated based off of how common that issue is, Then the labor costs are added. He said that, generally, the bulk of the price on repairs is labor cost.

On top of all this, some of Apple’s parts don’t fully function even when they are replaced. When the home button on an iPhone is replaced, the fingerprint sensor will stop functioning, or when the front camera of an iPhone 10 is replaced, face recognition no longer works. Apple claims that this is for security.

“With the security thing it’s easy to look at it as just a veil that they’re trying to hide behind, you know,” Dixon said. “You can you can look at it as them having evil intent, and just wanting an excuse to not let you repair your own button, but, this is one of those scenarios where I try to be a little optimistic. I do think that there is a security element to the reason that they care.”

In addition, whenever someone replaces their iPhone’s old, dying battery

themselves or has a third party repair shop replace it for them, the message that tells you your battery is in bad health would still be there. This message scared many people, especially independent repair shops, as it seemed like Apple was trying to tell the customers that their battery was still damaged.

“I think that it’s a very low blow on Apple’s part,” Dixon said, “specifically because of the way the message is worded, but... for now, it doesn’t affect any performance on the phone. [Y]ou can replace the battery, and everything works perfectly.

There is just a message about how this is not a certified battery. And you don’t get to see what the maximum capacity of the battery is.

So, I personally think that it is very scary to see them do this, but I don’t think it’s the end of the world yet.”

There are also mechanisms on Apple products that just seem like they are designed to fail, such as the butterfly switches. The butterfly switch keyboard has a whole host of problems, from comfort to reliability. The keys barely have any cushioning, and the mechanism can easily get jammed by a bit of dust between the keys, causing the entire key to need to be replaced.

Additionally, Apple is designing their current laptop computers for form

This image depicts a torn down 2019 HP Elite Book 840. The Elite Book 840 is one of the most reparable and customisable laptops ever. Image curtosy of IFixit.

rather than function. “[Apple] just bet so hard that customers would want an extremely thin laptop,” Dixon said.

Of course, this size comes at the price of performance and cooling.

When compared to other laptop computers with similar form factors and decent parts in them, the 2018 Macbook pro would thermal throttle, which is when heat causes components to considerably slow down, earlier.

“There are limitations to space, and they just did not give themselves that much space[ for cooling],” Dixon said.

McClure says that every engineering decision has trade-offs. Even the soldered SSD has benefits, such as automatic, live encryption to protect your files, and having components soldered may make them faster, but as soon as they start slowing

down, or losing software support, you can’t do anything about it without buying another computer.

Apple may have some problems with its computers, but they should be able to fix them.

“Yes, I think that Apple can be short sighted when it comes to repair,” Dixon said, “but they have so many other spinning plates to manage... There’s just a bunch of things they have to deal with, and I kind of feel like they don’t always consider the nuance effects that the decisions they make have.”

Apple may have good software on its machines, but that can only go so far when you can’t just update the hardware.

“Honestly right now, in the laptop market, if you want a 2019 made laptop,” Dixon said, “the cons of a MacBook Pro far outweigh the pros. I would totally go for a Windows laptop over a Macbook right now.”

The iPhone 11 is Apple’s newest phone. It has even less reparibiblity than other iPhones, as swaped parts will not fully function.Image courtosy of IFixit.

33 | FuturePath

Which OS Should You Choose?

By: Didier Polgar

With all of the operating systems everywhere, it can be dificult to find one to use. This guide should help you find the OS that is best for your needs!

Looking Cool!

Mobile Graphic Design

Get A Macbook!

Get a windows laptop

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What are your main intesests?

What do you need it for?

A little bit of everything

YE$

NO

Get A Chromebook With CHROME OS

Do you want a laptop or a desktop?

Laptop Please

Is your budget more than 500 dollars?

Desktop Please

What do you plan on primarly using it for?

Turn the Page for something slightly more interesting

I’m not really in the market right now...

There is no more hope for you...

Graphic Design

Coding

Get a MacOS Machine Try Linux!

GAMEING!

LINUX

Get Wind A o Desk ws top!

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Look Forward — There’s No Time to Look Back

Art courtesy of BCOM Arts