What does €300 million buy a sheikh in the Middle East when he asks for a high rise that is not only beautiful but radically innovative? The Burj Al-Taqa (Energy Tower) will look like the tower Isengard from the Lord of the Rings. You might even be fooled into believing there is a wizard inside. That’s because this modern marvel will produce zero emissions by generating all its power from the sun, wind and water.

The 68-story (1,056 feet) cylindrical shaped structure is designed to have minimal surface area, protecting it from the harsh desert sun. A solar shield will further shelter rooms inside the building from excess heat and the windows will be coated with a special reflective mineral. Think of a giant thermos, keeping the interior cool in when it’s hot and hot when it’s cold.

Giant wind towers above will funnel cool air down as slits in the interior circulate stale air outside. Seawater will aid the natural air conditioning system, ushering in temperatures of 64 degrees Fahrenheit (18C).

As for energy, the tower will depend on a 197-feet (60-meter) turbine and 161,459 square feet (15,000 square meters) of solar panels on its roof. A floating island visible from higher up will provide an additional 182,986 square feet (17,000 square meters) worth of solar panels for when they want to turn on a few extra blow dryers.

All the energy that’s left over will be used to extract hydrogen from sea water. That hydrogen will be stored in fuel cells that will power the glittering jewel throughout the night.

If pulled off this will be by far one of the most extreme examples of modern architecture and engineering. It seems like when anyone mentioned strategies to be “environmentally friendly” twenty years ago my first thoughts were recycling and conserving power.

Projects like these are beautiful, functional and a hell of a lot sexier than getting $.05 for your beer can. It also makes me believe in a green future where people aren’t constantly nagging me to switch off my lights.

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[Spiegel Online]

Transhumanism is the name, uploading your brain to a computer is the game. Neuroscientists, biologists and futurists met at the World Transhumanist Association’s ninth annual meeting last week to discuss the viability of a shocking acceleration in human evolution: fusing man and machine.

Ideas include wrapping the brain in plastic, slicing it with lasers and diamond blades and then using an advanced camera to take images of the tissue. This method is being used currently in mice, but this rapidly growing movement foresees it being developed to transfer human memories and emotions onto microchips.

Immortality isn’t a question of ‘if’ to people like PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and Star Trek’s William Shatner, it’s ‘when.’ By donating sums of up to $4 million Peter hopes that ‘when’ is sooner than later.

This type of research doesn’t come without controversy. The ethics of immortality and the artificial intelligence required to undertake such a notion have been under attack since their inception. Social concerns involve the question of where all of us would live if no one ever dies and the divide between rich and poor (such as in the movie Gattaca).

Environmental ethicist Bill McKibben is outraged at the idea of the trivialization of human identity. What becomes meaningfully if life has no obstacles? What if we give birth to monsters that enslave the human race?

Eighty year old co-founder of the MIT artificial intelligence lab Marvin Minsky told New Scientist, “Ordinary citizens wouldn’t know what to do with eternal life… Only scientists who work on problems that might take decades to solve appreciate the need for extended lifespans.”

As to regulating the development of new technologies, Minsky thinks that researchers should have the freedom to pursue science for the sake of human advancement. To do that they need to have the freedom to form different values.

Ray Kurzweil, the futurist author of The Age of Spiritual Machines and The Singularity is Near told the audience, “People sometimes say, ‘Are we going to allow transhumanism and artificial intelligence to occur?’ Well, I don’t recall when we voted that there would be an Internet.”

[New Scientist]

That’s right, the 1.21 gigawatt’s that hit the clock tower in Back to the Future will do more than power the flux capacitor. It’s going to be channeled directly into your home.

An innovative way of generating and harvesting lightning has been proposed by Steve LeRoy in Illinois as the next move in environmentally friendly power.

In principal, a device creates small bolts of lightning in a controlled environment and then harvests the discharge produced. Think of a large Telsa coil with a giant transformer that conducts the excess energy into power.

A three foot spark will illuminate a standard light bulb for twenty minutes. LeRoy believes that he can power up to 3,000 homes for an entire day on just a single bolt of lightning!

[Inhabitant]

You may have noticed that the music industry hasn’t exactly been doing well lately. Fans fail to see the value of purchased music when they can go online and download albums for free.

Smashing Pumpkins has released their music for free via website. Radiohead recently released its new album, In Rainbows, for whatever price you chose to pay. Nine Inch Nails uploads their music via torrents, offers free downloads and calls record companies thieves.

The business model is not only dead, it’s decaying. The Recording Industry Association of America was voted the Worst Company in America. Profit driven, traditional marketing campaigns are no longer effective for releasing music.

After signing with a label most bands only receive their signing bonus and never see any residual profits. In turn labels are looking for hits, the next big thing, and they can’t afford to be wrong. The entire industry survives on the top 10% of the bands they sign that become mega stars. When they do get it right they provide distribution, marketing, live touring schedules and press releases.

Anti-marketing is cutting the industry out of the equation while generating a buzz that provides all the before mentioned benefits of a label. It’s so intimate that everybody’s talking about it.

Technically speaking, bands could potentially earn more by developing a direct relationship with the community they foster than with the big check that’s cut when signing a deal. Perceived value can be leveraged with live performances, merchandise and donations.

This is an industry with fans that don’t want to be marketed to. They want to share. Why not just let them have their way?

The U.S. Army has commissioned an ultra futuristic machine that weaves microscopic fibers into soldier’s uniforms in order to generate and store power. The fibers will cross section with up to three different materials such as plastic, metal and fabric to create rechargeable batteries and wearable fuel cells.

As of now a five day mission for a platoon consumes up to nine hundred batteries on average. This is the logical path to alienating unnecessary burdens while increasing mobility.

In order to understand the scale, some of these fibers are thinner than a human hair and are divided into dozens of separate nanotubes.

There is no doubt that eventually suits like this will cross over to consumers. As of now they are being made specifically to power devices like radios, night vision goggles and range finders.

Within less than a decade we may have jeans and t-shirts that will plug directly into our cell phones, MP3 players and laptops.

[Technology Review]