🚀 See what Musk did in 19 days and would take others 4 years says Nvidia CEO (not about SpaceX) & much more!
Revenge of the Parrots & more
Hi,
This is Thomas, co-founder and CEO of digital agency KRDS, we have offices in Singapore, HK, Shanghai, Dubai and India. I’m also a co-founder of The WeChat Agency and Yelda.ai (more about me at the end).
You're receiving Future Weekly, my personal selection of news about some of the most exciting (and sometimes scary) developments in technology 🤖 summarized as bullet points to help you save time and anticipate the future 🔮.
Small Bites
Lol: Starlink’s terms of service assert that Mars is “a free planet” over which no earthly government has “authority or sovereignty”, and that any disputes over Starlink services provided on Mars will be settled through principles “established in good faith at the time of Martian settlement”. Those who dismiss this as nerdy bravura should contemplate the sky above their heads. (The Economist)
Over the past three decades America has left the rest of the rich world in the dust (The Economist)
In 1990 it accounted for about 40% of the GDP of the G7. Today it makes up 50%.
Output per person is now about 30% higher than in western Europe and Canada, and 60% higher than in Japan—gaps that have roughly doubled since 1990.
Mississippi may be America’s poorest state, but its hard-working residents earn, on average, more than Brits, Canadians or Germans.
Lately, China too has gone backwards. Having closed in rapidly on America in the years before the pandemic, its nominal gdp has slipped from about 75% of America’s in 2021 to 66% today.
Its 7 big tech firms are together worth more than the stockmarkets of Britain, Canada, Germany and Japan combined
New study suggests that after decades of life expectancy marching upward thanks to medical and technological advancements, humans could be closing in on the limits of what’s possible for average life span. (NYT)
“We’re basically suggesting that as long as we live now is about as long as we’re going to live,” said S. Jay Olshansky, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Illinois Chicago, who led the study.
He predicted maximum life expectancy will end up around 87 years — approximately 84 for men, and 90 for women — an average age that several countries are already close to achieving.
In only 19 days, Elon Musk & xAI managed to setup a supercluster of 100 000 GPU Nvidia H200 (source)
the world’s largest Nvidia GPU supercomputer
Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s CEO, it would normally take others 4 years!
"That is superhuman", "Never seen before. The would normally take 3 years to plan and 1 year to get it all working"
All you need to know on SpaceX's huge achievement:
Must-see videos :
Lift-off (16 sec)
Descent of booster filmed from Mechazilla tower (35 sec)
Close-up video of descent with Mechazilla arms catching the booster, insane! (22 sec)
Descent of booster from afar from an interesting angle (26 sec)
Video of the catch (50 sec)
The catch filmed from the booster itself! (30sec)
Descent and catch filmed from afar by one of Musk’s friends next to him, with their incredulous comments! (47 sec)
What a journey!
"an achievement which actually deserves trumpeting on X"
"the cost per tonne of putting that stuff up there should be reduced dramatically. According to an estimate by Citigroup, a bank, SpaceX’s semi-reusable and frequently flown Falcon 9s have already brought down the price of launch by a factor of ten. A much bigger and fully reusable Starship should do at least as much again and possibly much more. It is potentially the biggest leap forward in spaceflight seen since the 1960s."
SpaceX has been landing those first stages—which have their own landing legs and thus do not need catching in mid air—since the end of 2015, and has now done so over 300 times. No other rocket company currently has a reusable first stage at all.
Elon Musk said "“Even rockets need hugs.” sharing this pic:
amazing 2-min video done by a fan which combines old footage of Musk showing the huge tower and explaining how he intends to have huge arms catch the descending rocket in the air, saying "this is the theory anyway", along with the latest images of the actual feat, they did it, very moving!
What's next:
Sometime next year, SpaceX plans to launch a pair of Starships into orbit using its two side-by-side launch pads in Texas. The ships will dock together in orbit and test technologies to transfer cryogenic propellants, which has never been done in space at this scale. This demonstration is a precursor to future Artemis mission campaigns, when Starships must launch in rapid succession from multiple pads. (Ars Technica)
The company’s own plans to increase both the number and size of the satellites in its Starlink communications system—a number which already sits at over 6,000—also depend on Starship. And then there is Mr Musk’s dream of settling Mars. He is talking of sending five uncrewed Starships there in 2026, and crewed ones fairly soon thereafter." (The Economist)
About Space'X Starlink
Last week, Air France was the latest major airline to announce it will be moving its in-flight Wi-Fi to the Starlink network, offering it for free to members of its frequent flier program.
With a robust network of 6,000+ Starlink laser-linked satellites beaming down 200-350 Mbps connectivity to airplanes—compared to ~20 Mbps from other current providers—Starlink has begun gobbling up major airline contracts, hungry hungry hippos style.
And a plus for consumers everywhere: airlines are moving en masse to offer their Wi-Fi for free.
Starlink grows and grows: SpaceX announced last week that its Starlink user base has grown to 4M customers, adding a staggering 1M users in just the past four months
intersting stat : Airlines average just 2.6% net profit or $5.44 per passenger per trip. (source)
Can’t stop progress: This Talking Pet Collar Is Like a Chatbot for Your Dog (Wired)
Scary: Robot Vacuum Starts Insulting Its Owner After Being Hacked (source)
Could also have taken pictures of him
An adult fruit fly brain has been mapped—human brains could follow (The Economist)
A complete mouse connectome (map of all neuronal connections in one's brain) could be created in a decade if someone were willing to stump up $1bn to pay for it.
Wow : scientists discovered living microbes sealed inside a 2-billion-year-old stone. (source)
the microbes, which were confirmed to be indigenous to the stone, appear to have evolved incredibly slowly over time.
"Until now, the oldest geological layer in which living microorganisms had been found was a 100-million-year-old deposit beneath the ocean floor, so this is a very exciting discovery."
Crazy 1-min video of how the Chinese port in Guangzhou is operated
People unload ships remotely with 5G, AND THEN, AI vehicles automatically drive the containers to trucks and load them, without human assistance.
The NY Times has OpenAI financials, prepared as part of its current fund-raising. $300m monthly revenue in August and on track for $3.7bn in 2024, but $5bn of losses. It has 350m monthly active users (up from 100m in March) and 10m paying users (NYT)
Huawei’s triple-fold phone, priced$3000 (the 1-min video, more pictures)
The US Army Is Testing Robot Dogs With AI-Powered Rifles in Saudi Arabia (source)
deployed at least one new "Lone Wolf" robot-dog to test out its anti-drone capabilities
Well... new report says that engineers who use GitHub's popular AI programming assistant Copilot don't experience any significant gains in efficiency. (source)
More cool examples of what Meta Movie Gen can do across video generation, precise video editing, personalized video generation and audio generation.
Hilarious: Parrots Orchestrate Brutal Revenge on Small Town After Deforestation Drove Them Out of Their Homes (Reuters)
The birds have descended on the town in the tens of thousands, terrorizing residents and disrupting local life
"The hillsides are disappearing, and this is causing them to come closer to the cities to find food, shelter and water," biologist Daiana Lera told Reuters.
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Why antibiotic resistance could be deadlier than cancer and what to do about it
Why everything you think about living to 100 might be wrong
Why the new motto gaining traction in US and allied circles, in the NatSec, AI safety and tech communities “scale AI quickly, crush China” is leadind to a suicide race
Previous newsletters:
See what happens when 50 self-driving cars go crazy on a parking; AI spaghetti art & more
"The best computer interface I’ve ever used"; Musk Vs LeCun Twitter fight & more
Latest cool robot videos, Zuck's & Musk's last thoughts on AI
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More about me
I cofounded KRDS right after college back in 2008 in Paris, we now also have offices in Singapore, HK, Shanghai, Dubai and India, we're one of the largest independent digital agencies in Asia. More here.
Watch our latest game showreel: At KRDS, we take pride in designing and developing games from scratch for brands and organizations, big and small! Gamification has always been part of our DNA, since our early days creating viral apps on Facebook back in Paris as the very first Facebook marketing partner outside of the USA!
I also run The WeChat Agency for the Chinese market (the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, GIC, is a client)
I’m the cofounder of Yelda.ai, which deploys voice AIs able to answer customers and prospects calling your company on the phone using natural language.
I also write op-eds and do podcasts at times. Here are my latest articles and podcasts, and here my last episode on the Abundance Makers podcast, interviewing one of the most promising clean tech CEOs in the US.
For the French speakers, I’ve written more than 50 articles on the future of technology over the past years, all can be found listed here.
Have a great weekend :)
Thomas