Self Transportation Tech

     New technology is released into the world all the time. Were always striving to make things better and create technology from dreams. Currently, self transportation technology has been on many inventors minds. In cities, you see many people riding cool futuristic tech too work, school, or anywhere. I researched some of the new Self transportation technology and here are the coolest products I found. 

Solowheel

(Maggie Tillman)

    The solowheel is a small portable self transportation vehicle. The vehicle helps you balance of its single tire using gyro technology. It can reach speeds up to 10 mph and travel a distance of 10 miles on a single charge (Maggie Tillman). The only downside to this vehicle is that the starting price is at $1,495. For the price, I would much rather invest my money torwards a vehicle with more speed and potential.

Lexus Hoverboard

(Maggie Tillman)

    Hoverboards are only in dreams and movies, until now. Lexus (a luxury car company) created an actually hoverboard. The hoverboard was featured in a Lexus commercial and has been in the works since. The board only hovers about an inch above the ground and does so using powerful magnets. The board also needs liquid nitrogen in order to run and can only be ridden above a special copper track. Currently the board has too many flaws for me, but I cannot wait until they perfect this model and hoverboards are no longer just a dream. This is not a production item yet, just an amazing look into future technology and vehicles. 

Boosted

(Maggie Tillman)

While hoverboards are still in the works, the next best thing has been created. There is a huge electric skateboard industry. Boosted is a very successful company that creates electric longboards. When riding it feels as if your "snowboarding surfing, and wakeboarding"(Maggie Tillman). Your able to ride up to speeds close to 25mph and distances of almost 8 miles. I have only tested one of these boards at a skate shop in Florida. The feeling when riding these boards is like no other to me and I would love one personally. The only problem with these boards is that they start at a price of about $1000. 

Flyboard Air

(Floatingboard)

    As you can tell by the name, this is not a hoverboard but a flyboard. Franky Zapata's created this brilliant vehicle. This machine is powered by model airplane jets. The jets allow the board to fly at insane heights of 9,000ft and high speeds up to 80mph (What is the price of a real hoverboard). Ever since Zapata's invention blew up online he has been marketing it for rent and showing it off in shows. The board is insanely expensive and estimated to be priced from $25,000- $30,000. They talk about using it in the military as well as just transportation vehicle. This board scares many people with it's ridiculous speeds and altitudes. Personally, knowing the dangers of the board would not scare me off. I would never give up the chance to ride this board and someday I really hope I could afford to own one for myself.

    OneWheel

(river bound sports)

    The onewheel is a whole different type of electric skateboard. As you can see, the board balances around a single wheel in the center of the board. Like the Solowheel, Onewheel uses gyro technology to help you balance and control the board. Most of the tech is stored inside the hub of the wheel. The onewheel XR reaches speeds of 19mph and can travel a range up to 18 miles (Onewheel). Although the onewheel XR featured above, prices at $1,799. The XR has a little brother known as the onewheel pint. The pint still reaches 16mph and has a range up to 8 miles (Onewheel). The pint is not cheap, but is much cheaper than the XR coming in at $950. I tested the XR model at the skate shop in Florida as well. After riding the board, I tried to save as much money as I could in order to purchase it. The onewheel was the coolest riding experience of my life and I can't wait until I can ride another one.

Personal Favorites

    After researching tons of new transportation vehicles and devices, my favorites would have to be the Onewheel and the Flyboard Air. Sadly the Flyboard Air seems unrealistic for a high school student to purchase, unlike the onewheel which I almost have enough to afford. Maybe someday I will have possession of the Flyboard Air. For now I will continue saving for the onewheel because after researching all of these new inventions, it is still at the top of my list.

What invention would you want?

Works Cited

"Onewheel." Onewheel, 2021, onewheel.com/. Accessed 13 Jan. 2021.

Tillman, Maggie. "19 weird and whacky personal transportation vehicles that you'd love to ride." Pocket-Lint, www.pocket-lint.com/cars/news/134676-19-weird-and-whacky-personal-transportation-vehicles-that-you-d-love-to-ride. Accessed 13 Jan. 2021.

"What is The Price of a Real Hoverboard?" Floating Board, 2021, floatingboard.com/2020/03/01/real-hoverboard-price/. Accessed 13 Jan. 2021.

Inventions of New England

 -January 1st, 2021

New England Inventions

    Recently, I was reading the webpage which talked about all the inventions that were created in New England. After looking through all the inventions, I began to notice that many of them were related to winter, snow, or even just cold weather. Some of these inventions are earmuffs, snow shovels, and even the snowmobile. Due to my interest in transportation devices, I was very interested in the snowmobile.

    According to the web page, the snowmobile was created in "West Ossipee, New Hampshire." (Yankee Magazine). V.D White thought of an idea to create a vehicle that could travel on snow with ease. In 1913, White added caterpillar treads and ski runners to his ford body. To many people, this was considered one of the first snowmobile's. Although, after doing research, I found that the snowmobile was created many times and with many different appearances.

(Bailey White)

The First Snowmobile

    Its impossible to say when the first snowmobile was really created. After researching about the invention of the snowmobile I found that  "lots of snowmobile precursors existed"(Geoff Southworth). I also noticed that the timeline of the invention of the first snowmobile ranges from the late 1800's to early 1900's.

    Many people consider Joseph-Armand Bombardiers breakthrough of the snowmobile and a rubber track as the first official snowmobile. Although, even Bombardiers snowmobile's didn't look like modern day snowmobiles at all.

(Bombardier Inc)

Polaris

    Polaris made the huge step towards the appearance of the modern day snowmobile. Before known as Polaris, they were called "Hetteen Hoist & Derrick Co." (Geoff Southworth). The modern company Polaris was founded in 1954. In 1957 Polaris had there first commercial use snowmobile. This is when the snowmobile started evolving into what we see today. 

(Brad Dokken)

Modern Snowmobiles

    Clearly, we cannot pin point in exact location of where the snowmobile was invented, but we can see that all the attempts were located near New England. It's interesting how now the snowmobile is used everywhere for many things. Personally I'll occasionally use a snowmobile as an actually transportation vehicle. Although, typically I use it as a Toy, to ride around with friends.

    After researching the modern uses of a snowmobile, I found that the snowmobile is used all over the world. It's used for "hauling cargo and transferring people in areas" (Arcanum).  Also, the snowmobile is used to travel in places un accessible from a car, such as glaciers.

(Kevin Arnold)

New England Contributes

       As you can see with the snowmobile, New England contributes inventions that will be used all around the world for a very long time. They might invent complicated designs, such as the snowmobile, but they also have created simple but super helpful inventions such as earmuffs, or even the snow shovel, both of which are used today all through out the world.  

    What's your favorite New England Invention?

-Quinn W

Works Cited

Arcanum. "Snowmobiles Throughout a Century." Arcanum, 4 Mar. 2017, www.arcanum.is/blog/posts/2017/march/snowmobiles-throughout-a-century/. Accessed 6 Jan. 2021.

Arnold, Kevin. Modern Snowmobile. Robb Report, Jason H, Harpor, 22 Jan. 2020, robbreport.com/motors/cars/gallery/snowmobiles-to-get-your-adrenaline-fix-2892952/. Accessed 6 Jan. 2021.

Bombardier Inc. Bombardiers Snowmobile. The Canadian Encyclopedia, 23 Jan. 2008, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/joseph-armand-bombardier. Accessed 6 Jan. 2021.

Dokken, Brad. David Johnson sits on Polaris snowmobiles No. 2, built in 1956, in February 2015 inside the Polaris Experience Center in Roseau, Minn. Johnson has died at age 93, in Roseau. 10 Oct. 2016. Twin Cities, www.twincities.com/2016/10/10/polaris-founder-who-built-first-snowmobile-from-parts-in-his-garage-dies/. Accessed 6 Jan. 2021.

Magazine, Yankee. "Best New England Inventions." New England Today Living, 24 Feb. 2020, newengland.com/today/living/new-england-environment/best-new-england-inventions/. Accessed 6 Jan. 2021.

Southworth, Geoff. "When Was the Snowmobile Invented?" Outdoor Troop, outdoortroop.com/when-was-the-snowmobile-invented/. Accessed 6 Jan. 2021.

White, Bailey. First Polaris Snowmobile. Snoriders, snoriderswest.com/article/old_sled_zone/vintage_antique_snowmobile_1927_ford_model_t_with_track_and_skis. Accessed 6 Jan. 2021.

Yes or No to Social Media?

 -December 16th, 2020

Who uses Social Media?

      Social Media is everywhere in our current world. Social is a huge part of many people lives ranging from all ages. Teens especially, use social media such as snapchat to communicate with their friends. It seems as if the "25-34"(Social media audience profiles: What ages use social media the most?) age groups controls many other platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. People love social media, and all for different reasons. Social media can be used for a huge amount of purposes, like communication, news, fundraisings, etc. Currently, about "3.96 Billion" (Simon Kemp) people use social media, which is about 51% of our world. Clearly social media is a huge part of everyone's tech lives, but is social media good?

(LoboStudioHamburg.)

Social Media Problems

    I spent part of my week watching three ted talks, two of which concentrated on  the negative effects of social media and how your life would be much better without it.

    One ted talk known as We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads by Zeynep Tufekci doesn't talk about how social media negatively affects you but just negative things that social media does. For example,Tufekci talks about how companies like Facebook and such, use your data and information to sell to others and make money off of you. After hearing how this company is making money off of my data, I wanted to know exactly how much my data on Facebook is sold for. Although when researching I came to the conclusion that there is no exact price, and in reality it’d be almost "impossible for anyone outside the company"(How Much Money Facebook Gets From Selling Your Data.) to figure out exactly how much your data was worth.

    Another one of the ted talks, titled Cal Newport: Why you should quit social media, talks about what it's like not having social media. Newport is a man who looks to be about in his early 30's, and he has never had social media. Newport talks about how he doesn't need it for work communication or anything. In the ted talk, social media is described as just an entertainment source. Social media isn't anything but a source of entertainment for our mind. Not only is there no purpose for social media, but it also shortens your attention span. Cyberbullying, also occurs on social media all the time, which can lead to being sad or even depressed. Newport says that he is way happier without social media and believes that everyone should delete social media as well. Although, maybe social media can be a good thing as well.

(Entering data into Facebook.)

Social Media Benefits

    Social media can have benefits too. Some benefits were discussed within the third ted talked I watched, How social media can make history, By Clay Shirky. Social media is always changing and advancing, and there is so much potential just on your phone. Social media is used for all things like, communication, entertainment, and even expressing yourself publicly. A huge hidden use for social media is news. Social media can be used for distributing the news around the world faster than any news channel. In fact, twitter was able to announce an earthquake in china before BBC was even able too. This shows that social media used in the right way could save lives. If we notified families to take cover and shelter for the earthquake fast enough, then they would be much more safe. The only way to get that notification out fast enough is through social media. 

    After hearing about the earthquake incident, I wondered if social media played a role in a lot of news. I found that social media plays a huge role in news currently. In fact, the news is often controlled by social media and altered to the narrators perspective. Currently about "55%" (Paige Cooper) of Americans get their news from social media already. While this does distribute fake news, it shows that social media has potential to be one of the fastest news channels there is, in order to help families in crisis. I also found that social media even starts donations and fundraisers online, to help crisis's already. 

(Casezy.)

What should we do?

    I use social media everyday of my life. I use social media to communicate with friends, family and anyone. During this time, when I'm constantly limited to seeing others, social media helps me communicate and see them through snapchat, facetime, or even Instagram. In the end, I would keep social media in my life, but maybe limit myself to certain times or certain apps in order to help with some of the negative affects of social media.

    After considering both the negatives and positives of social media, what would you do with social media in your life?

-Quinn W

Works Cited

Casezy. "Hand using smart phone with Social media concept stock photo." Istock, 13 Sept. 2019, www.istockphoto.com/photo/hand-using-smart-phone-with-social-media-concept-gm1173146314-325726020?utm_source=pixabay&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=SRP_image_noresults&referrer_url=https%3A//pixabay.com/images/search/social%2520media%2520good%2520things/&utm_term=social%20media%20good%20things. Accessed 18 Dec. 2020.

Cooper, Paige. "How to Use Social Media for Crisis Communications and Emergency Management." Hootsuite, 27 Mar. 2020, blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-crisis-communication/. Accessed 18 Dec. 2020.

Feyissa, Solen. "Entering data into Facebook." unsplash.com/photos/iurEAyYyU_c. Accessed 18 Dec. 2020.

"How Much Money Facebook Gets From Selling Your Data." Popular Mechanics, 19 June 2019, www.popularmechanics.com/technology/security/a21272151/facebook-data-money-value/. Accessed 18 Dec. 2020.

Kemp, Simon. "More than half of humanity now uses social media — here's what that means for brands." Growth Quarters, 21 July 2020, thenextweb.com/growth-quarters/2020/07/21/more-than-half-of-humanity-now-uses-social-media-heres-what-that-means-for-brands/. Accessed 18 Dec. 2020.

LoboStudioHamburg. "Social media apps." Pixabay, 23 Mar. 2014, pixabay.com/photos/twitter-facebook-together-292994/. Accessed 18 Dec. 2020.

Newport, Cal. "Why you should quit social media." Ted Talk, June 2016, www.ted.com/talks/cal_newport_why_you_should_quit_social_media. Accessed 18 Dec. 2020. Speech.

Shirky, Clay. "How social media can make history." Ted Talk, June 2009, www.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_how_social_media_can_make_history?referrer=playlist-the_power_of_social_media. Accessed 18 Dec. 2020. Speech.

"Social media audience profiles: What ages use social media the most?" Big Foot, www.bigfootdigital.co.uk/social-media-audience-profile#:~:text=As%20an%20overview%2C%20the%2025-34%20age%20group%20seems,older%20audience%2C%2035-44-year-olds%20use%20Linkedin%20the%20most%20frequently. Accessed 18 Dec. 2020.

Tufekci, Zeynep. "We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads." Ted Talk, www.ted.com/talks/zeynep_tufekci_we_re_building_a_dystopia_just_to_make_people_click_on_ads. Accessed 18 Dec. 2020. Speech.

AI Fears. Will AI take out humanity?

-December 9th, 2020

   What Is AI? 

    AI is a developing technology that engineers have been trying to figure out for years. AI stands for artificial intelligence. With artificial intelligence, machines and robots will be able to think on their own. This means they will have nobody controlling them and they will control themselves. Most likely, when they are created, they will be created for a purpose and will have a task. 

Thinking AI Robot.

   AI Is Close.

     Every day new technology is being designed and created, and every day the fears of future technology worries people. CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk says "I'm very close to the cutting-edge of AI, and it scares the hell out of me"(Kevin Dickson). Recently we have been developing AI and becoming very close to implementing it into our society. When we're this close to having AI in our everyday life, I get this mixed emotion of excitement and fear and it sounds like even the ones creating it do too.

                                                  Artificial Intelligence Technology.

    Is It Safe?

    AI is an insanely cool technology that has been in the works for many years. Although the question that crosses my mind and many others is " is it safe?" Could AI turn on us and take out humanity? Will they work so hard for their set goal that they destroy the world in the process?

   For example, lets say a business tells an AI robot to produce as many pencils as possible. That AI unit will begin creating pencils and it will make an insane amount of pencils and be great for the company. Although the AI robot was only told to create pencils and as many as possible. As humans, we know when to stop, but an AI unit won't. The AI unit will keep making pencils and use all of the material in world to create pencils. Since pencils are typically made out of wood, the AI will wipe out all the trees in the world first to create those pencils. Without trees humans won't be able to live and humanity will fade slowly as we all lose the ability to breathe.

    I did research to figure out exactly what the AI's would be used for. AI is planned to be used in many things such as self driving cars, manufacturing and production, etc. Although, these jobs are not my worst feared uses for AI. I am worried about the use of AI in the military. Thankfully after researching the uses AI in the military, it was said that they would not be giving the AI's weapons, but just supporting human soldiers. While this is far better than handing an AI unit a weapon, there are still worries about AI in the military and how they might react around all of the weapons.

    Lastly, we have to worry about the type of people that AI will be available too. AI can be a very helpful technology, but in the wrong hands it can be insanely dangerous. If AI gets in the hands of the wrong people, many people could be hurt or die. 

Bad artificial intelligence robot is walking on the spaceship corridor. Horror movie scene of the future.

    Should We Use AI?    

  After considering all of the worries and concerns of implementing AI into our society I feel that eventually AI should be used. We may develop AI to a point that is not so dangerous and we may get rid of all of the worries. Although, for now it's scary to think about the possibilities of AI and the destruction it could cause.

    

    Are you scared of AI? Do you think we should use AI in society today?

-Quinn W.

Works Cited

"Artificial Intelligence Technology." Forbes, Bernard Marr, 22 June 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2020/06/22/10-wonderful-examples-of-using-artificial-intelligence-ai-for-good/?sh=59c075fd2f95. Accessed 9 Dec. 2020.

"Bad artificial intelligence robot is walking on the spaceship corridor. Horror movie scene of the future." iStock, Devrimb, 20 Sept. 2019, www.istockphoto.com/photo/the-terrible-face-of-futuristic-technology-gm850112772-139607913?utm_source=pixabay&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=SRP_image_noresults&referrer_url=https%3A//pixabay.com/images/search/scary%2520ai/&utm_term=scary%20ai. Accessed 9 Dec. 2020.

Cogito Tech LLC. "Where is Artificial Intelligence Used Today?" Becoming Human, 4 Dec. 2019, becominghuman.ai/where-is-artificial-intelligence-used-today-3fd076d15b68. Accessed 9 Dec. 2020.

Dickinson, Kevin. "Top 6 fears about future technology." Big Think, 18 Sept. 2018, bigthink.com/technology-innovation/fear-future-technology?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1. Accessed 9 Dec. 2020.

"Thinking AI Robot." ADVA, Dean Anthony Gratton, 5 June 2019, www.blog.adva.com/en/artificial-intelligence-i-think-therefore-i-am. Accessed 9 Dec. 2020.

Walsh, Bryan. "The military is calling in AI for support." Axios, 4 Nov. 2020, www.axios.com/military-artificial-intelligence-weapons-systems-e14834fe-0edd-44a4-9daf-38fb7c119a33.html. Accessed 9 Dec. 2020.