UAE is Preparing to Colonize Mars, See their "Mars 2117" City 360 Virtual Tour

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  • The United Arab Emirates' Mars 2117 project's target is a Mars City in 100 years
  • Best futuristic colony model with 3D VR experience
  • 7-minute flythrough tour outside and inside with lively residents

 

Mars 2117 Strategy

The United Arab Emirates government released an immersive 360° 3D 8K virtual reality experience of their vision of a colony on Mars. It's complete with flying vehicles, A.I. robots, and glass domed cities. 

Their goal is to build the first Mars colony by the year 2047 and this vision is a look at what life could be like after 70 years of development. 

 

United Government of Mars?

An interesting thing to note is their view of Mars having its own planetary government called the "United Government of Mars." We can suppose this would be independent of any of Earth's governments and we can speculate how different it might actually be considering all the new opportunities and unique circumstances. 

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But would this Mars Government be friendly to all Earth nations? Many concerns and questions immediately spring to mind. Perhaps an international war may break out here on Earth as nations compete to be the first to stake a claim in the New New World. 

 

"City of Wisdom" 3D Virtual Tour

Buckle-up for a tour through the Mars City of Wisdom!

There are 600,000 people living here fed with indoor gardens. The UAE team seems to have thought through civic engineering by providing housing, schools, laboratories, gathering areas, and even a mining operation outodoors. It seems there's some sort of artificial intelligent management systems interconnecting the spacesuits, vehicles, robots, and access points. 

“The landing of people on other planets has been a longtime dream for humans. Our aim is that the UAE will spearhead international efforts to make this dream a reality.”
— Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai

History of Missions to Mars

Since 1965, only four entities have successfully made it to Mars:

  1. NASA
  2. Soviet Union
  3. European Space Agency
  4. Indian Space Research Organization

There are some who believe the United States has advanced technology with the capability to instantly transport to Mars using "jump rooms," according to Andrew D. Basiago. Supposedly, there was a "Project Pegasus" that sent humans to Mars with a very interesting story of what they found over there. 

Anyway, officially, NASA has done better than everyone else getting to Mars with a 70% chance of success. 15/21 since the 1960's. Averaging all international organizations, Earth has a 50% success rate of landing on Mars. China and Japan failed but India made it.

So the 2020 United Arab Emirates' planned mission would be the first one by a Muslim country. They plan to orbit an unmanned probe around Mars by the year 2021 to mark their country's 50th anniversary. It will scan the planet for sources of water where it would be the best place to support human life.

Such plans for UAE's Martian city were first announced at the World Government Summit to 138 governments.

 

Mars City Beta on Earth

Meanwhile, the UAE is developing an Earth-based Mars colony beta test to work out the bugs before building their actual city up there later. Dubai announced in September the construction of a $135 million "Mars Science City" spanning 1.9 million square feet. This will be the largest space simulation city ever built. 

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The first inhabitants are researchers on a one-year mission to test out the sustainability of all the life support systems. They invest a lot of time in growing food, water recycling, and off-grid energy generation and storage. 

“The UAE is a great country with vision and understanding of the challenges we face and the rapid changes our world is experiencing.

We believe in the potential of space exploration, and in collaborating with global partners and leaders in order to harness the findings of this research and movement that seeks to meet people’s needs and improve quality of life on Earth.”
— Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai

Sources:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5131955/Incredible-360-VR-footage-UAE-Martian-colony.html

https://futurism.com/4-mars-2117-project-the-uae-joins-the-race-for-the-red-planet/

Six Mind Blowing Theories About Our Reality

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Understanding reality is never as easy and as simple as we would like it to be. To question everything, especially our existence, has always been an integral part of our human nature. As children, our innate and endless curiosity constantly led us to wonder why things are how they are. When we got older, we still possess the same curious minds that we had in our youth, only the questions we ask ourselves, and other people have gotten a lot more complicated since then. For most people, the ultimate question that drives our existence is the search for the meaning of life. But beyond this question lies a vast subset of ones possibly even more difficult to answer.

Is our reality even real? Are we real? Are we alone in the universe? How did all this come to be? How will all of this end? For now, though we do not have definite answers to these questions, scientists and philosophers have formulated complex theories about reality as we know it as well as our existence. Some of them operate on the basic principles of common sense, but there those that have gone far and beyond what most people can grasp and even more so, willing to accept. The evidence and arguments presented for such theories are quite compelling, and efforts to fully understand them could lead to enormous ramifications that could break one’s sanity.

And so, here are six of the most mind-blowing theories about our reality that will make you question your entire existence and what the rest of the universe holds!

ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER VIDEO

1. Big Freeze / Great Glaciation Theory

Also referred to by some as “The Great Glaciation” or “Heat Death,” the “Big Freeze” is a plausible scientific theory on the possible end of the universe. This ending is theorized to be the direct consequence of an ever-expanding universe, which is proven by indications of an increasing rate of expansion in the regions farthest from Earth. Because of this, it is also a widely-accepted model about the ultimate fate of our universe.

According to this theory, the universe will slowly cool as it expands until it is no longer capable of sustaining life. The process itself is a lot more capable than that as this theory is founded on the idea that entropy – a principle of thermodynamics that measures the shift of all energy in the universe from a state of order to disorder – will eventually reach its “maximum value.” And should that happen, the heat in the universe will be distributed evenly to the point that there would be no usable energy or heat left, which means the mechanical motion within the universe will cease to exist. And because of this “heat death,” time becomes an endless void in which nothing ever happens.

 

2. Solipsism / “Nothing Exists Except Your Mind”

The philosophical theory of Solipsism states that only one’s own mind is sure to exist. Some may argue that this argument was specially made for narcissists for being ego-centric, but once you get past the notion that your mind is the center of the universe, this philosophical believe is actually pretty simple.

Solipsism holds that knowledge of anything outside a person’s own mind is unsure, and so, the external worlds as well as other minds cannot be known and might not exist outside the mind. For the solipsist, it is not merely that he believes his thoughts, experiences, and emotions are the only thoughts, experiences, and emotions there are, but rather, he attaches no meaning that there could be other thoughts, experiences, and emotions than his own.

For example, a true solipsist understands the word “pain” to mean his own pain. Therefore, he cannot conceive how the word is applied in any sense other than his exclusively egocentric understanding of it.

 

3. Presentism / “The Now and Nothing Else”

Philosophical presentism is the view that neither the future nor the past exists. The only events and objects which exist are those that exist in the present. So, the only things which exist now – right now – are actually real. According to Saint Augustine, the future and the past does not exist, as time cannot be both behind and ahead. Fyodor Shcherbatskoy, leading modern era scholar on Buddhist philosophy, wrote extensively on Buddhist presentism, saying: "Everything past is unreal, everything future is unreal, everything imagined, absent, mental... is unreal. Ultimately, real is only the present moment of physical efficiency.”

 

4. Eternalism / “Everything at Once”

Taking the opposite approach to presentism is eternalism. According to this theory, the past, present, future, the simple past, and continuous future are all happening right now. All points in time are equally real. This philosophical theory postulates that time actually has many layers which exist simultaneously. However, the layer seen by a particular observer depends on where he is standing.

This means, the dinosaurs, the World Wars, and Lady Gaga performing at the Super Bowl all exist at the same time but can only be seen from a certain point. And so, based on this theory, the future is not only deterministic, but free will is also merely an illusion.

 

5. Multiverse Theory & Fictional Realism

From science fiction to science fact, there is a proposal suggesting that there could be other universes aside from our own, where all the choices that a person makes are played out in alternate realities. These parallel worlds are said to be very similar to ours, but with only a few minor or major differences, and the number of these universes are infinite. One possible implication of parallel universes is the idea that there are infinite copies of us in infinite universes carrying out every possible version of existence.

One type of theory about parallel universes envisions countless bubble universes arising and disappearing. This means the beginning of our universe, the Big Bang, could just be the creation of one bubble in a sea of inflating universes, each eventually “popping” when unstable. A second theory is the Brane Multiverse, which is based on String Theory, and proposes our entire universe exists on a membrane floating in a higher dimension or “bulk”. In this bulk, are other membranes with their own universes. These universes interact with one another and, when they collide, the violence and energy produced are more than enough to produce a “big bang.” The membranes float near each other in bulk and, every few trillion years, attracted by some gravitational force, smash into each other. This repeated contact allegedly creates multiple or “cyclic” big bangs.

 

6. Simulation Theory / “The Matrix” Theory

The simulation hypothesis proposes that reality is, in fact, a simulation, and even most likely, a computer simulation. This theory postulates that due to the overwhelming likelihood of technological singularities occurring in the universe, it also likely that advanced civilizations – either aliens from a distant galaxy or humanity later on in the future – have created or will create simulations. And because the number of these simulations would be infinite, philosopher Nick Bostrom argues that it is very likely that we, right now, are actually living in a computer simulation.

The simulation theory bears similarity with the “Brain in the Vat” thought experiment, which is also just a modern and updated version of Rene Descartes’ Evil Demon thought experiment originated by Gilbert Harman. Common to many science fiction stories, a mad scientist or AI robot puts someone's brain in a jar and connects it to a supercomputer simulating a physical reality.

According to this thought experiment, the computer simulates reality, and the "disembodied" brain continues normal conscious experiences and feeling like in the real world. If this sounds eerily similar to “The Matrix” movies starring Keanu Reeves, that’s because the Matrix was based on this particular scenario.

We may never really know for certain if any of these theories provide the right explanation about our universe, our reality, and our existence. Nevertheless, these speculations and theories are telling of how intelligent and determined we are in finding the key that will unlock all the mysteries that plague our consciousness.

Sources:

  • http://listverse.com/2013/04/15/10-mind-blowing-theories-about-the-universe-and-reality/
  • https://omni.media/creepy-mind-blowing-theories-about-the-universe
  • http://elitedaily.com/envision/5-philosophical-theories-mind-blowing/1473123/
  • http://www.oddee.com/item_98991.aspx

Big Freeze / Heat Death Theory

  • https://www.universetoday.com/36917/big-freeze/
  • https://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/uni_fate.html
  • http://www.wired.co.uk/article/how-will-universe-end
  • http://www.physicsoftheuniverse.com/topics_bigbang_bigcrunch.html
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_fate_of_the_universe#Big_Freeze_or_heat_death
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_death_of_the_universe

Solipsism

  • http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/solipsism
  • https://www.britannica.com/topic/solipsism
  • http://www.iep.utm.edu/solipsis/
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solipsism

Presentism & Eternalism

  • https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/time/#PreEteGroUniThe
  • https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/presentism_(philosophy_of_time).htm
  • http://www.samwoolfe.com/2013/05/presentism-and-eternalism-two.html

Multiverse Theory & Fictional Realism

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiverse
  • http://www.space.com/32728-parallel-universes.html
  • http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/can-physicists-ever-prove-multiverse-real-180958813/
  • https://societyofmodernastronomy.wordpress.com/2014/11/06/the-brane-multiverse/

Simulation Theory / “The Matrix” Theory / “Brain in the Jar”

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_in_a_vat
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulated_reality
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_demon
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulation_hypothesis

Facebook's Wants to Hack Your Brain!

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No, this is not some new futuristic sci-fi movie plot ― although it reminds me of a few ― during the 2017 F8 convention, Facebook announced it's been working with 60 engineers to monitor your brain waves to transcribe your thoughts into text... Can you tell what I'm thinking? "No thank you! Get out of my head Facebook!"

Digital Mind Reading (/Writing)

Got read/write permissions for your brain?

Communication is a two-way street with an exchange of ideas or messages. So, if you're wearing a Facebook device that can read your mind, then wouldn't it follow that it can send you messages as well. Those little app notifications can get annoying sometimes but imagine if they were pinging in your brain and even influencing your thoughts and decisions. Google already boasts it can predict the future based on past actions and trending behaviors but, if Abraham Lincoln was right saying "the best way to predict the future is to create it," then they probably will by sending signals to trigger behaviors. So, be careful who you permit access your mind ― there are many warnings throughout our past.

 

Trade Privacy for Convenience?

Facebook Research & Development head, Regina Dugan, promotes this invasion of privacy as helping people type 5x faster than by hand, while CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, tempts us with being able to control virtual reality with our minds. An interesting fact to note is that Dugan was former lead of Google’s Advanced Technology & Products division and a former head of U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). This may not raise some peoples' eyebrows but it does make one question what military related agendas Google and Facebook are involved with as the world's most popular digital social interfaces. Maybe a "mind reading world wide web military artificially intelligent supercomputer that already knows everything about you... and all your so-called friends?" 

 

Hiding in Plain Sight

Facebook’s "Area 404" (like error 404: page not found) hardware lab in Menlo Park, California is where their secret projects are hidden in plain sight as exciting advancements in entertainment and medical industries. Facebook R&D team is developing various machine learning non-invasive neural prosthetic prototypes that, according to them, "is about decoding the words you’ve already decided to share by sending them to the speech center of your brain.” So maybe we don't have to worry about them data mining all our thoughts...

Facebook is getting help from UC San Francisco, UC Berkeley, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. They're also hiring a Brain-Computer Interface Engineer and a Neural Imaging Engineer to push such projects forward. 

 

Facebook VR Matrix?

Facebook recently announced it's new mission statement. Zuckerberg said "Instead of making the world 'more open and connected,' Facebook's goal now is to 'bring the world closer together.' To prove this, Facebook has been launching lots of projects: Terragraph Wi-Fi nodes, Project ARIES antenna, Aquila solar-powered drone, Wedge, Open Vault, Surround 360 camera, and even mobile virtual reality headsets.

He added, "I used to think that if we just gave people a voice and helped people connect, that would make the world a better place by itself. Now I believe we have a responsibility to do even more."

With megalithic companies like Google, Facebook, DARPA, and others developing technologies that are getting more and more personal, it's wise to take a precautionary stance and decide for yourself the path towards a bright and moral future for humankind.