Just be sure it has an off-switch

© Mark Ollig

AI autonomous robots are playing an increasingly prominent role in the service sector and specialized fields.

In food service, robotic systems are used for tasks such as food preparation and autonomous delivery.

Moley Robotics, based in London, designs robotic systems for both commercial and residential kitchens.

In October 2024, the University of Minnesota, in partnership with Starship Technologies, launched 30 autonomous food delivery robots on campus.

These six-wheeled robots use artificial intelligence (AI) and global positioning system (GPS) technology to deliver food from on-campus restaurants to students who place and track orders via the Starship app.

Various autonomous AI robots, like Moley Robotics’ systems, automate cooking tasks such as ingredient preparation, cooking procedures, and even cleaning.

Miso Robotics is another company creating AI-powered robots for kitchens, known for Flippy, the world’s first AI kitchen assistant for fry stations.

Miso Robotics has partnered with NVIDIA’s Isaac platform to enhance Flippy’s motion and AI capabilities, improving efficiency and adaptability in busy kitchens.

Using NVIDIA’s Isaac robot operating system (ROS) and deep learning, Flippy can autonomously handle tasks like flipping burgers, running the deep fryer, and monitoring food quality.

In 2017, I wrote about Sophia, the humanoid robot from Hanson Robotics.

Sophia applies computer vision to interpret her surroundings, and employs AI technologies and neural networks to learn from acquired data to recognize patterns and making decisions.

She can recognize faces, process language, and engage in human-like interactions.

Sophia appeared on the “Tonight Show” with Jimmy Fallon April 25, 2017, where she demonstrated her conversational abilities and played rock-paper-scissors with Fallon. See bit.ly/3CnhVwR.

Sophia reappeared Nov. 21, 2018, showcasing new skills and performing an impressive duet of “Say Something” with Fallon. See bit.ly/40uaOdX.

Interest in AI-powered robots extends to industrial and high-tech applications.

Microsoft is supporting Figure AI, which is developing humanoid robots for industrial use.

Amazon is working with Agility Robotics to use Digit, a bipedal robot that walks on two legs, to stack totes and containers in its fulfillment centers. The robot can navigate independently.

NVIDIA is developing Jetson Thor, a powerful platform designed for AI and robotics.

Meanwhile, Tesla is creating Optimus, a humanoid robot with human-like dexterity and navigation.

In September 2023, Elon Musk shared a video of Optimus’ human-like walking abilities and highlighted its potential for factory tasks and even household chores.

Musk has suggested the robot could assist with elder care and serve as an emotional support companion.
Tesla plans to begin Optimus production by late 2025.

Police departments are increasingly using AI-capable robots, such as Peraton Remotec’s ANDROS (Automatic Non-Destructive Robotic System) and QinetiQ’s TALON, to assess threats and disarm explosives.

These robots are typically remotely controlled but are gaining AI-powered features for greater autonomy in dangerous situations, like dealing with unexploded ordnance (UXO) or improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Boston Dynamics, headquartered in Waltham, MA, manufactures “Spot,” a four-legged robot equipped with 360-degree visual perception and AI for reconnaissance and security monitoring.

Spot can navigate rough terrain, balance itself, and move quickly in challenging environments.

Boston Dynamics introduced Atlas, a five-foot, 175-pound humanoid robot with AI capabilities April 17, 2024.
Atlas is equipped with RGB (red, green, blue) cameras and depth sensors, enabling it to navigate complex environments and interact with objects.

The company plans to use Atlas in sectors like manufacturing, logistics, and disaster response, though it is not yet commercially available.

DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, launched an open-source AI model that has been described as a “Sputnik moment.”
Chinese AI company DeepSeek has developed powerful, large language models comparable to those from Google, OpenAI, and Meta, underscoring China’s rapid AI progress.

It has sparked a “Sputnik moment” concern, reminiscent of the historic 1957 Soviet satellite launch, suggesting a potential shift that challenges US leadership in AI.DeepSeek’s models, particularly its open-source DeepSeek Coder, are notable for their strong performance.

AI and robotics are being integrated into military operations for improved human-robot collaboration, autonomous decision-making, and enhanced target recognition.

Military robots are used for combat support, surveillance, reconnaissance, and logistics.

The US military has been experimenting with wearable exoskeletons embedded with sensors and AI to learn a soldier’s distinct patterns.

It continuously adapts to provide personalized support for performance, improving endurance, mobility, and lifting capacity for physically demanding tasks of soldiers.

Wearable exoskeletons help soldiers reduce fatigue and optimize their effectiveness in various situations.
Robotic devices, such as Remotec’s ANDROS EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) robot, help locate and disarm dangerous ordnance.

Samsung developed the SGR-A1 (Samsung Guard Robot), a semi-autonomous sentry robot used for security applications using AI for target detection and tracking; it requires human authorization to engage targets.

Similarly, defense companies like Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Boeing are working to integrate AI into military robots, enhancing situational awareness and real-time decision-making.

The United Nations (UN) Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) is discussing regulations for autonomous weapons.

It is concerned about the growing use of robots in warfare and the potential for AI systems to make life-or-death decisions.

Which brings to mind the 1968 “Star Trek” episode “The Ultimate Computer,” in which an AI, M-5, takes control of the starship USS Enterprise. Initially praised for its autonomous abilities, M-5 eventually disregards built-in safeguards, leading to disastrous results.

Dr. McCoy’s comment, “Fantastic machine, the M-5. No off-switch,” raises an important question – could future AI and robotics present a threat to civilization?

AI of the future better have an off-switch.

The first national radio broadcast of a presidential inauguration

© Mark Ollig

Witnessing the 60th presidential inauguration this past Monday, it is worth reflecting on a related historical moment from nearly a century ago.

Republican President Calvin Coolidge’s second inauguration March 4, 1925, marked the first nationwide live radio broadcast of a presidential inauguration, using the nation’s growing telephone network.

Although telegraph transmission lines still played a role at that time, commercial radio stations would use the expanding reach of the telephone network infrastructure to broadcast the inauguration live across the country.

The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company, the local Bell Operating Company serving Washington, DC, oversaw the local audio pickup from the inauguration stand on the grounds of the US Capitol building.

The AT&T Long Lines network distributed the inaugural audio transmission to a 21-station network across the country.

This network was composed of long-distance copper lines, mainly open-wire pairs supplemented with loaded coils and vacuum tube repeaters to preserve audio signal strength.

AT&T-owned radio stations, WEAF in New York City and WCAP in Washington, DC, served as central hubs within this network, broadcasting locally and also feeding their inauguration audio to other connected stations.

Engineers and technicians from AT&T, its Bell System subsidiaries, and independent telephone companies worked together to install and test the telephone lines and equipment, to ensure reliable transmission for the radio broadcast.

RCA and General Electric, major manufacturers in the radio broadcasting industry, provided equipment for both radio stations and consumers.

In 1925, Minnesota radio station WCCO was broadcasting at 830 kc/s (kilocycles per second).

Radio frequencies were measured in kilocycles per second back then; today, we use the term kilohertz (kHz), with one hertz equal to one cycle per second.

WCCO radio would air the presidential inaugural March 4, 1925, as per the Minneapolis Morning Tribune report Feb. 20, 1925, that “WCCO will have a telephone hookup with WEAF, New York.”

In 1925, many people listened to the radio using simple crystal sets that required no batteries and relied on the power of radio waves. However, these sets were limited in their receiving range and sound quality.

Earlier in the same year, radios with improved reception, extended listening range, and enhanced sound quality were being sold – but they were pricy.

A Feb. 21, 1925, Minneapolis Star newspaper ad featured a five-tube Neutrodyne radio set by Stromberg-Carlson in a mahogany cabinet, “complete with tubes, storage battery, ‘B’ Batts, loud speaker . . . $124.25,” equivalent to $2,280 today.

The “B” batteries, typically zinc-carbon dry cells, provided the higher voltages necessary for early radio vacuum tube plate circuits.

In 1925, AT&T Long Distance Lines managed and operated the network of telephone cables and infrastructure used to connect long-distance telephone calls across the U.S.

The landscape of commercial radio in 1925 was still in its beginnings, with approximately 600 stations operating across the country.

Before the ceremony, the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company equipped the inaugural platform with a network of loudspeakers and microphones, managed from a control room beneath the Capitol.

A radio announcer’s booth was also set up, from which the audio was broadcast to an estimated 23 million listeners across the country.

Calvin Coolidge was sworn in for his second term as President of the United States March 4, 1925. Chief Justice and former President William Howard Taft administered the oath of office.

Radio station WEAF, broadcasting at 610 kc/s, offered live commentary during the inaugural ceremonies, with announcer Graham McNamee at the microphone.

From the April 1925 issue of the ‘Bell System Technical Journal (Vol. IV, No. 2)’: “The broadcast was a complete success, and everywhere the reports were that the President’s address and the other features of the program came through with remarkable clearness and freedom from extraneous noise. The arrangements included . . . a special network of telephone circuits more than 5,000 miles in length.”

The Brainerd Daily Dispatch newspaper wrote March 4, 1925, “In his address, delivered in the traditional place before the great dome of the capitol, but by the magic of the radio, carried far beyond the thousands who had gathered to hear him, to millions throughout the country.”

The Brainerd newspaper also mentioned, “The inaugural address was received in Brainerd very clearly through the new high-power 5,000-watt WCCO station of Minneapolis St. Paul.”

Analog copper telephone lines remained the standard used for remote radio broadcasts decades after Coolidge’s inauguration.

In 1979, I experienced it firsthand at Winsted Telephone Company, where we installed a dedicated analog copper telephone line for radio use from the company’s central office to the local football field.

This telephone line connected to the radio broadcast console in the announcer’s booth near the 50-yard line.

Before the game, the radio announcer called the Hutchinson radio studio and was patched into the main transmitter to broadcast his audio over the air.

In the late 1980s and 1990s, telephony ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) emerged, offering higher bandwidth for data transmission up to 128 kbps.

ISDN reduced audio noise and distortion, improving voice quality. It also supported enhanced audio stream management, making it compatible with modern digital radio broadcasting equipment.

Today, fiber optic lines, high-bandwidth data circuits, the internet, cellular networks (4G and 5G), satellites, and microwave links are commonly used for remote broadcasts.

The comparison between the copper telephone network at Coolidge’s 1925 inauguration and today’s modern transmission technologies highlights a century of progress.

A vision not fully realized

© Mark Ollig

Today, we continue last week’s column about Dr. Mahlon Loomis (1826 to 1886), a dentist and inventor who explored using the upper atmosphere to transmit coded telegraph signals.

Loomis believed the atmosphere could act as a wireless telegraph line, replacing the wires and batteries used in existing telegraph systems.

His approach involved transmitting aerial signals using copper-wire tethered kites or balloons to reach the electrified atmospheric layers.

I read sources that describe him transmitting signals through the air using a key—a device for sending telegraphic messages.

While we don’t know all the details about these signals, it is likely that he attempted to use Morse code, which was commonly used at the time. However, no records exist of any successfully transmitted and received messages.

It is important to remember at this early stage in development, successfully transmitting a wireless electrical signal, even without a message, was a significant achievement.

The Aug. 13, 1929, edition of the Miami Daily News recounted Loomis’s process: “Messages were sent alternately from one station to the other by dot and dash interruption of a buzzer spark circuit. Reception was attained by deflecting a galvanometer needle at the receiving point.”

Mahlon Loomis obtained US Patent No. 129,971, titled “Improvement in Telegraphing,” for his wireless aerial telegraph July 30, 1872.

“The nature of my invention or discovery consists, in general terms, of utilizing natural electricity [the atmosphere] and establishing an electrical current or circuit for telegraphic and other purposes without the aid of wires, artificial batteries, or cables to form such electrical circuit,” he stated in the patent description.

Loomis envisioned tall towers with masts on high peaks of the Rocky Mountains in North America and the European Alps, designed to harness atmospheric electricity as key components of an aerial telegraph system capable of transoceanic communication.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune wrote Jan. 30, 1873, “This aerial telegraph scheme is a novel thing. The plan of Dr. Loomis, the inventor, is to telegraph from a high point of the Rocky Mountains to the highest attainable peak of the Alps, at which point a tower is to be erected, on the top of which a huge mast is to be placed.”

The article continued, “An apparatus capable of collecting electricity is to be put upon the upper end of this mast, by means of which, at such elevation, it is claimed a strata of the atmosphere will be reached which is charged with electricity.”

“Ground connections, the same as in ordinary telegraphy, will be erected. This electrified strata of the atmosphere will, as with the ordinary single wire and ground connection, make a complete circuit, and it is claimed that the slightest pulsation of electricity at one tower will produce similar pulsation at the other,” the article concluded.

Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts (1811 to 1874) advocated Loomis’s wireless telegraphy research and helped secure congressional approval for his company’s incorporation.

The US Congress passed “CHAP. XLV [Chapter 45] – An Act to incorporate the Loomis Aerial Telegraph Company,” March 3, 1873, which had been introduced by Senator Sumner.

President Ulysses S. Grant (1822 to 1885) signed the bill incorporating the Loomis Aerial Telegraph Co., authorizing it to have a capital stock of $200,000 (about $5.26 million in the present).

The capital stock dollar amount was not a direct government grant; instead, the bill allowed the company to seek up to $200,000 in funding from private investors for developing wireless telegraphy.

Scientists and engineers of the time were struggling to grasp the concept of communication without wires, and some dismissed Mahlon Loomis’s proposed aerial telegraph system as “impractical.”

Loomis was experimenting with atmospheric electricity, a concept that didn’t include the electromagnetic waves central to today’s modern wireless radio technology.

He encountered significant challenges due to the irregular nature of atmospheric electrical charges, making long-distance signal generation and detection difficult.

“The Panic of 1873” caused a financial crisis and economic depression in the US and Europe that lasted from September 1873 to 1879, severely limited funding, research, and development at the Loomis Aerial Telegraph Company.

Despite poor health and public skepticism, Loomis continued experimenting and promoting wireless telegraphy.

Dr. Mahlon Loomis died Oct. 13, 1886, in Terra Alta, WV, at the age of 60.

He is buried in Terra Alta Cemetery, which overlooks the mountains where he conducted his wireless experiments.

The Loomis Aerial Telegraph Company, which depended on Dr. Loomis’s vision and efforts, ceased operations not long after his death.

Loomis’s experiments with wireless communication using atmospheric electricity predate Guglielmo Marconi’s initial development of radio technology using electromagnetic waves.

The time difference between Dr. Loomis’s US patent (1872) and Guglielmo Marconi’s British patent, No. 12,039 (1897), is 25 years.

In a Sept. 7, 1930, article in The Baltimore Sun, Harold R. Manakee quoted a letter Dr. Mahlon Loomis wrote to his brother, George, shortly before he died in 1886:

“In the distant future, when the possibilities of the discovery, as I see them, are more fully developed, public attention will be directed to its originator, and the congressional records will furnish the undisputable evidence that the credit belongs to me. But what good then?”

In 1966, the West Virginia Historic Commission erected a marker at the entrance of the Terra Alta Cemetery that reads:

“In the cemetery is buried Dr. Mahlon Loomis, sender of first aerial signals, 1866 to 1873, forerunner of wireless telegraphy. Signals were sent 14 miles using kites flown by copper wires. Patented 1872; company chartered by Congress, 1873.”

Dr. Mahlon Loomis’s journals and drawings are preserved in the Library of Congress.

Loomis’s unrealized vision reminds us that innovation often faces obstacles, and that true progress demands both ingenuity and perseverance.

The wireless ‘Aerial Telegraph’

© Mark Ollig

Mahlon Loomis was born in Oppenheim, New York, on July 20, 1826.

Although some online sources list different birth dates, his headstone in Terra Alta Cemetery, Terra Alta, West Virginia, clearly states July 20, 1826, making it the most reliable date.

Mahlon Loomis’s father, Professor Nathan Loomis (1794 – 1876), was a teacher and writer who inspired Mahlon’s interest in science through his background in astronomy and mathematics and his contributions to the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac.

Samuel F.B. Morse conceived the electric telegraph in 1832 and built a working model by 1835 using a basic signaling code he developed.

By 1838, he collaborated with Alfred Vail to finalize the practical Morse Code we know today.

In 1840, Morse was granted U.S. Patent 1,647, titled “Improvement in the Mode of Communicating Information by Signals by the Application of Electro-Magnetism,” for his telegraph.

In the mid-1800s, the telegraph system was connecting cities and towns along wires strung on telegraph poles.

The wires were powered by wet-cell batteries, primarily Daniell cells, which used glass jars containing a zinc electrode immersed in zinc sulfate solution and a copper electrode in copper sulfate solution.

The batteries were typically housed in telegraph offices or individual stations spaced along the telegraph pole line.

On May 2, 1854, now Dr. Mahlon Loomis (a dentist since 1849) obtained U.S. patent 10,847 titled “Artificial Teeth” for developing a new denture manufacturing process entirely out of porcelain.

In 1860, Loomis also experimented with electricity, using metal plates and a battery to generate electrical currents in the soil of his garden to enhance plant growth.

Around this same time, he began experimenting with kites flown with attached copper wires to capture electrical charges from the upper atmosphere, as he planned to use this natural source of electricity.

Loomis observed that one kite could affect the atmospheric electrical activity of a distant kite, hinting at an aerial interconnectedness that inspired him to explore harnessing this phenomenon for wireless communication.

On Oct. 24, 1861, Western Union completed the first transcontinental wired electric telegraph, connecting the eastern and western United States.

Familiar with the telegraph’s capabilities and its reliance on wires, Loomis turned his attention to using atmospheric electrical charges for a wireless telegraph network.

He ultimately sought to replace the long stretches of wires strung on poles between telegraph stations and their batteries with a wireless system that used what he believed to be a natural source of electricity in the upper atmosphere as the pathway for transmitting signals.

While his initial experiments often involved copper-meshed kites with attached copper wires, Loomis later experimented with balloons covered in a metallic gilt to enhance conductivity.

These balloons, connected to copper wires, were intended to reach greater altitudes, accessing what he believed was a more stable, conductive layer of the atmosphere for what Loomis called an “aerial telegraph” system.

On Feb. 20, 1864, Loomis penned in his journal, “I have been for years trying to study out a process by which telegraphic communications may be made across the ocean without any wires, and also from point to point on the earth, dispensing with wires.”

In October 1866, Loomis conducted a wireless telegraphy demonstration in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

Politicians, including Sen. Samuel Pomeroy of Kansas and Congressman John A. Bingham of Ohio, along with unnamed scientists, witnessed the demonstration.

In one of his drawings, Loomis wrote that this experiment took place 14 miles apart between two mountaintops, Bear’s Den and Catoctin Mountain.

He noted, “The signals perfect during this cloudy, moist day. Elevation about fifteen hundred feet, which was likely the estimated height needed to establish a line-of-sight connection between the two kites to access the atmospheric layer he believed supported electrical signal transmission.

The kites are covered in a light copper mesh.

Each kite was connected to 600-foot-long copper wires that ran down the mountain.

One kite acted as a transmitting aerial and the other as a receiving antenna.

The transmitting antenna kite sent signals through the air to the aerial receiving antenna kite, which was connected to a galvanometer that could detect electric currents.

As Loomis produced a make-and-break signal by physically interrupting the circuit on the transmitting kite, a visible deflection of the needle on the receiving kite’s galvanometer confirmed that the interruption had influenced the flow of electricity between the two kites.

Witnesses to the experiment noted the galvanometer’s needle deflection which was an expected outcome when an electrical circuit was completed or interrupted.

Loomis felt that he had successfully influenced the atmospheric electrical connection between the kites, a phenomenon he interpreted as transmitting signals wirelessly.

“Sent signals by aerial telegraph between these two stations by elevating a kite on each mountain,” Loomis wrote on the drawing he made of this experiment.

Loomis’s 1866 experimental setup used a transmitting kite connected to the ground by a copper wire for sending signals through the upper atmosphere to a similarly grounded receiving kite, completing an electrical circuit pathway, as indicated by the galvanometer registering the signals.

He envisioned this type of wireless transmission could replace traditional telegraph wires.

Loomis’s attention to using the upper atmosphere as the primary conducting medium for wireless telegraphy was a pioneering step in the development of wireless technology.

Don’t miss next week’s conclusion of Dr. Mahlon Loomis’s ascent toward a wireless aerial telegraph system.

‘Tomorrow is Yesterday’ and today is the future

© Mark Ollig

In January 1925, Dr. Lee De Forest, inventor of the Audion vacuum tube, predicted human telepathy would be commonplace within a century. 

While we are not yet mind-melding with each other, the field of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) is advancing rapidly. 

Advancements in artificial intelligence are improving our understanding of brain function, and we are also nearing the ability to create images from brain activity.

While BCIs may not be true telepathy, they are leading to significant breakthroughs in visualizing a person’s thoughts.

In the March 1925 issue of The Nation’s Health, Dr. Edwin E. Slosson, director of Science Service, predicted in “The Future of Food” that traditional farms would disappear by 2025, replaced by synthetic foods created in laboratories.

While traditional farms remain dominant, alternative food sources – such as lab-grown meat and vegan plant-based alternatives – are becoming popular and are being sold in stores.

In 1924, Richard Ranger of Radio Corporation of America (RCA) invented a photoradiogram for wirelessly transmitting photographs via radio transmission. 

On Nov. 29, 1924, his system sent a photograph of President Calvin Coolidge from New York City to London, marking the first transoceanic radio transmission of a photograph.

On Nov. 30, 1925, in the New York Times, Ranger predicted that newspapers with photos and text would be printed at home, with news transmitted by radio waves reproduced on paper using home receivers. 

Radio facsimile involves scanning an image, converting it into a modulated radio signal, and transmitting it over the airwaves. A receiver would then demodulate and print the image. 

Early pioneers of the facsimile technology, like William G. H. Finch developed systems to transmit “radio newspapers” using home radio receivers and special paper.

RCA, along with newspapers such as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, operated radio facsimile services. 

On Dec. 12, 1938, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch launched the world’s first regular broadcast of facsimile newspapers via W9XZY. The broadcasted newspaper was nine pages, each 8.5 inches long and four columns wide, in 7-point type.

By the 1960s, machines such as the Xerox Magnafax Telecopier used telephone lines for faster transmission. 

However, the rise of the internet and email in the 1980s ultimately led to the decline of fax technology. Today, wireless technologies such as cellular, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth dominate the world of printing and data transfer.

Although radio facsimile never achieved a large public use, it did lay the groundwork for modern fax machines.

In 1925, publications such as Popular Mechanics magazine and aviation pioneers like Glenn Curtiss (1878-1930) predicted that personal aircraft would become as commonplace as automobiles. 

Today, privately owned miniature aircraft and helicopters are becoming increasingly seen.

Advancements in electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) technologies may make personal aircraft more commonly seen within the next 100 years.

Some 1925 predictions about automated homes with “electric servants” that clean, cook, wash, iron, and automatically control temperature and humidity have partially come true. 

Today’s smart homes and businesses commonly feature automated control of lighting, heating, security systems, appliances, and other devices, such as robot vacuum cleaners.

In 1925, speculative discussions about a transatlantic tunnel were proposed, but due to the engineering challenges, no serious plans were pursued. 

While the 31.3-mile Channel Tunnel (Chunnel) connecting the U.K. and France was inaugurated in 1994, a direct New York to London tunnel remains largely speculative.

Recently, however, Elon Musk, CEO of The Boring Company, has expressed interest in making a transatlantic tunnel spanning approximately 3,400 miles from London to New York a reality, at an estimated cost of around $20 billion. 

Musk proposed a high-speed transportation system, the Hyperloop, using pods traveling through low-pressure tubes using magnetic levitation, minimizing air resistance, could travel at speeds of up to 3,000 mph, with a transatlantic travel time of about 60 minutes.

The 31-mile stretch of the Channel Tunnel took six years to complete. If built at the same pace as the Channel Tunnel, a transatlantic tunnel would take over 700 years to complete.

In his 1925 book “The Future,” engineer Archibald Montgomery Low predicted technological advancements, including “automatic telephones” that could connect calls without dialing, foreshadowing modern speed dialing and automated hotlines.

Low also envisioned radio alarm clocks, television and space exploration, including space stations. He predicted wireless communication in cars, with vehicles equipped for calls and information access via wireless telephones.

Today, this prediction is a reality with cellular phones, GPS and in-car Bluetooth. Low also foresaw everyday uses for wireless technology, such as in alarm clocks, thermostats and security systems.

Low also shared famed inventor and engineer Nikola Tesla’s vision of a future where power is transmitted wirelessly, a concept reflected in Tesla’s early 1900s Wardenclyffe Tower project, also known as Tesla Tower, in Shoreham, New York.

Today, we are using wireless power charging devices, though not on the grand scale either of them envisioned.

Low predicted that humans would control the climate within immense glass domes covering cities. 

While city-sized domes are not yet a reality, large-scale enclosed spaces like stadiums and biodomes with advanced HVAC systems partially fulfill his vision.

Examples include AT&T Stadium, which can hold more than 80,000 people; biodomes like the Eden Project, with a capacity of up to 1,000, and Biosphere 2, which can hold up to 1,200; and U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, which seats 73,000.

The Minneapolis Skyway System is the world’s most extensive continuous network of interconnected buildings, stretching 9.5 miles across 80 city blocks to form a massive, climate-controlled environment.

“The Future” can be read for free at Google Books using https://shorturl.at/CM1rq.

Reminiscent of the “Star Trek” series episode “Tomorrow Is Yesterday,” we find ourselves living in a future predicted in the past. 

Welcome to 2025.