Dark Future Ahead 18 – News from the ‘Net of a Cyberpunk bent

Still keeping my optics working looking for news to apply to your cyberpunk games and writings.

A way to defend against counterfeit drugs and maybe food too, miniature edible barcodes.  Inexpensive, practical and readable with a slight modification of a smart phone.

For some reason, the idea of edible food wrappers just seems very cyberpunk to me.  Full of advertising and nutrition!

This article is a little dated, from January of this year, but the images of offshore oil rigs parked in the North Sea off Scotland give you an instant and exciting place to set a mission.

They are watching you, Persistent Surveillance Systems, provides real time airborne camera coverage covering 30-square miles and running for hours upon end.  The privacy questions are many but why would megacorporations care about such?

DARPA is working on a system of battlefield drones for similar “persistent, wide-area surveillance” to watch out for other people’s drones, of course they would only use the technology for that one purpose, right?

Back in DFA16 we looked at wooden buildings for the future, now a seven story wooden building is being finished in Minneapolis.

What visions of the coming dark (green?) future have you seen recently?