Each week Nikolas Badminton, Futurist Speaker, summarizes the top-5 future looking developments and news items that I find to be inspiring, interesting, concerning, or downright strange. Each day he reads through dozens of blogs and news websites to find those things that we should be aware of.
Note: ‘Future Trends’ replaces the ‘Top-5 Futures’ features that have run previously.
In Future Trends: Muscles, H-Bombs, and Drinking Robots we feature some amazing future technologies we should be aware of on today, January 8th, 2016.

Synthetic Muscles

Via Science@NASA

North Korea’s Hydrogen Bomb Test

North Korea said it tested its first hydrogen bomb, risking reigniting tensions with China and the U.S. after months of calm even as some experts cast doubt on the full extent of Pyongyang’s claim.
The reclusive regime tested the device at 10 a.m. local time, the official Korean Central News Agency said, and the blast triggered a magnitude 5.1 earthquake. But its claims to have detonated a hydrogen bomb — rather than a less powerful atomic bomb — immediately drew skepticism.

North Korea carried out the test “safely” and “perfectly” in an act of “self-defense” against its enemies, KCNA said. It “has confidently risen to the ranks of nuclear powers with hydrogen bombs by perfectly succeeding in the historic test of a hydrogen bomb,” Korean Central Television anchorwoman Ri Chun Hui said.

Via Bloomberg

Policing for Profit Visualized: How Big Is Civil Forfeiture?

Civil forfeiture laws pose some of the greatest threats to property rights in the nation today, too often making it easy and lucrative for law enforcement to take and keep property—regardless of the owner’s guilt or innocence. This updated and expanded second edition of Policing for Profit: The Abuse of Civil Asset Forfeiture makes the case for reform, grading the civil forfeiture laws of each state and the federal government, documenting remarkable growth in forfeiture activity across the country, and highlighting a worrisome lack of transparency surrounding forfeiture activity and expenditures from forfeiture funds.

Via Institute for Justice

Hyundai’s wild augmented reality owner’s manual

Hyundai has developed a digital owner’s manual that shows you how to fix your car. All you need to do is hold up your phone and the digital guide will tell you what to do. The Verge’s Jordan Golson takes his first hands-on look.

Via The Verge

ROBOT DRINKY: The Alcohol drinking Robot

Never drink alone again. An interesting development in personal robotics. I personally don;’t trust a robot that doesn’t get drunk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StEXXdhgRPs
See the last 4 week’s Our Amazing Future (Top-5 Futures) articles here:

• Top-5 Futures for December 25th: Step Aside Santa, We’ve Got Elon Musk

• Top-5 Futures for December 18th: Laser weapons on planes by 2020

• Top-5 Futures for December 11th: Bacteria Unlocks Immortality

• Top-5 Futures for December 4th: Biology and Big Data Converge

• Top-5 Futures for November 27th: The Cyberspace Revolution

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Nikolas Badminton is a world-respected futurist speaker that researches, speaks, and writes about the future of work, how technology is affecting the workplace, how workers are adapting, the sharing economy, and how the world is evolving. He appears at conferences in Canada, USA, UK, and Europe. Email him to book him for your radio, TV show, or conference.