By 2050, a completely new type of human evolve as a result of extremely new technology, behavior, and natural selection. This is according to Cadell Last, a researcher at the Global Brain Institute, who claims mankind is undergoing a major “evolutionary transition”.

    In less than four decades, Mr. Last claims we will live longer, have children in old age and rely on artificial intelligence to do ordinary and boring tasks. This shift is so significant, he claims, it is comparable to the change from monkeys to apes, and apes to humans. “Your 80 or 100 is going to be so radically different than your grandparents,” Mr. Last says, who believes we will spend much of our time living in virtual reality. Some evolutionary scientists believe this age could be as high as 120 by 2050.

    Mr. Last claims humans will also demonstrate delayed sexual maturation, according to a report by Christina Sterbenz in Business Insider. This refers to something known as life history theory which attempts to explain how natural selection shapes key events in a creature's life, such as reproduction. It suggests that as brain sizes increase, organisms need more energy and time to reach their full potential, and so reproduce less.

    Instead of living fast and dying younger, Mr. Last believes humans will live slow and die old. “Global society at the moment is a complete mess,” he told MailOnline. “But in crisis there is opportunity, and in apocalypse (启示) there can be transformation. So I think the next system humanity creates will be far more sophisticated, fair, and abundant than our current civilization.”

    “I think our next system will be as different from the modern world, as our contemporary world is from the medieval (中世纪的) world. The biological clock isn't going to be around forever,” he added, and said that people could pause it for some time using future technology.

    The change is already happening. Today, the average age at which a woman in Britain has her first baby has been rising steadily stands at 29. 8. In the US, just one percent of first children were born to women over the age of 35 in 1970. By 2012, that figure rose to 15 percent.

    “As countries become socio-economically advanced, more and more people, especially women have the option to engage in cultural reproduction,” Mr. Last added. And as well as having more child-free years to enjoy leisure time, he believes artificial intelligence will make up the need for low-skill jobs. We may also spend a large amount of time living in virtual reality. “I'm not quite sure most people have really absorbed the implications of this possibility,” Mr. Last said.

    His views are detailed in a paper, titled “Human Evolution, Life History Theory, and the End of Biological Reproduction" published Current Aging Science.

    Last month I was lucky enough to have a chance to make a trip into space with my friend Li Yanping, an astronomer. We visited the moon in our spaceship!

    Before we left, Li Yanping explained to me that the force of gravity would change three times on our journey and that the first change would be the most powerful. Then we were off. As the rocket rose into the air, we were pushed back into our seats because we were trying to escape the pull of the earth's gravity. It was so hard that we could not say anything to each other. Gradually the weight lessened and I was able to talk to him. "Why is the spaceship not falling back to the earth? On the earth if I fall from a tree I will fall to the ground." I asked. "We are too far from the earth now to feel its pull, " he explained, "so we feel as if there is no gravity at all. When we get closer to the moon, we shall feel its gravity pulling us, but it will not be as strong a pull as the earth's. " I cheered up immediately and floated weightlessly around in our spaceship cabin watching the earth become smaller and the moon larger.

    When we got there, I wanted to explore immediately. "Come on," I said. "If you are right, my mass will be less than on the earth because the moon is smaller and I will be able to move more freely. I might even grow taller if I stay here long enough. I shall certainly weigh less!" I laughed and climbed down the steps from the spaceship. But when I tried to step forward, I found I was carried twice as far as on the earth and fell over. "Oh dear," I cried, "walking does need a bit of practice now that gravity has changed." After a while I got the hang of it and we began to enjoy ourselves.

    Slowly, so slowly that we never even noticed how it happened, our family stopped talking to each other. Our own worlds opened up to us through the computer or the cell phone or the CD player.

    Family Night was born when Mom called us for dinner. Jessica and I came and sat down. Dad loaded his plate and started to rise from the table.

    “Where are you going?” Mom questioned.

    “To the living room. I have some work,” Dad replied as he hurried away. Mom's face got tight, but she said nothing. About two minutes later, my cell phone buzzed. Jessica kept her earphones on during most of the meal. Mom was clearly upset.

    Family Night started the next week. Mom established three rules: no phones, no music, and no leaving the table. Everyone would eat together and play a game together “like a real family.”

    All seemed to be going according to Mom's plan until the first buzz of a cell phone. After dinner, we had been playing the board game for only ten minutes when another cell phone let out a shrill scream. This time the phone belonged to my father.

    “Work's calling. I have to answer,” he whispered as he hurried out of the room.

    Mom sighed, but she forced a smile and encouraged us to continue with the game. We kept playing through every interruption afterwards: the beeping of Jessica's phone, the buzz of another text message from Darnell, the soothing voice announcing the arrival of an e-mail on Dad's computer. When the game was over, Mom released us to our rooms.

    That first Family Night was not a success, but Mom soldiered on. Every Monday evening we silenced our electronics and gathered around the table; and each time, setting aside our technological toys became a little easier. The next two months my father would be taking business trips. We wouldn't be able to have Family Night every Monday.

    To my surprise I realized that I would miss those few hours each week when the house was filled with my family's laughter and conversation. I was also glad to know that when we really wanted to, we could silence the electronic buzz and just be a family again.

    Google, hoping to put down a protest by employees upset that the technology they were working on could be used for deadly purposes, will not renew a contract with the Pentagon(五角大楼) for artificial intelligence work when a current deal expires next year.

    Diane Greene, who is the head of the Google Cloud business that won a contract with the Pentagon's Project Maven, said during a weekly meeting with employees Friday that the company was backing away from its AI work with the military, according to a person familiar with the discussion but not permitted to speak publicly about it.

    Google's work with the Defense Department on the Maven program, which uses artificial intelligence to interpret video images and could be used to improve the targeting of drone strikes, riled the internet giant's workforce.

    About 4,000 Google employees signed a petition(请愿书) demanding "a clear policy stating that neither Google nor its contractors will ever build warfare technology," and a handful of employees resigned in protest.

    The money for Google in the Project Maven contract was never large by the standards of a company with profit of $110 billion last year — $9 million, one official told employees, or a possible $15 million over 18 months, according to an internal email.

    But some company officials saw it as an opening to much greater revenue down the road. In an email last September, a Google official in Washington told colleagues she expected Maven to grow into a $250 million-a-year project, and eventually it could have helped open the door to contracts worth far more.

    Every morning, Ben Mumford starts his school day with math. At the age of ten, he is already working at GCSE level, but he does not always bother to get out of his pajamas (睡衣裤) in time for the class. He reads more books than most of his friends, studies science on the beach, and recently built a go-kart (卡丁车) in a technology lesson. Ben is happy and fulfilled, all, his mother believes, thanks to homeschooling.

    Homeschooling is not what it used to be. What emerged in the 1970s as a way for Catholic (信天主教的) parents to infuse (灌输) religion into their kids' education is now probably the fastest-growing form of education in the U.K. The number of homeschooled children has risen by about 40 percent over three years. Here are a handful of reasons why homeschooling makes sense in the 21^st century.

    Contrary to the name, homeschooling takes place in an actual home only a small part of time. A great deal of instruction happens in libraries, museums and community colleges. These experiences have the effect of helping kids mature much more quickly and developing a trait of open-mindedness.

    The key idea of homeschooling is that kids need to learn at the speed, and in the style, most appropriate for them. Without formal curriculum to guide their education, homeschoolers get the chance to explore a range of topics that might not be normally offered until high school or college. They can study psychology in the fourth grade, or finance in the eighth grade.

    The most common misunderstanding about homeschoolers is that they lack social skills. However, social media makes it convenient for homeschoolers of today to have just as much opportunity to make friends as kids studying in traditional schools. Meanwhile, they do not need to deal with the potential problems of being around kids in a school environment, including bullying, which might result in anxiety and depression.

    For most people, school is really good, and it works for them because they learn in the way that school teaches. However, there are so many different ways of learning and processing (处理) information and knowledge. It does not necessarily work for everyone.

Bright and early on the morning of our first full day in Antarctica, L' Austral's Captain Fabien's voice woke us up as it came through a loudspeaker. If we looked outside right now, he said, we'd see a beautiful sea of icebergs in the golden sunlight. My sister and I jumped out of bed, staring in amazement as we sailed past giant pieces of ice. In the distance, we spotted a group of humpback whales feeding on smaller fishes. Next door, my parents were also waking up to the sights of a new day in Antarctica. Over breakfast, my sister and I excitedly told them about the whales we saw from our room that morning.

You might not immediately think of "family vacation" when talking about a trip to Antarctica, but tour companies like Adventures by Disney are changing that. The company offers guided group trips to destinations across all seven continents in the world.

Our adventure started when we flew to Buenos Aires and explored the beautiful Argentine capital for a day. After leaving Buenos Aires, we flew to Ushuaia on an Adventures by Disney plane. Then, it was the journey toward the Drake Passage. After a speedy Drake Passage crossing, we reached Antarctica early, adding a half day to our scheduled four days on and around the continent.

To those unfamiliar with Adventures by Disney, the fact that you can experience Antarctica-the most distant, extreme continent-with Disney might be surprising. During the trip, there were thoughtful acts, from stamped postcards to send from an Antarctica post office to a champagne (香槟) party on our final stop of the journey; Adventures by Disney truly thought of everything for us. Antarctica is a life-changing destination packed with experiences that can't be copied. We experienced seasickness when travelling across the Drake Passage, hiked up ice hills alongside lovely animals, and had a taste of champagne. And honestly, it's going to be hard for the next family trip we may take to compete.