Research

Research

A living, AI-maintained knowledge base on emerging technology topics. Each area collects structured profiles of technologies, companies, and people driving change.

📋 View Changelog — Track recent additions and updates to the knowledge base.

Topic Areas

  • AI Accelerators — GPU and AI accelerator hardware: AMD Instinct, rack-scale systems, interconnect ecosystems
  • Atmospheric Water Generation — Sorbent-based (MOF) and condensation-based technologies for extracting fresh water from air humidity, and the startups commercializing them
  • Datacenters — Physical datacenter infrastructure: cooling, power, construction, rugged edge compute
  • Drone Detection — C-UAS detection methods, hardware, open-source tools, and counter-drone platforms for critical infrastructure protection
  • Energy — Solar, batteries, nuclear, energy resources, and grid market structure/policy
  • Large Format Additive Manufacturing (LFAM) — Industrial-scale 3D printing: gantry and robotic pellet extrusion, WAAM for metal naval components, defense and aerospace applications
  • Local AI Tools — Local-first AI applications: voice cloning/TTS/STT studios, inference runtimes, and MCP agent-voice integration
  • Local LLM Fine-Tuning — Building and fine-tuning specialist LLMs for edge deployment: training data, compute options, and network engineer expert models
  • Post-Quantum Encryption — NIST PQC standards adoption across networking hardware and cryptocurrency infrastructure
  • Quantum Computing — Quantum computing hardware, software, and the race toward practical quantum advantage
  • Relocation Research — City and county relocation profiles evaluated against a consistent set of livability criteria, benchmarked to coastal South Carolina
  • Robotics — Robotics platforms, sensors, actuators, and autonomy software; includes Humanoid Robots subsection (US and non-US companies, autonomy claims, specialized robot debate)
  • Semiconductors — Fabrication equipment, materials, and supply chain enabling advanced node chip manufacturing
  • Software Philosophy — Foundational ideas shaping how software is designed: Unix philosophy, composability, open source, and their critics

Sections

  • AI Accelerators — GPU and AI accelerator hardware for datacenter-scale training and inference, including rack-scale systems and interconnect ecosystems.
  • Atmospheric Water Generation — Technologies and companies extracting potable water directly from air humidity, with a focus on metal-organic framework (MOF) sorbent materials and the startups commercializing them.
  • Datacenter Opposition — Research section covering opposition to datacenter construction and operation across the United States — project tracker, organizing groups, funding networks, state-by-state breakdown, legislative actions, and tactical analysis.
  • Datacenter Research — Research on next-generation datacenter design, construction, cooling, automation, power, and distributed compute — covering the infrastructure race to power AI workloads.
  • Drone Detection — Detection methods, hardware, software, and open-source tools for identifying unauthorized drones at critical infrastructure, including drone-vs-bird discrimination.
  • Energy Research — Research on emerging energy technologies including solar, batteries, grid storage, virtual power plants, and the grid market structures that enable or constrain them.
  • Large Format Additive Manufacturing (LFAM) — Industrial 3D printing systems capable of producing parts meters in scale — composite tooling, structural hulls, aerospace molds, and defense components. Covers gantry and robotic pellet extrusion, wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM), key system vendors, materials supply chain, and defense/aerospace applications.
  • Local AI Tools — Open-source and independently developed applications for running AI models entirely on local hardware — voice, text, and multimodal tools that compete with cloud-hosted equivalents.
  • Local LLM Fine-Tuning — How to build, fine-tune, and deploy small specialist LLMs on local hardware — from base model selection through training data curation, compute options, and edge deployment.
  • Post-Quantum Encryption — Research on post-quantum cryptography (PQC): NIST-standardized algorithms, vendor implementation timelines, and adoption across networking and cryptocurrency infrastructure.
  • Quantum Computing Research — Research on quantum computing hardware, software, and the companies and researchers building toward practical quantum advantage.
  • Relocation Research — City and county level research evaluating potential relocation destinations against a consistent set of livability criteria.
  • Robotics Research — Research on commercial robotics platforms, components, and the companies and people building them.
  • Semiconductors — Semiconductor design, fabrication, and supporting supply chain — chips, equipment, materials, and the companies enabling advanced node manufacturing.
  • Software Philosophy — Ideas, principles, and design philosophies that have shaped how software is built — from Unix to open source.

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