Design:
Making Technology Work for Us :
- While innovation has probably never been discussed more, the most meaningful and broadly distributed positive impacts of technological change have slowed over generations in the United States. To keep building towards a better future for all, instead of just injecting VR tech into advertising, we will need different development models that have societal metrics, not just clicks or dollars.
Automatons:
- A different approach to bipedal movement makes for a robot that can deal with the complexities of the natural and human made worlds - a reminder that while nature can be a good starting point, mimicking it's structures and succeeding can be more difficult. Sometimes reinventing the wheel is the right approach. This robot is (as far as we know) going to stay in the Google/Alphabet stable, even as they sell off other robotics units.
Virtually There :
- Augmented Reality company Magic Leap has more patent filings, hinting at a world that will appear differently to audiences, depending on factors like age. It's not hard to imagine a paywall-tiered system where what we see is based on what we spend- class based consumption written right onto our eyeballs. It's a fascinating technology, let's hope developers figure out some better uses.
Building Things:
- When the focus is always on building new things and innovating, we devalue the vital task of maintenance. From crumbling infrastructure to short lived appliances, to transition to a sustainable future we're going to need many more maintainers.
- The global impact of fads: colored pencil manufacturers are having trouble keeping production high enough to meet demand, driven by the boom in coloring books for adults.