The choices we make today shape our world tomorrow.
Author mpescePosted on A recent experiment showed that any AI can be ‘turned to the dark side’ simply by reframing its goals. It’s surprisingly easy – and that points to a big problem.
If you’d like to read the paper – published in Nature – click here.
Author mpescePosted on We turn to the experts – Jason Calacanis, Sally Dominguez, Ramez Naam, Drew Smith, Mark Jeffrey and Tony Parisi – to learn their predictions for the future of work, sustainable energy, transportation, cryptocurrencies and the metaverse.
Author mpescePosted on At the start of 2021 I made four big predictions for the year about digital currencies, the transition to a sustainable economy, geopolitics and social media. How did I score? (Hint: I got to grade myself.)
Author mpescePosted on A new series, a new podcast production partner – and a new theme: WORLDCHANGING, bringing together amazing talent, tools, and a driving need change the world in this decade! We’re bringing you WORLDCHANGING stories in series 6 of The Next Billion Seconds.
Have a look at Saul Griffith’s amazing new book, The Big Switch: Australia’s electric future
And – if you use Microsoft Windows – you can have a play with that early metaverse software that Tony Parisi and I wrote, nearly 30 years ago – just go here.
Author mpescePosted on We worry that doing ‘the right thing’ for the climate will be hard yards. Three simple, easy changes show us how much we can do – and how empowered we already are to fix this problem.
Here’s the New York Times reporting on the rains in Greenland.
A recent survey of 16-25 year olds reveals the majority feel ‘doomed’ because of climate change.
Our World in Data visualises an ugly truth: Australians emit more carbon per person than almost everyone else.
What to do?
CHOICE shows you how to identify and switch over to a renewable electricity generator. Switching to a renewable electricity generator does more to lower your carbon emissions than any other single act. Let’s do this!
Author mpescePosted on Inventor Saul Griffith has a radical proposal: electrify everything, saving energy, money, and cutting emissions almost to zero. It simultaneouisly transforms the costs of climate change into enormous opportunities. Co-host Sally Dominguez explores three amazing new battery technologies.
A must-read companion to SUSTAIN:
Saul Griffith’s forthcoming book ELECTRIFY is, well, an electrifying read that makes the clear, and obvious case that electrifying everything (coupled with renewable generation) is the win-win solution for the planet and our economy. Pre-order it here.
Sally Dominguez loves sodium-ion batteries, and here’s a report about why they may come to rival the dominant Lithium-ion batteries we use today…
Sally and I both love ‘structural batteries’ – they’ll allow us to store electricity pretty much everywhere, in pretty much everything. Read about them here.
Author mpescePosted on The recent UN report on climate change gives us about twelve years to really reign in our carbon emissions. That means it’s time to think clearly and methodically about how to get the most benefit for the least pain. We can do this!
At nearly 4000 pages, the IPCC Sixth Report on the Physical Science of Climate Change isn’t a quick read — but the first hundred or so pages contain the condensed facts. Everything you need to know to make decisions today to keep us on SSP1 – the path toward no more than 1.5ºC warming. Grab it here.
Author mpescePosted on Co-host Sally Dominguez and special correspondent Drew Smith explore the many facets of vehicle electrification with Mark. EVs are finally happening – but does that make them inevitable?
(Pictured: GMC’s new Hummer EV SUV, coming at the end of 2021)
Author mpescePosted on Prediction: All cash will be digital by 2030, revolutionising how we spend, save and invest.
Series 5 launches with bold predictions for the next decade – starting with the incredible transformations happening to money.
Author mpescePosted on We’re rapidly erasing the boundary between the make-believe worlds of video games and the real world of sensors and visualisation. Microsoft’s Flight Simulator 2020 allows you to fly over the whole world – with all the cities and countryside presented in detail – just as they are in reality. Is it now possible to “fly” through everything we know about the world – from ground level, up to the heavens?
In this episode we’re joined once again by the amazing Dr. Mike Zyda – founder of the Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California. In 1997, Mike authored a hugely influential study that got the US military to adopt video game technologies for simulation.
One of his first projects was “America’s Army” – a video game that simulates the training recruits undergo on their way to becoming soldiers.
The boundaries between simulation and visualisation become very blurry when we head up into Near Earth Orbit – that’s everything below about 1000km above Earth’s surface.
Andreas Antoniades’ firm Saber Astronautics uses a mixture of observation, simulation, and visualisation to create a ‘mission control’ that looks, well, a lot like it would if you were in space (click “Login as Guest” below to see it for yourself):
Once again, big thanks to my nephew Andy for sharing with us his experiences of flying a Cessna 152 – both in simulation and for real!
For a century, public health officials have contained pandemics by tracing outbreaks. COVIDsafe promises to do this – can we trust it?
How does contact tracking work? And did host Mark Pesce almost accidentally invent Bluetooth contact tracking during some experimenting back in 2005?
Dr. Genevieve Bell offers insights into the history of contact tracing – and how old ideas about sickness can be baked into the newest of our technologies.
Dr. Bell recently wrote a long and clear article on this topic for TECHNOLOGY REVIEW.
Toward the end of 2005, Mark Pesce did some ‘pinging’ of Bluetooth devices from his mobiles, and learned that a lot of other Bluetooth mobiles would answer his pings. He wrote it up in a paper:
The following year, working with artist John Tonkin, they created ‘Bluestates‘ – using Bluetooth contact tracking to generate ‘social graphs’ – maps of who associated with who – for ISEA 2006 in San Jose California. It got a fair bit of attention at the time, including a review in The New York Times. Here’s a short movie of how John Tonkin visualised the contact tracking data Mark Pesce gathered:
Author mpescePosted on We see superheroes on cinema screens – but what about our technological superpowers? Naming these new powers helps to understand them, and the amazing Aaron Z. Lewis has given us a pantheon of seven ‘new gods‘ – that we seem to believe in. Now that we know the shape of these new ‘gods’, does that mean we’re not as beholden to them?
This was all sparked by Aaron’s original essay “Metaphors We Believe By: The pantheon of 2019” – it’s a great read, find it here.
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