Science & Technology
Science & Technology
Fair Observer's analysis of key issues, discoveries and ethical dilemmas in science and inventions, breakthroughs and commercial applications of technology.
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By Juan VilloroA eulogy. Translation by Martin Villanueva Ordas. Steve Jobs was born in San Francisco in 1955, and grew up to the tunes of the Grateful Dead. Growing up in a psychedelic society, he saw the digital culture as a way to expand consciousness and make money with an extraordinary sense of taste. A cybernetic dandy, he conceived Apple in the way of a mirror, as an elegant surface capable of transmitting you into your inner self. His path would be unorthodox, or would not be at all. In 1976, he dropped out of college to devote himself to garage technology along with Steve Wozniak. Jobs provided the organizational talent and Wozniak the inventions. Had the association taken place in an observatory...
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The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed. —William Gibson, quoted in The Economist, December 4, 2003 In America, we love personalization: personal computers, personal trainers, and more recently, personalized medicine. Because we especially prize individuality, the ground is fertile for developing services that cater to individualized preferences and needs. Personalized education is no exception; we have a growing drive to individualize and maximize how each student learns. Because the parallels between personalized medicine and personalized education are enlightening, let’s start with personalized medicine. First of all, what is personalized...
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Europe’s combat aircraft manufacturers, in losing a potential sale to Japan, could see their future sales to Asia evaporate completely. This could leave the United States in an unassailable position as the world’s predominant fighter aircraft producer. On 21 December, Japan announced that it would purchase 42 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters (JSF), at a cost of US $2.73bn, or US $65mn per plane. It was the second win in Asia for the JSF (in 2007, Australia placed an initial order for 24 F-35s, and Canberra could acquire up to 100 aircraft). This order was the latest in a string of losses for the leading European fighter aircraft programmes, the Eurofighter Typhoon, and the French...
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Analysis of the similarities and differences between the ways that Google and Microsoft have grown as companies. Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs once warned Google co-founder Larry Page that the search giant was dangerously close to becoming another Microsoft—that is, a company that was spreading itself too thin by trying to do everything. In Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs, the late Apple leader recounted his advice to Page, who became Google's CEO last April: "Figure out what Google wants to be when it grows up. It's now all over the map. What are the five products you want to focus on? Get rid of the rest, because they're dragging you down. They're turning...
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*[This article was first published by Knowledge@Wharton on November 9, 2011] Analysis on the growing prevalence of cloud computing, on consumer preferences, and on the competition in the industry. Cloud computing is not only changing how users access software applications, it's also upending the pricing model for software products. Fading fast are the days when software packages were sold in boxes with a one-time, perpetual software license fee. Instead, consumers and businesses are increasingly turning to subscription models and are buying only those applications they need for particular tasks rather than broad, general-purpose suites. Meanwhile, software giants, which have...
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Educational achievement depends on a “growth” mindset and not a “fixed” mindset, and neuroscience tells us that hard work is a fundamental driver of achievement. American fourth and eighth graders’ national math scores are in. The numbers are sobering: 8th graders’ scores improved by three points and 4th graders’ scores improved by merely a point over the last 4 years. In international tests for math and science proficiency, American students have been close to the bottom of the rankings amongst developed countries for quite a while. This point was rubbed in when The New York Times detailed the plight of Indian teenagers who apply to top American...
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Co-authored with Will Rogers. The Arab Spring has offered some useful pointers for countries such as China about what works in suppressing dissent -- and what is counterproductive. As the Arab Spring turns to autumn, observers around the world are piecing together what happened this year, why, and where – if anywhere – it might happen next. And, as they have done so, the Internet’s role in aiding the dramatic political transformations has perhaps inevitably come to the fore. Throughout the Middle East, protestors have employed Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, cell phone texting and other technologies to organize and spread news at home and to the outside world. The use of...
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By Tim CayfordWould scientists really make good politicians? Insight into why this might be so. There are a handful of people these days who would like to see more scientists and engineers getting into politics (see Aug. 8, 2011 NYT article titled: “Groups call for Scientists to Engage the Body Politic”). In the midst of the personal convictions that the technically-minded should play their part in societal decision making, there is also an apparent skepticism that such convictions will ever lead to a pronouncedly scientific body politic. Not only do I reject this skepticism, I would argue that these groups who are encouraging their laboratory comrades to step to the podium need not be...