My wife and I were recently driving in Virginia, amazed yet again that the GPS technology on our phones could guide us through a thicket of highways, around road accidents and toward our precise destination. The artificial intelligence (AI) behind the soothing voice telling us where to turn has...
The world has changed radically over the past 200 years. At the same time, some of the most critical institutions in the most powerful nations either haven’t noticed the change or are so committed to an archaic worldview that they can no longer adapt to conditions they refuse to understand. They...
The real origins of the iPhone’s power stem from the pioneering efforts of communication innovators that preceded the AT&T engineers of the 1920s.
Since people invented writing, communications technology has become steadily more high-bandwidth, pervasive and persuasive, taking a commensurate toll on human attention and cognition. In that bandwidth war between machines and humans, the machines’ latest weapon is a class of statistical...
Past the glow of the Shanghai evening, a single red beam threads its way into the silent stratosphere. It is a laser originating from a laboratory whose machinery few can operate or explain. The laser is meant to bounce off a distant satellite before returning for the purpose of encrypting an...
Some people are concerned that the latest generation of powerful technology tools now being developed and deployed may undermine important features of civilized societies and human life itself. Notably, Elon Musk is so worried about the danger of artificial intelligence (AI) that he invested in...
It is unquestionably inspiring that the Black Lives Matter movement has inspired millions of Americans to question their understandings of race, policing, justice and the true nature of history. It represents, perhaps, the most hopeful global development in this most tumultuous year....
Human attention is a scarce, yet commercially valuable resource today, and social media competes for access to it. The wealth of digital connectivity and advances in browsing and filtering gives internet users more options and increases their perceived control over cyberspace. However, this is...
No one doubts that Elon Musk is rich, which, according to a fundamental axiom of US culture, suggests that he is smart. Everyone knows the proverbial wisdom often directed at a category of humanity called losers: “If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich?” Musk himself has...
