The next frontier Using thought to control machines
By: The Economist- Print edition January 4, 2018 TECHNOLOGIES are often billed as transformative. For William Kochevar, the term is justified. Mr Kochevar is paralysed below the shoulders after a cycling accident, yet has managed to feed himself by his own hand. This remarkable feat is partly thanks to electrodes, implanted in his right arm, […]
The rise of of the robots: risks to more jobs as minimum wage increase warns IFS
By: CITY A.M January 04, 2018 Higher minimum wage levels could tempt British employers to automate more jobs, risking a rise in unemployment, respected economists at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) will today warn. In research to be published today, the IFS will call for “extremely careful monitoring” of the effects of government increases […]
Neurotechnology, Elon Musk and the goal of human enhancement
By: The Guardian January 1, 2018 At the World Government Summit in Dubai in February, Tesla and SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk said that people would need to become cyborgs to be relevant in an artificial intelligence age. He said that a “merger of biological intelligence and machine intelligence” would be necessary to ensure we […]
UK’s poorest to fare worst in age of automation, thinktank warns
By: Richard Partington December 28, 2017 The rise of the machine economy risks social disruption by widening the gap between rich and poor in Britain, as automation threatens jobs generating £290bn in wages. Jobs accounting for a third of annual pay in the UK risk being automated, according to the study by the IPPR thinktank. […]
The Robots Are Coming, and Sweden Is Fine
By: New York Times December 27, 2017 GARPENBERG, Sweden — From inside the control room carved into the rock more than half a mile underground, Mika Persson can see the robots on the march, supposedly coming for his job here at the New Boliden mine. He’s fine with it. Sweden’s famously generous social welfare system […]
What the Tax Bill Fails to Address: Technology’s Tsunami
By: Farhad Manjoo March 28, 2017 Let’s pretend you have just been picked to run a small island nation. Congratulations! But don’t settle in to your throne quite yet. A potential catastrophe looms on the horizon. A huge tsunami is coming your way. Fortunately, there’s hope. Yours is a wealthy island. You can’t prevent the […]
A journey through a land of extreme poverty: welcome to America
By: The Guardian December 15, 2017 “You got a choice to make, man. You could go straight on to heaven. Or you could turn right, into that.” We are in Los Angeles, in the heart of one of America’s wealthiest cities, and General Dogon, dressed in black, is our tour guide. Alongside him strolls another […]
As corporate goliaths grow ever larger, Britain looks increasingly exposed
By: The Guardian December 10, 2017 We live in a world of corporate goliaths and the trend to gigantism is accelerating. The new era of hi-tech data capitalism has an embedded proclivity to monopoly. The bigger the network, whether Facebook or Google, the more valuable it is to be connected. Big is good in the […]
Autumn Budget 2017: UK gov pledges cash for 5G, AI and driverless cars
By: CNet November 22, 2017 MANBAG OWNER Philip Hammond on Wednesday delivered the government’s Autumn Budget, and while there is a clear focus on Brexit, there are some interesting announcements around technology. Much of the Chancellor’s announcements centred on emerging technologies that’ll impact our lives over the next few years. In particular, there’s a focus […]