Singularity Hub Staff
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This Week’s Awesome Stories From Around the Web (Through March 31)
SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
The Next Best Version of Me: How to Live Forever
David Ewing Duncan | Wired
“Church is one of the leaders of an initiative called the Genome Project-Write, or GP-Write, which is organizing the efforts...
Just a Few of the Amazing Things AI Is Doing in Healthcare
In an interview at Singularity University’s Exponential Medicine in San Diego, Neil Jacobstein shared some groundbreaking developments in artificial intelligence for healthcare.
Jacobstein is Singularity University’s faculty chair in AI and robotics, a distinguished visiting scholar at...
This Week’s Awesome Stories From Around the Web (Through March 24)
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
How the AI Cloud Could Produce the Richest Companies Ever
Peter Burrows | MIT Technology Review
“Amazon, Google, and Microsoft—and to a lesser extent companies like Apple, IBM, Oracle, Salesforce, and SAP—have the massive computing...
Republish Our Content—Singularity Hub Launches Creative Commons
It’s been a long time coming, but we’re excited to finally announce we have officially launched a new way for publishers to easily (and legally) republish our articles on their sites.
We believe an important...
This Week’s Awesome Stories From Around the Web (Through March 17)
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
China Wants to Shape the Global Future of Artificial Intelligence
Will Knight | MIT Technology Review
“China’s booming AI industry and massive government investment in the technology have raised fears in the US and elsewhere...
This Week’s Awesome Stories From Around the Web (Through March 10)
COMPUTING
Google Thinks It's Close to 'Quantum Supremacy.' Here's What That Really Means.
Martin Giles and Will Knight | MIT Technology Review
“Seventy-two may not be a large number, but in quantum computing terms, it’s massive. This...
This Week’s Awesome Stories From Around the Web (Through March 3)
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Inside the Alexa Prize
James Vlahos | Wired
“The fevered quest for conversational AI has pitted Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft in a battle for two vital resources. The first is finite: top-shelf PhDs...
This Week’s Awesome Stories From Around the Web (Through February 24)
COMPUTING
Serious Quantum Computers Are Finally Here. What Are We Going to Do With Them?
Will Knight | MIT Technology Review
"'The thing driving the hype is the realization that quantum computing is actually real,' says Isaac...
The Quest to Transform End-of-Life Medical Care Into a More Human Experience
In an interview at Singularity University’s Exponential Medicine in San Diego, Shoshana Ungerleider spoke about the taboo topic we all eventually confront—death.
Ungerleider is an expert in the field of end-of-life care and is working...
This Week’s Awesome Stories From Around the Web (Through February 17)
BIOTECH
In the Future We Won’t Edit Genomes—We’ll Just Print Out New Ones
Bryan Walsh | MIT Technology Review
“'Over the next 10 years synthetic biology is going to be producing all kinds of compounds and materials...
This Week’s Awesome Stories From Around the Web (Through February 10)
SPACE
Falcon Heavy Rocket Makes History With Successful First Launch
Michael Greshko | National Geographic
“'I'm still trying to absorb everything that happened. It seemed surreal to me,' SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in a post-launch press...
The Future of Digital Health: Personalized Health Care Beyond the Doctor’s Office
In an interview at Singularity University’s Exponential Medicine in San Diego, Leslie Saxon, founder and executive director of the USC Center for Body Computing, spoke about the Virtual Care Clinic her team is building.
The concept for...
This Week’s Awesome Stories From Around the Web (Through February 3)
CRYPTOCURRENCY
Making a Crypto Utopia in Puerto Rico
Nellie Bowles | The New York Times
“Dozens of entrepreneurs, made newly wealthy by blockchain and cryptocurrencies, are heading en masse to Puerto Rico this winter…And these men—because they are almost...
Why Nothing Cuts Through Complexity Like Visual Thinking
Dan Roam is a management consultant who uses visual thinking to make complicated ideas simple. His books Back of the Napkin and Draw to Win explain how anyone can use visual thinking to improve...
This Week’s Awesome Stories From Around the Web (Through January 27)
COMPUTING
China Wants to Make the Chips That Will Add AI to Any Gadget
Yiting Sun | MIT Technology Review
“The chip is just one example of an important trend sweeping China’s tech sector. The country’s semiconductor...
This Week’s Awesome Stories From Around the Web (Through January 20)
AUGMENTED REALITY
AR Has Inherited All the Promise and Hype of VR
Nick Statt | The Verge
“The full spectrum of AR was present on the floor of the show’s many gadget expos and booth halls, making...
This Week’s Awesome Stories From Around the Web (Through January 13)
TRANSPORTATION
CES 2018: Phantom Auto Demonstrates First Remote-Controlled Car on Public Roads
Mark Harris | IEEE Spectrum
“But Shukman is not sitting next to me in the driver’s seat of Phantom’s Lincoln MKZ, and he hasn’t felt...
This Week’s Awesome Stories From Around the Web (Through January 6)
ROBOTS
The Year Robots Backflipped Their Way Into Our Hearts
Will Knight | MIT Technology Review
“Legged robots remain very expensive and difficult to commercialize. So it came as little surprise when Google sold Boston Dynamics to...
How One of Silicon Valley’s Oldest Companies Survived Tech’s Biggest Transitions
In an industry that celebrates newcomers and disruptors, tech companies over a decade old take on the air of grizzled veterans. Still, some Silicon Valley companies manage to ride out the cycles. Founded in...
This Week’s Awesome Stories From Around the Web (Through December 16)
BITCOIN
Bitcoin Is a Delusion That Could Conquer the World
Derek Thompson | The Atlantic
“What seems most certain is that the future of money will test our conventional definitions—of currencies, of bubbles, and of initial offerings....
How Clinical Trials Are Making the Case for MDMA in Psychotherapy
In an interview at Exponential Medicine in San Diego, speaker Brad Burge discussed the innovative applications of MDMA in psychotherapy. Burge is the director of strategic communications at non-profit MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies).
Historically, MDMA has...
This Week’s Awesome Stories From Around the Web (Through December 9)
ROBOTICS
New Robots Can See Into Their Future
Brett Israel | Berkeley News
“Using this technology, called visual foresight, the robots can predict what their cameras will see if they perform a particular sequence of movements. These robotic...
How to Design the Future We Want and Find the Path That Leads to It
Everyone wants to know the future, but how exactly? Authors Julia Rose West and Alida Draudt aim to help people better see the future and take action to shape it.
In their book, What the...
This Week’s Awesome Stories From Around the Web (Through December 2)
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Can A.I. Be Taught to Explain Itself?
Cliff Kuang | New York Times
“Kosinski’s results suggested something stranger: that artificial intelligences often excel by developing whole new ways of seeing, or even thinking, that...
How Will Humans Colonize Space in the Years Ahead?
Exploration is one of humanity’s greatest drivers. We’ve moved around the planet and into almost every environment—mountains, deserts, jungles, and swamps.
But will we be able to take the next step and adapt ourselves to...
You’ve Heard All About CRISPR Gene Editing—Here’s How It Works
Gene editing is in the news a lot these days, but what is it exactly? Gene editing is the process of making precise and permanent changes to living things at the level of DNA,...
This Week’s Awesome Stories From Around the Web (Through November 18)
ROBOTS
Boston Dynamics' Atlas Robot Does Backflips Now and It's Full-Tilt Insane
Matt Simon | Wired
“To be clear: Humanoids aren’t supposed to be able to do this. It's extremely difficult to make a bipedal robot that can move...
Dark Matter Makes Up a Quarter of the Universe, But What Is It?
Until the 1960s, scientists thought ordinary matter and radiation made up everything in the universe. Then a young physicist named Vera Rubin made a discovery that shook things up. Rubin uncovered an unexpected relationship...
This Week’s Awesome Stories From Around the Web (Through November 11)
QUANTUM COMPUTING
IBM Raises the Bar With a 50-Qubit Quantum Computer
Will Knight | MIT Technology Review
“50 qubits is a significant landmark in progress toward practical quantum computers. Other systems built so far have...
Future Lighthouse Sketches Out the New Language of Immersive Storytelling
In an interview with Pascal Finette at SU’s Global Summit in San Francisco, Nicolás Alcalá dived into the future of immersive filmmaking and storytelling. Alcalá is CEO and founder of Future Lighthouse, a virtual reality studio based in Los Angeles and...
How Is Technology Evolving Over Time?
What was humanity’s first invention? Some say it was the wheel, while others say it was fire. But perhaps it was our invention of communication. Without this, no tool can be conceptualized, built, replicated,...
Join Us Live at Singularity University’s Exponential Medicine This Week
New technology is pushing medicine into exciting frontiers, and it’s getting better each year. Augmented reality is enhancing surgical training, machine learning algorithms are improving medical diagnostics, and the FDA is breaking ground with...
This Week’s Awesome Stories From Around the Web (Through November 4)
TRANSPORTATION
Who's Ready to Put Their Kid on a Self-Driving School Bus?
Aarian Marshall | Wired
“The designers know the concept is provocative, but they think it points to a bigger truth: You’ll know autonomous vehicles are...
Why the Customer Is the Center of Everything in the Membership Economy
In an interview with Lisa Kay Solomon, chair of Transformational Practices at Singularity University, at SU’s Global Summit in San Francisco, Robbie Baxter described the concept of the membership economy, a business model that’s...
Einstein Was a Genius, But Was He Always Right?
Einstein was a genius, there’s no debating that.
He was a Nobel Prize-winner who changed our understanding of nature more than anyone since Newton. Einstein is famous for his theory of relativity, his pioneering work...
This Week’s Awesome Stories From Around the Web (Through October 28)
INTERNET OF THINGS
Amazon Key Is a New Service That Lets Couriers Unlock Your Front Door
Ben Popper | The Verge
“When a courier arrives with a package for in-home delivery, they scan the barcode, sending a...
The Internet of Things Needs to Be Intelligent, Not Just Connected
In an interview at Singularity University’s Global Summit in San Francisco, Andreas Gal explained how his company is applying artificial intelligence to the Internet of Things (IoT). Gal is the former CTO of Mozilla and is...
The Search to Find Another Earth Like Ours Is Heating Up
Are there other planets out there like our own? If so, could other forms of life, intelligence, or civilizations inhabit them?
This age-old question is a key part of the study of exoplanetology, the scientific...
This Week’s Awesome Stories From Around the Web (Through October 21)
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Stunning AI Breakthrough Takes Us One Step Closer to the Singularity
George Dvorsky | Gizmodo
“A new paper published in Nature today describes how the artificially intelligent system that defeated Go grandmaster Lee Sedol in 2016 got its digital...
How Leaders Can Create Social Impact in a Complex World
In an interview at Singularity University’s Global Summit in San Francisco, Adene Sacks discussed how social impact leadership is evolving in today’s world.
Sacks said, “No one can go do it alone anymore. The social sector is not...
Should We Edit Human Genes? What You Need to Know
There’s a difference between editing genes in a person’s somatic cells and germline cells.
Editing somatic cells, which are differentiated (e.g., skin cells) and non-reproductive, impacts them alone. In contrast, editing germline DNA means changes...
What Gaming Giant EA Knows About Bridging Creativity and Profit
In an interview at Singularity University’s Global Summit in San Francisco, Andy Billings spoke to us about how he’s bridging the gap between the creative and business sides of Electronic Arts, one of the world’s leading video game...
Here Are 3 Good Reasons Why It’s Time to Return to the Moon
Since 1962 when President John F. Kennedy declared, “We choose to go to the moon in this decade,”moon exploration has sparked the imagination. Today, Peter Diamandis says, moon exploration is as exciting as Alaska...
The ‘Tesla of Ecovillages’ Is Building Self-Reliant Villages for the Coming Billions
In an interview at Singularity University’s Global Summit in San Francisco, James Ehrlich shared insights on how combining lessons from nature with new technology is pushing sustainable housing into new frontiers.
Ehrlich is the founder...
The Most Powerful Solutions Are Born When Uncommon Partners Unite
In an interview at Singularity University’s Global Summit in San Francisco, SU associate founder and CEO Rob Nail discussed the power of bringing diverse groups of people together to address the world’s biggest problems. Nail is a...
Now That Anyone Can Hack Biology—Should We Be Afraid?
Biohacking is a relatively new field of amateur and professional scientists conducting “do-it-yourself” biology experiments.
The word “hacking”may bring up images of cybercrime, but the majority of biohacking projects are focused on helping society as...
Why Doing What You Love Matters More Than Getting Top Marks
In an interview at Singularity University’s Global Summit in San Francisco, Esther Wojcicki discussed the future of learning and how to give students the skills they most need.
Wojcicki founded the Palo Alto High Media Arts Center and is...
This Is What Happens to Your Body in Space
Living in space sounds pretty cool. Unfortunately, our bodies haven’t evolved to live in space without suffering harm. You may wonder, “How bad could it really be?”
In space, changes in gravity cause blood to...
Abundance Is Possible, But Only If Everyone’s Along for the Ride
In an interview at Singularity University’s Global Summit in San Francisco, Mark Brand suggested abundance won’t happen on its own—we’ve all got to pitch in to bring everyone along for the ride.
Brand is a social entrepreneur and restaurateur...
Online Dating Pioneer: Algorithmic Insights Can Help Us Become Better People
In an interview at Singularity University’s Global Summit in San Francisco, J. Galen Buckwalter said the quantitative study of personality is finding new tech applications.
Buckwalter developed the matching algorithm at eHarmony and is now chief technology officer at...
