Peter Vander Auwera - Issue #14

The Very Best

Keynote by Niels on how to Organize for Complexity at Deutsche Telekom in Bonn, Germany.

In the social media age, we know how to connect: but are we forgetting how to talk to each other? Leading psychologist Sherry Turkle wants to fight back

The discussion around companies like Uber and Airbnb is too narrow. The issue isn’t just employment, but a huge economic…

A group of friends checking their smartphones while hanging out. Almost everyone on the subway with their eyes fixed on …

Imagine an economy without friction—a new world in which labor, information, and money move easily, cheaply, and almost instantly.

What is a perfect society, and what’s the best kind of utopianism? Terry Eagleton looks at future thinking and concludes that our system is run by dreamers who call themselves realists

How to build trust in a new era.

Risk, defense and insurance in a connected world

As the backlash to Aaron Sorkin’s all-too-tidy Steve Jobs biopic shows, digital audiences have learned to embrace a messy, unpredictable style of tale that mirrors real life.

The continent’s glaring tech gap is growing.

The future belongs to the fleet, to the fast, to the instantly assembled hot take

Our connected world is about to go hyperbolic. The changes wrought by a nexus of global, high-speed connectivity, billions of connected devices (IoT), cloud services and non-stop data streaming, collection and big data analytics will bring unprecedented stress on network operators and opportunities for business automation and efficiency. It’s a confluence of changes the president of Bell Labs contends will lead to a “new technological revolution” analogous to the agricultural or industrial epochs of prior centuries. In a new book, Marcus Weldon says our looming omni-connectivity is sufficiently profound to be disruptive on multiple levels: whether the way people live or how businesses operate. Meant to instigate discussion, we explain why the book should be background reading for every technology leader and researcher looking to ride, and better yet, exploit a tsunami of technology-fueled change that Weldon believes will reshape business and society.

A lecture explaining why using our imaginations, and providing for others to use theirs, is an obligation for all citizens

Lately Facebook is getting a little too intimate with me. “Good morning, Leigh,” it coos. “Thanks for being here. We hop…

John Herrman, thank you — one thoughtful post — you lay out the complexity in the hall of mirrors which we sit today. He…

The wide-eyed child in love with maps and plans Finds the world equal to his appetite. How grand the universe by lamps, How petty in memory's clear sight. — Charles Baudelaire, Voyaging Is all that we see or seem But a dream within a dream? — Edgar Allen Poe, A Dream Within a Dream I no longer…

Artificial Intelligence

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Qualcomm is taking aim at the growing field of Internet security cameras with a new kind of chip that could power 'conscious' cameras.

Across the world, tech companies are engineering a future of robot helpers and smart healthcare for the elderly. But this new vision of the welfare state lacks one crucial element: dignity

It’s no longer the preserve of artificial-intelligence researchers and born-digital companies like Amazon, Google, and Netflix. A McKinsey Quarterly article.

Can humans evolve fast enough to defend ourselves against the AI threat?

Self-driving cars are already cruising the streets. But before they can become widespread, carmakers must solve an impossible ethical dilemma of algorithmic morality.

At 7½ inches tall, RoboHon is a walking, talking voice-controlled robot that can play games, dance, project visuals onto a wall—it’s even equipped with facial recognition software that allows it to get a feel for the mood you are in. The Japanese-made robot is set to hit shelves there in...

The initiative, the Toyota Research Institute, will create one of the biggest labs in Silicon Valley and will be led by the roboticist Gill Pratt.

I lived with an AI assistant for a month, and never before have I felt like such a boss.

Robots in the home can feel like creepy guardians—but maybe this changes if we learn from our relationships with pets

Law & Order 2045: Future Victims Unit.

FinTech

Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;…

In this era of the rise of ambient computing, it's more important than ever for the banking industry to embrace change and evolve financial services.

Robert Sams inspired this post. As we were discussing stacks (software, IT) and the draw backs of the bitcoin blockchain…

After a few days of reflection on many days of conversations over a 4 day marathon event here are my 6 takeaways from SIBOS 2015 in Singapore: Fintech is

Future of work

Before he announced his exit from Dior, Raf Simons spoke to Cathy Horyn for a piece that appeared in System magazine. Today, BoF brings you an exclusive excerpt of that conversation, revealing the designers thoughts on the speed of fashion.

We need real thinking, not quick fixes.

We spend more time working than doing anything else in life. Work should be motivating and energizing, and that’s just not the reality for too many people.

Physical tasks could normally be broken up in a reductionist way. Bigger tasks could be divided by assigning people to d…

We still haven’t realized of something extraordinary that is happening.

Recent research by Texas A&M researcher Markus Fitza debunks the glib conventional notion of the CEO as the prime mover of a company’s fortunes. In a

It’s about individuals more than institutions.

You are engaged in harmful behaviors that don’t serve you or your organization well. “I meant well,” points to sincere behaviors that backfired. Success is doing more of what works and less of what doesn’t. The CIA declassified the “Simple Sabotage Field Manual” in the 70’s. Page 29 reads like a how-to for succeeding in fear-filled organizations. Effective…

Are digital platforms contributing to essentially redesign the way we work?

Platforms

Powerful tech firms are altering not just the way we buy things, but could sweep away an entire economic model

Others

If Facebook's David Marcus can get every business on to Messenger, who will need Google or Apple?

The new, dead-simple software---still in beta---promises to protect both the content and origin of instant messages from surveillance.

The thing I learned from Elon Musk that changed the way I think about life.

"We hope people see this as the moment when VR went mainstream."