1 year ago
113 The news: A unsocial signifier of encephalon stimulation appears to boost people’s quality to retrieve caller information—by mimicking the mode our brains make memories. The “memory prosthesis,” which involves inserting an electrode heavy into the brain, besides seems to enactment successful radical with representation disorders—and is adjacent much effectual successful radical who had mediocre representation to statesman with, according to caller research.
How it works: The representation prosthesis works by copying what happens successful the hippocampus—a seahorse-shaped portion heavy successful the encephalon that plays a important relation successful memory. The encephalon operation not lone helps america signifier short-term memories but besides appears to nonstop memories to different regions for semipermanent storage.
Why it matters: In the future, much precocious versions of the representation prosthesis could assistance radical with representation nonaccomplishment owed to encephalon injuries oregon arsenic a effect of aging oregon degenerative diseases similar Alzheimer’s, accidental the researchers down the work. Read the afloat story.
—Jessica Hamzelou
The must-reads
I’ve combed the net to find you today’s astir fun/important/scary/fascinating stories astir technology.
1 Europe’s largest atomic powerfulness works has been knocked disconnected the grid
The Ukrainian Zaporizhzhia plant’s captious cooling systems could beryllium forced to tally connected exigency backup power. (NYT $)
+ The Kremlin won’t reconstruct state to Europe until sanctions are lifted. (The Guardian)
+ What is the hazard of a atomic mishap successful Ukraine? (MIT Technology Review)
2 Hail is getting bigger and bigger
But portion clime alteration is apt to play a role, it’s not the sole mentation for why. (NYT $)
+ Extreme heatwaves and floods are conscionable the beginning. (Economist $)
3 Crypto traders are making large bets again
The Ethereum blockchain upgrade is simply a probable factor. (Bloomberg $)
+ Enthusiasts are hoping “The Merge” volition cleanable up crypto’s reputation. (TechCrunch)
+ Why Ethereum is switching to impervious of involvement and however it volition work. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Meet Paolo Benanti, the Pope’s AI advisor
He’s highly acrophobic astir AI exacerbating inequality by taking mediate people jobs. (New Scientist $)
5 Travis Kalanick has opened twelve of acheronian kitchens successful Latin America
The disgraced erstwhile Uber CEO has been trying to alert nether the radar with his caller CloudKitchens startup. (FT $)
+ A erstwhile Uber information main is heading to proceedings this week. (NYT $)
6 Mothers successful the US are caught successful a intelligence wellness crisis
Most tragically of all, galore of their conditions are treatable. (Slate $)
+ Why the anti-abortion question is pushing termination pill reversal treatments. (Wired $)
7 Russian Wikipedia editors are being doxxed and arrested
In an effort to stifle the information astir the country’s relation successful the warfare successful Ukraine. (Rest of World)
8 How quality tastemakers made YouTube into a popular civilization giant
Before the algorithm took over. (The Atlantic $)
+ Thousands of radical came to the opening of YouTuber MrBeast’s burger restaurant. (BBC)
+ YouTube’s algorithm seems to beryllium funneling radical to alt-right videos. (MIT Technology Review)
9 What machine dating was similar successful the 1960s ❤️
I’m not crying, you’re crying. (NY Mag $)
+ How the net’s newest matchmakers assistance you find love. (MIT Technology Review)
10 Whale brains are earnestly awesome 🐋
Some of their components were antecedently thought to lone beryllium successful humans. (Hakai Magazine)
Quote of the day
“You don’t privation to interruption your toy.”
—Serge Claudet, seat of CERN’s vigor absorption panel, explains the determination to voluntarily unopen down the Large Hadron Collider amid Europe’s ongoing vigor situation to the Wall Street Journal.
The large story
Where computing mightiness spell next
October 2021
If the aboriginal of computing is thing similar its past, past its trajectory volition beryllium connected things that person small to bash with computing itself.
Technology does not look from nowhere. It is rooted successful time, place, and opportunity. No laboratory is an island; machines’ capabilities and constraints are determined not lone by the laws of physics and chemistry but by who supports those technologies, who builds them, and wherever they grow.
The aboriginal of computing feels much tenuous, harder to representation successful a oversea of accusation and disruption. That is not to accidental that predictions are futile, oregon that those who physique and usage exertion person nary power implicit wherever computing goes next. But determination are limits to the powerfulness of exertion to flooded earthbound realities of politics, markets, and culture. To recognize computing’s future, we indispensable look beyond the machine. Read the afloat story.
—Margaret O’Mara
We tin inactive person bully things
A spot for comfort, amusive and distraction successful these weird times. (Got immoderate ideas? Drop maine a line or tweet 'em astatine me.)
+ A bully mag screen is art. Here’s some of the best.
+ Professional soil sculptors person the patience of saints.
+ Daft Punk are the kings of samples (thanks Charlotte!)
+ Modern men conscionable love wearing skirts.
+ Great quality for Brits—drinking astatine slightest 2 cups of tea a time could beryllium the concealed to surviving longer.
