1 year ago
148 For years, Todd Humphreys has been trying to transportation SpaceX to tweak its Starlink constellation to besides connection ultra-precise position, navigation, and timing—creating a caller strategy that could enactment arsenic a backup to the US Army’s susceptible GPS system.
Despite Elon Musk’s insistence that the institution debar distractions by assisting Humphreys’ proposal, Humphreys persisted.
Now, without Starlink’s help, Humphreys claims to person provided the astir implicit characterization of its signals to date. This information, helium says, is the archetypal measurement toward processing a caller planetary navigation exertion that would run independently of GPS oregon its European, Russian, and Chinese equivalents. Read the afloat story.
—Mark Harris
We utilized to get excited astir technology. What happened?
As a philosopher who studies AI and data, Shannon Vallor’s Twitter provender is ever filled with the latest tech news. Increasingly, she’s realized that the changeless watercourse of information, detailing everything from Mark Zuckerberg’s dead-eyed metaverse cartoon avatar, from Amazon’s Ring Nation surveillance world show, is nary longer inspiring joy, but a consciousness of resignation.
Joy is missing from our lives, and from our technology. Its lack is feeding a increasing unease being voiced by galore who enactment successful tech oregon survey it. Fixing it depends connected knowing however and wherefore the priorities successful our tech ecosystem person changed, triggering a oversea alteration successful the full exemplary for innovation and the incentives that thrust it. Read the afloat story.
This portion is from our forthcoming mortality-themed issue, disposable from 26 October. If you privation to work it erstwhile it comes out, you tin subscribe to MIT Technology Review for arsenic small arsenic $80 a year.
How reproductive exertion is changing what it means to beryllium a parent
Advances successful reproductive technologies are forcing america to reconsider what it means to beryllium a parent—even astatine a familial level. While IVF allows would-be parents to usage eggs and sperm donated by others, who whitethorn oregon whitethorn not person a relation successful the beingness of the resulting child, it’s not conscionable IVF. Technologies that effect successful babies with 3 familial parents are already successful use. And others that alteration 4 oregon much familial parents could beryllium disposable successful the adjacent future.
This benignant of advancement inevitably raises captious questions. What is it astir a familial publication that whitethorn oregon whitethorn not marque a idiosyncratic a parent? Is determination an perfect fig of parents a kid tin have? And, erstwhile we travel down to it, bash genetics adjacent truly substance astatine all? Read the afloat story.
—Jessica Hamzelou
This communicative is from The Checkup, our caller play wellness and biotech newsletter. Sign up to person it successful your inbox each Thursday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the net to find you today’s astir fun/important/scary/fascinating stories astir technology.
1 Elon Musk is readying connected cutting thousands of Twitter workers
Reducing the company’s workforce by astir 75% would person a superior interaction connected its quality to curb harmful content. (WP $)
+ Twitter has told workers to disregard media speculation. (Bloomberg $)
+ The level isn’t ever a full viper’s nest. (FT $)
2 Billions successful backing could kick-start the US artillery materials industry
But portion the currency injection is simply a invited boost for the industry, there’s inactive a rocky roadworthy ahead. (MIT Technology Review)
3 How a large ransomware radical flew nether the radar
Schools and hospitals marque up the bulk of their targets. (Wired $)
4 Inside the emergence and emergence of China’s tech ambitions
Its accelerated advancement spooked the US capable to slap it with restrictions. (Bloomberg $)
5 No 1 knows wherefore national instrumentality enforcement abducted protestors successful 2020
And there’s inactive nary grounds of their arrests. (The Verge)
6 Nuclear fusion is acceptable for an representation overhaul
There’s been a full batch of hype, but advancement has been slow. (New Scientist $)
+ Maybe controlled chaos is the mode forward. (Inverse)
7 The fittingness manufacture urgently needs a shakeup
It seldom delivers connected its promises of steadfast living. (Neo.Life)
+ How bash beardown muscles support your encephalon healthy? (MIT Technology Review)
8 TikTok is captivated by fast-food workers
The clips springiness them a glimpse down the scenes. (New Yorker $)
+ Real-estate agents are getting involved, too. (WSJ $)
9 We whitethorn ne'er drawback the worst chess cheats ♟️
Maybe we request to marque our bid with it. (The Atlantic $)
+ Hans Niemann is suing Magnus Carlsen successful the ongoing cheating row. (Motherboard)
+ I Was There When: AI mastered chess. (MIT Technology Review)
10 Instagram’s caller anti-bullying measures mightiness really work
Nudges reminding users to beryllium benignant look to person the desired effect. (Vox)
Quote of the day
“Like immoderate physicist, I’m wholeheartedly against promoting quantum mysticism, oregon thing with wholly unfounded claims.”
—Alice O’Keefe, a Ph.D. pupil astatine the University of Wollongong successful Australia, criticizes fashionable TikToks making mendacious claims astir the caller Novel Prize announcements, she tells Slate.
The large story
How Facebook got addicted to spreading misinformation
March 2021
When the Cambridge Analytica ungraded broke successful March 2018, it would footwear disconnected Facebook’s largest publicity situation to date. It compounded fears that the algorithms that find what radical spot were amplifying fake quality and hatred speech, and prompted the institution to commencement a squad with a directive that was a small vague: to analyse the societal interaction of the company’s algorithms.
Joaquin Quiñonero Candela was a earthy prime to caput it up. In his six years astatine Facebook, he’d created immoderate of the archetypal algorithms for targeting users with contented precisely tailored to their interests, and past he’d diffused those algorithms crossed the company. Now his mandate would beryllium to marque them little harmful. However, his hands were tied, and the thrust to marque wealth came first. Read the afloat story.
—Karen Hao
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.)
+ As if moving a marathon wasn’t challenging enough, this feline did it balancing a pineapple connected his head.
+ If you’re successful the temper for controversy, this database of the 100 top BBC euphony performances should acceptable the bill.
+ How does it negociate to sound adjacent amended than the original?
+ 1967 sounded similar a beauteous astonishing twelvemonth for fashion.
+ This fine horse has perfectly zero clip for the metaverse.
