MIT Technology Review - 11 2020 PDF
Preview MIT Technology Review - 11 2020
That’ll right? fix it, We need better solutions to the world’s biggest problems. Here are some of them. Deflecting asteroids page 54 Composting humans page 64 Detecting pandemics page 28 Volume 123 Number 6 Nov/Dec 2020 USD $9.99 CAD $10.99 The long-term issue 02 From the editor I f our descendants were to diagnose the ills of 21st-century civilization,” writes Richard Fisher in our opening essay on page 8, “they would observe a dangerous short-termism: a collective failure to escape the present moment and look further ahead.” This condition is neither permanent nor new, Fisher says: human thinking becomes more blinkered in times of turmoil and more expansive in periods of prosperity and calm. But it’s particularly extreme right now, especially for Americans, thanks to the covid-19 pandemic and the bitterly contested US election. This issue of MIT Technology Review is meant as an antidote. It looks at things that may happen in the years, decades, centuries, and even millennia hence, and what needs to change now to make the future better than it looks from this precarious moment. As the image on our cover is meant to suggest, these changes aren’t the kinds of Band-Aid solutions the world has been applying for the past few years—a carbon tax here, a health-care expansion there, a financial regulation reform over there. Some of them will involve questioning long-held assumptions. For example, as David Rotman writes on page 14, the economic doctrine of high GDP growth, once challenged only by people on the radical fringe, is now being questioned by Nobel-winning econ- omists. As James Temple outlines (page 40), California needs to scrap century-old fire management policies to fight its wildfires. And the field of AI is just coming to grips with the very real threats the technology can pose, as a leading researcher tells Karen Hao (page 38). One of the biggest challenges we face is a meta-problem that makes all the others harder to tackle: the breakdown of shared systems of understanding. Matthew Hutson (page 74) uses the LIGO gravitational-wave detector to show just how much of what we know is contingent on trusting other humans’ knowledge, and what happens if this “epistemic dependence” is undermined. And Abby Ohlheiser (page 30) writes about the scholars and activists, overwhelmingly women and people of color, whose warnings about the attacks on truth through online abuse and conspiracy movements were ignored for years. The war on truth is one of many catastrophic threats that will require long-term thinking to avert. Tate Ryan-Mosley enumer- ates a host of others (page 18), and notes that most of them are, at least in theory, within our control. But this issue is intended to be not just a diagnosis of short-termism, but an antidote to the despair many feel—and there is plenty in here about solutions. Britta Lokting interviews an entrepre- neur trying to help save the climate by com- posting human bodies instead of burying or cremating them (page 64). Wudan Yan looks at new attempts to tackle the problem of storing nuclear waste, some of which will stay radioactive for millions of years (page 68). In a series of dispatches (page 21), writers look at new ways to tackle issues from closing the digital divide and mapping insect populations to measuring societal health and encouraging long-term think- ing. Mallory Pickett talks to a researcher on the front lines of the hunt for the next pandemic (page 28). Charlton McIlwain explores whether AI, instead of introducing hidden racial bias to housing markets, can be used to eliminate it (page 44). In Singapore, Megan Tatum writes, the covid-19 pandemic may even have given vertical farming the boost it needs to finally go mainstream, which could revolutionize the way cities get their food supply (page 48). David W. Brown visits the lab where researchers are building a satellite that could knock an incoming asteroid off its collision course with Earth (page 54). And in our fiction slot (page 80), Masande Ntshanga explores the power of games to help us reimagine the world. I hope this issue of the magazine gives you some of that power of imagination too. Gideon Lichfield is editor in chief of MIT Technology Review. IAN ALLEN “ A stronger healthcare system is a stronger America This pandemic has challenged our healthcare system – and now more than ever, we need to deliver care differently. With advancements in virtual healthcare delivery, patients can now see a doctor without leaving their own homes, helping to achieve faster treatments, faster diagnoses, better clinical and operational workfow and better outcomes. Stronger, more resilient healthcare organizations can respond faster, adapt easily and provide higher-quality care to more people both virtually as well as inside hospital walls. By working with hospitals across America, Philips is making healthcare stronger. Together, we can make life better. Learn more at Philips.com/strongercare Healthcare #StrongerCare 04 Masthead Editorial Editor in chief Gideon Lichfield Executive editor Michael Reilly Editor at large David Rotman News editor Niall Firth Managing editor Timothy Maher Commissioning editors Bobbie Johnson Konstantin Kakaes Amy Nordrum Senior editor, MIT News Alice Dragoon Senior editor, biomedicine Antonio Regalado Senior editor, climate and energy James Temple Senior editor, digital culture Abby Ohlheiser Senior editor, cybersecurity Patrick Howell O’Neill Senior editor, AI Will Douglas Heaven Senior editor, podcasts and live journalism Jennifer Strong Senior reporters Tanya Basu (humans and technology) Karen Hao (AI) Reporters Charlotte Jee (news) Neel Patel (space) Tate Ryan-Mosley (data and audio) Copy chief Linda Lowenthal Social media editor Benji Rosen Administrative assistant Andrea Siegel Proofreader Barbara Wallraff Design Chief creative officer Eric Mongeon Art director Emily Luong Marketing and events designer Kyle Thomas Hemingway Photo editor Stephanie Arnett Corporate Chief executive officer and publisher Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau Assistant to the CEO Katie McLean Human resources manager James Wall Manager of information technology Colby Wheeler Office manager Linda Cardinal Product development Chief technology officer Drake Martinet Director of software engineering Molly Frey Head of product Mariya Sitnova Director of analytics Michelle Bellettiere Senior project manager Allison Chase Senior software engineer Jason Lewicki Software engineer Jack Burns Events Senior vice president, events and strategic partnerships Amy Lammers Director of event content and experiences Brian Bryson Head of international and custom events Marcy Rizzo Event content producer Erin Underwood Associate director of events Nicole Silva Event partnership coordinator Madeleine Frasca Events associate Bo Richardson Finance Finance director Enejda Xheblati General ledger manager Olivia Male Accountant Letitia Trecartin Consumer marketing Senior vice president, marketing and consumer revenue Doreen Adger Director of analytics systems Tom Russell Director of audience development Rosemary Kelly Director of digital marketing Emily Baillieul Product marketing manager Amanda Saeli Assistant consumer marketing manager Caroline da Cunha Circulation and print production manager Tim Borton Email marketing specialist Tuong-Chau Cai Advertising sales Vice president, sales and brand partnerships Andrew Hendler
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