- Quantum Invisibility Cloak Hides Objects from Reality
Physicists have worked out how to cloak a region of space from the quantum world, thereby shielding it from reality itself
- How Technology Is Destroying Jobs
Automation is eliminating the need for people in many jobs. We’ve survived such changes before, but this time it might be different: are we facing a future of stagnant income and worsening inequality?
Given his calm and reasoned academic demeanor, it is easy to miss just how provocative Erik Brynjolfsson’s contention really is. Brynjolfsson, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and his collaborator and coauthor Andrew McAfee have been arguing for the last year and a half that impressive advances in computer technology—from improved industrial robotics to automated translation services—are largely behind the sluggish employment growth of the last 10 to 15 years. Even more ominous for workers, the MIT academics foresee dismal prospects for many types of jobs as these powerful new technologies are increasingly adopted not only in manufacturing, clerical, and retail work but in professions such as law, financial services, education, and medicine.
- Bitcoin Millionaires Become Investing Angels
Early investors in Bitcoin got rich. Now they are the cryptocurrency’s most powerful gatekeepers.
Every time you spend bitcoins to buy a drink at Evr, a swanky bar in midtown Manhattan that accepts the digital currency, you make its co-owner, Charlie Shrem, just a little bit richer.
- Google, Facebook and Microsoft Express Sudden, Renewed Interest in Surveillance Transparency
The U.S. government should allow disclosure of how often NSA taps into user data, argue Facebook, Microsoft and Google
Facebook, Google and Microsoft today made public calls on the U.S. government to allow them to reveal statistics on how much intelligence agencies tap into their data.
- Mobile Summit 2013: In Smart Watch Category, Pebble Still Awaits the Big Competition
Pebble, the smart watch upstart, is charging ahead while computing giants mull their product plans.
In April 2012, Eric Migicovsky launched a Kickstarter campaign for Pebble, the smart watch that went on to attract almost 70,000 backers and set the tone for an emerging product category that companies including Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Samsung are all likely to pursue. Despite all the buzz, he’s still waiting for the big competitors to show up.
- Mobile Summit 2013: Corning’s Gorilla Glass Is Coming to Cars Next
The strong glass that is used in 1.5 billion consumer electronic devices worldwide could soon help make more fuel-efficient, quieter cars.
Corning’s durable Gorilla Glass is used in the displays of iPhones and other mobile devices; it can be found in 1.5 billion electronic devices today. But the next market for the lightweight material might be literally larger: replacing some of the standard glass used on the windows of automobiles.
- Just Don’t Call it Big Data
Why Google fears the totalitarian connotations of the buzzword big data.
Spies with the U.S. National Security Agency are hoovering up huge amounts of digital data on Americans, including records of every phone call, and may have wide access to Internet traffic, too.
- Companies Complying with NSA’s PRISM May Face E.U. Lawsuits
U.S. companies that pass data from European Union citizens to the NSA’s PRISM surveillance program could be breaching the E.U.’s data-protection laws.
Internet companies that pass data to the National Security Agency under the PRISM program could face legal action in the European Union, say privacy regulators and experts there.
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