Bitcoin and blockchains: The future of money explained with ancient stones on the tiny Pacific island of Yap. Ethereum, Bitcoin and other blockchains are being called the future of money. This decentralized, digital money aims to replace physical cash and middlemen like VISA or your bank. But is this really such a new idea? We travelled to the remote Pacific island of Yap, where an ancient form of stone money has more in common with the future than you'd think.
Robots, automation, and artificial intelligence will forever change the future of work. These technologies will eliminate jobs and even industries, but they will also make workers safer and more efficient. Perhaps no workplace gives a better window into this future than a remote Oregon forest where loggers are seeing their jobs totally transform. Much like the Luddites before them, today’s workers are fighting an economic battle as much as a technological one.
Solar power is shaping the future of home. Homes of the future may rely a lot less on centralized power, and a lot more on sources that are decentralized, renewable, and cheap. Electricity is the cornerstone of the modern world, but more than a billion people worldwide do without. Those who do live on the grid rely on expensive, aging systems increasingly vulnerable to disasters and attacks, with little back-up. The rapidly dropping price of solar panels may offer a way forward. Whether they’re Michigan suburbanites looking to pay less each month or Guatemalan homesteaders looking to plug in their first light bulb, today’s solar customers are riding a wave that could change how our lives are wired.
Virtual and augmented reality are creating new, immersive experiences for audiences. We can “feel” stories rather than just watching or reading them. But is more emotion what’s really missing from news? Will feelings be the new facts? If we all experience separate realities, whether virtual or augmented, will we ever be able to find common ground? In our What Happens Next series, we explore the definition of journalistic facts, and how new technologies are transforming them.
As climate change worsens and the global population rises, we risk food shortages worldwide. Are organic farming and hydroponics the key to farming's future? Unpredictable weather patterns are forcing farmers to adopt new methods to maintain a viable business while making food production as efficient as possible. A small farm in south Dakota has turned to organic farming and invested in their dirt while others have taken climate out of the equation and invested in hydroponics, growing vegetables in large warehouses.
Medellin, Colombia offers a window into the future of cities. Once synonymous with the drug violence of Pablo Escobar's murderous cocaine cartel, Colombia's second largest city undergone a remarkable transformation. Medellín has done so largely by investing heavily in upgrading slums and connecting them to the city center. A centerpiece of this effort: innovative public transportation, such as a Metrocable gondola system that helps residents of informal communities get around town and enjoy all the benefits of a reinvented city.
From Fortnite to Candy Crush, video games and mobile games are relying more and more on in-game, in-app purchases, and loot boxes to make money. This means gaming companies are finding new ways to keep players playing and spending. Some digital games development uses old-school gambling mechanisms to keep people hooked, while others in the gaming industry are using data to learn more and in-depth behaviors about the people playing — ultimately customizing video games to individual players.
The world’s supply of cheap and clean fresh water will likely plummet as the climate warms and populations boom. Can we find ways to conserve, cut waste, and find new sources before it’s too late? The latest installment of our What Happens Next series looks for solutions in an unlikely spot: a city perched on the edge of the world’s oldest desert. For the residents of Windhoek, Namibia, the arid future arrived long before the growing freshwater crisis made headlines around the world. And this city responded to worsening cycles of drought by tapping water resources from a radical source that was already on hand: wastewater from their own city sewers. And while the technology for building a toilet-to-tap management system isn’t new, the mindset required to do here offers a lesson to any city facing an increasingly arid future.
It’s hard to imagine a future for college that isn’t touched by the ongoing digital revolution. But the disruption coming to higher education may not be what we expect. On-line courses may well transform how universities deliver knowledge, but economists say digital learning isn’t likely to replace universities entirely. In a world where technology is upending jobs and industries at an ever-faster pace, graduates may need to retrain and learn new skills long after they’ve received their diplomas. This could mean colleges may become more necessary than ever, but only if they rethink the time spent there as a single stage of life. That’s why institutions like Georgia Tech are betting on a future where schools welcome back students throughout their careers, helping them stay competitive in a job market that’s transforming faster all the time.
The world has never been so old, and it’s about to get a whole lot older. By 2050, the number of people aging over 65 worldwide will nearly double, to 1.6 billion. And in places like the United States, the baby boomers are becoming poorer as retirement savings dwindle and the costs of housing and healthcare rise. And a growing cohort of American seniors have found an extreme solution. They’ve given up on owning homes and taken to the road, living in vans and RVs, to become nomads, chasing seasonal work as farm hands or as workers in Amazon’s CamperForce warehouses. While many have adopted this life out of financial necessity, they’re also an example of another trend. Many healthy people want to find a way to stay productive. This means the end of retirement is coming because many seniors are inventing a whole new stage of life, as midlife careers wane and something entirely new begins.