Sync

Planetary Sapience Planetary-scale computation — an emergent intelligence that is both machine and human — gave us the perspective to see Earth as an interconnected whole; with it we must now conceive an intentional and worthwhile planetary-scale terraforming.

Noema

Life

Science

Why Can’t We Be Friends Over the past decade, it has become increasingly common for people to develop intense one-sided relationships with famous people on the internet. What are called parasocial relationships (meaning almost social, or perversely social) have spread almost everywhere.

Real Life

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Everyone should decide how their digital data are used — not just tech companies Smartphones, sensors and consumer habits reveal much about society. Too few people have a say in how these data are created and used.

Nature

Tech

Ethics

Eve: the off-grid life of a nine-year-old climate activist Eve is the intimate story of a nine-year-old girl living in one of the oldest off-grid communities in the UK, Tinkers Bubble in Somerset. We follow the fledging climate activist as she navigates her way back into traditional schooling and proudly speaks up for her passionate belief in the environment.

Climate

The real urban jungle: how ancient societies reimagined what cities could be

The real urban jungle: how ancient societies reimagined what cities could be Visions of “lost cities” in the jungle have consumed western imaginations since Europeans first visited the tropics of Asia, Africa and the Americas.

Nature

Design

Everything Is Becoming Paywalled Content—Even You Every piece of the internet will soon come with a price tag. Welcome to the age of the subscription ouroboros.

Digital

Life

Ecological crises and equitable futures Activism in the 20th century was largely dominated by struggles over labour and social justice. Conflicts between and within capitalism, socialism, communism and fascism were at the heart of many key events.

ESRA

Climate

The Stack, Terraforming and Digital Design Futures "Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next."

Climate

Design

Future Myopia As a historian interested in the social history of environmentalism, I spend a lot of time thinking about what people in the past thought about the future.

Climate

Is Instagram Twisting Art into Its Own Image?Working in her studio during a recent long weekend, the last thing artist Sophie Goodchild anticipated was finding herself suddenly excommunicated from Instagram. Without warning, the final year Royal College of Art student’s account was disabled. Panic ensued.

Is Instagram Twisting Art into Its Own Image?

Elephant

Digital

Media

How the Personal Computer Broke the Human Body Decades before 'Zoom fatigue' broke our spirits, the so-called computer revolution brought with it a world of pain previously unknown to humankind. Late in 1980, Henry Getson of Cherry Hill, New Jersey wrote in to his favorite computer hobbyist magazine, Softalk.

How the Personal Computer Broke the Human Body

VICE

Digital

Health

The fight for quiet in a world full of noise pollution Quiet Parks International wants to reclaim calm among the chaos by protecting natural environments from manmade noise.

The fight for quiet in a world full of noise pollution

WIRED UK

Climate

Nature

The miracle of the commons Far from being profoundly destructive, we humans have deep capacities for sharing resources with generosity and foresight.

Aeon

Climate

Appropriate Measures Changing the tech we use is not enough to mitigate the environmental and social harm of mass technology.

Real Life

Climate

Tech

Beneath the blue: dive into a dazzling ocean under threat

Beneath the blue: dive into a dazzling ocean under threat Descend through the different zones of the ocean to discover its mesmerising marine life, how human pollutants are interfering – and what we can still do about it.

Climate

Beyond Human-Centered Design It goes without saying that design needs to be good for the many. After all, the purpose of design is to solve problems and create solutions that make everyday life better — from objects in the home, to what we wear, how we travel and communicate.

SPACE10

Design

What Japan’s Wild Snow Monkeys Can Teach Us About Animal Culture Scientists have been studying the primates at some of the nation’s hot springs, and what they have learned about evolution is astonishing.

What Japan’s Wild Snow Monkeys Can Teach Us About Animal Culture

Smithsonian Magazine

Science

Nature

China's rural revolution: the architects rescuing its villages from oblivion

China's rural revolution: the architects rescuing its villages from oblivion In the remote Chinese village of Caizhai, a series of wooden pavilions step down a slope next to a babbling brook, their pitched tiled roofs echoing the rocky peaks of the mountains behind.

Design

My Collectible Ass To think about digital objects as collectable, it may help to start by asking what it is that is actually collected. We tend to think that what is collected is a rare object. But what makes it rare? Perhaps there is more than one way to make an object rare.

e-flux

Digital

Art

How NFTs Are Transforming What It Means to Buy and Sell Art Debates about non-fungible tokens, the art world’s favourite new buzzword, have raised hotly contested questions about the future of digital art. What comes next?

How NFTs Are Transforming What It Means to Buy and Sell Art

ELEPHANT

Digital

Life

The Gene: An Intimate History From the Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling author of The Emperor of All Maladies—a magnificent history of the gene and a response to the defining question of the future: What becomes of being human when we learn to "read" and "write" our own genetic information?

Wikipedia

Book

NFTs make the internet ownable Why crypto is becoming the "port of entry" for all internet media. Before tech, I was an artist manager in music. When I started the firm, I believed one thing about the music industry very firmly: ownership endows power. Typically, labels had ownership over the music, and thus, power over artists.

Variant

Tech

I Talked to the Cassandra of the Internet Age The internet rewired our brains. He predicted it would.

I Talked to the Cassandra of the Internet Age

The New York Times

Tech

Insight

Nurturing Architecture Millions of years ago, humans evolved on the savannah. There were no smartphones, cities or highways. Our living environment has changed completely. The way we currently build is not sustainable.

Next Nature

Design

Insight

Clubhouse and the endless cycle of social apps Are social apps technology, media or pop culture? How many times can you re-invent the same forms?

Clubhouse and the endless cycle of social apps

Another Podcast

Tech

Insight

Anti-Network Effects "Governments around the world are working out the logistics problems of distributing billions of vaccine doses. It feels like a symbol of the times we are entering into, times that I think will be defined by anti-network effects."

Breaking Smart

Insight

After Alarmism The war on climate denial has been won. And that’s not the only good news.

New York Magazine

Climate

How to be a genius I traveled the world and trawled the archive to unearth the hidden lessons from history’s most brilliant people.

Aeon

Insight

Other Species are Essential Workers, whose economies enfold our own.Is human society collapsing because we don’t recognize the work and intelligence of other species?

Other Species are Essential Workers, whose economies enfold our own.

Medium

Climate

Insight

Design Matters: Marina Abramović Marina Abramović reflects on all the moments that made her the performance genius that she is today—in which the artist is, indeed, utterly present.

Design Matters

Mindfulness

Life

How to be lucky Most of us think that luck just happens (or doesn’t) but everyone can learn to look for the unexpected and find serendipity.

Psyche

Mental

Health

Here’s why you get gloomy in the winter — and what you can do about it If the darkening evenings and turning leaves induce a mild sense of dread in you every year, you’re not alone.

Here’s why you get gloomy in the winter — and what you can do about it

TED

Health

"That’s not to say that fiction has no ‘value’ for self-development.""I think we can all agree that what the people creating new technology needs more of right now is the ability to step into the shoes of others who don’t think, look, or live like them."

"That’s not to say that fiction has no ‘value’ for self-development."

Offscreen Mag

Insight

The Future of Food, Energy and Space In this episode, Tony Robbins sits down with four extraordinary human beings that are working to solve major global issues, who believe so strongly in their solutions and have so much certainty that it’s almost contagious.

Tony Robbins Podcast

Business

Insight

The Art of Decision-Making In July of 1838, Charles Darwin was twenty-nine years old and single. Two years earlier, he had returned from his voyage aboard H.M.S. Beagle with the observations that would eventually form the basis of “On the Origin of Species.” In the meantime, he faced a more pressing analytical problem.

The New Yorker

Life

Insight

30 Years Since the Human Genome Project Began, What’s Next?

30 Years Since the Human Genome Project Began, What’s Next?In 1987, when researchers first used the word genomics to describe the newly developing discipline of mapping DNA, Eric Green had just finished medical school. A few years later, he found himself working on the front lines of the young field’s marquee moon shot: the Human Genome Project.

Tech

Michael Pollan Explains Caffeine Cravings (And Why You Don't Have To Quit)After wrapping up his book about the potential therapeutic benefits of psychedelic drugs, author Michael Pollan turned his attention to a drug that's hidden "in plain sight" in many people's lives: caffeine. "Here's a drug we use every day.

Michael Pollan Explains Caffeine Cravings (And Why You Don't Have To Quit)

NPR

Health

Insight

Don't just be the best, be the Only" with Kevin Kelly & James Currier In this candid conversation with iconic tech thinker Kevin Kelly (founding Editor of Wired), we discuss inspirational and transformative advice for early-stage Founders reflecting on the work they’re doing, why they’re doing it, and how it all adds up in the long term.

Don't just be the best, be the Only" with Kevin Kelly & James Currier

NFX Podcast

Business

Tech

A Wave of Change: Jamie Margolin and Jane Goodall Over the last few years, youth activists have taken on the climate crisis as the cause of their lives, largely because it will determine the course of them.

A Wave of Change: Jamie Margolin and Jane Goodall

Atmos

Climate

The Modern World Has Finally Become Too Complex for Any of Us to Understand Vast systems, from automated supply chains to high-frequency trading, now undergird our daily lives — and we’re losing control of all of them.

The Modern World Has Finally Become Too Complex for Any of Us to Understand

OneZero

Tech

Insight

Fair value? Fixing the data economy The data economy is facing a social reckoning, say leading voices in industry, government, and academia. But what went wrong? And how can we fix it? Each innovation challenges the norms, codes, and values of the society in which it is embedded.

MIT Technology Review

Tech

The Glorious, Almost-Disconnected Boredom of My Walk in Japan

The Glorious, Almost-Disconnected Boredom of My Walk in Japan How I modified my digital tools to reconnect with time on a six-week, 620-mile trip on foot across the country.

Digital

Life

Mindfulness

The Price of Distraction In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Adam Gazzaley about the way our technology is changing us.

Digital

Life

The Cognition Crisis Anxiety. Depression. ADHD. Dementia. The human brain is in trouble. Technology is a cause — and a solution.

Elemental

Digital

Health

Yo-Yo Ma and the Meaning of Life The immensity of Yo-Yo Ma’s talent is such that he would be globally admired if all he ever did was appear onstage or in a recording studio and then vanish after the last notes faded from his cello.

The New York Times

Life

Headless Brands While brands have traditionally been planned and designed directly by corporations, the rise of networked media has challenged the coherence of centrally-managed brand identities.

Other Internet

Business

Tech

Artistry In The Age of GPT-3 Imagine a story containing Claude Shannon, Alan Turing…and Harry Potter. Now, imagine it being written by an AI.

@simondlr

Tech

Blockchain, the amazing solution for almost nothing Blockchain technology is going to change everything: the shipping industry, the financial system, government … in fact, what won’t it change? But enthusiasm for it mainly stems from a lack of knowledge and understanding. The blockchain is a solution in search of a problem.

Blockchain, the amazing solution for almost nothing

The Correspondent

Tech

Yuval Noah Harari on The Story of Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari on The Story of Sapiens, Forging the Skill of Awareness, and The Power of Disguised Books

Yuval Noah Harari on The Story of Sapiens

Tim Ferris Show

Insight

With Its Own Chips, Apple Aims to Define the Future of PCs

With Its Own Chips, Apple Aims to Define the Future of PCs Apple has long been the lone wolf of the personal computer industry in maintaining its own operating system instead of licensing Microsoft’s Windows as rivals do. Tuesday it struck out further from the pack, by launching its first laptops and desktops built on processors designed wholly in house.

Business

Tech

Status Games with Eugene Wei Status can be a volatile, powerful driver of engagement. Status and one of its underlying mechanisms, scarcity must be considered by product designers in every category, as early on as possible.

NFX

Tech

The tyranny of chairs: why we need better design Most chairs aren’t designed to serve human bodies – but a better seat is possible.

Design

Min Lew: doing good is good business “If we want design to be viewed as a business tool, we should start presenting projects through the lens of a business objective.” When Min Lew started out she believed she was in the business of ideas. Today, as Partner, Creative Director and Managing Director of Base New York, Min believes she is in a creative people’s business. Empathy, understanding, critical thinking and vision will be the key skills of the future.

Folch Insights

Business

Is a world without trash possible?In Amsterdam I met a man who revealed to me the hidden currents of our lives—the massive flows of raw materials and products deployed, to such wonderful and damaging effect, by 7.7 billion humans. Our shared metabolism, you might say.

National Geographic

Climate

Rural Futurism We are constantly being told that more than half of the world’s population will soon be living in urban agglomerations. Countless biennials and books have questioned the way cities are changing...

SSENSE

Climate

Life

Morning walk through the forest, village and lake Soundtrack: 尾島由郎 - Biodome

Morning walk through the forest, village and lake

Thisispaper Stream

Life

Are We Already Living in Virtual Reality?

Are We Already Living in Virtual Reality?

New Yorker

Digital

The Evolution of Merchandise How T-shirts with prints changed the music industry.

Tight Media

Insight

Kumano Kodo Kumano Kodo is an ancient pilgrimage road located deep in the Japanese mountains south of the Kii Peninsula.

Openhouse

Life

Aphex Twin - Stone In Focus Video from Baraka (1992)

YouTube

Life

Why 2020 to 2050 Will Be ‘the Most Transformative Decades in Human History’

Why 2020 to 2050 Will Be ‘the Most Transformative Decades in Human History’

Onezero

Health

Two Dozen Large Cities Produce 52 Percent of Urban Carbon Emissions Just 25 cities globally are responsible for 52 percent of urban greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new study that highlights the role that cities must play in reaching the goals of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.

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Living online and IRL What happens when real life collides with your digital existence – the writer and ‘Poet Laureate of Twitter’ Patricia Lockwood talks to Andrew Marr.

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How 2020 Remapped Your Worlds Maps are used to explore the world, but they also offer exploration within their own boundaries.

Bloomberg

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The curse of 'white oil': electric vehicles' dirty secret

The curse of 'white oil': electric vehicles' dirty secret The race is on to find a steady source of lithium, a key component in rechargeable electric car batteries. But while the EU focuses on emissions, the lithium gold rush threatens environmental damage on an industrial scale

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Apocalyptic Infrastructures For infrastructure to serve the public and steward the world’s air, water and soil for future generations, it has to be planned through more open, egalitarian and environmentally militant processes. Early on the morning of Feb.

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Digital sovereignty and smart cities: what does the future hold?Do you think there are some elements in this project that could be used to trigger similar processes in other cities? What kind of scale do you think this may affect? One of the most important aspects of cities is their capacity to build networks, to exchange policies, projects, norms and their ap

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The Display of the Future Might Be in Your Contact Lens

The Display of the Future Might Be in Your Contact Lens A glance to the left. A flick to the right. As my eyes flitted around the room, I moved through a virtual interface only visible to me—scrolling through a calendar, looking up commute times home, and even controlling music playback.

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Robots are animals, not humans In the early 2000s, a Russian man named Boris Zhurid struck a deal to sell the Iranians a large collection of weaponry. He chartered a transport aircraft to make the delivery from Sevastopol, the largest city on the Crimean Peninsula, in the Black Sea, to the Persian Gulf.

WIRED UK

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The mathematical case against blaming people for their misfortune Kenny Chow was born in Myanmar, and moved to New York City in 1987. He worked for years as a diamond setter for a jeweller, earning enough to buy a house for his family before he was laid off in 2011.

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Climate Science, Risk & Solutions More than 90% of climate scientists attribute the increase in global temperature over the past 30-40 years to greenhouse gases that humans have been adding to the atmosphere since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the 1700s.

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Want Not, Waste Not Nathan Gardels, the editor-in-chief of Noema Magazine, recently interviewed Vaclav Smil, the Czech-Canadian scientist and policy analyst, to talk about his new book, “Grand Transitions: How the Modern World Was Made” (2021).

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What Are NFTs, Why Should Fashion Care and Will This Bubble Burst?NFTs, the hot emerging technology with the clunky name, have galvanized the fashion sector and everyone else who sees opportunity in a crypto craze that has driven millions of dollars in recent sales.

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She Wants Your Attention, She’s the Voice of the City I sat in the airport waiting room for the first time in months, anxiously observing and listening closely to my surroundings to see what had altered within this strange and yet all too familiar setting.

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Creativity Is Dead, Long Live Curation | Highsnobiety Highsnobiety Q3 is the third in a series of quarterly insight weeks dedicated to the business behind youth culture and what makes our market tick. Head over to our Q3 hub to see the full series. There’s no mistaking an Acne Studios store for any other.

Highsnobiety

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The tyranny of chairs: why we need better design ‘Let’s face the considerable evidence that all sitting is harmful,” writes Galen Cranz, a design historian whose book The Chair traces this object’s long history. Not all sitting, of course. For people who use wheelchairs, they’re an elegant and crucial technology.

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Platforms, Creative Communities, and the Need for a Radical Reimagining Insecurity is the internet’s original sin, yet officials are fighting to undermine the encryption technologies that protect our personal information.

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‎Design Matters with Debbie Millman Beeple began creating a new piece of art each day with his aptly titled “everydays” series … which ultimately led to an astonishing $69 million NFT sale. Here, he breaks down how it all happened.

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Theses on Techno-Optimism “If you fall in love with a machine there is something wrong with your love-life. If you worship a machine there is something wrong with your religion.” – Lewis Mumford (1952) There are moments in which it is difficult to feel particularly positive about how things are going in the world.

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Minimal Maintenance The author wishes to thank the organisers of the 2019 Liverpool Maintenance Fest, who commissioned the talk that became this essay. Not long ago in Manhattan, I attended a fancy, invitation-only panel discussion concerning a certain new luxury urban development.

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I’m Not Scared to Reenter Society. I’m Just Not Sure I Want To.This post-pandemic summer is evidently expected to be one long orgiastic reunion, after which, once that’s out of our system, it’s back to work, back to school, to what we used to call “normal.

I’m Not Scared to Reenter Society. I’m Just Not Sure I Want To.

The Atlantic

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Unboxing the Toolkit What do flower gardens, chests of drawers, chocolate cakes, and global development projects have in common? They all might find their origin in a toolkit! Given the proliferation of kits across industry sectors and everyday experiences, we’d do well to consider what the toolkit does, who it serves

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Environment as financial investment Investing in nature presented by Gresham College. May 18, 2021

ABC

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The invisible addiction: is it time to give up caffeine?

The invisible addiction: is it time to give up caffeine?After years of starting the day with a tall morning coffee, followed by several glasses of green tea at intervals, and the occasional cappuccino after lunch, I quit caffeine, cold turkey.

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