Group items tagged

"While we don't expect to be delivering a full Star Trek holodeck experience in the near future, we're already boldly going in new directions to add additional functions to the system. Soon, we expect to be able to modify the temperature of the airflow to allow users to feel hot or cold surfaces. We're also exploring the possibility of adding scents to the airflow, deepening the illusion of virtual objects by allowing users to smell as well as touch them."

You wonder if it's the pandemic that is really the driver for people to seek companionship via virtual connections, or is it the start of a trend. The article talks about elderly people being taken advantage of in many of the cases. It also mentions that it's not just some rogue criminal but in some case organizations that are behind these scams.

Designers should ensure that spaces for all six modalities of work will be available as needed for both hypersensitive and hyposensitive occupants. While the right sizes and combinations of space will vary for each organization, the key is to provide a seamless array of choices. Spaces should easily adapt to the needs of people with work styles and behavioral needs at both ends of the spectrum. They also must be exceptionally flexible to integrate new technologies over time and, as more people continue to work remotely after the pandemic, to blend real and virtual work environments. Our current design is old and un-informed. We are ripe for a huge disruption in this space. I saw some recent pictures of Tesla's office. It's lame. How can you expect excellent and group breaking work when the environment is meh.

A brief opinion piece by an educator discussing the challenges of the virtual learning period that was abruptly brought on by COVID. He also has suggestions of changes to be made to fast-track students back into the in-person learning experience, full knowing that not all students progressed as they should have during this period.

Summary of a larger report, which is hyperinked in the article. Six summary paragraphs present these scenarios. In April 2020, an ambitious initiative called Positive AI Economic Futures was launched by Stuart Russell and Charles-Edouard Bouée, both members of the World Economic Forum's Global AI Council (GAIC). In a series of workshops and interviews, over 150 experts from a wide variety of backgrounds gathered virtually to discuss these challenges, as well as possible positive Artificial Intelligence visions and their implications for policymakers. The workshop attendees and interview participants, from science-fiction writers to economists and AI experts, attempted to articulate positive visions of a future where Artificial Intelligence can do most of what we currently call work.

President Biden "says his administration is focused on policing cryptocurrency crimes to combat corruption globally and is taking advantage of a newly formed Department of Justice task force, according to an anti-graft report released Monday." The White House is "particularly focused on crimes committed by virtual currency exchanges, mixing and tumbling services - platforms that obscure owners and recipients in Bitcoin transactions - and bad actors who facilitate money laundering, according to the report from U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption, which includes the State Department, Treasury and Justice Department."

"Corrosion has a huge economic, environmental and sustainability impact on virtually all facets of constructional materials, from highways, bridges, and buildings to oil and gas, chemical processing, desalination, nuclear, power facilities, water, and wastewater systems. In addition to causing severe environmental damage and threats to public safety, corrosion disrupts operations and requires extensive repair and replacement of failed assets. The annual cost of corrosion worldwide was estimated to exceed $U.S.2.5 trillion in 2016, which translates to 3 to 4% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of industrialized countries according to NACE IMPACT study report. (...) To reduce the huge cost and the environmental impact of corrosion and enhance the sustainability of materials used for construction, available corrosion control practices such as proper material design and selection, the use of corrosion inhibitors, coatings, cathodic protection etc., are recommended and could lead to savings of between 15 and 35% of the cost of corrosion. This translates to between US$375 and $875 billion annually"