Technology Archives - Page 2 of 2

Leonardo da Vinci designed an ideal city that was centuries ahead of its time

Posted on August 11, 2020 October 8, 2020 by Emma Jansen

The word “genius” is universally associated with the name of Leonardo da Vinci – a true Renaissance man, he embodied scientific spirit, artistic talent and humanist sensibilities. Exactly 500 years have passed since Leonardo died in his home at Château du Clos Lucé, outside Tours, France. Yet far from fading to insignificance, his thinking has carried down the centuries – and still surprises today.

The Renaissance marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity, after the spread of the plague caused a global crisis resulting in some 200m deaths across Europe and Asia. Today, the world is on the cusp of a climate crisis, which is predicted to cause widespread displacement, extinctions and death, if left unaddressed. Then, as now, radical solutions were called for to revolutionise the way people live and safeguard humanity against catastrophe.

Organic agriculture is going mainstream, but not the way you think it is

Posted on August 10, 2020 October 8, 2020 by Emma Jansen

One of the biggest knocks against the organics movement is that it has begun to ape conventional agriculture, adopting the latter’s monocultures, reliance on purchased inputs and industrial processes.

“Big Organics” is often derided by advocates of sustainable agriculture. The American food authors Michael Pollan and Julie Guthman, for example, argue that as organic agriculture has scaled up and gone mainstream it has lost its commitment to building an alternative system for providing food, instead “replicating what it set out to oppose.”

New research, however, suggests that the relationship between organic and conventional farming is more complex. The flow of influence is starting to reverse course.

Uber Wants to Go All-Electric by 2030. It Won’t Be Easy

Posted on August 5, 2020 October 7, 2020 by Emma Jansen

The coronavirus pandemic has been an all-around nightmare, but there are a few silver linings. One of these is a renewed focus on the environment. Emissions plummeted worldwide when countries went into lockdown in the spring, and cities have since been implementing new measures to keep pollution down and get people to be more active and environmentally conscious.

In keeping with the trend, ridesharing market leader Uber announced on Tuesday that it will transition to a 100 percent electric car fleet by 2030. Lyft, its main competitor, made a similar announcement in June. Are the ride-hailing companies’ commitments to greening linked to the pandemic? It’s unclear; they likely would have implemented this switch at some point in the near future anyway, and the pandemic may simply have accelerated it (as it did for other technologies and trends, like automation and remote work).

How a Memory Quirk of the Human Brain Can Galvanize AI

Posted on August 4, 2020 October 5, 2020 by Emma Jansen

Even as toddlers we’re good at inferences. Take a two-year-old that first learns to recognize a dog and a cat at home, then a horse and a sheep in a petting zoo. The kid will then also be able to tell apart a dog and a sheep, even if he can’t yet articulate their differences.

This ability comes so naturally to us it belies the complexity of the brain’s data-crunching processes under the hood. To make the logical leap, the child first needs to remember distinctions between his family pets. When confronted with new categories—farm animals—his neural circuits call upon those past remembrances, and seamlessly incorporate those memories with new learnings to update his mental model of the world.

How Mayor Anne Hidalgo is turning Paris into a car-free city

Posted on August 1, 2020 October 8, 2020 by Emma Jansen

A city where cars are banned. A city where everything you need is just a walk away. A city with green spaces and playgrounds instead of car parks. These are the plans of Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, for the French capital.

It’s 2016, and Paris is suffering: the smog is so thick you can’t see the Eiffel Tower, and air pollution is the highest it has been in every ten years. Subsequently, every second car has to stay in the garage. On one day cars with an even number at the end of the license plate are allowed on the roads, the next day those with an odd number. In exchange, local public transport is free. After some time the situation calmed down, but to Mayor Anne Hidalgo it was clear: there were too many cars in Paris. She needed to redesign the city center consistently and prioritise cyclists and pedestrians in the future.

Beyond the digital divide

Posted on July 31, 2020 October 7, 2020 by Emma Jansen

How parents and teens are learning to navigate the risks of life online.

Carmel Molony is Facebook friends with her daughter, Frankie, who just turned 14. She also follows her daughter’s Instagram account. But then Frankie’s digital life disappears into Snapchat and Carmel knows she cannot follow.

“I could be on Snapchat with her but I still wouldn’t be able to know her activity. It’s not a platform like the others,” she said. “As a parent, even if I wanted to, I simply couldn’t say I want to see all your snapchats. But I know she uses it a lot.”

How to live a low waste, eco-friendlier lifestyle – and how you can do it

Posted on July 22, 2020 October 8, 2020 by Emma Jansen

For about a year now, I have become more aware of the huge impact that one family can have on the world, in terms of waste and carbon emissions, and I have been determined to reduce mine as much as possible. After my first year studying Biology at university, I suddenly thought to myself that things had to change.

Looking back on it, I feels as though I had an epiphany of some sorts which made me think about the items I threw “away”, and that my eating meat (which almost seems unreal to me now) was having a detrimental effect on the planet and the animals which I had deluded myself about. I slowly started introducing ideas of ways to be eco-friendlier to my family, which thankfully, they were happy to adopt after learning more about the problems we face.

The Ripple Effect of Investing in Women and Tech

Posted on July 18, 2020 April 8, 2021 by Emma Jansen

Investing in women is an investment in the world, and fortunately, the majority of investors recognize the importance of investing in gender-balanced teams. But achieving gender equity calls for more than agreement. Less than 10 percent of these same investors build a strategy or set targets to fulfill this belief, and only 10 percent of women are in senior decision-making positions. In 2017, less than 3 percent of global venture funding went to female-led teams. However, at MIT Solve, we believe in putting women’s great ideas into action.

With 62 percent women-led startups, our 2018 Solver Class strikes more than balance. To highlight this impact, we’re featuring four of our women-led 2018 Solver teams who advance the UN Sustainable Development Goal #5 for gender equality, empowering women and girls worldwide.

From upskilling garment workers, to improving maternal healthcare, to documenting sexual violence, these four startups are using tech to change lives and empower women in innovative ways. Each drives us further toward reaching gender equality.