Future

Discover the best articles, videos, and resources on the future from around the web. Future tech, future cities, humans and society in the future. Follow along on Refind to get the most relevant new links picked for you.
9 Best Articles in 2021
Tim Urban
The Artificial Intelligence Revolution: Part 1Tim Urban
20+ min read · From 2017 · Part 1 of 2: "The Road to Superintelligence". Artificial Intelligence — the topic everyone in the world should be talking about.
artificial intelligence
future
superintelligence
a16z
It's time to builda16z
7 min read · 2020-04-18 · Every Western institution was unprepared for the coronavirus pandemic, despite many prior warnings. This monumental failure of institutional effectiveness will reverberate for the rest of the decade,…
coronavirus
future
future cities
MIT Technology Review
10 Breakthrough Technologies 2020MIT Technology Review
~14 min read · 2020-02-26 ·  MIT Technology Review’s 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2020 outlines scientific discoveries, available now or in the very near future, that could most profoundly change people’s lives. Included this year: unhackable internet service; individual designer drugs; the proliferation of digital currency; anti-aging treatments; AI molecule searches for better medicines; satellite constellations boosting remote internet access; new uses for quantum computers, tiny, powerful AI apps for phones; bolstering Census privacy; and more accurate climate change forecasts. 
technology
future
McKinsey & Company
McKinsey: These are the skills you will need for the future of workMcKinsey & Company
9 min read · Jun 29th · Research has shown that while the need for manual skills will decline, the demand for technological, social and higher cognitive skills will increase.
future of work
remote work
future
Most highlighted
all citizens will benefit from having a set of foundational skills that help them fulfill the following three criteria, no matter the sector in which they work or their occupation:  add value beyond what can be done by automated systems and intelligent machines operate in a digital environment continually adapt to new ways of working and new occupations
We started from four broad skill categories—cognitive, digital, interpersonal, and self-leadership—then identified 13 separate skill groups belonging to those categories.
VICE
MIT Predicted in 1972 That Society Will Collapse This Century. New Research Shows We're on ScheduleVICE
5 min read · Jul 14th · A 1972 MIT study predicted that rapid economic growth would lead to societal collapse in the mid 21st century. A new paper shows we're unfortunately right on schedule.
future
society
climate change
Most highlighted
In 1972, a team of MIT scientists got together to study the risks of civilizational collapse. Their system dynamics model published by the Club of Rome identified impending ‘limits to growth’ (LtG) that meant industrial civilization was on track to collapse sometime within the 21st century, due to overexploitation of planetary resources.
The best available data suggests that what we decide over the next 10 years will determine the long-term fate of human civilization.
perhaps the most important implication of her research is that it’s not too late to create a truly sustainable civilization that works for all.
The Atlantic
Why Managers Fear a Remote-Work FutureThe Atlantic
7 min read · Jul 29th · Like it or not, the way we work has already evolved.
remote work
future of work
future
Most highlighted
Remote work makes who does and doesn’t actually do work way more obvious.
It removes the ability to seem productive (by sitting at your desk looking stressed or always being on the phone), and also, crucially, may reveal how many bosses and managers simply don’t contribute to the bottom line
In fact, your position at a company becomes more difficult to justify if all you do is delegate and nag people.
Guardian Books
Daniel Kahneman: ‘Clearly AI is going to win. How people are going to adjust is a fascinating…Guardian Books
7 min read · May 16th · The psychologist on applying his ideas to organisations, why we’re not equipped to grasp the spread of a virus, and the massive disruption that’s just round the corner
artificial intelligence
future
Most highlighted
People are willing to take far, far fewer risks when they face vaccination than when they face the disease. So this gap between the natural and the artificial is found everywhere.
Once it’s demonstrably true that you can have an AI that has far better business judgment, say, what will that do to human leadership?
Exponential phenomena are almost impossible for us to grasp. We are very experienced in a more or less linear world. And if things are accelerating, they’re usually accelerating within reason.
Inc.
MIT Published a List of the 9 Megatrends That Will Shape the World in 2030. Here's What…Inc.
2 min read · 2020-02-25 · Climate change, transparency, and populism will be driving the workforce 10 years from now.
climate crisis
future
HuffPost Green
Generation ScrewedHuffPost Green
20+ min read · From 2017 · Why millennials are facing the scariest financial future of any generation since the Great Depression.
millenials
despair
interactive
New this week
The animals that may exist in a million years, imagined by biologists
Vox
Climate Change Poses a Widening Threat to National Security
The New York Times
Why longtermism is the world’s most dangerous secular credo
Aeon+Psyche
What does our climate-changed future look like? Here are three possibilities
Fast Company
Brave new world: A brain implant zaps negative thoughts away
Salon
Probable Futures
probablefutures.org
Opinion | How Best to Save the Planet
The New York Times
How the world learns to live with covid-19
The Economist
Take a deep dive
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The Verge
What is the metaverse, and do I have to care?The Verge
~11 min read · Oct 4th · The dream of an embodied future internet is back.
digital life
future
Most highlighted
The metaverse is bigger than any one service, except when it’s convenient to call that service the metaverse
Pop culture is obsessed with cinematic universes, so why not have a virtual one?
The metaverse isn’t a single product one company can build alone.
a16z
Why Web3 Mattersa16z
4 min read · Oct 7th · Web1 (roughly 1990-2005) was about open protocols that were decentralized and community-governed. Most of the value accrued to the edges of the network — users and builders. Web2 (roughly 2005-2020)…
social media
digital life
startups
Most highlighted
Tokens give users property rights: the ability to own a piece of the internet.
NFTs give users the ability to own objects, which can be art, photos, code, music, text, game objects, credentials, governance rights, access passes, and whatever else people dream up next.  NFTs exist on top of blockchains like Ethereum. Ethereum is a decentralized global computer that is owned and operated by its users.
We are now at the beginning of the web3 era, which combines the decentralized, community-governed ethos of web1 with the advanced, modern functionality of web2.
medium.com
The Third Wavemedium.com
~16 min read · Oct 1st · It’s Metaverse time. But are we ready?
future
digital life
virtual reality
Most highlighted
After decades of fiction, friction and failure, it appears that we are finally poised to realize a collective dream of that shared, immersive virtual reality known as The Metaverse.
If you think the Internet changed everything… well, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Aeon+Psyche
Why longtermism is the world’s most dangerous secular credoAeon+Psyche
20+ min read · Oct 19th · It started as a fringe philosophical theory about humanity’s future. It’s now richly funded and increasingly dangerous
society
future
Most highlighted
On this view, a climate catastrophe will be a small blip – like a 90-year-old who stubbed his toe when he was two
This is the central dogma of longtermism: nothing matters more, ethically speaking, than fulfilling our potential as a species of ‘Earth-originating intelligent life’.
Everything, on this account, is an engineering problem, and hence every problem arises from too little rather than too much technology.
Vox
The animals that may exist in a million years, imagined by biologistsVox
8 min read · Oct 20th · Fully aquatic whale-rats. Praying mantises the size of dogs. Scientists imagine the future evolution of life on Earth.
environment
biology
future
Most highlighted
Giant bugs evolving in the future would be “really, really cool,” Alter said. Especially so, she added, “if humans are actually around to see them.”
Financial Times
Electric vehicles: the revolution is finally hereFinancial Times
1 min read · Oct 4th · After years of talk from carmakers, the industry is rapidly being transformed as companies stake their future on EVs
future of cars
future
electric cars
Most highlighted
This extraordinary surge in demand is being felt right across the world, from Shanghai to Stuttgart, Tokyo to Toronto, and from new brands to the established giants of the industry.
Given the importance of auto manufacturing to many economies, the shake-up that is starting to convulse the industry has enormous implications for jobs, urban development and even geopolitics.
Several manufacturers have taken previously unthinkable action: preparing to phase out the internal combustion engine altogether.
The New York Times
Climate Change Poses a Widening Threat to National SecurityThe New York Times
7 min read · Oct 21st · Intelligence and defense agencies issued reports warning that the warming planet will increase strife between countries and spur migration.
climate crisis
future
Salon
Brave new world: A brain implant zaps negative thoughts awaySalon
5 min read · Oct 14th · Salon spoke to ethicists and philosophers about the implications of "deep brain stimulation," a novel technology to treat depression
future
brain
The Economist
How the world learns to live with covid-19The Economist
~11 min read · Oct 14th · From pandemic to epidemic
coronavirus
future
probablefutures.org
Probable Futuresprobablefutures.org
10 min read · Sep 22nd · Probable Futures offers useful tools to visualize climate change along with stories and insights to help people understand what those changes mean.
future
climate crisis
Most highlighted
we started asking climate scientists practical questions about what climate change would look and feel like in different places around the world.
Future

9 Best Articles in 2021

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