When our view is distorted, we don’t perceive things as they really are. Find out why some people are making an extreme and permanent choice based on bad information.
Tag Archives: Technology
With teen mental health deteriorating over five years, there’s a likely culprit
Even a change that’s generally good can have negative consequences.
Seat Belts: Get the Facts
It’s likely that when your grandparents were your age, they rode in a car without buckling a seat belt first. Find out how effective seat belts are at saving lives and why some people don’t use them, even today.
How smart cities can create their own poetry – tech podcast
In this podcast, the creator of an art installation in Manchester, England, discusses how she used real-time data that informed poems written by A.I. and were displayed around the city.
In the Gilded Age, Americans loved and feared the railroad companies — and it can teach Big Tech a valuable lesson
Tech company CEO Richard White compares current internet service providers and how to regulate them to railroad companies of the Gilded Age.
New humanities class explores the history of the ‘self’ from B.C. to VR
A course at Yale University examines the intersections of individuality, society, and technology.
Researchers Study Effects Of Social Media On Young Minds
Ever wonder what using social media does to your brain? Read to learn what one team of researchers found when exploring this topic.
If Romeo and Juliet had cellphones . . .
It’s easy to imagine that Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers would have had a happier ending with the benefit of modern technology. A social researcher explores this idea more deeply.
Is Amazon’s New Store Really The Future Of Grocery Shopping?
What does a reimagined grocery store look like? Amazon, a name not associated with grocery stores up to now, opened “Amazon Go” in Seattle in January!
Would you like this new 21st century shopping experience?
Crossing the Ocean Blue
The great explorer Christopher Columbus left Spain in 1492 on a voyage of exploration. The 3 ships he set off with were believed to be “technology that was far ahead of its time”. Think of this connection and about why this article appears on The American Society of Mechanical Engineers website.
Build-a-brain
Neuroscientist Michael Graziano outlines the steps he believes would create an artificially-conscious computer.
How 3-D Glasses Work
Even the cheesiest 3-D movie effects can be startling. How does a cheap pair of glasses make an image look like it’s coming right at us?
Signs of Life
How pervasive is humans’ footprint on the Earth? Author Randall Munroe explores the question.
Brain game: bringing Paddington to life on screen
The use of technologies such as CGI (computer-generated imagery) can make a little bear from Peru appear very real. We take on board the personality and challenges of the “guy” as if he were human. Read more about the technical challanges here.
The Next Step
Mars Short Stories – The Write Stuff is an initiative by NASA to engage writers to put technology-based fiction to paper. The aim is to help visualize the potential reality of, in particular, the first human missions to Mars.
The Challenges and Opportunites of 21st Century Muckracking
In part of its 21st Century Muckrakers series, Nieman Reports, a foundation that seeks to advance the standards of journalism, outlines the obstacles and advantages of contemporary investigative reporting.
Fail Better
In this online version of the Fail Better exhibition, you can explore discoveries, inventions, and ideas that failed. The exhibition looks at the importance of these failures in leading to success.
Our privacy is for sale, we have to accept that. But what’s the price tag?
Computer programs gather information about people based on every web site, news article, or item that they view or buy online. Using algorithms, computers can form a picture of each person’s personality better than a friend or family member. Read what you should know about protecting yourself and your privacy.
10,000 Year Clock
Look 10,000 years into the past, and you’ll see humans beginning to cultivate the earliest agricultural crops. What changes would a look 10,000 years into the future reveal? For Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, the distant future will include a functioning clock, being built now in the desert of West Texas.
Greenpeace faults many tech giants for environment impact
An October 2017 report by Greenpeace, an environmental group, rated the environmental impact of several tech companies. Many of them did not rate well.