Technology & Innovation

Bill Nye said the Rosetta mission would lead to amazing discoveries we hadn’t yet even thought of. He might have been more right than he imagined.

Who will care for you in old age? Given dramatically lower fertility rates and population aging, combined with the high cost of caregiving, the future of eldercare and senior housing may be in for a big change. Can you imagine a future where robots provide care to older adults? Whether you think it cool, or creepy, the future may begin on July 17th when the Henn-na Hotel in Japan opens with a mostly robotic staff — is senior housing next?

The news has some serious implications for activists and journalists that rely on its protections. 

Let your employees replenish their energy with a nap over a cup of coffee.

In many respects, the new global economy has been more unkind to men than women.

Rear monitors on trucks, showing live footage of the road ahead, could significantly reduce overtaking mistakes.  

Great individuals will sometimes behave badly because they can.

Researchers have developed a way to print circuits on textiles, creating new opportunities for the next generation of wearables.

Virtual reality company Fove doesn’t just want to manufacture a VR headset; it wants to make one with eye-tracking technology.

The pope laments the state of the environment, but he also decries the naive central environmentalist belief that humans are separate from nature and the villain in a simple myth of US (humans) against True Nature.

Study proceeds to fascinate and creep everyone out.

Pope Francis’ message on the environment is actually a radical call for humans to accept a more modest material lifestyle, and for a major redistribution of the world’s wealth and power. That’s great stuff for a sermon, but not so helpful as a practical guide for achievable change.

When we say prostitution is a scourge on society, we typically mean (without knowing it) that able-bodied people have better alternatives.

A look at the implications of a promising discovery by researchers at Google.

The space agency seeks to index the parts of the Internet Google won’t show you.

The gender-wage gap is more complex than we may think, as researchers find female managers are not the solution to the wage issues.

Sometimes a small business model is the way to go, so companies don’t have to sell off user data to make money.

Your brain is perfectly capable of remembering a random passphrase; we’re all just to lazy to work on memorizing it.

Carry-on bag size is about to shrink, all thanks to a recommendation handed down from the International Air Transport Association.

Dashcams are growing in popularity as drivers seek to protect themselves from liability… as well as catch some pretty cool footage from time to time.

SpaceX has asked permission to establish a system of satellites to deliver worldwide Internet to all regions. Time Warner and Comcast: You are officially on notice.

Companies are making information security a greater priority, throwing billions into departments involved. But is all that money enough to protect us from an attack?

After 1.8 million miles, Google’s self-driving car has been involved in only 13 accidents — all of which were caused by the other car. 

Sarah Larson analyzes how texting our amusement has changed — how does a “heehee” sound versus a “hehe”?

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling this week protecting free speech on the Internet by clarifying the standards by which people can be convicted for making potential threats online.   

Facebook has enabled PGP encryption as an option for notification emails, adding another layer of security for users. So, what companies will follow?

The recycling firm that had an Apple I computer dropped on its doorstep is now looking for the mystery woman that unknowingly donated the legendary piece of technology.

A news agency in Panama City installed devices in local potholes that automatically tweet complaints to the public works department every time they are driven over.

U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest has sentenced Ross Ulbricht to life in prison, a more severe sentence than even the prosecution had requested. Forrest explained she was making an example of Ulbricht to send a message to others like him. 

The word “rational” needs to be rescued. Tom Stoppard’s new play shows that a major rational parable, the Prisoner’s Dilemma, is widely misinterpreted. Seeing why “rationalists” do worse than Christians can help us avoid losing in evolution’s “negative telos” games.