Five Interesting Things: Today’s Scan Hits
Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today.
- Data suggests that young Americans with student debt may be deterred by that debt from buying homes and cars, adding drag to the US economy.
- Researchers at Amherst College and Simon Frasier University ran a head-to-head competition between a D-Wave quantum computer, and 3 different conventional computers. The D-wave quantum computer calculated the correct result 3600 times faster than the conventional computers.
- Analysts argue that it might actually be possible to end extreme poverty worldwide within a couple of decades.
- Predictive apps, also called anticipatory software systems, offer useful information to smartphone users before they ask for it, for example, by pulling up a boarding pass when the user arrives at the airport.The first generation is already in use, to mixed reviews, and engineers are seeking improvements. Keys include better mining of user data to anticipate needs and managing user expectations by not giving the software a human personality.
- A new study conducted by the US Institute of Medicine has found no health-based reason to restrict dietary salt intake. The previous restrictions, about half a teaspoon per day, were thought to ward off heart attacks and high blood pressure. The study was sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.