Five Interesting Things: Today’s Scan Hits
Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today.
- An opinion piece for MIT Technology Review notes that while “big data” has the potential to enable economic and social progress, we must be careful not to become so enamored of data that we “fail to appreciate its inherent ability to mislead,” e.g., by drawing conclusions based on faulty inputs.
- Jaron Lanier worries that “free information” may erode some of our basic social structures, including the middle class.
- Mathematician Eric Weinstein has developed a “Theory of Everything” that unifies general relativity and quantum mechanics. Unlike many ideas in theoretical physics, Weinstein’s new theory provides testable predictions for new categories of subatomic particles that could substantively support or falsify his model.
- Tesla Motors has announced plans to expand its nationwide network of charging stations for its electric cars. Tesla plans to triple the number of current stations by the end of June and have stations in most major North American cities within six months. Charging is free for Tesla owners.
- Further blurring the boundary between online and real world, Pepsi has unveiled a vending machine that will dispense a free bottle based on a consumer “Liking” Pepsi on Facebook. Consumers can either log into their Facebook accounts on their smartphones or using a touchscreen mounted on the vending machine.