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Can low-tech help forests survive?
Terraformation shows technology can help to transform nature
Terraformation shows technology can help to transform nature
Venezuela’s failed cryptocurrency experiment
What happens when an authoritarian regime that controls every aspect of an economy creates a currency based on decentralization, free movement, and transparency? This is the explosive true story behind the world’s first state-backed cryptocurrency.
How many state governments do you know who’d put their faith in a cryptocurrency to level out hyperinflation and stop nation-wide riots? Not many, probably. And yet, that’s exactly what Venezuala did to reinvigorate its economy amid financial carnage. Truthfully though, they didn’t do too many of the hard yards. Instead, they supported entrepreneur Gabriel Jimenez to create the petro (₽), or petromoneda – the world’s first state-backed cryptocurrency.
But as you can expect, when an authoritarian regime meets tech based on decentralization, there will be fireworks. As part of Tomorrow Unlocked’s Coded series three, (now launching on Freethink) episode four focuses on entrepreneur and crypto-expert Gabriel Jimenez’s journey from national hero to enemy of the state. Brace yourself for this one.
Games could help develop better assistive tech
"My brain became part of the machine."
"My brain became part of the machine."
For disabled people, high-tech assistance systems are breaking barriers. Competitors in multi-sport championship Cybathlon are showing how these technologies are changing the game.
State-of-the-art ‘pilots’ are opening doors
It’s easy to take independence for granted, but for someone with a disability, a new piece of assistive technology that lets them perform an everyday task without help can never come soon enough.
To show the power of technological assistance systems (known to many as ‘pilots,’) every four years in Zürich, Switzerland, disabled people with software developers, engineers and neuroscientists use state-of-the-art assistance tech to compete in the multi-sport championship Cybathlon.
Of course, there are medals at stake. But Cybathlon exists to promote experimenting with assistive technologies to extend disabled people’s access to all parts of life. From using brain power to control avatars, to navigating obstacle courses with augmented limbs, Cybathlon wants to make sure we can all expect independence, regardless of impairment or injury.
Even Covid couldn’t stand in the way of Cybathlon 2020. Here’s how Cybathlon’s organizers and competing teams changed tack to deliver its most inclusive events yet.
Why is autonomy important in space?
Find out more about the technology needed for the Mars Rover
Find out more about the technology needed for the Mars Rover
Taylor Rees is one of the most exciting filmmakers around, making documentaries from forgotten volcanic archipelagos to red-hot reflections on the American civil war. Who is Taylor Rees and what other documentaries has she made that you must see?
Director. Adventurer. Photographer. Environmental documentary filmmaker. The list goes on, but this description gives you an idea of her versatility and talent.
Taylor Rees’ work focuses on environmental and humanitarian issues, exploring stories beneath the surface with insatiable curiosity, deepening public understanding of natural resource conflicts, climate change and human rights. Her middle name is Freesolo: No moniker but a lasting reminder of her parents’ love of free climbing.
Her career dates back to a Masters’s degree from Yale in environmental management and anthropology. This is the foundation for her stories, giving them a rigorous scientific and social justice approach.
Stylistically, Taylor’s work uses the power of landscape – skies, mountain ranges and large expanses. She also looks at a landscape’s story – the intricacies of its beauty, connection and how life interacts within different places. For storytellers out there, her TED talk is a must.
Taylor Rees said in a recent interview with culture and adventure journalist Simon Schreyer, “The love of what’s beautiful to me is deeply personal and it gives me a lot of intention, desire and drive to find aspects of beauty within a human life, or in a landscape, or in a way to incorporate that beauty in my own life. It’s like an indescribable phenomenon, that we don’t even know how to talk about rationally.”
Her first film Down To Nothing follows a five-person team who set out on an ambitious trek to find out whether Burmese peak Hkakabo Razi is really Southeast Asia’s highest point.
Alaska’s Ruth Glacier is a climber’s dream. When director Taylor Rees and climbers Renan Ozturk and Alex Honnold choose a specific route to the top, unfortunately – or perhaps, fortunately – the weather puts a swift stop to their expectations. What follows is remarkable.
Watch Taylor Rees’ film Life Coach
Is there room for glamour in the testosterone-filled world of ski mountaineering? Taylor and her team ask big questions as they follow ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson in a stunning depiction of masculinity and femininity in sport.
Watch Taylor Rees’ film Mentors: Hilaree Nelson
Both Black history and US history, Ashes to Ashes is one of Taylor Rees’ more poignant and at times horrific explorations of humanity. She follows Winfred Rembert, an artist and rare survivor of a Jim Crow-era attempted lynching, as he explains a dark past.
When the guardian of an almost unreachable archipelago in the Far East of Russia hitched a ride with Taylor and her team, no one expected the result. From Kurils With Love’s team includes Rees’ spouse and fellow filmmaker Renan Ozturk. They set out to make a classic adventure story but what they got was something far more powerful.
Taylor’s most recent work is set on Mount Everest and narrated by Renan Ozturk. The big question: Who was the first to reach the summit? Rees directs this gripping and sometimes strained look at the history of Everest expeditions, the fraught relationship between indigenous guides and the commercialization of a sacred mountain.
If her previous work is anything to go by, the future is bright. To make sure you don’t miss her next project, keep up to date with Taylor’s adventures on her Instagram or the Taylor Freesolo Rees website.
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Would you play pool against a robot?
Explore how a robotic cue levels up the way we play
Explore how a robotic cue levels up the way we play
No lockdowns in space
Watch astronauts on a spacewalk conduct upgrades on the ISS
Watch astronauts on a spacewalk conduct upgrades on the ISS
Taylor Rees is one of the most exciting filmmakers around, making documentaries from forgotten volcanic archipelagos to red-hot reflections on the American civil war. Who is Taylor Rees and what other documentaries has she made that you must see?
Director. Adventurer. Photographer. Environmental documentary filmmaker. The list goes on, but this description gives you an idea of her versatility and talent.
Taylor Rees’ work focuses on environmental and humanitarian issues, exploring stories beneath the surface with insatiable curiosity, deepening public understanding of natural resource conflicts, climate change and human rights. Her middle name is Freesolo: No moniker but a lasting reminder of her parents’ love of free climbing.
Her career dates back to a Masters’s degree from Yale in environmental management and anthropology. This is the foundation for her stories, giving them a rigorous scientific and social justice approach.
Stylistically, Taylor’s work uses the power of landscape – skies, mountain ranges and large expanses. She also looks at a landscape’s story – the intricacies of its beauty, connection and how life interacts within different places. For storytellers out there, her TED talk is a must.
Taylor Rees said in a recent interview with culture and adventure journalist Simon Schreyer, “The love of what’s beautiful to me is deeply personal and it gives me a lot of intention, desire and drive to find aspects of beauty within a human life, or in a landscape, or in a way to incorporate that beauty in my own life. It’s like an indescribable phenomenon, that we don’t even know how to talk about rationally.”
Her first film Down To Nothing follows a five-person team who set out on an ambitious trek to find out whether Burmese peak Hkakabo Razi is really Southeast Asia’s highest point.
Alaska’s Ruth Glacier is a climber’s dream. When director Taylor Rees and climbers Renan Ozturk and Alex Honnold choose a specific route to the top, unfortunately – or perhaps, fortunately – the weather puts a swift stop to their expectations. What follows is remarkable.
Watch Taylor Rees’ film Life Coach
Is there room for glamour in the testosterone-filled world of ski mountaineering? Taylor and her team ask big questions as they follow ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson in a stunning depiction of masculinity and femininity in sport.
Watch Taylor Rees’ film Mentors: Hilaree Nelson
Both Black history and US history, Ashes to Ashes is one of Taylor Rees’ more poignant and at times horrific explorations of humanity. She follows Winfred Rembert, an artist and rare survivor of a Jim Crow-era attempted lynching, as he explains a dark past.
When the guardian of an almost unreachable archipelago in the Far East of Russia hitched a ride with Taylor and her team, no one expected the result. From Kurils With Love’s team includes Rees’ spouse and fellow filmmaker Renan Ozturk. They set out to make a classic adventure story but what they got was something far more powerful.
Taylor’s most recent work is set on Mount Everest and narrated by Renan Ozturk. The big question: Who was the first to reach the summit? Rees directs this gripping and sometimes strained look at the history of Everest expeditions, the fraught relationship between indigenous guides and the commercialization of a sacred mountain.
If her previous work is anything to go by, the future is bright. To make sure you don’t miss her next project, keep up to date with Taylor’s adventures on her Instagram or the Taylor Freesolo Rees website.
Show Less
Topic:
Taking notes from nature
3 examples of scientists using biomimicry for human improvement
3 examples of scientists using biomimicry for human improvement
Humans are innovative but has it been done before? Learning from and mimicking nature for human designs is known as biomimicry. Find out how inspiring nature truly is when scientists utilise biomimicry in order to successfully create intelligent mechanisms:
What are some other examples of biomimicry? Share your favourites with us on Twitter and Facebook!
Taylor Rees: The story of the nature filmmaker
One of the most exciting nature filmmakers out there
One of the most exciting nature filmmakers out there
World Wildlife Day is a time to celebrate and raise awareness of the natural world and its value in our lives. From Kurils With Love is set in one of the most inaccessible volcanic island chains in the world. We meet Vladimir, a marine biologist, and warrior for the planet.
Renan Ozturk and the crew survey the devastation to wildlife after a volcanic eruption and reflect on what it means.
Go behind the scenes to learn how the film was made and the crew overcame technical challenges. With extra footage and commentary from the filmmakers.
Would you visit the Kuril Islands if you could? What’s the most beautiful nature spot you’ve ever visited? Share your wildlife stories with us on Twitter and Facebook!
The next industrial revolution looks promising
Smart factories could fight climate change and save lives
Smart factories could fight climate change and save lives
When COVID-19 hit, manufacturers worldwide raced to build as many ventilators as possible for patients. But traditional factories throughout the globe couldn’t fulfill the demand fast enough. With traditional and automated manufacturing processes still not as efficient as we need, could autonomous factories be the next industrial revolution we’ve been waiting for?
As the world becomes more digital, manufacturers have turned towards automation to lower costs, increase productivity and reduce response times. But some people are asking, is there a better way? Automated processes still need maintenance and extensive human contact. Take 3D printing. You still need to input your instructions, which can be slow at the best of times. The manufacturing industry is still waiting for its big transformation – until now.
CloudNC uses machine learning technology to make manufacturing processes completely autonomous. Unlike automated machines which you manually program, autonomous machines will make the same thing faster, cheaper, and more reliably than any human. Thanks to the internet of things (IoT), smart factories can speak to each other, order parts, and reorganize supply chains faster than people can. Which, as we’ve seen with demand for ventilators for treating COVID-19, could save lives.
In this episode of Young Bright Minds: The Autonomous Factory, Theo Saville, CEO and Co-Founder of CloudNC, introduces his autonomous factory, explains why connected manufacturing is the way forward and how optimizing machine settings – sometimes these have millions of variables – could save lives. Find out more about Theo and other experts’ perspectives on how work is changing in our film, The Future That Works.
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Leading with appreciation
Every year, the first Friday of March is Employee Appreciation Day. Here are five TED Talks that will boost gratitude and morale at work:
How do you like to give kudos to your colleagues? Share your ideas with us on Facebook and Twitter, and don’t forget to show appreciation to a work buddy today!
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