Silicon vs. Viruses

CITY JOURNAL SPRING 2020 ……..  Will Covid-19 be seen, in hindsight, as a technological tipping point for telecommuting and other forms of remote interaction, including of the medical kind? Has the technology improved enough, given all that has happened in tech since 2009—an Internet century ago? Consider some bellwether indicators.

The Auspicious History — and Future — of Basic Science Research

NATIONAL JOURNAL ……..  With every crisis, whether a pandemic or manmade or natural disaster, politicians and pundits invariably get around to calling for a Manhattan Project. This powerful imagery of putting “big science” to work to tackle big challenges comes, of course, from the success of that World War II effort and after that its Cold…

Our love of the cloud is making a green energy future impossible

TECH CRUNCH ……..  An epic number of citizens are video-conferencing to work in these lockdown times. But as they trade in a gas-burning commute for digital connectivity, their personal energy use for each two hours of video is greater than the share of fuel they would have consumed on a four-mile train ride. Add to this,…

Our love of the cloud is making a green energy future impossible

TECHCRUNCH………….  An epic number of citizens are video-conferencing to work in these lockdown times. But as they trade in a gas-burning commute for digital connectivity, their personal energy use for each two hours of video is greater than the share of fuel they would have consumed on a four-mile train ride.

Technology Is the Way Out

CITY JOURNAL………  We’ve returned to a medieval economy, dominated by “essential services.” For most of history, some 80 percent of every nation’s economic activity was devoted to providing the basics: food, fuel, and services related to day-to-day survival. But in modern society, tens of millions of people do “nonessential” jobs that are, in fact, essential.

‘After Shock’ Review: The Future of Forecasting

WALL STREET JOURNAL .…………    The future looks very different today than it did before Jan. 31, the day President Trump closed travel with China in reaction to the Covid-19 outbreak. As the world struggles through this crisis, one thing that will follow is a massive reset in how businesses and governments plan and forecast.