Future Today #006 - Perseverance, Afrofuturism, Design Futures

Welcome to Future Today! A newsletter for those curious about social innovation, disruptive technologies and futures studies. In it I will share weekly blog articles, interesting links and recommendations for books, movies, series and courses.

?? Dialogues about the future" with David Alayón and Gema Requena (ES) Conversation with Gema Requena (Nethunting) about futures, social innovation, impact marketing, SDGs, trends, coolhunting, design fiction and many more topics.

?? NASA’s Perseverance rover safely lands on Mars. NASA's Mars Perseverance rover makes its final descent to the Red Planet. Here is the live coverage of the mission of Perseverance and Ingenuity helicopter at Mars. 

?? A New Artificial Intelligence Makes Mistakes—on Purpose. The AI chess program, known as Maia, uses the kind of cutting-edge AI behind the best superhuman chess-playing programs. But instead of learning how to destroy an opponent on the board, Maia focuses on predicting human moves, including the mistakes they make.

?? Watch a super-fast 3D printer scientists call The “Replicator”. 3D printers work by laboriously printing objects layer by layer. For larger objects, that process can take hours or even days. But now scientists at the University of California, Berkeley have found a shortcut: a printer that can fabricate objects in one shot using light — and which could, potentially, revolutionize rapid manufacturing technology.

?? Bill Gates - "Climate change will have far worse effects than the pandemic" (ES) He is usually right in his predictions and considers that we have little time: only three decades to reduce greenhouse emissions to zero. If not, we will suffer. Stupefied by the lies and alleged conspiracies that have surfaced during the pandemic and concerned about social polarization, Bill Gates believes that we can still save the future.

?? [FULL GUIDE] What is Design Futures and Frequently Asked Questions (ES) In the last 2 years a new concept has appeared in the Spanish creative scene that is causing some hype and a lot of skepticism in equal parts: Design Futures (or Futures Design). Below we share an extensive "guide", critical, trying to answer the most frequently asked questions.

?? The Future of Futurists: Glen Hiemstra, Anton Musgrave, Gerd Leonhard. Video conversation about: What does a futurist actually do, and how has that changed in the past decade, and as a result of the current global crisis? What is probable in the future, what is possible, and what is preferred?

?? The bright future of mRNA and its potential to revolutionize health care (ES) Scientists behind the messenger RNA technology for coronavirus vaccines believe it could be adapted at very low cost to correct genetic flaws capable of curing some cancers, sickle cell disease and perhaps even HIV.

??????? Free Download of Africanfuturism: An Anthology. Africanfuturism is a term coined by Nigerian sci-fi/fantasy author Nnedi Okorafor to describe science fiction that is rooted in the African world. “Africanfuturism: An Anthology” edited by Wole Talabi is the first anthology to directly engage with the idea of Africanfuturism. 

?? Reimagining the Platform Economy. Today's digital economy has grown up around a business model of data and wealth extraction, confounding traditional antitrust paradigms and undermining the public and social value that otherwise could be derived from technological innovation. The state can redress these problems, but only if it reclaims its proper role.

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?? Read the newsletter in Spanish