These are this week's highlights for emerging technology and futures topics. Everything was first shared by our Slack Community. Enjoy :)
News
#feed-climate-crisis
The Climate Change Laws of the World is a global database of laws and policies emerging to regulate impacts on climate. Via Ariel.
#feed-health
Barcelona-based start-up Inbrain Neuroeletronics will begin human trials later this year, testing its graphene-based brain implant to treat conditions such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and dementia. Via _luish
Links
#feed-science-fiction
In this unsettling piece, Lauren Collee investigates the connection between paranormal tech horror and the extra-human self. Shared by Lidia.
#-1-announcements
The techDetector launch presentation is now online. In this presentation video, you can learn more about the techDetector platform and Envisioning’s research methodology.
#feed-ai-computing
Try out our favorite text-to-image models:
Pollinations.ai is a text-to-image platform that embeds many ML models to unify them into one AI-generated image or short video. All images generated on the platform are automatically posted on the project's Instagram page. It's developed and shared by Thomas Haferlach.
And Dall-E mini creates a few images for each text prompt, the platform generates more abstract outcomes and has a very easy-to-use interface.
Conversations
The future of sports
Over the past weeks, we have considered key points that had changed significantly since the Olympic Games were invented, such as body augmentations, gender/sex definitions, and climate change, to ask what the future of the Olympic games might look like:
#feed-gender
Can we imagine sports beyond gender?
Several female athletes are being banned from the games because their natural testosterone levels are considered too high for the women’s category. Simultaneously, intersex athletes see themselves unable to compete because they can’t fit into a predefined grouping.
Monica said: if it's their natural levels, then wouldn't it make sense to adjust the max levels than to claim that a person is 'unnatural’?
#-2-chat
As gene-editing and body augmentations become paramount, how do they fit into the Olympics?
This Neo-Life article sparked a discussion about how CRISPR gene editing and other performance enhancement technologies will affect the future of the Olympics.
Peter: The best solution is to openly hold Augmentation/Transhuman Games with categories for Bionics, Pharmaceuticals, Genetics, and Hybrid-Combos. Prizes would be shared between the athletes and engineering teams behind them!
Ariel: Yes, but we should acknowledge that both the access to technology and highly skilled professionals are unequal between countries.
Luiz: I look forward to the Ultimate ParetOlympics: where anything goes, as long your body is at least 80% born-that-way (measured by mass, bring out the light materials).
#-2-chat
How will climate change affect sports?
BBC Sport 2050 - Future news from a warmer world presents scenarios that show how climate change might affect the Olympics. Via Climax newsletter.
#feed-books
These are some of the current reads from the community:
Make Shift - Dispatches from the Post-Pandemic Future Edited by Gideon Lichfield
The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
Invisible Planets by Hannu Rajaniemi
Why Wakanda Matters, by Sheena C. Howard
Holding Change and We Will Not Cancel Us by Adrienne Maree Brown
The Ministry for the Future, by Kim Stanley Robinson
What are you currently reading? Head to #feed-books to add your book to the list.
Bye, see you next Tuesday.
Caroline