How Tesla Will Change The World

#Innovation

How Tesla Will Change The World | Wait But Why

Peaks:

1. Tesla is going to fulfill its mission and change the world. It’s going to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport by bringing compelling mass market electric cars to market as soon as possible.
2. If the Model 3 ends up being as great as they say it’s gonna be, there’s no doubt in my mind that electric cars will be the norm far earlier than they would have been. Which will, in turn, mean that 50 years from now, the atmosphere’s CO2 level will probably be lower than it would have otherwise been, cities will be less smoggy than they would have otherwise been, global temperatures will be lower than they would have otherwise been, the sad polar bear will get to eat seals again, along with about 12 other positive effects that will legitimately affect our lives. Pretty down-the-middle definition of changing the world.

#Bitcoin

How the Tech Behind Bitcoin Could Stop the Next Snowden | WIRED

Peaks:

Solution : using the same ideas that underpin the digital currency Bitcoin, the company says it can ensure no one can alter digital files, not even an organization’s most senior executives or IT managers. The idea is to stop the next Snowden in his tracks by making it impossible to tamper with data, such as the NSA log files, in secret.

#AI

The Long-Term Future of (Artificial) Intelligence

#Diversity

Venture Capital's Next Venture

Peaks:

1. The lack of diversity in venture capital boardrooms is far more than a STEM pipeline issue.
2. Few Women in STEM Programs + More Risk Aversion for Women ⇒ Few Female Tech CEOs ⇒ Few Female VCs.
3. Networks matter. Relationships matter. Similarity biases negatively affect women. It is important to acknowledge to even the most subtle unconscious biases — head on.
4. Structural barriers are real. With small private partnerships, there is little incentive to change and limited internal mobility. Firms could benefit from more promotion from within and more metrics to measure short-term successes.

#Silicon Valley

What Silicon Valley Can Learn From Seoul

Peaks:

1. The gap between South Korea (and the rest of Asian) and the US will only increase. Republicans are against the idea of public investment in roads, bridges, wireless facilities — anything outside corporate hands. As a result, the great leaps forward that societies make are, in the US case, behind us.
   We’ll of course be at war with the latest death machines and tech, but life at home will continue to worsen for most economic classes. Just across the border in Canada, you find easy wifi access almost everywhere, and that’s free access without that dumb “I agree to the terms” page.
   in 2020, Koreans will be able to download a movie in one minute, and we’ll still be fighting ISIS.
2. American infrastructure is behind. There’s no arguing that when you travel the world, IT-wise, transportation-wise. We need to be spending more money on expanding our infrastructure to keep up with the rest of the world, not to mention create sustainable jobs.
3. The Korean version of Facebook that everybody in Korea was already using three years before MySpace or Facebook even existed in America? Because of its global reach, Facebook eventually squeezed out Cyworld on its home turf. But, its another illustration of how, by the time digital trends start to catch on in America, they’re already very old news in Korea.

#Google

How Google Finally Got Design

Peaks:

1. Google, was simply a bundle of lines crazily pointing everywhere, like a bunch of pick-up sticks touching in too many places to count. Google, in other words, was built to encourage the messiness that breeds new ideas. But that same messiness doesn’t much encourage the coherence that marks great design.

Manu Cornet/Bonkers World

#Security

Edward Snowden: The World Says No to Surveillance

Peaks:

1. A democracy cannot abandon it’s responsibility to consider the rights and freedom of it’s citizens as the highest purpose of law. When an agency assumes to protect with secrets and monitor the very people it has been paid and entrusted, to protect, the contract with the public is broken. Mass surveillance is a tool of the totalitarian state and does not belong in a free society, it’s effectiveness is not the issue.
2. The idea that we can live private lives is absurd. If you use a cell phone, someone knows where you are (or have been) and records who you called. If you use a credit card, there is a permanent record of the date, time and location of your purchase. And video cameras are everywhere, from bank lobbies to grocery store, gas stations and office buildings. If you want privacy today, stop using your cell phone. Pay cash for your purchases, “unregister” to vote and don’t renew your driver’s license.
3. Obama would show real courage if he pardoned Mr. Snowden as his last act before leaving office. Mr. Snowden is a whistleblower. It is a sad fact that when the country’s money is at stake, whistleblowers are protected and rewarded, but when our civil liberties are at stake, whistleblowers are prosecuted and threatened. Mr. Snowden’s silence would have protected an illegal surveillance program — he should be pardoned and welcomed back as a hero for having the courage to speak up.

#Thinking

Tech Gurus Say More Needs to be Done to Spread the Wealth

Peaks:

1. The majority of U.S. households have seen little if any income growth for over 20 years, the percentage of national income that’s paid out in wages has declined sharply in the U.S. since 2000, and the American middle class, which is one of our country’s great creations, is being hollowed out.
2. There are big changes happening in the economy and technology is driving it — and it’s mostly good news. But it’s not automatic that everyone will benefit evenly and there are a lot of things we can do to create more shared prosperity.