The Urbanism issue
July/August 2022
Is technology making cities better—or worse? A deep dive into what we stand to lose in the pursuit of efficiency and convenience.
Preview: MIT Technology Review – July/August 2022
Tag Archives: MIT Technology Review
Preview: MIT Technology Review – May 2022 Issue
The Money issue – May 2022
Money changes everything: But who is the shift toward digital transactions really helping?
Money is about to enter a new era of competition
Digital technology is poised to change our relationship with money and, for some countries, the ability to manage their economies.
MIT Technology Review: The ‘Top 10 Breakthrough Technologies’ (Mar 2021)
Health Update: Comparing “Coronavirus / Covid-19” And “Influenza” (W.H.O.)
From an MIT Technology Review article (March 11, 2020):
Here are six differences between coronavirus and the flu:
Coronavirus appears to spread more slowly than the flu. This is probably the biggest difference between the two. The flu has a shorter incubation period (the time it takes for an infected person to show symptoms) and a shorter serial interval (or the time between successive cases). Coronavirus’s serial interval is around five to six days, while flu’s gap between cases is more like three days, the WHO says. So flu still spreads more quickly.- Shedding: Viral shedding is what happens when a virus has infected a host, has reproduced, and is now being released into the environment. It is what makes a patient infectious. Some people start shedding the coronavirus within two days of contracting it, and before they show symptoms, although this probably isn’t the main way it is spreading, the WHO says.
- Secondary infections. As if contracting coronavirus wasn’t bad enough, it leads to about two more secondary infections on average. The flu can sometimes cause a secondary infection, usually pneumonia, but it’s rare for a flu patient to get two infections after the flu. The WHO warned that context is key (someone who contracts coronavirus might already have been fighting another condition, for example).
Don’t blame snotty kids—adults are passing coronavirus around. While kids are the primary culprits for flu transmission, this coronavirus seems to be passed between adults. That also means adults are getting hit hardest—especially those who are older and have underlying medical conditions. Experts are baffled as to why kids seem protected from the worst effects of the coronavirus, according to the Washington Post. Some say they might already have some immunity from other versions of the coronavirus that appear in the common cold; another theory is that kids’ immune systems are always on high alert and might simply be faster than adults’ in battling Covid-19.- Coronavirus is far deadlier than the flu. Thus far, the mortality rate for coronavirus (the number of reported cases divided by the number of deaths) is around 3% to 4%, although it’s likely to be lower because many cases have not yet been reported. The flu’s rate is 0.1%.
- There is no cure or vaccine for the coronavirus. Not yet, anyway, although work is under way. There is, however, a flu vaccine—and everyone should get it, not least because being vaccinated could help lessen the load on overstretched medical services in the coming weeks.
Medical Innovations: Researchers Successfully “Supercool” Human Livers For Later Transplant
From an MIT Technology Review online article:
Researchers say they’ve successfully plunged human livers to subzero temperatures and then warmed them back up.
The “supercooled” organs were still in good shape after 27 hours, adding nearly a day to how long livers can last outside the body.
The supply of donor hearts, kidneys, and livers from accident victims is sharply limited. In the US, a nationwide system of registries and transplant centers coordinates to move them around by air in coolers for what are invariably emergency surgeries.
The research is part of a wider effort to learn how to keep organs operational outside the body for longer periods of time.
Consumer Issues: Many Products Designed For Older People Are Just “Brown, Beige And Boring”
From a MIT Technology Review online article:
Engaging older people in designing for older people “is a good thing,” says Smith. “Because younger people do tend to have this picture of designing things that are functional for older people, but not really understanding what makes them happy.” Presented with products that are “brown, beige, and boring,” many older people will forgo convenience for dignity.
It’s a familiar tune to engineer Ken Smith, director of the mobility division of the Stanford Center on Longevity. He says one of the biggest mistakes designers make is to assume that around the age of 60 people lose interest in aesthetics and design. This can have dire consequences for products meant to help people with their health. No one wants to stick a golf-ball-size hearing aid the color of chewed gum in their ear, any more than they want to wear a T-shirt that reads “SENIOR CITIZEN.”
To read more click on the following link: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614167/why-are-products-for-older-people-so-ugly/?utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=76169117&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_dlTg24O7Cr_1b5J4cniKFvi74Dmh8Fm3nuJVTbblAB8Z3fna_Rj6WoV6M6aodqOVSJnh603-liOHFgjAr_EQEh9sVQw&_hsmi=76169117
MIT AgeLab: Consumer Product Companies Need To Make Older Adults A “Core Constituency”
From an MIT Technology Review article by Joseph F. Coughlin:
Technologists, particularly those who make consumer products, will have a strong influence over how we’ll live tomorrow. By treating older adults not as an ancillary market but as a core constituency, the tech sector can do much of the work required to redefine old age. But tech workplaces also skew infamously young. Asking young designers to merely step into the shoes of older consumers (and we at the MIT AgeLab have literally developed a physiological aging simulation suit for that purpose) is a good start, but it is not enough to give them true insight into the desires of older consumers. Luckily there’s a simpler route: hire older workers.
Of all the wrenching changes humanity knows it will face in the next few decades—climate change, the rise of AI, the gene-editing revolution—none is nearly as predictable in its effects as global aging. Life expectancy in industrialized economies has gained more than 30 years since 1900, and for the first time in human history there are now more people over 65 than under 5—all thanks to a combination of increasing longevity, diminished fertility, and an aging Baby Boom cohort. We’ve watched these trends develop for generations; demographers can chart them decades in advance.
To read more click on the following link: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614155/old-age-is-made-upand-this-concept-is-hurting-everyone/
Boomers Retirement: Senior Planet Aims To Be “Tech-Savviest Retirement Community On Earth”
From an MIT Technology Review online article:
That’s why Kamber created Senior Planet, a tech-themed community center that preps seniors to hack their way through a world conspiring to keep them sidelined. The glass door reads “Aging with Attitude.” With its sleek grays and wood tables, it rivals the WeWork next door in the Chelsea district of Manhattan.
Kamber is pretty exciting, but the place itself is a beehive. By the time he and I sat down to talk, I’d already bought some fingerless gloves from one of its graduates, Madelyn Rich, a fiber artist and entrepreneur who’d paid for her recent Caribbean cruise with her holiday glove sales, mostly online. In a computer lab, a class was learning to use Google Calendar and Google Hangouts. Rachel Roth, a white-haired sophisticate in aviator glasses, wheeled in a cart of her sea-salt-dusted chocolate almonds called Opera Nuts—she hawks them online and through West Elm, Pottery Barn, and Williams Sonoma—and doled out some samples to the staffers in her signature Chinese-takeout-box packaging.
To read more click on following link: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614076/next-generation-entrepreneurs-senior-planet/?utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=75583596&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_BF-0OylrzYeKbDveAED9EcrZW1pM54hDXRdCY_nW4wCiGV6r4i8uuf-wNyHYDnIVksgwR0vqA5fYUAHMo2yN-Rq0RWA&_hsmi=75583596
Boomers Daily 