The World as You'll Know It
Newsletter / Issue No. 35
Our Power Grids Are More Fragile Than We Know
A recent power outage in Spain brought the country to a halt. While renewable energy didn’t cause the problem, it likely contributed to it. As demand for electricity skyrockets and we invest in increasingly diverse sources of energy, how do we upgrade our grids to handle it?
Plus
There’s a race to embed AI in everything we do. Fiber optic cables are helping us understand the vast universe beneath our feet. Groundbreaking scientific discoveries are becoming more rare. And if you’ve ever wanted to talk to your dog, there’s AI research aimed at making that happen.
Technology / Feature
A $10-Billion Plan to Sell Africa's Wind and Sun to Countries 7,000 Miles Away
A deep look at how green hydrogen could capitalize on remote areas of renewable resources and redraw the world's energy map.
Artificial Intelligence / Feature
One Company's Decision to Put AI Into the Ground
What does it mean to adopt AI? For John Deere it meant hundreds of millions of dollars, a new corporate culture and forever changing the relationship between a farmer and the land.
By Gideon Lewis-Kraus
Podcast / Podcast
A Podcast Series about the Future of Aging
Podcast / Podcast
A Podcast Series about the Future of Aging
Robotics / Feature
Small, Flexible and Sometimes Weird. The Next Generation of Robots is Here.
By Clive Thompson
Robotics / Feature
Small, Flexible and Sometimes Weird. The Next Generation of Robots is Here.
By Clive Thompson
Robotics / Timeline
13 Milestones in the History of Robots
People have been making machines that replicate human abilities for centuries. These are the breakthroughs that got robots to where they are today. Photo: NMAH
By Clive Thompson
Robotics / Feature
Robots' final frontier? Taking care of us.
To understand how far robots are from replacing humans, just look at the everyday task of using a fork.
By Clive Thompson