They say you should never discuss religion, sex, or politics on a first date. If you’re on a date with an American, add three more things to that list – abortion, gay marriage, and gun control. As for the latter, about half of Americans fall into the camp that believes there will be far fewer […]
When deciding which disruptive tech stocks to invest in, you could take what they call “a top-down approach.” For example, you might rustle up a list of the most technologically backward industries, find the ones that score the worst, then invest in companies building technologies for said industries. Check out this table from McKinsey which […]
In the opening scene of the original Blade Runner from 1982, we’re introduced to a dystopian Los Angeles skyline filled with massive oil refineries perpetually spewing balls of fire into the air, generating an endless smog that covers the dark city of concrete skyscrapers and dim lights for miles. The year? 2019. So the screenwriters […]
Simulating reality is an increasingly common occurrence in today’s tech startups, whether that’s modeling the behavior of cancer cells or creating a digital twin of a factory floor. While tools like Google Maps now help us navigate the real world using a virtual representation, the functionality stops outside the doorsteps of the more than 4 […]
If we had to guess the largest industry that was the furthest behind in technological advancement, we might say shipping. That’s because it’s an extremely fragmented operation, spanning 3,700 major ports and terminals worldwide. It’s also where startups like Flexport see a huge blue-ocean total addressable market (TAM) as they rush to capture as much […]
One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. It’s something that the famous American philosopher George Carlin commented on when we quipped, “if crime fighters fight crime, and firefighters fight fires, what do freedom fighters fight?” Sometimes, it’s best to just make sure nobody brings any weapons to the party and we can argue semantics […]
Last year, we got a glimpse of what the world would look like without us – no crowds, no traffic, no nonsense. That led to the biggest drop in greenhouse gas emissions since World War II. Of course, all good things must end. Traffic in many areas is returning to pre-pandemic levels or even higher, […]
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are 138 million housing units in the United States, many of which are giant McMansions that don’t get much use. While the Australians are in a close second when it comes to average home sizes, a person in Hong Kong has just a quarter of the floor space […]
While we may not be able to explain the strong performance of the stock market year-to-date, we can understand why certain technologies are accelerating their rate of adoption. Telecommunications tools like Zoom, modular factory robots like Bright Machines, and autonomous last-mile delivery drones are all seeing strong interest from investors as we get used to […]
By 2050, 70% of the world’s population is expected to live in cities. This brings up some interesting questions around privacy in public spaces. What happens when, under the guise of public safety, we decide that everyone with a smartphone ought to have their movements monitored? In Russia, you might get away with identifying criminals […]