Showing 1 - 10 of 17
Authoritarians' brave new cities
Oped, Robert Muggah & Carlo Ratti, Published on 23/09/2025
» Few policy ideas are as radical -- or as misleadingly packaged -- as "freedom cities". Championed by Silicon Valley's techno-libertarian elite and recently embraced by right-wing politicians like Donald Trump, the idea is to create digitally powered, master-planned enclaves of deregulated innovation.
Impostors' role in modern warfare
News, Diego Gambetta & Thomas Hegghammer, Published on 18/12/2024
» Israel's detonation of thousands of pagers held by Hezbollah fighters and loyalists in mid-September will be remembered as one of the most ingenious plots in the history of spycraft. It is also a reminder that the most powerful weapon in war is not a fighter jet, a drone, or even artificial intelligence, but rather something much older: impersonation.
Climate change: the August deadline
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 03/08/2024
» When you spend four years writing a book on climate change, you get to know most of the leading players. I have never seen them so dismayed.
Justice at stake
Oped, Postbag, Published on 29/05/2024
» Re: "Yingluck upbeat on democracy", (BP, May 23).
How remote work withers our social networks
News, Carlo Ratti, Published on 05/12/2022
» Since the start of the Covid pandemic more than 2.5 years ago, there have been endless debates about working remotely. At first Zoom and Teams software inspired optimistic futurists to announce that the office was now irrelevant. Then, a militant return-to-the-office demand rose to defy them. The most recent prominent boast came from Tesla founder Elon Musk who told employees: "Anyone who wishes to do remote work must be in the office for a minimum, and I mean minimum of 40 hours per week or depart Tesla."
Algorithms are our next weapon in fighting crime
News, Giovanni Mastrobuoni, Published on 25/05/2022
» We all tend to follow habits at work and in other aspects of our lives. Our habits usually reflect preferences, learning, or a combination of the two.
Where is World Expo 2020 host Dubai leading us?
Oped, Carlo Ratti, Published on 18/03/2022
» 'Connecting minds, creating the future", the slogan of World Expo 2020, is everywhere in Dubai. The ongoing event, which opened a year late in October 2021, is the first of its kind since the beginning of the pandemic. Few other places in the world are as future-oriented as Dubai. But what kind of future does Dubai want? The city has established itself as a model for the emerging urban centres of Asia and the Middle East, so its choices today could have far-reaching consequences in the future.
World cities and the climate-data collection gap
Oped, Robert Muggah & Carlo Ratti, Published on 21/01/2022
» With cities facing disastrous climate stresses and shocks in the coming years, one would think they would be rushing to implement mitigation and adaptation strategies. Yet most urban residents are only dimly aware of the risks, because their cities' mayors, managers, and councils are not collecting or analysing the right kinds of information.
The recipe for reforming pensions
Oped, Elsa Fornero, Published on 07/01/2022
» Pension reform is a thankless but necessary task. Pensions are a difficult and emotional subject that affects every citizen, and changing how they are calculated or when workers can retire involves negotiating a complex web of rules, habits, and entitlements that neat academic models do not capture.
Signs of integration with the freedom of the veil
Oped, Diego Gambetta & Ozan Aksoy, Published on 23/12/2021
» The latest controversy over the hijab, the headscarf worn by Muslim women, erupted at the end of October. Ironically, the trigger was an anti-discrimination campaign launched by the Council of Europe.