New Week Same Humans #13
Hackers infiltrate Moscow's new facial recognition network. The IMF says saving the planet will make us rich. Plus more news and analysis from this week.
Welcome to the Wednesday update from New World Same Humans, a newsletter on trends, technology, and society by David Mattin.
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This week, a new report from the IMF says that saving the planet is the best route to material prosperity in 21st-century.
Meanwhile, the under-30s are processing the implications of the pandemic for their life chances. And Moscow’s new facial recognition network turns out to be very easy to hijack.
Also, why the future of mobility is being built on island in the Aegean Sea. And a new tool that lets anyone train their own machine learning model.
Let’s do this!
🙌 Get rich and save the planet
Mainstream economists claim to have resolved the debate over whether we should prioritise economic growth or action on climate change.
According to the new report by the IMF, policies to mitigate climate change – including carbon pricing and subsidies for green energy – will lead to higher economic output in the second half of this century.
Meanwhile, the UK just announced plans to fast forward its ban on petrol and diesel cars. The ban will now come in 2030; ten years earlier than expected.
One glimpse of how green policies fuel economic growth?
By 2025 it’s expected that electric cars will account for 90 per cent of the lithium-ion battery market; that’s a lot of batteries to build and recycle. That’s why Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt recently raised £2.3 billion to build two Gigafactories in Europe, and to fund research on recycling technologies.
⚡ NWSH Take: The IMF says green policies mean economic growth (plus a liveable planet, which would be nice). That sounds a headline only nerds could get excited about, but it’s huge. In theory, it means those who really want economic growth and those who really want action on climate can now join forces. A new alliance between Extinction Rebellion and big business? // Of course, all this relies on the accuracy of the IMF’s forecasts; expect them to be questioned. And besides, politics is rarely so rational. Still, via this report and visions such as the Green New Deal, the seeds of a new, 21st-century superideology are being planted.
📉 Young people are freaking out
A new global survey by the Financial Times revealed the toll that the pandemic is taking on the under-30s. And how that’s translating into increasing anger towards older generations.
According to the OECD, those aged 25 and under are 2.5 times more likely to be without a job because of the pandemic as those between 26 and 64.
One signal of chaos that the pandemic is wreaking on the young? The number of US 18 to 29-year-olds living with their parents is the highest ever recorded, beating even the spike during WWII.
⚡ NWSH Take: Deep structural forces – stagnant wages, rising house prices, an oversupply of graduates – have been afflicting young people for two decades. Megacities in the Global North are full of 28-year-old graduates with ‘good jobs’ who still live with their parents. Now, the pandemic has delivered a brutal gut punch. // One powerful trend, then, that has became even more significant for the 2020s? These young people will look to businesses to offer new forms of support, education, and assistance. Business review site Yelp recently launched an initiative to help young people move out of their parents’ place. What kind of support will under 30s expect from you?
🤭 The human face is the next digital interface
The LAPD have banned internal use of Clearview’s notorious facial recognition system.
Clearview featured in NWSH #1, when news emerged of the vast headshot database – reportedly over 3 billion photos – the company has scraped from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Those platforms have ordered Clearview to stop it. But CEO Hoan Ton-That says his right to take images is protected by the first amendment. Chicago and London police forces have trialed the network.
Meanwhile, it turns out anyone with $200 can hijack Moscow’s new facial recognition system. A digital rights activist transferred that sum and a photo of herself to a shady contact on Telegram; three days later she received a dossier detailing her movements around the city across the last month. Moscow rolled out a live network of 10,000 cameras, along with an app to alert police of suspicious movement, in January.
⚡ NWSH Take: These two stories are a powerful reminder: facial recognition is recasting the divide between public and private space, and we’re only at the beginning. A long fight about regulation lies ahead. // Retail is set to be transformed, too; check out this SK Telecom store in Seoul which has no human staff, and uses facial recognition to deliver a personalised experience to shoppers. // The big question for any business: how can you serve the accelerating expectations for personalised experiences that facial recognition will generate, while staying on the right side of the cool/creepy divide?
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🗓️ Also this week
🔉 A new sound system can beam music straight to the user’s head; no headphones required. That’s according to Israeli tech company called Noveto Systems, who are behind the new SoundBeamer device.
🐱 Millions of Chinese consumers raised virtual cats in anticipation of this year’s Singles’ Day. It was all part of a gamification strategy by ecommerce giants JD.com and Taobao.
🧘 The QAnon conspiracy theory has infiltrated the world of yoga. In the wake of Biden’s victory the movement is pivoting to a new ‘save the children’ guise.
🚗 Volkswagen are creating a climate-neutral mobility utopia on the Mediterranean island of Astypalea. The project is in partnership with the Greek government, and will see the island transition to renewables-powered ride sharing.
🤖 One percent of the Dutch population has taken this free introductory course on AI. Now, there’s an English version.
🧞 South Korean cable channel MBN has created its own virtual newsreader. The rise of virtual humans was examined in NWSH #41.
👁️ This new tool allows anyone to train a machine learning model. Teachable Machine from Google allows the user to teach an AI to recognise sounds, images, and human poses.
👚 This new sensor can be embedded in textiles and survive the washing machine. It’s the creation of Harvard researchers, and could find its way into sportswear, clinical diagnostics, and new kinds of apparel for VR simulations.
🛩️ A jet pilot had the first ever in-air dogfight with an augmented reality opponent. The pilot wore a modified AR headset, and battled a projection of the Chinese J-20 fighter.
🎄 The software used to build this year’s digital Burning Man festival is being used to create virtual office Christmas Parties. Fire up the eighties classics and pass the Secret Santa hat.
🌍 Humans of Earth
Key metrics to help you keep track of Project Human.
🙋♀️ Global population: 7,826,329,964 and counting
🌊 Earths currently needed: 1.7720641425
🗓️ 2020 progress bar: 89% complete
📖 On this day: 18 November 1928 saw the release of Steamboat Willie, the first carton with fully synchronised sound, directed by Walt Disney.
Face the truth
Thanks for reading this week.
The argument over facial recognition taps into deep issues around privacy, individual liberty, and the boundaries between public and private.
That makes it perfect material for a NWSH obsession. Whenever a changing world collides with fundamental human needs, this newsletter will seek to understand how it’s happening, what’s next, and what it all means for you.
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I’ll be back on Sunday. Until then, be well,
David.
P.S Huge thanks to Nikki Ritmeijer for the illustration at the top of this email. And to Monique van Dusseldorp for additional research and analysis.