China bans people with bad “social credit” from planes and trains
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Technology is a tool, it’s down to governments and individuals how they use and deploy it, and as such it can be used to do great good, or great harm. In another nod to Black Mirror, and to show it isn’t just a sci-fi...
China’s new “Ghost Imaging” satellites will make US stealth obsolete
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The age of using stealth to avoid radar and other electromagnetic based detection systems is coming to an end as new quantum sensors and sensing systems will increasingly render today’s stealth obsolete. Following on from their announcement that they’ve created the world’s first Quantum...
Chinese scientists unveil a new material that heals itself like human skin
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Up until now most self-healing materials have either been hard, or soft, and that narrows their number of applications, this new material is the first to have the best of both worlds. Imagine a smartphone, or window, that can heal from cuts and scratches...
Baidu’s AI can clone anyone’s voice in under a minute
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to clone people’s voices, and mimic them, opens up a range of well meaning opportunities, but it also paves the way for fake news chaos and everything in between… In the near future, just as it is today, fake news will become...
China spends $300million to buy lab produced meats from Israel
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Food production is undergoing a revolution, and technology is helping us move away from what many experts and governments are increasingly seeing as outdated farming techniques to help us feed Earth’s growing population. Following on from a recent announcement that US start up Plenty...
New Chinese breakthrough “soil” turns desert into fertile farmland
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As the amount of desertification around the planet increases, and as the global population continues to grow, humanity needs to find new ways to turn the tide and find new ways to feed a growing population. Creating a roadmap to combat the spread of...
World’s most powerful laser will be able to rip matter out of a vacuum
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As laser technology develops at an accelerating rate it’s increasingly being used to help scientists unlock the mysteries of the universe, and many other things besides. Amazingly physicists are getting close to building lasers powerful enough to rip matter out of a vacuum, yes,...
World first as Chinese scientists clone two monkeys, raising fears humans could be next
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF So far monkeys have proven resistant to cloning, but now that barrier has been broken, and many suggest it leaves the way open for a day when we can see the first cloned humans. Last week Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, the world’s first...
China launches the world’s first fully electric cargo ship
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Cargo ships are by far the most polluting types of “vehicles” on the planet, all be the fact they carry huge weights of cargo, but now the industry is starting to electrify and the result will be an environmental revolution. Ground transport, closely followed...
Nanogenerator breakthrough generates electricity from the blood in your veins
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As researchers continue to develop micro-machines and implanted medical devices that live within our bodies we might need to find new ways to power them. Humanity has been generating electricity from flowing water for millennia using everything from watermills to huge hydro-electric dams, but...
Researchers use Biohybrid Robots made from algae to treat Cancer
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to identify the earliest stages of disease and treat it with ultimate precision will help doctors treat patients better and help patients recover faster. Over the past year scientists have developed 3D printed enzyme powered nanobots that can surf through the body’s bloodstream...
China’s surveillance network found a BBC reporter in under 7 minutes
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As nation states roll out increasingly advanced and sophisticated surveillance networks, how we use them and the agenda of those who control them become increasingly important to understand. It took Chinese authorities just seven minutes to locate and apprehend BBC reporter John Sudworth using its...
China announces plans to build unmanned police stations run by AI
WHY THIS MATTERS AI will help governments create and deliver new, more efficient services. Used wisely it has the potential to help people save time, but relying too heavily on AI to protect and police populations isn’t without its dangers. The next time a citizen in Wuhan in China...
Chinese researchers have created an IQ test for AI
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Humans have an inane desire to measure and categorise things, and this includes being able to measure an AI’s level of intelligence, but it’s proving to be a difficult problem to solve. Human intelligence is hard enough to measure, and over the decades today’s...
China splurges $10 Billion to build a national quantum technology research center
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Quantum technologies will transform the world by creating ultra-fast computing platforms, ultra-secure networks, and new forms of radar that will render stealth obsolete, and China wants to dominate the space. This week the Chinese government announced they would be spending upwards of $10 Billion...
China unveils the world’s largest electric vehicle charging network
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF China’s ambitions to embrace renewable energy and electric vehicles shows no signs of slowing down, and they’re leaving other countries in the dust. Last year the US Government announced it was going to start rolling out a huge network of electric charging points across...
World’s first intercontinental Quantum Internet link goes live, hosts video conference
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Quantum communication networks are considered the platinum standard when it comes to helping create secure, unhackable networks, and now the first one is here and researchers used it to conduct the world’s first quantum internet video conference. I have a saying – the future...
World’s first autonomous robot Dentist implants two teeth into a patient
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Globally there’s a huge shortage of qualified dentists, but in the future that might not be a problem now that robots are on the case… We’ve all volunteered for weird things in our lives, whether it’s something we want to do or not and...
Chinese Government orders the “immediate shutdown” of all Bitcoin exchanges, BTC balks
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Bitcoin shows no sign of stopping or slowing down so regulators and governments are now starting to take the regulation and “management” of the “stateless crypto economy” more seriously A little while ago I gave a talk on the Future of Money, which is...
South China Airlines swaps boarding cards for facial recognition
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Biometrics is quickly becoming the security tool of choice for a vast number of governments and organisations, and increasingly I’m seeing them being used to create new “contactless” borders and “frictionless” customer experiences Earlier this year I reported that Australia had decided to do...
