Contents
Trends launches a single collection of news for the past week. The future of science, education, economy, business and our entire society – in one material
Topics of the week
- US Elections
On November 3, 2020, the presidential elections were held in the United States, but the winner is still unknown, the counting of votes continues. As of November 6, Democratic nominee Joe Biden is in the lead. Throughout Friday, there were reports of his possible victory in Georgia and Pennsylvania, where incumbent President Donald Trump initially led. In the event of victory in the states of Arizona and Nevada, Biden will receive the necessary electoral votes and become the 46th President of the United States.
Regardless of who wins the election, it is clear that American society is divided. This rift began before 2016, but it has deepened significantly during the presidency of Donald Trump. There are three main reasons: racial conflict, religious opposition between the fundamentalists of the central part of the country and the more secular inhabitants of the coasts, as well as an ideological dispute about the role of the state in the economy and public life. The two-party system has also left its mark, which forces people to choose those candidates who are more likely to win elections.
These contradictions divide society into groups, destroy families and friendships. According to a September 2020 Pew Research Center poll, 80% of respondents had little to no contact with those who support a candidate from another party. Reuters journalists interviewed ten Americans who were effectively expelled from their families for their political preferences. All of them are sure that they will not be able to make peace with their relatives.
Pre-election opinion polls predicted an easy victory for Biden. But now the gap between the candidates is minimal, and every vote can be decisive. Against this background, Trump demanded to stop counting ballots sent by mail. Mostly Democrats voted in this way, Republicans came to the polling stations. After Trump’s statements about electoral fraud, Americans took to the streets. Some demand that the election commissions count all the votes, while others support the current president. Some of the demonstrations are peaceful, but clashes and pogroms have already begun in some cities.
The absence of a clear leader in the election indicates a divided nation, and this division will become stronger if the Republicans retain a majority in the Senate, the upper house of the US Congress. In this case, even if Biden becomes president, the Democrats will not be able to fulfill a single campaign promise. Large-scale social programs, combating climate change, expanding the composition of the Supreme Court will remain just projects.
- Fashion innovation
The fashion industry is becoming more technological and “green”. Here are four Dutch startups whose innovations are changing the sector.
- Virtual friends and partners
Digital reality is increasingly breaking into the real world. First of all, we are talking about virtual influencers, such as Lil Michele. According to analysts at the British marketplace OnBuy, it earns $11 million annually for its creators, Brud. In total, there are more than 100 such digital characters.
Virtual influencers have come along with new ways to share data. With the spread of social networks, the one-to-many communication model has ceased to work: each person broadcasts information to many other people. Digital characters fit perfectly into the new environment. They can constantly change and tell their stories in different venues, including playing alongside gamers in Fortnite or League of Legends.
The next step is to create real digital friends or partners, like Samantha from the movie Her. One of the first such social AIs was the Replika chatbot. The more often the user communicates with him, the more the robot learns and actively maintains a conversation. The application has already been installed by 3 million users, most of the downloads occurred during the quarantine period. In the paid version of Replika, users can create a realistic avatar for the AI, select a voice and talk to it like a friend who lives in another city. Samsung is also developing its own version of a virtual partner.
Inspiration of the Week: Spaceport Project in Japan
A team of Japanese architects has unveiled a model of a futuristic spaceport that is proposed to be built in Tokyo Bay. The roof of the building will be made uneven in order to install solar panels on elevations in several rows. The two towers of the spaceport will become beacons for starships, between them the architects proposed to build a garden. Inside the building they want to place cafes, shops, a hotel and an aquarium, and on the top floor they will arrange an observation deck from where visitors can watch the arriving shuttles.
Numbers and research of the week
- 75% our countries are afraid of losing their jobs.
According to the research company Ipsos, this is the highest figure in the world. Spain (73%) and Malaysia (71%) follow. Germans are the most confident in their employers: only 26% of Germans think they can remain unemployed.
Dmitry Tretyakov, chairman of the Opory Our Country committee on labor relations and labor protection, believes that the survey data primarily reflects the concern of employees from the small and medium-sized business. This sector has been the hardest hit during the pandemic, and government subsidies are not enough to restore it. In addition, some small companies do not formalize employees and therefore can easily fire them.
The fear of losing a job has influenced our country’s attitude to the four-day period. According to a survey by the Superjob portal, in 2020, 40% of the country’s residents supported the 35-hour work week, which is 9% less than a year earlier. Opponents of the initiative fear that because of this, their salaries may be reduced. The number of respondents who are confident that they will be able to complete the usual five-day workload in four days has decreased from 76% in 2018 to 65% in 2020.
- People who play video games since childhood are better at retaining cognitive abilities.
This conclusion was reached by scientists from the Open University of Catalonia, who conducted an experiment involving 27 people under 40 years old. They were divided into two groups and offered to play Super Mario 1,5 for 64 hours for ten days. During the experiment, scientists measured the level of cognitive abilities of the participants three times: before the start of the study, immediately after, and 15 days after it ended. To do this, they were asked to solve logical problems. One of the groups also received transcranial magnetic stimulation. This method allows you to influence the cerebral cortex using short magnetic pulses.
Scientists expected that brain stimulation would significantly improve the abilities of volunteers, but this did not happen. But the gaming experience had a noticeable impact on the results of the participants. During the first test, those of them who were fond of video games before the experiment solved logical problems faster than others. However, by the end of the study, the cognitive performance of all volunteers became equal. Spanish scientists have concluded that gamers have a better memory than those who do not play video games, they also analyze images faster and react to unexpected situations. At the same time, the researchers emphasized that their sample is too small to draw final conclusions.
Technology of the week: special coating keeps food fresh longer
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the global economy loses $2,6 trillion annually due to tainted food. The coating developed by the startup Apeel Sciences can solve this problem. It is based on a substance called cutin, a special wax that protects plants from moisture loss. The product is a solution, which includes fatty molecules – lipids. The liquid is applied to fruits and vegetables, the water evaporates and the lipids form a protective film on their surface. It retains water and does not allow oxygen to pass through, due to which the shelf life is increased by two to three times.
Among the company’s investors are American TV presenter Oprah Winfrey, the National Wealth Fund of Singapore and the International Finance Corporation (part of the World Bank). Apeel Sciences works with grocery retailers in Europe and the US, and has also been approved to operate in Kenya, Uganda, Costa Rica, Colombia, and Ecuador. In the video below, you can see how the development of Apeel Sciences is used by the Spanish company Cata Fresh.
News of the week
- Adidas introduced running shoes that can be recycled endlessly.
- The State Duma proposed to allocate budgetary places for a second higher education in medical universities.
- Tunisian startup Cure Bionics has developed a solar-powered bionic prosthesis.
- In our country, in 2021, electronic analogues of a passport and driver’s license may appear. They will work like digital passes that were introduced during the period of self-isolation.
- In our country and Ukraine launched the project “Call Galya!”. It will help women protect themselves from harassment or other threats. To call for help, you need to go to one of the cafes that participate in the project and say the code phrase: “Call Galya!”.
- Megafon will invest 6 billion rubles. in the high-speed satellite Internet project. This is a domestic analogue of Elon Musk’s Starlink system.
- According to a Superjob portal survey, Moscow, Kazan and Novosibirsk are the best cities for telecommuting.
- Walmart has removed robots from stores. They scare visitors and do worse jobs than people.
- Moscow State University has risen to 37th place in the THE global reputation ranking of universities. In 2019, the university ranked only 38th.
- In “Shokoladnitsa” they began testing robotic waiters.
Service of the week
The Greenpeace Carbon Calculator will help you calculate the amount of emissions that enter the atmosphere due to user actions. To calculate your Ecological Footprint, you need to answer a few questions about diet, travel, and utilities. At the end, the program will advise the user on how to reduce emissions.
What to read
- T&P interview with Ilya Zalessky, head of educational services at Yandex. He explained how students differ from American ones, what determines the effectiveness of training, and what qualities modern employers value.
- The book of the professor of the University of California at Berkeley Stuart Russell “Compatibility. How to control artificial intelligence. He told where people are already using AI and what tasks he will be entrusted with in the future. Mankind needs to teach artificial intelligence ethical rules, otherwise it can harm people. An excerpt from the book on how digital algorithms manipulate human actions was published by Theory and Practice.
- The work “The best in us. Why there is less violence in the world” by Canadian neuropsychologist and linguist Steven Pinker. In it, he explains why we are actually living in the most peaceful period in the history of mankind, despite the many conflicts that the media talk about. An excerpt can be read on the Republic website.
What to listen
- The release of the podcast “It Happened” about why people are constantly distracted by notifications and social media updates. Presenters Ekaterina Krongauz and Andrey Babitsky discuss where this addiction came from and whether it is necessary to fight it.
- An episode of the podcast “My Home is My Charm” about how to get to know your neighbors and build relationships with them.
- A playlist from Vice that will help you calm down and relieve stress. It has a lot of slow songs with repetitive motifs, they will help slow down breathing, lower blood pressure and activate the parasympathetic nervous system – it is responsible for relaxation.
What to see
- Canadian game writer Celine Song adapted Chekov’s The Seagull for The Sims 4 and screened it as part of the New York Theater Workshop program. In the video, you can see how she creates characters and scenery, as well as watch the performance itself in full.
- Startup Bumblebee Spaces has developed a ceiling storage system that will help free up space in small apartments. To transform the office into a bedroom, it is enough to give a command via a smartphone. The robotic system itself will remove the table and drawers, and lower the bed in their place.
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