Posts by Charles Levin
Micro Stories
What’s a Micro Story? What’s a Micro Story? I have been a fan of Short Stories since I was a kid. Maybe it’s because I’m a slow reader and like the satisfaction of being able to enjoy a full story from beginning to end in one sitting. As an adult, I got hooked on what…
Read MoreDeath By Device
[Note: Enjoy this work of short fiction that riffs on the latest in digital and voice technology. This post is a departure from my usual non-fiction look at tech trends and artificial intelligence.] Lea Swan parks her Audi just outside the yellow tape. Lights atop emergency vehicles are flashing. There’s a crowd of reporters, and…
Read MoreWhat Does The Facebook Privacy Debacle Mean To Me?
“If the Product is free, you are the Product.” So goes a famous saying in techland. What does that mean? It means if somebody is giving something away for free, they must be getting something in return. In the case of all those free apps on your phone, what the App Developers get is your…
Read MoreA Cure For Death? Immortalists And Entrepreneurs
Will there be a cure for death in your lifetime? I won’t even parse the built-in paradox in that sentence, but I will give you an answer to the question, upfront. The answer is Maybe. Now that may seem disappointingly vague, but the mere fact that the answer is not No, is amazing. Longevity Entrepreneurs…
Read MoreDo-It-Yourself Gene Hacking – Good, Bad, Ugly And Scary
What if someone could buy all the genetic engineering tools and materials, for a few hundred dollars online, to develop a cure for a disease or start a plague? Science fiction, right? Nope. You can now order your gene hacking supplies at Odin.com to get started. New gene hacking tools, including the powerful CRISPR/Cas9, allow…
Read MoreQuestionology: The Powerful Science of Great Questions
How Do Questions Work? Why do I find good questions so powerful and fascinating? Makes sense to start a blog about questions with a question, right? It’s because of what just happened in your brain when you read those first two sentences. You may not realize it consciously, but your subconscious automatically engages to try…
Read MoreFantastic Digital Brain. Uploading Your Brain To The Cloud
What’s It Like To Live Purely Digital? Near future. Sam Sunborn interviews Frank Einstein, Founder and Chief Scientist at Digital3000. Dr. Einstein has invented a brain-to-computer interface that enables the uploading of human, thoughts, memories and emotions to computer servers in the Cloud. Once uploaded, the individual can live digitally, still interact with their loved…
Read MoreCan Hackers Attack Our Power Grid Right NowAnd Who Cares?
Infrastructure Is Exposed The short answer is ‘Yes.’ Hackers can take down our power grid right now. How they can do it and why they haven’t done it yet should be a concern for all of us, not just the government or utility companies. As we’ve seen in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, loss of…
Read MoreSecret Surveillance: Is The Eye In The Sky Watching You?
Imagine This An armed robbery takes place. Men in masks with shotguns pull up in a white van to the 1st National. Three get out, enter the bank and shots are fired. 90 Seconds later they exit the bank and speed off. It’s 2 minutes before the police arrive and the robbers are long gone.…
Read MoreSuper-Complex Problems. Can Smart Teams Ever Solve Them?
Zone IV Challenges I was inspired to write this post while reading the blog of Carl Pabo, the accomplished MIT biophysicist. I have been thinking about his Zone IV challenges for a long time, but I did not have his label for it. You can read more about the zones at Carl’s Blog, but to…
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