I signed up because Astro had convinced me that Google X—or simply X, as we would come to call it—would be different from other corporate innovation labs. The founders were committed to thinking exceptionally big, and they had the so-called “patient capital” to make things happen. After a career of starting and selling several tech companies, this felt right to me. X seemed like the kind of thing that Google ought to be doing. I knew from firsthand experience how hard it was to build a company that, in Steve Jobs’ famous words, could put a dent in the universe, and I believed that Google was the right place to make certain big bets. AI-powered robots, the ones that will live and work alongside us one day, was one such audacious bet.
Eight and a half years later—and 18 months after Google decided to discontinue its largest bet in robotics and AI—it seems as if a new robotics startup pops up every week. I am more convinced than ever that the robots need to come. Yet I have concerns that Silicon Valley, with its focus on “minimum viable products” and VCs’ general aversion to investing in hardware, will be patient enough to win the global race to give AI a robot body. And much of the money that is being invested is focusing on the wrong things. Here is why.
Whether punching pass-throughs in artificial structures or plotting routes away from warming oceans, thoughtfully modifying our marine infrastructure could go a long way toward protecting animals as we continue to engineer the ocean.
Law professor and investment banker Ragnar Jonasson loves Agatha Christie’s puzzle mysteries so much that, starting at the age of 17, he translated more than a dozen of them into his native Icelandic.
It should come as no surprise, then, that most of his own mysteries, 13 in all, have the same intricate plotting, multiple red herrings and startling twists that Christie was known for. This is certainly true of his latest, “Death at the Sanatorium.”
We're Alone accomplishes a lot, but perhaps the most important thing it does is that it manages to feel like an invitation from the opening pages. Yes, this is Danticat talking about racism and injustice while digging deep and showing us just how ugly humanity can be, but it's also a collection full of hope and a celebration of writing. Ultimately, this is more than a collection of essays; this is an invitation. "You're alone and I'm alone," says Danticat in one way or another in every essay, "but if you join me, we can be alone together." This beautiful invitation is one I encourage you to accept.
The mature audience member views television with the utmost discretion, as advised.
The mature audience member uses terms like “acclaimed” and “highbrow” and “prestige television.”
The mature audience member turns on subtitles in French, for la culture.