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It is hard to think of a profession more steeped in tradition and conservatism than a notary. This is also part of its appeal to reliability: save for some innovations such as computer technology, a notary who was born in 1780 would not notice many changes if they were to be transported to the office […]
Ever since its inception, the auto industry has been at the forefront of technology innovation. From integrating radio and air condition technologies to fully incorporating software and GPS, a new technology aboard a car is the surest sign it has become mature enough for mass-production and mass-consumption.
Environmental concerns top the popular political agenda in a lot of countries these days. There are mass student protests in Sweden, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium, but the ‘gilets jaunes’ of France were also partially driven by environmental taxes deemed too high and too unfair on the working class.
Mass consumer adoption of new technologies often runs ahead of legal frameworks. In fact, many Silicon Valley visionaries are self-professed believers in as little regulation as possible, as they believe it stymies innovation, an ideal that’s also encapsulated by Facebook’s maxim “Move fast and break things”.
Predicting technology trends has always been a favorite pastime of analysts, industry leaders and futurists. Some predictions turn out to be spectacularly wrong in hindsight – flying cars and Mars colonies by 1980, for instance –
Cryptocurrencies are unfortunately often associated with ‘dark’ money, crime and legal twilight zones. However, cryptos’ underlying technology – blockchain – can actually be used to increase transparency and help fight crime. This will require walking a fine line.
Healthcare is one of the domains that has taken the most advantages of the successive waves of digitalization, from cross-sharing patient records to sharper radiology imaging to better camera technology and remote patient care. Blockchain may add yet another strategic advantage.
Education is not the first thing that springs to mind if you think about Blockchain. Yet, it may make the lives of both teachers and students easier, as well as crank up administrative efficiency in institutes that are sometimes reviled for being slow to adapt to technology innovations.
You have probably heard of Big Data and how it’s used to feed machine intelligence or pattern recognition in stock exchanges or weather forecasts. But do you know what ‘dark data’ is? Simply put, it’s all data that lies around unused, useless or unusable.
If you say ‘Blockchain’, most people who have heard the term before will immediately think of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum or Ripple. And while it’s true that Blockchain technology was built with crypto in mind, its applications stretch far beyond finance.