Research

Explore our collection of articles on the leading megatrends in technology, politics, and society.

Filter: Short-form articles

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Africa is set to become world’s largest free trade area

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Illegal streaming holds the media industry in check

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21st century Luddites target self-driving cars

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Scaling bitcoin with the lightning network

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The future of Europe from an Asian perspective

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Particularly deadly matter

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The VAR system and the datafication of everyday life

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Facebook’s strategy for a decentralized future

Will Facebook orchestrate its own disruption?

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Slowing down fast fashion

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Inequality in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

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Netflix’s Bandersnatch: the beginning of embedded content interfaces

Netflix's interactive film 'Bandersnatch' could set the trend for embedded content interfaces in films and shows.

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Farming in the Anthropocene by improving photosynthesis

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Retroscope 2018: Hegemonic cycle

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Retroscope 2018: Socio-cultural

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Retroscope 2018: Disruption in the making

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Open-source software is eating the world

Open-source software is crucial in our daily lives, and recent acquisitions of GitHub and Red Hat highlight its importance.

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The protein folding revolution

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Our polygenic scores tell us who we are

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Fighting terrorism has been a recurring issue in the history of Europe

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From bits to atoms

Will platforms like Uber and Airbnb continue to succeed without physical assets?

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Divided Brazil will be urged to look inwards

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A return to utopian thinking

In the last decade, pragmatic utopian thinking has gained considerable popularity in different domains.

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Google predicts a rising Chinese internet

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Facebook’s flirt with crypto and blockchain

Will Big Tech companies like Facebook have a role in the crypto landscape?

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Technical hurdles towards the cryptoworld

Arief Hühn outlines possible solutions to the current limitations of the crypto world.

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Apple’s quest for the disappearing computer

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Solar power nears terminal velocity

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Shadow power in the global technological arms race

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Migration concentration

Breaking the bottleneck

Can state-led initiatives relying on market mechanisms help us achieve our decarbonization goals?

Beyond planetary boundaries: towards Earth systems justice

Linking new developments in Earth systems research to the Deep Transitions Framework

Has AI become indistinguishable from life itself?

Developments in AI lead to new speculations about the role of technologies in the evolution of life.

Urban greening should focus on equity, not nature

The external valuation of nature in city planning could withhold green areas from becoming accessible to all

Learning to waste

All manufacturing produces waste, even the clean energy industry. Critical clean energy technologies – EV batteries, solar panels, wind turbine blades – lead to a massive problem with waste management

Are weapons still a sin stock?

Changes in narratives, economic structures and the nature of technology could be altering the status of defense stock.

Human sensors will feed the global mega machine

Intelligent systems will increasingly solicit our ‘help’ to gather data

The return of the incumbent?

A reflection on the demise of Big Tech and the return of industrial incumbents

The case for climate radicalism

The impacts of climate change are increasingly being felt all across the globe.

Rediscovering the collective dimension of freedom

How the classic political philosophy of liberalism can broaden our individualistic interpretation of freedom.