Category Archives: Technology

Jordan Times

'Jordan has what it takes to become technology hub' Microsoft executive Jordan Times I am delighted to see that the youth in Jordan is quite familiar with current technological trends, as well as very eager for continual learning. We hope this event further sparks their passion for careers in technology and in so many other fields ...

The rest is here:

'Jordan has what it takes to become technology hub' Microsoft executive - Jordan Times

STEAM Fest, presented by Imagine Upstate was held in the West End of downtown and at Fluor Field on Saturday. The event featured science and technology exhibits including robots and drones(Photo: LELAND A. OUTZ)

For the third consecutive year, interactive exhibits, robots, 3D printers and gadgets of all kinds packedthe West Endfor the iMagine Upstate STEAMFestival.

More than 70 booths lined SouthMain Street from Augusta Road to Markley Street.,and into the Fluor Field concourse, as attendees both young and oldreceivedhands on experience with different technologiesfrom a number of area companies and groups.

The goal of the festivalis to giveUpstate children and their parents abetter understandingofscience, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. The free festival lasted from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

"Our mission is really to expose kids from preschool all the way up to high school, to different opportunities for different STEAM careers. ... We want togive them a fun and interactive way to get a glimpse into what a career in steam might look like and to just spark theirinterest in STEAM education," said Melissa Huff, director of iMAGINEUpstate. "We've just been very fortunatethere's a huge demand for STEAM education and activities in our area."

Huff thanked the sponsors for their continued support.

Among events, attendees witnessed included a robotics show on the Fluor Field Stage, where robots built by area high school studentsand teams across the state, competed.

The drone races also pulled a large crowd as pilots strapped on goggles and whizzed theirmachines at high speeds through tight turns and checkpointsthroughoutFluor Field.

GarrickRobinsion who brought his wifeWanda, and daughters, Madison, Jordyn and Kaitlyn, was among many familieslooking to broaden their knowledge at the event.

"It's the future. The Upstate is growing and we need these skill-sets. It's good to see that they are trying togetthese kids involved at a young age,"Robinson said.

ScanSource, atechnology distributorbased in the Upstate, was the presenting sponsor for a third year. The companyfeatureda variety of boothswhich includedhigh tech 3D printers, web camera technologyand an interactive drawing experience for children.

Jason Weidman ofScanSource, said the festival has grown in the past few years thanks to the interest in STEAM fromparents and sponsors.Weidman said the festival went from 14,000 attendees in its first year to 20,000 last.

"This festival is important because there are so many innovative companies that need tobe thinking now about the future workforce. This town is an engineeringand manufacturing town. There are so many jobs in those fields.It's important that we develop the future workforce for the Upstate now."

STEAM Fest, presented by Imagine Upstate was held in the West End of downtown and at Fluor Field on Saturday. The event featured science and technology exhibits including robots and drones(Photo: LELAND A. OUTZ)

STEAM Fest, presented by Imagine Upstate was held in the West End of downtown and at Fluor Field on Saturday The event featured science and technology exhibits including robots and drones(Photo: LELAND A. OUTZ)

Read or Share this story: http://grnol.co/2nrKpcc

Originally posted here:

iMAGINE Upstate technology festival brings many to West End - Greenville News

Last year, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) began shipping products based on a technology that it refers to as 14-nanometer+. This is a performance-enhanced version of the company's initial 14-nanometer technology that first went into production in 2014. Intel claims a 12% improvement.

That technology is currently being used to manufacture the company's seventh-generation Core processor family -- Intel's current personal-computer processor product line spanning notebook and desktop computers -- and is expected to be used to build the company's upcoming Skylake Xeon processors for data centers.

Image source: Intel.

Later this year, Intel plans to start building products using a further refined version of its 14-nanometer technology marketed as 14-nanometer++.

Let's take a closer look at what Intel had to say about this technology and what it should mean for the company's future products built using this technology.

Intel claims that 14-nanometer++ delivers either 26% better performance compared with its original 14-nanometer technology, implying a 12.5% improvement over 14-nanometer+, or up to 52% lower power.

Image source: Intel.

Moreover, Intel says its 14-nanometer++ technology delivers at least 20% better transistor performance than competing 14- and 16-nanometer technologies from rivals Samsung (NASDAQOTH:SSNLF) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (NYSE:TSM).

As we saw when Intel moved from 14-nanometer to 14-nanometer+, those performance enhancements on the manufacturing side can translate into nice performance gains at the product level. For example, Intel's Core i7-6640U for notebooks came rated with a base frequency of 2.4GHz and a maximum turbo frequency of 3.4GHz.

The 14-nanometer+ version of this chip -- the Core i7-7660 -- runs at a base frequency of 2.5GHz and delivers a maximum turbo speed of 4GHz. Maximum turbo to maximum turbo, we see a nearly 18% jump in frequency because of the migration to 14-nanometer+ and the other enhancements Intel probably did to the underlying circuit design of the chip.

Even in the high-performance desktop market, Intel's 14-nanometer+ technology delivered nice gains. The Core i7-6700K gaming chip came rated at a base speed of 4GHz, and it could run a single core at up to 4.2GHz. The successor to this chip, built on 14-nanometer+, ran at a base speed of 4.2GHz, single-core turbo of 4.5GHz, and all-core turbo of 4.4GHz.

I would expect, then, Intel's 14-nanometer++ technology to help deliver a solid improvement in product performance when it rolls out later this year. More on that in a future column.

At its Technology and Manufacturing Day, Intel spent a good deal of time talking up the advantages of its technologies relative to competing technologies. Intel claimed that its 14-nanometer++ technology will be at least 20% faster than competing 14- and 16-nanometer technologies, and it claims that its 14-nanometer technology is about 30% denser than competing 14- and 16-nanometer technologies.

However, I don't believe that both statements are likely to be true simultaneously.

For example, in moving from 14-nanometer+ to 14-nanometer++, Intel says it's relaxing the transistor gate pitch from 70 to 84 nanometers. This certainly helps Intel improve performance, but it will undoubtedly come at some cost to chip-level transistor density.

This is a good trade-off, especially since consumers are more interested in higher performance than in the density of the manufacturing technology that's used to build the chips inside their computers, but Intel's marketing makes it seem as if 14-nanometer++ delivers the density and performance advantages simultaneously, which I'm not happy about.

Intel has committed to delivering newer, better products to the market on an annual cadence, and the company's work to deliver 14-nanometer++ and products built on that technology should allow it to fulfill that promise.

What I'd like to see from Intel now is sustained execution with respect to these annual product improvements. If it can deliver on this promise in the years ahead, then it should be in solid shape across its business units.

Ashraf Eassa owns shares of Intel. The Motley Fool recommends Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Continue reading here:

Intel Corporation Outs 14-Nanometer++ Technology - Motley Fool

A version of this essay was originally published at Tech.pinions, a website dedicated to informed opinions, insight and perspective on the tech industry.

Science-fiction author William Gibson famously said, The future is already here; its just not evenly distributed yet.

Nowhere is that more true than in the tech world, where its easy to think that innovations, products and services available to us are ubiquitous, even when their distribution is, in fact, very limited.

Both Square and Google announced on Tuesday that their products were coming to the U.K. In Squares case, this is its first entry into that market, but its fourth international market outside the U.S., after Canada, Australia and Japan. In Googles case, this is its international debut for the Google Home speaker and its Google Wi-Fi routers.

I have to confess that I was unaware that Square hadnt launched in the U.K., and I was also unaware that Google hadnt made its new hardware products available outside the U.S. until now. But I suspect thats typical of those of us who follow the tech market in the U.S. were so accustomed to being the first to see new technologies that we rarely spare a thought for those who dont have access to them yet, even in a neighboring market like Canada (as with the Google Home and Echo).

Were so accustomed to being the first to see new technologies that we rarely spare a thought for those who dont have access to them yet.

Even within the U.S., though, there are often haves and have-nots when it comes to new technology, and Amazons footprint is a great example of this. Amazon just announced two new pickup grocery locations for its Amazon Fresh service, but theyre both in Seattle (and currently only open to employees). Its Amazon Go grocery store is also only in Seattle (and perhaps for a bit longer than planned, limited to employees). Amazons brick-and-mortar bookstores? All but one of the stores it has opened or announced are in or near big coastal cities, the latest in Chicago. Its Fresh delivery service is also limited to just a few markets, as are its same-day delivery services.

But this goes well beyond just Amazon. One of Lyfts competitive disadvantages relative to Uber is the smaller number of cities (and countries) where it operates, even in the U.S., something the company is trying to rectify with a rapid expansion this year. Im in New York City this week, and Im finding there are a raft of options for ride-sharing services (for someone who feels increasingly uncomfortable with patronizing Uber), but thats not the case everywhere in the U.S. Even something as seemingly ubiquitous as the Apple Store is still missing from several U.S. states.

Diversity is frequently in the news when it comes to the tech industry, and was again this week with the release of Ubers diversity report. When we talk about diversity, its typically about underrepresented gender or racial groups, but theres also another form of diversity the U.S. tech industry is missing out on exposure to those parts of the U.S. and the world where many of the services that Bay Area residents take for granted are simply not available.

The tech industry is missing out on another form of diversity exposure to those parts of the U.S. and the world where many of the services that Bay Area residents take for granted are simply not available.

A tech worker living in San Jose can likely commute to work using Uber or Lyft or a number of other tech-based transportation services, order lunch through Postmates, and get groceries delivered at night from Instacart, Amazon Fresh or Google Express. But many of those services arent available (or in some cases relevant) in much of the rest of the country.

Living in such an environment and among other people who are benefiting from the rise of technology alternatives to traditional services, it must be tempting to think of these innovations as unmitigated boons to mankind. Of course, its often in the rest of the country where the negative impacts of these changes are felt, as jobs get sucked out of rural and suburban areas, either to disappear completely or to be replaced in high-tech zones. Engineers who only ever see the tech-infused version of the world they live in can have little conception of the impact it causes elsewhere, or the way the other half or more accurately, the other 99 percent lives.

Thats why going global with a product or service is so important, though it may in some cases be tough. If innovations are beneficial, they should be as widely spread as possible, as quickly as possible.

If innovations are beneficial, they should be as widely spread as possible, as quickly as possible.

Its obviously much tougher where extensive physical infrastructure such as retail stores, warehouses, or even fleets of cars and drivers are needed, but we often see digital products and services like Amazon Echo and Google Home restricted to just a few markets, even ones that share a common language.

Thats why I was so impressed by Netflixs global launch a little over a year ago, and continue to be impressed by major digital services from Apple like iTunes which span the globe, or even Siri, which supports many different languages in more countries than any of the other major virtual assistants.

Doing that work is hard it requires local language support, cultural understanding, partnerships with local players and more but it deserves doing, because the benefits of many of these technologies are worth spreading as far and wide as possible.

Its also important for companies to put their people into more diverse places, because only then can those employees more accurately understand and represent the needs of those theyre trying to serve and create products and services designed to help a much broader swath of the population. Ive also been impressed recently by Steve Cases mission to grow tech hubs outside of the big existing ones as a way to bring renewal and growth to more places across the U.S.

More people in the tech industry should be thinking about how to distribute the future more evenly, both within the U.S. and across the world. That applies to their own businesses as much as to the products and services they sell.

Jan Dawson is founder and chief analyst at Jackdaw, a technology research and consulting firm focused on the confluence of consumer devices, software, services and connectivity. During his 13 years as a technology analyst, Dawson has covered everything from DSL to LTE, and from policy and regulation to smartphones and tablets. Prior to founding Jackdaw, Dawson worked at Ovum for a number of years, most recently as chief telecoms analyst, responsible for Ovums telecoms research agenda globally. Reach him @jandawson.

Go here to read the rest:

Silicon Valley is living in a bubble of technology that's not accessible to the rest of the world - Recode

Imagine you died today and your well-preserved skeleton was dug up by archaeologists in about 800 years.

Let's assume these futuristic detectives could discern enough concrete information from your remains to piece together a rough portrait of your existence, one that would raise as many questions about your identity and lifestyle as it answered.

They may start by assigning you a new name something typical of the early 21st century like Ethan, Liam or Sophia.

And that shallow depression on the right side of your head? You know it's the result of the concussion you received playing high school soccer. Twenty-eighth century researchers may assume it's something else: blunt force trauma, the kind that speaks to heightened crime rates inside turn-of-the-millennium metropolises that appear barbaric and inhospitable by futuristic standards.

How do you feel about this sort of extrapolation and insinuation? Does your privacymatter, or does your story, and what it adds to the historical record, matter more? You've been dead for hundreds of years, after all.

Those are exactly the kinds of questions professor John Robb, from Cambridge Universitys Division of Archaeology, is wrestling with as he and his team work to cautiously reconstruct the existence of a 13-century man.Their work is part of the Wellcome Trust-funded project "After the plague: health and history in medieval Cambridge."

Robb, the project's principal investigator, told The Washington Post that the challenge his team faces is reconstructing an ancient life in a way that humanizes the subject while remaining as true as possible to the deceased person's authentic experience.

We have to humanize people we study because we have trouble relating to things that are alien, but we gravitate to familiarity, Robb said. The question is whether you have an ethical responsibility with the people you study to avoid knowingly saying things about people we can't know for certain.

[Ancient Romans depicted Huns as barbarians. Their bones tell a different story.]

What researchers can know for certain is that the 13th-century man was amongsome 400 skeletons discovered in 2010 and 2012 underneath the Old Divinity School of StJohns College, one of the largest medieval hospital graveyards in Britain. The burials are from a charitable hospital that stood at the site until 1511 and which provided care to a small number of indigent townspeople, Robb said.

Instead of assigning him a name like John, Thomas, William or Richard based on the statistical frequency of those monikers in medieval Cambridge, the scientistsopted for a more clinical label: Context 958."

For investigators, well-preserved bones like Context 958's which were found facedown in a pauper's grave are a rare window into the world of the urban poor. Before mass literacy and national censuses, the world of the poor often went unrecorded, especially for those people who lacked property or steered clear of the judicial system.

Researchers know Context 958 was between 40 and 70 years old when he died. He had a thick neck and a wide, masculine jaw. At five-foot seven, he was slightly above average in height, with sturdy bones that showed markings of muscle attachments and wear. Robb said those attachments suggest that Context 958 spent portions of his life engaged in tough physical labor.

But analysis of the carbon and nitrogen isotopes from Context 958's skeleton have thrown the caricature of the hard-working pauper into question.

One of the outstanding puzzles of this fellow is that his bone chemistry suggests a rich diet, which would normally be associated with status because the poorer you were, the more you lived on grain and vegetables, Robb said. In working life he may have had a job in the food trade or maybe he was a servant and had access and rich diet. We don't want to give him a specific story unless we can be sure it's accurate.

Despite an unusually varied diet, researchers believe Context 958's life was marked by an accumulation of minor illnesses that may have caused him plenty of discomfort.

His tooth enamel had stopped growing on two occasions during his childhood, suggesting he has survived illness or famine early in his life. By the end of his life, his vertebrae showed obvious signs of physical stress on his spine, as well as a number of fractures and a broken rib, probably from a blow to his body or a fall. Investigators also foundevidence of a blunt-force trauma on the back of his head that had healed before he died.

Robb said he suspects people in the 13th century were much more familiar with unalleviated pain than people are today.

A good example is dental pain, where he had quite bad teeth in some ways, including tooth loss and abscesses, Robb said, noting his mouth was typical of the period in which he lived. This was partly a serious health risk because an infected tooth could spread into the rest of your system, but it also meant quite a bit of ordinary pain."

There also probably would've been a lot more casual violence, he added. His skull fractures could've been from fighting or they could be accidental.

Based on what researchers have learned from Context 958's bones and teeth, it's tempting to fill in the blanks of his biography, especially now that researchers have a decent idea of what he looked like.

In collaboration with researchers from the University of Dundees Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification, Robb's team recently made news by recruiting forensic artists to re-create Context 958's face.

Knowing what someone looked like has a way of bringing that person to life, Robb said, but it actually tells you very little about how they lived. If you saw Context 958 in contemporary clothing on the street today, Robb said, you'd have no idea he was born in the Middle Ages.

If he were dressed appropriately he would look entirely typical, Robb said. The facial reconstruction was interesting. Most comments said things like, 'He looks like my neighbor.'"

We felt like that was a mark of success, he added.

MORE READING:

How Mars died, and why Earth didn't

Trump signs NASA bill aimed at sending people to Mars

See some of this years most stunning images of science

Stephen Hawking: I fear that I may not be welcome in Trumps America

Go here to read the rest:

Ancient bones and new technology reveal the face of medieval poverty - Washington Post

New York Times

L'Oral's Technology Incubator: Creating the Future of Beauty New York Times As global vice president for L'Oral's Technology Incubator, a 26-person team that operates like a start-up within one of the world's largest cosmetics companies, Mr. Balooch partners with academics and entrepreneurs to make products on the forefront ...

Excerpt from:

L'Oral's Technology Incubator: Creating the Future of Beauty - New York Times

Christoffer O. Herns Contributor

Christoffer O. Herns is chief digital officer of Skandiabanken, Norway's first pure internet bank and leading challenger bank.

As global poverty continues todecline, another issue emerges. According to the World Economic Forum, rising income inequality and the polarization of societiespose a risk to the global economy, and may lead to increased polarization and lack of political stability.This, however, isnot a global problem. In developing countries, inequality is decreasing and the amount of people living inextreme poverty is at an all-time low. Mobile technology is contributing tofinancial inclusionin countries without an established financial infrastructure, and global markets create trade opportunities.

However, the increase in inequality isaffecting high- and middle-income countries, as labor-saving technology has replaced many blue-collar jobs that paid well. Those workers have had to switch to retail and home healthcare jobs,where the pay is typically lower.

The disparity between the rich and everyone else is larger than ever in the United States, and few places is this skewed wealth distributionmore visible than in and around Silicon Valley. The chasm between tech multi-billionaires and the rest of the population in Northern California where an estimated 31 percent of jobs pay $16 per hour or less and the median income in the U.S. today isabout the sameas it was in 1995 has led to the conclusion that thetech sector is greatly contributing to increased inequality.

According to The Second Machine Age, by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, this has been a slow train coming since the 1980s, when the PC invaded offices and homes. This change has gathered momentum ever since, and the exponential nature of technology is now accelerating this development. While technological innovation has replaced jobs for decades, it has always created more jobs than it has destroyed.

The next wave of intelligent automation will strike hard at another portion of the middle class: Classic middle-incomewhite-collar jobs,such as bank tellers, insurance underwriters, loan officers and case-file workers. Basically, every job that includes following the rules and making few decisions. Inthe banking sector alone, thousands of jobs are at risk of being decimatedthrough the use of artificial intelligence to perform tasks that were previously considered too complex for automation. At last years World Economic Forum in Davos it was stated thatartificial intelligence is ushering in the fourth industrial revolution,which willchange societyas we know it. According to a recent report from McKinsey, half of the worlds jobs could be automated by 2055.

The winner-takes-all dynamics of the digital economy is contributing to strongly monopolistic markets, where companies like Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon are disintermediating incumbent industries.

Some may argue that platforms like Uber are generating new income opportunities, but a recent court ruling whereUber was fined $20 million for misleading drivers with inflated wage statisticstells a different story.Sharing has little to do with caring in the sharing economy, and has more in common with quasi-monopolies where freelancers must compete in a hyper-competitive environment by the grace of the platform not so different from vassals in the feudal system.

Advancements in gene editing and biohacking, human augmentations and longevity is posed to enhance our lives, but may also lead to a new class divide, where an elite class emerges through both physical and mental upgrades.

While it is tempting to name technology as one of the main culprits for the rise in inequality, blaming technology is merely an excuse to abdicate responsibility.Technology does not cause income disparity, but enables increased efficiency and wealth creation. The problem is how we choose to distribute the wealth and benefits of increased efficiency. So far, we are not really doing a good job in this department.

As technology replaces human work, we should also give everyone a share of the benefits gained by increased productivity, the same wayFinland is trialing universal basic incomefor all citizens. in order to equalize wealth distribution, both Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg havepledged to donate 99 percent of their fortunesto charity, and are encouraging others to do the same.

We have faced economic and social revolutions before, with the invention of the steam engine and mass production, and, just like the Luddites were sabotaging machinery in the Industrial Revolution, technology has always been considered a threat to social stability. Many may be claiming that this time is different, and they are completely right. Every time has been different, but we have still managed to transition successfully.

Read more from the original source:

Is technology contributing to increased inequality? - TechCrunch

Perceptions of "classroom technology" usually depend on how old you are.

If you're 40, you probably think about a computer lab full of machines that played old black and white games and had no more than four colours.

If you're 30, it might be the Apple Macintosh sitting at the back of the classroom with the noisy printer.

And if you're 20, then maybe it's a teacher up the front with a laptop and a projector.

The problem is, technology moves so fast that we've all got different ideas of what it means. So, what do we mean by "classroom technology" now in the 2010/2020s?

The first thing weneed to know is that more and more schools today have a 1-to-1 philosophy when it comes to technology. This means that every student in the class has a device that belongs to them. This is important, because studies in the UK in 2013 showed that personal ownership of devices helps with their adoption and encourages independent learning. So no more noisy computer at the back of the class. Rather, every child has their own device in their tidy tray.

Popular devices and apps

So, what is that device?

In some schools it might be a laptop (Apple is still popular in Australia), but often it will be an iPad or other tablet (again, Apple rules, with most schools going for iPad tablets).

Installed on that device will be apps for all different aspects of schooling, and many schools will have provided professional development to teachers to support the use of these apps.

Students will use "reading eggs" for English, "mathletics" for Math, and video and book creation apps in Science and Social Science. There are even apps for physical education and music.And all of these apps are available whenever the student wants to use them, at home as well as at school.

Class structures

But don't worry, students still go to the computer lab once a week.

Often referred to as a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) session, this is where students get exposed to technology that can't be in every class. Lego Mindstorms is common, with students building robots out of lego that they can program, with some schools also perhaps having a Nao Robot, manufactured by Aldebaran, which is a 60cm-tall anthropomorphic robot that can recognise faces and speech, and has his own personality.

And speaking of programming, it's likely that most students with be exposed to a programming system such as Scratch Jr in this class (on their iPad or on one in the lab), teaching them concepts of logic and functional decomposition, in line with initiatives such as the Queensland Government push for robotics and programming in schools.

What's next?

Looking forward, it's dangerous to predict what the future holds. Who would have predicted 10-inchtablets in every 5-year-old's hands 20 years ago?

But it seems clear that Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality is slowly making its way towards the classroom. Considered a hot area in technology at the moment, players such as Google and Facebook are all taking stakes in this new technology, which allows the user to use a headset or mobile phone to escape into another world, or to add digital components to the world that they are already in.

Whilestill a new technology in the commercial space, initiatives are already emerging to use existing devices such as your iPhone or iPad to augment the classroom for learning, allowing students to see how things work (through augmneted x-ray technology) or visualise objects you usually wouldn't find in the classroom (such as digital dinosaurs).

As the technology settles, it's not a stretch to imagine that students will start to use their existing devices, or buy new devices, that support this new area.

So, no more single computers in classrooms, or old fashioned computer labs. What somebody means when they say "classroom technology" now is an adoption of technology into the everyday fabric of the classroom, for English, Math and other lessons.

What we used to think was special for "computer time" is now an everyday part of life, and the computer lab has evolved to include technology such as robotics that wasn't even commercialised when most of uswere growing up.

See the rest here:

Explainer: What 'classroom technology' will mean in the 2020s - The Sydney Morning Herald

The Harvard Divinity School Augmented and Virtual Reality Collective hosted an event Thursday featuring a series of speakers and demonstrations examining the ways in which technology can influence neuroscience and meditation.

At the event, speakers presented medical and scientific research related to the mind. Dr. Jeffrey D. Rediger, a Harvard Medical School professor and Medical Director at McLean Hospital, described studying a hundred cancer patients who had experienced spontaneous remission.

He said the trends challenged his skepticism of spiritual and psychological healing methods.

In medicine, were embarrassed by them, we call them flukes. After a while, after you talk to these people, you start to see this pattern, Rediger said. I think these things happen outside of what we understand about the physical laws of nature.

MIT research scientist Andreas Mershin spoke about the importance of nurturing curiosity.

If we sustain it, if we ask better questions, we start becoming a much more powerful community and much more powerful individuals, Mershin said. Questions are more powerful than answers.

Also at the event, Baruti KMT-Sisouvong, director of Cambridges Transcendental Meditation Program, evaluated the role of transcendentalist thought on the individual and society.

Technology demonstrations following the speaker portion of the event. They included demonstrations of When We Die, a virtual reality program designed to prompt contemplation of mortality, and Chi, an app designed to provide a virtual reality simulation of Tai Chi.

The Virtual Reality Collective hosted the group Consciousness Hacking, a Cambridge-based association of thinkers at the event. Consciousness Hacking is a collective that aims to explore technology as a pathway towards psychological, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing, according to the groups website. Their research focuses on technology and neuroscience.

This is hopefully a community that lives their questions, which is totally exciting and exactly what I hoped for, said Adam H. Horowitz, a leader of Consciousness Hacking and a co-organizer of the event.

Those goals are similar to the work that the Augmented & Virtual Reality Collective hopes to tackle.

I came to HDS essentially to ask the larger question of what kind of world we are building in this technological landscape, and how can we build for well-being and really the whole human being, said Tim L. Gallati, a student at the Divinity School and founder of the Augmented & Virtual Reality Collective.

Staff writer Jordan E. Virtue can be reached at jordan.virtue@thecrimson.com.

See the article here:

HDS Event Explores Overlap of Meditation, Technology, and Medicine - Harvard Crimson

Technology will revolutionize all traditional offline industries.

At this point, its inevitable. Weve already seen tech products and platforms revolutionize consumer-facing industries -- from fashion to finance and fitness to food. The revolution is the seismic shift in where, whenand how consumers interact with the sellers and service providers in these industries. While some industries have already completely transformed and been subject to huge amounts of tech innovation and big-time financial investments, others are in various stages of technology transformation and the winners and losers of the revolution are not yet known.

Related: 4 Industries That Are Undergoing Revolutions

When will the next revolutions occur in the remaining vulnerable industries? And which incumbent companies will survive the revolution?

I believe the revolution occurs when tech platforms introduce two key dynamics to an offline industry: personalization and symmetry.

Consumer-facing industries transform when technology increases personalization -- the kind of personalization that surprises and delights the consumer, like when Netflix reminds you that you have new episodes of your favorite show available.

Personalization comes in many shapes and forms. But the revolution only occurs when products or services in the industry become tailored to the specific interests of different buyers. Buyers interests are often mined via advanced algorithms that leverage the huge amounts of data were constantly (often inadvertently) sharing; other platforms leverage the data that we purposely share in exchange for a perceived benefit.

Decades ago, large-scale production and national expansion of brands in offline industries led to mass marketing. Sellers used statistics to communicate broadly about their products and services, generally targeting the most "typical" consumer for their product. The problem is that no consumer is the typical consumer.

Related: 3 Elements of Better Customer Service

Take a look at a traditional offline industry: relocation. Moving companies, cable companies, utility companiesand the dozens of other companies that you need to deal with when you move all traditionally mass-marketed to relocating consumers.

Today, consumers are far more comfortable purchasing products or services that they perceive to be suited to their unique needs and preferences. When technology introduces this dynamic to buyers, the revolution is near.

As a consumer, theres an unfortunate dynamic when you buy something:The seller often has more information or control than you. The greater the gulf between buyer and seller, the more asymmetry, and the less comfortable the buyer is with the transaction. Offline industries transform when technology bridges the gap. New platforms dont necessarily need to eliminate the asymmetry, so long as the buyer feels that a traditional asymmetry has been alleviated.

Related: Why Trying to Add Personalization to Websites Has Failed

Consumers love products that make them feel that theyre engaged in a fair transaction, a symmetrical one. Products that revolutionize industries achieve this in one of two ways:

1.Technology helps the buyer make a more informed decision. Think about Kayak for booking travel: Kayak is on my side, helping me find the best flight at the optimal time and price. If I dont like what I see, I refine the search and receive new options instantly. Think about Amazon for retail: Amazon makes me feel as informed as the sellers because I have all the key info right at my fingertips and can easily comparison shop.

2.Technology delivers transformative simplicity and efficiency. Think about OpenTable or Postmates: It has never, in the long history of me eating food, been easier to make a restaurant reservation or get food delivered straight to my door. This simplicity makes me feel that the transaction now has a more favorable dynamic. Its become more symmetrical than the offline alternative.

Asymmetry occurs in various ways across a host of industries. In the relocation industry, for example, theres asymmetry when a moving company provides a price estimate and the prospective customer has minimal insight into how that price was generated and the quality of the service relative to other moving companies. Additionally, asymmetry can occur when dealing with home service providers such as cable or satellite TV companies -- pricing is complex, there are often hidden fees and the consumer is unable to easily compare apples to apples across various providers.

Tech companies seeking to revolutionize an offline industry need to focus on promoting long overdue personalization and increased symmetry for customers. Once a platform genuinely delivers these dynamics, consumers will embrace the experience and come flocking. The goal should be to deliver these dynamics and, as a result, create an experience that consumers absolutely love -- and the consumers will then expect that same great experience for future transactions. To survive, sellers will need to go where the buyers are and adjust how they sell their products and services.

Incumbent corporations are increasingly recognizing the disruptive force of new tech platforms that can quickly change the paradigm in their industry. Many corporates have shifted their technology investments to the forefront of business strategy, and the number of active corporate VCs has exploded, growing nearly five timesin the past 10 years. These companies are adjusting their strategies to be at the forefront of the next revolution, or at least own a stake in it.

Related: All Business Is Personal: Employees Need Human Connections at Work

Businesses that will survive a revolution must have a strategy that is not just about having a social presence or enabling online shopping. Rather, they need to recognize that the experience consumers now demand has radically shifted. In this new world order, the winners are organizations that are agile enough to respond to the new consumer demand and satisfy their needs -- either through their own technology or by working with new tech platforms.

Revolutions dont just occur in consumer-facing industries. Of course, different dynamics lead to revolutions in enterprise (or B2B) industries, such as when new tech interfaces "consumerize" and simplify archaic processes. Similarly, robots and other forms of automation are leading to revolutions in heavy industry.

These technology revolutions, across all types of industries, present great opportunities for the companies that react quickly and get onboard, but can devastate companies that dont.

David Greenberg is the founder and CEO of Updater, a relocation technology company that simplifies the way Americans move. Greenberg launched Updater out of his own frustrations with moving, recognizing that there had to be a better way to...

Follow this link:

The 2 Ways Technology Will Revolutionize Offline Industries - Entrepreneur