Future Tense

The technological progress of flight has been pretty amazing.

We might not give it much thought, but how we move is naturally predetermined. Left to our own devices we don’t usually walk in straight lines or make 90 degree turns, so why do so many architects and urban planners still favour grids and sharp angles?

Author Paul Bogard worries that we’re losing our sense of darkness, that our taste for banishing the night is turning Earth into the planet that never sleeps. In Europe and North America the amount of light in the night sky continues to increase by around 6% a year.

Our social media platforms encourage us to opinionate, to share, to show and to engage - but rarely do they encourage us to listen.

Data science has been described in the Harvard Business Review as the “sexiest job of the 21st Century”. Analysis of large, diverse and evolving data sets is increasingly used to draw conclusions about individuals, communities and the societies in which they live.

In this edition of Future Tense we speak with three researchers exploring some of the less obvious aspects of change over time - concerning people, identity and attitude.

Fans have long had a role in influencing and in some cases helping to shape the works of popular culture they adore. But when they get restless in the modern age, they now have the resources to take a piece of fiction and make it their own. Some content producers find that assertive approach threatening. But others, particularly in the gaming sector, have begun to embrace it.

Online information security is estimated to be worth more than $75 billion annually. So why is the digital world still so fragile despite all that we’ve learnt about online fraud and malicious attacks?

Future Tense examines new trends in agricultural robotics - away from a mentality that heavy equipment means bigger yields.

There are many areas, such as dexterity and instinctive creativity, in which robots and programs still lag behind human capacity.

Making them more like us is a threatening proposition for some, but it’s crucial if machines are to fulfil their promise.