In all the news about the fast-moving COVID-19 pandemic, few outlets pause to remind their audience that pandemics are a byproduct of climate change and will be more prevalent as the planet heats up. Creatures that act as disease-vectors –
Drought: Anticipating A Parched Future
In May, 2019 a close family friend who I’ll call Auntie N (to protect her privacy), was, in her beautiful Connecticut home, deeply distraught. “Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Fani” (that’s what Wikipedia calls it) had just struck Odisha, India, where her
Earth Is Burning And You’re Working On What?
The Paris Climate Agreement aimed to avoid a “catastrophic” 2ºC increase in global temperatures. We have just a decade left to cut current carbon emissions by half, and unfortunately we are nowhere near achieving this goal. Here’s what happens if we
Ebola, The Stock Market, & Your Startup
According to Margaret Chan, head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Ebola is “unquestionably the most severe acute public health emergency in modern times.” On the same day, Sierra Leone, with its tiny medical infrastructure overwhelmed, admitted defeat. The country
How To Build A Business When The World Is Ending
Mathematician Safa Motesharrei of the US National Science Foundation-supported National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, working with a team of natural and social scientists, recently published a shockingly dark report on the near future of Western civilization. According to these credible researchers,
Why The Singularity Could Be Great For Humans
The Singularity is the possible near-future event when a computer’s intelligence surpasses human intelligence. A super-intelligent computer will learn exponentially, will be able to communicate with other machines, and will may not want to be turned off. Respected thinkers like
Keep an Eye On The Dhaka Startup Scene
Bangladesh gets a lot of bad press. But filter the noise and you’ll see a fast-modernizing country of 165 million people, making it one of Asia’s largest emerging economies. Despite political and electrical instability, economic growth has been remarkably consistent
How To Build For The Future
We have to stop building businesses, and start solving for scarcity. Our planet is running out of natural resources like titanium, silver and copper at an alarming rate. Antimony, a product used in many batteries, will be exhausted from known mines
Instant Mass Enlightenment
What do Gangnam Style, a meteor over Russia, and Iron Man movies have in common? The first touchpoint for all of these were through the Internet, through online videos, newscasts or trailers. Word of these videos spread instantaneously among the
Where To Find Developers
Technology companies need money – sometimes lots of it – to get off the ground. Even though they hold no inventory and staff few people, their business models are capital inefficient for the first few years. Unlike the local coffee