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Newsweek's List of Brilliant 'Disruptors' - how our world will change even faster

I subscribe to Newsweek Magazine. As its name states, it's a weekly magazine broadly arranged like a blog with articles rarely longer than a few pages, covering highly topical subjects such as cyberwarfare, Trump's legacy, vaccine science and the like, all from an American perspective. I strongly recommend you subscribe at https://subscribe.newsweek.com/.

In their Christmas 2021 issue they published a list of 50 people (or partnerships) whom they describe as 'agents for change' or 'disruptors', the most famous of whom is Elon Musk - considered the Thomas Edison of the digital age. It makes for a fascinating wander through what the world is turning into from many points of view, but especially new technologies, new politics, new awareness of the planet's fragility, new fashions, new fears and new excitements. Many of their choices raise further questions about what we are turning into such as overweight couch potatoes; superfluous actors in a world of robots and AI; screen and metaverse addicts etc, as well highlighting many of the more virtuous changes occurring such as the green revolution, inclusivity, ambitions for levelling society, and an overlying sense of fairness and of a worldwide community blind to flags, race, gender or belief.

For this post I have selected some of the more exciting businesses from their list of 'disruptors' to facilitate wider research around their innovations (I wish I had invested in some of them!). The Newsweek list focusses on the people, my focus is on what they've created with a link to their websites (it's also something to help pass the time while I isolate after a positive Covid test 😓... from which, thanks to previous disruptors who invented the Pfizer vaccine, I'm only experiencing very mild symptoms):

 Medical

  1. An Affordable Bionic Hand  www.psyonic.io
  2. Synthetic DNA at Commercial Scale  www.twistbioscience.com
  3.  Medicine Delivered by Mist  droplette.io
  4. Communicating by Thinking  synchron.com
  5. Robot Medical Assistants   www.diligentrobots.com
  6. DNA Printers to Spur Vaccine Development  codexdna.com
  7. Altering DNA to Cure Disease  www.intelliatx.com
  8. Collaborative Tech to Develop Affordable Drugs  www.openpharmaresearch.com
  9. Prescription Gaming for ADHD  www.akiliinteractive.com
  10. Flexible Electronics for Implants  www.anl.gov (one of their programmes)
  11. Powering Wearable Batteries with Sweat research.ece.ncsu.edu/bandodkargroup/group

Planet

  1. AI and Big Data to Feed the World  gro-intelligence.com
  2. Ecofriendly Alternative to Plastic  www.footprintcenter.com/footprint
  3. App to Replenish Forests  greenstand.org
  4. Eggs Without Chickens  theeverycompany.com
  5. Tech Help for Food Insecurity  plantvillage.psu.edu
  6. Food Preservative Alternative to Plastic Packaging  www.apeel.com
  7. A Metaverse Platform  www.roblox.com

 Art

  1. Blockchain Payment Platform for Musicians  raidar.mit.edu
  2. (one of my favourites) Sponsorship Platform for Creators  www.patreon.com
  3. Marketplace for NFTs  opensea.io
  4. Converting High Street Fashion into Digital  dressx.com

 General

  1. Detecting Emotion with AI smarteye.se
  2. Using Diamonds for Internet Access  akashsystems.com
  3. 3D Printed Housing  www.iconbuild.com

 

 


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