🟣 SC 🔵 FS
A few months back Altera launched Project Sid (its name is a hat tip to Sid Meier, the creator of the iconic Civilisation video game). They poured 1,000 autonomous AI agents into a Minecraft world, and sat back to watch what unfolded.
Altera calls this world, ‘the first agent-based civilisation’. Yang and his colleagues watched as the agents learned to harness the natural resources around them, developed their own economy, and even evolved a culture and religion.
Read more🔵 FS 🟡 Sci-fi 🔘 Arch
Now that 2026 is no longer speculative but real, Metropolis invites a fresh look. It captured structural tensions that continue to shape modern urban life: who benefits from progress, who pays for it, and how technology changes human relationships when power is concentrated at the top.
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In the last hundred years, humanity’s capacity for knowledge transmission progressed from the written word and the static-laden echoes of early radio technology to global information systems so vast and complex that no single person on Earth can claim a complete understanding of them. Inevitably, the social technologies built into both our biology and our society are no longer entirely capable of addressing our new epistemological landscape. But is a slow retreat into the machine necessarily the only path we can take to keep up?
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Let me double down on that statement a little bit. I have always looked at the technologies evolving out of AR as a solution for VR locomotion and discomfort. When consumers are finally living with ‘all-day XR glasses,’ which can map their living or working spaces in real-time and allow them to dip in and out of VR and MR modally, users will begin to actively reskin their real-world environments (spaces, objects, people, etc.) to look and behave however they want. It won’t be enough to look at anchored apps against the backdrop of a dirty laundry bin or a sink full of dishes; consumers will customize their living rooms to be castles, resorts, Minecraft landscapes, etc. They will dine in the halls of gods and have meetings at the bottom of the ocean. Some may think it dystopian, but I believe the true Metaverse levels the playing field between the haves and have nots, allowing for a landscape of human activities in fantastic environments custom tailored to the user, or a consensual experience tailored to a group. It will eventually be done completely on the fly, and will likely be the true ‘killer app’ of future XR devices.
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It’s called Generative Agent Simulations of 1,000 People. Not a catchy title. But I believe this research will eventually change the world. That’s why I’ve chosen it as the subject of this first in my new series of weekly postcards.
The researcher in question is Joon Sung Park; he’s a PhD student at Stanford University.
He and his team interviewed 1,052 people. They asked them to speak for two hours about themselves and their everyday lives, beliefs and values.
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The collaboration, titled ‘Re:Imagine London’, is a video game experience within the game where players can explore and build within a virtual London. The partnership’s goal was to encourage players to start exploring urban development and engagement by gamifying a sandbox development.
According to Zaha Hadid Architects, players will be invited to create buildings and walkable areas within a sustainable and mixed-used planning environment.
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Automating food is unlike automating anything else. Food is fundamental to life – nourishing body and soul – so how it’s accessed, prepared and consumed can change societies fundamentally.
Automated kitchens aren’t sci-fi visions from “The Jetsons” or “Star Trek.” The technology is real and global. Right now, robots are used to flip burgers, fry chicken, create pizzas, make sushi, prepare salads, serve ramen, bake bread, mix cocktails and much more. AI can invent recipes based on the molecular compatibility of ingredients or whatever a kitchen has in stock. More advanced concepts are in the works to automate the entire kitchen for fine dining.
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The present is overwhelmed with complex global challenges–polycrises that threaten to persist into the future. In this context, the need for a framework that necessitates policymakers consider long-term impacts when making decisions has never been more critical. The United Nations’ report, Our Common Agenda, proposes a landmark solution: a Pact for the Future and a Declaration on Future Generations.
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In the midst of climate crisis, how humanity generates and uses energy counts among the most urgent and far-reaching systemic issues we face. I’m excited to share our latest experiential futures project, Tomorrow’s Energy Today, a series of playful, site-specific interventions designed to help imagine and catalyse energy transition at scale.
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Whether it's luck or uncanny foresight, here are 21 times The Simpsons predicted the future.
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