Motherboard
Brian Merchant is senior editor of Motherboard, the science and tech website published by Vice, and the author of One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone.
PROFILE
Brian Merchant
Guest
FROM Brian Merchant
To the Point
Can humanity survive technology? We started this program 17 years ago; Google and Apple were losing money. Now, 80 percent of Americans are walking search engines with smart phones. Driverless cars are on the horizon; robots already in factories may take over white-collar jobs. We're being warned that our species is subject to capture by Artificial Intelligence. In the meantime, social problems aren't going away. We'll trace the rise of the iPhone — how it's changed our lives, for better or worse—and what to expect from technology in the future.
To the Point
The secret history of the iPhone on its tenth birthday In 2007, Steve Jobs appeared at MacWorld in his trademark black turtleneck, blue jeans and white sneakers. He announced, "Apple is going to reinvent the phone." From that announcement, Brian Merchant took the title of his book, The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone . He reports it became the bestselling product of all time -- and the most profitable -- because it “intertwines a phenomenal number of prior inventions and insights -- some that stretch back into antiquity."
To the Point
California Start-up Wants to Free Our Bodies from Food The 1973 science fiction film Soylent Green portrays a dystopian future were people survive on revolutionary foodstuff, but there's a kicker. In the final scenes, we discover that soylent green is people! Now comes a new diet consisting of substances different from what we think of as food. It's all the brainchild of Silicon Valley entrepreneur Rob Rhinehart, whose Kickstarter campaign to raise $100,000 ended up with more than a million. Science writer Brian Merchant lived on Soylent for 30 days. He's the senior editor of Motherboard , the science and tech website published by Vice.
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To the Point
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To the Point
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To the Point
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To the Point
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