B:16.625” T:16.375” S:15.625” B:10.75” T:10.5” S:10” When will someone bring the future forward faster? We started by connecting the phone to the Internet, now we’re connecting the Internet to everything. By inventing technologies that connect your car, your home, and the cities in which we all live, we’re accelerating a smarter, more seamless and intuitively synchronized world. We are Qualcomm, and these are just a few of the ways we’re bringing the future forward faster. #WhyWait to join the discussion Qualcomm.com/WhyWait © 2016 Qualcomm Incorporated. Qualcomm is a trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated, registered in the United States and other countries. Why Wait is a trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated. Untitled-2 2 11/30/15 2:26 PM D22648_1a_P56191 Brain_MIT-Tech-Review_DEC_m3.indd D22648c01A_Brain_Blue_3u.tif 11.23.15 Epson HP Client: QUALCOMM Document: P56191 Brain_MIT-Tech-Review_DEC_m3.indd Date: 11-20-2015 4:01 PM Notes: December Job No.: P56191 DDB Office: San Francisco Trim: 16.375” x 10.5” Description: MIT TECH REVIEW 1 Pick-up Job No.: NONE Gutter: None Color(s): 4C Miller, Jason APPROVAL DATE OK/WC APPROVAL DATE OK/WC APPROVAL DATE OK/WC APPROVAL DATE OK/WC APPROVAL DATE OK/WC APPROVAL DATE OK/WC APPROVAL DATE OK/WC APPROVAL DATE OK/WC APPROVAL DATE OK/WC APPROVAL DATE OK/WC B:16.625” T:16.375” S:15.625” B:10.75” T:10.5” S:10” When will someone bring the future forward faster? We started by connecting the phone to the Internet, now we’re connecting the Internet to everything. By inventing technologies that connect your car, your home, and the cities in which we all live, we’re accelerating a smarter, more seamless and intuitively synchronized world. We are Qualcomm, and these are just a few of the ways we’re bringing the future forward faster. #WhyWait to join the discussion Qualcomm.com/WhyWait © 2016 Qualcomm Incorporated. Qualcomm is a trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated, registered in the United States and other countries. Why Wait is a trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated. Untitled-2 3 11/30/15 2:26 PM D22648_1a_P56191 Brain_MIT-Tech-Review_DEC_m3.indd D22648c01A_Brain_Blue_3u.tif 11.23.15 Epson HP Client: QUALCOMM Document: P56191 Brain_MIT-Tech-Review_DEC_m3.indd Date: 11-20-2015 4:01 PM Notes: December Job No.: P56191 DDB Office: San Francisco Trim: 16.375” x 10.5” Description: MIT TECH REVIEW 1 Pick-up Job No.: NONE Gutter: None Color(s): 4C Miller, Jason APPROVAL DATE OK/WC APPROVAL DATE OK/WC APPROVAL DATE OK/WC APPROVAL DATE OK/WC APPROVAL DATE OK/WC APPROVAL DATE OK/WC APPROVAL DATE OK/WC APPROVAL DATE OK/WC APPROVAL DATE OK/WC APPROVAL DATE OK/WC MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW VOL. 119 | NO. 1 TECHNOLOGYREVIEW.COM From the Editor I don’t recall when I first heard about cli- generated by renewable sources or gen- mate change. It was before Jim Han- erate power from safer, cheaper nuclear sen, then director of NASA’s Institute reactors. These efforts will require smart for Space Studies in Manhattan, testi- energy policies, international treaties, fied before the U.S. Congress on June 23, and a significant increase in the amount 1988. Then, he told the Senate Energy nations spend on energy R&D. and Natural Resources Committee, “It Other unknowns are the climate’s is time to stop waffling so much and say sensitivity to increases in atmospheric that the evidence is pretty strong that the carbon dioxide and the impact those greenhouse effect is here.” temperature increases will have. David I am 48 years old; I have been hear- Rotman, MIT Technology Review’s edi- ing about climate change most of my tor, argues (see “Hot and Violent,” page life. We have been waffling the whole 70), “No one knows how climate change time. Yet until recently there was some will transform our lives. Not only is it sense, however inchoate, that significant uncertain how much elevated levels of changes were still avoidable if we acted. carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will It’s now clear to everyone except the raise temperatures and affect precipita- most inveterate climate-change skeptics tion in different parts of the world, but that what Hansen told Congress in 1988 there remains much to learn about how is the case: climate change is here. As these changes will reduce agricultural Ken Caldeira, a climate scientist at the productivity, damage human health, and Carnegie Institution for Science, writes affect economic growth.” Could climate in “Stop Emissions!” on page 40, part of change, Rotman asks, “lead to a far more this issue’s coverage of climate change: violent world?” “Already, in the middle latitudes of the At least 2 °C of global warming, Northern Hemisphere, average tem- which was once thought the upper peratures are increasing at a rate that band of what we could bear as a civili- is equivalent to moving south about 10 zation, now seems locked in. More may meters (30 feet) each day.” We failed to be likely. We must begin to imagine the act in time. social, economic, agricultural, and engi- What’s left to be discovered is how neering implications of living in that bad it will be, how fast it will happen, future, and plan accordingly. It will be and what we will do about it. The first hotter; seas will rise and flood cities; great unknown is how quickly we will there will be more droughts and storms, abandon coal, petroleum, and natural and crops will fail; the nations will fight; gas. If we burn all available fossil-fuel and refugees will stream from the poor resources and dump the resulting car- parts of the world. bon dioxide into the air, global average Faced with all this, it’s easy to recall temperatures could rise as much as the words of Job 3:25—“The thing 9 °C; mammals might not be able to live which I greatly feared is come upon me, at the waist of the Earth. That probably and that which I was afraid of is come won’t happen, but to limit temperature unto me.” But it’s never too late until it’s increases, we must swiftly deploy the too late; life goes on unless it doesn’t. low-carbon energy technologies that we We have to decide what we want to do do understand, such as solar and wind next. That’s the moral imperative and power, while researching and developing the practical reality. Don’t panic. solutions to energy problems that still Write me and tell me what you think elude us, like how to store the electricity at [email protected]. VITTIGUIDO 2 JF16_editor.indd 2 12/9/15 11:25 AM Untitled-2 1 12/8/15 5:31 PM MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW VOL. 119 | NO. 1 TECHNOLOGYREVIEW.COM Contents Front Back 2 From the Editor January / February 2016 BUSINESS REPORT 10 Feedback 61 Funding Innovation Around the world, investment in VIEWS innovation is exploding. 12 Early Intervention CLIMATE It should be possible to help REVIEWS people with Down syndrome even before they’re born. 70 Hot and Violent Tempers will rise as climate 12 Child’s Play change strains resources. Smarter computers will mimic CHANGE By David Rotman the brains of children. 76 The End of Advertising as 13 The Encryption Myth We Know It We don’t need to make it easier Ad blockers present a great for law enforcement to get our opportunity for better ads. data; it’s already easy enough. By Doc Searls 80 Are Young Athletes Risking UPFRONT Brain Damage? 15 Google’s Great Virtual- The earlier kids play contact Reality Experiment sports, the worse the problem. With Cardboard, Google hopes By Amanda Schaffer to push high-end VR gadgets into irrelevance. DEMO 18 Gene-Edited Dogs 84 The Ideal Fuel How genome engineering gave Taking a lesson from leaves. us a super-muscular beagle. By Katherine Bourzac 20 The Fast Rise of Ad Blockers What’s Next? .............................................................................. 38 26 YEARS AGO A look at the incredible surge Stop Emissions! ........................................................................40 in popularity of software that 88 A Conservative Proposition makes online ads invisible. Witnessing Climate Change Everywhere .....................44 for Global Warming From 1990, a proposal for 22 Taking Carbon from Air The Evidence .............................................................................48 kicking our fossil-fuel habit. A Canadian plant aims to turn A Sensible Climate Policy ....................................................49 carbon dioxide into fuels. The Energy Startup Conundrum ...................................... 51 ON THE COVER 24 Battery Firepower Adaptable batteries could help your smartphone last longer on 30 | A Change of Mind VOL. 119 NO. 1 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016 US $6.99/CAN $7.99 (DON’T) a charge. A champion of prenatal testing for Down syndrome now 26 Shared Robot Knowledge wants to find a way to treat it. By Bonnie Rochman Why should we teach robots how to do everything? They WHAT TO 52 | Kindergarten for Computers DO ABOUT CLIMATE .CHANGE. can teach each other. Making artificial intelligence more human might require p. 38 picking up some pointers from children. By Will Knight DesignPANIC by Neil Donnelly CHÁVEZ ROBINSON MICHAEL BY PHOTOGRAPH 4 JF16_TOC.indd 4 12/10/15 11:03 AM Who will prevent downtime and equipment failure? You and NI will. With an integrated platform that combines flexible, rugged hardware with intuitive software, NI helps organizations improve operational efficiency by providing systems that monitor and analyze rotating equipment. With advanced I/O, complex signal processing, and data analytics and visualization capabilities, NI puts you on the cutting edge of the Industrial Internet of Things and connects equipment, people, and technology like never before.