Why more and more people are sharing their innermost thoughts with artificial intelligence—and what this reveals about our understanding of self-reflection. The care of the self is the first and last task of life, wrote …
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When the Machine Listens
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When the Brain Starts “Gaming”
“What am I supposed to do? I can’t follow him around all day … and grounding him would be a blessing for him. He disappears into the bathroom for hours … should I cut the …
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The Telling Eye – The Retina as a Window to Whole-Body Health
“Bring beer and chips. Tonight we’re going to crush them,” his friend texts as he’s already on his way to watch the game. So he makes a quick stop at the supermarket—he’s out of cigarettes …
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The Neo-Fluxus Artist H.O. Schmidt Symbolically Connects Germany and New Zealnd through his Artistic Action
Photo by Peter Köster One part of the four-meter-high sculpture stands in the medieval town of Lennep. Its antipode will be immersed into the South Pacific Sea. To realize this, H.O. Schmidt brought the heart …
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Twins in the Digital Dimension: A Journey Through Two Mirror Worlds
Imagine two parallel universes: one where virtual worlds are created for spectacular experiences, and another where digital twins are used to optimize manufacturing industries. Both emerged from the same technological revolution—yet while the consumer mirror …
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A History of Design and Fusion: From Tools to Human-Machine Interaction
Historically, the connection between humans and tools was straightforward: a hammer felt heavy, a saw demanded skill. The design of a tool was crucial to facilitate easier work. During this period, where tools served as …
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Recycling revolution? Bio-upcycling & superworms that can eat through plastic waste!
A species of worm that has a taste for polystyrene could hold the key to large-scale plastic recycling, according to researchers at the University of Queensland. The common “superworm” known as Zophobas morio has been …
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War over water – can we prevent it?
Drinking water is a precious commodity and is all too often taken for granted. Yet the war for water has long since begun. Freshwater is essential for our survival, but growing demand for water, climate …
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Sustainable or just strategy? H&M founds Looper Textile Co. with Remondis.
Written Fashion Reporter Paula Kiessling / Illustration: Susanne Gold H&M focuses on sustainability with Looper Textile Co.: Can the joint venture improve the fast fashion industry? H&M and Remondis establish Looper Textile Co. to increase recycling rate …
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Anxiety disorders in pupils and students: A chatbot to help?
Anxiety disorders are a growing problem among students. According to several studies from the USA, Great Britain and Australia, almost one third of the students surveyed have struggled with anxiety disorders in the course of …
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The secret price of automation that every entrepreneur should know
Text and Illustration by Susanne Gold Today, workers bring to the workplace a willingness to be lifelong learners. Never-ending training and being a student forever, that’s the price careerists pay today. Not every new tool …
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Mushrooms on your skin!
Text: Johanna Schlemmer, Fotos: Peter Wolff, Cora Schmelzer Mushrooms to eat? With pleasure. But mushrooms on your own skin? For many, a strange, even disgusting idea. Not for Cora Schmelzer. As a budding product designer, …
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The one who reinvented the wheel: Who is Andrea Mocellin?
Interview by Susanne Gold Andrea Mocellin develops new ways of getting around – including air taxis and arguably the most innovative wheel of our time. Andrea works as a Senior Product Designer at Lilium and …
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Symbol Politics or Dystopia de Luxe: Apple Trees, Climatology, Psychology
Illustration Corinna Heumann/ Text Frank Fremerey Do we need psychologists to confront the climate crisis? Is giving up vacation flights, T-bone steaks and plastic bags enough to stop global warming? When problems exceed our capacity …
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Fine furniture made of tropical wood without any overexploitation – is that possible?
Illustration Corinna Heumann, Text Bernhard Fischer Plant products without overexploitation of nature? “Ex Planta and In Vitro 2121: A glance at the clock – where is the dealer for the tropical woods? He should be …
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Sensitive as humans. Portable magnetic skin.
Illustration Corinna Heumann / Text Susanne Gold A hand that delicately strokes the soft material of a piece of velvet, feels the landing of a butterfly or tenderly grips the hand of another: Feeling – …
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Toys, not calculators!
The time when only the simple activities were automated is a thing of the past. Today, artificial intelligence is increasingly finding its way into classical knowledge work. The highly qualified jobs of well-educated people are …
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Artificial Intelligence: Are We All Going Stupid and Unemployed?
Illustration and Text by Susanne Gold Companies of all kinds today use artificial intelligence, to forecast demand, hire workers or meet customer needs to be identified. Artificial intelligence is a billion-dollar business. Google even …
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Successful in old age: Late developer Artificial Intelligence!
Not everyone is born during a conference. He already! Why is he only successful with more than 50 years, our artificial colleague?
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Digitalization? An old hat!
FROM HELMUT BRESLER No discussion and no lecture can do without the current buzzword. The digital revolution or digital transformation is the focus of all topics. A new trend? Not at all. Water under the …
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Artificial intelligence: Will we soon live with robotic humans who are smarter than us?
Hardly any other field of computer science triggers as many emotions as “artificial intelligence”. Will machines one day have a consciousness? Will they be able to think like humans?” These are the questions of our …
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Quantum in LEDs – let there be light!
Cost-effective, efficient and durable – light-emitting diodes or LEDs for short have almost completely replaced conventional light bulbs. But what is behind the miracle lamps? Plain and simple: (quantum) physics! After we have dealt in …
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Pig brains revived! Is brain death reversible?
Our brain is a wonder of nature. The control center in our head makes us who we are: It controls our thinking, our movements, processes sensory impressions and regulates our basic body functions. Unfortunately, our …
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Alexa alone at home
by Leonie Bachmaier What does my Alexa do when she’s alone? While an apartment owner near Hamburg was not at home, his virtual assistant “Alexa” caused a lot of trouble. She threw a party without …
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A journey into the small universe: great quanta!
Wouldn’t it be fascinating to be in several places at once? In our everyday life this seems hard to imagine, and yet such effects occur on the scale of the smallest particles, the atoms and …
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The voices in our head and the stars in the sky – is everything we have learned wrong?
Measurements prove that only what passes through the filters in our brain can penetrate our consciousness. Only when synchronously firing nerve cells react to an object in our field of vision does a reality appear …
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The fear of super-intelligence. Do machines get smarter than people?
The human brain stores and organizes information according to patterns and is thus the inspiration for artificial intelligence. In our brain, more than 100 billion nerve cells are connected, which store our knowledge in patterns, …
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Privacy Paradox: Do we want privacy or not?
Online, many of us disclose our data, communicate via social media, use dating portals and payback cards relatively carefree. When travelling on the net, many people seem to be indifferent to the fact that they …
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Do robots write song lyrics?
Robots as journalists He who writes, stays! For a long time, the idea was held that man could retain sovereignty over the word and thus his secure job. Natural language was believed to be a …
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Smart home and digital factory – how does it work?
Smart objects can be packaging, work pieces or even objects in every household. They have a digital memory in the form of a data storage device. This enables the connection of objects – which are …
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When is progress successful?
Per capita income has risen again this year. We do not seem to be happier people because of this. As early as 1974, the US economist Richard Easterlin first pointed out the paradoxical phenomenon that …
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The long waves of innovations
Inventions resemble the waves of the sea One idea triggers another. This is how the Russian socialist and revolutionary Nikolai Kondratjew found out at the beginning of the 20th century. Since he applied this principle …
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How do marine researchers research?
One imagines that marine researchers are out at sea in all weathers. But today the oceans are explored with sophisticated technology. Marine researchers often sit in front of a computer – in front of digital …
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The future of sanctions?
I’m in the middle of Berlin, visiting a friend. History blows at every corner of this city. Berlin – Moabit Today a sought-after residential area in the middle of the city, poor working class district …
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Digital manipulation and human nature
Social life has changed. Digital communication has changed the structure and nature of our social relationships as well as our access to information and knowledge. Unless we live in seclusion as hermits, we can hardly …
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Utopias and innovations between hope and horror
In 1900, X-rays were a spectacular new technology. It enabled a fantasy from the land of utopias: Suddenly it was possible to make the previously invisible visible. This innovation was so extraordinary and fascinating that …
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What is nudging?
A child is standing in front of the school on the first day of school and does not dare go in – the mother pushes the child together with the school bag easily and without …
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Explore unknown worlds and life forms with autonomous robots
One world in the world – microbes in the ocean They are almost everywhere and yet almost invisible. Microbes in the ocean probably spread and produce half of the oxygen in our atmosphere. It is …
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Fishing 4.0: The digital fisherman for man and sea
Feeding the growing world population is one of the most burning issues of the future. Global population growth is challenging the food industry in an unprecedented way. While on the one hand the yields of …
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Digitization and digital transformation – what is that?
What is the difference between digitisation and digital transformation? Digitisation means that a work or workflow is made paperless. But without changing the workflow. An example of this is when the documents of an office …