The high price of broadband is keeping people offline during the pandemic

The space tourism we were promised is finally here—sort of

Sponsored by Salesforce The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology The cost of a connection 02.04.21 Good morning! Today: the increasingly high stakes for people stuck on the wrong side of America's digital divide, and can the space tourism sector ever become sustainable? Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. The high price of broadband is keeping people offline during the pandemic     The situation: For as long as the internet has existed, there has been a divide between those who have it and those who do not, with increasingly high stakes for people stuck on the wrong side of America’s “persistent digital divide.” That’s one reason why Joe Biden has promised to make universal broadband a priority. But Biden’s promise has taken on extra urgency as a result of the pandemic. Covid-19 has widened many inequities, not just for school kids but also for access to health care and—increasingly— the covid-19 vaccine. Framing matters: Whether Biden can succeed in bridging the gap depends on how he defines the problem. Is it one that can be fixed with more infrastructure, or one that requires social programs to address affordability and adoption gaps? For years, the issue was seen as a largely rural problem. But that has left people who struggle with the affordability of internet services, not with proximity—out of the loop.  What’s needed: Restoring the Federal Communications Commission’s regulatory authority and mandate to work towards universal access and affordability would help, as would increasing subsidies to people who can’t afford the US’s unusually steep internet prices. Read the full story. —Eileen Guo The space tourism we were promised is finally here—sort of What’s happening: SpaceX plans to launch the first “all-civilian” mission into orbit by the end of the year. Called Inspiration4, the mission will take billionaire Jared Isaacman plus three others into low Earth orbit via a Crew Dragon vehicle for two to four days, possibly longer. Two seats are up for grabs as part of a lottery and a competition. Why it matters: SpaceX has never really billed itself as a space tourism company as aggressively as Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic have. And yet, SpaceX already has four more private missions on the books than any other company does. And it’s starting to prove that there is a market for space tourism. However, the sector’s success will depend on whether prices can drop far enough to attract enough customers. Right now only the top 1% of the top 1% can afford it. Read the full story.   —Neel V. Patel We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet 'em at me.)   + The best travel photos of 2020.    + You can and should barbecue in the winter.   + Finally, a tech company produces something useful.   + The history of cats.    + You are allowed to complain about the pandemic.    + NASA satellite imagery reimagined as art using a neural net (thank you Rahul!)   + Sinks TikTok is a thing (at least in New York). Sponsor Message The Green Future Index 2021 The Green Future Index is a ranking of 76 leading countries and territories on their progress and commitment toward building a low carbon future. It measures the degree to which their economies are pivoting toward clean energy, industry, agriculture, and society through investment in renewables, innovation, and green finance. Experience the interactive index now. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 Does mixing and matching covid-19 vaccines work? We might soon find out. The outcome will help work out the puzzle of how we best respond to the pandemic. (The Guardian)   + Denmark wants vaccine passports. (AP)   + Why are healthcare workers resisting taking the vaccine? (New Yorker $)   + One Pfizer/BioNTech jab gives 90% efficacy after 21 days, a study found. (The Guardian)   + Been vaccinated? You still need to protect others. (NYT $)  2 Amazon plans to use AI cameras to spy on its drivers Then bark verbal warnings at them. Dystopia, much? (The Information $)   3 Myanmar has blocked Facebook The company decided to more proactively moderate posts. This is the new military government's response. (TechCrunch)   + India is threatening Twitter employees with jail time for refusing to censor accounts. (Buzzfeed)   + Parler has fired its CEO. (Reuters)  4 There are about 4,000 covid-19 variants out there  We only need to worry about a tiny minority of them. But still. Eeek. (Reuters)   + New York City barely checks for variants. Can that change? (NYT $)  5 One hedge fund made $700 million on GameStop Told you the "little guys vs big guys" narrative was nonsense. (WSJ $)   + Meet one of the men who helped to drive the investing mania on Reddit. (WSJ $)   + What you need to know about Robinhood. (Slate)   + The whole affair is a perfect example of "platform populism." (The Guardian)  6 TikTok wants to take over your TV 📺 But will those rapid funny little clips translate to the big(ger) screen? (Wired UK)   + TikTok announced new measures to tackle misinformation. (NBC)   7 The next cyberattack is already happening Almost everything is online now, and very little of it is secure. (New Yorker $)   8 Why the video game Among Us is so popular 👾 Community, betrayal, self-determination… it's got it ALL. (Wired $)   9 The strange appeal of believing we're living in The Matrix In these nihilistic, "nothing is real" times, simulation theory is gaining more and more fans. (GQ)   10 What we lost when we stopped making phone calls 📞 "There’s something very different in having someone’s attention versus their distraction." (Medium) Unpack the technologies core to intelligent computing. In just 6 days, join us at Future Compute, to discover how your business can capitalize on the next wave of computing technologies. Plus, join sessions on the MIT Inside Track for exclusive access to the innovation hubs at MIT developing next-gen computing technologies. Hurry, Future Compute is happening soon! Register now. Quote of the day "At least one passenger on every flight has a mask issue. It gets a little bit tiring." —Connor, a flight attendant with two years' experience, tells The Verge the job has become much harder during the pandemic. Top image credit: MS TECH | UNSPLASH Please send sinks to hi@technologyreview.com. Follow me on Twitter at @charlottejee. Thanks for reading! —Charlotte Was this newsletter forwarded to you, and you'd like to see more? Sign up for free The age of implementation Join us virtually | March 23–25, 2021   Follow us: MIT Technology Review One Main Street Cambridge, MA 02142

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