Some parts of remote living are here to stay

Why covid-19 vaccines aren't available to all yet

Sponsored by VMware The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology Remote everything 03.15.21 Good morning! Today: which parts of our remote lives will we keep post-pandemic? Also: why reopening schools is so complicated, and why covid-19 vaccines aren't available to all yet. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. Some parts of remote living are here to stay   The pandemic shrank our world, reducing it to nothing beyond the walls of our homes. Yet the world kept spinning: we sat in meetings, went on dates, celebrated holidays, and met friends for drinks. The only difference? We did it all from behind a screen. The past year has been a crash course in how much we can get done remotely when we have to. It also revealed which aspects of life suffer most when we experience them only in a virtual way. Though changes happened everywhere, those in two particularly important services—health care and education—had huge impacts on people’s overall well-being and quality of life.  What worked and what didn’t? What will stay and what won’t? And what have we learned that could help us better prepare for the future? We look at developments in Asia and Africa that could set an example for the rest of the world. —Sandy Ong "Remote everything" is one of our 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2021, and this story is for subscribers only. It's from the latest issue of MIT Technology Review, which is all about progress. Read the full magazine, and why not subscribe so you get future issues, too? It's just $50 a year. Read next: President Biden is forging ahead with a promise to reopen most schools within his first 100 days, but the debates around it are as complicated as ever—and offer a glimpse into many of the difficulties of reopening society at large. Read the full story. 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.)   + A fox sleeping on a sky light.   + You don't need to change out of your snow gear to do yoga (thanks Ron).   + People queuing for vaccinations at Berkshire Community College, Massachusetts got a surprise yesterday… a performance by acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma.   + Baby bunnies.   + A recipe for happiness: sleep, gratitude, and helping other people. (NYT $) Sponsor Message Digital acceleration in the time of coronavirus: North America Before the pandemic, Mayo Clinic was planning its long-term digital transformation. “We envisioned the hospital of the future,” says engineering chair Mark Wehde, “moving away from large, complex care centers for routine care to community hospitals and even to people’s homes through the use of remote monitoring tools and AI.”   When the crisis hit, the organization needed the digital platforms it was planning for immediately. “Our 10-year plan was now a two-year plan,” says Wehde.   Learn how the pandemic sped up technology change. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 Why covid-19 vaccines aren't available to all yet 💉 A lot needs to go right for the US to meet Biden's May deadline. (New Yorker $)   + There's little difference in vaccine hesitancy between Black and white Americans. (NPR $)    + A small number of Facebook users play an outsized role in pushing vaccine skepticism. (WP $)   + Why some European countries are pausing their AstraZeneca vaccine rollouts. (Quartz)  2 Who is going to stop us from encoding racism into AI? Not Google, from the looks of it. (NYT $)   3 It's going to be hard to return to normal It'll take a while for our brains to come down from a state of near-constant stress. (Wired $)   + The pandemic's toll on teenagers. (ProPublica)   + We keep underestimating the coronavirus. (WP $)  4 How Facebook directs employees to deny accusations of polarization Imagine if it put as much effort into fixing the problem as it does trying to pretend it doesn't exist. (Buzzfeed)   + How Facebook got addicted to spreading misinformation. (TR)  5 Tim Berners-Lee on how to fix the internet He's a big fan of handing more control over data back to users. (G2)   + How we make the web work better for young people. (OneZero $)  6 The pain of losing a parent to QAnon This is incredibly sad. (Buzzfeed)   + Big Tech fights foreign terrorists. Domestic ones? Not so much. (Protocol)  7 Inside Israel's flourishing cybersurveillance industry 🔍 And how the tools it builds enable repressive regimes across the world to spy on their people. (Rest of World)   + Inside NSO, Israel’s billion-dollar spyware giant. (TR)  8 How a teenager tried to forge his way into the world of esports 🎮 Imagine if Frank Abagnale had been into gaming. (Dot Esports)   + Why game developers struggle so much with doors. (The Verge)  9 A mom made deepfakes to harass her daughter's cheerleading rivals The cat is truly out of the bag with this technology. (The Philadelphia Inquirer)   10 Our tech lives are about to get messy, thanks to the "hybrid office" You're going to need a bigger, better backpack. (WSJ $) You are just 7 days away from EmTech Digital, our virtual event focused on AI. If you're developing your AI strategy, implementing AI solutions, or looking for the latest advancements in AI technology, you need to join us at EmTech Digital. Register now. Quote of the day "It’s just a pent-up cycle where the money has nowhere to go, so it’s doing stupid things." —Howard Lindzon, an investor and market commentator, explains crypto art and "meme stocks" to the New York Times. Top image credit: Sierra & Lenny Please send baby bunnies 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 Don't settle for half the story. Subscribe to MIT Technology Review for access to subscriber-only content and more.   Follow us: MIT Technology Review One Main Street Cambridge, MA 02142

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