Space tourism is just getting started

Why Facebook can never fix itself 

Sponsored by Lumen Technologies The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology Bezos' big day out 07.21.21 Good morning! Today: we look at the next steps for commercial space travel after Bezos' flight, why Facebook will never fix its problems, and the fears disability rights advocates have about discrimination in AI hiring tools. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. Space tourism is just getting started   What happened: Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos successfully completed the company’s first crewed suborbital flight yesterday—a major step in its efforts to provide commercial space flights to paying customers. He was joined by his brother Mark, Dutch student Oliver Daemen and astronaut Wally Funk. Daemen and Funk became the youngest and oldest people to ever fly to space, respectively. The flight lasted just 10 minutes, but passed the Kármán line, the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space. It was a test of the company’s reusable rocket and capsule system New Shepard. What’s next: Compared with the launch earlier this month of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, a type of spaceplane, Bezos’s trip was more reminiscent of a NASA mission, with a vertical takeoff, parachutes, and a soft landing. Together, the flights signify the start of commercial space tourism. Beyond getting humans closer to orbit, both Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin could advance new approaches to faster cross-continental travel, since both vehicles can reach speeds four to five times those of a regular airplane. Read the full story. —Tatyana Woodall Read next:    + Step-by-step photos of the flight. (WP $)   + Why did that rocket look so, erm, phallic?! (The Guardian)   + Bezos says the flight made him care more about climate change. (Axios)   + Why oh why did Bezos have to wear a cowboy hat. (WP $)   + The problem with Bezos' route to space. (Quartz)   + Why is Bezos flying to space? Because billionaires think Earth is a sinking ship. (The Guardian) Why Facebook can never fix itself Facebook’s problems are well-known by now: the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the genocide in Myanmar, and rampant covid misinformation are just several examples. But An Ugly Truth, a new book about Facebook written by veteran New York Times reporters Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang, argues that Facebook’s issues today are not the product of a company that lost its way. Instead they are part of its very design, built atop Zuckerberg’s narrow worldview, the careless privacy culture he cultivated, and the staggering ambitions he chased with Sandberg. Read our review of the book. —Karen Hao Disability rights advocates are worried about discrimination in AI hiring tools Your ability to land your next job could depend on how well you play one of the AI-powered games that companies like AstraZeneca and Postmates are increasingly using in the hiring process. Some companies that create these games, like Pymetrics and Arctic Shores, claim that they limit bias in hiring.  But AI hiring games can be especially difficult to navigate for job seekers with disabilities. In the latest episode of MIT Technology Review’s podcast “In Machines We Trust,” we explore how AI-powered hiring games and other tools may exclude people with disabilities. Listen to it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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.)   + Wally Funk's reaction to her spaceflight yesterday was delightful.   + I can't express just how much I love the idea that Peppa Pig is turning American children British. (WSJ $)   + One hazard of working from home? If you have cats, they can and will interrupt (thank you Donna, you know me well.)   + Rams gonna ram.    + I love these visual interpretations of music.    + These summer photos are great. Sponsor Message Transforming the healthcare industry Specialists performing surgeries from afar. Surgeons training doctors remotely. Portable devices gathering patient data. Edge computing can enable health care of the future. Learn more. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 The Olympics kicks off today The heat is a problem. So is, er, the rising number of covid cases. (NYT $)   + Welcome to the Tokyo Olympics, where public health, money, and politics collide. (TR)   + The Johnson & Johnson vaccine may be less effective against the Delta variant. (NYT $)   + The UK may have to reimpose restrictions as early as next month. (The Guardian)   + India's true death toll is probably way over 3 million. (NYT $)  2 How Zello keeps people connected during South Africa’s unrest People are using the walkie-talkie app to coordinate their response to the crisis. (TR)   3 How the next generation is reshaping political discourse The rise of social media and being always online is changing the nature of civic engagement. (TR)   4 We need to stop worrying and learn to love GMOs The verdict is in, and the potential health benefits are huge. (NYT $)   5 The huge environmental toll of shipping 🚢 Today, about 80% of global trade is circulated around the world by about 50,000 ships, and they run on extremely dirty fuel. (Earther)   + One of the biggest myths about EVs has been busted in a new study. (The Verge)  6 China's defense against hacking charges? "The US does it too" Slightly juvenile-sounding, but ultimately accurate. (NBC)   + The US says China has breached dozens of pipeline companies in the past decade. (NYT $)  7 The man who turned a Farmville clone into a massive Ponzi scheme Farm Bank might be the biggest and most lucrative app-based grift to date. (Rest of World)   8 Why Netflix is getting into games It's an extension of choose-your-own-adventure experiments like Bandersnatch. (Recode)   + Also, it needs to stem the fact it's bleeding subscribers in the US and Canada. (FT $)  9  "Hot vax summer" is happening, folks 😘 If our Google searches are anything to go by, anyway. (NPR)   10 These cherries floating in water aren't real 🍒 Researchers have created a new way to model surface tension. The results are frighteningly realistic. (Vice) Prepare to lead with innovation at EmTech MIT.  Get a front-row seat for discussions on the breakthrough technologies that could unlock impactful business opportunities for those who understand their possibilities and potential. Register today. Quote of the day "I want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer, 'cause you guys paid for all this. Thank you from the bottom of my heart very much." —Some remarks by Jeff Bezos after he returned from the edge of space yesterday. They probably sounded better in his head. Top image credit: AP PHOTO | TONY GUTIERREZ Please send Americans hoping to perfect their Britishisms 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 today Understand the promise of technology. Make MIT Technology Review your go-to resource for thought-provoking insights, analysis, and news about the world of technology. Get unlimited access when you subscribe today. 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