Have you ever wondered what the cities of the future could look like? Do you imagine a dystopian, Orwellian hellscape of mass surveillance, or a hyper-efficient, super-city? An international research project is laying the foundation for Smart Cities (the latter kind!).
Continue readingHow Vulnerable Are We? An Anthropological Perspective
Protecting the vulnerable was one of the main objectives when nations developed a COVID-19 response strategy. But while vulnerability usually implies those with weakened immune systems, it does not take into account other types of vulnerability such as financial, social, or mental.
Continue readingPolitics, policy and risky business
As a child, Prof. Noellie Brockdorff was fascinated by the robots that inhabited the world of Isaac Asimov’s novels. She wanted to know why humans are different to robots. So why are human beings not perfectly rational creatures like robots? Dr Claude Bajada finds out more.
Oceans Re-energised
The world’s oceans support the lives, economies, and health of societies. When the ocean is in decline, a society will also be in decline. Take the Aral Sea Crisis—destroyed by Soviet-era irrigation projects—where a prosperous society used the sea in an unsustainable manner, degrading this resource and their livelihoods. This cycle of decline needs to be turned into a cycle of recovery.Continue reading