New World Same Humans: Recent Episodes
David Mattin
New World Same Humans is a weekly newsletter on technology, society, and our shared future by David Mattin. Born in 2020, the NWSH community has grown to include 22,000+ technologists, marketers, designers, founders, policy-makers and more.
Subscribe to this podcast version of the newsletter, and you'll receive a weekly dose of news and super-fast analysis that unpacks the trends, forces, people and ideas that will shape the decades ahead. Want to cut through the metaverse hype? Understand the latest research on climate? This is the place for you!
In addition, you'll get occasional longform essays and deep dives. And interview episodes, featuring key figures helping to shape our shared future, are coming.
Join us! And go to newworldsamehumans.com to sign up for the full New World Same Humans experience, including membership of our Slack community.
I put the newsletter on pause last week due to travel commitments. To make up for it, here’s a bumper instalment.
This week, new research suggests widespread fears about social media and democracy are well founded; it really does fuel polarisation.
Meanwhile, the UK’s Met Office outlines a future in which we burst through the 1.5C global warming target, but claw average temperatures back underneath it by 2100. And the global population surpasses 8 billion.
You can see the full text version of this instalment here: https://nwsh.substack.com/p/new-week-106#details
And if you're listening and haven't yet subscribed, head to newworldsamehumans.com to see what other readers say about the newsletter and sign up!
Hello from London! It’s the night before Guy Fawkes Night, and I’ve just hosted a back-garden fireworks display for a gaggle of over-excited nine-year-olds.
But that hasn’t prevented a bumper instalment of New Week. This week, Google’s new AI writing platform suggests new futures for the narrative arts.
Also, new research suggests that Europe will soon wean itself off its addiction to gas. And Elon Musk overturns the ancien régime at Twitter; what will it mean for him, and for the future of social media?
Let’s get into it.
You can see the full text version of this instalment here: https://nwsh.substack.com/p/new-week-105#details
And if you're listening and haven't yet subscribed, head to newworldsamehumans.com to see what other readers say about the newsletter and sign up!
I promised a bumper instalment this week. What’s in store?
Shutterstock announce an innovative partnership with OpenAI’s text-to-image generator DALLE-E 2. It offers a way forward on the thorny question of payment for artists whose work is used to train AI models.
Also, a new UN report says that limiting global warming to 1.5C is now close to impossible. And a backlash against metaverse hype is gathering steam inside the Tech Industrial Complex.
Let’s get into it.
You can see the full text version of this instalment here: https://nwsh.substack.com/p/new-week-104#details
And if you're listening and haven't yet subscribed, head to newworldsamehumans.com to see what other readers say about the newsletter and sign up!
Here in London, winter is coming. But a collection of remarkable stories means we have a white hot instalment of New Week.
New research shows that large language models such as GPT-3 can accurately simulate the opinions and preferences of real people. It could herald a revolution for the social sciences.
Meanwhile, one handy chart captures the stunning scale of Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse bet. And researchers grow a tiny brain in a petri dish and watch it teach itself to play Pong.
Let’s get started.
You can see the full text version of this instalment here: https://nwsh.substack.com/p/new-week-102#details
And if you're listening and haven't yet subscribed, head to newworldsamehumans.com to see what other readers say about the newsletter and sign up!
This week, further evidence — in the form of new generative models from Google — that we’re amid an AI-fuelled creative revolution.
Also, the UK wants to build the world’s first on-grid nuclear fusion reactor. And Elon Musk unveils the Optimus humanoid robot.
Let’s go!
You can see the full text version of this instalment here: https://nwsh.substack.com/p/new-week-101#details
And if you're listening and haven't yet subscribed, head to newworldsamehumans.com to see what other readers say about the newsletter and sign up!
We’ve reached a milestone; 100 instalments of the New Week update from New World Same Humans!
I can’t believe how fast that has flown by. I’ll never tire of saying it: writing to you every week is a huge privilege. Thanks for being part of this community, and I hope you’ll continue to find these updates useful as we push into the next 100 editions.
As promised, I’ll write soon with an updated plan for this newsletter, including the return of the short notes that I used to send on Sundays, and a roadmap for the next instalments of my long essay-almost-book The Worlds to Come.
In the meantime, there’s plenty to talk about this week. Tesla are building a simulation of San Francisco in Unreal Engine 5. New research from Microsoft shows managers are paranoid about their staff slacking off at home. And changes are coming to the voice of Darth Vader.
Let’s get into it.
You can see the full text version of this instalment here: https://nwsh.substack.com/p/new-week-100#details
And if you're listening and haven't yet subscribed, head to newworldsamehumans.com to see what other readers say about the newsletter and sign up!
I’m preparing my annual pilgrimage to the brilliant NEXT Conference in Hamburg, where this year I’ll be speaking about technology as a system, the possibility of civilisational collapse, and how we should respond to this moment.
In the meantime, though, there’s news to discuss. In this week’s instalment, I return to a familiar NWSH theme via the appearance of Elvis in the final of America’s Got Talent.
Meanwhile, an announcement foreshadows an emerging geopolitical flashpoint: lunar resources.
Let’s go!
You can see the full text version of this instalment here: https://nwsh.substack.com/p/new-week-98#details
And if you're listening and haven't yet subscribed, head to newworldsamehumans.com to see what other readers say about the newsletter and sign up!
I join you at a historic moment for my country, the United Kingdom, because we received the sad news that the Queen died yesterday at age 96 after 70 years on the throne. What an incredible life.
So the second Elizabethan age is over for us here in the UK, and we now welcome King Charles III. History is turning as history does.
And it’s turning in all kinds of other ways, too. What have we got in store?
This week, a new AI technique sees a team of virtual humanoids learn to play football.
Meanwhile, we look at the evidence on a fundamental question for the coming decades: can we decouple economic growth and carbon? And the US wants to prevent its top tech firms from sharing their secrets with China.
Let’s get into it.
You can see the full text version of this instalment here: https://nwsh.substack.com/p/new-week-97#details
And if you're listening and haven't yet subscribed, head to newworldsamehumans.com to see what other readers say about the newsletter and sign up!
This week, a firestorm broke out among artists when work created by an AI image generator won a mainstream art prize.
Also, scientists say Greenland ice melt will cause global sea levels to rise much more than previously believed. And we check back on the crypto-mad president of El Salvador and his plans to build a Bitcoin City.
You can see the full text version of this instalment here: https://nwsh.substack.com/p/new-week-96#details
And if you're listening and haven't yet subscribed, head to newworldsamehumans.com to see what other readers say about the newsletter and sign up!
This week, tech giant NVIDIA launch a new tool that empowers users to build their own AI-fuelled avatars.
Meanwhile, Europe’s exceptionally hot and dry summer is a troubling signal of what lies ahead. And biometrics are creeping ever deeper into our lives, courtesy of Amazon, the US government, and others.
Let’s go!
You can see the full text version of this instalment here: https://nwsh.substack.com/p/new-week-94#details
And if you're listening and haven't yet subscribed, head to newworldsamehumans.com to see what other readers say about the newsletter and sign up!
This week’s New Week comes a little late; but it’s a packed instalment.
US energy startup Nuscale Power took a big stride towards the deployment of a revolutionary new kind of nuclear reactor. But where should we all stand on the rise (again) of nuclear?
Meanwhile, AI image generator Midjourney signals the emergence of a new form of creativity. And the life sciences take a Frankenstein’s monster turn via two recent advances.
Let’s get into it.
You can see the full text version of this instalment here: https://nwsh.substack.com/p/new-week-93#details
And if you're listening and haven't yet subscribed, head to newworldsamehumans.com to see what other readers say about the newsletter and sign up!
More on the changing climate this week, via startling new images that show the extent of glacier melt in Greenland.
Meanwhile, Meta and Apple go to war for the future of the internet. And Saudi Arabia unveils new plans for its hyper-futuristic NEOM megacity.
Let’s go!
Not yet subscribed to the full experience? Head to newworldsamehumans.com to sign up, and join 22,000 founders, technologists, marketers, policy-makers and more.
Part one of this featured essay on language, virtual realities, and our quest to be at home in the world.