This is your regular dive into the intersections that matter in 4:36 minutes.
We had a great reaction to our last newsletter. Lots of interesting dialogue. Keep it coming and let us know what you think of what we’re writing about today!
To all our new subscribers, Intersections is published by Junction House - the home for today’s leading thinkers working across business, government, and technology. We explore the myriad ways in which these spheres overlap and impact society. If you’re interested in learning more about Junction House and how to join, subscribe to stay in the know.
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Tech x Society - Solar power is getting cheaper faster than anyone thought.
Economist Ramez Naam has consistently been one of the most optimistic voices about the price of solar. Over the past 10 years, he’s consistently been proven wrong - it’s getting far cheaper than he imagined. In this very detailed post, Naam lays out his case for why the price of solar energy could help the technology become ubiquitous soon. Even amidst rock bottom oil prices.
According to his review, the unsubsidized cost of electricity from solar has now become competitive with that of fossil fuels - decades ahead of even his forecasts. By comparing the drop in cost to Wright’s Law, a model frequently used to forecast the decline of tech costs, Naam lays out the case for a vastly cheaper future. In sunny parts of the world, the cost of buliding new solar projects could become routinely cheaper than operating already built fossil fuel plants by as early as late 2020s. A siginficant step toward the IEA’s Sustainable Development Scenario consistent with keeping global warming to 2°C or less.
Importantly, Naam points out that “solar isn’t a panacea.” We should neither assume this future will happen (regulatory, social, technical hurdles still exist) nor should we focus only on generation. The sun only shines half the day, if that. We’ll need to continue progress on cheap energy storage as well.
Also: Half of COVID tweets come from bots. The case for good online trolls. Twitter creates option to limit who replies - good for discussion or increasing silos? Apple whistleblower calls on EU to investigate voice assistants. Immunity passports are coming - helpful or invasive?
Government x Tech - Facebook’s GIPHY acquisition is under the radar of FTC, but shouldn’t be.
Last week, Facebook bought GIF platform GIPHY for $400m. The acquisition of this fun-loving GIF sharing platform may seem innocuous, but the acqusition may be about more than a way for users of the largest social media company to share GIFs. GIPHY is the second largest search engine on the planet behind Google.
GIPHY was built as a way to allow people to express themselves digitally using more than just words, but also body language and emotion. GIPHY was only beginning to monetize with opportunities for advertisers to sponser GIFs. If it had been further along this path, some suggest GIPHY’s price tag would have included an extra zero. While advertising is in the cards - with significant effort still to go - the real value for GIPHY’s new owner may be deeper insight into the emotions of its users and emerging trends. Not Facebook’s users, mind you, GIPHY’s users. GIPHY is not just heavily used on Facebook, but also on Twitter, Snapchat, Telegram, iMessage, TikTok, texts, and emails.
With GIPHY in its arsenal, Facebook now not only has deeper insights into users emotions and emerging trends to feed advertising and targeting algorithms, but can track that behavior across Twitter, Snapchat, texts, emails, and more. This has started sounding alarm bells in the tech community. While it is possible that Facebook doesn’t see individual data, a more serious look (as Senators Collins (R), Klobuchar (D), and Warren (D) have suggested) is likely warranted.
Also:AT&T ≠ 5G. Google lands a new DoD deal (no not JEDI).
Business x Society - Amidst a shift toward remote work, Microsoft takes a contrarian view.
Earlier this month, Jack Dorsey made headlines by announcing all Twitter staff are free to work remotely forever. Shopify followed soon after. Facebook then followed with its own announcement - although a pretty tepid one which is only revolutionary for its ability to get headlines, but an announcement nonetheless. Many are calling these the first dominoes of a new paradigm. Microsoft’s Satya Nadella is one tech exec who’s willing to be the domino that doesn’t fall.
“What I miss is when you walk into a physical meeting, you are talking to the person that is next to you, you’re able to connect with them for the two minutes before and after.” - Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO
In an expansive NY Times interview, Nadella covered his thoughts on working from home. Nadella’s key focus here is on the mental health of his employees. Productivity metrics are up across the board at Microsoft, but Nadella is hesitant to "overcelebrate.” While productivity is easy to measure, Nadella posits that we might be replacing one dogma for another, and one that’s more difficult to track - “What does burnout look like? What does mental health look like? What does that connectivity and the community building look like?…What’s the measure for that?” Another worry for Nadella is professional development. His concern is the difficulty to replicate mentoring and managing personnel virtually.
Nadella’s take on permanent working from home is particularly notable and perhaps admirable given the success the movement brings for Microsoft’s new Teams product. Between the Twitters and Microsofts of the world, it’s impossible to declare who’s right, but don’t expect WFH to sweep our working world like a wildfire just yet.
Also: Watch the first manned rocket launch from US soil this Wednesday (brought to you by SpaceX). We could mine the moon soon. Why aren’t we seeing massive insurance payouts right now?
The dinner table: We welcome discourse and feedback. The nature of the intersections we explore means friction and disagreement exist. The only way forward is through constructive conversation, and we want to facilitate that.
We’re happy to engage in a conversation, facilitate connections, or publish your opinions and work if that’s what you’d like. Our community doesn’t have soap boxes, only dinner tables. Simply reply to this email.
We had lots of great responses to our last email. Thanks to all for chipping in to the conversation!
Armeane from Washington, DC: On Apple/Google contact tracing, I hear that the public will have the option of opting in. I think they should also have the option of opting out, once they opt in. The public should have the option of changing its mind once it chooses to opt in, if for some reason or the other the individual becomes uncomfortable with this program. Without the opting out option, fewer people are likely to opt in. (see our issue on that here)
Alexis from Arlington, VA: I just saw the PE company trying to buy the “.org” domain registry has been blocked [see article here] by the organization that oversees all domain registers. I originally didn’t like seeing the “.org” domain privately owned, but what happens if it goes out of business? If ICANN is blocking the acqusition, I think they should have some contingency in place. (see our original post here)
Jocelyn from Boston, MA: I loved James’ take on smart cities in the last issue! I can’t get enough of the city - the food, culture, nightlife - and hope they respond well after lockdowns. There was this recent article in NPR [link here] that questions the future of cities. I don’t think cities will come back the way they existed before. They need to evolve with some of the smart tech you mentioned. I think that’s the way they’ll continue to thrive through this. I hope they do! (see the issue she’s referring to here)
What else we’re reading
You thought El Chapo was a big deal? Learn about Myanmar’s billion-dollar meth lab.
Just because there are no sports doesn’t mean we can’t root for a team - enter marble racing.
Unlikely historical events that happened at the same time.
We leave you with this: the Chesapeake Bay Bridge from @adam_brockett