Columns for Technology Review magazine.

These essays appear regularly in each issue (more or less monthly) beginning January 2001, and focus on themes that deserve more science and engineering, and especially how embedded intelligence can make a difference in real life.

In the index below, each article includes my unedited version (in HTML and printable PDF), as well as links to the online TR issue. Each article also includes illustrations and pointers to relevant material (little of which appears in print due to space constraints).

Please send me any questions, comments or corrections.

Looking beyond “things that think” to things that matter. Networked philanthropy to bootstrap online schools in rural Cambodia. (in TR as: Khmer kids link to the future) Bodies online and future health networks. How basic human connections still keep us healthier than drugs, surgery, or implants. Pets on the net. Bridging the species gap between people and their non-human friends. The piano was the internet of the 19th century. And it still has some qualities today's internet can aspire to. What's the post-internet future of language? Will the net spread English as a lingua franca, and lead to the phaseout of other languages? Is a smarter home really in your future? It should be. The U.S. is aching for green architecture. The planet's ecosystem needs a nervous system. Is it any wonder why we are growing so out of touch with the natural world around us? Has your favorite scientist been in the lab too long? Great journeys inspire greater scientific adventures. Why do so few engineers get involved in developing regions when there are such aching needs for their expertise?