

Our things define us.
What we buy, what we use, what we keep and throw away, what we waste, and what we save: the stuff that surrounds us and flows through our lives is a key indicator of the kinds of lives we're living. To be an affluent twenty-first-century person is to float on a sea of material objects - each with its own history and future.
They may be hidden from our eyes, but in practical global terms, those histories and futures tend to be the most important aspects of the stuff we own.
image from sarah rich

You might remember that a year ago Marc Owens designed the Avatar Machine, a system which replicates the aesthetics and visuals of third person gaming, allowing the user to view themselves as a virtual character in real space via a...

Oh man. Google Insights for Search is good fun. I’m supposed to spend this week finishing a number of writing projects. But I spent almost all today running different searches and being basically stunned at how much data’s available through...

By Sharon Hoyer There probably isn’t a single issue of sustainability and health that consistently strikes as passionate a chord as the production, distribution and preparation of food. It makes sense—what we take into our bodies is a very tangible...

Since World War II, Midwestern farmers have been encouraged to use machinery, chemicals and government policies to ramp up crop and livestock production to feed the growing population and economy. But since then, many farmers have felt the harmful...

By Glenn Fleishman The unsightly plastic warts on our walls are sucking down hundreds of gigawatts of power globally each year. It’s time to put a stop to that needless energy drain by replacing dumb bricks with smart hubs...

Time's insights flow in both directions: anticipating the future can help us remove contemporary blinders to understand the past in new ways, and delving into the past can give us fresh perspectives on what might be possible in the future...

By Paul Mackay Editor's Note: We encourage "Reader Reports" -- submissions from members of Worldchanging's global audience who volunteer to write up their notes from conferences, workshops and other worldchanging happenings they participate in. If you'd like to contribute...

Columbia Professor Dickson Despommier has generated a fair amount of attention with his concept for "vertical farms," stacked, self-contained urban biosystems that would -- theoretically -- supply fresh produce for city residents year round. The New York Times showcased...

A small band of activists and scientists believe that farming done the right way can remove carbon from the atmosphere. by Jay Walljasper On an unseasonably warm and sunny winter morning—the kind that lulls you into thinking global climate change...

By Hesseltje S. van Goor A recent development on Facebook has shown that social networking may be more powerful than simply a vehicle for gossip between friends, co-workers and ex-significant others. When Coca-Cola executives responded to a Facebook-based call...
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