In the last 300 years, technology has increased productivity exponentially. In 2020, one hour of work produced 24 times more goods and services than in 1870. The reason is innovation: converting knowledge into solutions through technology. As economist Paul Romer says, the dark matter of growth is ideas.In OECD countries, growth –measured in GDP per capita– was 4% annually from 1950 to 1973, 2% from 1976 to 2007, and 1% from 2010 to 2021. This slowdown may be due to a lack of disruptive and innovative ideas for various reasons: the loss of acceleration in technological growth produced by World War II, the withdrawal of the private sector from basic science, the aging of the scientific workforce, the transformation into a more comfortable and risk-averse society…Juan Antonio Zufiria, former director of IBM, has written an excellent report on the issue, on which this article is based. Zufiria, like Daniel Susskind, is optimistic and believes that it is possible to recover the pace of growth with innovation and technology. Both Zufiria and Susskind believe that technological change must be directed and prioritized. The biggest drawback to achieving this is the decoupling of capital and labor incomes: lower growth in labor incomes in developed nations – the EU and the USA – has led to increased inequality, measured by the Gini index. It is in these societies that innovation and technology are concentrated, and internal inequality is a brake on the improvement of their productivity. There is a relationship between efficiency and inequality.In the 20th century, production was linked to a workforce. When General Motors had a stock market capitalization of $300,000M, it had 300,000 employees. Today, Google or Microsoft, with double the capitalization, have 30,000. The workforce has lost power entrepreneurially and only maintains it as "quality", with few highly qualified workers. The battle between capital and labor that the Industrial Revolution brought – and that Marxism theorized based on Hegel's principle of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis – does not exist today: it is beginning to be testimonial, except in public service. At the same time, the ability of companies to outsource activities has contributed to increasing the decoupling between labor and capital.The equality between poor and rich countries has increased thanks to globalization. Absolute equality reduces economic efficiency, but inequality above a Gini index of 0.4-0.5 also does, and this is what will end up happening within developed countries if the current trend is not corrected. Ten people currently concentrate 0.52% of world wealth.Development occurs in the world, and the world has limited resources. Economic growth is entropic, meaning it reduces the quality of energy in a way that the second law of thermodynamics makes irreversible: burning wood and running train machinery makes it impossible to return to the origin and recover the burnt wood. Fundamentally, this reality can be synthesized into the warming of the world and the progressive destruction of its reserves.

A few years ago, personal shoppers, people who act as assistants for shopping, became fashionable. Now there is a Catalan start-up that has taken a step further. Do you need a person to accompany you shopping, or is it no longer necessary with artificial intelligence (AI) technology? The system exists and has already been launched experimentally in some shopping centers, and the first results are quite promising, if we are to believe the feedback from those who have used it.

The conglomerate of visions and economic interests that drives Trumpism is very diverse. Today the politically dominant line is the one that tunes most directly with Trump's personality and which I venture to call retro. It is the one that places tariff policy at the center, the one that – fostered by the abundance of natural gas in the US – bets on the internal combustion engine and on an industrial policy of gas and oil, the one that disparages science and wants to erode the independence of public research funders – the NSF and the NIH – while financially strangling them, the one that denies climate change and is skeptical of vaccines. Even the spirit of the program to return to the Moon has an air of the past. If in our days we can think of obtaining significant scientific and economic returns from exploring the Solar System, it is because we have sufficiently advanced robotic technology. The justification for trying to have humans do what machines can do better can only be that of the sporting spirit (winning competitions), that of preparing for space tourism, or what I believe to be the case: that of following the tradition that to occupy territories and mark borders, humans are needed planting flags.

Japan is moving towards a tightening of controls in strategic technological sectors, a direction that is beginning to generate concern in the business community. Within the framework of the new economic security law and in a context of geopolitical rivalry with Beijing, Tokyo has strengthened mechanisms to protect critical infrastructure and data, especially in areas such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence, or batteries. Although the legal framework does not establish explicit restrictions on international recruitment, various sectors warn that the increase in regulatory complexity and the introduction of stricter security criteria could deter the arrival of foreign talent in areas crucial for the country's growth.

While Artemis II was circumnavigating the Moon in strict live broadcast, bombs fell and rained miserably on Beirut, the US president announced the liquidation of an entire civilization in a flash and the IMF warned us to prepare for the worst. While we were telekinetically watching the Moon, the permanent global war accelerated its homicidal and lunatic impulses on Earth. And this, when freely looking at the Moon is a universal right all over the world that, for now, no one has managed to prohibit or commercialize. Yet. It won't be for contradictions or antagonisms, nor because one thing doesn't deny the other –or does it– nor because they steal our attention every day, the most profitable contemporary business, while they steal our wallet every night. Improbable balance, if indispensable scientific knowledge excites me with every advance, the geopolitical lunar imperial race terrifies me with every step. Words of Montaigne: "Anaximenes wrote to Pythagoras: how can I occupy my time solving the secret of the stars, if I always have slavery and death before me?".To that film titled Don’t look up –don’t look up and don’t become aware, in the era of the anthropocene, of how we are destroying the planet–, we could add Don’t look down –avoid always looking at the devastating social consequences of capitalism in its rogue, warlike, authoritarian, and sociopathic phase–. Even, they also subtly order us never to look to the side –not to worry if the neighbor is about to be evicted, if their mental health is faltering, or if loneliness is consuming them–. That is to say, almost generally, the systemic systematic order is that, between the navel and the spaceship, we look nowhere. And that we only look at the screen, where the algorithm –which already knows you better than you do– will make you happy with addictive dopamine. Without giving up any battlefield, those we choose and those we don’t, I can’t help but say this week that is ending: I wish libraries were filled more than TikTok. I wish. And if they say, as a metaphor, that Yuri Gagarin blurted out "I don't see any God up here", one wonders, down here, where the hell is God in Gaza. Nowhere?Journey to the Center of the Earth, it turns out that the urge to escape to conquer the Moon clumsily connects, in a revived geopolitical space race, with the real repeat offenders. The steppe wolves of the free market and the pimps of power – so often Martian, so often alien –. The hidden face of the Earth has nothing hidden about it: it would be not what is not seen, but what we do not want to look at. What we see every day and refuse to accept. An Essay on Blindness, Saramago would say. Artemis II will cost 93 billion dollars. 3.8% of a runaway global military budget. It is the same amount with which the UN has estimated the cost of eradicating hunger completely from the face of the Earth – not from the Moon –. Meanwhile, in space, we are doing the same as on Earth: polluting it into an infinite landfill. It is officially estimated that more than 10,000 tons of debris and scrap metal are already orbiting the Earth. A poem –A Farewell to the Astronauts– by Hans Magnus Enzensberger delves into the wound: "Only on planets / where no orange trees grow / nor walnuts nor vines / do I give little value. [...] Poor in imagination and rather conservative / I stick to older / promises: / the earth to the earth / and the dust to the dust".Neither technophile nor technophobic nor technoneutral nor technofascist, many years ago I read a small gem of sublunary terrestrial ethics called People Who Don't Want to Travel to Mars (Catarata, 2004). It was written by the good Jorge Riechmann, a philosopher, professor, and committed citizen. Today Jorge is facing prison sentences, in two trials scheduled for May in Madrid, for protesting, peacefully and scientifically, against inaction in the face of the climate emergency. Things that happen on Earth and not on the Moon, because surely there are other worlds, but I would say they are all here. In that book, which I revisit often, I read a phrase by Stanisław Jerzy Lec: "Don't try to reach the Moon. It should still last us a billion years." It is quite likely that nihilistic technofantasy makes us believe in other planets because we no longer believe in this one, and that it makes us believe in technological transhumanism because we no longer give a damn about the ambiguous and ambivalent human condition. Completely abandoning terrestrial exploration – let's say – of social justice, ecosocial transition, political democracy, or freedom among equals. Close to the ground, between the right to look at the Moon and the duty to preserve the Earth, we must radically resolve that one thing is the imperial colonization of space under the brutal law of the far west and another, very different and antagonistic, the humble wisdom of Carl Sagan. Long ago, about this pale blue dot where we still live, he wrote this, regarding the face – neither hidden nor dark – of the Earth:«Look again at this spot. It is here, it is our home, it is us. In it all of those whom you love, all of those whom you know, all of those of whom you have ever heard, every human being who ever lived, lived out its life. The sum of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and gatherer, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor or explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar”, every “supreme leader”, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a speck of dust suspended in a sunbeam.Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood shed by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties committed by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel upon the hardly distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill each other, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturing, our imagined self-importance, the illusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this pale dot. Our home. That pale dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there—on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The universe is a very big place in a very big cosmic arena. Our posturing, our imagined self-importance, the illusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this pale dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there—on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The universe is a very big place in a very big cosmic arena. Our posturing, our imagined self-importance, the illusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this pale dot.Our planet is a lonely point in the great expanse of cosmic darkness. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from anywhere else to save us from ourselves. Earth is the only world known for now to harbor life. There is no other place, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle down, not yet. One way or another, for now, Earth is the place where we must make our stand. Astronomy has been said to be an experience of humility and character building. Perhaps there is no better demonstration of the folly of human prejudices than this distant image of our tiny world. For me, it underscores our responsibility to treat each other more kindly, and to preserve this pale blue dot, the only home we have ever known. Amen.

This week Anthropic has presented an AI that it has decided not to sell because it considers it too dangerous; Meta has launched the first closed model in its history and has abandoned the commitment to open source that it had preached as a moral obligation, and OpenAI is preparing GPT-6 while a journalistic report uncovers very questionable practices by the director. All three together paint the portrait of an industry in a race without brakes, incapable of self-governance or not interested in doing so.

When you open the mobile app to order a taxi, when you pay by card, or when you watch a series on Netflix, these applications do not work in isolation. Behind them is an invisible network of digital infrastructures: APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). They are the digital backroom that makes the mobile ecosystem work, and without them, 80% of current applications would stop working.

It all began with the solidarity and involvement of some young people during the covid-19 pandemic, in 2020. They asked people to donate tablets to recondition them so that the elderly people in hospitals or residences could communicate with their families, who could not visit them due to mobility restrictions. In fact, more than one person was able to say goodbye to their family thanks to these devices.

Beth Noveck (New Jersey, USA, 1971) makes it clear in each of her answers that she refuses to fall into defeatism. She offers solutions, gives examples of success, and argues that AI can help improve the functioning of institutions. And she knows what she's talking about, not only because she is an expert in how to use technology to make governments more open, but because she knows institutions from the inside: she was the first Chief Technology Officer of the United States during the administration of Barack Obama. She visits Barcelona to sponsor the presentation of the Pompeu Fabra University's 2026-2037 Strategy.

I had a really messed up dream last night. I dreamt there were some puppies, and one of them had been enhanced with artificial intelligence. I was terrified and kept thinking: how did we get to this point?

It has been ten years since a phenomenon that revolutionized the streets and phones of thousands of people around the world. The Pokémon Go app, an augmented reality game in which players have to go outside and search for creatures with their mobile camera, became a huge success. But the mobile cameras of users have served the game's creator, the company Niantic, to achieve a more ambitious goal. It has used the photos, without players knowing, to create a three-dimensional map of the world that autonomous robots will now use to move through the streets, especially when delivering packages and orders.

Working in digital marketing, and running my own company, often makes it difficult to separate work from family. When I was little, I helped prepare things in my grandmother's shop, and this family business was a place where everyone could contribute, even a child, no matter how small.

Did you know that algorithms decide what ads we see on social media? It might seem insignificant, but it's not. "If you're a young person about to decide on a university degree, it's very likely that if you're a guy, social media will show you degrees in engineering and computer science, and if you're a girl, degrees in education, nursing, and caregiving," says Liliana Arroyo Moliner, PhD in sociology and director of the Chair for Socially Responsible Digital Innovation. Milagros Sainz, a researcher and professor at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), explains that the popular Google Maps app "uses a man's pace to calculate walking distances, which often makes women or people with mobility issues take longer." There's also discrimination when looking for work, in healthcare, and with the algorithms used by banks to decide whether or not to grant a loan, because the mathematical models of these algorithms are applied in very different fields, and many decisions are made taking them into account.

The Mobile World Congress (MWC) once again demonstrated its powerful appeal. In its 20th edition, now an event that generates millions for the city (the organizers say over 580 million), it managed to attract some 105,000 attendees, despite the outbreak of war in the Middle East on the opening weekend, which hampered the arrival of some. Some of the leading companies at this congress, such as Huawei, LG, Samsung, and SK Telekom, are Asian.

Startups in the life sciences and healthcare sector in Catalonia, known as BioRegió, are once again positioning themselves as one of the cornerstones of the Catalan economy. Last year, with a record €517 million in investment in start-ups7% above the 2022 peak, and an upward trend in all system indicators that consolidates Catalonia as one of the epicenters of the pharmaceutical industry in Europe.

Arnau Pérez de Tudela Guasch is from Valls and runs a communications agency in Altafulla. A few years ago, Gerard Cañellas Prades, from Riera de Gaià, joined the agency. They both always said they had to do something to bring together everything in the world of calçots (where to make them, where to buy them, where to find the sauce...) and one day they had a lightbulb moment. Inspired by the hit app where people noted where to make hearty breakfastsThe CalçotApp has arrived.

On February 4th and 5th, the Montjuïc Congress Palace will once again host EdTech Congress Barcelona, ​​which this year takes a significant leap forward. The event, promoted by Fira de Barcelona and the EduTech Cluster, reinforces its role as an essential meeting point thanks to a new alliance with Integrated Systems Europe (ISE), the leading international authority in the audiovisual sector. Both events will coincide, creating a unique ecosystem where technology, innovation, and education converge.

It works like Google Maps. You open the app and a map appears that allows you to identify "target-rich" environments. When the user taps on one of the marked points, information about the person appears: name, photo, date of birth, and a special number assigned by the government.

Amazon has announced a new wave of layoffs that will affect 16,000 people worldwide, none of them in Spain. This is the second major restructuring by the e-commerce and cloud computing giant in the last three months, following the one in January. will announce the departure of 18,000 peopleOf these, 791 were in the corporate offices in Barcelona. The company attributes this second wave to the restructuring process following the era of overhiring resulting from the pandemic.

"Catalonia plays in the big leagues." This is how Jaume Baró, Secretary of Business and CEO of Acció, explained the situation of the Catalan audiovisual sector in the world during the presentation of the study on this industry, which the Generalitat (Catalan government) prepares annually as a prelude to the ISE audiovisual trade fair, the most important in Europe for this sector, which celebrates its sixth anniversary this year in the Catalan capital. The event will take place from February 3 to 6 at the Gran Via venue of Fira de Barcelona, ​​under the slogan Push Beyond ("go further").