Hi there, Thanks for being one of the first sign-ups to Future Beat, I really appreciate it. Now let’s get into the week’s top stories. Twin scandals at Facebook show we are still waging war on the first front of the Digital Revolution. <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/opinion/comment/2021/10/05/how-we-can-all-prevent-the-next-whatsapp-outage/">I wrote this week</a> that like the noxious fumes and servile rhetoric many of our ancestors inhaled in factories during the Industrial Revolution, our grandchildren will be scandalised to learn about the lives we led under the early <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/opinion/comment/could-google-and-facebook-become-the-world-s-new-colonialists-1.1049656">Big Tech regime</a>. Sound dramatic? It should. In more hopeful news: <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/uae/expo-2020/2021/09/30/expo-2020-dubai-live-watch-the-opening-ceremony/">Dubai Expo 2020 is here.</a> I walked the site on Tuesday - learning about a robot in Australia re-seeding the Great Barrier Reef, the timeless power of prana in shaping India and how the world’s happiest country (Finland) leverages well-being to innovate. My takeaway from Expo: don’t go asking WHAT Expo is, go and find out who. The people make the place. Be well Kelsey Warner Future Editor In brief: The global outage on Monday of all of the company’s platforms, including Whatsapp, demonstrated just how much of a role the company plays in our daily lives - despite having no oversight should its systems fail. Meanwhile, whistleblower and former employee<a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/us-news/2021/10/04/facebook-puts-profits-over-well-being-of-users-whistleblower-says/"> Frances Haugen</a> testified before US Congress that <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/2021/10/05/the-best-meme-reactions-to-whatsapp-facebook-and-instagram-going-down-as-twitter-steps-up/">Facebook</a> algorithms rewarded posts with high levels of user engagement, often resulting in the platform pushing harmful content to users. Quoted: "It is about Facebook choosing to grow at all costs, becoming an almost trillion-dollar company, by buying its profits with our safety." <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/us-news/2021/10/04/facebook-puts-profits-over-well-being-of-users-whistleblower-says/">Frances Haugen</a>, a former Facebook employee and whistleblower <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/future/">Why it matters:</a> As our tech landscape becomes more complex, we’re getting it wrong on the very basics: reliability and human dignity. Facebook says “sorry” <a href="https://twitter.com/Facebook/status/1445155265360416773?s=20">(literally)</a> while regulators and the public scratch their heads over consequences or alternatives. News You Can Use Make laws like an ancestor | <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/podcasts/business-extra/2021/10/06/meet-the-worlds-first-future-generations-commissioner-business-extra/">Listen to this Business Extra interview with the world's first Future Generations Commissioner.</a> Sophie Howe holds this title in Wales, where she is regularly making lawmakers sweat with this question: Does this decision compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs? Her projects - combatting loneliness for one - may surprise you. The case against NFTs | The rise of things to own in the digital world marks a new age of status anxiety. Futurist Patrick Noack asks, do you still want to buy? [LINK TK] Predicting the future: Signal or noise? Artificial intelligence can be <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/uae/2021/10/06/ai-outperforms-doctors-at-spotting-breast-cancer-say-researchers/">more effective than experienced doctors at identifying breast cancer</a> abnormalities in ultrasound images, research by New York University Abu Dhabi and a US medical centre has shown. This is a signal. AI's potential in diagnosis and predicting prognosis is proving out.
