Articulos
What will the cities of tomorrow be like? Back in the 90s, many scholars speculated about the ongoing digital revolution’s impact on cities, and the possibility of replacing physical space with virtual space, or atoms with bits. They fantasized about the dark, sexy image of disappearing urban spaces inhabited by individuals who would lead a […]
Ever since Joseph A. Schumpeter (1934) promulgated his theory of economic development, economists, policymakers and business managers have assumed that the dominant mode of innovation is a “producers’ model.” That is, it has been assumed that most important innovations would originate from producers and be supplied to consumers via goods that were for sale. This […]
Financial innovation—once an unquestioned positive for any economy—has been much less celebrated since the financial crisis that began in 2007 and the Great Recession that followed in its wake. Some leading economists, notably Paul Volcker (former Chairman of the Federal Reserve), Paul Krugman (Nobel prize-winning economist at Princeton and a New York Times columnist) and […]
Introduction There are different sources of open innovation. A classical one is knowledge spillovers, which arise when firms can capture knowledge or information “in the air”, as Marshall put it. Recently, there has been an upsurge in the so-called “open source” phenomenon whereby knowledge and information are distributed openly by their producers, in a context […]
This book, Innovation: Perspectives for the 21st Century, is the third in a series of annual publications by the BBVA Group. The motivation behind these publications is to publish expert knowledge on the key issues shaping the future course of the 21st century and relay this knowledge to society. To this end, we seek out […]
Interaction with animals has long been known to be emotionally beneficial to people. In recent years, the effects of animals on humans have been researched and proved scientifically. Friedmann investigated the one-year survival rate of patients who were discharged from a coronary-care unit and found that survival among those who kept pets was higher than among those who did […]
There is no doubt that climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. In the last 150 years the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has skyrocketed, particularly carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. We know that these gases accelerate climate change because they trap heat in the atmosphere, thus producing an increase in the earth’s average temperature. Professor Rubin explains in this article that environmental problems mostly require joint action to find an effective solution. Voluntary technological policy measures will not be sufficient to stabilize greenhouse gas levels. Sufficiently restrictive regulatory policies are also required to limit emissions and promote technological innovation. […]
There are 650 million people in the world with some sort of disability and this number increases as the population ages. Until now, many of them have lived their lives depending on others. However, biotechnology can play an extraordinary role in emancipating the disabled. This is what is demonstrated every day in the laboratories of MIT, where they have developed some of the world’s most sophisticated prosthetics. They have, however, gone a step further: they have also been able to improve the development of people with autistic disorders by using technology that helps to identify their problems, as well as aiding them in relating to the environment and people, and anticipating their crises. Here more than anywhere, innovation changes people’s lives. […]
Not to prolong your suspense, the correct answer to the question is the obvious one: causation runs both ways. But I want to persuade you that the causation running from technology to science is vastly more powerful than is generally realized. The reasoning is straightforward. A market economy generates powerful incentives to undertake certain kinds […]
Over its 25-year history, the MIT Media Lab has refined a unique research style that has resulted in some of the most original thinking of the digital revolution. The secret formula for this success–and for the Lab’s continued ability to “invent the future”–is a renegade research environment that not only allows, but encourages, researchers to […]