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FutureSource

Jul 13, 2017

Gene-Editing in China: Beneficial Science or Emerging Military Threat?

By Brent M. Eastwood

A gene-editing technology that has already shown tremendous medical breakthroughs has some wondering if cancer and HIV can be defeated by genetic engineering. But despite the optimistic headlines, the technique known as CRISPR is also becoming an emerging international security threat. CRISPR could someday enable U.S. adversaries to genetically-engineer bioweapons or even create “super soldiers” […]

FutureSource

Jul 7, 2017

The UK: In the Midst of a Train Crash

By Ilana Bet-El

Not even the most United Kingdom-sceptic European could have imagined that just a year after the Brexit referendum Britain would appear to be teetering on the brink of disorder. Indeed, over the past year the group behind this scenario planning / train crash project analysed the various possibilities of danger to both the British state […]

Europe & Eurasia European Union
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FutureSource

Jul 6, 2017

In Search of Truth: From Human Learning to Machine Learning

By Conrad Tucker

Truth: What is it? Will societies ever come to a consensus on how to define it? If we cannot, how can we ever design machines that learn from it? A very important concept in the field of machine learning is a concept of “ground truth”. The Oxford Dictionary defines ground truth to be “A fundamental […]

FutureSource

Jul 5, 2017

Can Technology Fight Corruption in Violence-prone States?

By Brent M. Eastwood

The scourge of global corruption has been well documented, but less is known about how rampant graft affects international security. Democratic capacity-building efforts, an important tool in fighting insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, have been hobbled by corruption for over a decade. States with violent extremist groups are often made even more unstable when the […]

FutureSource

Jun 28, 2017

Mapping the Trajectory of Western Liberalism

By Mike Rossi

In a fireside chat hosted by the Atlantic Council’s Foresight, Strategy, and Risks Initiative on June 14, Financial Times columnist and commentator Edward Luce discussed the many challenges facing liberal democracies and the impact these challenges have on Western hegemony and the state of the liberal international order at large.

Europe & Eurasia

FutureSource

Jun 23, 2017

Cognitive Systems and the Policy Challenges of the Twenty-First Century

By Conrad Tucker

This blog is the first in a series exploring the implications of different policies on the development and deployment of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and cognitive systems. The term “cognition” is defined as “of, relating to, being, or involving conscious intellectual activity”.1 Our world is surrounded by cognitive organisms that range in complexity from an […]

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FutureSource

Jun 7, 2017

The 2017 UK General Election and the Future of US-UK Relations

By Claire Yorke

On June 8, the United Kingdom will vote in its second general election in just over two years. The last election in May 2015 resulted in a Conservative government, and led to the June 2016 national referendum on Britain’s membership in the European Union. Following the result in favor of Brexit, Prime Minister David Cameron—the leader […]

United Kingdom United States and Canada

FutureSource

Jun 7, 2017

British Election: Can Data Science See Through the Fog of Terror Attacks?

By Brent M. Eastwood

Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, the front-runners in the British general election, have endured a volatile race punctuated by two terror attacks that have rocked Britain. With campaigning suspended twice after each incident and British pollsters’ failure to predict Brexit, FutureSource queried a data science firm to get its reading […]

United Kingdom

FutureSource

Jun 6, 2017

The UK and EU Must Moderate Brexit and the US Must Get Smart About What is Unfolding

By Ilana Bet-El

To use an old Thatcherite adage, the United States, United Kingdom and European Union are all living in cloud cuckoo land, seemingly vastly underestimating the medium- to long-term effects of Brexit: a dramatically weakened UK, an undermined EU, and fragmented transatlantic relations. Put another way: the transatlantic rift that has clearly already opened over NATO […]

Europe & Eurasia European Union

FutureSource

May 17, 2017

Data Firms React to Iranian Presidential Showdown

By Brent M. Eastwood

This blog post is part of a series analyzing the newest forms of data forecasting. The Iranian presidential election has leapt into the headlines as two candidates feverishly make their final arguments to voters. President Hassan Rouhani and conservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi have burst into the lead after two other hopefuls dropped out of the […]

Elections Iran