What’s Possible: 3rd December, 2021

We hope you enjoy this week's hand-picked selection of important and interesting stories from the frontiers of tech.

$106M worth of metaverse land sold last week!

Between Nov. 22 and Nov. 28, activity was “booming” on The Sandbox, Decentraland, CryptoVoxels and Somnium Space with a combined $105.8 million worth of trading volume among them from more than 6,000 traders. (read)

Headline

Today, a roadmap released by the Australian Space Agency outlines its priorities for Earth observation. It lists national bushfire fuel load monitoring as a priority “mission purpose” – recognising the need for satellites built specifically to watch Australia’s fire conditions from space. (read)

Social capital is becoming economic capital

Social tokens are part of a broader and fundamentally positive phenomenon: everyone is becoming an investor. More and more of the world is becoming financialized, allowing people to invest not just in companies or government bonds but also in art, collectibles, and celebrities. (read)

A brain fitbit that can spot Alzheimer’s with up to 94% accuracy

Altoida raising new financing for augmented reality cognitive assessment platform that dramatically improves early detection of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. (read)

DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) represent the next step forward in the labor movement.

How can we harness the power of collective action moving forward to ensure labor’s voice is represented, while minimizing the centralized structures that can lead to a perversion of values? (thread)

Li Jin @ljin18

New developments in decentralized coordination hold promise for a renewed pro-labor movement. DAOs—internet communities with shared ownership—can function akin to unions, representing the collective interest of their members to drive beneficial policies & mechanisms.

4:28 PM ∙ Nov 28, 2021284Likes29Retweets

Welcome to the (Synthetic) Meatspace

Reactor-grown nuggets, human-edited genetic code, and new mRNA technologies could change our relationship to life itself. (read)

Bessemer: Is Supply Chain technology the next FinTech?

We are at a tipping point in supply chain digitisation, enabling a new wave of data infrastructure, workflow automation, and collaboration platforms. (read)

China's VC giants take aim at climate tech

Venture capital fundraising in China is cooling off as investors weigh how to navigate the country's new regulatory regime. One strategy that's taking shape: VC firms are aligning themselves with Beijing's strategic goals by planning big bets on climate-friendly industries. (read)

Portfolio ⇨ Phil Heltewig, CEO of conversational AI platform Cognigy, on the future of customer service automation

Phil Heltewig, co-founder and CEO of Cognigy, the low-code conversational AI platform for managing customer service bots, discusses how new AI technologies are improving the support experience. (listen)

Interesting adjacencies

• Molecule is on a mission to build an OpenSea-like marketplace for biotech IP. (thread)
• Reminder: Discord refused a $12b buyout from Microsoft in April and is now powering web3. (thread)
• Messari’s crypto theses for 2022 just dropped. (thread)

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