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by Marco Trabucchi
Failures listed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology include the Titan submarine, lab-grown chickens and General Motors’ robotaxis
5′ read
The year 2023 is coming to an end and just in time, like every year, the list of the biggest technological failures of the year is published. The menu compiled by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the highest authorities in the field of technological innovation, is wide and varied: multimillion-dollar investments that have not borne fruit, tragedies that could have been avoided, devices with revolutionary Intentions, but very little functional, fake scientific discoveries and more. Here are the biggest disappointments of 2023.
titanium
The tragic parable of the submarine is at the top of the MIT ranking. And it couldn’t be otherwise, given the media coverage of the epilogue on June 22, 2023, when OceanGate’s Titan submarine imploded at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean en route to the wreckage of the Titanic. The aim of the mission, deemed unsafe from the start, was to lead the passengers – a British millionaire and a Pakistani tycoon with his son, as well as the pilot and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, all dead – to the wreck of the Titanic at a cost of 250,000 each Dollar. The Titan was intended to open a new season of underwater exploration, a radical project for a deep-sea submarine capable of carrying passengers to a depth of four thousand meters. Contrary to the claims of OceanGate’s founder, the submarine had no safety certification and was not at all capable of withstanding pressures of up to 400 bar at these depths.
Cruise robotaxi
The autonomous driving revolution seems far from over: too many difficulties and accidents. Tesla recently had to recall more than two million vehicles to make repairs to its Autopilot software after safety issues emerged. But the biggest turnaround came with Cruise, the GM division known for being the first to offer driverless taxi rides with a fleet of more than 400 cars. After several months of service in San Francisco, the California Department of Motor Vehicles ordered the service to be suspended because it posed a threat to public safety. A decision born after the recent accident involving an autonomous taxi. In this case, a car driven by a human driver hit a woman crossing the pedestrian crossing and was then struck by a cruise vehicle, crushing her. It was in no way possible to move the car. “Cruise vessels may not be able to respond safely and appropriately to accidents involving pedestrians,” the order states. After the California stop, Cruise continues to offer its robotaxi service in Houston and Austin, Texas, as well as Phoenix, Arizona, but it is inevitable that this will have consequences for a company that has been operating since its founding in 2018 has suffered total losses of more than $5 billion.
Humane Ai Pin
The New York Times called Ai Pin’s invention “Silicon Valley’s biggest and boldest bet on what comes after the smartphone.” Former Apple designers Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno are convinced of this and announced after $240 million in investments, that the wearable device with artificial intelligence will be available from March 2024 With a camera, a chip and audio sensors designed to reduce our dependence on smartphones. Ai Pin allows you to send messages, make phone calls and interact with artificial intelligence without using a screen, with a projection system that allows viewing and interacting with a holographic interface right in the palm of your hand. However, the cost is high ($699 for the device and requires a mandatory $24 monthly subscription to access a phone number and use cellular data) and usability issues, as some tech experts have noted, still don’t seem like a desirable alternative Display smartphones. At least for the foreseeable future.
The superconductor LK-99
A superconductor is a material that offers no electrical resistance at room temperature. If it existed, it would enable new types of batteries and powerful quantum computers, bringing nuclear fusion closer to reality. A true Holy Grail. When a team of South Korean researchers announced in July that they had created LK-99 with a video showing a piece of material floating on a magnet, the response was enthusiastic. After the alleged discovery, various groups of researchers and physicists in different parts of the world recreated LK-99 without achieving the promised superconductivity effects. Contaminants in the recipe may have misled Korean researchers — and, thanks to social media, all of us.
Solar geoengineering
According to some, solar geoengineering would be the solution to mitigating the effects of climate change. In this case we are talking about solar radiation management, i.e. the control of solar radiation by releasing sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere via hot air balloons. The effect would be a weakening of sunlight and thus a lowering of temperatures. In short, the process attempts to artificially recreate the consequences of a volcanic eruption that releases sulfur dioxide; When sulfur reaches the lower stratosphere, it transforms into sulfate aerosols, which reflect sunlight (the opposite of the greenhouse effect). Although some reports speak of SRM as a potentially effective technology to reduce the amount of solar radiation absorbed by the Earth by 1-2%, the environmental risks would be uncertain in several ways. Brussels says geoengineering poses an “unacceptable risk to people and the environment” as its long-term consequences are unknown.
Large-scale production of lab-grown meat
One of the biggest failures pointed out by MIT is its attempt to produce lab-grown meat on a large scale. Nothing can be said about the ethical and ecological implications; they represent a desirable goal, but economically sustainable production of large quantities would still be a long way off. MIT cites the failed example of Upside Foods, the startup based in Berkeley, California, which in 2022 inaugurated the world’s most advanced center for the production of synthetic meat using the latest generation bioreactors. Everything perfect. It’s a shame that a Wired investigation in July revealed that his animal cells were grown not in bioreactors, but in much smaller lab flasks with layers of cells that were manually harvested and pressed into chicken pieces. In other words, Upside, contrary to its claims, used an expensive approach that requires many hours of labor to produce a small amount of meat.
Increase in plastic
In conclusion, I would like to say that MIT is not about a new technology, but rather an invention that has profoundly changed our way of life. The problem of plastic disposal is taking on colossal proportions, and the failure to solve or at least contain this problem represents one of the greatest defeats of the century. Awareness of this global scourge is growing, and some argue that a common global treaty to combat it is necessary Plastic pollution is necessary. However, solving this problem proves to be extremely complex and reducing the production and use of plastics through the use of recycled materials and the development of new substitutes still appears to be an elusive goal. According to experts, the most effective way would be to avoid the production of plastic itself as much as possible. The dilemma is compounded by the fact that plastic is now ubiquitous, even invading areas such as electric cars, solar panels, wind turbines and even life-saving medicines.
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