Track 10. China's Emissions, Digital Twins, Spotify Is Social

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Bullet Train is your express route to the stories, products & concepts shaping our future. No short-term headlines, no fluff—just the innovations transforming the world and our place in it, curated by the team behind the Meco App.

Hey Bullet Train readers!

One thing’s for sure, a lot can happen in a week.

Following up on our most recent track — did you see cybersecurity company, Wiz, said nah to the $23B Google was offering to buy them out? IPO, here they come, and it’s never been a better time to be a cybersecurity company (unless your name is CrowdStrike). Let’s get into what else caught our attention this week…

It’s July 24^th . Today’s stops include:

• Did China’s greenhouse gas emissions just peak?❗️ 

• Digital twins are changing the Olympics — and maybe human health 🏊️

• No one wants Spotify to become more social 🎶 

And don’t miss our #offtherails segment — not so future-focused, just a bit of fun

Weekly coverage of stories shaping the future — brought to you in streamlined bullet points:

Did China’s greenhouse gas emissions just peak?

• What to know: recent climate data shows China’s greenhouse gas emissions might have reached their peak and started to plateau… and no one was expecting that

• Breaking years of tradition: a terrible tradition, no doubt, as global emissions have been on a sharp incline since the mid-1900s

• Why this time is different: there have been years when emissions declined but it was largely due to the influence of world wars, global recessions, and pandemics — for the first time climate analysts are seeing China’s emissions level off during ‘normal’ times

• What it means: as the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, the impact of this will be massive — as it will likely mean that global emissions see a plateau as well

• How we got here: China’s EV uptake is skyrocketing, in 2023 they installed more solar panels than the US ever has (in its history), their weekly wind and solar installation matches what Australia does in an entire year, and they’re investing in pumped-storage hydropower

• Double-edged sword: China is of course making very China-centric energy decisions — alongside this green spree they’re still heavily investing in coal plants to meet the nation’s energy demands as a manufacturing powerhouse

• A win’s a win: it’s worth highlighting this isn’t a decline in emissions, but for the first time we’re not seeing numbers rise — which could mean we’re actually on track for Paris Agreement targets

• Where our minds are going: perhaps it will all be too little too late or the data could shift, but it feels like we have some climate news the global community can be somewhat optimistic about… !

Digital twins are changing the Olympics — and maybe human health

• What to know: the Paris Olympics start on Friday and something called digital twin technology will be influencing everything from broadcasting to security and even athletic performance

• The concept of a digital twin: think of it like a souped-up Sims world that’s an exact replica of the real world, which is then used to simulate situations using real-time data

• Testing grounds: tons of industries already use this technology to model out physical objects to anticipate challenges and plan for success — every Olympic venue in Paris has a digital twin to help organizers plan everything from camera angles to crowd control

• Human performance: but now athletes (or their training teams) are creating avatars of themselves using digital twin technology to analyze their performance, refine their technique, and simulate competition to give them a better chance of winning

• Where this is going: we’ll have to see if digital twins get Olympians closer to gold, but the future of this technology gets interesting when applied to human health — as that’s where many see it going

• Personalized medicine: imagine having your own digital twin that medical professionals can run simulations on to determine how you might respond to surgery or what type of medication would best suit you

• Where our minds are going: we’re a ways off from everyone having their own medical digital twin — maybe that’s a good thing — but as AI advances and the demand for personalized medicine grows, we expect to hear the phrase “digital twin” a lot more

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A story that drummed up big emotions and bigger opinions for the team this week

No one wants Spotify to become more social

• What to know: Spotify just launched the ability to comment on podcasts — and it’s a sign of more moves towards a social app

• Sneakily social: Spotify has never claimed to have social media intentions, but recent features like polls, Q&As, a TikTok-esque discover page, and now podcast comments suggest it’s going that way

• How we got here: we all watched The Social Network — every app is competing for your time, and every app is mimicking features that work well to drive engagement, and this is no different

• What’s next: some worry comments will soon be enabled for musician pages and songs — which Spotify neither confirms nor denies

• How it changes our listening: arguably, the more social an app is, the more we overthink how we act on it — and IMHO, there’s a bit of sadness to having that social pressure associated with music listening

• Consider Wrapped: case in point, if you post your Wrapped every December, there’s a chance you think more carefully about what you press play on throughout the year (we all want to come off just a little bit cooler, you know?)

• Our take: to put it plainly, someone on our team said, “I can’t think of anything worse than Spotify becoming more social” — and that sums up our position on it

A bit of fun to round out your ride

• Scientists have just discovered moon caves that humans could one day live in… I’m not sure if its just my claustrophobia or the fact that they’re called “lunar pits”, but I’m going to have to pass on that one 🌚 

• Really interesting read here on how Sam Reich took over the failing CollegeHumor business and turned it into uber-successful streaming platform, Dropout, in just 4 years — and once you’re done reading, I fear you must watch Very Important People’s Tommy Shriggly episode

• Aspect is a new social media app where all of your followers and other users you interact with… are AI bots… not sure who is trolling who here

• Sam Altman was a major backer behind a 3-year study looking at basic income and its impact on human health and wellbeing — the results are finally out and here’s what they found

Here’s what Bullet Train readers had to say about last week’s topics:

Would you leave Instagram for Cara based on its anti-AI stance? 

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ For sure! (47%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 No way (53%)

Do you think VR headsets will eventually become part of our daily lives? 

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Yes! This is the future (39%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 I don't buy the hype (61%)

Please mind the gap as you get off the train ✌️