Beyond Infinity

A leaked database known as the Overseas Key Individual Database suggests China is collecting vast amounts of information on millions of prominent people around the world. The leak's source, Shenzhen's Zhenhua Data, stands accused of spreading disinformation and promoting conflict.

Piers talks with digital marketer Michael Simonetti about the Australian Competition and Consumer Commissions's campaign to introduce revenue sharing between local news originators and Facebook and Google. Michael thinks regulators are wasting their time trying to change the media landscape of the digital age.

Piers talks with Robert Millar, general surgeon and transplant specialist at Royal Melbourne Hospital and an original signatory of the Covid Doctors Network's open letter to the Victorian Government, which expressed serious concern with its handling of the covid pandemic. The speed and accuracy of covid testing is discussed, along with the possibility of a nano cellular microscopy test with reliable results in under a minute. Robert thinks covid eradication in Victoria is an unrealistic goal and stresses we need better contact tracing to lockdown specific areas of outbreak, rather than an economically devastating blanket shutdown for everyone. He urges better communication from government and public debate free from fear. Read the open letter to Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews here: https://www.coviddoctorsnetwork.com

Piers talks with Michael Simonetti, the founder and CEO of digital agency Andmine, about what businesses can do to survive Melbourne's severe economic shutdown. Michael says the covid pandemic has accelerated the move to digital by five years and if you're not already doing it, you need to hurry up. He advises people to work out what events they can automate and make digital in their business and says the ones who succeed are the ones who figure this out. Irreversible trends which don't end when the pandemic is over.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is pressuring Google and Facebook to support locally produced news by agreeing to pay for material that appears on their platforms. The regulator believes there is a significant power imbalance between the American tech giants and news originators. But Google and Facebook disagree. Google is warning users its popular services will be diminished, while Facebook says it will remove all news from its Australian platform. Piers and John examine the utterly disrupted media landscape of the digital age and what's at stake.

On 31st August 2020, a group of thirteen senior Melbourne doctors signed an open letter to Victorian Premier Dan Andrews expressing deep concern with the government's handling of the corona virus pandemic. Five days later, 491 other medical practitioners, mainly from Melbourne, had added their signatures to the letter, which describes the government policy of stage 4 lockdown as “ill-focussed, heavy-handed and unjustifiable”. It calls for a more pragmatic, common sense approach. We talk with Geoff Wells, an honorary consultant urologist at Melbourne’s Box Hill Hospital, who organised the letter. Geoff reckons the effects of prolonged isolation - depression, neglected pre-existing illnesses, increased rates of suicide and devastating financial hardship, could be worse than the corona virus itself. (Correction: Geoff Wells of The Covid Doctors Network advises that “based on overseas studies, if you’re healthy and under 60 you have about a 1 in 150,000 chance of dying if you get Covid”. In the interview, Geof

A look back over 5 years of beyondinfinity.com.au coverage of artificial intelligence. While there are legitimate fears about misuse and abuse of the technology, there are also benefits for all humanity. This compilation includes: discussion of inceptionism and the strange art produced by artificial neural networks; quantum computing and Kurzweil's Singularity; how AI is harnessed for mass surveillance by authoritarian states; how AI "joins the dots" between scientific research papers, making connections humans have missed.

NASA's Europa Clipper mission, set to launch to Jupiter in 2024, will carry 352kg of science instruments to study the moon Europa. Under its icy surface, it's believed to have a salt water ocean containing 2-3 times all the liquid water of Earth. The rocky ocean floor could have hydrothermal vents teeming with life. Europa Clipper will use radar to peer down 30km through the ice, while other instruments 'taste' particles erupting from surface plumes. It's the first mission dedicated to learning more about this enigmatic world - long held to be one of the best places to find extraterrestrial life in our solar system.

Our resident techie John Young finally gets his hands on the top of the range Oppo smart phone. He's impressed by its large and beautiful OLED screen, underscreen fingerprint scanner, unobtrusive face unlock, 48MP Sony wide angle camera and super-fast charging. In fact, John reckons it's the best phone on the market. At the moment.

Ancestry.com, a global network with 20 billion family history records and the largest seller of home DNA testing kits, with an extensive database of DNA information, has been sold to Blackstone, one of the world's biggest private equity investment firms. But there are lingering questions over the security of private genetic data and exactly what Blackstone plans to do with the company's assets.

The world's most visionary and ambitious entrepreneur continues to exceed expectations, with the recent successful launch of astronauts to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX's state-of-the-art Crew Dragon capsule and Tesla's share price up 500%. We review the past 5 years as reported on the Beyond Infinity science and technology radio show. Included is an early Musk 10-year master plan; Mars colony ambitions; Starlink broadband internet from orbit; boring under LA's traffic; recycling rockets; building the world's biggest battery in South Australia and pitching his Hyperloop transit system for Australia's East Coast.

Beyond Infinity's resident tech head John Young gives us the lowdown on Google's mesh router system. It's solved his wifi coverage issues and allows voice control throughout his house, garden and shed. He says while the Nest isn't cheap, it's an integral part of his home office set up.

Despite serious challenges on Earth, NASA has succeeded in launching the most sophisticated rover ever sent to Mars. We look at the mission's heritage of past landers, its design, radical landing system and amazing suite of new instruments. Its sample caching tools will gather and store Martian material for eventual return to Earth, paving the way for people to set foot on the Red Planet.

Piers chats with technology expert Michael Simonetti about Australia's COVIDSafe contact tracing app. How does it compare with overseas equivalents? Why has it only garnered limited public support? And why, after the initial hype, have authorities gone quiet about it? Michael reckons that perhaps they're getting the data they want from other, far more useful sources... (Part 1 of a 2 part interview)

Dr. Ian Storey, lecturer at Australia's Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, outlines the evolution of battery technology over the past 250 years. He describes how modern lithium ion batteries are getting more efficient and how solid state batteries offer an exciting future of long-range electric cars, better smart phones and pacemakers that never need changing.

We marvel at the extraordinary success of Tesla in becoming the world's most valuable car company. Meanwhile, driven by the environmental imperative of clean energy, wind and solar renewable technologies are dramatically improving. Part 1 of a 2 part interview with RMIT's Dr. Ian Storey.

Dr Ian Storey, lecturer in information systems at RMIT, ties together Newton's work on mathematical physics, forces and acceleration, James Clerk Maxwell's Four Laws which approximated the fundamental theory of quantum electrodynamics and Einstein's special relativity.

With America reeling from violent social unrest and the Administration's disastrous response to coronavirus, the Presidential election on Tuesday November 3 is arguably the most important in history. Here we look back over our coverage of the last 4 years - from the scientific backlash which followed soon after Trump's election in 2016, Russia's targeting of US democracy via hacking and social media, rejection of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, through to the Doomsday Clock ticking closer to midnight and breaches of security protocols at the White House.

John's been hunting for a new phone to replace his aging Pixel 2. He reckons mid-range makers are increasingly competitive with premium models and is attracted by the new high spec offering from Chinese brand Oppo. Its battery with super-fast charging, in-screen fingerprint unlock, bright amoled screen and advanced cameras compare well against the latest Samsung and Google devices. For an Oppo, it aint cheap, but is worth considering with a long list of goodies.

After presidential tweet “When the looting starts, the shooting starts” was deemed to violate Twitter Rules by glorifying violence, the White House issued an Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship which could have global ramifications and is likely to be challenged in the courts. Though he has well over 80 million followers and has fired off tens of thousands of tweets, President Trump continues to complain about anti-conservative bias on the platform.