From chickens with QR codes to AI systems that farm pigs, the essay collection Blockchain Chicken Farm explains and interrogates how technology and agriculture intertwine in rural China. On the surface, coder and writer Xiaowei Wang’s fascinating compilation charts how rural locations—contrary to stereotypes—have become sites of rapid technological innovation. More broadly, Wang dissects the ideologies behind tech companies that are shaping the world today, the …
Nestled throughout rural China, secret wild tea trees (from when now-defunct villages cultivated trees centuries ago) house rare, high-quality teas. Acquiring them requires tapping into a local network of knowledge about their location and then bushwhacking through swamp and forestation while fending off leeches to pick each leaf. For many in the tea industry, this is far too much dedication and labor for sourcing tea, …
Set to open 18 July, the 420,000-square-foot Shanghai Science and Technology Museum is set to be the largest museum in the world dedicated to astronomy. The building, designed by Ennead Architects, mimics the institution’s focus on space; its form is void of “straight lines or right angles, echoing the geometry of the universe and the dynamic energy of celestial movement.” Along with a massive sphere …
