Building is a popular tech industry motif—especially in Silicon Valley, where “Time to build” has become something of a call to arms. Yet the future is built brick by brick from the imperfect decisions we make in the present. 

We don’t often recognize that the seeming steps forward we are taking today could be seen as steps back in the years to come. Sometimes the things we don’t do, or the steps we skip, have bigger implications than the actions we do take.

These are the themes we delve into in our Build issue. Check out these stories from the magazine:

Check out these stories from the magazine:

+ Our cover story from Melissa Heikkilä investigates whether the AI boom is going to usher in robotics’ very own ChatGPT moment.

+ Louisiana’s homes are sinking. Can a government-led project build the area up and out of crisis?

+ Axiom Space and other commercial companies are betting they can build private structures to replace the International Space Station.

+ A fascinating look at the serious weird history of brainwashing, and how America became obsessed with waging psychic war against China.

+ Why the rise of generative AI means we need a new term to replace ‘user.’

+ AI was supposed to make police bodycams better. What happened?

+ How we transform to a fully decarbonized world. A world powered by electricity from abundant, renewable resources is now within reach.

This is just a small selection of what’s on offer. Subscribe if you don’t already to check out the whole thing. Enjoy!

This solar giant is moving manufacturing back to the US

Whenever you see a solar panel, most parts of it probably come from China. The US invented the technology and once dominated its production, but over the past two decades, government subsidies and low costs in China have led most of the solar manufacturing supply chain to be concentrated there.