Le Parisien
중도 성향
IT/기술
IT/기술 · "PATH" · 총 38건
필터 보기현재 지수
50.3
0 = 부정 우세
50 = 중립
100 = 긍정 우세
최근 7일 기준 88,891건을 분석한 결과, 뉴스 심리지수는 50.2(균형)입니다. 긍정 4,410건(5.0%)·중립 82,312건(92.6%)·부정 2,169건(2.4%)이며, 중립 비중이 뚜렷하게 높습니다. 성향 지수는 종합 14.7(중도 균형)입니다.
As geopolitical headwinds make it tougher for equity investors to make money, Dalal Street’s top voice Nilesh Shah, managing director of Kotak Mahindra Asset Management, told a gathering of HNI investors at the ET Alpha Wealth Summit on Thursday that there are four specific investment structures which deserve a place in most portfolios right now.Shah’s first recommendation was the Special Investment Fund, or SIF, a structure that marks a meaningful shift in what is available to Indian investors. Shah noted that the mutual fund industry has, until now, been a long-only business but the SIF changes that. These are long-short, absolute return-oriented funds, designed to generate returns regardless of market direction rather than simply riding the equity tide.The second vehicle Shah flagged is performing credit AIFs. His reasoning was grounded in a simple supply-demand observation that for corporate settlements today, capital is not available from banks, mutual funds, or insurance companies.As institutional lenders have stepped back, borrowers are plenty and lenders very few. Amid this imbalance, Shah said the need is real and returns are attractive. Performing credit AIFs, which lend into this gap, are positioned to benefit directly from the scarcity of competing capital.https://youtube.com/shorts/Xa4AcXFg8hA?feature=shareThe third idea was REITs, and here Shah introduced a timing element. Over the last three years, REITs have delivered index-level returns of around 13.5%. But with interest rates rising, he suggested that the next six to nine months may present an opportunity to enter at better prices. Rising rates typically compress REIT valuations in the near term, and Shah framed any such correction as a potential entry point rather than a risk to avoid. Beyond the return potential, he positioned REITs as a portfolio diversification tool as the asset class behaves differently from equities and fixed income, and that is still underrepresented in most Indian investor portfolios.The fourth recommendation addressed global diversification but came with an important caveat. Mutual fund industry limits for overseas investment are currently full, which means the conventional route for Indian investors to access global markets through domestic mutual funds is closed. Shah pointed to Gift City as the workaround. Structures domiciled there allow investment under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme, and in his view, these Gift City-based LRS products are the practical path for investors who want global exposure while the mutual fund window remains shut.Across all four — the SIF, performing credit AIFs, REITs, and Gift City products — Shah's underlying argument was the same: in a volatile period, the portfolio needs instruments that can generate positive returns through means other than a rising equity market.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views, and opinions given by experts are their own. These do not represent the views of the Economic Times)
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Opera makers have always engaged with the latest inventions while also preserving historic crafts. I believe it’s possible to look both forwards and backwards in this fast-evolving landscape The disquiet and distrust surrounding artificial intelligence among artists and creatives remain real and consequential, and the language used by leading arts commentators is often apocalyptic: AI will decimate the arts, it is evil, it is the devil. Like many emerging technologies, AI has been driven by the corporations at the forefront of its creation. Introduced to the public at a rapid rate and continuously evolving, machine learning has become closely entwined with fear, antipathy and foreboding. At the same time, its powers and possibilities are expanding exponentially, becoming embedded in almost every aspect of human activity. The upcoming RBO/SHIFT festival at the Royal Opera House aims to interrogate all sides of this fast-evolving landscape to enable artists, performers, creatives and audiences to think deeply and widely about where we are now, and where we may be tomorrow. Machine learning represents a seismic shift, both in society and in the arts, and we need storytellers, artists, teachers and thinkers in this space to help determine the direction of that shift and help us navigate this unfamiliar territory. Continue reading...
삼성전자가 대만 컴퓨텍스에서 차세대 AI 메모리 시장을 겨냥한 5세대 고대역폭 메모리(HBM5) 실물모형을 업계 최초로 공개했다. 단순 메모리 성능을 넘어 열관리와 패키징을 아우르는 ‘토탈 솔루션’ 전략으로 기술 리더십을 공고히 하겠다는 포석이다.2일 재계에 따르면 송재혁 삼성전자 디바이스솔루션(DS)부문 최고기술책임자(CTO) 사장은 대만 컴퓨텍스 전시에서 AI 산업의 급격한 진화에 대응하기 위한 핵심 전략을 밝혔다. 송 사장은 “메모리, 파운드리, 로직, 패키징을 아우르는 토탈 솔루션 경쟁력이 중요해지고 있다”며 “AI 시스템이 진화로 열관리 기술이 핵심 경쟁 요소로 부상하고 있다”고 강조했다.이번에 공개된 HBM5 기술 방향성의 핵심은 ‘열 경로 블록(HPB·Heat Path Block)’ 기술로 AI 메모리의 고성능화 과정에서 발생하는 발열 문제를 돌파하기 위한 설계 방식이다. 물리 계층(PHY) 영역에서 발생하는 열을 효과적으로 분산·방출하는 별도의 경로를 추가해
Samsung Electronics unveiled a mockup of its HBM5 memory and a new heat-management technology at Computex 2026, signaling its ambition to regain momentum in the artificial intelligence memory race as competition with SK hynix intensifies. At the annual technology exhibition in Taiwan on Tuesday, Samsung showcased the planned architecture of its seventh-generation high-bandwidth memory, or HBM5, featuring a new thermal solution called Heat Path Block designed to improve heat dissipation in increa
Admission to a prestigious university is no longer seen as the only path to success for some students in South Korea, as semiconductor-focused high schools gain popularity on the expectation that they can lead directly to jobs at major chipmakers. Korea Semiconductor Meister High School in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, decided to hold a second admissions information session on June 20 after turnout at the initial session held May 30 exceeded the 120 seats prepared by the school. “More stu
Children born after 2013 are the first generation to grow up fully immersed in digital systems, which weren’t designed with them in mind. One‑third of the world’s Internet users are younger than 18, according to UNICEF, yet these systems shaping their daily lives were built for adults. They were optimized for engagement and designed long before people understood how profoundly digital environments influence children. For engineers and technical professionals, online safety is not an abstract policy debate. It is a design challenge that demands rigor, systems thinking, and ethical foresight. Governments around the world are also beginning to recognize the problem. Policymakers from across Australia, Brazil, the European Union, Indonesia, and the United States are responding to risks engineers have long understood: Addictive features, inappropriate content, opaque data practices, and algorithmic systems shape user behavior in ways that their creators did not fully predict. For years, technology moved faster than governance. Now governance is trying to catch up. Global Shift Toward Design Reform Supporting National Digital Ambitions In Athens this year I met with senior leaders of Greek government agencies and key national research institutions. Greece is moving quickly on digital transformation and responsible technology governance, and our discussions reinforced IEEE’s role as a trusted, neutral collaborator. We focused on supporting Greece’s ambitions in digital modernization and public‑sector innovation. We also discussed responsible AI and age-appropriate digital design in Europe and elsewhere. These engagements, grounded in shared values and long‑term commitment, strengthened IEEE’s presence within the European ecosystem and opened new pathways for collaboration on trustworthy AI and child‑focused digital well‑being. The European Union and the United Kingdom have been among the first to act, embedding age‑appropriate digital design into their broader children’s rights agenda. Drawing on IEEE expertise and global best practices, Indonesia is the first country in Asia, and Brazil is the first country in Latin America, to adopt age-appropriate design regulation. Australia is aiming to limit access to harmful content and addictive design features through age restrictions on certain platforms. And in the United States, in addition to federal efforts, states including California, New York, and Utah are enacting approaches including age-appropriate design principles. Across these efforts, a shared realization is emerging. Protecting children online is not simply about filtering content or adding parental controls. It requires rethinking the architecture of digital systems regarding how data is collected, how algorithms make decisions, how interfaces influence attention, and how AI interacts with the developing minds of young users. Engineers and technical professionals understand that design choices are never neutral. They encode values, incentives, and assumptions. When the user is a child, those choices carry greater weight. This is where IEEE’s work becomes more essential. Protecting Children Online For more than a decade, IEEE has been building technical and ethical foundations for safer digital experiences. The first IEEE standard on age-appropriate design in 2021 marked a turning point. It offers a structured, principled approach to designing with children’s rights in mind. The Institute’s 2022 article “Use a New IEEE Standard to Design a Safer Digital World for Kids” highlights how the standard helps translate those principles into engineering practice. Today the IEEE Standards Association’s (SA) Trustworthy Digital Experiences portfolio provides a practical, technically grounded framework for governments and industry. Spanning ethical design, data governance, algorithmic transparency, and child‑focused digital well‑being, it has already initiated discussions with government stakeholders around the world. This work helps bridge the gap between engineering realities and policy ambitions. No single country can solve these challenges alone. Many policymakers lack access to the combined expertise in technology, governance, and children’s rights needed to act quickly and effectively. This collaborative effort helps close that gap. The stakes are high. Without coordinated action, public policy will continue to lag behind technology, leaving children exposed to risks that could have been mitigated through thoughtful design. But with the right frameworks, governments can ensure digital systems respect children’s rights, support healthy development, and promote well‑being. IEEE’s emerging standards and collaborative technology policy work offer a path forward. By grounding national efforts in evidence‑based, rights-aligned design principles, IEEE is helping governments move from reactive regulation to proactive, coherent, and globally informed strategies for protecting children online. Safeguarding childhood in the digital age is both a moral imperative and an engineering challenge. And IEEE is helping to lead the way. —Mary Ellen Randall IEEE president and CEO Please share your thoughts with me: president@ieee.org. This article appears in the June 2026 print issue.
“Not in my backyard” is the rallying cry of citizens everywhere resisting projects proposed for their locality. Whether it’s affordable housing, a waste treatment plant, or a new data center, they may recognize the benefit of the activity. They just don’t want it near them. And the roots of that resistance differ from place to place. When it comes to the ongoing transition from fossil fuels to renewables, companies and policymakers need to know where, exactly, people are coming from. The Italian island of Sardinia is a textbook example. As IEEE Spectrum’s power and energy editor Emily Waltz discovered when she traveled there last October, Sardinian opposition to wind and solar projects runs deep. It spurred a quarter of the voting population to queue up in public squares in 2024 to sign a petition banning all construction of renewable energy. Waltz was surprised. She went there to see a promising new grid-scale energy storage system that uses domes inflated with carbon dioxide. While reporting on that project, she interviewed residents, engineers, activists, and professors about their attitudes toward climate change and the Italian government’s grand plans for renewable energy on the island. And Waltz soon learned of Sardinians’ profound antipathy toward renewable energy and its deep ties to a history of invasion, occupation, and exploitation stretching back 2,700 years. It started with the Phoenicians and then extended through the Romans, the Byzantines, and the Iberians. Sardinia was absorbed into a newly unified Italy in 1861, and it became an autonomous region of Italy in 1948. The island’s population is justifiably suspicious of outsiders, including the Italian government. “When you’re in Sardinia, the weight of history—you can feel it like in the air,” Waltz told me. “And it gets passed down from one generation to the next.” Now, Italy needs Sardinia to produce even more power to meet the country’s climate goals—something that Sardinians see as Rome’s problem, not theirs. “Sardinia already exports about 30 percent of its electricity. It’s not like they need more,” Waltz says. “So it’s hard to make the case to build, build, build.” The result of Waltz’s old-fashioned shoe leather reporting is this month’s cover story. She notes that the Sardinians she talked to aren’t climate-change deniers, and they don’t object to renewables per se. They just don’t like the way corporations and Italian policymakers are trying to plug into Sardinia like it’s one giant battery rather than the home of an ancient and proud people. “I think Sardinians would be more receptive to renewable projects if it was more of a ground-up, grassroots approach,” Waltz says. Indeed, this homegrown approach is already working in some places in Sardinia. She knows of more than 50 projects, called energy communities, where the residents are deploying renewables themselves. The idea also holds promise for other places struggling to get locals to buy into the renewable-energy transition. The Sardinian experience is both a cautionary tale and a blueprint. Ignore the weight of history that communities carry and your project risks failure. Meet the people where they are and you might just get somewhere. The same lesson applies whether you’re in Sulawesi or sub-Saharan Africa. You just have to show up to learn it.
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This year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list recognises seven Pakistanis for their contributions in various fields, ranging from technology to media. Forbes describes them as “changemakers in 10 categories who are transforming their industries”. Syed Ismail Syed Ismail, cofounder of Karachi-based Saraaf. — photo courtesy Forbes Listed in the ‘consumer and enterprise technology’ category, Syed Ismail cofounded Karachi-based Saraaf in 2021 to “digitise commodity sourcing and bring more transparency to it”. The company is set to launch a mobile app for “businesses sourcing materials such as onyx and cotton from Central and South Asia, with real-time pricing, shipment tracking, digitised contracts and live chats”, Forbes notes. In 2024, Saraaf also secured a $5.3 million investment commitment from Shark Tank Pakistan. Founders of Plouton AI Sarfraz Shahid Hussain (L) and Muhammad Furqan Karim Kidwai (R). — photo courtesy Forbes Muhammad Furqan Karim Kidwai and Sarfraz Shahid Hussain secured a spot in the ‘finance and venture capital’ category for having co-founded Singapore-based Plouton AI. The venture was described as an “agentic automation platform that helps midmarket companies automate finance workflows”. It “uses auditable browser-based agents to run finance workflows, such as invoicing, payroll processing and month-end reconciliation, within existing tools like Xero, QuickBooks and Excel”, saving companies from buying costly software. According to Forbes, Kidwai “saw how finance teams in many emerging markets still rely on spreadsheets and emails”, prompting him to launch a fintech company. The two Habib University graduates had previously also co-founded fintech startup YPay Financial Services, which offered an app for people to invest digitally in mutual funds. Maheera Ghani Maheera Ghani, a PhD graduate from Cambridge University. — photo courtesy Forbes Maheera Ghani graduated from Cambridge University in 2025 with a PhD in materials science and is currently doing postdoctoral research at Cambridge on ultra-thin semiconductors. Forbes highlighted that the WinSci Pakistan education project, led by Ghani, won the Nature Inspiring Women in Science award from the Estée Lauder Companies and Springer Nature for “her efforts to encourage women to pursue careers in science”. Commenting on her featuring on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list, Ghani said: “Researching next-generation semiconductors at Cambridge University, innovating deep-tech technologies and working at the intersection of science, innovation, and leading impact has been an amazing journey filled with immense joy. “I am overwhelmed with gratitude and pride to represent my country on such a prestigious platform and this recognition means so much to me personally,” the scientist added. Fahad Shahbaz Fahad Shahbaz, who founded the Youth General Assembly in 2015. — photo courtesy Forbes Fahad Shahbaz founded the Youth General Assembly in 2015, when just 18 years old, to “create a pathway for young Pakistanis into leadership and policymaking”, Forbes wrote. The Youth General Assembly runs an annual 96-member assembly based on the UK parliament and mirroring the National Assembly, providing a platform for young participants to “debate public policy and produce recommendations”. Forbes mentioned Shahbaz was a 2023 recipient of the Diana Award and a member of the Pakistan Chapter of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community. He graduated with a Master of Laws degree from the University of Law in London. Reacting to his inclusion, Shahbaz wrote on X, “This recognition is not mine alone. It belongs to the people who believed in me, supported me and stood beside me throughout this journey.” He added that the “social impact category is built on service, responsibility and the belief that meaningful change begins with people”. “Pakistan’s greatest chapter is still being written and it is being written by its youth,” Shahbaz remarked. It should be mentioned that actress Hania Aamir and filmmaker Saman Kamraan landed spots on the prestigious Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list in the entertainment category. Read about their accomplishments here.
FOR the last three years since ChatGPT was introduced, prominent writers, editors and litterateurs have been openly hostile to the idea of AI being able to write fiction, poetry or prose — indeed, any kind of literature. The tech companies that introduced all these LLMs, imagining ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, and Copilot as writing aids, study buddies, collaborators and co-authors, have thrown a nuclear bomb into the literary world, and most of its inhabitants are still in a crouch position, bracing for an impact that detonated back in 2022. But the literary world must call a truce because AI is here to stay. Moreover, any writer who teaches writing, any literary editor or agent who evaluates submissions, any practitioner called upon to judge a literary competition must become AI literate; it’s an unavoidable skill that’s simply part of the job from now on. Last week, the Commonwealth Writing Prize and Granta published five regional short story winners, one of which, Jamir Nazar’s ‘A Serpent in the Grove’, was singled out as possibly AI-generated. It raised a furore on social media but it didn’t surprise me at all. I’ve graded hundreds of student essays, judged creative writing capstones and a major Pakistani literary prize in the last year. So much is now written with the help of AI that I feel overwhelmed. I’ve been using the last two years to learn exactly how AI writes — not just its processes, but its style and its voice. I’ve studied it as much as I would study any human author, looking for how it handles dialogue, description, character and plot. Yet if I’d stuck my head in the sand and refused to touch AI for the sake of artistic integrity, I would be letting down all those people who trust my judgement and expertise. Students are addicted to AI not because they want to cheat, but because they’re terrified of looking stupid or inadequate. I spent hours tinkering with AI, asking it to write things in a Pakistani context: a synopsis for a Harry Potter book set in Lahore; descriptions of Karachi. AI churned out showy, contrived prose that looks like it’s doing a lot without actually saying anything meaningful. It blathered inanities about Karachi being a “city that remembers” and Pakistani women who “sauntered through the bazaar as if their bodies bore the weight of generations of family secrets”. AI wrote verbal pyrotechnics with no emotional connection to the city that I love. It’s too much of a temptation to expect people, especially students, not to use AI to write. Pakistan is a former British colony with a postcolonial hangover about the English language, even though few of us speak it fluently and even fewer can write it well. Yet the language of instruction in top Pakistani schools and universities has remained and always will be English. Students are addicted to AI not because they want to cheat, but because they’re terrified of looking stupid or inadequate. And the LLMs are ever-present to capitalise on that fear. I have to keep telling my students: AI is here not to help you, but to make money off you. Also, there will never be a foolproof AI-detection tool. AI will keep learning more from every person that asks it to help them write a story; AI ‘detectors’ will offer you an answer based on their own algorithms and biases. Differentiating AI writing from human writing requires human discernment, the same faculty we use to know when writing is sublime or terrible. It requires instinct, experience and a close look at the person’s work overall to see if the story is a representation of their usual style — call it the new due diligence in a post-AI world. The culprit in the Commonwealth Writers debacle was not racism or some kind of Western pandering to the postcolonial writer, but sheer ignorance on the part of judges. And underneath that ignorance lies a wilful denial about just how seismic the AI shift is. Everyone who must evaluate writing professionally is scared of the threat that AI poses to the literary arts and the earnings of the publishing industry. They’re terrified of the idea that everyone else is already so far ahead they may never be able to catch up. AI has already learned to mimic cultural inflections. It will talk about any part of the world — Guyana, South Korea, Bosnia — with pompous certainty and try to dazzle you with metaphorically bizarre surface-level descriptors or overwhelm you with atmosphere so you don’t realise there’s actually no plot or insight, no empathy, none of the beauty that makes writing an art as well as a practice. Personally, I resent the tech bros who have turned my relationship with writing from practitioner to policewoman, turning a jaundiced eye to everyone’s writing and suspecting the worst. AI is now influencing young people learning how to write to the extent that even my best students have started to sound like AI. I know that AI recognises patterns and produces only a facsimile of good writing, much like the proverbial broken clock that’s right twice a day. The practice of writing words to connect with a reader, communicate ideas and tell a story is a human endeavour that AI will never be able to match. Fear won’t stop me from looking it straight in the AI and declaring, “You have no power over me.” I urge everyone else — writers, teachers, judges and editors — to do the same. The writer currently teaches Expository Writing at AKUFAS. Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2026
High school graduation is a time of change that might be felt more deeply by family members than by the grads themselves. While some grads may immediately embark on a career path, many continue their education and delve deeper into their studies at college. Either way, they'll be taking on more responsibility, meaning it's up […]
Electrons are great. We use them to move vehicles, illuminate cities, and, of course, compute. But computation is not confined to the world of electronics. And shifting to alternative nonelectronic realms can unlock unique advantages: Photonic chips, for instance, process information with light while generating little heat. Another compelling alternative is fluidics, which uses pressurized gases or liquids to build logic circuits. Pioneered in the 1960s but sidelined by microchips, the field reemerged in the 1990s as “microfluidics.” This approach aims to shrink laboratories onto a single chip by creating microscopic fluid channels with integrated micropneumatic control systems. Today, there is a second fluidic revival, this time in the domain of soft robotics. Scaling microfluidic designs up to the millimeter-scale range (millifluidics) enables the higher flow rates necessary to drive robotic actuators. These robots exploit the nonlinear behaviors of soft materials to create lifelike motion and safer interactions, often utilizing pressurized air. By building systems that “think” with the same air that powers them, we can drastically reduce the need for bulky electronic-to-pneumatic interfaces. This is the focus of my Soiboi Studio robotics lab. With millifluidic logic, I have steadily scaled the complexity of my designs. What began with a simple oscillator has most recently evolved into a clock featuring a soft, four-digit, seven-segment display. What Is Millifluidics? Building on microfluidics research from the early 2000s and recent developments from the Grover Lab at the University of California, Riverside, I’ve developed millifluidic devices using standard 3D printing and silicone casting. The basic architecture is simple: A flexible membrane is sandwiched between rigid layers embedded with networks of air channels. Just as electronics rely on differing voltage potentials, these fluidic circuits operate on the pressure difference between atmospheric pressure (logical 0) and a near-vacuum at around −60 kilopascals of relative pressure (logical 1). Using negative pressure means the membrane is pulled into openings. This creates robust seals that allow me to replicate electronic building blocks. A cast silicone membrane forms the face of the clock [top], while behind it sits 3D-printed millifluidic blocks [middle rows]. An Arduino Uno controls driver boards that operate solenoids, which are connected to valves that are attached to a vacuum pump [bottom row].James Provost While fluidic resistors are easily realized by adjusting the channel geometry, the heart of the system is a valve that mimics a metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor, or MOSFET. This vacuum “transistor” features a flow layer with two chambers (the source and drain) divided by a central valve seat and a control layer containing a cavity (the gate). A membrane runs between the control and flow layers and normally prevents airflow between the source and drain chambers. To switch the transistor on, a vacuum is applied to the gate chamber, sucking the membrane into the cavity and lifting it off the seat. This opens a path for airflow, equivalent to closing an electric circuit. By adding a small aperture to the membrane, I created a check valve—the fluidic equivalent of a diode. By combining transistors and resistive “pull-down” channels, I can build a full suite of logic gates. The original microfluidic designs that inspired me were fabricated from etched glass and milled acrylic. Adapting them for a standard 3D printer required reengineering the logic elements and mastering two critical fabrication techniques. First, I need airtight prints, yet printed plastic is notoriously porous. By printing at elevated temperatures, slow speeds, and slight overextrusion, I was able to fill microscopic gaps. When you’re using transparent filament, there’s a handy visual indicator: The more transparent the plastic appears, the lower its porosity. Second, I used glass for my print bed. By printing the upper and lower chambers directly against this bed, I got the interface surface to become mirror smooth. This finish is essential for creating reliable, airtight seals. A 0.3-millimeter silicone membrane is placed between the layers and secured with screws. How Does the Soft Clock Work? The clockface is a cast silicone membrane. Each digit segment is formed by a small underlying cavity. When air is evacuated from this cavity, the membrane is sucked inward to create a concave hollow; when atmospheric pressure is restored, the silicone pops back flush with the surface. The result is a mesmerizing, organic motion. The “brain” of the clock is an Arduino Uno, while the fluidics significantly reduce the hardware footprint. A four-digit, seven-segment display with two separator dots would require 29 solenoid valves to control directly. My clock needs just 11 valves. A pneumatic transistor is off when its upper control chamber is at atmospheric pressure [top]. When air is removed from the control chamber, it lifts a membrane, which allows air to flow between lower flow chambers and turns the transistor on [bottom]. James Provost To understand how it works, consider a standard electronic four-digit, seven-segment LED display. This also uses 11 pins to drive its digits. (In clockface displays, an additional pin is required to drive the separator dots.) Every digit is connected to a shared data bus with seven lines, one per segment. The four control lines select individual digits. Only one digit is illuminated at time, and strobing the digits at least 50 times per second creates the illusion that all four are simultaneously illuminated. Such high-speed switching is not possible with air. Instead, I rely on memory. Each segment acts like a capacitor: By evacuating its cavity (logic 1), you “charge” the segment; by restoring atmospheric pressure (logic 0), you discharge it. Hence, each digit acts as an independent 7-bit memory. If the system is sufficiently airtight, the segments maintain their state for several seconds. Like the electronic display, the system utilizes a seven-line data bus. Each line connects to a solenoid valve that provides either vacuum or atmospheric pressure. To selectively address the individual digits, I placed a fluidic transistor between each segment and its data line. All the transistors’ control inputs for a given digit are combined into one “write enable” line connected to its own solenoid valve. Activating this valve allows me to write data into the corresponding digit’s memory. The clock updates one digit per second, meaning a full cycle across the face takes 4 seconds. This cycle also drives the separator dots: A set of fluidic diodes connects the enable lines to the dots’ cavities. Consequently, as each digit is addressed, the dots pulse automatically. This display is more than a clock; it is a soft robot that happens to tell time. By offloading computation to the same air that powers movement, the clock approaches a new class of machines that are simpler, lighter, and more integrated. I’m now developing a guide for getting started with vacuum-powered logic and may release a refined version of this clock in the future. Watching the silicone skin morph serves as a fascinating reminder that not all logic needs silicon; sometimes, all you need is flexible silicone and a flow of air. This article appears in the June 2026 print issue as “The Soft Clock.”
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