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OK, so robots might be stealing your job and Facebook is definitely polarising politics, but let’s take a moment to remember that technology can be deployed for the social good, too. This week we brought you stories about how tweets can be used to predict hurricane damage and why human beings tend to try to socialise with robots -- often in the same way we communicate with our pets.
Enjoy this and other content – including reporting from oft-overlooked Paraguay and French Guiana – this weekend on The Conversation Global.
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A woman participates in a community mapping exercise in Malawi’s Chikwawa and Nsanje districts.
emirhartato/flickr
Stefaan G. Verhulst, New York University
As climate change increases the frequency and severity of disasters in the near future, leveraging social media data, crowd-sourcing and other means of discovering the unknown will become crucial.
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The robot Berenson in 2015.
Stéphanie Leclerc-Caffarel
Joffrey Becker, Collège de France
Robots are strange creatures, and not only because they might steal our jobs. We humans actually have good reason to be a little worried about these machines.
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The Paraguayan capital briefly became a battleground between police, protesters and politicians.
Jorge Adorno/Reuters
Ignacio González Bozzolasco, Universidad Católica de Asunción
One protester was killed and several senators bloodied as Paraguayans rebelled against what they consider an unconstitutional attempt to extend President Horacio Cartes' term.
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Saint-Laurent du Maroni Hospital. Some of the building’s structures go back to the time when French Guiana was mainly known for its prisons.
Dennis Lamaison
Estelle Carde, Université de Montréal
French Guineans are up in arms about the territory's overcrowded hospitals. Why is no one talking about how racism and xenophobia also affect access to health care?
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