The Download: Introducing the Relationships issue

Relationships are the stories of people and systems working together. Sometimes by choice. Sometimes for practicality. Sometimes by force. Too often, for purely transactional reasons.

That’s why we’re exploring relationships in this issue. Relationships connect us to one another, but also to the machines, platforms, technologies, and systems that mediate modern life.

They’re behind the partnerships that make breakthroughs possible, the networks that help ideas spread, and the bonds that build trust—or at least access. In this issue, you’ll find stories about the relationships we forge with each other, with our past, with our children, and with technology itself.

Here’s just a taste of what you can expect:

+ People are forming relationships with AI chatbots. Some of these are purely professional, others more complicated. This kind of relationship may be novel now, but it’s something we will all take for granted in just a few years.

+ Adventures in the genetic time machine. Ancient DNA is telling us more and more about humans and environments long past. Could it also help rescue the future?

+ Frozen embryos are filling storage banks around the world. It's a struggle to know what to do with them. Read the full story.

+ Our relationships with our employers are often mediated through monitoring systems. And while it’s increasing the power imbalance between companies and workers, protections are lagging far behind. Read the full story.

MIT Technology Review Narrated: The messy quest to replace drugs with electricity