--- title: Why Your Ear Is the Next Big Thing in Tech description: The ear as technology platform, paying to comment online, using seawater for heat and more canonical: https://time.com/4306279/ear-next-big-thing-in-tech/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-25T16:01:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:00:04.729Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Why Your Ear Is the Next Big Thing in Tech og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4306279/ear-next-big-thing-in-tech/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Your Ear Is the Next Big Thing in Tech twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Why Your Ear Is the Next Big Thing in Tech by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Apr 25, 2016 4:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Apr 25, 2016 4:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**Your ear is the next technology platform.**](https://backchannel.com/the-future-of-technology-is-in-your-ear-8c276b810413) By Jon Li in Backchannel **2\.** [**Want to comment on that news story? You might have to pay.**](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-20/news-sites-start-charging-readers-to-comment-on-articles) By Joshua Brustein at Bloomberg Technology **3\.** [**Here’s how to use seawater and CO2 — but no fossil fuels — as a heating system.**](http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2016/0424/Using-seawater-for-heating-Alaska-aquarium-takes-the-plunge) By Ben Thompson in the Christian Science Monitor **4\.** [**Could we really collaborate with whales to learn about their communication?**](http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2016/04/21/475015965/can-whales-and-humans-collaborate-on-research) By Barbara J. King at NPR **5\.** [**That’s not Silicon Valley. Rwanda’s tech incubators are transforming the nation. See how.**](http://www.vqronline.org/photography/2016/03/rwandas-start-generation) By Juan Herrero and Tik Root in the Virginia Quarterly Review  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4306279/ear-next-big-thing-in-tech/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4306279/ear-next-big-thing-in-tech/"},"headline":"Why Your Ear Is the Next Big Thing in Tech","datePublished":"2016-04-25T16:01:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:00:04.729Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4306279/ear-next-big-thing-in-tech/","keywords":["Innovation","iPhone","News","Whales","Fossil fuels","Rwanda"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4306279/ear-next-big-thing-in-tech/","name":"Why Your Ear Is the Next Big Thing in Tech"}}]}] ```