How quickly we’ll see flying cars, robot workers, data-privacy rules, Chinese world domination and the end of car ownership depends less on the tech involved than on us.

The mobile internet, automation and AI will have profound implications—for jobs, infrastructure, investment, global competition and more.

Machines that sponge energy from the environment to power ultra-efficient devices is no longer a fantasy, writes Christopher Mims. Some people even call it perpetual computing.

Sharp criticism of Facebook by members of Congress has become a mainstay of this election cycle—even as most of those same representatives spend campaign funds on the site to target voters.

All over the world, citizens, bureaucrats and politicians are pushing back against the power of big tech companies.

What if you could store and deliver goods as easily as data? Amazon, Walmart and others are using AI and robotics to transform everything from appliance shopping to grocery delivery. Welcome to the physical cloud.

Self-driving cars may eventually work together to create nearly real-time maps. But we’re nowhere close to that now.

The microbrand trend—think Casper Mattresses and Rowing Blazers—is changing who launches products, how they’re funded, manufactured, advertised and even how they are conceived in the first place.

Millennials outsource life—cleaning, social planning, even shampoo—to housing startups. Visit Scott Levine, who is part of a growing phenomenon that tech and real-estate companies are hoping to cash in on: co-living.

The quest to offer free two-day delivery has forced retailers like Walmart and Target to spend billions on distribution infrastructure. It’s also forced smaller retailers to hand off selling, warehousing and shipping to a growing roster of startups and giants like FedEx and UPS—not to mention Amazon itself.

The bubble around self-driving cars is turning into a “trough of disillusionment.” Many companies are already adjusting their strategies to fit this reality.