This is today's edition ofThe Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. Housing is an election issue. But the US sucks at it. Ahead of abortion access, ahead of immigration, and way ahead of climate change, US voters under 30 are most concerned about one issue: housing affordability. And its not just young voters who say soaring rents and eye-watering home sale prices are among their top worries. For the first time in recent memory, the cost of housing could be a major factor in the presidential election. Its not hard to see why. From the beginning of the pandemic to early 2024, US home prices rose by 47%. In large swaths of the country, buying a home is no longer a possibility even for those with middle-class incomes. Permitting delays and strict zoning rules create huge obstacles to building more and fasteras do other widely recognized issues, like the political power of NIMBY activists across the country and an ongoing shortage of skilled workers. But there is also another, less talked-about problem: Were not very efficient at building, and we seem somehow to be getting worse. Read the full story. David Rotman Inside a fusion energy facility Casey Crownhart On an overcast day in early October, I picked up a rental car and drove to Devens, Massachusetts, to visit a hole in the ground. Commonwealth Fusion Systems has raised over $2 billion in funding since it spun out of MIT in 2018, all in service of building the first commercial fusion reactor. The plan is to have it operating by 2026. I visited the companys site recently to check in on progress. Things are starting to come together and, looking around the site, I found it becoming easier to imagine a future that could actually include fusion energy. But theres still a lot of work left to do. Read the full story. This story is from The Spark, our weekly climate and energy newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday. MIT Technology Review Narrated: How gamification took over the world Instead of liberating us from drudgery and maximizing our potential, gamification has turned out to be just another tool for coercion, distraction, and control. Why did we fall for it? This is our latest story to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast. In partnership with News Over Audio, well be making a selection of our stories available, each one read by a professional voice actor. Youll be able to listen to them on the go or download them to listen to offline. Were publishing a new story each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, including some taken from our most recent print magazine. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as its released. The must-reads Ive combed the internet to find you todays most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 Bird flu has been found in a pig in the US for the first time The USDA says its not cause for panic. But its certainly cause for concern. (Reuters)+Why virologists are getting increasingly nervous about bird flu. (MIT Technology Review)2 Elon Musk has turned X into a political weaponThis is what $44 billion bought him: the ability to flood the zone with falsehoods during an election. (The Atlantic$)+Xs crowdsourced fact-checking program is falling woefully short. (WP$)+And its not just X. YouTube is full of election conspiracy content too.(NYT$)+Spare a thought for the election officials who have to navigate this mess.(NPR)3 Europes big tech hawks are nervously eyeing the US electionBiden was an ally in their efforts to crack down. Either of his potential successors look like a less sure bet. (Wired$)+Attendees regularly fail to disclose their links to big tech at EU events.(The Guardian)4 The AI boom is being powered by concreteIts a major ingredient for data centers and the power plants being built to serve themand a climate disaster. (IEEE Spectrum)+How electricity could help tackle a surprising climate villain. (MIT Technology Review)5 What makes human brains so special?Much of the answer is still a mysterybut researchers are uncovering more and more promising leads. (Nature)+Tech that measures our brainwaves is 100 years old. How will we be using it 100 years from now?(MIT Technology Review)6 Boston Dynamics humanoid robot is getting much more capableIf its latest video, in which it autonomously picks up and moves car parts, is anything to go by. (TechCrunch)+A skeptics guide to humanoid-robot videos.(MIT Technology Review)7 Alexa desperately needs a revampThe voice assistant was launched 10 years ago, and its been disappointing us ever since. (The Verge)8 Were sick of algorithms recommending us stuffLots of people are keen to turn back to guidance from other humans. (New Yorker$)+If youre one of them, I have bad news: AI is going to make the problem much worse. (Fortune$)9 Russia fined Google $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000Thats more money than exists on Earth but sure, dont let that stop you. (The Register)10 Whatisgoing on with Mark Zuckerberg recentlyHes using clothes to rebrand himself and its kinda working?! (Slate)Quote of the day "Its what happens when you let a bunch of grifters take over. A Trumpworld source explains toWiredwhy Donald Trumps ground campaign in Michigan is so chaotic. The big story A day in the life of a Chinese robotaxi driver WORLDCOIN July 2022 When Liu Yang started his current job, he found it hard to go back to driving his own car: I instinctively went for the passenger seat. Or when I was driving, I would expect the car to brake by itself, says the 33-year-old Beijing native, who joined the Chinese tech giant Baidu in January 2021 as a robotaxi driver. Liu is one of the hundreds of safety operators employed by Baidu, driving five days a week in Shougang Park. But despite having only worked for the company for 19 months, he already has to think about his next career move, as his job will likely be eliminated within a few years.Read the full story. Zeyi Yang We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet 'em at me.) + Happy Halloween! Check out some of the best spine-chillingclassic novels. + Ifscary moviesare more your jam, Ive still got you covered.+ Thesephoto montagesof music fans outside concerts are incredible.+ Love thatthis guywent from being terrified of rollercoasters to designing them.+ Youll probably never sort your life out.And thats OK.