The future of downtown Seattle | Cyber Monday sales set record | ‘Wearable brain’

The future of downtown Seattle — and how tech workers will play a part in it — is up in the air. 

• While a handful of companies are inking new leases downtown, worker foot traffic still remains substantially lower than pre-pandemic levels. Some believe downtown needs to be reimagined into a place that is focused on community and connectivity more than only about working. Read the story. 

Online shoppers spent a record $11.3 billion on Cyber Monday, snatching hot holiday toys, gaming consoles, computers, smart TVs and more.

• The spending, in the face of ongoing inflation, was up 5.8% over last year and follows Black Friday online shopping, which reeled in another $9.12 billion. Read more.

A Seattle startup taking a fresh approach to treating Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s raised $96 million for its treatment strategy.

• Cajal Neuroscience, founded in 2020, believes there are numerous potential unexplored drug targets for neurodegenerative diseases. Read more.

A previously unknown Seattle startup is claiming a breakthrough in its quest to develop a "wearable brain" to help humans and machines interact faster.

• Ixana, founded by semiconductor and tech industry vets, says it has developed a chip capable of running advanced AI applications on lightweight, wireless headsets. Read more.

Amazon Web Services has taken the cloud to orbit to demonstrate how real-time data analysis can be performed on a satellite.

• The experiment, revealed Tuesday during the AWS re:Invent conference, shows how on-orbit processing can help manage imagery and data generated by spacecraft. Read more.

NASA’s Orion capsule captured the moon eclipsing Earth as it reached the farthest distance from our planet as part of the Artemis 1 mission.

• The spacecraft completed “a series of history-making events,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said as Orion clocked in at 270,000 miles from Earth.