What's Emerging end-March 2025
A newsletter on interesting stuff that is emerging around the world so you can think about strategy.
Welcome to our newsletter for the end of March 2025.
In the next few weeks Paul will continue to work on the strategy implementation consultation process with RSL Victoria and present on the future of AI to a CEO roundtable. He will also present to The Y Ballarat on future thinking and assist the Blue Light Victoria on their strategy. We are also participating in a couple of tenders for interesting work. More to come if successful. Paul will also continue working on his new startup which now has partial funding. He will also continue in his role of Chair with venture philanthropy organisation Social Venture Partners. Paul has also been appointed to the Policy Working Group for the Council on the Ageing (COTA) so contact him is you have policy ideas which are applicable.
If you are interested in talking to us about any of our strategy approaches, foresight approaches, workshops, or conference presentations for next year, please Contact Us.
The Emergent Futures Team
In case you missed it. The most popular link from the last edition was (again):
Criminal gangs using key programming devices to steal cars at level not seen in Victoria in decades, police say
Police believed the methodology was well known among criminal circles and being used extensively locally, as well as other countries such as the United States and United Kingdom. Paul: protect yourself if you have one of these models……….Read More
What are we Writing About?
Following on from his first speculative scenario on US politics two newsletters ago Paul has written a second one which gets a whole lot darker..........…..Read More
What’s Emerging
Next stop for Waymo One: Washington, D.C.
Paul: Limited driverless vehicle services are spreading out across America.........…..Read More
Tiny robot tools powered by magnets could one day do brain surgery without cutting open the skull
Robotic surgical tools (around 8 millimetres in diameter) have been used for decades in keyhole surgery for other parts of the body. The challenge has been making a tool small enough (3mm in diameter) for neurosurgery......….….Read more
Earth losing fresh water and may have hit irreversible tipping point due to climate change
Earth may have hit a point of irreversible moisture loss in its soil as a result of climate change, according to a new study. More than 2,614 gigatonnes of moisture was lost from 2000 to 2016....…..Read More
5-minute EV charging: BYD closes the refuelling gap between electric and petrol
EV charging with BYD’s 1,000 kW ultra-fast charging adds 400 km in just five minutes. Paul: this poses some challenges to the grid given the power required but is very promising...............…..Read More
Tencent slows pace of GPU rollout as DeepSeek helps it wring more performance from fewer accelerators
Chinese tech giant Tencent has slowed the pace of its GPU rollout since implementing DeepSeek. Chief Strategy Officer James Mitchell revealed the slowdown during the company’s Q4 2024 earnings call, when asked how capital expenditure on AI will impact margins and profits.........……. Read More
Foreign aid cuts could mean 10 million more HIV infections by 2030 – and almost 3 million extra deaths
Recent funding cuts for international HIV assistance go beyond the US. Five countries that provide the largest amount of foreign aid for HIV – the US, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and the Netherlands – have announced cuts of between 8% and 70% to international aid in 2025 and 2026. Together, this may mean a 24% reduction in international HIV spending, in addition to the US foreign aid pause. Paul: I have been talking to not-for-profit clients about what this may mean to money for the domestic and international sector in Australia with governments under budgetary pressure.....……. Read More
Breakthrough in Wild Barley Genomics paves the way for climate-resilient crops
An international team of scientists from Australia and China has unveiled the first chromosome-scale genome of a wild barley species. Their findings offer direct implications for more sustainable agriculture and significant yield improvements for Australian grain production......…..Read more
Particle-armored liquid robots
It is challenging to emulate biological forms and functions with artificial machines: Fluidity and adaptability seen in cellular organisms, characterized by their ability to deform, split, merge, and engulf, are hard to recapitulate with traditional rigid robotic structures. A promising avenue to tackle this problem is harnessing the supreme deformability of liquids while providing stable yet flexible shells around them......…..Read more
The Cybernetic Teammate: A Field Experiment on Generative AI Reshaping Teamwork and Expertise
A Harvard working paper: Working on real product innovation challenges, professionals were randomly assigned to work either with or without AI, and either individually or with another professional in new product development teams. Our findings reveal that AI significantly enhances performance: individuals with AI matched the performance of teams without AI, demonstrating that AI can effectively replicate certain benefits of human collaboration........…..Read more and a simple summary: The Cybernetic Teammate - by Ethan Mollick
InstaVolt’s Winchester Super Hub
With 44 ultra-rapid chargers, it’s one of the largest EV hubs in the country. Paul _ I keep questioning if replicating large scale petrol stations is a solution here. Petrol stations rely on margins on other stuff when people fill up their cars and volumes of traffic. With charging at home, on the street, and as a marketing offer at destinations like movie theatres and shopping centres will there be enough volume at places like these to make them viable? I am thinking of making our charging set up available to our local community now our solar feed in tariff is set to go close to zero. All these alternatives mean less filling up on the road, especially as batter capacity improves. None of these alternatives can challenge a highway model in a fossil fuel era but in an electric era the story is completely different.…..Read more
DoorDash will let users buy now, pay later for fast food
Paul: if this is a significant volume driver that is a very bad signal. If you are borrowing money to buy fast food, you are really struggling......…..Read more
‘Space Advertising’ Could Outshine the Stars—Unless It’s Banned First
Astronomers are racing to protect the dark skies as private companies seek to place large advertisements in Earth orbit.....…..Read more
Business and Other Tips
Create a Mindmap in Google NotebookLM
Not universally available yet but interesting……….Read More and see notes on the Google NotebookLM
How to remove Copilot from your Microsoft 365 plan
Paul: annoyed by MS automatically increasing your plan cost without telling you to pay for AI? Here is how to avoid it..……….Read More
Critical thinking is more important than ever. How can I improve my skills?
Paul: A good summary with some links to tools. Critical thinking is one of the core skills for foresight work………..Read More
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