What's Emerging end of August 2023
A newsletter on interesting stuff that is emerging around the world so you can think about strategy.
Welcome to our end-of-August newsletter
In the next few weeks, Paul will be working on a strategic board review with a health sector foundation and working with VETASSESS on its long-term strategy. He will also be presenting on the future of Agricultural Shows in Adelaide, and working with the I CAN network on the future of their online mentoring program, as well as exploring the business model for a new social enterprise he is thinking of establishing and acting as a mentor for the Startup Bootcamp in Melbourne
If you are interested in talking to us about any of these approaches, please Contact Us.
The Emergent Futures Team
In case you missed it. The most popular link from the last edition:
3 essential Windows tools for troubleshooting (and how to use them)
If your PC is misbehaving, there's a good chance that one of these free tools can help you figure out why. And they're all included with every Windows installation. Paul - I use the Task manager a lot but not the other two but now I am checking them out……Read more
What are we Writing About?
Paul has published an article on LinkedIn: How Useful is the Intergenerational Report over 40 Years?
What’s Emerging
Pioneering wind-powered cargo ship sets sail
Shipping firm Cargill, which has chartered the vessel, hopes the technology will help the industry chart a course towards a greener future. The WindWings sails are designed to cut fuel consumption and therefore shipping's carbon footprint......…..Read More
Forest conservation carbon offsets being significantly overestimated, new study finds
Research published in Science has found that carbon credits from some forest conservation projects are being inflated, and may not actually be offsetting even close to the amount of emissions they're claiming......…..Read More
France will pay you to repair your clothes
Under the scheme, discounts varying from €6 ($7) to €25 ($28) will be available depending on the complexity of the repair. For instance, a simple piece of restitching will receive a €6 subsidy, while resoling a pair of shows will qualify for a €25 rebate...........……. Read more
Amazon rolls out virtual health care services nationwide
Amazon Clinic is now available to customers in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Launched in November 2022 and previously only available in 32 states, the solution provides virtual care from licensed clinicians for more than 30 common health concerns, ranging from urinary tract infections to pink eye. ......……. Read More
Purified Wastewater Is the Drink of the Future
The pivot to reusing wastewater is badly needed: Potable water is an increasingly precious resource. Worldwide, already 26 percent of the global population or two billion people live in water-stressed areas, according to UN Water, which projects this figure could double by 2050. ...........…..Read more
Steel industry makes ‘pivotal’ shift towards lower-carbon production
The new report from Global Energy Monitor (GEM) shows that 43% of planned steelmaking capacity is now based on electric arc furnace (EAF) technology, while 57% would use coal-based blast furnace-basic oxygen furnaces (BF-BOF). This marks a key change from a year earlier, according to GEM, when just 33% of planned capacity was set to use EAF against 67% using BF-BOF. The report says this marks a “pivotal” shift for the industry..........…..Read more
Canberra researchers studying bee stingers may help develop the next generation of micro medical devices
The UNSW Canberra team believe the stinger's "unique geometries" lend themselves to redesigned or refined medical anchoring methods, and could help keep devices or patches in place "without the need for chemical adhesives, which can cause [skin] irritation or be unviable on moist surfaces, like the inside of the body."..….. Read more
Norway to spend $6 million a year stock-piling grain, citing pandemic, war and climate change
Starting next year, Norway will start storing 15,000 tons of grain and do so yearly until 2028 or 2029, according to Norway’s minister for agriculture and food, Geir Pollestad, who said the aim is to always have a three-month worth of consumption in storage. Paul - combined with drought, floods and the effects of the war in Ukraine, this might lead to major price shifts if other countries start doing this...…. Read more
Waymo says Austin, Texas, will be its next robotaxi city
Waymo’s fourth robotaxi city will be Austin, Texas. It will be a bit of a homecoming for the Alphabet-owned self-driving company. Waymo said that it will kick off the process for a commercial robotaxi service in the city later this year. But that doesn’t mean passengers can hail one of the company’s driverless vehicles quite yet; Waymo’s playbook is to start with manual testing, following by supervised testing, fully autonomous driving, and then, eventually, passenger services........…..Read more
Rethinking reality: Is the entire universe a single quantum object?
In the face of new evidence, physicists are starting to view the cosmos not as made up of disparate layers, but as a quantum whole linked by entanglement. Say what now?...........….. Read more
As China's economy continues to struggle, young people are choosing to become 'full-time children'
Unlike what are known as "NEETs" (Not in Education, Employment, or Training), these "full-time children" don't think of themselves as unemployed, rather their employers are their parents. On Douban, a Chinese forum similar to Reddit, a discussion group called "Full-time Children's Work Exchange Centre" has more than 4,000 members..........….….Read more
AI bots are so good at mimicking the human brain and vision that CAPTCHAs are useless
a research paper published last month that has yet to be peer reviewed indicates that AI-automated attacks on various CAPTCHA schemes have been successful. The study, conducted by a group of researchers including three from the University of California, Irvine, one from ETH Zurich, one from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and one from Microsoft, showed that AI bots are now better than humans at decoding the CAPTCHAs. They even create an impression of humans being more robots than the bots that the CAPTCHAs try to keep out. And they even do it much faster.….…Read more.
Open (For Business): Big Tech, Concentrated Power, and the Political Economy of Open AI
This paper examines ‘open’ AI in the context of recent attention to open and open source AI systems……..the terms ‘open’ and ‘open source’ are used in confusing and diverse ways, often constituting more aspiration or marketing than technical descriptor, and frequently blending concepts from both open source software and open science. This complicates an already complex landscape, in which there is currently no agreed on definition of ‘open’ in the context of AI, and as such the term is being applied to widely divergent offerings with little reference to a stable descriptor....……...… Read more.
SOMATIC - Toilet Cleaning Robot
Business and Other Tips
Flythroughs
Cinematic and professional-looking drone Flythroughs in minutes from shaky amateur recorded videos.......…..read more.
House fires caused by lithium batteries are on the rise. Here is what you need to know
It only takes "a couple of breaths" of toxic fumes from a battery-ignited fire to cause a person to become unconscious. ....…. Read More
A three part article on decision making
Paul: My friend Stow Boyd has written a very useful three-part piece on decision making…... Read more, and more, and more
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