What's Emerging end of July 2022
A newsletter on interesting stuff that is emerging around the world so you can think about strategy
Welcome to our end of July newsletter.
In the next few weeks, Paul will be continuing work with Save the Children on their strategic planning and run a Wardley mapping project for a data company. He will also record a video on Wardley mapping and foresight for a conference in Europe. He is helping to organise a conference on the future of farming in Southern Australia in September where he is creating scenarios and is Master of Ceremonies for the conference. He continues to participate in a global research project led by Simon Wardley from the UK and is taking on a year long foresight advisory role with Vision Australia. He will also be presenting at the Tasmanian Forest Products conference
Please Contact Us if you want to talk about any of these approaches for your organisation or industry or want a presentation for your organisation or conference.
The Emergent Futures Team
In case you missed it. The most popular link from the last edition:
5 habits of people who are especially productive working from home
It is so important to maintain discipline and cultural rituals.……Read more
What are we Writing About?
There is nothing in this section in this edition.
What’s Emerging
Hands-On with Tilt Five Production AR Glasses!
Paul: “ this looks really interesting, I have pre-ordered a set”
Edits to a cholesterol gene could stop the biggest killer on earth
In a first, a patient in New Zealand has undergone gene-editing to lower their cholesterol. It could be the beginning of new era in disease prevention..……read more
Designing Arithmetic Circuits with Deep Reinforcement Learning
NVDIA: In PrefixRL: Optimization of Parallel Prefix Circuits using Deep Reinforcement Learning, we demonstrate that not only can AI learn to design these circuits from scratch, but AI-designed circuits are also smaller and faster than those designed by state-of-the-art electronic design automation (EDA) tools. The latest NVIDIA Hopper GPU architecture has nearly 13,000 instances of AI-designed circuits...…..Read more
Eatons Hill Edible Exchange becomes thriving community hub as food prices soar
Nearly 1,000 residents in a suburb north of Brisbane are swapping fresh fruit and vegetables at a booming home-based edible exchange........…..Read more
Researchers Want to Use the Sun As a Giant Telescope to Look for Aliens
A NASA-funded project aims to use the Sun as a gigantic lens to peer into the far reaches of the cosmos — and search them for extraterrestrial biosignatures.......….. Read more
Shapeshifting microrobots can brush and floss teeth
A robotic microswarm may one day automate the routine of rinsing, brushing, and flossing teeth. A multidisciplinary team developed the technology, which employs a magnetic field to direct the iron oxide nanoparticle-based microrobots into antimicrobial bristle- and floss-shaped arrays......….. Read more
Necrobotic' spiders: Manipulating dead spiders' legs with a puff of air to serve as grabbers
Paul: The research was based on a really good question: why do spiders curl up when they die. Turns out the answer is they use hydraulic mechanisms - pumping blood to the limbs straightens them out Always love good questions....…. Read more
Meat from mycelium: Fungi fueled Meati Foods raises $150m to make Holy Grail of alt meat: whole cuts.
Boulder-based Meati Foods – which is seeking to differentiate itself in the increasingly crowded meat-alternative space with a fungi-based platform capable of producing ‘steaks’ and other whole cuts – has raised $150m in a Series C round led by Revolution Growth as it gears up to open a new production facility to support a “national omni-channel footprint by the end of 2023.”........….. Read more
Office-to-Residential Conversions Can’t Cope With UK Heat Wave
The insurer Zurich UK warns that commercial buildings that have been retrofitted into homes can be vulnerable to extreme heat, thanks to poor ventilation. A critical issue if we are going to use office buildings less and they are repurposed .....…..Read more
WeedScan, a new app for identifying weeds
The current weed image classification model for WeedScan contains 57 weed species. NSW DPI has built a website prototype featuring a subset of these. A group of farmers, land managers and biosecurity staff tested the prototype in Bathurst. WeedScan is planned to be released for free public use in 2023. ....….….Read more
Rail-based direct air carbon capture
The direct capture of carbon dioxide from the environment is increasingly becoming an urgent necessity to mitigate the worst effects of climate change. However, the high energy demands require creative implementation strategies to minimize the diversion of already-stretched conventional resources toward this cause. To this end, this work describes innovative technology for deploying specially designed, self-contained DAC railcars on both diesel and electrified rail lines outfitted with battery arrays, CO2 direct air capture systems, compression equipment, and ancillary gear that uniquely exploits the substantial sustainable energy generated on-board the train through regenerative braking as well as from solar panels mounted on compatible railcars...…… Read More
Rapid battery cost declines accelerate the prospects of all-electric interregional container shipping
International maritime shipping—powered by heavy fuel oil—is a major contributor to global CO2, SO2, and NOx emissions. The direct electrification of maritime vessels has been underexplored as a low-emission option despite its considerable efficiency advantage over electrofuels. Past studies on ship electrification have relied on outdated assumptions on battery cost, energy density values and available on-board space....…. Read more
Mining sector faces major skills shortage as environmental concerns deter Gen Z workers
Australia's mining sector is facing a critical worker shortage that leaders say will stifle future projects if the industry cannot convince younger, more environmentally conscious generations to join its ranks.....…. Read more
a16z is Moving to the Cloud
Ben Horowitz: In our firm’s new operating model, we work primarily virtually, but will use our physical presence to develop our culture, help entrepreneurs, and build relationships. Specifically, the firm is now virtual, but can materialize physically on command. As a result, we have configured the firm to be able to physically assemble anywhere in the world very quickly. To that end, we are opening 3 new offices in Miami Beach, New York, and Santa Monica in addition to our existing Menlo Park and San Francisco locations. Our headquarters will be in the cloud and we will continue to create physical offices globally where needed to support our teams and partners... Read More
AI Learns What an Infant Knows about the Physical World
The fundamental properties of physical objects seem intuitive to us. Infants as young as three months know that a ball no longer in sight still exists and that the ball can’t teleport from behind the couch to the top of the refrigerator. Despite mastering complex games, such as chess and poker, artificial intelligence systems have yet to demonstrate the “commonsense” knowledge that an infant is either born with or picks up seemingly without effort in their first few months. That might be about to change......……. Read more
Business Tips
How I revived three ancient computers with ChromeOS Flex
Paul: a great piece on how to revive those old laptops sitting on your shelves and put them to use…… Read more
How to access paywalled research papers without institutional access
The Internet is full of extraordinary allegations, promises of breakthrough discoveries, and content promoting new, innovative products. Some of these claims are supposedly based on scientific evidence, linking to research which you are told to read. So, you look it up, but the papers are hidden behind paywalls. What should you do?.……Read more
Habitual mask-wearing is likely helping Japan, Singapore and South Korea bring daily Omicron deaths down, epidemiologists say
Remember this when thinking about your own habits or how you are expecting staff to behave....…. Read more
NIST launches tool to help assess ventilation and indoor air quality
With the new tool, “building professionals can use CO2 readings to routinely check ventilation, detecting potentially unfavorable conditions that could lead to the buildup of harmful contaminants,” NIST says in a press release.. ..……Read more
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Great collection of liniks this month, thanks Paul!