What's Emerging Mid-February 2022
A newsletter on interesting stuff that is emerging around the world so you can think about strategy
Welcome to our second newsletter for 2022.
In the next few weeks, Paul will continue working with a council on their community vision. Paul will also continue working in his role as advisor for foresight and strategy to Save the Children Australia. He is also running a project on how to maximise the adoption of new irrigation technologies in the Dairy and Cotton industries via the use of Sense Maker narrative collection techniques. He will also be continuing work on the new project with Vision Australia on their 10 year vision and strategic planning and working with the General Melbourne Cemetery Trust on strategy. He will also be speaking at the Australian Veterinary Association Conference at the Gold Coast in May and an agriculture conference on the future of plant protein as human food. He is also helping to organise a conference on the future of the farm later in the year. He has also joined a new global research project led by Simon Wardley from the UK. More on that later.
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:
NO AMOUNT OF ALCOHOL IS GOOD FOR THE HEART, SAYS WORLD HEART FEDERATION
Paul: Surprising this was the most clicked link in the last newsletter despite my view that nobody would listen to it. Maybe I move in the wrong circles.……Read more
What are we Writing About?
The last two weeks has been dominated by writing scenarios for clients that are commercial in confidence so we have nothing public to share in this edition.
What’s Emerging
NTT and SKY Perfect are building data centres in space
Japanese telecom and technology firm NTT last May that it had formed a new partnership with SKY Perfect JSAT Holdings. The “new space enterprise” reportedly plans to launch a data centre into space as early as 2025, and begin commercial operations the following year. …. read more
New smart mailbox is built for drone deliveries
DRONEDEK has now developed a smart mailbox for drone deliveries.
It’s about the size of a trash can and is designed to communicate with delivery drones. When one arrives, the lid of the box opens so that the package can be lowered into it via a tether. After the drone releases the package, the lid closes.The interior of the smart mailbox is temperature controlled and cushioned to prevent any damage to packages. When one arrives, the mailbox sends an alert to the owner. They can then unlock the receptacle to retrieve the goods at their leisure..…. Read more
First EVs with solid state batteries to be demonstrated in China
The difference between a traditional battery and a solid-state battery is in its electrolyte: by using a solid material for the electrolyte between the anode and the cathode, battery makers can increase energy density (and therefore driving range), or reduce battery weight.….. Read more
World’s first CRISPR-edited sugarcane developed in Brazil
The edited plants are considered non-transgenic, or DNA-Free, according to Normative Resolution No. 16 (RN No. 16) of the National Biosafety Technical Commission (CTNBio), issued on 12/9/2021. Both developments used the CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats), a “Nobel prized” and revolutionary gene manipulation technique discovered in 2012.
They respond to one of the biggest scientific challenges in the sugarcane sector: easy enzyme’s access into sugars trapped in cells, which facilitates ethanol production (first and second generation), and better extraction of other bioproducts. ..…… Read more
Queensland scientists discover previously unknown genes linked to depression
The findings take the number of known genetic variants associated with depression to more than 100, with the scientists also hopeful that understanding more about the biological basis of the psychiatric condition may pave the way for better treatments and early intervention.…..Read more
City Engg Student Tops In Hackathon
A student of Vishwakarma Government Engineering College, and his guide, have developed a prototype machine that detects the presence of mosquitoes and even their type by analysing the humming noise they create by fluttering their wings. The prototype has 88.3% accuracy in detecting the type of mosquitos......….. Read more
Hactivists say they hacked Belarus rail system to stop Russian military buildup
Hacktivists in Belarus said they had infected the network of the country’s state-run railroad system with ransomware and would provide the decryption key only if Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko stopped aiding Russian troops ahead of a possible invasion of Ukraine...…. Read more
Business Travel Shakeout Begins as Pfizer Axes Staff on Virtual Meetings Rise
According to a document seen by Reuters, Pfizer believes that doctors and other healthcare professionals will want around half of their interactions with drug companies to be remote in the future.......….. Read more
New lightweight material is stronger than steel
The new material is a two-dimensional polymer that self-assembles into sheets, unlike all other polymers, which form one-dimensional, spaghetti-like chains. Until now, scientists had believed it was impossible to induce polymers to form 2D sheets.
Such a material could be used as a lightweight, durable coating for car parts or cell phones, or as a building material for bridges or other structures, says Michael Strano, the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT and the senior author of the new study.......…..Read more
DeepMind says its new AI coding engine is as good as an average human programmer
DeepMind has created an AI system named AlphaCode that it says “writes computer programs at a competitive level.” The Alphabet subsidiary tested its system against coding challenges used in human competitions and found that its program achieved an “estimated rank” placing it within the top 54 percent of human coders. The result is a significant step forward for autonomous coding, says DeepMind, though AlphaCode’s skills are not necessarily representative of the sort of programming tasks faced by the average coder.......….….Read more
GM-Backed Cruise Launches Driverless Ride Service In San Francisco
Cruise, the autonomous driving company backed by General Motors, is kicking off its long-awaited robotaxi service in San Francisco and will allow residents and visitors to take rides in its battery-powered fleet–with no human backup drivers–for free, for the time being. ..…….Read more
40 quintillion stellar-mass black holes are lurking in the universe, new study finds
Astrophysicists hope to use the new estimate to investigate some perplexing questions that arise from observations of the very early universe — for instance, how the early universe became so quickly populated by supermassive black holes — often with masses millions, or even billions, of times greater than the stellar-mass holes the researchers examined in this study — so soon after the Big Bang.....…. Read more
How Shopify is moving closer to bricks-and-mortar retail
Shopify is edging closer to bricks-and-mortar retail after leaked documents show that it has filed a patent for a system of sensors that can measure traffic in retail store.
The application is further evidence the company is looking to go head-to-head with ecommerce giant Amazon which has expanded its bricks-and-mortar footprint exponentially over the past 12 months...…Read more
Researchers pitch pee-based fertiliser trial to make Brisbane parks a wee bit better
Researchers at Griffith University's Cities Research Institute (CRI) have embarked on a project to investigate whether converting human pee into liquid fertiliser is economically viable and whether Queenslanders are willing to have it sprayed in public places......……. Read more
Business Tips
A productivity trick from Sahil Bloom
...…… Read more
What is the RACI model?
The acronym RACI stands for responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed.……Read more
The perils of a writing culture — the Amazon hammer to decision making
Paul: I am actually a big fan of the Amazon writing culture. Forcing people to be clear and concise in writing is a good methodology and elevates the capacity for strategic thought relative to the capacity for flashy presentations. I recommend you read Working Backwards as a good starting point to learn more. However, we should always be challenging our preconceptions and applying the right tools to the right context. This is a good counterpoint to the method…. Read more
Runway | The fastest way to edit video.
This looks super interesting and capable..……Read more
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