What's Emerging Mid-July 2021
A newsletter on interesting stuff that is emerging around the world so you can think about strategy
Introduction
Welcome to our mid-July newsletter for 2021.
In the next few weeks, Paul will continue working with a council on their community vision, work with a new leadership team in the food sector, and working on strategy and foresight for a listed ASX company. He will also be working on a value adding strategy for agriculture in Queensland and working with the AFL Players Association on their next strategic plan (with futurist Reanna Browne who is the lead consultant). Paul will also continue working in his role as advisor for foresight and strategy to Save the Children Australia. He will also be presenting to an agricultural forum in Western Australia and to The CEO Institute Certified Management Program on foresight for practical strategy.
Paul is also acting as lead partner for a Social Venture Partners Melbourne pro bono project with Little Dreamers, a fantastic organisation helping young people who are caring for a family member. He will also be working on strategy with the Boys to the Bush, a not for profit organisation that runs programs for disengaged boys. He is also facilitating the creation of a new strategic plan for Social Venture Partners Melbourne.
We continue to build our Red Teaming initiative and more outside experts have been added since the last newsletter. You can read more about Red Teaming here or you can see the amazing breadth of our team here.
If you want to talk about the use of foresight or red teaming in your strategy for 2021 then please Contact Us.
To all our subscribers in NSW our thoughts are with you. Here in Melbourne we know how tough it is to be in lockdown for COVID for an extended period but until we get much higher vaccination rates there is no alternative but to grind it out. Please stay safe.
The Emergent Futures Team
In case you missed it. The most popular link from the last edition:
Is it worth selling my house if I’m going into aged care? One of our business tips (well not really a business tip but worth looking at)... read more
What are we Writing About?
Paul wrote: Is the Proof in the Pudding? Thoughts on Foresight, Retrospective Coherence and COVID : Read it Here
What’s Emerging
Aging population to hit U.S. economy like a 'ton of bricks' -U.S. commerce secretary
Currently, 16.5% of the U.S. population of 328 million people, or 54 million, are over the age of 65, the latest census shows. By 2030, that number will rise to 74 million. The number of people over the age of 85, who generally need the most care, is growing even faster. …. Read More
Just 25 big cities, mostly in China, responsible for producing half of greenhouse gas emissions, study finds
Just 25 big cities — almost all of them in China — accounted for more than half of the climate-warming gases pumped out by a sample of 167 urban hubs around the world, an analysis of emissions trends shows. ..…. Read more
Common colds come roaring back in NJ as masks come off and COVID precautions loosen
The relaxation of social-distancing requirements and reduction of mask-wearing have brought back conditions that enable viruses to flourish. And children who have been socially isolated have not developed natural immunity to a host of infectious diseases and remain susceptible. .….. Read more
South Korean toilet turns excrement into power and digital currency
Cho Jae-weon, an urban and environmental engineering professor at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), has designed an eco-friendly toilet connected to a laboratory that uses excrement to produce biogas and manure. ..…. Read more
Israel's Semi-Autonomous Robot With Machine Guns is Heading to the Gaza Border
According to the press release, the robot is a semi-autonomous machine equipped with 7.62-millimeter machine guns. It is ultimately intended to stand as a substitute for combat soldiers, and although there are many military robots that came before it, it's one of the first robots in the world that is actually able to work autonomously like a soldier. ..….. Read more
Oklo has a plan to make tiny nuclear reactors that run off nuclear waste
The 22-person Silicon Valley start-up has a plan to build mini-nuclear reactors, powered by the waste of conventional nuclear reactors and housed in aesthetically pleasing A-frame structures. ...….. Read more
THE WORLD’S FIRST LAB-GROWN SUSHI BAR IS ABOUT TO OPEN IN SAN FRANCISCO
Aquaculture startup Wildtype will soon serve slaughter-free, sushi-grade salmon at its pilot facility in San Francisco, which is capable of producing 200,000 pounds of lab-grown fish per year without destroying the ocean.....…. Read more
Warehouses are taking over the Earth
If planners have their way, a 40,000 square metre-sized corner of Weekley Hall Wood, part of an ancient forest near Kettering in Northamptonshire, will soon be tarmacked over and replaced with a giant warehouse. The reason? The next-day delivery boom. ..…..Read more
What if biohackers injected themselves with mRNA?
An excellent question..….….Read more
“Impossible:” Tesla Model S does 400,000km on one set of brake pads
Nigel Raynard, who owns a 2018 Tesla Model S 75D, and runs an airport pick up business in the Byron Bay/Ballina region with partner Louise, has shared with The Driven the insanely low running costs for his vehicle as well as the thrilled reactions he gets from his customers. ..….. Read more
Flying car completes test flight between airports
An actual flying car…….Read more
World's biggest green energy hub proposed for south coast of Western Australia
The Western Green Energy Hub (WGEH) would stretch across 15,000 square kilometres and could produce up to 50 gigawatts of energy. If it was created, the hub would produce 3.5 million tons of zero carbon green hydrogen, or 20 million tons of green ammonia each year, for both domestic consumption and export. …. Read more
AI Controls Laser-Guided Robot Worms
Automated control of light-responsive nematode worms marks the first foray into the development of multicellular, biorobotic organisms...…..Read more
Alibaba Deploys 1,000 Delivery Robots As E-Commerce Booms in China; Accelerates Digitization of Hainan
Alibaba Group said it plans to deploy 1,000 robots across Chinese university campuses and local communities over the next year as it steps up efforts to deliver packages faster and more cheaply. The e-commerce giant’s research arm, Hangzhou-headquartered DAMO Academy, together with the group’s logistics arm Cainiao, have started mass-producing the small robots, known as ‘Xiaomanlv’. The group also elaborated on its plans to develop larger, self-driving trucks to expand the radius of its deliveries. ……. Read more
Business Tips
Do Chance Meetings at the Office Boost Innovation? There’s No Evidence of It
There is no evidence that working in person is essential for creativity and collaboration. It may even hurt innovation, they say, because the demand for doing office work at a prescribed time and place is a big reason the American workplace has been inhospitable for many people…...Read more
More older New Zealanders are starting businesses — and they’re motivated by more than just money
You’re never too old to become your own boss, it seems. All over the world there has been an increase in people aged 50 and over setting up their own businesses. …… Read more
NVIDIA Canvas Uses AI to Turn Your Doodles into ‘Photos’
NVIDIA has announced Canvas, an app that is available as a free beta that it says brings real-time painting tools to anyone with an NVIDIA RTX GPU. It uses artificial intelligence to make rudimentary sketches or doodles into photorealistic scenes. .…. Read more
A thread on leading through growth and change using the "Ask. Answer. Act." muscle (w/ 3 tools in the thread you can use now)
A useful twitter thread on leading a team.….. Read More
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