Introduction
Welcome to our mid-June newsletter. As you may have noticed it looks a lot different because we have migrated it to Substack as our mailing and publishing system. We hope you like the changes.
In the next few weeks, Paul will be continuing to work on a regional tourism project and a strategic view for a national cleaning company. He is also participating in a working group with the Leading Edge Foundation in the UK looking at the industrialisation of robots, and being part of the Energy Startup Bootcamp in Melbourne.
If any of this interests you then please Contact Us
The Emergent Futures Team
In case you missed it: The most popular link from the last edition
Every Type of Zoom Call Participant, Illustrated by Cats
What are we Writing About?
Paul presented to one of The CEO Institute syndicates on how to think about strategy in the uncertainty that the pandemic has created. You can see the presentation and the notes by going to our Home Page and looking under our latest work
What’s Emerging?
RIP, apps? Google teases the future of smartphone interfaces
With the launch of Android 11 beta, Google is rethinking its operating system…. Read more
This luxurious airline upgrade could fight COVID-19 on your next flight
This two-year-old startup is looking to make airline travel safer and more comfortable with its socially distant, lay-flat airline seats. …. Read more
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy Begins NRC Licensing Process for BWRX-300 Small Modular Reactor
Through dramatic design simplification, GEH projects the BWRX-300 will require significantly less capital cost per MW when compared to other water-cooled SMR designs or existing large nuclear reactor designs …. Read more
DPD Switzerland relies on electric mobility with the e-truck
The Futuricum brand Logistics 18E e-truck was developed by Designwerk Products AG based on a Volvo vehicle. With a storage capacity of 680 kilowatt hours, the battery is the largest truck battery in Europe and the first to be used commercially in the form worldwide. Thanks to the dimension of the energy storage, the e-truck has a range of up to 760 kilometers. …. Read more
Tesla secures approval for new Model 3 with cheaper lithium iron phosphate batteries
One advantage of LFP batteries is that they don’t use cobalt, which is an expensive and sometimes controversial mineral. …. Read more
Double-double tracking: How Tim Hortons knows where you sleep, work and vacation
Tim Hortons is logging detailed location data of customers through its app — and many may not realize it’s happening at all…. Read more
Inside the ambitious plan to build a Minecraft version of Australia
Constructing a virtual version of a building in Minecraft can take teams of builders dozens of hours.Mr Zouain's magnum opus is the Sydney Opera House, which took him and others around 60 hours to complete…. Read more
90% Clean Grid by 2035 Is Not Just Feasible, But Cheaper, Study Says
Clean energy costs have fallen so rapidly that previously unthinkable scenarios now look like a good deal for the U.S., a new study contends…. Read more
How the pandemic could be making it harder to get food from farm to plate
To grow crops, most farmers need to use certain chemicals. They also like to have spare parts in their sheds, in case machinery breaks down. But most of those products are made overseas and while international transport has been limited, farmers have found them more difficult to get.…. Read more
Amazon Taps Cheap Debt Markets to Raise $10 Billion
Amazon issued $10 billion worth of callable bonds across six different tranches with maturities as long as 40 years. The paper fetched investment-grade ratings from the major credit rating agencies. The money that is due to be repaid in 2023 attracted an interest rate of just 0.4% …. Read more
How a Supersonic Metal Spray Could Make Subs Even Deadlier
The Royal Australian Navy is investigating so-called “cold spray” technology to repair its six Collins-class attack submarines (pictured above). The tech would allow the service to repair parts on submarines, even the pressure hull, while still at sea. A form of additive manufacturing, cold spray could revolutionize shipboard repairs aboard subs worldwide …. Read more
Dishcraft Robotics is using robots to save reopening restaurants from creating more waste
Dishcraft Robotics has a simple pitch to corporate kitchens and restaurants that could potentially save tons of single use plastic, noncompostable takeout containers, dishware and cutlery from ending up in landfills. Use its cleaning service that will drop off all the clean, reusable dishware and cutlery a restaurant or corporate kitchen could possibly need in the morning and pick up all the dirty dishes, cups and silverware that the foodservice location uses throughout the day…. Read more
Drone deliveries soar in rural Scotland during coronavirus outbreak
Isle of Mull among areas trialling use of unmanned aircraft to distribute supplies…. Read more
40 Years on, PAC-MAN Recreated with AI by NVIDIA Researchers
GameGAN, a generative adversarial network trained on 50,000 PAC-MAN episodes, produces a fully functional version of the dot-munching classic without an underlying game engine…. Read more
Business Tips
How to Delete a Facebook Group in 5 Easy Steps
The reasons to delete a Facebook Group have been building. But deleting your Facebook Group is more than the mechanics. You need a strategy for your moving your community …. Read more
Designing Remote Training
The forced experiment of work from home is giving us the opportunity to rethink how we do things. We are already experimenting with different approaches to workshops. This guide is one for IT training but it is broadly applicable to all forms of online training…. Read more
Farewell to Beyond the Beyond
Not exactly a business tip but the end of an era. Bruce is always worth reading when you need to try and think differently…. Read more