What's Emerging Mid-October 2020
A newsletter on interesting stuff that is emerging around the world so you can think about strategy
Introduction
Welcome to our mid-October newsletter.
In the next few weeks, Paul will be working on a platform strategy in the cleaning industry. He is also working on a community vision project for a Melbourne Council, and creating a consortium in the Not for Profit sector to assist in the “Build it Back Better” movement. He is also participating in a working group with the Leading Edge Forum in the UK looking at the industrialisation of robots. He will be presenting to The Vet Expo in Sydney, and TAFE Boards and directors via the VDC. He will also be receiving training in the Haier model of management with Boundaryless.
If any of this interests you or you want to talk about the use of foresight in your strategy then please Contact Us
The Emergent Futures Team
In case you missed it. The most popular link from the last edition:
This was the most clicked on link for the second newsletter in a row. Obviously there are a lot of you out there struggling with your energy levels in the pandemic so here it is again.
What are we Writing About?
Paul’s has written about what the demographic changes from altered fertility rates and net negative migration mean for planners given we might have over 800,000 less people in Australia in 2024 than previously projected.
you can go to our HOME PAGE to see the post under our latest work.
What’s Emerging?
Does It Make Sense To Build Electric Cars In Australia?
Australia had an automotive industry, but it died. It’s been three years since the last Australian car rolled off a production line. If electric vehicle (EV) production starts up, will it fare better? .…. Read More
The Airbnb for private California swimming pools is booming
“For pool owners it’s a creative way to make money, and on the guest end, they all had their travel plans canceled, public pools have been closed, so it was a convenient staycation. There’s no interaction necessary for the experience with other people, and with the CDC saying really early on that pools are safe, and that the coronavirus doesn’t transfer through water ”..…. Read more
How coronavirus has pushed charities to the brink
Britain’s most vulnerable face losing vital support as charities are pushed to the brink during coronavirus, leading organisations have warned.
New data shows almost 6,000 charities were forced to close in the year to June 2020, a 19 per cent increase on the previous year and a five-year high..…. Read more
Amazon introduces the Amazon One, a way to pay with your palm when entering stores
In the middle of a pandemic when customers are often wearing plastic gloves to stores alongside their face masks, Amazon’s physical retail team is introducing a new biometric device that will allow shoppers to pay at Amazon Go stores using their palm.
While you’re not actually supposed to press your palm down on the device itself, it’s a new technology that will require user education — and that could be a problem, at least in the short term. ….. Read more
New report offers unexpected optimism that Canada could meet its 2030 climate targets
Produced by the new Institute for Sustainable Finance at Queen’s University, the study estimates that meeting the country’s Paris Agreement targets requires a total capital investment of approximately $128-billion over the next decade, with a range of $90-billion to $166-billion, depending on technology and other variables. And the study predicts at least half of that could come from the private sector, particularly if the federal Infrastructure Bank and other mechanisms are used to help build public-private collaboration. ..…. Read more
Toyota’s robot butler prototype hangs from the ceiling like a bat
Paul: Is it just me or does this make you think it is just waiting there to kill you…. Read more
Ford has electric pickup range-extender design that drops into bed, could be option for F150
Ford has designed a removable range-extender that can drop into an electric pickup’s bed, which could possibly become an option for the upcoming F150 electric. Paul: This is an interesting model because most people do not drive long distances on a daily basis so if I can buy a vehicle that suits my needs 360 days of the year and drop in an extender the other 5 days and that vehicle costs $20,000 less to buy then…..…. Read more
A 12-storey pig farm: has China found the way to tackle animal disease?
Yangxiang is one of the Chinese giants of the pork industry, producing about 2 million pigs a year in a dozen farms throughout China. The Yaji mountain site is its largest and most advanced multistorey farming system, and will have the capacity to produce around 840,000 pigs a year when construction is finished. …. Read more
Boston Dynamics Has Near Future Plans for Logistics Robots, Reveals CEO
The company is reportedly working on Handle's upper version which will launch in 2022 and they are already getting customers in the line for testing prototypes. Clearly, that points up their ambition in close touch with the logistics industry.
Handle is a multitasking robot that can reach boxes in higher and lower shelves and move them in seconds. It also has the ability to fold into a compact form to for easier transportation...…. Read more
RMIT's new cost-effective, carbon-capturing poop-to-hydrogen reactor
A team from Australia's RMIT University says it's figured out a cost-effective way to produce hydrogen using wastewater and sewage. The process not only produces clean H2 gas, it also captures all the carbon in human poop and puts it to valuable use. ….Read more
Researchers create fly-catching robots
An international team of Johannes Kepler University researchers is developing robots made from soft materials. A new article in the journal Communications Materials demonstrates how these kinds of soft machines react using weak magnetic fields to move very quickly—even grabbing a quick-moving fly that has landed on it. …. Read more
Physicists build circuit that generates clean, limitless power from graphene
A team of University of Arkansas physicists has successfully developed a circuit capable of capturing graphene's thermal motion and converting it into an electrical current.…. Read more
U.S. farm landscapes could be reshaped by changing climate - research
Climate change could render swathes of agricultural land largely useless for farming in the U.S. South, and force Midwestern farmers to move corn and soybeans elsewhere as crop yields decline, researchers said on Monday.
The profits of growing six key crops are set to fall by almost a third by 2070, the research said, though losses could be reduced by shifting traditional crop heartlands - potentially reshaping distinctive regional landscapes and livelihoods.…..Read more
FedEx teams up with Reliable Robotics on autonomous cargo planes
"This initiative deals with smaller turboprop airplanes and in this case the single-engine C208, which we are looking at putting in very remote and uninhabited areas as part of our network," .… Read more
Business Tips
MessageBird, the ‘omnichannel platform-as-a-service,’ raises $200M Series C at $3B valuation
The idea is to easily enable enterprises and medium and smaller-sized companies to communicate with customers on any channel of their choosing.
Out of the box, this includes support for WhatsApp, Messenger, WeChat, Twitter, Line, Telegram, SMS, email and voice. Customers can start online and then move their support request or query over to a more convenient channel, such as their favourite mobile messaging app, which, of course, can go with them. It’s all part of MessageBird founder and CEO Robert Vis’ big bet that the future of customer interactions is omni-channel.….. Read More
This Technique Was Supposed to Replace Passwords. Turns Out It’s Surprisingly Easy to Hack
The password technique in question is called a knock code. Such codes trace from ancient Greece to turn-of-the-century Russian prisons, in which a series of knocks or taps were equated with various letters. LG’s smartphones offer a super simplified version of the concept: You have a 2 x 2 grid, and you design your own password by hitting these boxes in any sequence you like. .….. Read more
Zoom launches Zapps, OnZoom as it builds out its ecosystem for developers, content creators
Zoom is launching Zapps, where apps developers can build within the video conferencing experience, and a new event marketplace called OnZoom aimed at a wide range of content creators with monetization for ticket sales…. Read more
G Suite Becomes Google Workspace
Paul: Another interesting price form my friend Stowe Boyd who says:
Google Workspace — with Gmail at its core — represents a giant step forward in work technology and performance. At present, the biggest payoffs are limited to those using the new Workspace internal to a business, where all are sharing a common email domain. But in the future, as all gain access to Google Workspace functionality — and the inherent issues of interoperability are resolved — Workspace may redefine collaboration
…. Read more
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