What's Emerging October 2022
A newsletter on interesting stuff that is emerging around the world so you can think about strategy
Welcome to our October newsletter.
In the next few weeks, Paul will be continuing work with Save the Children on their strategic planning and commencing a project with the RSL on thinking about the future. He also continues to participate in a global research project led by Simon Wardley from the UK and is continuing a year-long foresight advisory role with Vision Australia. He will also be presenting to the CEO Institute Future CEOs Group on De-Risking Global Supply Chains as well as two other CEO Institute groups on Foresight for Practical Strategy. He has also taken over as Chair of Social Venture Partners Melbourne, the venture philanthropy group he has been a partner at for the last 8 years.
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:
How to unlock the best Qantas seats using the ‘T-80’ rule
10% of readers opened this one last edition.....…. Read more
What are we Writing About?
All recent work has been private so there is nothing in this section for this edition.
What’s Emerging
Lenovo Unboxed: Lenovo Glasses T1 (2022)
Paul : this looks like an AR system that people might actually use.
Black Death shaped the evolution of immune system genes and modern autoimmune disorders
A study, published in the journal Nature, found that people who survived the ravages of the disease were more likely to carry a version of a gene that protected them against the plague. But this gene may have also made today's descendants of Black Death survivors more susceptible to autoimmune disorders such as Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis..... Read More
1000TB SSDs could become mainstream by 2030 as Samsung plans 1000-layer NAND
Samsung Electronics has revealed its roadmap for its SSD ecosystem at the 2022 Samsung Tech Day......……. Read more
Brain-zapping tech improves memory by more than 50%
The new study confirms that precisely guided brain stimulation can improve a person’s ability to make new memories, but we’re still a long way away from a practical device that can help people with dementia or traumatic brain injuries regain lost memory function...……read more
Electric cars reach 18% of new car sales in California compared to 6% in the US
While EV naysayers claim that subsidies are all that is keeping electric vehicles alive, there are only in fact two things right now that the US EV market can’t do without: California and Tesla...…..Read more
Bangladesh farmers turn to floating rafts to grow crops
As rising seas and storm flooding threaten more farmland, farmers in climate crisis-hit country revive old practice.........…..Read more
Extreme Miyake radiation events captured in tree rings stump scientists
The most intense solar storm in recorded history, known as the Carrington event, damaged nascent power and communication networks in the Victorian era. But Earth has been hit by radiation levels that were up to 100 times greater than this, according to a new study of spikes in radiocarbon stored in tree rings..........….. Read more
Goodbye Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Hello, Luxury Bus?
Giant sleeper buses have been a staple of travel in parts of Latin America and Asia for decades. But in the United States, the concept has never taken hold...…. Read more
Warmer Winters Keep Crops Sleepy into Spring, Hurting Yield
Annual crops go dormant during winter. Frosty temperatures cue them to wake up—but the warmer winters brought on by climate change scramble the cold signal, hurting yield......…..Read more
COVID-19 activates similar response to Parkinson's disease, study suggests
Lead researcher Trent Woodruff, said the findings illustrated a potential future risk for neurodegenerative conditions in people who had been infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. But he said it was too early for the study to cause alarm, with much more work needed into how the virus may affect the human brain............….. Read more
Bendy batteries could power new categories, and Anthro Energy thinks it’s cracked the code
The era of inflexible portable power may be coming to an end, though, if Anthro Energy can bring its bendy batteries to market. It’s getting some help with that courtesy of an oversubscribed $7.2 million seed round, which the company is announcing today, TechCrunch exclusively learned....….….Read more
This AI Watches You Walk to Diagnose Parkinson’s, MS
In a recent study, a team of researchers at the University of Illinois explored a technique using standard video cameras combined with AI that can assess a person’s gait and identify those who may have Parkinson’s disease or MS. The results, which show the approach can reach accuracies as high as 79 percent, were published on 20 September in the IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics.......…… Read More
This new farming robot uses lasers to kill 200,000 weeds per hour
In February, agricultural robotics company Carbon Robotics unveiled its 2022 LaserWeeder implement, a cost-effective weed control solution for large-scale specialty row crops. It consists of an autonomous, laser weeding pull-behind robot that seamlessly attaches to the back of tractors to chop off 200,000 weeds per hour with lasers. This is 100,000 more than when it was first introduced in 2021.........…. Read more
Fishing exclusion zone benefits fishers hundreds of kilometres away, study finds
Critics have questioned the legitimacy of what is referred to as the spillover effect — where excluding fishing is hypothesised to produce ecological and/or commercial fishing benefits beyond the boundaries of the protected area. But research published in Science suggests fishing exclusion zones can benefit both fishers and the marine environment, and that fish yields for some species can be boosted up to several hundred kilometres away from the protected habitat......…. Read more
Ozone Hole Continues Shrinking in 2022, NASA and NOAA Scientists Say
The annual Antarctic ozone hole reached an average area of 8.9 million square miles (23.2 million square kilometers) between Sept. 7 and Oct. 13, 2022. This depleted area of the ozone layer over the South Pole was slightly smaller than last year and generally continued the overall shrinking trend of recent years......……. Read more
Business Tips
Vigorous physical activity (VPA), incident heart disease, and cancer: how little is enough?
VPA of 15–20 min/week were associated with a 16–40% lower mortality HR, with further decreases up to 50–57 min/week. These findings suggest reduced health risks may be attainable through relatively modest amounts of VPA accrued in short bouts across the week...…… Read more
Auto-Lock your Laptop Screen with a Person Sensor
The Person Sensor from Useful Sensors is a small $10 hardware module that detects nearby faces.……Read more
Anker's 551 USB-C Hub is almost the perfect iPad Pro accessory
Paul: Long term readers will know that I have beenn using my iPad Pro more and more for work so I am always on the lookout for enhancements. Have not upgraded to a USB-C version yet but will almost certainly buy this when I do. ....…. Read more
Why Planning Over Strategy?
And How to Fix the Problem.……..Read more
Paul: and if you have read this and need help in getting your organisation to do strategy rather than planning, we have a free offer called “Second Opinion” which demonstrates that methodology we use to achieve this looking at a real live issue inside your organisation. Contact me at paul@emergentfutures.com or on 0408 557 583 to set up a time for us to discuss the approach and how we can help
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