Vol.
3, No. 8 | June 2017 | AAI
Foresight
How
Autonomous Vehicles Could Affect Hog Farming
From
the department of unexpected consequences.... The rise of
self-driving cars could alter the future of hog production, Canadian
futurist Nikolas Badminton [http://nikolasbadminton.com/]
recently told an audience of swine farmers. Reason: Autonomous
vehicles will be safer, resulting in fewer deaths and therefore fewer
human organs available for donation. Enter the medical pig.
Gene-editing
technologies under development could create pigs with organs suitable
for use in humans, Badminton said. With the trend toward
vegetarianism already affecting demand for pork, hog farmers may
instead raise the animals for medical consumption.
Read
“Self-driving cars could affect pig production: futurist”
[http://www.producer.com/2017/05/self-driving-cars-could-affect-pig-production-futurist/]
by Mary Baxter, The Western Producer (May 4, 2017). Note:
Badminton has opened a new speakers bureau, Futurist Speaker Agency.
[https://futuristspeakersagency.com/]
Ford Hires
(Another) Futurist
The Ford Motor Co.
praises its new CEO, Jim Hackett,
[https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/people/james-hackett.html]
as a “visionary” who will help the company move forward in
developing autonomous vehicles. Hackett joined Ford in 2016 to lead
its mobility services division.
Previously, Ford’s
futures-orientation had manifested itself in sustainability efforts
such as lightweighting the popular F-150 trucks with aluminum instead
of steel. But the vehicles have become so popular that, as more are
manufactured, more resources are consumed (including both virgin and
recycled materials), points out sustainability scholar Carl A.
Zimring in a new book, Aluminum Upcycled.
“The most
sustainable automobile design of the twenty-first century is not an
automobile at all, but a system to distribute transportation
services,” Zimring writes. “Automobile-sharing programs such as
Zipcar and IGO, and the bicycle-sharing programs of several European
and North American cities distribute the services of driving to a
wide clientele without the damage of mass production and disposal.”
Comment:
If this is what Hackett’s vision is for Ford, and if he can
monetize that vision into services Ford can provide, he may truly
earn the name of futurist. But Hackett isn’t the first futurist at
Ford. It’s actually in Sheryl
Connelly’s
[https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/people/sheryl-connelly.html]
job description. Connelly is the company’s manager for global
consumer trends and futuring and has given numerous presentations on
futurism in her industry. (Disclosure: This writer owns a few shares
of Ford stock and has owned only Ford vehicles since the early
1980s.) —CGW
Read Aluminum
Upcycled: Sustainable Design in Historical Perspective by Carl A.
Zimring of the Platt Institute (Johns Hopkins University Press
[www.press.jhu.edu],
2017).
Credit, Hackett and Connelly photos: Ford Motor Co.
Opportunity:
Startups for Smart Cities
The
Singularity University has
issued a call for startup companies and entrepreneurs “that apply
exponential technologies to help shape better cities,” starting
with Columbus, Ohio. “In this intensive 10-week program, you’ll
receive high-velocity training, relevant mentoring from the best
minds around the world, and help preparing to scale your company,”
according to SU. “Finally, you’ll also receive up to $100,000 in
seed funding, provided by NCT Ventures.” The accelerator will be
from September 12 to November 17 in Columbus. The deadline to apply
is July 17. Learn more at Singularity University.
[https://su.org/smart-city-accelerator/startups/]
Recent
Publications
“The
Future of Britain 2022: A Pre-Election Survey on Electoral
Priorities” by Rohit
Talwar, Alexandra Whittington,
and April Koury,
Fast Future Publishing [http://fastfuturepublishing.com/main/]
(June 5, 2017).
More
than 79 percent of respondents to Fast Future’s survey stated that
creating a more representative electoral system was a major priority
for the future of Britain, with nearly 28 percent suggesting that
decentralizing authority and decision making to the local level would
help achieve this goal. “The scale of interest in electoral reform
may come as the biggest surprise but is a clear reflection of the
desire for more representative governance models,” the report
states. And despite the Brexit victory a year ago, nearly 42 percent
of the Britons responding to the survey said assuring Britain retains
access to the European single market is a priority.
See
also Joergen Oerstroem
Moeller’s analysis
of the recent elections: “Time for UK to practise humility:
Tarnished May's unnecessary gamble,”
[https://www.omfif.org/analysis/commentary/2017/june/time-for-uk-to-practise-humility/]
OMFIF—Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (June 9,
2017). Moeller is senior research fellow, ISEAS Yusof Ishak
Institute, and Singapore Management University, and a former state
secretary at the Danish Foreign Ministry.
“The
Internet of Things Connectivity Binge: What Are the Implications?”
[http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/06/06/the-internet-of-things-connectivity-binge-what-are-the-implications/]
by Lee Rainie
and Janna Anderson,
Pew Research Center, Internet & Technology (June 6, 2017).
Despite
fears of widespread cyberattacks, “The Internet of Things (IoT) is
in full flower,” Rainie and Anderson write. This report on Pew’s
“nonscientific canvassing” of more than 1,200 IT professionals,
futurists, and others found that 85 percent would choose more
connectivity rather than less. But we will increasingly be unaware of
that connectivity, commented Jamais Cascio,
[http://www.openthefuture.com/jamais_bio.html]]
distinguished fellow at the Institute for the Future. “Think of it
as the ‘electricity’ effect,” he said. On the other hand, “the
attacks will get much worse,” said writer Cory Doctorow,
co-owner of Boing Boing.
“At
present, the Internet of Things is more a series of missteps than a
grand design, if for no other reason than many of the large players
are competitors versus cooperators and accepted protocols are still
not agreed upon,” commented Timothy C. Mack, managing
principal at AAI Foresight. “As well, the ‘gold rush’ quality
of such areas as ‘smart homes’ has led to shoddy design and poor
construction of the physical and the digital aspects of this brave
new world. As for the loss of critical safety and security through
networks trying to interconnect and protect and the same time (with
largely the same tools), we should expect many more disappointments
in the IoT development saga.”
Moves
in the Field
RAND
opens Bay Area office:
The RAND Corporation has opened on office in San Francisco “to
foster collaboration with the region's leaders and researchers
working to solve today’s complex problems—issues including
technological change and innovation, social inequality, water
resource management, and transportation.” Senior information
scientist Nidhi
Kalra
[https://www.rand.org/about/people/k/kalra_nidhi.html]
will lead the new office. Learn more at RAND.
[https://www.rand.org/blog/2017/04/rand-opens-office-in-the-san-francisco-bay-area.html]
Sweeney joins
humanitarian organization:
Futurist John A. Sweeney
has joined the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies (Geneva, Switzerland) as global futures and foresight
coordinator. Learn more at IFRC. [http://ifrc.org/innovation]
Honors
and Milestones
XPRIZE
names authors to Science Fiction Advisory Council:
The XPRIZE will seek inspiration from more than 60 “visionary
storytellers who will lend their expertise in honing our vision of
the future.” Among
those on the council are Margaret
Atwood,[http://margaretatwood.ca/]
Cory
Doctorow,
[http://craphound.com/bio/]
Madeline
Ashby,
[http://madelineashby.com/]
David
Brin,
[http://www.davidbrin.com/biography.html]
Brenda
Cooper,
[http://www.brenda-cooper.com/about/]
and Greg
Bear.
[http://www.gregbear.com/bio.php]
Learn more at XPRIZE. [http://www.xprize.org/about/scifi]
Silicon
Valley Honors Tech Investors: The
Silicon Valley Forum has bestowed its annual Visionary Award on five
technology investors: DFJ partner Steve Jurvetson;
[http://dfj.com/people/steve-jurvetson] IBM nanotechnology pioneer
Don Eigler;
[https://www.research.ibm.com/theworldin2050/bios-Eigler.shtml]
Megan Smith,
[https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/administration/eop/ostp/about/leadershipstaff/smith]
chief technology officer of the United States under the Obama
administration; Neri Oxman
[https://www.media.mit.edu/people/neri/overview/
] of the MIT Media Lab; and Linda Rottenberg
[http://endeavor.org/global-board/linda-rottenberg/]
of Endeavor. Learn more at Silicon Valley Forum.
[http://siliconvalleyforum.com/event/29130789977]
In
Memoriam
Jacque
Fresco: Venus
Project founder Jacque Fresco
died May 18 in Sebring, Florida, at the age of 101. Like Buckminster
Fuller before him, Fresco was a big-picture thinker whose passion was
solving the world’s greatest problems, including equitable resource
distribution. The Venus Project, set about two hours south of
Orlando, Florida, realized his vision, with partner Roxanne
Meadows,
of a cybernetically sophisticated city featuring
elegant, spaceship-like buildings. Read the open letter by Roxanne
Meadows
[https://www.thevenusproject.com/]
and the New
York Times obituary.
[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/24/us/jacque-fresco-futurist-who-envisioned-a-society-without-money-dies-at-101.html?_r=0].
Richard
Solomon:
RAND Corporation senior fellow Richard
H. Solomon
died March 13 in Bethesda, Maryland. He was 79. Solomon was a China
scholar and is credited with helping open U.S.-China relations and
ending conflict in Cambodia. He also led the U.S. Institute of Peace
for 19 years, where he helped promote nonviolent conflict resolution.
Read the RAND press release
[https://www.rand.org/news/press/2017/03/14.html]
and the Washington
Post obituary.
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/richard-solomon-kissinger-aide-involved-in-ping-pong-diplomacy-with-china-dies-at-79/2017/03/14/a8866d74-ef03-11e6-b4ff-ac2cf509efe5_story.html?utm_term=.859cfce33c5c]
_________
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consulting editor.
Feel
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__________
©
2017 AAI
Foresight
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