Trends Identified
Financial Markets and New Economics
We are on the cusp of a new industrial revolution; one that addresses the triple challenge of global economic recovery, energy security and climate change. We stand, perhaps somewhat portentously, at a turning point in the history of humanity. What is missing, however, is an economic vision or financial game plan that can bring the myriad issues and foremost priorities together with the common goal of creating a new political economy and monetary infrastructure fit for the 21st century.
2011
Just imagine - RICS strategic foresight 2030
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)
Don’t invent, evolve
We are on the cusp of a new era in the history of invention. That’s the implication of software that can automatically “evolve” technology, and create designs that often no human would come up with. It’s already transforming fields as diverse as robot locomotion, computer security and drug design.
2011
Seven technologies to disrupt the next decade
NewScientist
Planetary Stewardship in an Age of Scarcity
We are experiencing a confluence of powerful trends. Huge, extraordinary, universal trends, any one of which could impact upon our present way of life are coming together. The scale is planetary; the scope is centuries; the stakes are civilisation; and the speed headlong. At times the problems seem intractable, and all tax the capacity and competency of bureaucracies to tackle them. There is the interplay of three potent forces – growing demand, constrained supply and increased regulation. As one participant put it: “We are like the sorcerer’s apprentice – having started something we can no longer control”. Nevertheless, understanding an organisation’s full exposure to resource risk, especially energy and the environment, will be a defining factor determining long‐term viability.
2011
Just imagine - RICS strategic foresight 2030
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)
Population
We are confronted by the evidence of our rapidly changing world every day and are contributing to its change each in our own way. In the past 50 years, we’ve doubled the number of people alive on our planet, reaching seven billion people at the end of last year. In the next 40 years we are expecting over two billion more people to be alive than today.
2012
The future
Steria
Technology for humanity (specifically machine learning).
We are approaching the point where technology can help resolve societal issues. We predict that large-scale use of machine learning, robots, and drones will help improve agriculture, ease drought, ensure supply of food, and improve health in remote areas. Some of these activities have already started, but we predict an increase in adoption rate and the reporting of success stories in the next year. “Sensors everywhere” and advances in IoT and edge computing are major factors contributing to the adoption of this technology. Recent events, such as major fires and bridge collapses, are further accelerating the urgency to adopt monitoring technologies in fields like forests and smart roads.
2018
IEEE Computer Society Predicts the Future of Tech: Top 10 Technology Trends for 2019
IEEE Computer Society
Nature: 'We'll redefine the wild'
We all want to live in a world where species such as tigers, the great whales, orchids and coral reefs can persist and thrive and I am sure that the commitment that people have to maintaining the spectacle and diversity of life will continue. Over the past 50 years or so, there has been growing support for nature conservation. When we understand the causes of species losses, good conservation actions can and do reverse the trends. But it is going to become much harder. The human population has roughly doubled since the 1960s and will increase by another third by 2030. Demands for food, water and energy will increase, inevitably in competition with other species. People already use up to 40% of the world's primary production (energy) and this must increase, with important consequences for nature. In the UK, some familiar species will become scarcer as our rare habitats (mires, bogs and moorlands) are lost. We will be seeing the effects from gradual warming that will allow more continental species to live here, and in our towns and cities we'll probably have more species that have become adapted to living alongside people. We can conserve species when we really try, so I'm confident that the charismatic mega fauna and flora will mostly still persist in 2035, but they will be increasingly restricted to highly managed and protected areas. The survivors will be those that cope well with people and those we care about enough to save. Increasingly, we won't be living as a part of nature but alongside it, and we'll have redefined what we mean by the wild and wilderness. Crucially, we are still rapidly losing overall biodiversity, including soil microorganisms, plankton in the oceans, pollinators and the remaining tropical and temperate forests. These underpin productive soils, clean water, climate regulation and disease-resistance. We take these vital services from biodiversity and ecosystems for granted, treat them recklessly and don't include them in any kind of national accounting.
2011
20 predictions for the next 25 years
The Guardian
2018 is the year of the bots
We all have gotten use to speaking with bots whenever we call to make airline reservations or to confirm our bank account balances. The use of natural language bots will expand from use as automated customer service agents to become routine for daily living.
2017
4 Technology Trends That Will Transform Our World in 2018
Fortune
Energy-efficient water purification
Water scarcity is a worsening ecological problem in many parts of the world due to competing demands from agriculture, cities and other human uses. Where freshwater systems are over-used or exhausted, desalination from the sea offers near-unlimited water but a considerable use of energy – mostly from fossil fuels – to drive evaporation or reverse-osmosis systems. Emerging technologies offer the potential for significantly higher energy efficiency in desalination or purification of wastewater, potentially reducing energy consumption by 50% or more. Techniques such as forward-osmosis can additionally improve efficiency by utilizing low-grade heat from thermal power production or renewable heat produced by solar-thermal geothermal installations.
2013
The top 10 emerging technologies for 2013
World Economic Forum (WEF)
Wastewater is an asset, not a liability
Water is one of our most precious resources, yet our infrastructure is failing. Driven by global population growth and rising water scarcity, the UN reports that 75 percent of the world’s available freshwater is already polluted. Under-investment in water management is exacerbating the problem, causing serious impacts on human health and the environment. A key challenge is the high capital cost, and high energy requirements, of current wastewater treatment and management systems. By 2020 I predict that a new class of distributed systems, powered by advances in our ability to use biotechnology to extract resources, such as energy, from waste, and the dropping cost of industrial automation, will begin to change our approach to managing water globally. Rather than a liability, wastewater will be viewed as an environmental resource, providing energy and clean water to communities and industry, and ushering in a truly sustainable and economical approach to managing our water resources.
2014
14 tech predictions for our world in 2020
World Economic Forum (WEF)
Environmental Impact
Water and air pollution, and soil degradation through acidification, contamination, desertification, erosion, or salination will remain problems, especially in densely populated, rapidly industrialising states.
2010
Global strategic trends - out to 2040
UK, Ministry of Defence