Trends Identified
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)
Creative Cities with Connected Communities
City building has become the ultimate expression of mankind’s ingenuity. The 21st century, moreover, is set to be the century of cities, for cities are moving centrestage, with both the commercial and cultural world increasingly being characterised by cities rather than by countries. Though the world’s cities differ significantly, they should all espouse one particular key ambition – to pursue a path of sustainable urban development – enhancing their quality of life and economic competitiveness while reducing both social exclusion and environmental degradation.
2011
Just imagine - RICS strategic foresight 2030
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)
Productivity, Partnership and People
Sometimes the world seems to be upside‐down, inside‐out, counter‐intuitive and confusing. Who would have imagined, a decade ago, a freely available service such as Google having such a profound impact on almost everything; social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn potentially connecting everyone; distributors in the mould of Amazon selling everywhere; sites such as eBay selling almost anything; financial intermediaries like PayPal setting‐up all over; or sources such as Wikipedia expanding our knowledge for ever and evermore. Customers increasingly are in charge. The mass market is dead. Middlemen are doomed. The niche is nice. Clients collaborate. Interactive communities open‐source and invent. We have shifted from scarcity to abundance. Openness, not ownership, is the key to success. It is all a never‐ending conversation.
2011
Just imagine - RICS strategic foresight 2030
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)
Be nice to the telepresence robot
You wouldn’t rest your feet on a colleague during a meeting. But what if your workmate was a robot controlled by a co-worker many kilometres away – would it still be rude? This is typical of the new etiquette questions that will be raised by remote-controlled telepresence robots, which allow you to transport your “self” anywhere in the world to take a look around. A roving version of you, these robots could alter the way we travel and interact with each other.
2011
Seven technologies to disrupt the next decade
NewScientist
Stroll through data in the augmented city
Our cities could soon be painted with secrets we cannot see with the naked eye. The streets, buildings and sometimes even the citizens themselves would teem with virtual information. With the help of augmented reality (AR) you could see the occupancy level of a hotel emblazoned on its walls and read a restaurant’s reviews as you walk past. The people you meet might even reveal their names and job titles before you say a word. AR is about to create a new layer over the cityscape by adding graphical information from apps and the internet onto objects in your field-of-view as you peer around.
2011
Seven technologies to disrupt the next decade
NewScientist
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
Eat a printed dinner in your printed home
It’s early evening and you pull the car into the drive of your new home that was erected in just two days. Since it is your wife’s birthday, you are clutching a personalised gold necklace that you picked up from the printer. For dinner tonight, you won’t need to do any chopping or peeling – ingredients just go straight into your kitchen fabricator.
2011
Seven technologies to disrupt the next decade
NewScientist
Jacking into your brain
Of all the ways that we have been aided by technology, forging a direct link between our brains and computers is the most intimate yet. Brain-machine interfaces (BMI) are poised to challenge our notions of identity, culpability and the acceptable limits of human enhancement.
2011
Seven technologies to disrupt the next decade
NewScientist
The crystal ball internet
For around 20 years, starting in the 1980s, the political scientist Philip Tetlock sought predictions from people considered knowledgeable. His experts, 280 of them, were the kind of folk who, in their work as TV pundits or government advisors, opined on matters such as the rise of China or security in the Middle East. As time passed, he checked their forecasts. The results were dismal. “Human beings who spend their lives studying the state of the world… are poorer forecasters than dart-throwing monkeys,” wrote one reviewer of Tetlock’s work. Not so for a powerful new method of forecasting called “text mining”. It draws on the vast amount of data available online. By sampling the sentiments expressed in the torrent of blog posts, tweets and Facebook updates, you can gain unprecedented insights into the mood of the world and use it to predict what is to come.
2011
Seven technologies to disrupt the next decade
NewScientist
Digital wallets will empty faster
Anthropologists know there are three things most of us now carry with us wherever we go: our keys, our wallets and our cellphones. Digital wallets could fold the last two into a single item – and perhaps eradicate cash altogether. Could it change how we spend too?
2011
Seven technologies to disrupt the next decade
NewScientist