⏩ Future Normal: Fast Forward #14
⏩ Future Normal: Fast Forward #14
Carbontech goes mainstream; AI coding pals; company-wide vacations; Victoria's Secret drops the Angels, and more...
The central belief running through this newsletter is that today’s extremes become tomorrow’s mainstream. This week, we meet a variety of extremes – from CO2 negative products to employee-first company cultures to hyper-immersive entertainment on an epic scale – that will all become commonplace in a few years.
Why can we have such confidence these innovations will become unremarkable in The Future Normal? Because they all speak to a fundamental human need or desire: for positive impact, decent work and more meaningful experiences.
You’re reading this newsletter because you’re interested in where things are headed. So the next time you see something ridiculous or radical, ask yourself: ‘why might people welcome this? Could I speak to a similar need?’
The Future Normal is ours to build, together. Let’s do it right.
Has the Carbontech Revolution Begun?
🔮 #FutureNormal // We can now pull carbon out of the air, creating products with negative CO2 emissions. This could change everything. The NYT says it best: “You might wake in the morning on a mattress made from recycled CO2 and grab sneakers and a yoga mat made from CO2-derived materials. You might drive your car — with parts made from smokestack CO2 — over roads made from CO2-cured concrete. And at day’s end, you might sip carbontech vodka while making dinner with food grown in a greenhouse enriched by recycled CO2.”
💡 So what? // This article touches on the biggest question of carbontech: “will it be enough?” That’s a big question, that no one has the answer to, yet. But we have to work as if it will be so, otherwise what’s the point?
Company-wide vacations could be the future of paid time off
🔮 #FutureNormal // The pandemic has wreaked havoc on employees’ mental wellbeing, and it’s reported that up to 40% of American workers are considering quitting their jobs. Three tech companies – Bumble, LinkedIn, Hootsuite, – have taken the bold step of giving (nearly) their entire workforces a designated vacation week in order to combat burnout.
💡 So what? // Millions of workers around the world will read these stories and ask, ‘why not here?’ This might appear radical and headline-worthy today, but given the war for talent it’s not hard to see how this could quickly become a major workplace trend.
GitHub introduces an AI pal to help you code better
🔮 #FutureNormal // Anyone who uses Gmail will have likely experienced its extended autocomplete function, where it uses AI to suggest the final few words in a sentence. Now, GitHub has partnered with OpenAI (the creators of the famous GPT-3 model), to launch Copilot, a tool that can offer programmers multiple lines of code suggestions (and even entire functions and automated tests), while they work.
💡 So what? // Tell your kids to learn to code! That was the mantra of the 2010s. But this story highlights a powerful, deeper Future Normal when it comes to work: while there will always be a premium paid for the hottest new technical skills (and in the 2020s, biotech will replace coding here), this premium will be rapidly erased as they get ‘eaten’ by automation. Your mantra for the 2020s? EQ > IQ!
Victoria’s Secret Swaps Angels for ‘What Women Want.’ Will They Buy It?
🔮 #FutureNormal // It’s hardly surprising that Victoria’s Secret is trying to close one of the widest branding gaps in modern culture: getting rid of its big-budget, supermodel-driven, aspirational-if-not-wholly-unobtainable beauty pageant and embrace a new model of feminity centered around realism, inclusivity, diversity and achievement.
💡 So what? // One of its new brand ambassadors, Megan Rapinoe, said that Victoria’s Secret was, “patriarchal, sexist, viewing not just what it meant to be sexy but what the clothes were trying to accomplish through a male lens and through what men desired… a “really harmful [message].” Wow. The turnaround might not work, but you have to admire the brand’s willingness to engage with, and even promote, this honest criticism. Perhaps they didn’t have a choice. Anything less simply wouldn’t wash.
The Illuminarium: the IMAX-beating multisensory theater experience
🔮 #FutureNormal // Launching in Atlanta this month, the Illuminarium offers high-definition video projected onto walls 22 feet tall and 350 feet wide (!), enhanced with multisensory features such as floors that vibrate and smells that permeate the space. The first experience is an African safari, and a Moon walk experience is in development.
💡 So what? // A fun final item, that also highlights some BIG (couldn’t help it!) trends coming to the Experience Economy. First, COVID-19 won’t kill the thrill of real-world experiences, even if this is perfectly suited to a world of reduced international travel. Second, virtual experiences will widely accessible and increasingly high fidelity near-replicas of difficult or expensive experiences – safaris, space, etc. Will they replace the real thing? Absolutely not. History shows that the more accessible the substitute, the more valuable the real thing will become. Just look at how space tourism has become the new billionaire status symbol…