⏩ 52 glimpses of The Future Normal from 2022
The Future Normal: Fast Forward #33
2022 wasn't quite the year most people would have hoped for as most of us started putting the pandemic behind us.
War in Europe, with its global ramifications. Inflation and economic crisis. Heatwaves and droughts. Culture wars. Here in the UK it was quite literally the end of an era as Queen Elizabeth II, the only British monarch most of the now 8 billion humans on Earth had ever known, died.
Pessimism now reigns. But look a little deeper and there are plenty of reasons to be profoundly hopeful about the way the world is changing – here you will catch 52 glimpses of a better future for you to enjoy and reflect on.
I make no attempt to claim that these are the 'most important' stories from 2022. There are many other lists in that vein. Instead, this deliberately eclectic mix of links from past newsletters, starred emails and liked posts is heavily skewed by my own interests and biases. The metaverse is out; new materials and technologies that will reshape how we live and work are in.
We are on the cusp of transforming our world. But as regular readers will know well, my central vision of the future is that it will feel profoundly normal – in that successful new innovations speak deeply to people's basic human needs and wants.
Marvel as you read this list, but also ask yourself: what will I create in 2023 that is as transformative, yet as ultimately as normal as these innovations?
The UN declared access to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, a universal human right.
The world will add as much renewable power in the next 5 years as it did in the past 20. (NB, the IEA is famous for underestimating the speed and scale of the clean energy transition, but this is its biggest ever restatement...)
Meanwhile, scientists delivered a fusion breakthrough (at small scale, in the lab, etc) ... but limitless, clean energy would kind of change things ;)
Sono Motors' Sion is just one of a host of solar powered cars coming soon...soon range anxiety will be a thing of the past.
America's "first solar-powered town" survived Hurricane Ian. Climate resiliency will be the new selling point for homes and even entire districts.
GAF's Timberline Solar Shingle is the world's first nailable solar panel roof tile. In other words it's a regular roof tile, that also powers your home. Invisible sustainability at its best.
Ubiquitous Energy will turn skyscrapers into 'vertical solar farms' with its solar-embedded windows.
These bio-based batteries made from chitosan (crab shells) could help massively reduce e-waste.
Powerfoyle is a flexible solar cell that can generate power from ambient light, enabling headphones that never need charging.
A urologist used his Rivian to perform the world's first EV-powered vasectomy (these won't be the future normal, but millions of decentralized micro-grids will be).
Battery-powered induction hobs don't seem like a big deal, but powering energy-hungry appliances is a major obstacle to decarbonizing our homes.
Mighty Buildings delivered the world's first 3D-printed, net zero homes.
Amsterdam's engineers are asking "what if we could recycle our buildings?"
Unless Collective's "regenerative" sneakers are 100% bio-based, meaning they can be ground up and returned to nature.
Plant-based fur is coming (just as a signal that there will be plant-based versions of everything you wear, eat and use...)
Apeel's plant-based coating protects fresh fruit and vegetables to reduce food waste. Zero packaging = zero waste.
CoffeeB makes coffee pods without the pod. Every 'problematic' item will be ripe for reinvention.
Cove's biodegradable water bottle might just change how we think about single-use, if it can quickly scale up to the billions of units needed.
Notpla launched its seaweed-coated food takeout boxes with Just Eat at the Women's Euro soccer final; the biodegradable packaging startup won the Earthshot Prize at the end of the year.
Shellworks' microbe-based Vivomar is premium-grade packaging for the beauty industry that looks like plastic, but will compost organically in your garden, if you wanted it to.
In Sweden, Renewcell opened its commercial scale textile recycling factory that will produce up to half a billion t-shirts a year.
Selfridges set a target of 45% of its transactions to be 'circular' - e.g. resale, rental, repair. This would be a huge shift, the store is currently only at 1/10 of this.
Upside Foods letter from the FDA took its cultivated meat closer to commercial availability in the US. Chicken, grown in a bioreactor in Oakland, California. Soon, anywhere?
Singapore approved the commercial sale of Solar Foods' CO2-derived protein powder, Solein. Made from CO2 and renewable electricity it divorces food from agriculture and climate.
Gourmey's lab-grown foie gras hints at some fascinating ethical questions ... why not eat it? Or wear VitroLab's lab-grown leather?
C16 Bioscience launched Palmless, its synethic palm oil substitute. Clean, locally-product, low-impact everything.
Nestle is partnering with Perfect Day to release animal-free dairy products.
Eleven Madison Park became the first vegan 3 Michelin Starred restaurant after going plant-based last year.
Plink asks why we ship heavy water around the country, when you could just ship the flavor in an effervescent tablet?
On partnered with Lanzatech released its CloudPrime sneaker, made from captured CO2 emissions
Twelve is working with Alaska Airlines to use jet fuel made from captured carbon.
Germans' €9/month unlimited public transport experiment saw 52 million people sign up, saving 1.8 million tonnes of CO2.
What if Apple made an e-bike?The Citroen Ami, a 'quadricycle' came to London, as part of a wider urban trend towards not-so-micromobility.
Flying taxis are getting closer. Watch Archer's Midnight eVTOL launch.
Patagonia made "Earth our only shareholder" as founder Yvon Chouinard transferred his $3b stake into a Perpetual Purpose Trust.
Similarly, Faith in Nature became the world's first company to formally appoint "Nature" to its board.
DALL-E 2, Stable Diffusion and Midjourney changed the world of visual creativity if not quite overnight, then certainly in a matter of months. This mega thread rounds up some of the best early uses...
Runway teased a text-to-video editor that would allow people to 'shoot' video by simply writing what they wanted to see.
Joe Rogan interviewed Steve Jobs in a totally AI-generated podcast...the script, the audio, everything.
Intel's FakeCatcher can detect deepfakes and synthetic video media in real time with 96% accuracy. Which is great, except 4% of the infinite content that's coming will still completely overwhelm us.
What more to say on ChatGPT ... 1m users in just 5 days says it all.
We're less than a month in and there are so many mind-blowing use cases, but I particularly enjoyed this demo from DoNot Pay where a ChatGPT bot automatically negotiates a cable discount.
Generative AI will augment rather than automate creativity. Here are some techniques to accelerate & expand your ideas.
Automated, real-time translation gets more and more powerful, and closer to regular mainstream use.
"Functional experiences" are the future of the Experience Economy.
In a stunning shift from the war on drugs, the US government now "anticipates" that regulators will approve psychedelic therapies within the next two years.
Or will we just trip in VR?
Two cancer studies had "unheard of" and "astonishing" results, giving hope that we might be inching closer to a cure.
DeepMind's AlphaFold not only predicted the shape of 200 million proteins, the company also open sourced the tool. Expect to see many more 'grand solutions' go a similar route.
People love 4-day work weeks. Who'd have thought it? ;)
EY offered all of its 300,000+ employees a free Masters in Sustainability, in partnership with Hult Business School.
And finally, our fears of Armageddon were eased after NASA deliberately crashed into, and altered the orbit of, an asteroid. Unlikely to be a big part of the future normal, but nice to know we can...
Where are you going in 2023?
The Future Normal has been selected by SXSW as a featured session. If you want a bespoke preview of the big trends and opportunities that will shape YOUR future, then let's talk.
**********
The Future Normal explores how we will live, work and thrive in the coming decade by highlighting the breakthroughs and pioneers building our future, today.
Thanks for reading,