⏩ Climate-controlled cycling; guilt-free steaks; AI-powered meetings; psychedelic wellness Down Under and more...
Future Normal: Fast Forward #37
Thinking about the future causes us to embrace a challenging paradox.
We need and want future scenarios that are sufficiently different from today to be interesting. Professionally, it is the gap between life today and “the future” that presents opportunity.
At the same time, you only have to consider your own daily life to be reminded of an even more powerful truth – everything that was once touted as “the future” feels profoundly normal today.
We tap our phones and scroll past more information than previous generations would have encountered in their entire lives. We throw away cheap products that emerge from invisible global supply chains. We use tools that enable us to create things in minutes that would have taken teams of professionals months, if they could have created them at all.
Renowned futurist Jim Dator once wrote that “any useful idea about the future should appear to be ridiculous”. Yet our lived experience suggests we have an amazing ability to make these ridiculous ideas normal.
Take a moment to consider what you're working on as you dive into this week's provocations of the future normal:
Is it suitably ridiculous today? And, more importantly, will it soon be boringly normal?
What if … Dubai became like Amsterdam? Like something out of a sci-fi movie, The Loop is a 93-kilometer, climate-controlled highway that will enable 80% of Dubai’s residents to walk or cycle to their workplace and local amenities within 20 minutes. Its easy to be cynical, and its true there is no word on how energy efficient its cooling systems will be, or even if it will actually shift people’s behavior, but it’s a kind-of-crazy-yet-compelling project that is well worth checking out. Especially when you consider that Amsterdam looked this in the 1970s.
What if … brands planned for, and even embraced, their own demise? Renewcell, a Swedish sustainable fashion startup had some surplus material which it invited Haisam Mohammed and Noah Bramme to create a fashion collection with. The designers embraced the brand ethos and created Benim Denim, a pop-up brand that will shut down when the fabric runs out. Sustainable storytelling at its best.
What if … your video conferencing tech came with the smartest assistant you could imagine? Now Microsoft Teams is adding real time translation and automated, personalized meeting recap notes. These might seem magical today, but will quickly become as mundane as a spreadsheet. Our children will look back at the ‘dumb’ (i.e. pre-AI) era and wonder how we got anything done.
What if … we can create any media we want? It’s not just meetings that will be transformed. Video is next. But just as cars meant society had to learn how to deal with drunk drivers, AI tools will unleash a whole range of new dystopian challenges. This week, a videogame streamer was caught watching deep faked porn of fellow streamers. Sadly, these horror stories will continue until a combination of social norms, regulation, and AI detection catches up.
What if … the pharma industry tuned into psychedelic wellness? Australia became the first country to officially recognize psychedelics as medicines – with approved psychiatrists being able to prescribe MDMA and psilocybin for PTSD and treatment-resistant depression. Could our view of these drugs flip 180 degrees? What else have we been brought up to fear that could help us?
What if … robots could do jobs we can’t? Researchers in Taiwan have developed a robot hand that can detect mercury ions in food simply by touching them, rather than the current lab-based tests. The conversation about robots and AI so often focuses on how these technologies might replace humans, rather than about all the completely new ‘jobs’ or functions that they will unlock. Now that’s a good topic for your next discussion with ChatGPT…
What if … you could eat guilt-free steaks? Last week we discussed the struggles of plant-based meat. All that will become irrelevant if people can eat affordable, ‘clean’ i.e. slaughter-free, sustainably produced meat. Last week a startup, 3D Bio Tissues, claimed to have produced the world’s first cultivated steak made from 100% pig cells, made without expensive growth factors.
What if … you could count carbon like calories? Oatly is adding carbon labels to its yogurts in the US. They aren’t the first food products, either in the supermarket aisle or on restaurant menus. Allbirds famously urged the fashion industry to copy its CO2 labels. But if Oatly can do for CO2 labels what it did for plant-based milk, then this could trigger a tipping point.
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The innovations and ideas featured here are just a small slice of the trends featured in my upcoming book – The Future Normal: How We Will Live, Work & Thrive In The Coming Decade.
US readers can pre-order a copy now.
If you're going to be at SXSW then we'd love to see you at our featured keynote, or the more informal Non-Obvious 7-minute meetup.
Alternatively, DM me if you'd like to discuss another bespoke event, either in Austin or elsewhere.
Thanks for reading,