⏩ Solar-powered cars, AI for education, carbon-negative concrete, plastic-free design, and more...
The Future Normal: Fast Forward #34
Welcome back! It’s been an exciting start to the year, as myself and Rohit Bhargava were putting the finishing touches to our upcoming book, The Future Normal: How We Will Live Work And Thrive In The Next Decade.
We’re launching the book in March with a featured keynote at SXSW. Come say hi at our Non-Obvious 7-minute meetup, or if you would like to discuss co-hosting a private VIP session, then get in touch.
Or keep scrolling to dive straight into a non-exhaustive but feel-good selection of stories from the future normal that you might have missed in the past few weeks. 2023 is set to be anything but boring...
What if … your toilet bowl automatically scanned your urine? Getting real-time health information has been on every trend watcher’s radar for years, but it will be a reality in 2023.
What if … AI could help students learn, rather than just cheat? While New York’s schools panicked and banned ChatGPT, more thoughtful educators showed how AI could be used to positively engage students.
What if … you have to prove you’re human online? Hopefully most readers will trust that I’ve written these words, but will this always be the case in the (near) future? A great thought-piece on how we will navigate a world awash in AI-generated content.
What if … AI could transform not just our pictures and words, but biology itself? Insilico Medicine announced last week that a drug it created using generative AI had successfully undergone Phase 1 safety trials.
What if … companies had to take responsibility for their waste? Danone is being sued by environmental groups in France for not reducing its plastic footprint; France’s ban on single use fast food packaging came into effect at the start of the year, while a similar ban is coming here in the UK. Waste and packaging is going to be a huge issue in 2023…
What if … we made things without using plastic? I spent a chunk of last year working with the amazing team at PlasticFree – a much-needed platform to inspire and empower designers to use alternative materials to plastic, which launched last week.
What if … solar panels went plant-based? Researchers in Saudi Arabia found a way to replace the fossil fuel-based solvents used in the production of solar cells with plant-based ones.
What if … you never had to charge, let alone fill up your car? That’s the promise of Squad Mobility’s solar-powered EV 2-person microcar, due to launch later this year.
What if … our cities became places we captured carbon? Carbicrete claims to be the world’s first carbon negative concrete, which if we continue on the global city-building trajectory we’re on, could be a very big deal indeed.
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Thanks for reading,