Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today
Research scientist Gary Paul Nabhan warns of the impact of more frequent heat waves on food production in the Western US and offers a variety of non-biotech strategies for mitigation.
Dutch scientists have demonstrated a method for harvesting power from the CO2 emissions from industrial smokestacks.The total global energy potential from this source is 1570 terawatt hours per year, about 400 times the energy production of the Hoover Dam. In principle the process neither adds to nor reduces CO2 emissions.
Cognitive researcher, former Apple VP, designer, and author Don Norman points out the paradox of wearable computing technology: it has the potential to augment our perception of the world but also to distract us from our surroundings.
Some observers have forecast the death of the PC. An article in the New York Times takes a more nuanced view, offering a variety of possible futures for personal computers and their mobile rivals, including relegation of the PC to the business world and proliferation of hybrid PC/tablet offerings.
Writing in the New Yorker, Atul Gawande considers why different technologies spread at different rates.