Five Interesting Things: Today’s Scan Hits
Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today.
- Americans are increasingly doubtful about the future and the tenets of the “American dream,” polling finds.
- The first major poll of American Jews in more than 10 years shows rapid assimilation into the larger culture for every denomination except the Orthodox.
- Agribusiness giant Monsanto is buying data analytics firm Climate Corp. The move is seen as a step to further integrate data into agriculture as Climate Corp is the leading agricultural “Big Data” company. In addition to extensive data sets (including extensive profiles on all land in production) Climate Corp offered services based on its number crunching, such as tailored crop insurance policies.
- Toronto-based Bionym has developed a biometric sensor bracelet that keys on the wearers heartbeat. The wristband can be linked to a user’s computer, front door or on-line wallet to act as a key.
- Emotiv, creator of EPOC neural headset, have partnered with the Royal Automobile Club of Western Australia to create an attention-powered car prototype. They headset measure how focused the driver is on driving the car, and when it detects attention waning, will slow the car down. To drive at top speeds, the driver must provide full attention to the task.