Well, it looks as though we are back on a semi-regular schedule. Here are things that caught our eye as we went about our business. What’s the world’s second most used resource? Did you guess sand? Neither did I. Anyway, like water, it is getting scarcer. Related to sand, rising agricultural commodity prices are…
Details
Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today. 2013 is on pace to become the first year ever in which the number of US paid TV subscriptions drops. The phenomenon is driven in part by the emergence of “cord nevers,” consumers who have never subscribed to paid television programming…
Details
Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today. A scholar at Brookings Institution discusses how the emerging markets of Asia might avoid the “middle-income trap” that could keep them from becoming wealthy. A new study found that “Facebook Use Predicts Declines in Subjective Well-Being in Young Adults.” Direct interactions with…
Details
Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today. A new Pew poll finds that Americans are skeptical of extending the lifespan through artificial means — though it is unclear if they were being asked about extension of a healthy lifespan. IBM unveils today a new computer architecture designed to work more like the human…
DetailsHere 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…
DetailsHere are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today. The Serval project offers free software to enable cellular phones to exchange calls and text messages without a cellular network. Serval is seeking crowdfunding for its “Mesh Extender,” a device that would extend the ad hoc mesh networks created by…
Details
Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today. Smartphones now have a majority of marketshare in the US. A new survey from Pew Center for Internet and American Life found that 56% of adult mobile users in the US own mobile devices running iOS, Android or Windows 8 operating systems,…
Details
Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today. An effort by ExxonMobil and Craig Ventner’s Synthetic Genomics to develop algae based biofuels is heading back to the drafting board. As a general rule, alternative biofuel technologies that look promising in the laboratory tend to fail when scaled up to…
Details
Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today. Joel Kotkin argues that the elites of Silicon Valley are evolving into an autocratic ruling class. The combination of vast wealth, increased lobbying in Washington DC, and the control of digital media outlets increasingly enables this emerging elite to disproportionately shape public…
Details
Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today. Steve Waldman hypothesizes that the moribund economies of World 1 have fallen prey to a technology-driven resource curse. Elite access to finance capital and technology is becoming increasingly monopolized, impeding the re-distribution of economic resources to non-elites. According to Packaging World, waste-to-energy…
Details