Five Interesting Things: Today’s Scan Hits
Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today.
- The Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative will be led by NIH, DARPA, and NSF, with a proposed budget of $100 million in the next fiscal year. According to President Obama the new project will give “scientists the tools they need to get a dynamic picture of the brain in action and better understand how we think and how we learn and how we remember. And that knowledge could be–will be–transformative.”
- A new report from McKinsey Global Institute identifies “12 technologies that could drive truly massive economic transformations and disruptions in the coming years.” The five estimated to have the greatest economic impact in 2025: mobile Internet, automation of knowledge work, Internet of things, cloud, and advanced robotics.
- The Chinese government may be moving to reduce its role in the economy in a significant way, a move one expert calls “radical stuff.”
- The quantified-self movement–in which people use mobile devices and apps to self-track a wide range of wellness indicators, from miles jogged to quality of sleep to happiness levels–is about to take a major leap into a new arena: health tracking. By 2020 health self-tracking will likely be one of the largest categories of mobile apps, and an integral facet of patient-directed healthcare, as consumers use apps to help manage chronic conditions like diabetes, support family caregiving, monitor pregnancy, etc.
- According to a New York Times story, ecologists are mapping the microorganisms that cohabit with humans in indoor spaces. “Once ecologists have more thoroughly identified indoor species, they hope to come up with strategies to scientifically manage homes, by eliminating harmful taxa and fostering species beneficial to our health.”