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Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today.
- The small house movement has moved to hospitality. Portland has become the first city with hotel rental at small eco-efficient units of 100 to 200 square feet.
- Wharton examines the trajectory of 3D printing.
- Professor Edward Cocking of the University of Nottingham has developed a process that adds nitrogen fixing bacteria to major agricultural crops. Corn or wheat seeds can be coated with his bacterial compound, and the resulting plants could draw their fertilizer needs directly from the Nitrogen in the air. This technology is expected to become commercially available in 2 to 3 years, and if widely adopted could dramatically reduce the need for synthetic fertilizers.
- Like many new technologies, self-driving cars may prove ethically complex, Patrick Lin explains in Wired.
- The new digital world order: The office of South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye issued a press release today to announce that the president’s Klout score had improved to 82 from 65 in February. Klout is a service that purports to measure a user’s social media influence. The press release noted that US President Barack Obama has a score of 99, and singer Justin Bieber’s score is 92.