An Interconnected World
by Elaine Cameron on 10th May 2011 • The Cast Blog
Whenever I start thinking about the topics for my next FUTURE Perspective newsletter, I am struck by how deeply interconnected everything in our world is and how this interconnectedness is only increasing as we hurtle forwards into the future.
In the last few editions, I have looked at subjects as seemingly diverse as smart cities; “quirky alones”’; food security; and my personal favourite [although I’m not sure what that says about me]: Death 2.0.
So how do these all relate? Well, for starters, we are witnessing ever decreasing resources all around us, in our cities, our environment, even our own time on this planet. Whilst technology can and must help create smarter ways for us to live in harmony, there is still a way to go before any kind of coherence is reached. In the meantime, many of us “quirkies” are living alone in not very smart cities listening to the loudly ticking time bombs of our own mortality and the natural resources needed to sustain us.
But before we all start longing for Death 2.0 and plunging into a black hole of depression, we can console ourselves with the knowledge that advances in technology [nano/bio and otherwise] hold the key to so many of the world’s biggest issues, including social isolation, food shortages and disease.
A glimpse of utopia
Futurists are already envisaging scenarios where we all live in a 3D mobile media cloud with no on/off button, replacing outdated communication devices. It is even predicted that as early as 2025 we will no longer be surrounded by all the physical trappings of mobile phones, tablets and PCs.
In this media cloud, we will be the boss of our privacy, our communication and our data. Our own personal global dashboard will contain all our finances, dossiers and transactions. We will use intelligent money that knows its owner and its purpose. This creates transparency and reinforces trust, preventing future financial crises.
The difference between city and village will be diminished in a 75 per cent urban world. We will produce green and mainly local products, and consume only green and mainly local energy. This will greatly reduce our geopolitical dependency on unstable regimes.
We will slowly move towards prevention of fraud and crime, the prevention of failure costs, the prevention of illnesses and healthcare usage, the prevention of physical transport of products and people and the prevention of energy usage.
Many of these advances will be due to discoveries that are revolutionising and accelerating the commercialisation of biotechnology across a wide range of industries. Life sciences are predicted to be the greatest single driver of the global economy. They are already a key component of many national development plans. Beyond the obvious industries of pharma, biotech and agriculture, the greatest initial impact of life sciences will likely be in energy. It is worth noting that Toyota Motor is already making some of its car parts using life sciences and is launching medical, food and chemical divisions.
And if you want to know what will be the next Google or Microsoft? That will be a company that uses life forms to create new products.
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Really interesting comments, Elaine. It is indeed a deeper green future we need to be pursuing – sooner rather than later.