sustainability – Lifeboat News: The Blog https://lifeboat.com/blog Safeguarding Humanity Sun, 23 Apr 2023 11:13:14 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 Comment les activités spatiales peuvent-elles évoluer vers plus de durabilité ? https://lifeboat.com/blog/2023/04/comment-les-activites-spatiales-peuvent-elles-evoluer-vers-plus-de-durabilite Sun, 23 Apr 2023 11:13:14 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=162659

Remark: This article is from The Conversation France written by Victor DOS SANTOS PAULINO & Nonthapat PULSIRI (V&N) — Experts from Toulouse Business School and The SIRIUS Chair (France)

Lorsque nous parlons d’espace, nous pensons aux étoiles que nous voyons la nuit ou à de bons films de science-fiction. Or, l’espace comprend également tous les satellites et engins qui sont lancés depuis la Terre. Dans certains engins spatiaux, il y a des astronautes, comme l’Américaine Christina Koch ou le Français Thomas Pesquet, qui voyagent pendant plusieurs jours ou mois pour de nombreuses missions.

Pendant ce temps, plus de 8 000 satellites non habités opèrent sur les orbites terrestres pour améliorer la vie quotidienne. Par exemple, les satellites de communication contribuent à améliorer l’accès à Internet dans les zones blanches, les satellites d’observation sont essentiels pour les prévisions météorologiques et les satellites de navigation (GPS) sont indispensables pour les besoins de transport actuels et futurs tels que les véhicules autonomes.

Les progrès dans le secteur spatial offrent aujourd’hui de nouvelles opportunités dans la mise en orbite de constellations de milliers de satellites (par exemple, la flotte Starlink lancée par SpaceX, la société de l’homme d’affaires américain Elon Musk) ou encore dans l’exploitation minière spatiale et le tourisme spatial. Certains pays (dont la France et les États-Unis) ont par ailleurs annoncé que soutenir leur écosystème spatial constituait une priorité pour dynamiser l’économie.

Des sociétés comme SpaceX ou encore Blue Origin, lancée par le milliardaire américain Jeff Bezos, peuvent en effet stimuler les modèles d’affaires d’autres entreprises dans des secteurs non spatiaux comme ceux de la logistique et de l’énergie. Ces nouveaux entrants contribuent ainsi à élargir l’impact des activités spatiales à d’autres secteurs.

Plus de 3 300 satellites non opérationnels en orbite

Dans le même temps, la société civile apparaît cependant de plus en plus préoccupée par les problèmes croissants de développement durable dans les activités spatiales.

Le premier problème identifié concerne les débris spatiaux, qui sont des objets fabriqués par l’homme se trouvant en orbite terrestre et n’ayant plus de fonction utile. Ces objets comprennent des satellites non opérationnels, des étages de lanceurs abandonnés, des fragments de satellites mis hors service et même le résultat de collisions entre objets spatiaux.


À lire aussi : Les satellites Starlink nous empêcheront bientôt d’observer les étoiles


Imaginez que plus de 30 000 débris spatiaux nuisibles et 3 364 satellites non opérationnels peuvent aujourd’hui entrer en collision avec les 4 852 satellites opérationnels, et que toutes leurs fonctions utiles à la vie quotidienne disparaissent. Cela désorganiserait des pans entiers de la société comme les transports, la sécurité nationale, ou encore la finance.

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Certaines activités spatiales ont également un impact écologique sur l’environnement terrestre, tel que la pollution de l’air, de l’eau et des sols. Par exemple, les substances toxiques potentiellement libérées par le tourisme spatial font encore l’objet de débats animés sur la légitimité environnementale de développer ces nouvelles activités. Par conséquent, les activités spatiales ne concernent pas que la communauté spatiale, elles concernent tout le monde.

[Près de 80 000 lecteurs font confiance à la newsletter de The Conversation pour mieux comprendre les grands enjeux du mondeAbonnez-vous aujourd’hui]

Pour aider à trouver des solutions, nous suggérons trois axes de travail prometteurs sur la base de nos récents travaux de recherche : (1) la collaboration, (2) les technologies spatiales vertes et (3) les politiques de soutien.

Le soutien de la société civile en jeu

La collaboration constitue une première solution qui doit s’envisager via l’interaction de cinq parties prenantes clés : les gouvernements, le monde universitaire, l’industrie, la société civile et les acteurs environnementaux comme les organisations non gouvernementales (ONG). Cependant, alors que l’industrie a déjà pris conscience des problèmes, le rôle des institutions académiques dans la collaboration reste incomplet. Les progrès concernent aujourd’hui notamment l’identification des débris, la gestion du trafic spatial, l’enlèvement des débris et la maintenance en orbite.


À lire aussi : Pollution dans l’espace : et si on taxait ?


La deuxième solution consiste à développer des technologies spatiales vertes qui vont minimiser l’émission de pollutions lors de la conduite des activités. Ces technologies peuvent être liées à l’écoconception et au développement de technologies spatiales respectueuses de l’environnement, telles que la propulsion verte, l’énergie propre, les matériaux non toxiques et l’enlèvement des débris spatiaux.

Enfin, la dernière solution suppose la mise en œuvre de politiques de soutien à l’innovation qui à la fois encouragent la commercialisation de l’espace en tant que nouveau moteur économique et renforcent la nouvelle dynamique durable des activités spatiales. Par exemple, des politiques d’innovation verte visant à aider les petites et moyennes entreprises ayant des technologies à faible impact environnemental. En outre, il convient d’aligner ces politiques sur les 17 Objectifs de développement durable (ODD) établis les Nations unies.

Il est encore temps pour résoudre les deux principaux problèmes qui empêchent un espace durable : les débris spatiaux et l’impact écologique des activités spatiales. Cependant, les gouvernements, le monde universitaire et l’industrie ne doivent pas attendre, au risque d’alimenter un dénigrement des activités spatiales comparable à la honte de prendre l’avion qui se développe depuis les années 2010. Un manque d’action pourrait ainsi compromettre le soutien de la société civile qui a toujours été indispensable aux développements des activités spatiales.

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Terranascient Futures Studies & Foresight https://lifeboat.com/blog/2022/03/terranascient-futures-studies-foresight Tue, 01 Mar 2022 17:56:08 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=136222 The importance of learning, unlearning, and relearning the wisdom in foresight

By Alexandra Whittington and Teresa Inés Cruz

Futurist Alvin Toffler famously said, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” It is time for the foresight community to take Toffler’s sage advice, starting with one basic assumption of the Western futurist perspective that dates back to the Victorians: progress.

The concepts of learning, unlearning, and relearning belong in every futurist’s repertoire in the sense that we need to learn our bias for progress, unlearn its primacy as a societal objective, and relearn that the human condition is best served by achieving homeostasis–steady equilibrium. Homeostasis can be relearned because it’s inherent to worldviews within many indigenous and ancient societies, including the Law of Origin, which instructs people that living in balance with nature must be the driving force behind our decisions.

For Indigenous peoples in the Andean-Amazonian region in South America, living according to the principles of “Buen Vivir” translated as “good living,” is a worldview and an ancestral foundation based on living in harmony. Similar to the concept of Ubuntu, “I am, because you are” from South Africa, Buen Vivir places critical importance on collective wellbeing and living in harmony with the wider community, Nature, non-humans, ancestors and cosmological networks.

According to Eduardo Gudynas, Uruguayan Director and Senior researcher at the Latin American Centre for Social Ecology (CLAES), “Buen Vivir is a new paradigm of social and ecological commons — one that is community-centric, ecologically balanced and culturally sensitive. It’s a vision and a platform for thinking and practicing alternative futures based on a “bio-civilization.”

“Terranascient” coined by Australian environmental philosopher Glenn A. Albrecht captures the essence of this new paradigm. Terranascient refers to the ‘life-affirming’ emotions that are inherent in being caretakers of the planet. Emotions including “an ethic of love, care and responsibility” as described by Albrecht. The philosophy of terranascient has inspired us to consider a new vision for the field of Futures Studies & Foresight.

Re-imagining Futures Studies & Foresight

Today on World Future Day, we propose a new approach to learning, unlearning, and relearning for practitioners of Futures Studies & Foresight. We could be called to integrate with what author Terry Patten calls “intimate” holistic activism, in our relationships and conversations.

As we move towards a precipice of life destroying planetary and human limitations, we are proposing a shift in our approach to creating future scenarios by transitioning from dominant colonized structures of process and output and turn towards an awakened sense where we imagine new possibilities for our future ancestors and engage in nature-based and Indigenous sensemaking.

Dr. Laura Harjo, Mvskoke scholar and author of Spiral to the Stars — Mvskoke Tools for Futurity, describes Indigenous futurity as a return to our true nature and “thinking forward of how to produce knowledge for future relatives.”

Our western ways of knowing focus on an us-versus-them approach that follows logical processes, frameworks, and methodologies with a linear outcome whereas Indigenous and ancestral cultures are non-linear, intuitive, sensorial, reciprocal and actively explore ‘unactivated possibilities’ for future ancestors. Developing new ways of knowing and being will require entering a new cycle of humanity where the most important challenges that lay before us are not just technical, socio-economic, environmental, and political, but human challenges that will inspire us to reframe a new human narrative.

There are three themes that stand out in terms of the need for a new perspective in futures studies and foresight that shift away from the dominant futuristic sci-fi scenarios with visions of colonizing Mars and moving towards co-generating ways to regenerate and revitalize our planet for our future ancestors.

Sustainability & Re-generativity

The first theme is sustainability and re-generativity. Having reached several thresholds for ecological stability, we are at a “do or die” juncture in terms of sustaining life on earth. This is a clear red flag that the dominant model of conducting foresight will not suffice in building new worlds that “embody deeper and more dynamic interactions, relationships, friendships, families, organizations, communities, alliances, and collectives of all kinds. Our species is learning new, important lessons about our responsibility to come together to care for our human future, even as evolution presents us with new survival challenges.” (Patten, Terry. A New Republic of the Heart: An Ethos for Revolutionaries, Berkeley, North Atlantic Books.)

According to the United Nations Indigenous people make up less than 5% of the world’s population but protect 80% of global biodiversity. They are guardians and knowledge keepers and play a key role in safeguarding territories and showing us the importance of not being citizens but as caretakers of a social fabric, a type of “deep ancient coding that connects us to the past, to our ancestors, and to everything we share the planet with” as described by Robert Macfarlane, British writer and Fellow of Emmanuel College who is best known for his books on landscape, nature, place, people and language.

“Many people today lack an understanding of our reliance on Earth, its vast biodiversity and ingenious, brilliantly designed systems that have evolved over millions of years to support life. We have a lot to learn from those who do understand the symbiotic relationship between humans and the earth. We can’t protect the planet without the traditional knowledge and sustainable agriculture practices of Indigenous peoples living in these areas,” says Justin Winters, executive director of One Earth, a philanthropic climate change initiative.

Indigenous peoples encompass a respect and responsibility for the biological wholeness of the Earth and all its species. As beautifully stated in the book The Archipelago of Hope: Wisdom and Resilience from the Edge of Climate Change by Gleb Raygorodetsky, “Their worldviews, values, cultures, and cosmology are intricately linked with the ways they relate to the environment, and with their past, present, and future, the living and the nonliving, and the sight and unseen.”

Diversity and Inclusion

The second theme is diversity and inclusion. Futurism has promoted primarily white, male voices for nearly a century and has become a self-limiting element in the world of foresight that quashes competing visions that challenge the status quo. Diversity and Inclusion needs to incorporate not only different knowledge systems including Indigenous worldviews based on collective intelligence, but it also needs to integrate a new range of contributors of different geographies and ages.

In Indigenous cultures, everyone has a place in their community regardless of age and experience and they see themselves first as collective groups of kin, then as individuals. We live in a mostly fragmented society where the young are prized for their youth and more experienced members of the working force are abruptly pushed to the side once society deems that they have reached peak maturity.

In Bill Plotkin’s book Nature and the Human Soul, he describes “The way we find and then occupy our ultimate place is through an ongoing conversation with the world in which we grow gradually clearer about what that place is. One life you can call your own. A life in this sense is your way of being in the world — your place in the world. To be living that larger story is to be a particular character in a web of relationships and meaning, to have a particular place in the story we call the world.”

What if we were to view diversity and inclusion through the lens of human development through the lens of “abilities, knowledge and values” as described by author Bill Plotkin rather than on age, socio-economic status, geography or privilege so common in an egocentric, westernized world?

A Movement of Hope for the Future

The third theme concerns building a movement of hope for the future. The futurists of the world struggle to convey positive and optimistic scenarios that encourage humane action. Too much of the foresight profession is concerned with generating profits at the expense of worldwide mental and biological health. To move past the dark shadows of existential threats such as COVID-19, climate crises, and economic inequality, futurists must embrace an obligation to insist that things can get better.

Instead of living in fear and generating apocalyptic, dark futures can we begin to turn towards futures of living in beauty?

Of seeing the beauty in humanity, in possibilities of creating new ways of knowing and imagining new social, economic, cultural, and human systems.

In the book Active Hope, environmental activist, author, and scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology, Joanna Macy emphasizes that, “Active Hope is about becoming active participants in bringing about what we hope for. Active Hope is a practice. It points us toward a way of life that enriches rather than depletes our world.”

Where do we start, how can we start to shift our mindset, our worldviews?

Over the next few months, we will be diving deeper and building upon the three themes that we are proposing to our fellow Futures Studies & Foresight colleagues and global practitioners. It’s an act of activism, action, and a desire to start a new safe space and exchange dialogue where we can begin to expand our approaches to developing a new approach to Futures Studies & Foresight that is rooted in multiple ways of knowing.

During the next week, begin to ask yourself and consider the following:

  • What does it mean to be human? For some it may seem simplistic but at the heart of shifting our mindset we need to understand our individual and collective role in humanity.
  • How can you awaken your senses –in ways that diverge from your dominant ways of knowing, being, and seeing?

We leave you with a little nourishment for the mind and soul:

“When was the last time you heard the dawn chorus? I don’t mean when was the last time you happened to be awake after leaving a window open. I mean when was the last time you deliberately woke up before dawn sometimes between February and early June and went outside just before sunrise, simply to listen.”

– From What is to What If: Unleashing the Power of Imagination to Create the Future We Want, Rob Hopkins

Connect with us next month as we dive deeper into Theme 1:

Sustainability & Re-generativity

Until next time, take care of one another.

About Us

Alexandra Whittington is an educator, writer, and researcher who has earned recognition as one of the world’s top women futurists (Forbes). She is a lecturer at the University of Houston, where her students describe her as “passionate” about the future. Her courses explore the impact of technology on society and the future of human ecosystems. She has published dozens of articles exploring diverse aspects of the future, often from a feminist perspective.

Teresa Inés Cruz is a Colombian American researcher, designer, futurist, and social entrepreneur who works at the intersection of Social Innovation, Indigenous Knowledge Systems (Andean-Amazonian), and Deep Ecology. She is the founder of Mama Pacha, a Latin American think tank based in Cartagena, Colombia with global reach. Through her work Teresa champions ecological and societal systemic change through the lens of collective/participatory futures thinking, ancestral belief systems and re-imagining our role with nature-based worldviews.

Design by Teresa Inés Cruz

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A Visionary Home for the 2020s https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/07/a-visionary-home-for-the-2020s Wed, 14 Jul 2021 02:47:29 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=124912 This article is an excerpt from a report by Partners in Foresight, The Home of the 2020s: Scenarios for How We Might Live in the Post-Pandemic Future.

The homes we inhabit in the 2020s could serve as a personal headquarters for building the good society. How can a house help create a more positive future? Here are four ways the home of the future might support meaningful personal commitment to the greater good.

1. Advocate From Home (AFH)

During the pandemic lockdown period, a new wave of civic engagement has taken hold. A trend called Advocate From Home (AFH) takes the form of digital organizing (e-mail, text banking, content production) for political, ecological, social and economic justice, often using work-from-home tools.

2. Decentralized Energy

Households are embracing renewables in terms of solar energy and decentralized systems with independent home batteries. There are revolutions happening in the world of clean kinetic energy that could transform our spaces by allowing objects to collect and then transmit power. Future homes may be self-sustaining in terms of power and energy needs.

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3. Biophilia

One way people express environmentalist values at home is through a love of nature. Outdoors, there are green options for the visionary homeowner, such as garden plots, low-intensive watering solutions, use of native plants and compost bins. Inside the home, people are gravitating to hydroponically grown vegetables and herbs. Indoor plants of all kinds are at the height of interior design trends and architecture is looking to biomimicry for sustainable ideas. Pets outnumber children in US homes.

4. Shrinking Footprint

In terms of actual home structure, the tiny home and 3D printed home craze are growing. A recently completed project constructed a house from recyclable coffee grounds and there is growing consumer demand for sustainable bricks and concrete. Fashion and home décor choices tend toward fair trade, recycled materials, resale, and upcycling. Mindful consumption to manage our ecological and ethical footprint is a key value consumers may continue embracing well into the 2020s.

How would you change the world from your home? Share your ideas in the comments!

View the full report The Home of the 2020s: Scenarios for How We Might Live in the Post-Pandemic Future: https://bit.ly/2TbCYf2

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Five Kids From The Future https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/05/five-kids-from-the-future Wed, 12 May 2021 19:39:39 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=122521

Children are our future, in every sense of the word. But what might that future be like, and how might it shape the lives of young people? Thanks to COVID and numerous other social, ecological, and technological shifts taking place right now, the future of childhood is evolving. 

So what happens when three leading female futurists come together to envision what the children of the future could be like or what world they might inhabit? The result is this article, that shares creative and thought-provoking profiles of five kids from the future.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/cathyhackl/2021/04/18/five-kids…026247a379

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Filipino startup recognized in addressing SDG’s using space tech https://lifeboat.com/blog/2020/12/filipino-startup-recognized-in-addressing-sdgs-using-space-tech Sun, 20 Dec 2020 15:04:41 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=117434
2020 GEO SDG Award for CirroLytix

MANILA, Philippines — A Filipino startup is recognized globally in developing a dengue hotspot prediction system using satellite and climate data in the 2020 Group on Earth Observations Sustainable Development Goals (GEO SDG) Awards for the Sectoral category, For-Profit. The GEO SDG Awards recognize the productivity, ingenuity, proficiency, novelty, and exemplary communications of results and experiences in the use of Earth observations to support sustainable development.

CirroLytix Research Services was formed to create social impact through big data. Through the application of machine learning, data engineering, remote sensing, and social listening, the Philippines-based data analytics firm hopes to help governments, researchers, non-government organizations (NGO), and social enterprises achieve positive change. The Advanced Early Dengue Prediction and Exploration Service (Project AEDES) is one of the CirroLytix’s flagship projects developed during the 2019 National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) International Space Apps Challenge. It combines digital, climate, and remote sensing to nowcast dengue trends and detect mosquito habitats to help pre-empt cases of dengue. Project AEDES process leverages normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), Fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FAPAR), and normalized difference water index (NDWI) readings from Landsat and Sentinel-2 to estimate still water areas on the ground, which is correlated with dengue case counts from national health centers.

The Advanced Early Dengue Prediction and Exploration Service (Project AEDES) combines digital, climate, and remote sensing to nowcast dengue trends and detect mosquito habitats to help pre-empt cases of dengue.

Dominic Vincent “Doc” Ligot, co-founder and chief technology officer of CirroLytix, describes Project AEDES as an “early detection of panics from online searches, anticipating case counts from environment readings, but most importantly pinpointing hotspots from mosquito habitat detection.”

The Pinoy-made dengue mapper tool won the annual international hackathon of NASA globally in the best use of data, the solution that best makes space data accessible, or leverages it to a unique application. Aside from winning last year, CirroLytix also developed an integrated public policy information portal measuring the impact of the coronavirus pandemic using Earth observation, in-country economic and human mobility data, and global infection case counts, thus winning again in the Space Apps COVID-19 Challenge for the same category in the best use of data. Named G.I.D.E.O.N. (Global Impact Detection from Emitted Light, Onset of COVID-19, and Nitrogen Dioxide), this dashboard for policy makers and economic planners shows the impact of COVID-19 on various countries and effects on the economy and environment.

With these achievements, Cirrolytix is recognized in their remarkable efforts to utilize Earth observation data to predict dengue fever cases in the Philippines in order to improve public health.

“I am glad that the GEO SDG Awards Panel has selected CirroLytix for an award, recognizing the importance of this work in developing an EO-integrated dengue case predictor mapping system,” according to Dr. Argyro Kavvada, lead for Sustainable Development Goals of the Earth Science Division, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and executive secretary of the international Earth Observations for the Sustainable Development Goals (EO4SDG).

“These awards really could stand as an inspiration to all of us about what can be done, and what needs to be done to ensure that Earth-observations contribute to make our world a better, and more sustainable place,” said Lawrence Friedl director of the Applied Sciences Program of the Earth Science Division, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and co-chair of EO4SDG.

2020 GEO SDG Awardees together with Dominic Vincent “Doc” Ligot, co-founder and chief technology officer of CirroLytix

The Undersecretary for Competitiveness and Innovation of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Dr. Rafaelita “Fita” M. Aldaba heartfeltly congratulates CirroLytix. “It’s indeed a blessing amid this pandemic and economic crisis that we are currently faced with,” she said.

The award-winning startup continues to update the AEDES framework to include socio-economic risk mapping to turn it into a health and environmental policy tool. Aside from dengue, the company also supports COVID-19 modeling and response initiatives with the public health sector. CirroLytix’s current involvements include public health, human rights, fighting disinformation, education and food security.

The Space Apps lead organizer in the Philippines Michael Lance M. Domagas appeals support for these Filipino winners. “How many times should these Filipino innovators and achievers need to win before being recognized and appreciated by our own country? To be recognized by not just one, but five space agencies is something has not yet been achieved by Filipinos, how much more of a multitude of countries and nations supporting the sustainable development goals of the United Nations?” He added that “The dengue epidemic and the COVID-19 is a real threat to the Philippine society right now, endangering health, well-being, livelihood, and most especially businesses and the national economy. If we could only learn how to give value to science, technology, mathematics, and engineering (STEM), the possibilities are endless. Our Filipino winners of Space Apps and GEO SDG Awards have taught us on how these space technologies greatly help in addressing epidemics and economic impact of COVID-19, its time to give them recognition and respect because they are Filipinos like us.” Winners shall be invited to visit NASA once travel is deemed safe, but unfortunately, travel, meals and incidental expenses, and accommodation expenses are not provided.

On the other hand, Cirrolytix encourages the use of data in addressing social problems and issues surrounding the Bangsamoro region. Together with the Asia Foundation and Data Ethics PH, the online Bangsamoro Data Challenge invites ages 15 years old and above to develop data-driven solutions in helping the region. Deadline for registration is on Saturday 11:59pm, November 21, 2020 at https://barmm.opendata.org.ph/

The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) is a partnership of more than 100 national governments and in excess of 100 participating organizations that envisions a future where decisions and actions for the benefit of humankind are informed by coordinated, comprehensive and sustained Earth observations.

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Cellular Aquaculture — Feed The World and Save the Oceans — Lou Cooperhouse, President & CEO, BlueNalu — ideaXme — Ira Pastor https://lifeboat.com/blog/2020/05/cellular-aquaculture-feed-the-world-and-save-the-oceans-lou-cooperhouse-president-ceo-bluenalu-ideaxme-ira-pastor Sat, 23 May 2020 19:52:13 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=107525 ]]> Ms. Nemonte Nenquimo, President of the Waorani Pastaza Organization, CONCONAWEP, following their recent landmark legal victory against the Ecuadorian government, leading to 500,000 acres of Amazon rainforest protected from oil drilling and timber companies — ideaXme — Ira Pastor https://lifeboat.com/blog/2020/01/ms-nemonte-nenquimo-president-of-the-waorani-pastaza-organization-conconawep-following-their-recent-landmark-legal-victory-against-the-ecuadorian-government-leading-to-500000-acres-of-amazon-rai Fri, 10 Jan 2020 10:47:16 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=100659 ]]> Food Production in a Hyper-Tech Future: Taste Tests and Lab-Grown Meat? https://lifeboat.com/blog/2019/06/food-production-in-a-hyper-tech-future-taste-tests-and-lab-grown-meat Wed, 19 Jun 2019 18:10:44 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=92332

Burger-and bratwurst-flipping robots officially became a thing in 2017, but there is much more to come in the years ahead when we think about the potential applications of artificial intelligence (AI) and other cutting-edge technologies to the future of food production.  Developments in 3D printing, cloud computing, big data, blockchain and the Internet of Things (IoT) will introduce new possibilities to the industry—with AI binding them all together and providing powerful insights to help change every facet of food production, distribution and retailing.  So, what transformations for food and beverage production could occur in the aftermath of various bursts of innovation rising from these new technologies with seemingly magical powers? 

Thinking ahead to 2025, distinct images of the future start to come into view.  For example, could celebrity-inspired robochefs custom-make personalized meals based on a cloud-stored digital profile which takes into account each diner’s personal preferences, dietary issues, allergies, and health records?   As a form of food manufacturing, personalized food could be achieved with 3D printing, with the factory providing the ingredients with the food then printed in the consumer’s home or a local food fabrication centre – which could be anything from a school kitchen to your local cafe.  This form of future food production would create opportunities for manufacturers to interact with consumers more directly, perhaps using blockchain to eliminate the information loss that normally occurs through layers of middlemen like transport and retail.  

Self-driving trucks and autonomous drones for food transport and urban vertical gardens could help meet the rising food demands of the future – extending the manufacturers’ reach in previously unimaginable ways.  Virtual reality and augmented reality also offer unconventional access to consumers from the manufacturing side—simulated taste, smell and even touch may soon become part of the food and drink experience.  The ability to test new ideas and access new markets in mixed reality is a huge new opportunity for food and drink manufacturers.  Picture the scene, the consumer creates their ideal meal – including taste, smell, touch and visual presentation. The food is then robo-picked from the manufacturer’s town centre based vertical farm, the meal is prepared by the robo-chef in the back of the autonomous delivery vehicle and then transported and flash heated by a drone that literally places the meal on your dining table. Every technological element of this scenario is there now or will be within a year or two at the outside. 

By Rohit Talwar, Steve Wells, April Koury, Karolina Dolatowska, Maria Romero and Alexandra Whittington at Fast Future 

ABOUT FAST FUTURE   

Rohit and his colleagues are futurists with Fast Future who specialise in studying and advising on the future of business, and in particular manufacturing, hospitality and healthcare. Fast Future also publishes books from future thinkers around the world exploring how developments such as AI, robotics and disruptive thinking could impact individuals, society and business and create new trillion-dollar sectors. Fast Future has a particular focus on ensuring these advances are harnessed to unleash individual potential and enable a very human future. See: www.fastfuture.com 

Rohit Talwar is a global futurist, keynote speaker, author, and CEO of Fast Future where he helps clients develop and deliver transformative visions of the future. He is the editor and contributing author for The Future of Business, editor of Technology vs. Humanity and co-editor of a forthcoming book on The Future of AI in Business. 

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Dear Mum: A Letter from the future https://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/07/dear-mum-a-letter-from-the-future Thu, 20 Jul 2017 21:03:07 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=71051 Dear Mum,

We’ve missed you over the ten long years since you passed away. You wanted me to write to you to tell you what’s happened, so now in 2030 I am fulfilling that wish.

Continue Reading

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What is Plant-Based Meat? https://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/05/what-is-plant-based-meat Fri, 19 May 2017 22:04:01 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=57459

A type of food that has been around for centuries, but is primed to be increasingly relevant to the future: Plant-Based “Meat.”

In this video series, the Galactic Public Archives takes bite-sized looks at a variety of terms, technologies, and ideas that are likely to be prominent in the future. Terms are regularly changing and being redefined with the passing of time. With constant breakthroughs and the development of new technology and other resources, we seek to define what these things are and how they will impact our future.

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