Geopolitics:
A new cold war and another space race has begun:
China mocked officially and is overtaking US in scientific research. | De-dollarization. +Eurosclerosis:
Europeans are becoming poorer. | Is the Ukraine crisis the West’s fault? Maybe or maybe not.Demographic wars:
Are just starting. |Hints:
Sending asylum-seekers far away. | Aging Japan wants automation not immigration. | Democracy visa. | Cuisine bridges cultures.Edge cases:
Will tech corporations become «independent nations»? | The new military branch.
Politics:
The forgotten majorities and its rage:
In the end, the most intolerant wins. |Edge cases:
Asian-Americans fight back against school discrimination and for black CEOs humiliation is a part of doing business.Democracy is declining. Is globalization merging democracy and autocracy?
Autocracies may block Wikipedia but surveillance and cancelation spreaded to democracies and are official. The war on disinformation is a war on dissent. | «Data is not the new oil – it’s the new plutonium». | Microchip implants with vaccine passport or tickets. | Free speech is declining even on universities. | Bad reviews can put you in jail. | Suppressing posts by poor or «ugly» people. | Obese patients and smokers banned from routine surgery. |Hints:
«Right to encryption», biometric mass surveillance ban and online freedom of speech bill. | Russians learnt to exploit it.Edge cases:
Giving up right to vote to get student loans erased. | Private land has become increasingly concentrated. | Nationalizations. | Fund for future generations. | Lottocracy and Algocracy. | The rise of the «Liberaltarian» and the new corporate tyranny. | Regional inequality is ahead of personal inequity as a cause of revolt. | More than 1000 journalists were killed since 2010. | Journalism is activism now.
Economy & business:
All companies are technology companies now:
The Not-Com bubble is popping. | Two worlds. | Another mega corp + has been born.Capitalism 2.0 or surveillance capitalism is restrictions on free trade, universal basic income, geoarbitrage & demonetization:
The power of money depends on where you live. | Independently poor. | Software is no longer sold, is adopted. | The publicly traded company is disappearing.Economic (ir)rationality:
Most investments are bad. + | 40% of foreign investment is tax dodging. | Empty homes. | Housing should be affordable except when I sell my house. | Bonuses on eve of bankruptcy. | Tesla makes more money trading bitcoin than selling cars. | $7.5b undo button. | Bringing back old features. | Shrinkflation. | Crowdfunding to minimize risk. | Eventually, everything will be a subscription even high end cars.
Society:
The global fertility rate is falling:
Will nations fund fertility? |Hints:
Pro-natalism.Life expectancy is growing:
Prisons are a haven for the elderly. | The corporatization of nursing homes.The «feminization» of society:
No one fails anymore, everybody «pivots». | The self-esteem craze. | Addiction to outrage. | Proof of X. | Parasocial relationships. | «Influencer» is the most desired occupation among youngsters. | Young female influencer is actually a mature man. | Instagram village. | Teaching kids how to be famous. | Flattery-driven open-source. | Elites may be displacing experts and may corrupt science. |Hints:
Teens who refuse to use social media. | No one answers their phone anymore. | Playgrounds a little more dangerous and agency.§ Male shaming:
Social perfectionism kills. | Hikikomori and incels. | Porno bans, sex doll brothel and AI girlfriend. Collateral damage: social exclusion fuels extremism in young men. | Boyfriend role-play. | Parents are more worried about their sons than their daughters | Young women are out earning young men. | A prenup is the latest must-have for tech startup founders.§ Individualism:
Children spend less time outside than prison inmates and it took just 4 generations. | Cousins are disappearing. | Dying alone. + |Hints:
Tech workers and university graduate students plan to unionize.Edge cases:
Kids can be surprisingly mean to robots. | Sending more foster kids to prison than college. | Parents of daughters are more likely to divorce.
Work, education & skills:
Remote work is becoming the norm:
When you’re a «digital nomad» the world is your office. | Asynchronous communication is the real reason remote workers are more productive. | Dark side.Automation:
The workers at the frontlines of the AI revolution. | Jobs are at risk as self-driving trucks become viable. Fortunately most people would rather lose their job to a robot than another human.Gig economy:
Is West discovering servants. | Focus and monetizing your knowledge has become more valuable than intelligence.Didactics:
Elite over-production. | Investing tuition costs nets a higher return unless you migrate for free college. | Remote learning didn’t work. | Hyperinflation means the end of grades. | «Woke» math. | Computer game on school reading list. | New classes on AI, mindfulness and how not to be duped by the news. | What is prompt engineering?Skills mismatch:
High-paying trade jobs sit empty, while high school grads line up for university. | Hand and writing skills are becoming rare. | Hiring anyone who applied, sometimes you’re not buying, you’re selling. Vs. Factory floors full of college-educated workers. | Web design work is drying up. | Even resumes looking like Instagram or Tinder may not save you.Edge cases:
Four-day week means «I don’t waste holidays on chores». | Robots controlled by paralyzed people.
Health:
Health challenges:
Death rates rising for all americans. | Sperm quality declined on dogs also. | Inflammation seems to underlie all sickness and fasting to regenerate the immune system. | Microplastics found on blood for first time.Physical health:
Regaining sight with artificial cornea implantation. | Myopia correcting «smart glasses». | Instead of filling cavities, dentists may soon regenerate them. | Walking again thanks to 3D printed spinal implant. | Pig kidney successfully transplanted and a bioartificial one is on tests. | Young blood rejuvenates old tissues. | Lab-grown blood is near.Mental health:
Transgender and gender-diverse individuals with elevated rates of autism. | The teen mental illness epidemic. |Hints:
Cellphones detox centers. | Unnecessary medical care is harming patients. | Ditching daylight saving time. | Travel prescriptions.Viruses:
COVID-19 coronavirus is here forever. | Mobility Index. | mRNA COVID-19 vaccines herald a new era for vaccinology. | Promising vaccines for HIV and malaria. | Ebola is now curable.Genetics:
The human genome is finally complete. | The slow frontier of genetic choice.Edge cases:
The case for showering less. | World’s deadliest animal.
Sports:
- Two-hour marathon barrier breaked.
- Soccer is not a sport anymore.
Media:
Ad-supported media:
The internet of creation disappeared. Now we have the internet of surveillance and control. | Neofeudalism and the Digital Manor. | SEO is gentrifying the internet. | Click farms booming in China. | We’re building a dystopia just to make people click on ads. | Netflix saves kids from up to 400 hours of commercials a year. | The great race to rule streaming TV.Democratization:
Self-publishing. | Superstars are losing market share in streaming. | The dark side: media as food.Edge cases:
Slow Television or confort TV. | The lonely work of moderating a web community. | Media languages. | Vinyl set to outsell CDs.
Culture, beliefs & ethics:
Aesthetics:
Less colourful world. | Normie Minimalism and Farmhouse Chic took over contemporary design. | Aging parents with lots of stuff and children who don’t want it. | Vaporwave.Faith:
Communism, sharing economy and vegetarianism. | Eco-anxiety and getting vasectomies to save the world. | Greta Thunberg. | Neutral gender marker available on US passports. | First temple to Norse gods since Viking age and statue in honor of bitcoin creator.Law & ethics:
Web scraping is legal. | Should I block ads? | An autopilot killed two people. Is the driver guilty? Apparently not. | Human-monkey chimera embryos created in lab. | Personal experiences bridge moral and political divides better than facts and most violence is motivated by moral sentiments. | Are all world leaders psychopathic?Edge cases:
Japan’s police hunt for things to do. | Hedonism, sex and fear – why the Weimar republic is in vogue. | The escape room games industry and loot boxes.
Tourism:
Democratization:
Too many people want to travel and it is silently changing the world. | Seaside’s appeal. |Hints:
90-day minimum stay in Airbnbs outside resort areas.No one wants to be a tourist anymore:
The anti-tour. | Chernobyl’s «stalker» subculture. | Star wars galactic starcruiser. | Pandemic walks. | Randomized living. | Crowdfunded wandering. | Voluntourism. | Begpacking. | Lifestyle business tourism.Coming back?
Night trains and canteens.
Retail:
Democratising lazyness:
Amazon hires half million people in 10 months. | Shopping sucks now.Edge cases:
Physical shops return to rural but are now staff-free. | Only the fanciest shoppings are expanding. | Are the hyper-specialist shops the future of retail?
Reduce, reuse & recycle:
The «plastic age». Its end is nearer:
Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water. | 91% of plastic isn’t recycled. | Recycling was a lie to sell more plastic. | Most plastic recycling is dumped in landfills. |Hints:
Phase-out of lightweight plastic bags and end consumer plastics. | Recycling waste plastic into strong cheap bricks.«Right to repair»:
EU introduce rules for appliances and Apple announces self service repair. | Repair is as important as innovation. | 40-year-old tractors are a hot commodity.Edge cases:
People are recycling too much garbage and it’s threatening the industry. | The war on food waste is a waste of time. | No one wants your used clothes anymore.
Energy:
The beggining of photonic age:
Solar has a better return on investment than oil and battery costs have plunged. | The new «gold rush» for green lithium. | Renewables became cheap very fast. Could we reboot a modern civilization without fossil fuels? | Supercomputer can now run on light.Nuclear power is viable option:
Mini-nuclear plants. | Largest nuclear fusion project begins assembly. | Major breakthrough in nuclear fusion.Edge cases:
Iron as a fuel. | Plastic waste in the fuel tank. | Heat pumps are becoming the technology of the future. | What’s an ambient superconductor?
Ecology:
Climate change is water change:
Earth is greener than 20 years ago. Plant life is expanding and trees retake farmland globally as agroforestry advances. | CO2 in the atmosphere is beating records. | Buying cheap clothes has a price. It emits more carbon than international flights and maritime shipping combined. The same with cement. |Hints:
The dream of carbon air capture is becoming reality. | Anyone can make a difference. | 350 million trees planted in one day and could use wastewater.Fauna & flora:
Insect and bird populations are declining but conservation efforts made wild mammals to comeback. | Bugs are evolving to eat plastic and Chernobyl black frogs reveal evolution in action.Edge cases:
Plastic rocks. | Shortages make water a commodity. | Electric cars are starting to be taxed too.
Farming:
Farming drives toward «precision agriculture»:
Floating farm. | Urban rooftops. | Vertical farm out-produces flat farm. | «Planting» solar panels as water supplies dry up.Is organic agriculture better for the environment?
True cost of cheap food is health and climate crises.«War on meat» is official:
How to lower the price of plant-based meat? | The promise and perils of insect farming. | Lab-grown meat to go on sale for first time.
Urbanism:
In a world of digital nomads many will be homeless:
Living on pennies with a million-dollar view embracing van life. | Dorm living for professionals. | Big cities no longer deliver for low-skill workers.The city of the future:
May have way less parking once cars are not yet optimized. |Hints:
E-bikes and fare free public transport could be the revolution cities need.The suburb of the future:
Brings a tiny house trend but there are still too many too big houses. The allure of small towns for big city freelancers.Is 3d printing the future of construction?
Printing a tiny house in 24 hours or a two-story house is already possible. | The smart home still sucks.Edge cases:
Wooden skyscrapers or village on top of a mall. | Underwater datacenters. | Movable housing for scalable cities. | Crypto cities. | Why the line.
Transports:
The age of car electrification:
Corporations are embracing it and Europeans are leading. | Pickup trucks.Eco-friendly long travels are on the way:
Electric flight. | 1000km/h maglev trains. | Longest undersea rail tunnel.Private space exploration started:
Two humans into orbit and contract to develop spacecraft to land astronauts on the moon.Edge cases:
Affordable personal flying vehicle and submarine are in production. | Energy storage on auto bodies. | Electrified wingsuit. | Flight by light or windowless. | Klimaticket.
Drones, robotics & AI:
Drone revolution:
Autonomous drone navigates through the forest and may fly for days. | 20-pound load delivery becomes a reality. | Drones can seed a forest, 100k trees a day or kill weeds and invasive nautical flora. They can even rescue swimmers and lost hikers, map slums for land titling or be used as sheep dogs. The dark side: tracking cars and people, scaning faces and license plates and armed with explosives.Self-driving vehicles:
Autonomous trucks are real but boats seem more solvable.Machine learning:
AI research was stagnant and used to be useless for business but it changed, 2023 is already marked by a major breakthrough. | Who knew the first AI battles would be fought by artists? | AI can beat Poker professionals.Robots:
Boston Dynamics is finally selling. | Hydrogel interfaces for merging humans and machines.
Tools:
Computers:
Your phone vs Supercomputers. | ARM got so successful without the public noticing. | Apple M1 means Intel’s disruption is now complete. | Using a Raspberry Pi or a iPad Pro as a main computer.Timeless tools:
Lego, paper and spreadsheets.Edge cases:
Transistors are civilization’s invisible infrastructure. | Computer files are going extinct. | Super App. | Privacy tools. | Analogic resistance: replacing touchscreen controls with mechanical ones. | Hardware pedal for improved text editing.
Blockchain:
Getting mainstream:
Crypto index funds and relevance vs fiat money.The quest for use cases:
Web3. | Bitcoin is a hyperobject or even the singularity. | NFTs are the new conceptual art. | Leverage for dreams like life extension. | A good use case for blockchains is reward points.The Crypto-Chernobyl:
Heating homes by mining crypto currencies.