Innovation Watch Newsletter - Issue 12.

25 - December 14, 2013

ISSN:
1712-9834

Highlights from the last two weeks...

David Forrest is a Canadian writer and strategy consultant. His Integral Strategy process has been widely used to increase collaboration in communities, build social capital, deepen commitment to action, and develop creative strategies to deal with complex challenges. David advises organizations on emerging trends. He uses the term Enterprise Ecology to describe how ecological principles can be applied to competition, innovation, and strategy in business.

400,000-year-old DNA sheds light on human evolution... brain scans show male and female brains are wired differently... human-sounding telemarketing robot denies it's a robot... sentient code, Stephen Wolfram's new paradigm... Google acquires seven robotics companies to build next-generation robots... large US firms set an internal price on their carbon pollution... South Korea politicians see online gaming as equivalent to drug addiction... languages are disappearing and very few have any online presence... submerged rock in the East China Sea could spark a new regional crisis... more than 900,000 villages in China were abandoned or destroyed in the first decade of this century... modern technology relies on rare materials where there are no adequate substitutes... solar power generated on the Moon could cover all of Earth's energy needs... Silicon Valley entrepreneurs look to create fake meat..

More resources ...

a new book by John W. Foreman: Data Smart: Using Data Science to Transform Information Into Insight... a link to Institute for Science, Society and Policy website... video of a talk by Hugo Barra on China's technology sector... a blog post by Hans Rosling on the outdated concept of a 'developing world'...

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David is the founder and president of Global Vision Consulting Ltd., a strategy advisory firm. He is a member of the Professional Writers Association of Canada, the World Future Society, and the Advisory Committee of the Institute for Science, Society and Policy at the University of Ottawa.

David Forrest Innovation Watch

SCIENCE TRENDS
Top Stories: Discovery of Oldest Human DNA in Spanish Cave Sheds Light on Evolution (Guardian) - Researchers have read strands of ancient DNA teased from the thigh bone of an early human who died 400,000 years ago in what is now northern Spain. The genetic material was pieced together from a clutch of cells found in bone fragments -- the oldest human remains ever to yield their genetic code. The work deepens understanding of the genetics of human evolution by about 200,000 years, raising hopes that researchers can build a clearer picture of the earliest branches of the human family tree by studying the genetic make-up of fossilised remains dug up elsewhere. Male and Female Brains Wired Differently, Scans Reveal (Guardian) - Scientists have drawn on nearly 1,000 brain scans to confirm what many had surely concluded long ago: that stark differences exist in the wiring of male and female brains. Maps of neural circuitry showed that on average women's brains were highly connected across the left and right hemispheres, in contrast to men's brains, where the connections were typically stronger between the front and back regions. Ragini Verma, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, said the greatest surprise was how much the findings supported old stereotypes, with men's brains apparently wired more for perception and co-ordinated actions, and womens for social skills and memory, making them better equipped for multitasking. More science trends...

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TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
Top Stories: Freakishly Realistic Telemarketing Robots are Denying Theyre Robots (IO9) - This is how it starts, people. First we get our chatbots to sound and act realistic -- and then we get them to convince everyone they're actually human. Listen to this crazy conversation between Time's Michael Scherer and a telemarketing robot who refuses to admit her true artificial nature. Recently, Time Washington Bureau Chief Michael Scherer received a phone call from an apparently bright and engaging woman asking him if he wanted a deal on his health insurance. But he soon got the feeling something wasn't quite right. Sentient Code: An Inside Look at Stephen Wolfram's Utterly New, Insanely Ambitious Computational Paradigm (Venture Beat) - John Koetsier "Today, Wolfram gave me a glimpse under the hood in an hour-long conversation. And I have to say, what I saw was amazing. Whether you think his 1,300-page tome on the future of scientific exploration is seminal or fanciful, you can't question that the man is a genius. Born of Jewish parents who fled persecution in pre-WWII Germany (remind you of another scientist?), Wolfram wrote a dictionary on physics at age 12 and three books on particle physics by the time he was 14, publishing his first scientific papers at 15. In 1988 he released the first version of Mathematica, a platform for technical computation, and in 2009, he released the Wolfram Alpha search engine, a computational knowledge engine. His new project, he says, is a perfect marriage. 'Mathematica is this perfect precise computation engine, and WolframAlpha is general information about the world,' Wolfram told me. 'Now we can combine the two.' " More technology trends...

Find us on Flipboard as Innovation Watch

BUSINESS TRENDS
Top Stories: Google Officially Enters the Robotics Business With Acquisition of Seven Startups (Singularity Hub) - Jason Dorrier "Last year, I visited a warehouse behind a typically fashionable San Francisco cafe where two startups, Bot & Dolly and Autofuss, were busy making the insanely immersive visuals for the film Gravity (among a host of other projects) using naught but assembly line robots, clever software, and high-def cameras. A few months later, I found myself in another warehouse -- this time some forty minutes south of the city -- where robotic arms, built and programmed by Industrial Perception, used advanced computer vision to sort toys and throw around boxes. What do these companies have in common? According to the New York
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Times, they were just secretly acquired by Google -- along with four other robotics firms over the last six months -- to design and build a fleet of next-generation robots under the direction of Andy Rubin, the former chief of Google's mobile operating system, Android." Wal-Mart, Disney, Microsoft Hedge Bets on Carbon Pricing (Green Biz) - Some describe it as long-term risk management. Others consider it to be a competitive differentiator. Almost all use it to fund energy efficiency, water conservation and other investments in sustainable resource management. No matter the rationale, some of the biggest public companies in the United States -- including Wal-Mart, Walt Disney Co., Microsoft and many energy giants -- recently have gone public with strategies to set an internal price on their carbon pollution. More business trends...

SOCIAL TRENDS
Top Stories: South Korean Politicians Put Online Gaming On Par With Drug Addiction (Daily Dot) - Countries such as the United States already identify compulsive Internet use as a mental health issue. But South Korea is one of the most connected nations in the world. Although 67 percent of American households now use broadband, that number is at 97 percent in South Korea. Crowded net cafes on street corners are a common sight in South Korea. "Korea has been most aggressive in embracing the Internet," Koh Young-sam, head of the government-run Internet Addiction Counseling Center, told the New York Times in 2007. "Now we have to lead in dealing with its consequences." Which Languages Will Survive on the Internet? (Slate) - It's not news that we're currently in a period of mass linguistic extinction. One of the world's languages falls out of use about every two weeks, and about half of those remaining are in danger of extinction this century. But Andras Kornai of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences believes these numbers actually understate what's happening by failing to account for the fact that very few of the world's languages are developing any presence online. More social trends...

GLOBAL TRENDS
Top Stories:

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Will a Tiny, Submerged Rock Spark a New Crisis in the East China Sea? (Atlantic) - There is a submerged rock in the Yellow Sea that seafaring Korean families once believed to be the home of the spirits of dead fishermen. The rock's name in English is Socotra Rock; in Korea, it's referred to as Ieodo, and in China the Suyan Rock. Whatever the language, it's at the center of a new global hot zone that is threatening to destabilize relations in East Asia. In response to China's creation of a controversial air defense identification zone (ADIZ) two weeks ago, the South Korean government has expanded its air defense identification zone as well. As of December 15, Korea's ADIZ will be about 40,000 square miles larger -- about two thirds the size of the country -and encompass Socotra, which China also included in its air defense zone. China's Villages Vanish Amid Rush for the Cities (Telegraph) - Until 1978, when China's reform and opening up began under Deng Xiaoping, less than 20 per cent of its population lived in cities. But three decades of staggering economic growth and urbanisation have changed all that, radically altering the face of Chinese society and condemning hundreds of thousands of rural communities, some of which have existed for hundreds of years, to the history books. Now, China's leaders are being urged to take urgent action to save thousands of historic villages from extinction amid reports that more than 900,000 villages were abandoned or destroyed in the first decade of this century. More global trends...

ENVIRONMENTAL TRENDS
Top Stories: Rare Material Shortages Could Put Gadgets at Risk (BBC) Modern technology is too reliant on rare materials whose scarcity could drastically set back innovation, a new report has warned. It suggested that as more and more devices are manufactured, supplies of key elements, particularly metals, will be strained. Potential substitute materials are either inadequate or nonexistent, researchers said. One scientist called the findings "an important wake-up call." Massive Freshwater Supply Found Trapped Under the Ocean (Huffington Post) - A major discovery under the ocean could help stave off the world's looming freshwater crisis. Australian researchers discovered 120,000 cubic miles of freshwater reserves trapped beneath the ocean floor off the coasts off Australia, China, North America and South Africa, per a new study published Thursday in the scientific journal Nature. As the global population continues to grow, future generations face a freshwater supply

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shortage. But this new discovery could support life for decades to come. "The volume of this water resource is a hundred times greater than the amount we've extracted from the Earth's subsurface in the past century since 1900," Dr. Vincent Post, lead study author and senior lecturer at Australia's Flinders University, told the Agence France-Presse. "Knowing about these reserves is great news because this volume of water could sustain some regions for decades." More environmental trends...

FUTURE
TRENDS
Top Stories: A Solar Array on the Moon Could Make All of Our Energy Problems Go Away (Fast Company Co.EXIST) - By 2025, if predictions are correct, solar power is going to be as cheap as natural gas. But we'd still need a place to put all of the solar panels, and that could be a problem. To power the planet, that would require a lot spare land. The results might not be pretty. One possible way forward: solar on the surface of the Moon. Under designs sketched out by Shimizu, a major Japanese construction company, we could create a "Luna Ring" that is 250 miles wide and 6,800 miles long, and cover all of Earths energy needs just like that. Cables underneath the ring would gather power to the Earth-facing side, and then beam the energy our way using microwaves and lasers. Shimizu believes the scheme, which it showed off at a recent exhibition in Japan, would virtually solve our energy crisis, so we never have to think about fossil fuels again. Silicon Valley's Scheme to Trick Carnivores into Eating Fake Meat (Salon) - Few would argue that the meat industry is contributing to some major health and environmental problems. Fewer still, however, are willing to give up on meat. One way to subvert the problem of persuading people to go vegan: replace animal products with really good alternatives, and trust that no one will be able to tell the difference. "As a company, we're not about starting a conversation about whether you shouldn't eat animals or you should eat animals," Josh Tetrick, founder of Hampton Creek Foods, told Mother Jones' Sydney Brownstone. Currently working on vegan eggs (Brownstone swears she can't tell the difference in their fake mayonnaise, and their muffins fooled both British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Bill Gates -- who signed on as an investor), the company has more ambitious plans. More future trends...

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From the
publisher...

Data Smart: Using Data Science to Transform Information Into Insight

By John W. Foreman Read more...

A Web Resource... Institute for Science, Society and Policy - The future is here. Science and technology are transforming our world, our politics and our lives in ways that many of us never dreamed possible. The Institute for Science, Society and Policy aims to facilitate discussion, inform good governance, build capacity and ensure the smooth adaptation to this future. Multimedia... Hugo Barra: China's Technology Sector - Hugo Barra left his position at Google as the man in charge of Android (its mobile operating system) to move to Xiaomi, a Chinese phone manufacturer with big ambitions. He shares his views on the technology sector in China and where it is headed at the Le Web conference in Paris. (28m 57s) The Blogosphere... Hans Rosling Changing World: Why Developing vs. Developed is Now Meaningless (CNN) - Hans Rosling "Most people are yet to learn about the progress most countries have made in recent decades. The reason media and schools have failed to communicate a fact-based world view is probably due to the continuous use of the outdated concept of a 'Developing World.' A mindset upgrade with a division of countries into more than two groups is long overdue."

Email:
future@innovationwatch.com

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