Polytopias, friend-shoring, and reborning

June 10, 2022

Jun 10, 2022

Welcome to this 61st issue of our newsletter “Weak Signals and other Trends”. Each week, I sift through hundreds of sources of inspiration to track where we’re heading. If you are a new subscriber to this newsletter, take the time to send me a note and introduce yourself, I love to understand who is reading.

We are taking a break for the summer from our weekly chats on Clubhouse ( Saturday mornings at 9am) but will be back in the fall.

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This is what I noticed this week, thank you for sharing this newsletter to those who look into the future.

Strategic Data and Intelligence

Defense procurement exposed. Four ways to combine future scenarios with causal-loop diagrams. Polytopias: The Missing Speculative Genre. Remote learning apps shared children’s data at a ‘dizzying scale’.

Strategic blindspots

Looking at the familiar with “alien eyes” allows you to unlock new business model opportunities while avoiding risks stemming from strategic blindspots.

Forgotten subscriptions. White noise podcasts. Volvo will use Epic’s Unreal Engine to create ‘photorealistic’ graphics in its electric cars. Debut of "ELLE Hospitality", a New Global Hotel . Tesla Moves To Open A 24-Hour Diner. DeviantArt can now notify anyone whose art’s been used in NFTs without permission. The unstoppable machines behind the game console shortage. Pinterest acquires AI-powered shopping startup The Yes. eBay launches 'Vault' facility for valuable trading cards. Why the global soil shortage threatens food, medicine and the climate. Elsewhere, Everyone Wants to Work for Big, Boring Companies Again. What The Economist’s move into education can teach other publishers.

We have scheduled the dates for 2022 for our “Strategic Blindspot course” . Our next course will be offered in Montreal on October 26-27, 2022. Registrations are now open.

Our future

The Race to Hide Your Voice. Decentralized ID. Samsung’s view of the future. New type of 3D printing uses sound waves to build up objects. Using games to rehearse tough futures. Friend-shoring. Travel to space. Imagined futures in which AI plays a positive role. US developer outsourced his job to China. Economic Predictions for 2022 and Beyond. Toyota's experimental hydrogen cartridges are portable and swappable. The World Bank issues a warning about the economy. A Short History of Tech Predictions. The updated American Dream may be fractional home-ownership.

We keep you updated on those trends and more on Twitter.

Weak signals

Weak signals are indicators of a change, a trend or an emerging risk that might become significant for the future. They allow us to run hypothesis, expand our thinking, and challenge assumptions. How will you interpret those in your industry or field of expertise?

Hermès Sues NFT Creator Over ‘MetaBirkin’ Sales. California rules that bees can be fish. France outlaws “esports”. Reborning. Abba recreate the feel of a concert using digital versions of themselves. Ultimate Frisbee soars in China. You only have one shot. Flying ice cream. Startup Astroforge raised a $13M seed to mine near-Earth asteroids for platinum group metals. Hubble Spots Farthest Star Ever Seen. Hybrid asset ownership. The EU's USB-C ruling is a climate win. The push to begin naming heat waves..

Join us to discuss those trends and signals most Saturday at 9am EST on Clubhouse. We have a panel of futurists that illustrate what those signals might mean, and a fantastic group of curious minds in the room.

Down the rabbit hole

This section highlights a subject that lead me to many useful threads, or a single site, that opened many doors.

This week, I went down the rabbit hole into Defense tenders.

Hodgepodge discovery

Articles for curious minds and the polymaths …

The Human Voice Can Communicate 24 Emotions. How the Internet of Trees can make our cities greener. How America moves its homeless. The history of humans being confounded by color photography. Where the Ice Cream Cones Come From. Strategic resilience. How we buy. A night out with Night Out With a TikTok Food Influencer. Imaginology. Eye contact and musicians. What do you call a helium atom where one of the electrons has been replaced by an antiproton?

Feeling Good

Weather gradient. This electric tricycle can transform into a camper AND a boat. Visual glitch art. The free learning list. All the knots. Where was your home?

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