Think: As I recently mentioned, my latest book, “A Smarter Farm: How Artificial Intelligence is Revolutionizing Agriculture” is now out and I am making PDF copies of the book available for FREE here. If you’re a farmer, I encourage you read it because AI is already impacting agriculture in some dramatic ways. The latest case-in-point is this article which explains how AI is bringing increased transparency to farmland valuations.
Think Hard: Heart disease is the leading cause of death in America. Many–but not all–of these problems can be attributed to high cholesterol. In the near future, gene-editing technology may help eliminate heart disease for a great many people by turning off the gene that is responsible for producing excess cholesterol. To date, the technology has only been tried on 10 people but the results are promising. Having said that, the FDA may have a different take on this news because two people also died during the study. Now, it is important to remember that the two people already had very serious heart problems and there is not yet any evidence that gene-editing directly contributed to these people’s deaths.
Think Big: The city of Paris has already announced that the public will see flying cars zooming across “The City of Lights” during next year’s summer Olympics and now the first-ever electric air taxi flight has taken off in New York City. The service could be widely available as soon as 2025. (Personally, I believe this is an overly optimistic assessment. Nevertheless, the trend is worth monitoring.)
Think Bigger: Electric flying air taxis are cool, but I remain convinced that the biggest trend in transportation is “micro-mobility”–i.e. e-bikes, electric scooters, etc. To this end, this tidbit caught my attention: 280 million e-bikes are slashing oil demand far more than electric vehicles.
Think Different: Artificial meat–which can be described as both plant-based alternatives which taste like real meat and lab-grown meats–is a fascinating trend to watch. As a futurist, I don’t claim to know how the public will react to these products but the recent news that the Italian Parliament has banned these products is worth noting. Could other governments around the world do the same thing in order to help farmers? The answer is yes. Will this happen? I don’t know but I am confident that similar pieces of legislation will soon be brought to a vote in legislative assemblies around the world.
Afterthought: “Love does not consist of gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.” –Antoine de Saint-Exupery
